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Miki was also talking to several other likely candidates to take over the activities we were planning to offload, and some of them looked like good prospects, at least for the arms and drugs route anyway. The Irish Mafia were interested in that too, but there were also one or two gangs further north and up in Scotland who might want a bit of the London pie and who might work out for us. We’ll see. There was time to deal with that.
Uncle Maxim was happy about how everything had been handled, but we needed to be sure on whoever we got to take over running drugs and arms routes. Hopefully, at some point, our own drug distribution operation was someone he and our US cousins would happily deal with.
Otherwise, it could be a no-go, and we could find ourselves stuck in this life forever. Miki was determined we’d succeed in getting out of this side of things, and I knew if anyone could make that happen, it was him.
The only cloud on the horizon was the arranged marriage set up between Sonia and Dariusz Glowacki. Sonia was completely against it. I hated to see her so unhappy.
Marko and I had made it very clear to Miki that we were against the arrangement, but ultimately, he was Pakhan, and there was little we could do about it. He was wrong to have made such an arrangement in the first place, and he knew it, but once these kinds of arrangements were made, they couldn’t easily be broken without all parties concerned losing face, and in this business, losing face was a big no-no.
The situation had been put on hold for the time being, however, because Glowacki was still recovering, and Miki wouldn’t discuss the matter with him until he was well enough. The operation had been a success, but Glowacki had somehow developed an infection, and while he was doing better now, he was still very weak.
In the meantime, I guessed Miki was probably wracking his brains for a viable alternative. I didn’t envy him. I’d tried thinking of one myself but couldn’t come up with anything. I was so glad I wasn’t in Miki’s shoes right now. Sonia was so angry with him that she could barely even look at him. It served him right, but I hated seeing my family split like this.
Dariusz wasn’t really on board with the idea himself. He wasn’t completely against it and said he would go through with it if his father insisted, but I knew Sonia hoped that when Glowacki found out that neither of them was keen on the match, he would agree to some other kind of arrangement. I just hoped that was the case for Sonia’s sake.
Aunt Letitia and Dimitri returned home a couple of days after the attacks. Aunt Marta stayed behind to look after Magdalena. The pair have developed a strong bond and appear inseparable.
The rest of the Glowacki family have remained with us, too. Their home is being rebuilt, and the younger boy, Sebastian, had taken the lead on that while Dariusz and Daniel kept on top of their business interest in Glowacki’s absence.
It was nice having them all here, but any time we found it too crowded, Grace and I would disappear to the library or our room. Our relationship was going from strength to strength, and I was ready to take things further.
After checking my emails, I made a quick call to ensure everything was ready.
It was Gracie’s birthday, and I was taking her on a short break.
She didn’t know where that was a surprise. She also didn’t know that I had another very special surprise in store for her when we got there.
I turned off my computer and headed up to the bedroom, filled with nervous excitement.
Gracie
The last couple of weeks flew by. I’d spent most of it writing my book or cuddling up somewhere with Ash and getting to know him better, and the rest of the time indulging in “research,” as Ash liked to say, for my sex scenes. He took his role as my book-boyfriend muse very seriously, and I was more than pleased to let him.
I finally finished my first book and was looking into publishing it. I had found my groove, and my second book was also underway. Yey for me! Claire and Marcie were so proud.
I had been trying to write this morning, but I was too excited. It was my birthday, and Ash was taking me away for a short break. I knew he had been planning something special for days because he had been very secretive at times, and at others, he had been asking a lot of questions. For example, a few days ago, he asked me if I had ever been to a castle. I told him that I hadn’t but would love to visit one. I really hoped that was where we were going. I would love to stay in a castle. It was such a romantic fairy-tale-like thing to do.
Ash entered the room, looking as excited as I felt.
“Ready?” he asked.
“Definitely,” I practically squealed in delight.
He grabbed our suitcase, and we left our room hand in hand and headed out to the car.
My excitement racked up a notch when I saw the red convertible that sat waiting for us. I’d never been in an open-top car before, and I was bursting with excitement.
“Wow, what kind of car is this?” I asked in awe.
Ash proceeded to inform me that it was a Mercedes-Benz E-Class Cabriolet, which was apparently one of his favourites. I knew the family had a garage full of vehicles, but I’d hardly ever seen them use anything other than black SUVs.
As I sunk back into the plush red and black leather seats and checked out all the latest gadgets, I was glad he’d chosen to drive this one today. I felt like a celebrity and couldn’t help the huge grin on my face as I thought of how jealous Claire and Marcie would be.
The wind blew gently through my hair, and I was glad that it was a decent enough day. It was July, but since this was the UK, that didn’t guarantee good weather like it did in some countries. It could have just easily been raining, and I would have had to forgo this pleasure.
After about forty minutes, we stopped at Battersea heliport. I knew that was where we were due to the sign, but I had no idea why.
“What are we doing?” I asked, but he just smiled.
