Page 59 of Between Us

“Yeah,” Roman said, grabbing his cell phone when it began to ring again. His wedding band caught the fluorescent light coming from the lamp above, his thoughts shifting for a moment to earlier in the day when he'd dropped Alessandra off at the house. Since returning home, he’d been able to get more sleep. As much as it bothered him to admit it, that week away from her had been hell. He’d been constantly on edge, his sour mood fueled by too little sleep and too much alcohol in a way that had made even Vitaly take notice.

In the end, he’d chosen to believe her, because otherwise he would have lost his damn mind.

A significant part of him rebelled at the notion ofbeing enslaved to his emotions. He was reluctant to accept that he felt anything but lust for her, knowing these feelings he had developed for his little wife were going to fuck with his concentration and ability to make important decisions.

Hehatedfeeling weak and that was exactly why he had to tread carefully with her. She already had too much power over him, as proven by the fact he couldn’t keep his distance from her for more than a week.

Undeniably, hearing the profession of love falling from her lips had stirred something deep inside of him. He'd felt relief and a possessiveness so intense he could barely keep himself from locking her inside their bedroom so no other man would ever set eyes on her. It sounded crazy, and it made him question everything he knew about himself.

Eight weeks. It was all it took for a nineteen-year-old to get under his skin like no other woman before her ever could. Roman would have laughed at the absurdity of it all, but he didn't find it even remotely funny.

Glancing down at the phone in his hand, he realized it was still ringing. “What?” he answered the call coming from one of his direct reports.

“I'll talk to Slava,” Alek said quietly, getting to his feet.

Roman listened to Ivan report about an incident with some street thugs in the northern part of his area. Alek opened the door to leave and nearly head-butted with Dimitri who was on his way in, carrying a black duffle bag in each shovel-shaped hand. Roman snapped his fingers to get Alek's attention then gestured he was to stay and help Dimitri with counting the money.

Alek didn't look happy about it, though he wasn’t about to ignore an order from his Brigadier.

With a heavy sigh, he closed the door, raising a middle finger in Dimitri’s grinning face.

When Roman was done with the call, he put the phone on the desk and pondered on his earlier conversation with Alek. He planned to get back home early so he could spend some time with Alessandra.

“Boss.”

He looked at Dimitri who sat on the couch, neat stacks of money piled on the coffee table in front of him. “What?”

“Something weird happened.”

“What do you mean?”

“A few months ago, the cops pulled out some guy’s body from the river near Columbia Woods. His head had been chopped off.”

Roman briefly recollected reading about it in the newspaper. “I remember. What of it?”

“They identified the guy. He was Anatoly’s uncle.”

Roman’s eyebrows reached for his hairline. “No shit?”

Anatoly was one of their many soldiers, though he reported to Boris.

“Yeah. They found the head a couple of weeks ago and they used his dental records for the identification.”

“Why didn’t Anatoly say anything?”

“His uncle was a drunkard. It wasn’t the first time he went AWOL with some mistress, so they didn’t think much of it. His wife was actually happy that he left.”

“The article in the newspaper said the police were suspecting the mob.”

“Yeah, and that’s the weird part. It wasn’t us.”

Roman thought about it. “Was he involved?”

“Barely. He helped Anatoly with some minor stuff, and sometimes our guys used his trucks fortransportation. But he knew about us.”

“Can you look into it?”

“Yeah, sure.”

---