Chapter Twenty-Three

Anatoly felt something licking his fingers beside the bed. His eyes opened slowly and focused on the empty space and disheveled sheets next to him. Sitting up, he looked around the room. No clothes. No shoes. No purse. No Renee.

Pulling himself out of the bed, he ran his hand over his dog’s ears and looked around. The sun was cruelly bright this morning, shining through his window like a blazing alarm clock. The bed was a mess, and Renee was gone.

Deep inside, he hoped that she was downstairs fixing breakfast or at the boutique with the patrons, but he knew the truth. There was no need to look for her, and no need to call.

He had done this once. When he woke up in Prague next to Victoria, he too had felt urge to flee. He imagined that he knew every emotion that Renee had felt that morning when she woke. But it wasn’t until now that he knew how Victoria must have felt. The pain of waking up to being alone again. No note. No indication that he’d ever come back. No indication that he’d ever been there.

“The bitch is still getting me back,” he said aloud of Victoria. “Still tormenting me from the grave.”

***

Across town, two members of the Medlov Organized Crime family were meeting without their council and against the code. Over breakfast, Yuri and Oleg, two of the divine 16, were strategizing on what their counter measure would be now that Igor had been murdered. His death in Miami by Anatoly’s hand had been a dreadful blow to their outside income streams.

“He was our man. We should have done more to protect him,” Oleg said, eating his Bavarian pancakes. “How did that little shit ever find out anyway?”

“No one knows. Things were going great. We were cutting into the Cuban gun shipments to pay for the drugs from the Columbians. It was a perfect plan. Now we have to figure something else out or come out of our own pockets to pay for this little operation.”

“If Anatoly knew about the guns, how are we not sure that he doesn’t know about the drugs?”

“Because there hasn’t been anything done about it yet. And we all know that Anatoly is very quick, almost impatient, to act. Otherwise, Igor would still be alive.”

“This could still work, as long as we play it smart. We cannot have another incident like before,” Yuri said quietly. “The last thing that we want is for Dmitry to take things over from Prague.”

“I think he’d clean the entire council, at this point. There wouldn’t be one of us left.” Oleg shoved a pancake into his mouth with his boney fingers.
“We must develop plan,” Yuri said. “There is one last shipment going out to the Cubans for guns. It’s the final shipment of Anatoly’s precious weapons from Sochi. This is going to be major. We must find someone that we can trust to do that last shipment and take our cut. If Anatoly gets his hands on it, our opportunity will be lost, and we will be stuck paying for Columbian’s cocaine or risk waging war. We cannot afford either.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll convince Anatoly to let us handle it. He’s been so removed and wrapped up in whatever is going on in his family that he has little time to deal with these things. For now, we must work on distribution of the next shipment of drugs once they arrive here in three days.”

“Did you secure the warehouse?”

“Da, da. It has all been arranged.”

***

Gabriel put his arm around Briggy’s warm body and nuzzled his head into her soft hair. This is eaven, he thought to himself. She slept peacefully beside him, curled into his naked body without a care in the world. He wanted to wake her, to see her eyes flit open and gaze at him the way she did to make his heart skip a beat. It had been the same for a week now. Intense love making at night and tutorials from his uncle during the day.

He was forgetting himself, forgetting why he was here. The DEA thought that there were drugs involved, but he had discovered none. They were like weapons of mass destruction at this point. Just a figment of the government’s imagination. And he was here, with his family, setting them up like a snake. Like his father. The pain was ripping at him, tearing him apart. There was not a moment that passed that he wasn’t in complete despair over his actions.

“Good morning,” Briggy said, opening her eyes. She looked up at him and smiled. With a single finger on his lip, she pulled him to her kiss.

“Good morning, baby,” he said, forgetting for a moment all of his woes. Planting his body on top of her, to cover her from the world, he moved her hair out of her face and kissed the side of her neck.

She giggled, biting her lip as she felt his hardness prodding at her leg.

“I have to get up and get breakfast ready for the house,” she said regretfully.

“Do you want me to help you?” he asked, adjusting his long body to move inside of her.

