CAPTIVE: A DARK MAFIA ROMANCE Page 6

  I watched her go on and play and Val sat down beside her picking out a doll of his own. It was so weird to find this tall, lethal Russian playing dolls. It was actually kind of...hot. My mind flashed back to when he had spanked me. My hand instantly began to clutch at my chest. Slowly, I tried to rub away the friction building between my thighs. As if reading my thoughts, Val turned his eyes on me.

  No.

  "Excuse me, I'm going to run to the bathroom," I murmured.

  "It's around the corner," he pointed.

  Hesitantly, I left them alone and found my way to the bathroom. Whipping out my cellphone once I was inside, I called Nova. It rang three times before she answered giggling.

  "He's up to something," I said immediately.

  "Girl, huh, wait what? I can't hear you..."

  She started giggling and I looked at the phone annoyed. Clearly, she was having a good time on her honeymoon.

  "He is up to something," I responded louder.

  "Who?"

  I rolled my eyes, ready to strangle her.

  "Your cousin-in-law!"

  "Oh," she sounded more serious. "Hold on, let me go where I can talk."

  I waited while she got herself together. There was shuffling heard in the background and few more giggles before I heard her say she could talk. I sighed and tried to keep my voice as low as possible.

  "Why do you think Val is up to something?"

  "You think I'm being paranoid?"

  "Oh no, he's definitely up to something," Nova laughed.

  "Right...you think he's going to kill me?"

  She laughed some more. "What? No..."

  "You sound pretty sure...you know who they are, Nova. You've seen the carnage they can leave in their wake."

  I sighed again.

  "Well...what do you think he has planned?"

  "I don't know, and I'm scared to even ask him. I'm supposed to be saving up money to open my salon. I have just a few more hours to put in at this Dominican salon."

  "You're gonna have to face the music, Astrid...." Nova said sympathetically.

  "I know," I let out a deep breath and took in my flushed skin.

  That was the thing about being light skinned. Your skin could betray your reactions to a lot of things. I made a face at myself in the mirror before asking how the honeymoon was going.

  "We're at the lake house but just for a few nights, then we're heading off to somewhere secret. Only the kids know...I've been left in the dark."

  "Damn, I picked the wrong relative to have a kid by," I laughed secretly jealous.

  "Liam's being pretty damn wonderful," Nova admitted.

  "Okay, take plenty of pics. I love you and I will see you when you get back here. Post on the Gram...I wanna feel like I'm drinking tropical drinks if that's the destination."

  "Will do. I love you too."

  We hung up from each other and for some reason, I still didn't feel better. She was right though; I was going to have to face up to the music sooner rather than later. Valentin was in our lives now whether I liked it or not. He was Lexi Girl's father and I was going to have to find a way to co-parent.

  Opening the door, to go back out into the hallway, I found Valentin there like a dark silky shadow. Waiting like he wanted to swallow me whole and capture my soul. How in the hell had he become so damn scary? I supposed when you were an eighteen-year-old girl, the dangerous boys seemed to be the most delicious looking apples in the bunch.

  "Whispering and plotting with Nova?" He asked.

  "God...are you stalking me like your cousin did her?" I snapped.

  He chuckled. "Stalking is not my thing. I came to retrieve you...Lexie wanted to do lunch. Apparently, you took her to get her nails done and she didn't eat much."

  I was going to wring that kid's neck.

  "Lexie picked over her Chicken and Pickles...."

  "That sounds gross," he stated and crossed his arms.

  He had been a father for five seconds. I didn't need his damn judgement eyes. Lexie wasn't slick either but if he thought he could get her picky self to eat better than I could, he could have at it.

  "Eat more chicken," I rolled my eyes.

  Storming back into the living room area, Lexie was still having a grand old time with her presents. When she saw me she stopped and smiled. I realized the smile was for her brand-new father. This was going to be pure torture.

  I felt him hook his hand around my arm and he pulled me into the kitchen. Shaking him off, I looked up at him with my eyebrow arched.

  "What?" I snapped.

  "Concerning the custody of Alexandra...."

  "Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me..."

  He ignored me and walked over to the kitchen island and picked up something. He came back over and handed it to me. It was a yellow envelope and through the material I could feel a few pages inside.

  "Look them over...it's a simple contract. I want access to my daughter," he stated and then leaned in to whisper to me. "You have to learn Astrid...that you can't take from the Bratva. For the five years you have stolen...you must pay."

  I didn't hear much else because my stomach immediately rolled.

  Vomit flew out of my mouth and onto the floor by his feet.

  Lexie heard me wretching myself to death and ran in asking what was wrong. I held up my hands for her to keep back and looked up into his cold eyes that had turned dark with annoyance. I wiped at the spittle dangling from my mouth.

  "You can have a first class flight to HELL!"

  "Mommy, don't say bad words to my Poppa!' Lexie said with disbelief.

  I didn’t give anyone a chance to say anything else. I flung the papers and snatched Lexie up and headed out of the mansion, not even daring to look back. Valentin could kiss my natural yellow ass!

  And clean up that mess I’d left him.

