Natalia’s POV

I didn’t wait to hear her read my brother the rest of his rights, I just backed into the back room, silently being thank-full that they didn’t seem to see me. To them I worked in a bank and had nothing to do with the Cherkesov’s or their businesses. If they saw me here my cover would be blown that instant.

‘Natalia!’ Dominika came running into the room, ‘They are arresting Erik!’

‘Shh!’ I pulled her by her arm away from the door, ‘I know, the guy, that’s Dexter, I can’t go out there!’

‘Wow, that’s Dexter? He’s pretty cute!’

‘Dominika! Not the time! I’ll call Leo, you go make sure that Erik is ok,’ I instructed and she nodded.

I grabbed my phone and dialled Leo’s number as she went back into the café.

‘Hey Kitten, what’s up?’ he asked casually.

‘I’m at the Café, Dexter Wyatt and Bridgette Woods are arresting Erik for murder!’ I spoke quickly, keeping my voice hushed to be sure that Dexter wouldn’t be able to hear me.

‘They are what?! How did they even- you know what, don’t worry, let them take him and I will deal with it. Is your cover blown?’ he spoke fast but I could tell that he was trying to stay calm.

‘Ok, No, they didn’t see me.’

‘That’s one good thing I guess,’ he sighed.

‘Yeah, what’s going to happen with Erik?’ I panicked, if he is known by the police, how long will it be before they figure me out too?

‘Don’t worry Kitten, I’ll take care of it.’

‘Promise?’

‘I promise Kitten, just stay out of sight and make sure Dominika doesn’t attack them or anything.’

I laughed, knowing that was something Dominika would do. I could just imagine the brunette, waving her arms around and threatening to cut Dexter’s balls off.

‘I’ll try,’ I told him, mostly being truthful. She can be hard to control sometimes.

‘Ok Kitten, I’ll call you once I resolve this.’

‘Bye,’ he hung up and I was glad that my brother seemed to be confident that he could fix this. As much as Erik gets on my nerves, he is my brother and I still love him.

Dominika came back into the room, twirling a strand of her hair between her fingers, something she only does when she is nervous.

‘They took him, Kitten!’

I wasn’t used to Dominika not being the strong one, so I was a bit unsure how to proceed. I placed my hand on her arm, ‘He will be fine, I’ve got Leo on it and he will get him out.’

She let out a breath, ‘Ok, good.’

‘Do you think Dexter saw me?’

She looked thoughtful before shaking her head, ‘No, I don’t think so, I think they thought I was the only employee here.’

‘Good,’ I sighed, that was important.

‘But if they know about him they could know about you.’

I thought about that, she was probably right, ‘I’ll go talk to Oleg, ask him to look into their database.’

‘Good idea, and call me when you know about Erik.’

‘I will,’ I assured her.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_

I knocked on Oleg’s apartment door, the heavy wood opening after a few moments to reveal Alexander, a game controller in his hand. He looked like he had just woken up, clad only in track pants, his hair a mess. He probably slept here, Oleg and he had been known to throw epic video game all-nighters.

‘Hey Alexander, is Oleg here?’

I watched him look me up and down, probably the same as I had just been doing to him. He gave me a strange look, probably noticing the ‘Natalie’ clothes I had on. He gave me a smile and ran his hands through his hair before stepping back and allowing me into the apartment, ‘Yeah he is, come in’

‘Get your ass in here!’ Oleg yelled and I could hear the tell-tale noises of video games in the background.

As I rounded the corner I saw Oleg, he, unlike the man next to me, was dressed in a black shirt and jeans. He was intently staring at the television screen and pressing buttons on his controller. After a few moments he paused the game in frustration and turned towards us, his jaw dropping slightly as he noticed that I was standing next to Alexander.  

‘Natalia, what are you doing here?’

I took that as an invitation and sat down on the couch, Alexander following my lead.

‘Erik was arrested.’

I head Alexander gasp next to me and Oleg put down the controller and faced me.

