Chapter 2
Samara
Anton’s eyes scan as he walks to the car, they skim past me, but he doesn’t stop. He can’t see me in the dark. The other one sees me, though, his eyes stop right on me as I sit down on a crate at the back door. Dmitry, stares into the dark alley for a brief second before he turns and gets into the car as Anton slaps his back.
Anton’s hands tuck into his pockets, his shoulders are broad with tattoos peeking out from under his shirt. One thing Anton is—despite being a womanizer—he’s fucking good-looking. He knows it. It was a mix of his hotness and tequila that led him to my bed in the first place on one drunken night. This is the second time I’ve seen him in two months, and I’m hoping it will be the last.
I don’t have time for him, even if his cock was magic as he had told me. I really wished he was all talk at the time, because now when he draws out his dirty words, I know he can back them up and make me come. Shaking my head and dropping it between my legs, I sit and wait.
Car lights come and go. My hair cascades down onto the ground, and I watch as the ends wisp in the wind of the night. Lights come to a stop on me, shining right on me. Looking up, a smile touches my lips. Turning around to pick up my bag, I walk to the car and slide in. Raven smiles, her head shaking back and forth as she listens to the music that’s blaring through the speakers. Tonight seems to be a good night, I hope it stays that way.
“How was work?” Raven asks after her song finishes while driving to our small apartment.
“He came in tonight.”
Her mouth opens, then shuts, then opens again. “That one? That one that made you go…” she pauses and then says, “Wow!”
I nod my head, laughing lightly at her words.
She oohs and ahhs at me, as she concentrates on her driving but not saying much else while she’s processing. “You can see him, you know? You can try and function like a normal person.”
I shake my head. “What’s the fun in being normal?” She looks to me, her eyes the same color as mine, staring at me as she smirks then looks back to the road.
“So, did you?” she asks after a moment of silence.
“Did I what?” I ask confused.
“Did you do the hanky-panky with him in the bathroom at work?”
“Gosh Raven, no. I was at work.”
She coughs, loudly. “At a strip club?”
Shaking my head, I raise my eyebrows at her.
“So… I’m sure most do the hanky-panky at work,” Raven says.
Shaking my head again, I remember the way he smelled. Oh gosh, a man has never smelled so good to me. The woodsy smell leaches off of him and makes me want to drop my head to his chest to smell him for as long as possible. The way his caramel hair is styled to perfection, and his golden-brown eyes sparkle back at me. There’s no denying it, Anton is a very well-dressed and groomed man. He takes great care of himself, better than most. That was what drew me in the first place. Anton’s a man who knows how to carry himself, and he does it well. Heads turn when he walks into a room and people take notice.
I’d heard of them before, their names have become well-known, and their reputation precedes them. The name Smirnov means something around here, and those boys are the carriers of that name wherever they go.
Raven doesn’t know, and I hope she never finds out anything about that side of the world. Looking at her, I smile. She’s young, just turned twenty-one, and finishing up her degree in medicine. While I, her older sister, work at a strip club to pay for our rent and whatever she needs.
Our mother died not long after Raven was born, and our father did the best he could at raising us, but never once put us first. He was always buried in the bottle which eventually claimed his life. By the age of eighteen there were only the two of us, and every dream I’d hoped for had to be put on hold because Raven was special. You can see it when you speak to her, she holds herself in a manner where she knows exactly what she’s talking about. Not many people win an argument with Raven, it’s one of the things I love most about her. Despite everything, she has a backbone.
“You should seriously consider it, you know. He’s the only one you’ve told me about in quite some time,” Raven says, breaking my thoughts. She comes to a stop at our shitty apartment and turns off the car, then she turns toward me. Her eyes are watching and waiting for me to speak.
“That’s because he was irrational,” I say, shaking my head.
“You said… and I quote...” her fingers go up to air quote, “… ‘that man can stick his dipstick in me anytime he wants, as long as he doesn’t talk.’” She places her fingers down and dips her head to the side as she examines me with her eyes.
“I was coming down from a dick high,” I reply, pushing the door open, and effectively ending our conversation. Walking to the stairs, I hear her boots click as she runs to catch up with me.
“You have to have it more… the dick, you know?”
I shake my head with a small laugh, as we make our way up the stairs and into our apartment. Raven throws her bag to the floor near the door and then shuts it behind her as she comes in after me then walks straight to our fridge.
“So, I have tomorrow off. Actually, all weekend off. Studies are completed. How about you take me out?”
Raven never goes out. It’s one thing I love most about her, she’s always there when I need her. Any sort of approval from others is not something Raven needs.
“Sure, but not to that place.”
She coughs into her hands. “Bullshit.”
Eyeing her as I pull my sweater on.
“You love that place. It has the best music. Now I’m twenty-one, and I didn’t even celebrate it. You have to take me.”
“We did celebrate it, remember, I took you out for dinner.” Her hand goes to her hip as she watches me.
“Fine, let’s just hope he isn’t there, because he’s always there,” I mumble, walking away from her and into our bedroom.
The club she’s referring to is the place I met Anton, then the place I saw him again when he thought he could grab my ass.
Pulling the drawer open to grab some clothing, I hear Raven following me in.
