Chapter 7

The rest of the day was filled with tension between Vitaly and me. The visit from his sister had not been welcome. Every time I tried to ask about her, he would get upset.

By the time dinner came around, I was more curious than ever. Unfortunately, Vitaly was in a foul mood.

“You should go to bed,” Yurik told me.

Vitaly had locked himself in his office. It was only eight at night, and I was far from being tired. Thinking about Vitaly’s sister, and the episode from earlier distracted me from my own thoughts.

“I want to talk to him.”

“You have had all day, and all you do is ask about Anya,” he said, referring to Vitaly’s sister.

“She was angry.”

“Vitaly and Anya don’t get along. Earlier, after we arrived, I was distracted taking care of the cars and the luggage. Anya never should have crossed that door,” Yurik said.

“Why?”

Yurik sighed, and ushered me into the living room.

“You’re not going to bed?” He asked.

“It’s too early. I’ll just be tossing and turning, wondering about Anya.”

I wanted to ask him if what Anya had said was true. Had Vitaly really killed his last girlfriend? I didn’t consider myself his girlfriend, but I was well aware that it was what he wanted.

For some reason, and I still couldn’t understand why, all I could think about was Blaine. I didn’t want that. By that time of the day, Blaine was more than likely safe at home, with his family.

“Do you think he’ll let me phone my mom?”

Yurik cocked an eyebrow at my question, but it seemed like he was thinking about it. I really wanted him to say yes. I was hoping that with the move to the apartment in the city, Vitaly would give me more liberties. Now that Blaine was gone, I had to think of a way to get out of there.

“That might actually be a good way to get him off his bad mood. It’ll be a good distraction,” Yurik replied. He gave me a small smile when he noticed the grin on my face.

“You’re not going to tell me anything about Anya, are you?” I asked Yurik.

I was standing by the door, waiting for him to reply. He shook his head, and followed after me.

“Vitaly will tell you about Anya whenever he feels like it. But I can tell you that what Anya said… it’s more complicated than that.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, trying to gauge how honest he was being with me. “The other day, you told me that you had seen him kill for less.”

“I have. But he won’t hurt you.”

His words did nothing to reassure me. Vitaly’s bad mood and Yurik’s cryptic answer only helped to spark more questions.

I got no answer when I knocked on the door to Vitaly’s office. I was impressed by the place we were at. The apartment was huge. I had been around, and I still hadn’t seen the whole place.

“Can I come in?” I asked, opening the door.

Vitaly didn’t look up from his laptop. He simply shook his head, dismissing me.

“I wanted to ask you something,” I quietly said. I was going to play it nicely. The last thing I needed was to be next in his list of dead girlfriends.

“Is this about Anya?” Vitaly asked, in a hostile tone. He was glaring at me. I was slightly intimidated by the look he was giving me, but I didn’t want to back down. If I left the room without saying anything, I was going to feel like a coward.

“If you don’t want to tell me about her, its fine,” I answered.

“Good,” he sharply said, and turned back to his laptop. I could tell that he was annoyed with me being there. I walked deeper into his office, and took a seat on the chair in front of his desk.

“I was wondering if I could call my mom,” I said, returning to my soft tone.

I got his attention. He finally looked away from his laptop, and turned to face me. He was giving me an expectant look, even though I didn’t know what to tell him.

“I’ve been away for almost a week. She doesn’t know where I am. The last she heard from me, I was going to see Blaine-”

“Don’t mention him,” Vitaly interrupted, putting up his hand to shut me up.

I sighed, and nodded at him. “She must be worried out of her mind.”

“You can call her,” he said.

I didn’t stop him and even leaned closer to the desk. Vitaly smiled at me and reached for my hand. His change in behavior was almost comical.

“It’s earlier in the US. You should take advantage of that,” he said.

I had to write down my number for him, since I didn’t know how to dial from Russia to the US. Before he handed over the phone, he gave me several warnings. I couldn’t tell her where I was, and I had to make sure my mom knew I was okay.

“I’ll leave you,” he said, looking at me with serious eyes. “But I will find out if you tell her anything you’re not supposed to.”

With that last warning, he walked around the desk, kissed my cheek, and left out of the room. It was unnerving, but he was right.

I wasn’t going to tell my mom anything. I would end up worrying her. My mom wouldn’t be able to do anything to get me back.

The first ten minutes of the call with my mom were messy, tearful, and crazy. My mom started crying, and then I started crying. It took a lot of reassuring her that I was okay, and that no one had hurt me.