‘H-How? I- I was so-’

I didn’t have time for this, ‘Oleg, it’s ok, Leo is on it, but I need to know if the police know my identity.’

‘I’ll look now,’ He stood up and purposefully walked out of the room. He had a huge back room in his appartment filled with computers, of which, i was sure he was heading too.

‘How bad is it?’ Alexander asked me and I shook my head.

‘He was arrested for murder, of who, I have no idea.’

‘Oleg’s going to beat himself up for this,’ he looked down and I knew it was right. My father had given Oleg the job to protect us from them but there’s only so much he could do, but Oleg would never understand that.

‘Erik will be out soon enough, and Oleg will be ok.’

‘Yeah true,’ he said, but he didn’t sound so convinced.

My phone buzzed in my bag and I searched around it to find the thing.

‘Hello.’

‘Hey Kitten, I’ve pulled a few strings and Erik is out, cleared of all charges.’

I breathed a sigh of relief, ‘Thank-you Leo.’

‘That’s alright Kitten, it was hard, apparently Erik shot the son of a pretty important guy during that prostitution thing we were working on.’

‘but it’s all buried now, right?’

‘All buried.’

We finished up the conversation, and I looked over at Alexander, who must have gotten the gist of what had happened because he looked much less stressed than a few moments ago.

‘Erik out?’ he asked me.

‘Yep, only an hour, I think it may be a new record.'

'Your family is probably the only one who could make murder dissapear this quickly.'

'We are quite an amazing bunch.'

'That and your father is scary as shit.'

'That too.'

Alexander laughed and picked up a controller continuing on with his game. He seemed to have more confidence around me, and I wondered why. A few months ago he would have ran into another room to put clothes on if I saw him without a shirt and he would never laugh with me without blushing like a tomato.

As I watched him play I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if Dexter did know my identity now. Technically I have done nothing wrong legally, but our relationship would be over. Would that one quick kiss this morning be the last thing we would do? Would last night be the last time he would hold me in his arms?

The thought brought an unknown pain to my chest and I didn’t like to dwell on what that meant.   

Oleg came back into the room and I was thank-full for the distraction from my unhappy thoughts.

‘Ok, they found out about Erik because he was on a security camera which lead them to others who they questioned, who lead them to Erik. I had a look into their reports and they arrested him at the café pretty much out of coincidence, they have no idea who owns it and most importantly anything about you.’

‘Thank-you Oleg.’  

‘I also just saw that they let him go, apparently some evidence is now ‘missing’?’

‘Leo,’ was all I had to say, and Oleg nodded his head.

The man plopped himself down on the couch next to Alexander, who handed him a second controller.

Alex picked up a third one and extended it towards me, a smug smile on his face, expecting me not to take it.

I proved him wrong, accepting the controller quickly and keeping my face straight as both men gawked at me.

‘You play video games now?’

‘Yep and I am going to kick your asses,’ I retorted to the shocked men.

I focussed on the game and refused to let them know that Dexter had been teaching me to play. I had always thought that girls shouldn’t indulge in such things, but I had always been interested. Dexter had offered to play with me and I actually ended up enjoying myself.

I shot Oleg’s character in the head and then blew up Alexander within a few minutes and gloated silently as the other two struggled to keep up with me.

‘Who are you, and what have you done with Natalia?’ Oleg teased and I just smiled.

A part of me wondered that too. Who was I now? I couldn’t be just Natalia anymore, my life before Dexter seemed so bleak and unimportant now, the life I lived as Natalie gave me purpose and allowed me to explore new things.

If I do what Dominika says, and distance myself, what happens to the me I have become? Do I still get to play video games and get that feeling in my chest whenever my phone rings and I know it’s Dexter?   

When this is over, and Dexter is out of the picture, what happens then? The thought of being alone was too much to comprehend. Looking over at Oleg and Alexander I knew I wouldn’t be truly alone, but my heart seemed to be unaware of that, and ached painfully at the thought of being without the guy who called me Nat and gave me sweet kisses in the early mornings.