The Battle Part Seven
NICHOLAI
The white flakes of falling snow outside my office window have me mesmerized. Or it might be that my mind is numb as I can’t understand why Natasha has yet to contact me.
I shouldn’t even be at the office. It’s Christmas Eve and no one else is even here. But I have this small hope she’ll come here to see me. I know she loves me or she’d never have sent that man to come all the way from Greece to get me.
I just don’t understand!
Turning away from the window, I go to my desk and pick up the phone and call her parents’ home. I’ve been patient and not bothered them again since the day I got back to New York but my patience is running out fast.
“Hello,” her mother answers.
“Merry Christmas, Mrs. Greenwell, this is Nicholai Grimm.”
The way she’s hesitating to say anything has me wondering if Natasha is there. Near her. And maybe near her father as well.
“Have you heard from my daughter, Nicholai?” she finally asks.
“No, that’s the reason I’m calling you. I expected to hear something from her. Even if it was simply to tell me she and I were through. Have you heard from her?” I pick up a pen and chew on the end, nervously.
“I have not and I thought she’d call and tell me all about her new job and apartment. I know she had no cell phone and I suppose the man who hired her didn’t set up a home phone in the apartment he gave her. But I have to say that I’m thinking like you, I thought she’d try to get hold of you to personally let you know she’s over you.”
“Well, she’s not over me. I don’t know if you’re aware of this but she sent a young man from Greece to get me. I missed her by a small amount of time. She wouldn’t have done that if she was done with me. Now would she?” I ask as I throw the pen across the room.
Anger is flowing through me as it seems the woman I love is into something she can’t manage to get out of and I’m growing angrier with each passing moment.
“I was not aware of that. I suppose her father wasn’t either,” she says, then I hear a door close. “He’s home. Can I call you back, Nic?”
“Please do,” I tell her then she hangs up the phone. I suppose she doesn’t want her husband to know she’s talking to me.
I need to know the name of the man who hired her and took her with him. All of that is unbelievable and I don’t see how her father approved of that at all.
My cell rings and I see it’s my father. “Hello, Father.”
“Hello. I wanted you to be the first to know. Your mother and I talked and we are separating. We came to an agreement that she’s very happy with. She’s keeping the house and the cars she likes. I’m going to pay her a tidy sum in alimony each month too. She seems happy. For the first time in a long time, she had a smile on her face.”
I stand perfectly still, more than a bit stunned. “She’s happy?”
“She is. She told me to tell you she’s going to take a trip to start her new life. She wants you to call her so you two can talk a bit about her plans,” he says then clears his throat. “I talked to Stacy.”
“I can see that. Are you two going to be a thing now?” I ask as I take a seat in my chair.
“No,” he says, surprising me. “We’re going to talk now and then, she said. I just wanted to let your mother out of this loveless marriage we’re in. I wanted to let us both out of it. I recalled feeling love, once upon a time, and it gave me the idea that if it happened once, it could happen again. Maybe not with Stacy. But it could happen again.”
“Wow!” I say. I am rendered speechless.
“Yes, wow,” he says then clears his throat again. “About your woman, Nicholai. What have you heard on her?”
“It’s still the same as what I told you three days ago. She’s here, in New York. She has some internship and an apartment. But she has no cell phone that her mother is aware of. I still can’t believe she wouldn’t take a cab to my home or office, though.” I turn my chair to look out the window again and find the city looking gorgeous with the fresh dusting of snow.
“I know I’ve been against you and that woman. But I am beginning to realize I’ve shut myself off for far too long. I’m butting out, son. And there’s something else I want to tell you. Stacy brought to my attention that I have never told you that I love you. I do. I do love all of my sons. And I’m going to make some changes. Get ready for a new father, Nicholai.”
Tears sting my eyes as he finally says the words to me I had come to think I’d never hear come out of his mouth. “I love you too, Father.”
“Good! We can start moving forward. Change is in the air, Nicholai. And I feel it’s all for the good. I will not be attending the ceremony for Hawthorne tonight. It’s at midnight and I plan on being in bed by that time. You understand, don’t you?” he asks.
He’s never cared if I understood a thing before. I guess things are going to change. “I do. I’m not sure if I’ll be attending or not, myself. If by some miracle, Natasha comes to me, then I certainly won’t.”
“You know, Nicholai, I think it’s time I left that life behind me. I will never find a nice woman to love and who can love me if I am into that life. I won’t judge you if you stay with the club, though.”
“Good to know. I really have no idea what I’ll do. It all depends on Natasha. If she comes back to me, I think I’m going to scoop her ass up and marry the woman. If she leaves me high and dry without so much as a single word from her, it will cut me to the quick. And I have no idea how I will handle myself if that happens. I suppose I’ll go back to not believing love exists. For myself, anyway.”
