Chapter6
Olivia woke up, hot and satisfied. She hadn’t dreamt at all that night. Spending the night with Ruslan was exactly what she needed. She turned over, only to see an empty bed. Ruslan’s clothes were gone as was he. She wondered if he had taken his pants off at all that night while they slept in bed. The entire moment felt like it was only five minutes, but it was certainly a moment she would never forget.
It was 7 in the morning, the time when Margot and Joseph would normally wake up. She wondered if they had heard anything throughout the night. She didn’t remember making much noise while making love to Ruslan, but then again, she was in the moment and could have been screaming out for all she knew.
She quickly slipped into the shower before anyone else was up, hoping no one could smell Ruslan on her from the night before. She had slept so soundly in his arms all night and was sad he wasn’t there when she woke up. She knew it was best that he had slipped out before any of the family members noticed there was an extra person there.
She felt a little sore, as it had been a while since she had been with a man and never in her life had she been with someone as big as Ruslan. When she emerged from the shower, she peeked out the bathroom window and realized it was snowing pretty hard. She walked into her room to get changed and looked out the window again. The snow had covered up any signs of footprints going to or from her bedroom window.
She walked into the kitchen, ready to prepare breakfast once again. Just as she turned on the coffee to brew, she heard a loud knock at the door. She walked over and peeked out the hole, only to see Pasha and Nikolai standing there. She swung open the door, upset to have to see them once again.
“So, you actually knocked this time?” she asked sarcastically. They pushed by her, not giving into her joke. They were each holding a black briefcase this time instead of bookbags and had nice suits instead of black robber clothes. “Can I help you with something?” she asked with a heaping serving of sass.
“Boys! You’re here! Isn’t that great?” Joseph said, emerging from his bedroom upstairs. “Olivia, I asked them to come work from home with me today instead of leaving the Mrs. home alone again.”
Just as Olivia was about to shut the door, another friendly face made its way into the cabin. Ruslan gave Olivia a satisfying smile as he slipped through the door. “Good morning Olivia. Nice to see you again,” he said. It hurt a little that she couldn’t lean over and kiss him right there, but she could tell he felt the same pain.
“Well isn’t this a pleasant surprise. I guess I’ll have to make twice the coffee,” she said.
“Actually Olivia, Margot could use some help upstairs getting ready, if you don’t mind. We have a lot of work to do down here anyways,” Joseph said, signaling Olivia to head upstairs and leave the boys alone. She was used to this kind of treatment. They didn’t like people overhearing what they discussed, but Olivia was always listening in on what they had to say, whether they knew it or not.
A couple hours later, Olivia was finally able to make her way back downstairs. She had helped Margot take a bath and get ready, but she ended up deciding she didn’t feel very good and instead wanted to spend the afternoon in bed. She had some good days every once in a while, but the bad days were quickly outnumbering that. Olivia walked into the kitchen and the boys stopped murmuring once they became aware of her presence.
“I’m going to get started on lunch. How does salad sound, boys?” she asked with little enthusiasm, annoyed that they didn’t think she could be trusted with what they were discussing.
“Actually, I have to go on a conference call. Business never ends does it, guys?” Joseph laughed. “I’ll head upstairs, Margot never minds.” Olivia thought about how listening to Joseph’s conference call was the last thing Margot probably wanted to do. The cabin was pretty open, however, so Joseph’s only other options for a private phone call was the bathroom or Olivia’s room, as Vera still hadn’t woken up.
“Okay, I guess I’ll make four salads. How does that sound?” Olivia asked. They all nodded their heads and Olivia got some raw chicken out of the freezer to thaw. Just as she turned on the faucet, she heard Vera emerge from her room.
“Oh, what a surprise! You guys brought the office here today, huh?” Vera asked. She was looking pretty fresh, unlike the night she had two days ago. She pranced over to Ruslan in a short sundress, despite the fact that it was snowing outside. “Hi Ruslan. I had so much fun the other night. We have to do it again before I leave.”
“Yes, it was a great time, wasn’t it?” Ruslan said, looking at Olivia immediately after.
“What are you doing for lunch?” she asked Ruslan. “I’d love to take you out to this great little café a friend told me about.”
Olivia grabbed a head of lettuce and threw it onto the cutting board, causing a loud slam and everyone to look over at her. Ruslan cleared his throat. “I actually have a lot of work to do, but Nikolai is done for the day. What do you say Nik?” he asked. Nikolai seemed confused at first but caught on quick.
“Of course. Let’s go to lunch,” he said to Vera.
“Oh, well, I kind of meant…” Vera trailed off as Nikolai grabbed her arm and started to lead her out the door. She seemed confused and disappointed but eventually went along with it.