“I was so mad at you, Maddy,” my mom told me. “I called the police. And Alan, oh Maddy, poor Alan,” she cried.

“What about Alan?”

“He was crazy worried about you. He kept blaming himself. We didn’t know what to do. If it weren’t for that boy, we wouldn’t have known anything about you.”

“What boy?” I asked, frowning at that statement. I was going to be furious if Vitaly had contacted my mother for whatever reason.

“That boy you went to see, Blaine Hale. He called me late last night and told me you were fine,” my mom stated.

My mom continued talking, explaining things that Blaine had told her. My main focus was on her first words. Blaine had called my mom. I didn’t know what to think about that. He had reassured her that I was fine. He probably thought that I was fine. In Blaine’s eyes, it had been my decision to stay behind with Vitaly.

“When will you be back?” My mom asked. Her voice was still shaky from all the crying she had been doing.

“I’ll get back as soon as I can, mom. I need to take care of some things over here. I’m sorry I worried you,” I mumbled.

I truly felt bad for everything that my mom had been through during my disappearance.

After a few more words, most of which were her telling me how much she missed me, I finally hung up.

There were tears streaming down my cheeks, but I felt strange. I wanted to see my mom. I missed her a lot. She needed me with her. As much as I was missing home though, I couldn’t let go of what my mom had told me. I wanted to know why Blaine had called her.

“Why are you crying?” Vitaly asked, walking back into the room.

“My mom…” I said, nodding at the phone.

Vitaly came to my side, and he kneeled in front of me. His hands held mine, and he tried to get me to look at him. The tender look in his eyes was so contradicting to everything else that had happened that day.

“I will take you to go see her, Madeline,” he told me, cupping my cheek.

“How long will you keep me here?”

“This is your home now,” Vitaly said in a strained voice. “We will visit your mother in a few weeks. After that, we will return back here.”

“So maybe if this is my home now, you can tell me more about Anya,” I suggested.

“Again with that,” he snapped.

I wasn’t surprised when he got up, and walked to the other side of his study.

“I would stop asking if you would tell me something. The more you keep avoiding the subject, the more I want to know. It’s like you’re doing it on purpose.”

“What?”

“Are you doing it on purpose?” I asked, even though I knew he wasn’t. Seeing the way he was furrowing his eyebrows in confusion was worth it.

“I’m not doing anything on purpose.”

“Sure you’re not,” I said, mockingly, before getting up from the chair. “I don’t know why I even bother. It’s not like I want to know anything about you!”

I strode out of the room before he could say anything else. I found Yurik leaning across the wall, outside of Vitaly’s office.

“Were you snooping on us?” I asked, smiling at him teasingly.

“You look like you’re up to something.”

“I am not.”

We had barely taken a step when the door to Vitaly’s office opened, and he walked out.

“Leave,” Vitaly ordered, waving Yurik off.

Yurik shot me one last pointed look, before walking away from us. I faintly heard his whistling as he went, but I couldn’t be too sure. I was more focused on the intense look Vitaly was giving me.

“We won’t be sharing a room if you don’t want to,” he said.

“Right,” I said, letting out a shaky breath I hadn’t known I was holding in. It wasn’t what I expected him to tell me. I was hoping he would share more about what had happened with Anya.

He was walking with me up the stairs. His hand was lightly placed on the small of my back as he guided me. I had seen our room, the one Yurik had told me I would be sharing with Vitaly. Hearing Vitaly say that we wouldn’t have to sleep in the same bed was good.

I was scared of his expectations from me. Not only would I be a disappointment to him in bed, but I had no intentions of sleeping with. Unless he forced me, and I was praying those were not his plans.

“You can keep the master bedroom. I’ll take another bed.”

“Okay,” I mumbled.

Something seemed to be bothering him. I slightly jumped up when he slid his hand around my waist, and pressed me closer to his side. I wasn’t expecting the gesture, and I was scared of what it would lead to.

“I’m tired,” I commented.

“I’m only walking you to your room.”

I had been inside the room, and I knew the way. It seemed like he wanted to say more. His expressions kept changing, although his grip on my waist remained tight.

“This is a nice place. You have nice things,” I told him, weighing in the waters.

“I prefer Asterly Castle. If it weren’t for Blaine, we would have stayed there.”

When he mentioned Blaine, I couldn’t think about anything else but him. Since I had been thinking about Anya, I had set in the back of my mind any thoughts about Blaine. Vitaly mentioning him only brought back questions. It was all I had— questions questions questions.

“Blaine isn’t going to know how to get to that place. I can’t even remember how to get there and I wasn’t blindfolded.”