  Chapter 12

  Valentin

  In my dreams, I was an eleven-year-old kid again. Shipped off to Russia with my cousin, prince of the Bratva. Always reminded that I was there to be No One. I was there to learn to control my fear, to become fear. My sole responsibility would be to protect Liam.

  That was what I had been sent there to learn.

  That and to become a shadow.

  Igor was always there in my dreams. Haunting me like the piece of shit he was. From the moment Liam and I had touched down in Russia to learn and train, he had been on the fringes of things.

  My mind drifted to the hallways that were dimly lit by torch light where soot had danced on the stone walls. There had been actual metal sconces holding torches on the walls of a Medieval castle controlled by old factions of the Bratva. In my American mind, I was fascinated and terrified. There was no electricity to speak of in the place and every corner seemed to hold secrets and shadows.

  Tired and dirty from the hand to hand combat I'd been learning outside in the cold snows of Mother Russia, I had walked slowly and stilly. Unease had rode up my back like a butterfly wing along my spine.

  "Valentinnnnn...."

  The dream always seemed to end with my name being called. I sat up in a cold sweat. For a long time now, these dreams had been gone. They had only started to come back recently but I couldn't recall when exactly.

  You know when, the thought eased through my mind.

  Reaching for my buzzing cellphone, I turned the ringer off. It was still beyond dark outside, but I'd set my timer certain time. I had plans for the day and three of the women in my life had no idea what I had planned for them, but they would soon find out.

  Scrolling through my text messages, I came across The Therapist’s last message to me and sent a reply.

  We need to meet, today.

  I placed the cellphone on my stomach and stilled myself. The breathing exercise was one that my mentor had taught me back in the old country. As I repeated the breathing exercise every thing began to become calm. The phone vibrated against my skin and traveled along the nerves beneath it, tingling my flesh.

  Our u
sual spot?

  No. Here.

  I texted her an address and then placed the phone back onto the nightstand. It was time to start the day. Most people started their days with a nice warm shower but I was the opposite. Already naked, I turned on the water and it sprouted out like an icy waterfall.

  Breathing, I stilled myself and let the water drown out the world. Instantly, warm brown eyes penetrated my mind's eye. Even as I tried to shake them away, they persisted. The feel of Astrid's flesh beneath my hand...

  Finally, I snapped from the thought.

  I needed to regain control.

  Astrid couldn't take up another second in my mind.

  I needed to exact my punishment on her, and it needed to be soon.

  The sooner I punished her, the sooner I could free up my mind and focus on eliminating my father and squelch the little rebellion he had started. I would crush him and our enemies and grind them into dust. Viktor was a rabid dog and needed to be put down.

  After my shower, I dressed and came down stairs to find Liam's chef Amanda cooking and on her cellphone. She had gotten here relatively early it seemed. She finished her phone call and turned to me.

  "Liam expressed that I was to cook for you and another guest while he was out of town," she said.

  "The guard will take the food up to her as usual," I spoke.

  She nodded again and then plated my food. It occurred to me then, that when Lexie spent the night here would Amanda know good children's dishes. It felt so natural to wonder about these things when I never had before. Becoming a father had never occurred to me on any scale but now that I was one...I wanted her to have the best of everything.

  "Chef?" I asked as she turned to face me.

  "Yes?"

  "I have someone who is very dear to me and I believe soon they will be staying over..."

  "Any allergies I need to be aware of?"

  "I'm unsure," I spoke. "She's five..."

  Damn, I hadn't even thought of if my child had any allergies or not.

  Amanda frowned. "You should check with the child's mother, I supposed."

  "She's my daughter...my question was what food would you be able to prepare should she stay over."

  "Oh," Amanda's face relaxed. "I think a lot of children that age like pancakes and waffles. With a fruit. Eggs with cheese. That type of thing...I'm sure that I would be able to come up with something savory."

  I finished off the food she had prepared. "Good to know. Thank you, Chef."

  She nodded and began to plate Katia's food. Liam had literally hired this woman to cook for him on specific days and she cost over seven thousand dollars a month. Now that he had married Nova and had inherited two teenagers, I supposed she was going to ask for a raise soon. Especially now that I had added a child of my own to the mix.

  I grabbed the yellow envelope from the countertop where it had laid for days and checked the time on my watch.

  A certain salon was just about to be opening and a certain baby mother was about to be checking in if my contacts were correct about her schedule.

  Astrid was in desperate need of my company and I was eager to please.

  Chapter13

  Astrid

  When I'd woke up for the morning, everything had been fine. Right as rain. And then it had all went to hell. I'd come out to find my car vandalized. Black, bold sticky words had decorated my car.

  BITCH!

  WHORE!

  SLUT!

  I was the type of person who kept to myself. I had very few friends and even fewer people knew where I lived. Anyone looking for me would have had to have known key facts about my address. There were already people looking at me and my car funny. I had no choice but to hustle Lexie into the car expeditiously and jet out of the parking lot. Her daycare was just about to open and I couldn't let other parents see this whole driving disaster that was my fucking car.

  Did that son of a bitch do this?

  Naturally, the only enemy I could think of at the moment was Val. Had he been this mad and petty that I had thrown his little contract back to him as I puked my guts up days before?

