"You had your men go through my apartment again?" She stills, and her voice gets lower. It's almost too calm for what she's saying. "Without asking me?"
When she looks up at me in a glare, I find myself being triggered. I don't let people talk back to me, and it's a bad habit I picked up by being the top man on the totem pole for too long. Now I have this woman in my life who deserves better, but my old habits are dying hard.
"It was necessary," I snarl and cross my arms, pushing my biceps out. Again—intimidation tactic I should not be using, but I can't stop myself. "For the application process."
"What the hell are you talking about!" Her shout almost startles me, and I square my shoulders at her. She has no clue Popovic is pulling strings. He's had his buddies check me out once now, and God only knows how many other times I didn't know about. He could send MUP after me too—so it's logical, even if she wants to laugh it off.
"If things escalate, we'll need proof." The lie sounds weak.
"Stop lying." She's crying now. "You just want to intimidate and control me."
I'm speechless as she pushes past me and locks herself in the bathroom. I hear the lock click and water start running, and I'm entirely baffled by what the hell just happened. All I did was ask her what's wrong and she erupted like Mt. Vesuvius or something.
Yeah, my argument was weak and I know it, but maybe I want her things here. Maybe I want her to feel so comfortable in my house with her things that she doesn't think about leaving everyday. And maybe I'm starting to warm to the idea of having her around all the time.
I stalk over to the door and pound on it angrily. It's the one room in the house I have no key for, so even if I wanted in, I can't. I'd have to break the doorknob off or bust down the door, and I don’t feel like fixing shit simply because she's being stubborn.
"Unlock the door, dammit." I lean against it as I hear her sniffling and crying.
"Go away… Please. Just leave me alone." Now she's really crying, and it is killing me.
Bullying my way into her personal space won't ever make her want to open up to me. But trying to be calm and ask her what's wrong didn't work either.
I'm starting to care about her, and it's making me go mad with anger that I can't control things in her life to make her happy. It's a dangerous place for me to be.
"Danica, please…" I say, but she probably can't hear me over the sound of the water and her own crying.
Maybe she got fired because she had to leave in the middle of her shift. Or maybe it was that douchebag she was trying to make jealous when she slipped me her number. Either way, she's not coming out to tell me about it anytime soon, and my dinner is getting cold.
So I leave her to her crying and stalk back out to the kitchen. But as I sit down to eat, I lose my appetite.
Why the hell is life so complicated? And why is it that the instant I bring a woman into my life, it gets more complicated? Thiswasn’t what I signed up for. I just needed my visa extended and now I have to deal with hormones and mood swings.
Maybe this is why I've been single all this time without even knowing it.
But then a single man is a lonely man, and his bed is cold at night.
And would I really want that again? After I've gotten used to her being in it with me? Am I falling for her? Is that what this conflict is?
14
DANICA
Vadim and I pass like ships in the night. we have been for the past ten days since he had his men walk into my house and package up my things to bring here. It's an uncomfortable dance we've been doing where he wakes before me and leaves coffee on the counter. I'm off to work before he's home for the day and he doesn’t wait up. And all night long, there is a canyon between us on the bed as we sleep back to back.
It's uncomfortable and sad, and I wish it were different, but I don't know how to fix that. We just rushed into this and he forced me to do one too many things I'm unhappy about. Though, at least Petr has been blessedly absent from the restaurant since Zoran ran him off—a fact that made tonight's shift easier for me.
My feet throb with every step and the sun setting behind me is casting long shadows across the front door. I dig through my purse for keys and my fingers brush past receipts and loose change before finding the metal ring. It's late and I just want to have a hot shower and crawl into bed to sleep, but when the lockclicks and I push the door open expecting darkness and quiet, cigarette smoke hits me in the face.
I freeze with one hand still on the doorknob because Vadim doesn't smoke inside the house, but the smell is thick enough to make my eyes water. Underneath it I hear voices, and they're all male. They're coming from the living room, and I recognize Vadim's voice among them.
When I step through the door, it all makes sense. Five men are gathered around the coffee table chatting and shooting the breeze. Smoke rolls upward from the cigars they each have in their hand, and Vadim leans back casually, chuckling at something one of them said.
I must be walking into one of his business meetings unannounced, and I'm not fond of it. This isn't my house, but the lack of respect is repulsive. Shoes on the table, ashes that have been dropped to the floor and missed the ash tray entirely. I find myself growing tense and scowling as I tuck the key into my pocket and set my purse down.
"What's this?" I ask, and Vadim looks up like he's surprised to see me. Like I don't always come home around this time and expect to have a quiet house and a dark room to crawl into bed.
He barks something in Russian and the men move, gathering up the documents and papers in front of them until the coffee table is clean and the men are all standing and marching toward me.
