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Chapter Fifteen
RHYS
I tap my foot absentmindedly against the tile floors in my office as I wait for the phone call I had scheduled two days before. Ion is a tough man to get any time with outside of a Clan meeting, so two days is pretty good timing, but it doesn’t mean I don’t feel like I am failing or moving too slow at what needs to be done.
Vera is hanging by a thread right now. I can feel it. I have tried to tell her how much this is not her fault, but I can’t tell if she is still carrying the guilt of Olena’s death with her or not. And even if she isn’t, the grief could consume her if she keeps this up without throwing her emotions into something. It isn’t like she’s into telling me how she feels. I feel like ever since our honeymoon the walls around her have grown twice as high and I have run out of energy to scale them. My best bet is to give her the things he wants.
What she wants is to have her hands in the sex trafficking game, in Russia, in all of eastern Europe eventually, and she wants the drugs gone. She wants the streets of Ukraine clean so that no one else like Olena has to lose their lives over such a horrible addiction. There will be no one to tempt them to continue to use.
But before I go running head first into territories that may belong to our allies or even our enemies, I need to consult Ion. I need not just his permission, but his advice.
My phone finally rings, and I answer it, possibly a little too quickly. But I am ready to find out if I can give Vera, my wife. the world or not.
"Albu, this will have to be quick, but I am interested to know what it is you would like to speak to me about. How are things going in the Ukraine?" he asks, sounding all business. The man is a little up tight sometimes, to say the least, but there is no one that has spent his years learning his shit the same way as Ion.
"I didn’t mean to inconvenience you, but I have to talk with you about an idea that Vera and I have to further our reach. I respect your opinion."
"Mhmm," he offers, clearly wanting me to get on with it. I feel sweat dripping for my brow as I psych myself up to tell him what it is we want.
"Vera has a lot of ideas and ambitions, one of them being...becoming a Madame. She wants to get girls from some of these eastern European countries that would have it so bad, maybe die, without coming to us. She wants to run a clean and fair business for the girls and eventually work with Russia on it."
I hear Ion breathing on the other end and wait for him to give me any indication that I didn’t fuck up by bringing this into the light to begin with.
"We have never thought about such a thing here because of the laws and the way things work. We would never get away with it, and there are few lives we would make better by bringing them in to such a scheme. However, if you are willing to create something where the women are well treated and you can take them from places where the women would be better off, then I back the idea of doing this." I am about to have a victory here before he clears his throat and adds a caveat that I should have known that he would. I know we are walking a fine line here with those enemies that have gotten a foothold because if me. "BUT, do not make us any more enemies in doing this. You be smart about this, Albu. I am counting on you, and so is Mariana. You know what this means to us."
As of I didn’t have enough pressure already...
"I completely understand what you are saying. I know that I have a lot of shit to clean up in this part of the world, and I can’t make any more messes. Thank you for hearing me out, Ion."
"Good luck," he says before hanging up and leaving me to my thoughts...and to get the ball rolling. What better time now than to get my team together to send out there and get women? I want to see Vera happy and with a purpose. A purpose is the best distraction to help her get through all that dark shit that is festering inside of her. And then I can tell her at dinner tonight that we can really do the shit she’s always wanted. I am giving her what she’s asked for.
***
I watch Vera come into the room, just in a pair of jeans and a hoodie, and still somehow she commands a room. She notices all at once, as I stand up to pull out her chair, that this dinner is not typical. I can’t even say that we eat all of them together. Even when we aren’t out on our own business, we sometimes do our own thing. It just works for us, and I still don’t know how she feels about me anyway. I don’t think she hates me so much anymore, but I don’t know if she exactly likes me either.
"Wait, am I underdressed?" she asks, stopping in her tracks, and I chuckle at her before motioning down to my own jeans.
"My idea of the perfect dinner means getting to be comfortable," I tell her and motion for her to sit down. And she makes a show out of it too, raising her eyebrow at me suspiciously. I make sure she has been scooted all in before I sit down myself and pour us some champagne.
"Okay, what the hell is this about, Rhys?" she asks, possibly annoyed at the element of surprise. I take it he is not a woman who likes those, and in her line of work, I guess I can understand that.
"I have some news for you. I talked with Ion today about getting some girls, giving you what you want. I have a team together already. Just say the world about how many girls and where you want them to do," I tell her simply, looking her in there. I see a gleam there for just a moment and wonder if I am finally going to get something real form her before is disappears as quickly as it appeared.
"Anywhere you go, Lana is going with. She is the only person I trust. I will get her ready for this myself," she tells me, taking a bite of her food, no longer looking at me.
I am a little worried about that. Lana is barely legal, a girl, and this is a dangerous job, but I know Vera has been making her a mini me of sorts. I am not about to deny her this, even if I worry about the safety of such a thing. So, I just nod.
"So, what about the drugs? Have you figured out here we need to start with that?" she asks, and I feel my shoulders physically fall. I thought this would be good news here, but it feels like nothing is ever going to be good enough for her.
I angrily get up and leave the table, unable to pretend anymore like this is working.