“Blaine has been to these areas before. I was not going to risk it. I was surprised by how easily he let you go. I thought he cared more about you,” Vitaly said, narrowing his eyes at me.

I could see the questioning look in his eyes. I turned away from him and walked ahead into the room.

“After being in Asterly Castle, I’m not sure why I’m surprised to see this place. I guess being part of the mob pays well,” I said, jumping on top of the bed.

“The mob?” He repeated, raising an eyebrow.

He had followed in after me, but stopped a few feet away from the bed. The room was very spacious. Even though Vitaly said that he preferred Asterly Castle, it was easy to tell that the apartment we were in actually looked lived in.

“Blaine told me what you did, and you kind of confirmed it the other day,” I shrugged.

A set of purple and pink suitcases, which didn’t belong to me, were placed right next to the walk-in closet. I hadn’t noticed them before, but I had spent so little time in that room.

“I’m not part of the mob,” Vitaly said, making my words sound outrageous.

“Yes you are. You said so yourself. You said your dad knew what you did for a living, and that he was an honest man,” I insisted, remembering our conversation the day his dad had called him.

“I said that, but I never told you I was part of the mob. Where does Blaine get these silly stories,” Vitaly said, and he had the nerve to chuckle. “This is the guy you dated? Let’s not forget he dumped you as quickly as he could.”

“He didn’t have a choice.”

“I wouldn’t have let you go.”

“Uh huh…” I said, rolling my eyes at him.

“It’s the truth.”

“Look, I’m tired. You should go already,” I said.

To make a point, I climbed up in the bed and pulled the covers over my head. My shoes were still on, but I just wanted him to get out of the room.

“I do business that involves certain people. I’m not necessarily part of the mob. It’s a big risk, and there’s no gain for me,” Vitaly quietly added after minutes of silence.

That got my attention. He gave me a small smile when he noticed me sitting up on the bed, and throwing the bed cover to the side. I took the chance to ditch my converse in the floor.

“So what do you do?”

“In case the police ever get involved, it’s better if you know nothing about it. I make sure documents that shouldn’t pass certain systems, go through. I have certain power here in Russia.”

“Is it dangerous?”

“Hardly ever,” he replied.

“And yet you have an army protecting you.”

“I don’t like to run unnecessary risks. Sometimes I turn deals down, whenever I don’t think I will profit enough from it. People can be temperamental and impulsive. I take precautions,” he shrugged casually.

“Well that sounds better than what I imagined. You don’t kill people for a living, do you?” I asked.

Vitaly smiled at me. It seemed like he wanted to laugh, because I could see the humor in his expression, but he shook his head. “I don’t kill people for a living. There’s no money in doing that. But if I have to, I will do whatever is necessary to protect myself and those I care about.”

When he nodded at me, I felt a shiver run through my body. I guess that was what Yurik meant when he said he’d seen Vitaly kill people for less.

“Anya was out of place coming here. She and I— we don’t get along,” he explained.

He sounded uncomfortable, and I scrunched up my nose when he unbuttoned the top button of his dress shirt.

“I noticed.”

“She doesn’t exactly think the best of me. We haven’t been talking for months now.”

“Will you tell me what happened?”

Vitaly sat on the bed. It was so big that even though he sat on it, he was still a distance from me. I didn’t make any attempts to get closer to him, but I felt like I should’ve reached out. He looked haunted, and it made me feel bad, despite our circumstances.

“It’s not important now. You should go to sleep.”

I quietly watched him get up from the bed and make his way out of the room. I didn’t know why, but I wanted to go after him.

That night, I had an uneasy sleep with thoughts about Blaine, my mom, and Vitaly. My dreams, which I couldn’t remember by the time I woke up in the morning, only unsettled me.

I woke up in bed drenched in sweat, feeling sticky and uncomfortable. By the time I showered, changed into a pair of skinny jeans and a shirt and left the room, Vitaly was already gone.

It was like that for the next few days. I woke up in the morning and did my routine. I left the room to find the apartment empty, except for all the men watching over me.

The guy in charge, whose name I couldn’t pronounce but everyone used his nickname, was Arty. His English wasn’t as good as Vitaly’s or Yurik’s, but he spoke it better than the rest of the guys. Arty also didn’t talk to me unless he really had to.

I had breakfast in the morning, lunch at midday, and Vitaly would get back around four or five in the afternoon. Yurik, I noticed, never left his side. Everywhere Vitaly went, Yurik was always there.

I was surprised when, a few days later, Vitaly announced that we were going out.

“Out of the apartment?”

