POV: Rose
I can't breath. My hand shook uncontrollably as I reached up to my face and tried to push away this invisible force that was stopping me from inhaling. My head was pounding and my ears ringing. I opened my eyes but saw nothing except for a blur of colors and dimmed lights. I can't breath. Voices flowed towards me, but they were too muffled for me to make out what their owners were saying. I couldn't remember where I was and what had happened. I just felt pain in my chest as I continued to fight for air. I can't breath. My vision sharpened ever so slightly when I turned my head to the side. My muscles twitched and my hand fell down. I moved my fingers slowly, feeling my way around. Skin, that uneven, rough line below the thumb. I clutched someone's hand trying to remember who had that familiar scar.
"Ria-n", I heard one voice a bit more clearly now, but I was pretty sure I was just picking up letters that had no meaning.
I blinked and coughed, only managing to breathe in a little. The hand I held onto was unmoving. I frowned and narrowed my eyes at the smudged shape next to me. Green, brown, red, blue and silver - the colors that stood out the most mixed and swirled while I strained to tell them apart.
"Adrian."
Adrian? Oh. I coughed again and squeezed my hand, feeling Adrian's fingers bend under mine without resistance. Green - the bushes surrounding the car. Brown - Adrian's more than usually disheveled hair that for some reason stuck to his forehead and the skin around his ear. Blue and silver - the colors of his suit that was rumpled and covered in tiny, glistening pieces of glass. Red - blood. I opened my mouth and tried to speak, but I only let out a wheeze that even I could barely hear. I could hear someone shouting somewhere near me now as I, with a lot of effort, managed to whisper in a cracked voice: "A-adrian."
Someone's face appeared next to Adrian's window while a loud creaking noise coming from my other side filled my ears. Moments later I felt someone touching my shoulder. I rolled my head over the headrest slowly as an arm slipped under my knees. Adrian's hand was pulled away from mine and soon I was being lifted from my seat. I sluggishly moved my arms, latching onto the person who held me in their strong embrace. I didn't know who they were, but for some reason I felt perfectly safe in those arms. They spoke, their warm breath rushing over my cheek. It took me a moment to realize they were saying my name. I focused on the face before me, but my vision was all screwy again. The only thing I managed to make out were dark eyes that seemed to reach into my soul and grip it tight, like they were trying to keep it intact or, perhaps, steal it. Then everything went black.
Out of the darkness I heard a blaring, screeching sound. Bright lights unevenly danced over my closed eyelids. I screwed my eyebrows before letting my eyes flutter open. A shower of angry goldish sparks flew through the air, almost blinding me.
"The shit?", I croaked out, making that awful noise stop only to be followed by a heavy thud of something hitting the floor.
"The Sleeping Beauty awakes", a cheerful voice replied as I blinked up at its owner.
"Adrian?"
"The one and only Sunshine", he chuckled as I took in his appearance.
He had stitches on his right cheek and his temple, a gauze peeked from behind his left ear, there was an angry bruise on the edge of his jaw and his right arm was wrapped up from his fingers to his elbow.
"What's with the endearments?", I asked as I attempted to straighten up and felt a rush of pain surge through my body.
"Take it easy", he instructed, pushing me gently back into the pillows and gingerly sitting beside me.
"What happened?"
"Long story short: the bad guys found us, they chased us, we all wasted a lot of bullets, the two of us crashed into a tree, were pulled out from what was left of my car by my men and a few doctors later here we are."
"We were in a hospital?", I asked, latching onto the only thing that actually made sense to me at the moment because, seriously, "bad guys" lost its meaning quite some time ago and the rest was just too unbelievable for my mind to be able to wrap around it quite yet.
"No, I know some doctors who were kind enough to come here and bring all the equipment", he elaborated, waving at the few machines that surrounded my bed.
"Of course", I mumbled, finally remembering to peer over his shoulder to the place where his voice first came from, "What were you-?"
"Taking the bars off the window. I thought you'd feel less... trapped if they were gone."
"How thoughtful", I chuckled, my chest painfully vibrating from it, "Is that my reward for ruining your baby?"
