Lauren forced herself to stay relaxed. They were chatting away in Russian with confidence that she wouldn't understand them, so let them talk.
"Yes, pretty thing." She recognized the voice of the lieutenant who'd been shut down by Romanoff that night when he was rude to her. "The silly thing unpacking all those instruments for the schools, thinking she is a saint helping poor children."
Oh, please,she thought.Please, not the one good thing. Not the one thing that matters to me...But Lauren sat and listened anyway, to every word.
The ride back to the hotel was livelier, everyone - even Kingston - was more relaxed after lavish applications of vodka. While Thomas didn't touch or look at her, he was close enough for Lauren to feel the soothing heat from his body and it was comforting. After setting guards around the suite, Williams walked into their lavish bedroom, loosening his tie and looking forward to getting inside his wife. She'd been such a good girl all night- charming Mogilevich's wife and the rest of the Bratva female leadership. The sight of her dancing with the children, face flushed, laughing and blonde hair flying everywhere had made him dangerously soft in the middle of a discussion that required his complete attention.
"You behaved beautifully tonight, darling," Thomas said, tossing aside his tie and pulling his shirt loose as he unbuttoned it. "The Bratva wives were quite taken with you."
Her back was to him, she was slumped over the dressing room table, removing her jewelry. "Were they? That's good."
The steel nerves of Thomas Williams suddenly twinged like guitar strings. His sweet girl's voice was flat, almost lifeless. With a huff, he put his hands on her shoulders and turned Lauren around to face him, one hand under her chin, lifting it. "What did you hear?"
It was fortunate the walls between the suites in the Grand Hotel Europe were old and thick, or the guards outside would have been treated to the first full-fledged battle between the intimidating Number Two and his furious wife.
"The charity? You're laundering money through it? Of all the things The Corporation turns to shit, you couldn't-"
"Who do you think you're speaking to, little girl? How dare-"
"It's the charity, Thomas! The one thing that redeems all the filth that-"
"None of this is your concern! Your precious school program is still getting its instruments, so why are you behaving as if your very virtue has been violated?" Thomas shouted over her, fury at the stupidity of the Bratva lieutenants and irritation at his wife's heartbreak making him even less able to attempt to calm her.
"Are you kidding?" Lauren screeched, "What the fuck does that matter when you're pumping drugs into the same schools? How sick is that? Really? Your precious Corporation doesn't have enough blood money?"
Even a furious and crying Lauren knew to stop when her husband growled, and his hands reached out to grasp her upper arms.
"What drugs?"
It was a couple of hours later when Thomas had ruthlessly questioned his wife over and over to make sure she had given him every scrap of information. Lauren was exhausted, wiping her swollen eyes and wishing she could fall asleep and pretend this night never happened. "So Bratva and someone on The Corporation side have been running drugs through the shipments. On top of laundering how many millions?"
"Quite a bit," Thomas answered, staring out the magnificent window in their sitting room. His eyes closed briefly as Lauren made a bitter little noise.
Rising to strip off her pretty red dress, the girl tried to focus. "This is bad, isn't it? You not knowing about the drugs. Is there any chance it's someone lower on the management ladder, running it without the Big Three knowing?"
In his heart, he knew it was very unlikely. "Go to bed, Lauren. I have calls to make." Thomas knew his voice was colder than he meant it to be, but his wife's heartbroken face was, it was itching at him, somehow. Irritating him and making him feel unsettled.
"What are we going to do?" Lauren asked, ignoring his order, "I mean, we can't let-"
"And what is this 'we' nonsense, little girl?" his voice lowered to a growl and she knew she was on thin ice, but she stayed put.
"It's my project too, Thomas! You can't let-"
Furious, he cut her off, his voice dripping ice. "I can allow anything I like and it is not your place to say a word about it. Iownyou, little girl! You do not dictate to me!" Thomas noted with a certain uncomfortable satisfaction that her tear-stained face now held the proper fear. He began walking toward her, gliding like a panther, deadly. "Did you forget who you married? I'm a bloody criminal, you stupid child! I run a multi-billion pound organized crime empire, you do remember that? It is not your place to be disappointed, with your heartbroken purple eyes and your crying. This is what I DO, LAUREN! This is who I AM!" Thomas sucked in an enraged breath, he'd been shouting into his wife's face and she'd just stood there, refusing to back down.
For one terrifying moment, Lauren had wondered if he would hit her, if Thomas would hurt her. But he didn't. He pulled back, staring at her, almost puzzled that she wasn't crying or cringing away. "I know. But that's not all you are," she finally said, "there's more to you. There's good. You are more than this." He was staring at her, shirtless and still beautiful, even in his fury. But she could see it, just under the permafrost of his glare. There was dismay, shock. Maybe even some guilt. He probably didn't know what that felt like anymore. "I know you now, Thomas. I'm your wife and I know there's more."
There was one moment where it almost looked like he would take her in his arms, bury his face in her neck and kiss her, soothe her fears. Then the impassive lines settled back over his face. "Go to bed, Lauren." He watched as she turned and walked into their palatial bedroom, shutting the carved doors behind her.
"Dobro pozhalovat', druz'ya! My rady, chto vy zdes', v nashem dome, posle vashego gostepriimstva v Anglii. Tost za Jaguar Holdings i nashikh novykh partnerov."Russian for: "Welcome, friends! It is our pleasure to have you here at our home, after your hospitality in England. A toast to Jaguar Holdings and our new partners."
Chapter 35 – New Friends and Old Enemies
In which Lauren is played. Like a finely-tuned instrument.
Lauren was on her side, watching the first golden streaks of light creep across the polished marble floor of their bedroom. After Thomas left her to "make some calls," she stalked back and forth, hands on her hips and getting angrier and increasingly frightened to accompany it. Thomas not knowing something happening at The Corporation meant either someone...
A: Was so stupid they thought they could pull something off right under his nose or,
