"Is the blind fold really necessary?"
Rose complained every second her eyes were covered from the moment I told her I had a surprise for her.
I moved her hand away from the blindfold and guided her into the living room.
"It is very much necessary," I assured her.
"Dimitri, this may come as a shock to you but I actually hate surprises. Surprises never go well for me," she said reaching for the blind fold again.
I pinned her hands behind her back and managed to still guide her into the living room.
"Somehow, I think this time will be different. You'll love it."
She sighed dramatically, her shoulders slumping over.
I positioned her directly in the center of the living room, turning her toward the dining table I had set up in the candle lit room; the tablecloth it self was covered with Rose petals, her favorite foods spread around the table and even a Mickey Mouse candle in my attempts to replicate our perfect night at Disney Land.
And in the middle of it all sat her birthday present.
Or actually presents.
When I had gone to buy her a gift I couldn't decided which would be best and decided to buy everything I thought Rose might like and would cheer her up.
She'd been in the same kind of slump she was in after she found out about her scars.
Making a big deal about her birthday seemed the best way to go.
I straightened the tablecloth one more time and made sure everything was perfect.
One of my presents for Rose was already moving across the floor anxiously, nibbling at the bow I had tied loose around its neck. It pushed one of the presents away with its nose.
"Can I take this stupid blind fold off now? I really just want to go back to bed."
"Please Roza, humor me," I pleaded.
I did a double take around the room to make sure everything was okay one more time.
"Okay, now you can take it off."
"Would you believe that's not the first time a guy has said that to me," she muttered.
She grumbled and tugged unable to pull the blindfold away.
After few seconds she pulled it down and her eyes widened more than normal, gleaming the dim light. Her lips parted slightly and she gasped looking around the room, her eyes landing on the pile of gifts in front of her.
"Dimitri-"
"I know, I went a little over the top crazy but I couldn't help it." I gestured to the gifts. "Indulge in a little fun for once."
She grinned for the first time in days and moved to the presents excited and eager, like a child at Christmas and then she stopped.
"What's wrong?"
"How can I have fun like this when Lissa is-"
"Rose, we talked about this. Christian is taking good care of Lissa and he says she doing better. Today, tonight, is all about you. Let's forget about everything else."
She moved to the presents again, her earlier excitement returning.
She shook each of the boxes and I realized one of my main gifts for her had moved all of the way into the bedroom. I maneuvered around Rose, on the floor trying to decide which gift to open, and picked up the moving present as it was about to hide under the bed.
I chided the small gift and then pulled it behind my back.
Rose looked up from the box she was shaking.
"What's behind your back? Lemme see! Lemme see!"
"Surprise."
I pulled the golden brown puppy from behind my back and Rose brightened, her hands flying to her mouth. The dog turned its big wet nose and huge droopy eyes onto Rose and she melted.
"A puppy!" she squealed. She reached for it and took the puppy in her hands cuddling with it. "Aren't you the cutest little guy I've ever seen! He's for me?" she asked excitedly.
I nodded and ruffled the dog's hair.
"You are just so adorable," she cooed. "What should we name him?"
"It's up to you, sweetheart."
She thought about it, running her hand along the dog's long fur, his body curled into a small ball in Rose's arms.
"Is it a boy or girl?" she asked. Before I could answer, she lifted the dog up to check.
"Okay it's a girl."
She ran her hands along the fur again thinking.
"How about…Honey?"
"Honey. A fitting name," I pointed out, the golden fur shining.
"Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!" She kissed me on the lips, the dog, Honey, smashed between us. "Oops!" She giggled moving away.
I tugged her to me again and gave her a long, lingering birthday kiss. She moved honey onto her side so that she was right against me. She lengthened the kiss, moving her tongue against my own and pressing into me.
We hadn't really kissed like this since the pregnancy scare.
She moaned against my mouth and then pulled away heavily breathing and blushing.
"Sorry, I just…kind of missed that. Things have been…different," she apologized.
"You never have to apologize for wanting to kiss me. I'm yours."
She smiled and cuddled with the puppy again.
"I don't know which presents to open and what present can top a puppy? What even made you buy me a puppy?"
"Puppies make everyone happy."
"What are you, five?" she asked laughing.
"No, that's what my nephew says when he asked Karolina for a puppy."
