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“What about his new wife.” She was the one I wanted to know everything about.
“What about her?” The look on Katja’s face was inquisitive, matching her tone.
“We don’t need to talk about your family if you don’t want too.”
“It’s alright. I know it’s why you wanted to come with me tonight. Trust me, my dad would love to trade me for whatever your family has to offer.”
Shit. Yeah, I wanted her to tell me some things, but I wasn’t trying to be an asshole. That was her father’s role. I’ve been with a lot of women for a lot of different reasons, but I never made one feel like shit, and I didn’t want Katja to be the first.
“I’m really trying to be a friend here, Katja. Alexei’s business doesn’t involve you.”
“Thank you. I’m really bad at making friends.”
“Well, you have one now.” Sure, I could be her friend if it didn’t bother her that I wanted to fuck her stepmom seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day.
“Why would you want that after the little show my dad put on at lunch?”
“Because I could tell you weren’t like that. He made you and your stepmother feel like crap.” I tried to lure her back to where I needed the discussion to go.
“Yeah, he does that to Ludmila a lot. He treats her like a dog treats his chew toy.”
“Don’t mind me for asking, Katja, but why the fuck is she staying with him?” It had to be something that kept her around Alexei, but I had the feeling Katja had no clue what it was.
“I don’t know. I was in boarding school in London when they got married. All I know is that six years ago my dad went from Moscow to St. Petersburg for a week and came back with a young wife. My father has money, and maybe she needed it.”
“It seems like you two get along.”
“We’re friends. Ludmi is very dear to me. I wish I could help her more.” Oh, she shouldn’t worry about it because I planned on helping Ludmi a great deal. Alexei Popov was a man with many weaknesses, and as soon as I found one that I could use, I’d see that he never makes life hell for his wife or daughter again.
We didn’t talk family after that, just a lot of small talk. Katja was cool to have around, and she could be useful to me too. When I dropped her off, I hoped to see Ludmila in the door again. It didn’t happen, but I made plans with Katja to get together next week. This time to go see the latest Marvel movie. Maybe next time I’d leave Popov’s house with more than his wife’s panties.
Chapter 6
I walked around the house so much, there was probably a visible path behind me.
I couldn’t stop. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t stop thinking about Enzo Nucci. What was happening to me? Where was the careful Ludmila, the one who’s survival instinct made her rational? Enzo was just a pretty face. He was at least five years younger than me. There was nothing that made sense about my obsession with him.
Alexei scared me. I was terrified of him and what he could do when he was drunk and angry. For the past six years I walked on eggshells around him to avoid ending up under his fist, but sometimes, even if I was cautious, it wasn’t enough. Every time I did something that Alexei didn’t like, he made sure I remembered it. He used to say that I owed him a perfect wife, so I had to rise to his expectations. In time I learned to fear him and never dared to do something that could activate his fury, so why walk through such dangerous fire with Enzo Nucci?
At the club, Alexei got drunk very early, and I put distance between us, knowing he wouldn’t notice. If a bottle of vodka was close enough, I wasn’t as interesting for him anymore. All I wanted was a glass of champagne and somehow, I ended up with a tall glass of Enzo instead. I couldn’t explain it, not even to myself, but once he looked at me, I was a slave to his eyes. I couldn’t move or walk away.
He touched me and I forgot everything about Alexei or what he’d do to me if he found me with another man. We came to each other like two animals in the wild – we didn’t know each other, but there was a primordial call that brought us together. Tonight, when he showed up to pick up Katja, I felt it again. That magnetic pull that was impossible to break, and after they left, I was a ball of nerves.
Jealousy.
Alexei wanted his daughter married well, and he would have thrown a parade if she’d end up with the son of a mafia man, especially someone as important as Gino Nucci was here in America. Alexei liked to drop names, and if it was up to him, poor Katja would be marching down to the church tomorrow. I knew this was why he was pushing the two of them together.
Enzo said he was not interested, and after watching her father ruin so many women, Katja was set on never taking a husband of her own, but what if all that changed tonight? She was such a sweet girl, and she didn’t have a ball and chain around the ankle like I did. Thinking that she might end up with him, feeling him like I did back at the club, was driving me crazy.
It was late, close to midnight, when Katja finally walked through the door, and I went to her a little too fast.
“Dobryy vecher.” Good evening.
“Hey, Ludmi. I thought you’d be in bed by now.”
“Eh, I’m having a restless evening.”
She frowned and stopped to watch me.
