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TUES/WEDNESDAY - GETTING TO KNOW GRACIE’S FAMILY
Gracie and I spent a leisurely day on Tuesday sleeping late after a night of blissful sex, then showering together before spending the rest of the day snuggling and talking about anything and everything.
She told me all about her mother and being a young carer. I now understood where she got her love of reading and her ambition to be a writer. I intended to help her make her dream come true. I wanted all of her dreams to come true. She didn’t have the best start in life, and I wanted to ensure that she had a much better life from now on. With me.
She had already agreed to move in with me, and I couldn’t be happier about that, but I wanted even more. When the next few days were over, I was going to pull out all the stops to ensure that she felt the same. She deserved to be treated like a queen, and I’d make sure that she was.
We spent more time with the girls in the evening. Winning Claire over wasn’t as hard as I thought it might be. Marcie, I knew, would be a piece of cake, and I think the fact we worked together, and she liked me went a long way towards getting Claire on the side.
I invited Marko over to join us, supposedly to introduce him to Claire and Marcie, who were the only real family Gracie had. In reality, however, I wanted him to help me watch over the girls while our guys were busy with other things.
While Marko was here and the girls were busy, I grilled him on what he’d found out about the lawyer Juana had told us about. He’d been looking into him and trying to get some dirt on the guy in case we needed to blackmail him for any reason in the future. The lawyer would pay for whatever part he had played in both Krissa’s death and our current situation, but since he was a well-known lawyer, we needed to tread carefully. So, any information we could get on him would help.
Also, we needed to know who had been pulling his strings. We had to find the prick, who was our unknown enemy before he could cause us any more damage. And if he also had anything to do with Krissa’s murder, he was a dead man.
So far, the information he had on the lawyer was pretty basic and mundane stuff. There was nothing we could use against him, but Marko assured me he’d keep digging. A guy like that definitely had a lot to hide.
We also discussed our search for Juana’s sister, but unfortunately, we were no further on in finding her, which was disappointing. However, we believed Siri likely knew where she was, so capturing him remained high on our agenda for many reasons.
For dinner, we got a takeaway and played some drinking games with shots. Then Gracie made us cocktails. I wasn’t usually a cocktail fan, but even I was tipsy enough to enjoy them. Besides, the ice queen was watching me like a hawk to see if I was game enough, and I knew the challenge in her eyes was another way of testing out my suitability for Gracie. So, I drank them with gusto, and as the evening wore on, Claire began to thaw.
Marko enjoyed the cocktails, too. I hadn’t pegged him for a pina colada drinker, but he had several and didn’t even bother when Gracie topped one with a mini umbrella. In fact, Marko stuck it behind his ear and left it there for most of the night. I think he was just enjoying being away from all our usual Bratva stuff. Being here with the girls gave us a glimpse into a different type of life that we rarely got to enjoy. One where we were free to be normal guys enjoying the company of normal girls without the darkness of our usual lives interfering.
Later we watched a horror movie. Gracie spent most of the time curled up on my lap, hiding behind a cushion and peeking out every now and then. I found it adorable.
Marko fell asleep in the chair. I guess it wasn’t gruesome enough for him. When he woke up, I teased him, saying, “Hey, Marky, was that too scary for you? You had to pretend to be asleep, huh?”
“Funny,” he said, throwing a cushion at me.
I ducked, and it hit Claire smack in the face. She looked shocked, and I wondered if the ice queen was about to resurface. We were all holding our breath as Claire sauntered over to him, looking pissed off. He started apologising, “Sorry I…” but she whacked him over the head and burst into laughter.
She didn’t stop there, though. She just kept laughing and whacking Marko until he grabbed another cushion and whacked her back. A full-blown pillow fight ensued, with us all joining in until we were exhausted from it. I had to admit I hadn’t had so much childish fun in a long time, well, apart from my food fight with Sonia, of course.
It was a good night and definitely helped break the ice between us all. It felt good to just relax and let loose for once. I could see Marko felt the same way, too, as he was relaxed and smiling when we said goodnight, leaving him to sleep on the couch. I went to bed with Gracie wrapped in my arms and a grin on my face, feeling happier than I could remember.
We were all up early on Wednesday morning, and despite the amount of shots and cocktails we’d consumed, none of us seemed to be suffering too badly from their effects. The girls were excited to be off to Surrey.
I had managed to convince them to go Wednesday through to Saturday on the pretext of them combining business with another short holiday. Claire was still off for a few more days, so it worked well. Of course, it helped that I told them the trip was an all-expenses paid one.
I was pleased they had agreed. Luca was taking them, and he already knew Marcie well so he would be able to conduct the business side of things while also ensuring their safety. It was the perfect solution to keeping them safe and out of the way of the unpleasant business ahead.
When Luca arrived to collect them, we had a quick chat. Miki had already informed him of our plans, and I updated him on some of the finer details. He needed to know exactly what was going down in case things went wrong, and he needed to help us out in some way or keep the girls away longer if necessary.
As he took the girls’ bags to the car, I noticed him checking Claire out rather thoroughly. He saw me smirking at him and grinned. I chuckled. He would need to work hard if he wanted to charm her. We watched them leave, and then I helped Gracie pack up some more of her things while we waited for Romi to arrive to pick us up.
Before we returned to the Estate, we stopped at the airport to pick up our relatives. Romi’s mum and brother, and our aunt Marta had flown in from Russia for our pretend celebration. We all embraced. Aunt Letitia smothered Romi in kisses until he pushed her off, embarrassed, and we all laughed.
I introduced Gracie to them as my girlfriend and my aunts gushed all over her, grabbing one of her arms each and bombarding her with questions as we walked back to the car. Gracie blushed but answered them happily and seemed to be content to continue chatting with them as we returned home.
When we arrived back at the Estate, Glowacki and Dariusz were already there. Miki made the introductions, and I couldn’t help but notice the way Janusz Glowacki looked at my aunt Marta or the way he held her hand a tad longer than he did anyone else’s. I understood Janusz’s interest; my aunt Marta was a lovely-looking woman.
Miki noticed, too, and his eyes narrowed, a thoughtful look coming over his face before he schooled his features again into his usual poker face.
Nonna appeared, and the women flocked to her to say hello.
While they were busy, our chat turned to the reason the Glowacki’s were here. Lev Petrov was getting released later this afternoon, and each of us relished the prospect of finally getting our hands on the bastard.