"Oh," was all she said looking at me again.
"Open the presents the family mailed first," I suggested. She plopped down onto the floor, the cotton dress she was wearing spread around her and she set the puppy at her feet.
She opened the first box, "From Victoria," she told me skimming the card and laughing.
"It says 'I thought you and my bro might enjoy this, V.'," she read.
"That doesn't sound good. Odds are there's a practical joke in the boss or something that she thought might things very awkward between us. My sister has a weird and sick sense of humor," I warned Rose as she tore at the hot pink wrapping paper.
"Your sister is adorable," was all she said."
She finally came to the box, a Victoria's Secret box.
Rose didn't hesitate, pulling the lid off and the tissue paper away.
"Wow!" She lifted up a very short, clingy, and lace looking cloth that was supposed to be a lingerie nightgown. Rose turned to face me and smiled, seeing the look on my face. "Victoria was right. I think we will enjoy this."
I smiled and sat all the way down beside her.
"I don't get it though. She seemed so disturbed at the idea of you and I…getting intimate. Why would she buy me something like this?" Rose asked curious, holding the nightgown against her.
"It's all apart of her odd personality," I retorted and she laughed.
"Oh there's something else in the box." She pulled out another nightgown, this one a little longer and a milky white, all cotton and silk. Rose pulled a piece of paper away from the skirt of the gown and read. " 'P.S. this one is for the honeymoon'"
I rolled my eyes and made a mental note to retaliate later.
Rose giggled and moved to the next gift.
She tore into them one after another.
Clothes from Karolina and Sonya, a finger-painted picture from Zoya and Paul that Rose hung on our undecorated walls, and a hand knit blanket and sweater from my mother and Yeva.
Rose's eyes were filled with tears, ready to spill over.
"This is all so beautiful."
She turned around and hugged me, weeping into my shoulder.
"Thank you."
"You're very much welcome. Happy Birthday."
She grinned. "And I have to thank everyone else when we see them," she stifled pulling back.
I wiped her tears away as the puppy sniffed and moved around us, crawling over my lap and sitting at Rose's fit.
"We'll see them soon. My mother and Yeva say they have another special something to give you."
"They've done so much already," Rose noted, lifting honey up into her arms.
"They love you and so do I."
Her lips lifted into a soft smile and laid the puppy to the side as she leaned down to kiss me again
RPOVI was head over heels in love.
I was so in love and felt loved that I thought I might explode.
Dimitri immediately responded, kissing me back hard. I was sure that my lips would be swollen. He must have missed me. I had been pulling away a lot lately from his touch. Now though, I wanted him to hold and kiss me as he had the weeks before.
In my haste to kiss him I had knock him over onto his back.
He held me on top of him and I guided his hands beneath my dress. His finger stroked along my figure, over my skin. He loved the way I felt and was shaped.
I think I will always be nervous whenever Dimitri and I are together like this, never able to get over exposing all of my self in front of him but I shouldn't be. Dimitri looked at me each and every time like I was the most magnificent being in the world and he was looking at me now in the same way.
I kept kissing him our mouths moving against each other and the top of my dress had slid down in the process exposing the lacy bra I was wearing.
Dimitri shifted his mouth away form me panting. "You didn't even let me give you my present."
"You're giving it to me now," I breathed moving my mouth down again but he turned, my lips meeting his warm neck.
He chuckled. "Not that. I have a different present for you."
"It can wait until after. All I want is you," I breathed.
I pressed into him again and his hand moved up to my waistline, tugging the skirt of my dress up in the process.
Before he went any further though he pulled back.
"I want you to see it now though."
He sounded so adorable and I was a little curious about what the gift was.
He took my silence as a yes and dug around in his pocket beneath me only making me want him more.
He pulled out a long, black leather case and held it up for me to see clearly.
Before I could reach for it, he rolled us over and I was beneath him, my hair fanned out around me.
"Open it."
I looked at the deep chocolate-y brown of his eyes and then took the box in my hand, lifting the lid with a slight pop, and gasped for about the hundredth time that night.
It was a sparkling, silver charm bracelet.
I pulled it out of the box and turned it around in my hands looking at each charm.