“You’d do that?” she asked surprised.

“Why wouldn’t I? Whatever it takes to get you back into my bed faster, I’ll do.”

“You’re so different,” she said with wonderment in her eyes. “So special.” She trailed her hand over his face.

“I’m not special,” he said, looking away.

“Of course you are. I love your family, Gabriel. But you are different from them. There is so much good in you. You’re very much different from your cousin.”

“Anatoly’s alright,” Gabriel said, dismissing her compliment. “But I don’t want to talk about him right now.” He sat on his knees, grabbed her waist and pushed inside of her.

Briggy closed her eyes and relaxed her body. Feeling Gabriel harden inside of her, she released a gasp. He was so amazingly huge until it was obscene. And he demanded so much of her. Every inch. He kissed her, licked her, pleased her with no end in sight. Lying on her back with her core locked to his lap, she forgot about breakfast and enjoyed making love to her perfect lover.

***

Dmitry couldn’t sleep. He sat by the fireplace in his robe reading his newspaper while Royal snored lightly in the bed across from him. She’d only recently started to snore. Oddly, she only did it in the second and third trimester of her pregnancies. The doct couldn’t explain it, and he tried not to make a big deal out of it, because she was so emotional. Nonetheless, it often made nights unbearable, because he never could sleep with an ounce of noise in the room.

However, something else wasn’t right. He could feel it, only he couldn’t place where the problem actually was.

Checking his watch, he realized that it was already six in the morning. Unfortunately, he’d been up since four going over in his mind every intricacy of his life. Finances. Relationships. Business deals. He’d thought about it all.

He knew that it was imperative also that he send Gabriel to Anatoly soon. And while he appreciated young love, he knew also that he’d have to separate Gabriel and Briggy for a while.

It was strange to actually have Royal approve of anyone on her staff dating a family member, but she genuinely accepted Gabriel and Briggy. It could have been that once he told her about his role in the boy’s life that she felt he deserved a great deal more leeway. It could have also been that she saw their own relationship in the young couple. Whatever it was, once she gave her stamp of approval on the two, Gabriel and Briggy had been inseparable.

In a way, he knew that it was also his doing. Many months ago, when Briggy was invariably torn apart by his son’s quick dismissal of her after a short love affair, he had told her to find someone who wasn’t ashamed of her. Ironically, she had found that in Gabriel. He took her out in public, treated her to nice gifts and always acknowledged her.

If Briggy was in the room, Gabriel could not keep his eyes off of her. If she was busy working, he’d offer to help. He’d disappear as soon as it was time for her to get off of work, and she hadn’t spent a night in her room since their first date.

Dmitry thought they’d fallen in love, and he was sure of it after last night. At dinner, they had sat beside each other talking quietly as if no one else was in the room. After dinner, they’d disappeared up to his guest room. It was the way that young lovers behaved, he knew that. But he was worried. How would his young Briggy recover when soon her bliss was cut short? The tables would definitely turn and the women of the house would expect for him to do something about it, especially the one snoring in the bed.

There were also the many conversations between him and Gabriel to consider. The boy was growing on him. He was no longer a stranger. They had discussed in detail his childhood and college years. And it had all checked out with the Intel he’d gathered from his private investigators in New York.

At first, Dmitry did not trust the boy. But each day, he found himself growing closer to him. Maybe it was that he looked a great deal like his mother and in his mind he was mending relationships that had no other way of being fixed.

After all, Emma Hutton had long since passed and so had Ivan. There was no way to go back and help either one of them. But maybe he could help himself heal wounds that he secretly nursed for all three of them – four of them, counting Gabriel.

Royal had noticed their relationship. She too worried at first. However, over the last week, her conversations with him had eased her suspicions as well. I like him, she had said. He’s a good boy, she had vouched. You can trust him, she had promised. And while his wife’s opinion meant everything to him, he knew that it must come down to what he felt. Only, he didn’t know how he felt about the boy anymore. It disturbed him that he approved of him. It disturbed him that he admired him. It disturbed him that he saw things in him that he wished for his own son to have, like true integrity, like passion.