"The car? Oh, no Rose, that was definitely not your fault. Your driving skills were actually quite admirable. Besides, I'll get it fixed."
"Why don't you just buy a new one. Don't tell me you can't afford it?"
"I can", he confirmed with a smirk, "But where's the fun in that?"
Just as I glanced towards the door someone walked in, greeting Adrian who got up and moved aside. The new arrival, a middle aged woman with short sandy hair and a white coat, neared me and gave me a calm and pleasant smile before introducing herself: "Hello Rosemarie, I'm Doctor Alberta Petrov. Tell me how are you feeling?"
"Am I allowed to say like crap?", I pushed out, hearing Adrian stifle a laugh.
"Sure", she chuckled, "You're allowed to express yourself however you want, but I'm afraid I'm going to need you to be a bit more specific. Could you rate the pain you're feeling on the scale from one to-?"
"I don't know about any scales, but I can tell you that I feel like my pillow is made out of nails that are digging into my neck repeatedly and like a sumo wrestler is sitting on my chest."
"Those feelings are consequences of whiplash and the impact the airbag made with your body when you crashed. You have a couple of bruised ribs and minor injuries though, so I'd honestly say you were very lucky."
"You mean, I could have winded up as a human pretzel instead?"
"That's one way to put it, yes. However, the obstacles you ran into before the crash and the fact that you tried to stop the car slowed you down enough to minimize the chances of that happening. And the fact that you caught hold of Mister Ivashkov just before the impact basically means that you saved his life."
"I did?", I asked dumbfounded, glancing over at Adrian who had this strange expression as he stared back at me.
I didn't remember much about anything that happened between us getting ran off the road and waking up here. I did, however, remember one thing - his seatbelt was left unbuckled. I had no recollection of grabbing him, I probably did it out of reflex. Either way, I saved his life. I saved my kidnaper's life. Who does that?
Alberta continued talking, but I could hardly focus on what she was saying. There was just the burning gaze of Adrian's blazing emerald eyes and this odd feeling that spread through my body. I was glad. That was it. I was happy to have saved someone's life, no matter who they were. And although Adrian shouldn't exactly be on my list of favorite people, that didn't mean he deserved to die.
"What about your hairdresser?", I suddenly spoke up, making Alberta and Adrian blink at me in confusion, "Your list of favorite people. Is your hairdresser on it? Because if he or she is, I'm not sure I wanna be number one on a crappy list like that."
"Are you sure her head injury was mild?", Adrian asked Alberta, but couldn't help a smile that spread over his face, "Because, she is saying some weird mumble-jumble about my hairdresser being bad."
Alberta sighed and shook her head while mumbling: "You're like two peas in a pod. Never listening when you're being told important things and always ready to crack a joke."
"Sounds about right", Adrian laughed before he placed his palm on Alberta's shoulder and added, "Don't worry Doc. I know what she needs. Plenty of rest and some kick ass pain meds."
"Why do you even call me if you won't take any of my advice?", she huffed, throwing her hands up in defeat, "Just make sure she remains in bed as much as possible and change her bandages regularly. I'll come back to check on both of you. And Adrian?"
"Yes?"
"The same goes for you. No activities involving too much physical work. Especially those such as sawing through steel", she underlined, tilting her head towards the window, "I mean it. Don't make me put Dimitri in charge of your healthcare. We both know that won't end happily for you."
"Ma'am", he responded, saluting her theatrically.
She made Adrian promise to call her if we needed anything else, said her goodbyes and left. I thanked her for her help and waited until the door closed behind her to ask something her threat to Adrian reminded me of: "Where's Dimitri?"
"Taking care of... some stuff", Adrian evasively replied.
For the first time I actually didn't want to know what some stuff meant. I was pretty sure there'd be serious consequences for whoever snitched on Adrian and I wanted no part in any of it. I'd had my fair share of violence for the week. However, there was one particular thing that I was rather interested in.
"How hard did we ping on the cops radar?"
"Why? You hoping to get rescued?", he asked with a quirked eyebrow as he strolled back towards the window, not even waiting a full minute before disobeying the doctor's orders.
"Why? You think I could be?", I shot back, making him chuckle.