  Nah.

  This wasn't Valentin's style. This had a female written all over it....no goddamn pun intended.

  "Mommy who decorated your car?" Lexie asked as I pulled her from the car and practically ran inside.

  "I dont' know, baby...I think the car fairy drew on the wrong car," I responded.

  I managed to drop her off before any familiar cars entered onto the premises. By the time I got to the salon, I was shaking with rage. Earlina the owner of the salon was just opening the doors when she saw me and my car that I had parked in the back parking lot.

  "Oh no, Mami, what happened?"

  That was it.

  I went over the cliff and burst into tears. She came over and pulled me inside.

  "I think someone had the wrong car," I said trying to calm down my voice fracturing from trying to suck the melt down back in.

  She patted me on my back and offered motherly advice. I nodded and breathed in the scent she wore and finally took myself off to the bathroom to clean myself up. The mirror revealed that my mascara had ran something terrible and I looked a little rougher than when I had left home this morning. I fixed my makeup and by the time I came out, the shop was already filling up with customer ready for their blow outs.

  I took two customers and got them started with shampooing because the shampoo girl was running late, per usual. The women talked amongst themselves and I lathered up their tresses, my fingers rubbing the scalps gently. As I washed the suds out of their hair, I found myself relaxed and thinking. I would call the police and file a report and then insurance. I'd have a new car in a few days; it just might hit my savings a little harder than I wanted it too.

  Just as I was cheering myself up and taking a sip of water at my station, a woman came and sat down in my seat, completely skipping the line. She seemed familiar but I couldn't place my finger on where I might have known her from. She had a creamy complexion with a slight scar on her face just beneath on of her eyes.

  "Mmm..hi, I think you have the wrong seat?"

  I watched her reflection in the mirror in front of her and she raised a perfect eyebrow and make a face while shaking her head.

  I looked around feeling a little bewildered. She sat perfectly still and then spoke.

  "I just love what you've done with the color of your car...it's a very nice paint job," she stated.

  Shock ran through my body.

  This was the culprit?

  I didn't even know who she was.

  But she knows you, I thought.

  Spinning the chair around to face me, the smile continued to dazzle from her lips. Her eyes were on the slanty side and her makeup was on point. This was a woman that clearly took pride in her appearance and then I noticed her hands. The tattoo stuck out on her features like a sore thumb. When she saw me watching, she held up her hand and rotated it to face me.

  "I'm affilliated..."

  She was from Capone's gang. That fucking maniac! I hadn't thought about him in weeks. Every time I did it just made my skin crawl to know what he had done to Nova's sister.

  "Okay so you're Treyway...that don't have shit to do with me," I crossed my arms over my chest.

  We locked eyes for a few moments. I needed to get her the hell out of this place, I could feel Earlina's eyes boring into my skull from where she was standing at the counter. Taking a deep breath, I smiled as politely as I could.

  "What can I help you with?"

  "Capone," she stated.

  "What about him?"

  "You are the last person to see him alive?"

  I frowned. "Is he dead?"

  She sucked her teeth and leaned in closer. "Don't fucking play with me, Blondie. You know my brother is dead."

  "I don't know shit about shit," I replied.

  "I just want the money he was hiding," she said.

  "I don't know anything about his money," I shr
ugged.

  "And that pretty little Porshe I decorated...."

  "I bought that with my own money, Sweet Heart. Now...I think you need to take your ass on out of here. I haven't heard from Capone. We broke up and that's fine by me...considering what he was doing too little girls."

  My words seemed to have stung her, but she recovered. She gathered herself and stood before blowing me a kiss. "You gone have to pay what you owe sometime."

  "I don't owe anything," I replied shaking my head.

  I watched her leave and pulled in a waiting client. I patted her shoulder as she sat down and told her sorry about the wait. My customer was understanding, and I began to go through the motions on drying her hair with a round brush and the blow dryer.

  The heat of the blow dryer almost began to sooth me. I loved doing hair and only wish I'd discovered how much I enjoyed it sooner. This was my ticket out of scamming. Lexie need a mother that was able to provide for her legally and I wanted to be that person for her.

  Spraying my client's hair with product that smelled of cherry, I worked it through from her roots to her ends that were in need of clipping. Taking off just an inch, I started going through with a flat iron and soon I was done.

  "You like it?"

  "Girl, your hands are blessed," the woman exclaimed as I handed her the mirror.

  Her hair was bouncing all over the place and she seemed delighted. She tipped me twenty bucks and went to pay. I fixed my station up as she did so and then I felt a slight tap on my shoulder. Thinking it was my customer coming back I turned and came face to face with the last person on Earth I wanted to see.

  "You forgot these the other night," he stated.

  I noted the envelope in his hand.

  "No..I didn't."

  "Can we talk somewhere in private?" he asked.

  Rolling my eyes, I pushed him towards the break room that had a door that closed. Earlina was going to fire me today after all these nonpaying visitors. I just needed to mentally prepare myself for it, that was all. If I could see something coming, I could plan better.

  Closing the door behind him, I whirled on him.

  "Are you out of your goddamn mind, coming here. And how did you know where I was anyway?"