“I understand. And I hope she shows up. You know, maybe she was waiting until tonight or even tomorrow to come to you. As a Christmas surprise, you know?”
Closing my eyes, I picture her showing up on my doorstep. A red corset on and a Santa hat. A bottle of wine in one hand and her lips pursed for a kiss.
“I hope like hell, you’re right, Father. You have a Merry Christmas. I will talk to you tomorrow.”
“You too, Nicholai.”
Our call is ended and I am left wondering what in the hell I can do to make sure I get to spend Christmas with the woman I love.
Where in the hell could she be?
NATASHA
James came sometime during the night and left the things I am to wear to the ceremony tonight. I found the box on the coffee table in the living room. A note was on top of the red box.
I am to fast today. Eat and drink nothing until he comes for me. I know that’s because he wants to make sure I am too weak to put up a fight. He’s a smart man, never underestimating my power at all times.
It’s almost as if he can read my mind. I had planned to go through with actually trying to kill the man. With a solid hit to his nose, the way my father taught me to. But he’s placed a set of handcuffs in the box and I am to cuff my hands before his arrival.
The attire he’s making me wear is more than I am comfortable with. Or perhaps I should say less. It’s merely straps of black leather that run under my breasts and around my upper thighs. I will be completely exposed.
A red cloak will cover me as he transports me to wherever this ceremony will occur. I will wear no shoes, it seems, as none were in the box.
I am to wash my hair and put it into a slicked back ponytail. The mask I have to wear is huge, covering my entire face. I will not be recognizable at all.
Looking at my reflection in the full-length mirror in the bedroom, I’m shaking my head as I look at my body in this so-called outfit. The scar from where I fell out of a tree when I was twelve shows. It’s under my left breast and is quite large as I was impaled by a limb and had to go to the hospital with the injury.
The limb barely missed piercing my heart. It was a miracle, the doctors all said. Running my hand over the large scar, I recall it was also on Christmas Eve when it happened all those years back.
I was climbing the tree with my cousins in our grandmother’s backyard. When I fell, it pretty much ruined that Christmas. But all of my family came to see me at the hospital and I got way more presents than anyone else did.
I’ve always worn bathing suits that hid the scar. I hate it. And now I have to go out in front of a bunch of people, completely bared to them, including my ugly scar.
Unable to fight it back any longer, the desperateness of the situation overwhelms me. I fall to the floor and hide my face on the carpet. I can’t stop the sobs from coming out of me.
Loudly, I wail. I’ve never felt more hopeless. No one can save me!
No matter how loud I cry, all will think it’s an act. No matter how much I beg for help, they will think I am adding to the drama of the act.
The squeal of the intercom draws my attention and I raise my head to look up at the camera in my room as James’ voice fills it. “Finally, I thought you’d never crack.”
“Please, James. Please, let me go,” I beg as I look into the camera. “I can’t go through with this. I can’t!”
“You can go free. It will mean Nicholai will be ruined. Get dressed and I will let you out,” he says.
“What will you do to ruin Nic?” I ask, as maybe I can get away from him and go to my father and let him know what he’s doing to Nic.
“I have seven different ways to send the man to prison. Hell, I’ll let you choose the method of his demise if you’d like. All can be immediately deployed. He will be picked up by the authorities before I let you go free.”
My heart falls and I know I can’t let that happen to Nic. “I will stay. Leave him alone. I will honor the bond we signed.”
“Good to hear. Now, please, feel free to cry some more. It gets me off and I’m bored at the moment. If it makes you feel any better, Nicholai has been at the club every night and I think during the days too. He’s kept a redhead with him everywhere he goes. I do believe you’ve been replaced.”
Not able to take it any longer, I pull my body up off the floor and throw myself onto the bed. He may be lying to me or he may be telling me the truth. I have no idea. I just know I will be at the mercy of the man on the damn intercom sometime tonight and I can already feel the burning flesh on the back of my neck from the brand he’ll be putting on me.
As I cry into the pillow, I have to wonder why my father doesn’t have people looking for me. Surely, my parents know I’m the kind of woman who calls when I get to places I’m going. I’m the kind of person who checks in on a daily basis.
With no money, phone, or even decent clothes to go outside in, even if I could get out of the apartment, I am stuck. I suppose I could get out but it would set off alarms, and most likely send one of James’ plans against Nic into action. So, I sit here, waiting for the inevitable. Waiting to become James Hawthorne’s very real sex slave.
All hope is gone of being saved. No one will ever recognize me. My fate has been set. One I never saw coming.
I should’ve never stepped foot in the fucking Billionaire Bad Boy Club!