"Not really. We popped up on their radar, sure, but I have my ways of making problems such as this disappear. I mean, if I got pulled in for questioning every time shit like this happened, it'd actually be more practical for me just to move to the station."
"Is there anything you can't push under the rug?"
Adrian just shrugged and picked up the saw again, warning me to cover my ears and look away. It took him awhile to maneuver the machine into his hands since one was damaged in the crash, but after a few moments sparks flew up and I shook my head, smiling to myself. And then I felt this strange kind of sadness come over me.
Things could have been different. If I wasn't who I was and if Adrian wasn't who he was, things could have been very different. In another life he maybe could have been a good friend. Alberta was right, in some ways we were very alike. Even under circumstances like this, I saved his life and he trusted me enough to remove one of the biggest obstacles I had if I was to escape from here. Even now, it was so easy for me to forget that he was a criminal, a man who had done a lot of bad, someone who was using me for his own benefit. It was too easy to ignore all the reasons why we shouldn't be on each other's favorite people lists. Too easy, but impremissible.
POV: Sydney
I ran my hands over the front of my dress and glanced at my reflection one more time before I turned to leave the room. As I moved back towards the kitchen I heard Rose's full-fledged laughter echoing off the walls followed by Lissa's gentle giggle. The sounds made my lips pull into a smile automatically. As soon as I appeared in the doorway Lissa nudged Rose's legs that were dangling from the counter she sat on. I sighed and shook my head, because I'd realized a long time ago it was pointless to reprimand Rose's behavior. She was never going to change and, honestly, I didn't think I wanted her to.
"Where's Brayden?"
"Your snobby boyfriend left to buy some more wine because beer doesn't tingle his taste buds enough apparently", Rose responded and Lissa covered her eyes with her palm at her friend's words.
"He's not snobby", I defended him, going around the island to check on the pie that was backing in the oven, "He just enjoys things of outstanding quality."
"Guess that explains why he's dating you."
"Rose", I exclaimed, blushing fiercely at her nonchalant compliment.
"What? It's true. Right Liss?"
"Totally", Lissa confirmed with a thoughtful nod.
Before the embarrassing conversation could continue, the doorbell rang to announce my first guests and I rushed away, excited to see more of my friends. This was the first birthday I was celebrating in my new apartment. In OUR new apartment. I was living with my boyfriend now. How unexpected and unbelievable. If anyone asked me a few years ago which one out of the three of us would be the first to get into a serious relationship I would have, without a second thought, said Lissa. Maybe even Rose, despite her free spirit. But me, the girl who had her first kiss when she started college... how did I get here? Sure, Lissa and Aaron were slowly becoming more than just a fling and Rose seemed to have settled down a bit with Jesse, but Brayden could actually be the one for me.
As soon as I opened the door I was engulfed in a group hug by my "new gang" as Rose called them. Naturally, they could never replace her or Lissa, but they were very dear to me. Kristin and Julia basically adopted me since the moment I accidently sat next to them in my first week of classes. Duncan and I became friends while working on a paper together. And Ian, the newest addition to our tight little circle, though not our major happened to be training basketball with Duncan so he just sort of hopped on our friendship train and we all rolled with it. As soon as they let go of me and I welcomed them in, Trey popped up behind them and grinned.
"You should've told me your future colleagues were this hot. I definitely would've chosen law instead of IT", he joked as he wrapped me in a bone-crunching hug.
"As if you'd actually do any real studying."
"Hey, I study... a bit", he exclaimed and we both laughed.
Guests pilled in quickly, though there weren't many of them. Just a few more of Brayden's friends and some of my relatives. Trey and Rose, being the troublemakers they always were, made sure to keep everyone's glass full and cracked the music up as much as they could. It was a great party, one of the best I'd had. At some point Julia dug out her camera and insisted on taking everyone's picture. Photography was a hobby she very much enjoyed and it was also the reason why none of our gatherings went by without some crazy pictures to remember them by. I was busy making sure that nobody felt left out, going from one person to another to talk to them, so I was completely caught by surprise when Rose's arm wrapped tightly around me and pulled me to the side.
"Let's take a picture", she shouted into my ear as Lissa raced towards us.