One was Mickey Mouse, another Spongebob, the always-classic heart, two charms with our initials, and lastly…an extended space on the bracelet with nothing on it, that had yet to be filled in.
"For whatever happens next," Dimitri told me, noticing my expression.
My heart actually squeezed and tightened and I smiled up at him pulling it on. He snapped it on for me and I pulled him down to kiss me again.
His lips were so soft and warm against my own and unlike normal he was gentle or moved slow with me, giving me to adjust and get used to someone so close in my space.
He was…eager to say the least.
He wanted me as much as I did him and it felt like our first night all over again only more, now that we were used to one another.
His shirt came off some time between the time my dress and everything else was off and I was beneath him naked.
"You are so beautiful," he whispered stroking my cheek, the scarred side.
I moved my face, loving the feel of his palm.
I lifted my arms around his neck; the charms of the bracelet clinking together and the feel of the necklace we both wore warm again my skin.
He ran his lips along my skin, nipping on the side of my neck.
The rest of his clothes fell away and we were left bare, with only a blanket from the couch to cover us. He pushed one of his legs between both of my own and pinned my head on either side of my face.
His scruff was rough against my chest with each kiss he planted along the top of my breasts but like before, I only wanted him more.
I moaned beneath him and felt my head lull back in excitement and desire.
He ran his hands down from my wrists along the figure of my body and stopped below my waist at my thighs. His eyes met my own, gleaming. The light from the candles was fading and cast a nice illumination along Dimitri's tanned skinned that matched my own.
I lifted his face up so that I could see him even more clearly tugging his soft hair behind his ear and smiling.
I didn't have to say it the way we had so many time before. It was in the air between us.
He held the same feeling in his eyes and kissed me intensely.
My skin heated in the path his hands ran along my skin and I arched my back against him. He laughed, softly, barely above a whisper, loving the feel.
And then we were one.
DPOV"Ouch," Rose hissed sitting up.
I felt the cold air on my arm on the place where she had been laying in only moments before. She held the bed sheet close to her chest and stood up off of the bed.
"What's the matter?"
She turned around in the doorway of our closet and smiled with a slight grimace.
"Just a little sore. We've been very…close these past two days," she smiled, letting the sheet fall away and tugging on underwear and one of my shirts.
I leaned my head against the headboard and wore a smile of my own thinking back over the last two days. Beautiful memories, images of Rose and I cooped up together in the house ran through my mind.
The night of her birthday was the start of it all…and the few times after in the middle of the night; the morning after, that afternoon…
The picture was clear.
And we were completely safe.
I pushed my hair back and grinned.
She slid beside me on the bed, able to guess what I was thinking about.
My smiled feel away and I pulled her onto my lat to get a good look at her.
"Did I hurt you," I whispered.
"You made me feel…" she sighed unable to come up with a word.
I searched her any ways lifting her away, checking beneath her shirt and her legs for any bruises I might have given her.
"I'm fine, stop nagging," she laughed moving my hands away. Honey came in yelping and barking, nipping at the bed cover.
Rose cooed and lifted her up in her arms.
"I bet you're hungry, yes you are," Rose said talking to the dog. I watched her for a few moments and smiled.
"Hey, why is the dog getting all of the attention?" I asked teasing.
"You've had my complete undivided attention for two days. I even wore that nightgown for you. It's Honey's turn," she grinned petting the dog, her charm bracelet jingling.
I was glad she like all of the gifts and the bracelet so much.
"And it looked amazing on you. Who knew Victoria would be right. I did enjoy it," I laughed.
"I know. You showed me. Twice," she answered rubbing honeys paw and smiling from ear to ear.
"What do you mean you wore it for me? You didn't like the nightgown?" I asked curious.
"It was beautiful but I think I liked your reaction to it more than how I looked in it. I would only ever wear something like that for you, my love," she giggled pecking me on the nose. "And who knows? Maybe I'll wear it again. If you didn't tear it too much," she smiled.
I shook my head smiling my self and pulled her hand to my lips to kiss it.
"How about breakfast?" she asked standing up, Honey rubbing his face against her chest.
"I'd love it."
I closed my eyes and listened to the soft familiar sound of her footsteps, trying to figure out how I could have ever lived without Rose. Now that she was legal age there was so much more we could do.