“Where else?” Vitaly said, and he was grinning at me widely.

“Why?”

“I thought you wanted to go out?” He asked.

And I did. I had been insisting every single day for him to take me out. It was mainly because I wanted a chance to escape. Living with Vitaly was strange. He was nice, even funny sometimes, but he had kidnapped me. No matter how much I tried to let go of that, I just couldn’t. It bothered me every single time I was reminded of it.

And remainders came more times than I could count. Just mentioning Blaine was always enough to make me feel guilty, and to get Vitaly in a bad mood.

“Where are we going?”

“We can go have dinner, and then maybe go to a club?”

“A club?” I asked, and laughed at his suggestion.

“You don’t want that?”

“I do,” I said, when it occurred to me that there was no better place to make my escape than a club that would be crowded with people.

“But why a club?” I asked, and laughed once again.

Vitaly shrugged, and he pulled me into his arms. I tensed at the beginning, but I was getting used to him pulling me closer to him. It was starting to feel normal. He never did anything else other than kiss my cheek, forehead, and sometimes my lips.

It was always so quick I hardly ever had time to react before he did it.

“I can’t picture you dancing,” he said, giving me a playful smirk.

“I’m a great dancer!” But I wasn’t.

“Of course you are,” he said, rolling his eyes at me, which was a habit he had picked up from me in just the few days I had been there.

I claimed to be great at a lot of things, which he ended up proving me wrong in. It was mostly because he was smarter than I had assumed. Vitaly, surprisingly, was extremely smart. He said it was what helped him get where he was, and after conversations I had with him, I didn’t really doubt it.

I could say only one thing about the dress I wore that night: it was really pretty. But it was unlike anything I ever owned or would ever wear. The dress was too short for comfort. It was a bright pink color, and it showed too much cleavage.

Why did I end up wearing the dress? Vitaly left me to get changed, and I ended up picking some nice black skinny jeans and a blue dressy shirt. I left the room to find him looking down at me like if I’d lost my mind.

“We’re going to dinner,” he said, like if my mistake in wardrobe should’ve been obvious.

“I know. Black is fancy,” I said, shrugging dismissively.

“You have a lot of dresses.”

“I don’t like dresses.”

“But a dress would be more appropriate,” he said.

The argument started there. I don’t know what Vitaly had done to scare all of his employees, even Yurik who was more like his best friend, that everyone stared between Vitaly and me like if something bad was about to happen.

Nothing did. I only ended up slamming the door shut in his face, and locking myself in my room.

So I picked up the smallest dress I could find, which displayed the most skin, and in the brightest color I had. It was strange to realize that despite how many dresses Vitaly had gotten for me, most were very conservative.

I wasn’t sure how exactly the small pink dress had slipped through.

When I left the room, every pair of eyes was focused on me. Vitaly slowly looked me up and down for almost a minute, until I cleared my throat and got his attention.

“Where did you get that?”

“It’s a dress and I like it. You kept whining about me wearing a dress, so here I am.”

“It’s short,” he commented, and looked down at my legs as if to prove his point.

“Are we going to dinner or not?”

Vitaly watched me closely for a few seconds, before a smile spread on his lips, and he held out his hand for me.

“You’re going to be the one uncomfortable in that dress this evening,” Vitaly said before I slid into the awaiting car.

And the bastard was right. We went to dine in a fancy restaurant, where I looked more like a hooker than anything else. I attracted attention, a lot of it. The dress felt too short, and I kept pulling on it, even though it never got any longer.

By the time we reached the club, which he claimed a friend owned, my face was red and I felt warm all over. I had gotten looks, half of them from old men at the restaurant who were perverted enough to stare even when they had women sitting in front of them.

Vitaly didn’t like the stares on me, but he got a kick of how uncomfortable I was. Several times he offered to get someone to bring me a different dress, but I was too stubborn, not wanting to back down, to actually accept his offer.

The club we went to had a long line of people waiting to be carded or accepted inside. Out of ten, probably only five went in and it was mainly girls.

We were surrounded by Vitaly’s men as soon as we left the car. Unlike the rest of the people, we didn’t get stopped in the entrance. Yurik just nodded at the bouncer and we were admitted in.

I felt like Vitaly’s arm candy, even though I had never considered it could be possible for me to be that. The looks and stares got ten times worse in the club.

It felt like I was wearing the smallest dress in the place, with the brightest color. I was being paranoid, because there were certainly girls who were wearing a lot less. And the pink dress I had on really was nice, but on someone else more comfortable with showing skin.