Julia found the best angle just as Lissa bumped into Rose and hugged her, all of us turning our attention towards the lens. I didn't really like having my picture taken, mostly because I always winded up plastering this fake grin that looked terrible. This time though, I caught sight of Rose sticking her tongue out just before the flash went off and I burst into laughter. Moments later Julia ran up to us and turned the camera so that we could take a look at her work.
"It's awesome", Lissa squealed and she wasn't wrong, for the first time ever all three of us turned out great.
"Okay, this is it. Juls, can you develop three of these? This is our official baddest bitches poster."
"Oh for heaven's sake Rose", I exclaimed while she quirked her eyebrows at me.
"Trust me, it's going to be your favorite no matter what I call it."
I counted the money one more time before I opened my wallet to stuff it inside. I ran my fingers over the photo holder, taking in Rose's silly expression, smiling for the millionth time at the tongue sticking out between her lips. Baddest bitch of the baddest bitches. Her grammar was really terrible sometimes. Though I never had the heart to tell her that "baddest" was not an actual word. I suddenly felt my eyes sting and I swallowed back the tears that were beginning to form in them, sighing before I folded my wallet and pushed it into my purse.
"So you've made up your mind on this?", Brayden questioned as I got up and flung my purse onto my shoulder.
"Yes."
"Okay then", he mumbled, clearly not satisfied with my decision, but knowing better than to protest, "You want me to drive you?"
"It's fine. I'll take a taxi. You have to meet your mother anyway."
"Right. Call me if you need anything though."
"Will do", I promised before I took off.
It wasn't a long drive, but it felt even shorter since I spaced out for the better part of it. I used my keys to get into the building and then quickly climbed to the first floor, stopping for a moment to catch my breath before I rang the bell. When nothing happened, I pressed the little red button again. A few moments and a lot of swearing later, an elderly man opened up and barked: "Whatever you're selling, I ain't buying."
"No, Mister Hamilton. I'm not here to sell you anything. My name is Sydney. Sydney Sage. I'm a friend of Rosemarie Hathaway."
"Aa, that little delinquent, you tell her she owes me money."
"I know she does. That's why I'm here. I'd like to pay her rent."
"You would?", he exclaimed, eyeing me suspiciously as I took out my wallet.
"Yes. Everything she already owes and the following month. I calculated it myself, but you can do it again if you want."
"Yeah, yeah, come on in", he grumbled, motioning me inside, "Why are you wasting your money? She probably won't pay you back."
"I don't care about her paying me back, Sir. I just don't want her to lose her apartment. She should have a place to—", I started, but then clumsily finished with, "She should have a place."
A place to come back to, was what I going to say. If she came back, was what my mind added and I shivered at the very thought. The truth was, I was a rational person and I needed to start viewing the situation realistically. It was as if the earth had opened up and swallowed Rose whole, like she turned into smoke that you couldn't catch no matter how much you tried. No trace, no sign, nothing since her phone call. I'm going to be okay Syd, I promise. That was what she'd said before she disappeared again. That was the only thing I was left to cling to. The only clue she gave me was that she knew her kidnappers. The problem was, Rose knew a lot of people and she never got to tell me if I knew them too. That didn't give me much to go on. Not that I didn't try. I tried very hard, but I kept hitting dead ends. Over and over. And the police... well, they were about as helpful as a knife when you were eating soup.
"Here's what you need to pay", the old man said as he pushed a piece of yellowish, crumpled paper with numbers scribbled on it into my hand.
I wordlessly nodded before giving him a stack of bills to count while I glanced around. And there I was thinking Rose's "decorative skills" were messy. This man's apartment was a collection of all sorts of useless things, like empty birdcages and waist high stakes of old newspapers. It was dusty, gloomy and all together uninviting. He opened a drawer of the nearby cupboard and pushed the money inside, nodding in satisfaction.
"Well, I'll let you get back to your, um, rest", I said, extending my hand to shake his.
He mumbled something into his chin and surpassed me, ignoring my hand. Well, I guess you could only expect so much from a man Rose called grumpy Dumbledore. I wished him a good night and turned to leave before he added: "And tell that harlot to stop inviting men over."
"I beg your pardon?"
