Chapter 28
Dmitri
“Liora, what are you doing?” I rasped but she wouldn’t even look at me, instead, she kept poking at Ariel’s thigh until she had no choice but to lift her.
I advanced toward them but halted when I saw how watery Ariel’s eyes were. She looked very happy and pleased to hold my daughter in her arms like that, and that stopped me from doing what I’d intended.
So I resigned to watching both of them keenly, wondering how Liora got so comfortable with Ariel that she had to ignore me. Though she wasn’t so used to seeing me with my mask, she should have at least regarded me for a moment.
My heart was shattered at her slight betrayal, but seeing her relaxed and calm gave me so much peace.
I felt a squeeze on my arm and Vladimir silently nudged me to come along with him. My feet were still glued to the ground as I didn’t want to leave her with Ariel whom I didn’t fully trust.
“Come on, bro. You and I know that Ariel can be everything else but a murderer,” He muttered under his breath to keep Ariel from overhearing us. “Besides, aren’t you happy that Liora is comfortable with someone else who isn’t you?”
He was telling the truth, yet I didn’t want to agree with it. So I ignored his question and trotted to the attic, taking off my mask as I crashed onto the floor.
Today had been eventful; from getting caught for cheating to being snubbed by my daughter. I just wanted to take a break but the bad news was, I couldn’t.
Vladimir joined me later with a bottle of Campari and two wine glasses. He plopped down beside me and uncorked the bottle, pouring the contents into the glasses.
“At some point, you’ll have to allow the both of them to get closer,” He began and I hissed.
“I don’t want that,” I countered and took the glass. “They don’t need to get close at all. Look at what happened to her if Anya died, what if something like that happens again? Do you think she’ll be able to recover from the shock?”
“Don’t be pessimistic, Dmitri. You might be my Capo, but we are brothers and I know how scared you are to lose her, but you can’t keep caging her like that. It will only make her situation deteriorate, not better,”
I nodded, lacking the strength to continue the conversation. Even the energy to smoke wasn’t present.
“What happened back at the club? How did you bump into Ariel’s friend?”
He chuckled and downed another drink. “I thought you heard my response when Ariel asked?”
“You were being petty with her. Tell me the truth, did you do anything to her?” I pressed for a genuine answer which I probably wouldn’t get.
“The lady’s beautiful. Did you see how stunning she was? What did you want me to do? Fold my hands and watch her like a cartoon?” He sounded frustrated but I was more pissed.
“Damn! Vladimir, you know that girl is off-limits. If Alberto finds out you touched his daughter, we’d have a serious problem with the Familia. I guaranteed her safety before he allowed her to come here, please don’t spoil things for me,” I warned and poured myself another drink.
He didn’t respond but with a crease on his forehead and a deep frown on his face. Something had happened that he didn’t want to tell me about.
However, I hoped that whatever it was wouldn’t cause a war between the two gangs. I already had enough on my plate with the drug trade.
The cold night’s breeze flew in from the little window that was created high up in the attic and washed over me. For a moment, there was silence-one I was grateful for in the midst of my chaos.
I’d never been used to living a normal life. It was all about ensuring the gang made enough money and eliminating whoever went against that order. It was also about protecting the people that mattered to me: my daughter, Vladimir and Ariel who was recently added to the list.
She was beginning to tug at my heartstrings and I didn’t know whether to let it continue or to thicken the walls of my heart.
Maybe the latter would be safer as I didn’t want my heart to be shattered twice.
Vladimir sighed deeply. “So what are you going to do about Ariel? She caught you with her,”
Funny how words spread so fast.
“I don’t know. It’s so hard to know what she’s thinking. Back at the club, she acted so nonchalant but when we returned, she seemed truly pissed and jealous,” I analyzed the situation.
“And…” He dragged on.
“And nothing,” I intoned bluntly. “I’ve always told her that she’d never have a place in my heart and if she sees that I don’t care about what happened, I’m sure she’ll get the memo,”
He shook his head in disappointment, his brows furrowed as I reminded him of how cold I could be.
“Dmitri…” He started but I raised my hand sharply.
“Let’s stop talking about her,”
My phone rang, the ringtone echoing into the night. I stared at the screen, wondering why Armenia would be calling me at this time of the night.
Knowing it had to be something of importance, I picked it up without hesitation and brought the phone to my ear.
“What’s up?”
“I’m sorry to disturb you, but I’ve been trying to reach you all evening. You didn’t pick or return any of my calls,”
I took the phone off my ear and scrolled through my call log only to see the number of missed calls I’d received.
“Just saw it now. Was busy. Is there any problem?”
“Not really, boss. I found a new supplier but he wants you to come over to San Diego for his daughter’s birthday party so that the both of you can discuss,”
The gloominess I’d been feeling all day vanished into thing air with a feeling of elation replacing it.
“Why does it have to be during his daughter’s party though?” I questioned.
Something felt off, but I’d mentally calculated the risk and decided to damn the consequences. A new supplier was needed as soon as possible or my business itself would be in danger.
“He didn’t tell me. All he said was that you had to come with your wife,”