That left Pasha, Ruslan, and Olivia alone in the cabin with Margot and Joseph busy upstairs. “Let’s do it now while we can,” Ruslan said to Pasha. “Olivia, if they start to come downstairs, distract them to buy us some time.”
“Okay, what are you guys doing?” she asked. Pasha pulled out a laptop and hooked it up to Joseph’s tablet.
“Looking for something. Anything that will help us prove that Joseph wasn’t the one who killed Peter,” Ruslan explained. Olivia quickly realized that Pasha was probably the brains of the operation as he easily hacked into Joseph’s tablet.
“Not looking so good, boss,” Pasha said. Olivia realized that was one of the few times she had actually heard him speak, his Russian accent thicker than anyone else’s she had heard so far.
Olivia walked over to the computer as well as Ruslan. They didn’t wave her away this time. At first, she didn’t realize what she was looking at, just a lot of long numbers. She eventually discovered it was Joseph’s bank statements, and for an alleged billionaire, they weren’t looking good. He had almost less money than Olivia, and it was apparent he had been withdrawing massive amounts of cash.
“He’s broke,” she said.
“That gives motive then,” Pasha added.
“It can’t be. I don’t believe it. There must be a mistake,” Ruslan responded, looking at the statements. “He must owe someone a lot of money. I just don’t get it.”
“Maybe he’s addicted to drugs,” Olivia said. She had seen too many people in her life lose their money and possessions to addiction. Although she could tell a drug addict when she saw one, many users were good at hiding their addiction. She wondered if perhaps Joseph had a darker secret than she imagined. He was going through the difficult loss of his wife, so it would make sense if he had to turn to other substances to numb the pain. Pasha and Ruslan ignored this thought.
“I’ll let Nikolai know when he gets back. We can do it tonight,” Pasha said. Ruslan didn’t say anything at first.
“If we must, we must,” he responded, walking towards the back-deck doors. He stared out the window for a moment and Olivia realized what they were talking about. She ran over to Ruslan and grabbed his arm, forgetting there were stitches under his white button-up sleeve. He winced and pulled his arm back.
“You can’t kill him, Ruslan! He still has a family!” Olivia cried, trying to be as quiet as possible.
“If not him, then it’ll be me,” Ruslan responded. “Someone killed Peter. After seeing Joseph’s bank statements, it only makes sense that it was him. He wants me, and Peter gone so he can have control of the business.”
“It doesn’t have to be this way. What is his family supposed to do?” Olivia begged. She didn’t know what to believe but she knew that killing Joseph was the worst possible option. She didn’t want to have to hear about death any more than she had to. “If you kill him I won’t be quiet.”
“Well then we’ll kill you too,” Pasha said, walking towards Olivia.
“No. You won’t touch her,” Ruslan said, stepping in between the two. He turned around to face Olivia. “What am I supposed to do?” Ruslan asked.
“Talk to him. You’re his friend, he wouldn’t do that to you,” Olivia said.
“When I met him, I was only 18, barely out of high school. We’ve known each other for almost two decades, but still, I don’t know what he’s capable of. He and Peter knew each other for even longer and look what happened,” Ruslan explained. “What do you suggest I do?”
Olivia really didn’t know how to answer, but she knew that she couldn’t let Ruslan take a life, innocent or not. Just as she was about to say just that, the bedroom door opened upstairs, and Joseph came down. Olivia walked back into the kitchen and put the food away, not wanting to eat or serve those two men anymore. She grabbed a stack of plates to put in the pantry. “Ruslan, can you help me reach something on the top shelf?” she asked sweetly. Ruslan was the tallest one there, so it made the most sense that he would be the one to ask to reach something high.
When he entered the pantry, he realized that there wasn’t anything Olivia needed on the top shelf. She grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him close. “Listen, Pasha was here when they found the box, and it was Pasha’s computer that revealed that Joseph was broke. How do you know that these men won’t kill you?”
“They don’t have any stake in the business. And still, they weren’t in America when Peter was murdered.”
“Still, I’m begging you, Ruslan. Vera’s already going to lose one family member. Don’t make her an orphan before she graduates college.”
“I’ll give it more time. I promise you. You’re too kindhearted,” he replied. Olivia realized he didn’t know much about her but was glad he thought that at least.
He leaned down and planted a hard kiss on her cheek. She grabbed him back and pulled him in for a real one, extra long this time. They kissed for several seconds more, both growing excited as they held each other close in the small pantry. She snapped back into reality and realized they had been in the pantry too long.
They both emerged, Pasha and Joseph working on their devices, not noticing Olivia didn’t emerge with anything from the pantry other than a blissful memory.