"First that tall, dark one came by. At least he looked like a man. But then those two pale, blond sissies kept coming over and they walk too loudly, wake me up every damn time."
"I, what?"
"You stupid or something?", he barked since I kept blinking at him, barely managing to form an actual sentence.
"I'm sorry, Sir, but how do you know these men you somehow saw were coming to visit Rose?"
"What do you think peepholes are for Goldilocks? I might not own every apartment here, but this is my building. I know what's going on in it every second of the time. Besides, one of them dared ring on my door to ask me questions. Little pest—."
"What did he look like? The one who rang on your door?"
"Hmh", he huffed, his excitement finally leaving him, "I'm not sure I remember. Might need my memory jogged."
Was he serious? I barely managed to stop myself from rolling my eyes as I reached back for my wallet and dug out a bill, handing it to him. He seemed satisfied enough with what he got so he continued with a lot more details than I'd expected: "Short blond hair, grey-blue eyes, pale, tallish. One of those fancy bastards. Idiots who wear sunglasses on top of their heads at night. Arrogant and violent too. Almost broke my damn door when I told him to beat it. Jumpy, probably some junky. He must be from some tribe or something."
"Tribe?", I asked, putting in a lot of effort to stifle a laugh despite the seriousness of the situation.
"Yeah, you know with those drawings on his hand."
"Tattoos?"
"Right, that", he murmured and I decided to attack him with questions as much as I could before he lost interest again.
"Did you memorize any of the drawings?"
"What am I Picasso?"
"Anything at all?", I prompted, hurriedly giving him another bill.
"There was one that looked like a hawk and a zig-zag one."
"Zig-zag, letter? Like letter Z."
"That's the one."
I felt cold sweat rushing over me, barely managing to stay on my feet as shivers shook my entire body. The old man added that the other guy looked like he could be the arrogant one's brother, but I could hardly concentrate on anything other than the image of a hawk and a letter Z. I know, I know, his tattoos are tacky, but hey he's hot and very kissable, Rose's chuckle echoed through my head. For the second time in two weeks, there he was... Jesse freaking Zeklos.
"One more thing, Sir. What exactly did he ask you when he tried to barge into your home?"
"He asked if I knew anything about her whereabouts. Said he'd pay good money if I told him where she was. Said he'd pay me even more if I didn't tell the cops."
"Thank you so much Sir. That was very helpful."
"Ya know, I'd rather give the apartment to you. At least you have some manners", he mumbled and I frowned, almost adding and money to his sentence, but deciding against it since I wanted to stay in the good graces of the only man who seemed to know something valuable regarding Rose's disappearance.
I left in such a hurry I almost missed a few steps on my way down. My mind was in overdrive. I barely had enough brain left to think of lifting my hand to catch a taxi. Jesse Zeklos and a person who looked a lot like him. Blonde, light eyes. They could be brothers, I remembered Lissa saying as I thought of the only person who both Mister Hamilton and she described in the same way. Aaron. Do you know who they are?, I asked Rose and she said yes. Shit.
POV: Abe
"İyi akşamlar patron."
"Nothing good about it my friend", I replied as I cracked my neck and leaned back into my chair, "Nothing good when you're doomed to paperwork."
"Well, I have some great news", Erdem offered, trying to smile politely at me, "Your brother called."
"How is that great news? Haven't you been paying attention? In my family, calls occur only when somebody dies."
"Nobody died. He called to let you know that the deal with the akseri is done."
"Ah, well, looks like he can still surprise. How delightful", I mumbled as I picked up my coffee and took a sip. It had gone cold. I glanced at the watch and instantly felt a headache when I saw the time. I pressed my palms against the top of my desk and the mess on it, pushing myself to stand up. My back ached, I was getting too old for these sitting around for hours affairs.I glanced at Erdem and added: "Very well. Thank you. You can take the rest of the night off."
"Also, Pavel just arrived. He wanted a word."
"Yes, yes, send him in."