Rose came back into the bedroom, carrying all of the gifts that we had left in the living room, one of them still in wrapping paper. Honey followed behind and Rose plopped her down on the bed.
"I nearly killed my self tripping over these gifts," she told me setting them down at the end of the bed.
"We've been a little too busy to pick them up," I noted.
She gave me a nice smile and put all of her clothes in the closet and lifted the silk white night gown that she'd left in the Victoria's secret box. I thought of the black nightgown that barely fell past her waist, hugging and exposing skin in all of the right places.
I thought about how easily I'd gotten it off.
"So are we ever going to see you in that nightgown?" I asked as she pulled it out of the box.
"Maybe," she teased.
She turned to the full-length mirror in the corner of the room and held it up against her.
"I wonder how I look in this one. It's a bit more…conservative if lingerie can ever be conservative."
"I guess we'll see on our honeymoon," I answered.
She folded the gown over, carefully to not wrinkle it, and tugged it in the dresser.
"Honeymoon means marriage," she laughed. "Do you plan on proposing?"
She was asking jokingly but I was completely serious.
"Someday."
Hearing the tone of my voice, she turned around to face me.
"You want to get married?" She asked.
I couldn't tell if she was surprised or worried.
"Eventually," I answered truthfully.
"To who?" she asked sitting on the edge of our bed.
I chuckled and move Honey from walking on top of me.
"You of course."
She sat on the edge of the bed and stared into to space thinking about it.
Finally she smiled.
"I like the sound of that. Mrs. Rosemarie Belikov." She made a face, like it didn't sound right. "That didn't sound right. It sounded weird," she said. "But it's better than my maiden name and the trouble it comes with."
"That's true."
"Hmm. We'll work on that," she muttered. She went back to putting gifts away and picked up the one unwrapped one.
"I wonder who this one is from."
It was in plain wrapping paper, a simple envelope shove into the side. Rose opened the gift first and nearly shrieked.
She was breathing heavily, her eyes wide and her mouth was open as if she was about to scream but nothing came out but a hoarse whisper. She dropped the gift and back away.
"What? What is it?" I asked. I stood, already dressed in sweats and picked up the gift.
It was a stake.
Small and undistinguished, plain and simple.
The only real flaw about the gleaming blade with its smooth handle was the blood that blanketed the end of it.
"No, no, no, no," Rose whispered. She had back all the way into the glass door that led out onto the patio from the bedroom. She slid down the length of the glass, her eyes still wide, her gaze staring into nothingness.
I picked up the envelope and read it aloud to my self.
"'You'll need this for whenever I decided to severe the one thorn in my side that's cause me great grief and inconvenience. Best wishes on your birthday. Sincerely yours, Abe. P.S. I hope you'll use it better than your mother was able.'"
"He knows where I live, where we live. He came come after me at any time!"
She was shaking in the corner, trembling.
"He won't come near you," I said automatically.
"When my father wants something, he gets it, Dimitri."
I looked up and our eyes locked, staring unblinkingly at one another before I turned away and grabbed my phone to call Kirova.
RPOV"I got the same thing," Lissa said sipping her tea.
Dimitri and Christian both called Kirova to tell them about the package and it was decided that it wasn't safe for Lissa and I to stay unhidden any more so they were driving us to the Belikov family house.
"How do they know where we lived though? I moved and they still found us," Christian complained driving.
Dimitri was in the passenger seat and Lissa sat between Kirova and I.
"Abe Mazur wants information he gets it," Kirova said. "We just need to know how. There has to be someone else helping him. Who though? We arrested a nice amount of his contacts, his foreign contacts were all arrested as well, and there aren't many places he can appear out in public to contact anyone without being seen. There are bounty hunters and private investigators looking for him. This only means we missed someone that was helping him."
"It could be anyone," Lissa muttered. "You cut off all of their contacts but they have money hidden and built up somewhere. They could pay anyone to do their dirty work with the amount of money they have."
"It would have to be in cash then. Their accounts are all frozen," Kirova noted. "Someone who knows what's going on with the case."
"That could be anyone," Dimitri said. "Ever since the arrests were made people have been following this case like crazy and anyone can get access whenever you leave the office to go home."
"I take all of my files with me, my computer included," Kirova said. "Let's just think for a moment. The address of our agents are unknown and not listed for this reason."