It was ironic that Ivan’s son had turned out to be so graceful. He was intelligent, creative and hard working. He saw himself in Gabriel. And what of it? Could he really hold back a man who was his own blood and so much like him?

He knew the answer to that question. No, he could not hold the boy back, and the only way to allow him to thrive in their organization was to send him to his son.

He smirked to himself. That would be tricky. While the people here liked him, cared for him. Gabriel would truly start to cut his teeth in Memphis with Anatoly. And that would not be easy. His son was more like Ivan than he cared to admit. Anatoly was quick to kill, but it took him forever to feel for someone. He was always slow on emotions, unless it was hate. Anatoly could hate with the best of them. But he had to let men be men. He could not coddle Gabriel.

Excusing himself from the bedroom, he walked down the long corridor and opened Anya’s door to find her sleeping. After sneaking in to kiss her on her forehead, he headed down to his office.

When he got there, a fresh pot of coffee and juice sat on his table in a tray. Evidently, Briggy was up and as always diligently working. He was proud of her. While it was small, it was very important to him that the people around him always remembered first their obligations.

Pouring a cup of coffee, he sat behind his desk, hit the button to open his blinds and called his son.

Anatoly picked up on the first ring.

“Hello,” he said gravely.

“You sound like shit,” Dmitry said, sipping out of his favorite mug.

“I’m alright.” Anatoly put down his glass of vodka. “What’s up, papa. It’s barely six there. Why are you already about?”

“I’ve decided it’s time to send Gabriel to you.”

“So, you’ve seen what you need to see?”

“Da, he’s a good boy.”

“Where in this organization can I use a good boy?” Anatoly asked angrily. “I need men. I need killers. I don’t need good boys.” He sat in dedce behind his desk brooding alone.

“How do you think that you started? I saw a good boy when you came to my door step. I didn’t see killer or even a man. I saw a young boy who had potential.”

Anatoly was silent.

“So, I’m sending him to you. He’s agreed to set aside his obligations in New York. There are a few men who can run things there for him while he learns the ropes from you,” Dmitry said, turning on his television to watch the news. He controlled his anger.

“Fine. Send him,” Anatoly said shortly.

“I plan to,” Dmitry sighed. “Something else has developed since you left.”

“What?”

“It seems that Gabriel and Briggy have become an item.” Dmitry waited for his son to explode. He’d always had territory issues.

“So, you want her to come too?”

“No. I want you to know this before he comes, so you can deal with your emotions before he arrives. This should be a non-issue, because you and Briggy are a non-issue. Am I making myself clear?”

“Papa, I don’t give a fuck about your maid.” Anatoly rolled his eyes.

“So I take it that you and my shop girl, Renee, are doing well then?” Dmitry asked, making his point about one woman’s position over the other. To demean a woman for doing an honest job was like demeaning a priest for being holy - ridiculous. And he wouldn’t have it.

“I haven’t spoken to Renee in a week. She left the shop. She left my home. She left my life.”

Dmitry knew that there was something wrong. And there it was; heart-break. He felt for the boy, but it was only a matter of time before he fell in love with someone. And it was only normal in their occupation that it wouldn’t bode well.

“Give it time,” Dmitry said softly. “I’m sure that you’ll find a way to reach her and talk things over. These things do not fix themselves over night. If they do, they are not real.”
Anatoly couldn’t even bring himself to say anything clever. In fact, just the thought of her brought him pain. “Let us hope, papa.”

“It’s good that you know how to compartmentalize these types of situations. Moving on, when Gabriel arrives, after you’ve introduced him to everyone, I want you to send him to Dallas to speak with Royal’s mother and arrange a meeting in Jamaica for the family.”

“Now, I’m responsible for family reunions? Papa, I’m boss. I’m not travel agent or...”

“I am asking you this favor as your father. Remember alwayswho I am to you and know that my requests are more important than even your biggest business deals.” Dmitry’s voice was harsh.

Anatoly quickly bit his tongue. “Of course, papa. Forgive me. I will arrange as soon as Gabriel arrives.”

“Good. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to get on with my day,” Dmitry said, hanging up the phone.