Erdem nodded and made himself scarce. I walked around my office, going over to the window to glance outside. Moonlight glistened over the waves as they crashed against the shore that stretched endlessly or at least as far as my eyes could see. This place had quite the view. It was a shame, really, how seldom I enjoyed it. I leaned against the wall next to the window and my hand automatically twitched towards my pocket. No cigarettes. Damn me and my stupid decision to quit. At this point, cigarettes killing me was the least of my worries.
Pavel's soft knock caused me to peer over my shoulder, only to see him standing in the doorway with a grave expression. I was used to more bad news than good so I just chuckled: "So, somebody did die after all."
"No, Sir. Not yet at least."
"What do you mean?", I asked, turning towards him as he took a few steps forward and shut the door behind him.
"I received word from America, somebody has been trying to get in touch with you throughout the past few weeks. At first I didn't think much of it, but then I heard who it was and that got me to explore more into it."
"So, who was it?"
"Adrian Ivashkov."
Adrian Ivashkov. That boy wouldn't quit. I had to admit he actually managed to earn some of my admiration along with excessive irritation. He was a stubborn one. Guess he got it from his father. Better yet, from his great aunt. Now that woman was something. I'd be lying if I didn't say I occasionally kept an eye on how his business progressed after his father's demise and I'd be lying even more if I said I wasn't impressed. The kid knew his shit, as people would say. And he wasn't left with an ideal legacy. Not only did his father make a lot of enemies along the way, but even his own family couldn't stand him. Not that mine could really stand me either.
"What does he want? I thought I made it clear I wasn't getting in bed with him."
"Apparently, he's not good at taking no for an answer. So much so that he did something I don't think anyone expected", Pavel continued, clearly trying to prolong the time before he had to finally tell me what had him so visibly nervous.
"On with it", I prompted, losing my patience since it had, after all, been a long night.
"He—, he kidnapped your, um, daughter, Sir."
"What?"
"He said he wouldn't harm her as long as he got a chance to sit down with you, peacefully, and discuss terms of your cooperation, again."
"WHAT?", I yelled so loudly that Pavel literally shrunk in front of my eyes.
My blood pressure went up in a nanosecond, my head pulsing from it as Pavel's voice, now even lower than before, kept filling the air: "I'm sorry Sir, but I believe he's telling the truth. I checked. She truly was reported missing and word spread that—."
"I'M GOING TO ANNIHILATE HIM."
"Sir, I think—."
"Don't think Pavel. Get me on a plane to America. Tonight."
"But, Sir—."
"TONIGHT."
"Yes Sir", he said before he almost ran from the room.
I supported myself on my desk as my vision narrowed. How was this possible? How did he find her? I'd given up on ever seeing my daughter just to keep her safe and it had worked, for over twenty years it had worked. I'd given up on ever seeing the woman I loved to keep the secret of Rosemarie's parentage. I'd given up on having a family of my own just so this bastard could come around and ruin it. I wasn't just going to annihilate him, I was going to burn his empire to the ground. I was going to kill his secretary's pet. He had made a very wrong move.
Or a very right one, my mind supplied as I dug through the drawer of my desk and pulled out a tiny, folded picture that was hidden under a lot of rubbish. My little girl. She was far from little anymore, but this was the only picture I had, the only one Nicolina had sent to me. Janine, her name was Janine now, I reminded myself for the millionth time. I stared at the big, round, dark eyes of a child in the picture and dull pain spread through my chest.
"Pavel. PAVEL."
Feet shuffled and soon he rushed back into the room, asking: "Sir?"
"Forget the plane. Get me Adrian Ivashkov on the line. I don't care how, just do it. Looks like the boy got the attention he desired. Lets see how well he handles the spotlight."
Hey y'all, as promised, here is the new chapter a day early! And Abe finally makes an appearance yayyyyy! I know a lot of you have been asking about him and now he is finally here! What did y'all think about his POV and the other POV's? Hope you enjoyed the chapter and THANKS to all of you who've been giving me their support throughout the story through PMs and reviews (last chapter got the biggest number of them)! Also thank you to all of you who already sent their birthday wishes! You made my day even more special! "See" you next week!
Lots of virtual kisses and hugs, T!
Songs: I'd Love To Change The World - Jetta, Blood / Water - Grandson
Translations:
İyi akşamlar patron. = Good evening boss.
Askeri = Military