The restaurant had been filled with rich people, snobs, politicians, and businessmen— that kind of people. There had been more control. The club, it was a different story.

It was too noisy, and too crowded. It occurred to me that even if I ran away from Vitaly, I had nowhere to go.

I didn’t have money because I hadn’t needed any. I didn’t have a car to take off in, and I didn’t even have my passport or ID. If by some miracle I made it out of the club, it was going to be hard to get anywhere.

While I was distracted with those thoughts, Vitaly was dragging me to a quieter, more secluded part of the club. The music was still blasting loudly, but it was nice not to be bumping into anybody.

“I have another dress in the car. Yurik can bring it for you,” Vitaly told me, and it sounded like he was hoping I agreed.

“Yeah, I’m tired of this stupid dress,” I said, tugging on it.

It was nice, if only it had covered more of my chest and was at least five inches longer.

I was going to go to the restrooms to change. Before I could take a step, Vitaly pulled me into his arms. He held me close to his chest. I could feel my heart starting to pick up. Vitaly was looking into my eyes, and then down at my lips. I didn’t move when he brushed his lips against mine.

I could feel his hands on my lower back, gently massaging me. His lips were urging me to respond. I don’t know why I did, but I kissed him back. It wasn’t bad, it never was. It didn’t feel right, but I couldn’t complain about him. He was always gentle with me.

When he pulled away, there was a smile on his lips.

“You look beautiful,” he said, before disentangling his arms from my waist. I nodded at him, and headed for the restroom in shaky legs.

Arty was like my personal body guard. Other guys accompanied me to the restroom, but it was Arty who stood right behind me, giving anybody that got too close to me the stink eye.

When I looked in Vitaly’s direction, I noticed that he was looking directly at me. He gave me a small nod, and a smile. I simply turned away from him.

My face was warm, and I was sure it was due to that kiss.

Arty and the guys had taken care of the rest of the girls in the restroom. Everyone had been kicked out so that I could go in and change. Even though I got sour looks from the girls, I was glad for the privacy.

The dress that Yurik got me, which had been in the car all along, was one I had seen in the piles of new clothes Vitaly bought for me.

It was a pale pink color. A lot of the clothes that Vitaly had gotten for me were too girly from my taste. They were different shades of purple, green, blue, and a lot of pink.

I was glad for whoever had picked the second pink dress though. It was just above my knees, it wasn’t as tight as the bright pink dress I was wearing, and the cleavage area wasn’t so bad.

I didn’t know exactly what happened, or how it all started.

I was looking at myself in the mirror, considering on putting up my hair in a high ponytail or leaving it down as I had been wearing it the entire night.

The lights in the bathroom suddenly turned off, and the fire sprinklers turned on. I could hear the loud noise from people out in the club, yelling and being rowdy. I tried to walk to the door, but it was completely dark. There weren’t even emergency lights turned on.

I panicked because Arty didn’t go in to check on me, which was what I had been expecting.

The people yelling and screaming outside didn’t exactly make it better.

I almost sighed in relief when I heard the door to the bathroom open. There was some light coming from the club area, but it was still much too dark.

It was a man, I could tell. He was tall, but I couldn’t really see his face.

“Arty?” I called out, grabbing the sink with unsteady hands so that I could slowly make my way to the door.

The water from the sprinklers was annoying, and it was making it harder for me to walk in the dark. The guy, who I had assumed was Arty, didn’t answer.

He had a flashlight with him, but I couldn’t see who it was, because they were shooting the light right into my face. I tried to cover myself, but the water and the all the screaming was distracting me. The fire alarm turned on, a little too late, and it only made things worse.

I took a step back from the opened door, when the person holding the flashlight approached me. The floor had gotten slippery with the water. After I took the step back, I lost balance and ended up knocking my head against the sink before hitting the floor.

My first instinct to break the fall was to put my hand in the way, which only ended up being worse. I cried out in pain, although I wasn’t sure what hurt more, my probably broken wrist or my head.

“Are you okay?” The person finally spoke, approaching me faster than my dizzy mind could process.

I couldn’t see him properly, I wasn’t sure if my mind was playing tricks on me, and if it wasn’t, I didn’t know what the hell he was doing there.

“Blaine?” I shakily asked.

He didn’t say anything. But thanks to the flashlight, I faintly saw him nodding his head.

Comment and vote if you'd like! Sorry for not uploading in a month! I won't do that again! I promise!

This is where the fun starts... Well, the Adventure part that I had been waiting for all along! However if you are a Vitaly fan, don't worry, we haven't seen the last of him!