Page 4 of His Smile
Crossing her arms, she simply gave Riaz an awaiting look,ignoring his question. The worried, haggard look on his face as he sat in theliving room staring impatiently at their father’s closed office door onlyserved to pique her curiosity even more about the man with the large smile. Stillwaiting for their father to come out of his office and share the results withhim, Riaz gave her a frustrated sigh when he noticed her persistent stare.
“Look, the man is some sort of Russian mobster, who wereally need to agree to work with us or we’re going to be in some deep shit ifwe can’t get the Italian guys off of our back,” he ground out quickly, beforestanding up to focus his frustration into pacing.
This was why she rarely came home. Ever since Rahina couldremember her dad had always been into shady deals with her uncles. Fromreceiving shipments of stolen cars at the docks or fencing containers worth ofcounterfeit goods, her dad and uncles were behind it, enthusiastically turninga profit. Though it was no surprise her eldest brother Amit would follow intohis father’s footsteps, Rahina was shocked and very disappointed to see her MITgraduate brother, Riaz, leading their father’s current scheme. Unlike Riaz, sherefused to be caught up in her family’s notorious legacy. The moment she turnedeighteen, Rahina had accepted an offer at the Boston Ballet Company in theircorps-de-ballet position, happily rooming with four other girls in a crampedrundown three-bedroom downtown. After a few years of hard work, she moved tothe coveted soloist position and out into her own wonderfully privateone-bedroom apartment.
It wasn’t so much the illegal aspect that she wanted Riaz tosteer clear from, it was the mere fact that once he started, it would be nextto impossible to get out. Growing up, Rahina, Riaz and her older sister Rubinaused to always talk about getting out from underneath their controllingparents’ thumbs. With her parents, there was always pressure; whether it begrades, to career choices, and now the persistent reminder to get marriedbefore she was “too old.”
Riaz was an idiot for staying in that house a minute longerthan he needed to. The only reason why she was there was to see about covertlyswapping out the Volvo her dad gave her with one of his flashier cars. She wastired of driving a sedan! Rahina wanted something with a bit more statement,and more importantly, she didn’t want to pay for it. Even if she was makingmore money now as a soloist, she had no desire to squander her earnings on acar payment if she didn’t have to.
The plan was perfect too; she had waited until she knew hermother was out shopping with her aunt and nobody but her dad should’ve been home.What she did not expect was to be roped into an impromptu servant position byher flustered father to serve tea to his guests. If only her mother could haveseen her disheveled post-rehearsal attire as she served who turned out to betwo high-level mobsters some of her mother’s two hundred-dollar Darjeeling tea—the woman would have certainly tried to hit her with the nearest item she couldlay her hands on.
And what a sexy mobster he was too, Rahina thought with agrin as she pulled her Volvo to a stop at the tall metal gate. The man’snaturally narrow gray eyes seemed to stop her heart each time she looked at himwhile his strong jaw and wide mouth held a promise of severe breathtakingkisses. Large thick shoulders that seemed to span the width of a door, set offhis entire broad, muscular figure giving him the appearance of a bouncer ratherthan a man wearing a six-thousand-dollar custom made suit. She could still feelthe muscles of his massive shoulders flexing beneath her hands as he wrappedthose tattooed fingers around her waist and lifted her like she was nothing.Rolling down her window, she looked over the rim of her shades to thestone-faced security guard standing next to the metal gate.
“Do you have an appointment?” The big bruiser of a securityguard’s accent was so thick she had to think about what he said before shecould respond.
“Sort of,” she chirped happily. The guard had no outwardreaction whatsoever as he waited for an explanation. “Dimitri told me just togive my name at the gate. It’s Rahina Chopra,” she offered.
Without looking at his clipboard, the guard hit the buttonon his belt, and the metal gate began to retract.
“Thank you,” she called out happily as she zipped throughthe gate.
The dealership was a large unmarked building that sat on ahuge open lot overlooking the river. Parking her car, she walked up to theheavily tinted glass doors. Rahina had to actually tell herself not to let herjaw drop as she stepped through the doors into the chilly showroom. Directlyahead of her were three luxury cars gleaming under carefully placed showlights. Everything about this place screamed at her to just turn and walk backout to her three-year-old Volvo and drive home. She felt too poor to evenbreathe in the wonderful new leather smell that seemed to be permanentlyinfused into the walls.
“Can I help you?” A girl about her age made eye contact fromacross the room and came over towards her with a pleasant smile.
Looking at the brunette’s sensible black-flats and Navy-bluepencil skirt, Rahina felt sorely underdressed. Today she wore a faded pink pairof denim overalls that sagged over her sneakers while underneath she had on herblack leotards from rehearsal.
“Umm,” without meaning to, Rahina crinkled the white paperbag of food she was holding in her hand as she glanced around the high-enddealership. “I’m here to see…”
“Rahina you’re here,” a familiar voice from above exclaimed.
Looking up, Rahina saw Dimitri standing on the interiorbalcony that wrapped around the top part of the room.
Relieved to see the familiar face, she took the nearbystairs as he motioned for her to come up. Last night when she got home from herparents’ house, she had been a little surprised but very excited to see thetext from the unknown number. He explained he had to steal her phone numberfrom Roman’s phone when he wasn’t looking. Dimitri had texted her the addressand suggested that she should “surprise” Roman with lunch. The prospect ofseeing the smiling towering man again made her stomach jump with excitement.
Yesterday their interaction was explosive. The image of thatman and his creepy Joker’s smile stayed with her throughout the rest of the dayyesterday. Rahina couldn’t be sure if it was because of how he teased her aftershe made the very dumb decision to hide under her dad’s desk, or how hepurposely destroyed her plans on changing cars. Giving her a look of devilishanticipation, Dimitri directed her to go down a short connecting hallway and toturn into the only door. Stopping in front of the door she gave a short knockbefore pushing through.
Bright diffused light filtered through the tinted windowsbehind his desk, silhouetting the familiar broad shoulders of the man at thedesk. Her eyes were adjusting to the light when his striking narrow steel grayeyes cut to hers with the briefest second of startlement before turning to ascowl.
“What are you doing here?” The combination of his deep voicecombined with the flurry of rolling V’s and R’s to his accent had to be thebest thing she had ever heard.
Stepping further into the office, Rahina cast a quick glancearound the pristine space before pausing on another man sitting at the couchholding various documents.
“Oh, I’m sorry, am I interrupting?” She took a hesitant stepbackwards towards the door as she looked back and forth between the two men.
“Yes…” Roman began brusquely.
“Not at all,” the stranger sat down the documents on theglass coffee table as if happy to dismiss them as he stared at her with growingintrigue. Waving a hand towards Roman, he urged her to continue. “Please goright ahead.”
Satisfied at the permission granted, she refocused heraccusing glare back on Roman, her giant bun at the crown of her head bobbing asshe moved. “What do you mean why am I here? For payback of course—and lunch,”she smiled largely as she held up the white paper bag.
Sitting back in his chair, Roman flicked his eyes from bothher and the man to her right, he didn’t look happy with either one of them. Theman on the couch seemed to be all too pleased with the exchange and didn’t seemto mind in the least that she was intruding on the meeting.
Seeing no obstacles in delivering her planned rant, shecharged ahead. “You have some nerve pulling that underhanded trick on me withthe car keys when I just walked through a showroom with over a million dollars’worth of cars just collecting dust.”
“Twenty-million,” the man on the couch interjected.
Turning back around towards him, she gave him a confusedlook. “I’m sorry?”