Our apartment is small, but we got lucky in the fact that it’s big enough to hold two beds. Granted, the beds aren’t large, but neither of us bring guys home anyway, so it works out fine. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s more than enough for us. At least until she finishes her degree and she can start working to help with the expenses.
“Where are you going?”
The sun’s coming up, I worked all night and now have to get ready for my next shift. I wasn’t scheduled to work today, but I picked up an extra shift to buy Raven something special.
Money, it’s always about the money, isn’t it?
“Work,” I tell her, changing my shoes but leaving my sweater on.
“But you just finished.”
Shaking my head, I say, “Yeah, I know.”
“You don’t work at the café on the weekends. Why this weekend?”
“We need the money,” I tell her while walking out of the room and throwing my hair up into a messy bun.
“I can work, too, you know. Let me take your shift.”
Turning around just before I pull the door open, I say, “Rest Raven, I slept all day yesterday. I’m okay to work. You need to rest your brain. You can’t be a heart surgeon and save us from this life if you’re tired and overworked. I’m fine to do it all for now.”
Raven starts shaking her head, her mouth opens to talk over me, but I beat her to it.
“I’m fine, Raven. Quite all right. I’ll rest before we go out tonight.” Not giving her another chance to speak, I walk out, closing the door.
The Café Jadore is only a few blocks away, so I walk there. It’s a health food café which serves no sugar at all unless you count the natural sugar in the fruits. It’s actually there I met Dmitry.
As soon as I walk up toward the café door, Dmitry’s standing out front, sunglasses covering his eyes and waiting for me. His presence is intense. He’s the most intense person I think I’ve ever been around. Sometimes I’m not sure if he wants to kill me or pass me the knife to do it myself.
I nod my head at him while pulling the door open, and he waits for me to enter first then follows me in, taking a seat in his usual spot as I pull on my apron and begin to prepare his order. Dmitry’s come here for as long as I’ve worked here, and only in the last few years has he changed his order to two servings instead of one. Açai bowls, he loves them, and I’m guessing so does his partner.
“Two today?” I ask.
He doesn’t look up, just nods his head, while I start the blenders and make the bowls just the way he likes it. The door rings and Harris walks in. She smiles and gives me a small wave, looks to Dmitry, then keeps on walking. He’s actually never told me his name, it was on a receipt from when he paid with his card, and I may have read it to see who this stranger was that looked like he wanted to murder the world. I actually didn’t know he and Anton were connected until the second time I saw Anton at the club, when he rudely walked up, grabbed my ass, and told me he was planning to fuck me again. That’s when I realized who he was sitting with.
Walking over to Dmitry, I hand him his orders, both in the one bag, and give him a smile. He looks up, takes it and passes the cash over, then stands. He walks away, but when he hits the door, he stops, turns around, looks me over, then shakes his head and walks out. Watching him leave is all I can do. I don’t understand the man. He never speaks, not even for his order. Usually all I get is a nod of his head in the direction of the menu. I would say he’s mute unless it hadn’t been me who took his first order—of course, he spoke then but only the bare essentials—but since then he hasn’t said a word.
“Hi, I’m Pollie,” a very kind voice says from behind me. Turning around to a very strikingly beautiful girl who stands in front of me, I notice she’s a little shorter than me, but her beautiful brown hair hangs around her shoulders.
“Hi, Pollie.” She blushes and looks down.
“I’m Dmitry’s wife. You know… the Hulk of a man that walks in here whenever you’re working to order his favorite food.”
I nod my head with a smile. He doesn’t come in when I’m not here, I thought it was because I knew his order so well, or maybe it’s just that our days match up.
“Anyway, he told me what happened last night. I wanted to apologize for Anton’s behavior.”
“Oh, no, please don’t.”
Pollie shakes her head. “He, well… he doesn’t really know how to treat a lady. I think you may have him stumped. Plus, Dmitry said they walked in on you last night with him—”
“We weren’t—”
She waves her hand to stop me but doesn’t look up at me. “Oh, I know, he just told me about it. I told him he needs to apologize.”
“It’s my job,” I respond to her, wondering why we’re having this conversation in the first place.
Pollie still doesn’t look up at me. “I know, but I have a feeling I may be seeing you quite a lot. And I don’t particularly want your naked body, which I’m sure is gorgeous, branded in my man’s head. Especially, now we have a son, so we’re learning to be respectful, somewhat.” She laughs. “Even though they see too much ass for my liking, and even if I can’t see anything, I’m sure you’re gorgeous. Otherwise, as vain as Anton is, he would have nothing to do with you.”
It’s then that I have that moment when it clicks and I realize she’s blind, and that’s the reason she isn’t looking at me, it’s because she can’t.
“Anyway, Dmitry doesn’t want to talk. He does that to people who aren’t Kazier or me. So I just wanted to come in and have a chat with the woman who steals my husband for a few minutes a day, three days a week.” Her smile is so genuine, so unlike him.
Does he even know how to smile?
“Thank you, and really… it doesn’t bother me.” She nods her head then turns to the door, her hand touching around to feel where she is. I watch as she walks out and Dmitry comes straight to her, capturing her hand in his and holding it tightly. They walk off, and he walks her to the car that’s already open and waiting for her.
The devil loves, is what I think as I turn away from them and go about my shift.