****
Just as she had said she would, Margot stayed in bed all day, leaving Olivia with nothing to do but think about how good it felt to kiss Ruslan. Vera and Nikolai had returned, both seemingly bored and tired from an uneventful lunch. Once she got back, Vera had tried to flirt with Ruslan several times more, but her attempts were mostly ignored. Olivia wanted to laugh each time she tried a cute joke that fell flat but didn’t want Vera to mistake it as her laughing at her.
Olivia had spent the day in and out of the kitchen, finding any excuse to stay close to the boys while they worked at the dining room table. She could see them from the island, and cleaned dishes twice just so she could stare at Ruslan. He gave his fair share of looks back at Olivia as well. She had no idea what they could be working on, but either way, it couldn’t be more important than playing eye hockey with Ruslan. She started to prepare dinner early to give her another excuse to stay close to the family. Tonight, she was making homemade spaghetti sauce, a usual dinner she made for the Touhy family.
Vera spent most of her days in her room video chatting her friends back home or taking selfies for her thousands of followers. She had managed to get a good following on social media, being the wealthy daughter of such an important man. Instead, today, she tried to stay in the kitchen and dining room just as much as Olivia was. It normally would have been welcomed, as Olivia wasn’t into the domesticated work all that much, since she was a nurse after all. Instead, today, Vera just kept getting in her way.
The sauce had been cooking for about an hour and was really smelling up the cabin good. Though making spaghetti was a fairly simple meal for Olivia at that point, she still appeared to be working hard in the kitchen all day, taking twice as long to cut each piece of garlic perfectly and peel the tomatoes to perfection. It was getting close to serving time, and Vera was really trying to make herself useful.
“Olivia is there anything I could do to help?” she asked nicely and loudly enough to make sure the rest of the boys heard. “I just love cooking!” Olivia knew that was a total lie but calling out Vera wouldn’t have been a smart move in her situation.
“Actually, you could get the table set. We’re looking about ready to eat!” Olivia stated.
“For sure!” Vera responded enthusiastically. “I hope you boys are joining us tonight?” she asked Ruslan, Pasha, and Nikolai. Just as she started to set the table, the three packed up to go.
“We actually have some more work to do. We’ll let you have a nice family dinner tonight. Thank you so much for the offer though,” Ruslan explained.
“Aw, if you’re sure!” Vera stated. She set down the plates and turned towards the boys as they were about to leave.
“Thank you for having us, and for cleaning up after us all day,” Ruslan told Olivia. He leaned in to give her a quick kiss on the cheek and grabbed her hand. He gave it a firm shake, and Olivia realized he was doing this to hand her a note. She slipped it into her pocket and watched the boys leave, wishing she could plant a real kiss on Ruslan before he left.
“I’m having a dinner tomorrow night. I hope you and your family can make it,” Ruslan responded. “And bring Olivia of course. We wouldn’t want her to endure any more scary nights alone here.”
“Of course, we’ll be there!” Joseph said joyfully.
“Can’t wait to see you again,” Vera told Ruslan sweetly. She leaned in to give him a hug, hoping to get a kiss on the cheek as well, but instead, he pretended not to see and walked out the door. Olivia wondered if this made things look suspicious between the two, but honestly, she couldn’t really care much.
She watched them walk out of the door, wishing that it were just her and Ruslan staying in the cabin that night, sharing a romantic dinner and holding each other close by the fire. Instead, she’d have to play fourth wheel once again, that is, if Margot even felt up to coming down to join the family for dinner.
She wouldn’t have been cooking the large meal for the family if it wasn’t in her job description. She wasn’t exactly the most housewife-like out of anyone she had met. Still, she pictured what it would be like to cook dinner for Ruslan. She didn’t know much about Russian culture. What kind of meals did he like to eat? What was his average nightly dinner?
Though she was a good cook, she wasn’t anything exceptional. She did good enough for this wealthy family, so Ruslan would probably enjoy her cuisine just as well. As she was stirring the sauce again, it suddenly hit her. Would Joseph still be able to pay her? She had just looked at his bank statements and he had way less than she would have imagined.
She reassured herself that they had signed a contract, but still, it worried her what might happen if it came time to get paid and he couldn’t. She had a feeling there was an explanation for it all, however, and soon Ruslan would discover that it was all just a misunderstanding. That’s what she was hoping for, at least.
She looked over at the table and saw the plates still in a stack, Vera sitting on the couch scrolling through her phone. She set out some napkins and silverware.
“Vera there’s some silverware for you to set out too,” Olivia told her.
“Isn’t that your job?” Vera said with an attitude. Surprise, surprise, she was back to normal. Olivia wasn’t shocked at her bad attitude but was a little disappointed that Vera was right. It was her job, but she certainly didn’t want it to be. She put out the plates, napkins and silverware, all the while thinking about how Ruslan had kissed her cheek and not Vera’s. She could still feel his soft lips pressed against her cheek and longed for them to be there again.