"Which means-" Christian started.
"That its someone who knows where we live outside of work," Dimitri answered. "Who knows that you moved Christian?"
"Only you and Kirova. Well, actually, I had to tell Natasha to tell Kirova but Tasha wouldn't…"
Christian let it trail off focused, suddenly, on driving.
"Everyone is considered a suspect and Natasha seems like a good one right now. I can't believe I did suspect before. Damn it!" Kirova shouted
"It can't be Natasha, why would she betray us?" Dimitri asked from the passenger seat.
Both Christian and Dimitri sounded hurt by Natasha's possible betrayal.
We all sat in a long silence before Dimitri said; " She kept telling me that she was getting money from a second job or something but in ever put two and two together."
"At least we know who our last mole is," Kirova sighed. "There's only one problem though."
"What's that?" Christian asked.
"Natasha knows where we're taking the girls. I asked her to go ahead of us to make sure the area was clear since I thought she could be trusted."
"My mother won't hesitate to let her in," Dimitri said worriedly. I noticed Christian stepped on the pedal a little harder.
"The house is too far away form any other policed station to radio for help. By then it'll be too late," Kirova said. "Dimitri you call anyway just in case and I'll call Natasha. She doesn't know we're on to her."
"Stupid middle of nowhere and with a storm building! Damn it! Is there one cop we can trust around here?"
Lissa leaned forward and rested her hand on his shoulder.
His tensed shoulder relaxed a little and she sat back again. Our reunion was brief because Kirova had said the quicker we leave the city, the better. I didn't have time to offer condolences or really talk and she gasped when she saw my scarred.
"I'm sorry about your mom," I whispered as the other three kept talking and comparing notes.
"No you're not…but its okay. I'm…better. How are you?"
"Scared, freaking out, and I just want all of this to be over. I've been better," I whispered pushing my hair back from my face.
Lissa looked at my scars and stared.
"That's my fault, isn't it?"
I glanced over at her and realized we would never be the same friends we were before. I don't think we ever were friends.
"Yes but I'm not going to hold it against you. Things are different now. Once all of this is over…I think it'll be best if we just forget about the past and just be civil to one another. We aren't friend any more but our boyfriends are bests friends so we'll eventually have to see each other but…you get what I'm saying?"
Her grin eyes shimmered with tears but she blinked them away and nodded. "I get it. I understand."
We were quiet the rest of the way there.
I thought about having my friend back and telling her about all of my new experiences and scares and fears but I didn't dwell on the idea. I kept my mind on getting to the Belikov house hopefully before Natasha did. I had never met her but I had seen in her in old pictures.
She was beautiful but she didn't look deceitful.
I just wanted to get there.
I kept thinking that if anything happened it would be because of my father, because I turned against him, helped bring him down and he couldn't find me. It would be my fault. I took in a shaky breath, my stomach in knots and just hoped we got there in time.
Christian pulled onto the front law and the three of them hopped out, their weapons drawn.
They all got out with an unspoken mention for Lissa and I to stay put but I couldn't help it.
"What are you doing?" Lissa hissed.
"These people treated me like one of their own. I have to know they're okay."
She followed me out of the car the same I had followed her that day so many weeks ago. I tip toed to the front door, across the law where there was other tire marks from other cars.
I could hear screaming and shouting…and Dimitri yell out "NO!"
I ran inside the house, Lissa at my heels, and froze.
Blood, blood, blood.
Everything that wasn't originally the scarlet color of red had been painted over with nothing but the sickening color.
In the middle of it all, across the rooms through out the house were members of the family. They were bloodied from having touched the room but not from wounds of their own.
Except for Olena and Paul.
Victoria was trembling and leaning over her mother weeping and crying.
"Mama was the only one home with Paul. W-we had gone out to go s-shopping and we came h-home and-"
Her voice faded out as I focused on Christian, Dimitri and Kirova aiming their guns at Natasha, Victor, Jesse…and my father.
They themselves were armed.
Victor held his blade to Karolina's throat, Natasha pointed her gun at Sonya who still held her newborn, Jesse at an expressionless Yeva, and the most sickening of all, was my father kneeling down with little Zoya in front of him while he held his finger on the trigger and she played with the gun, unaware of what was going on.
Eric Dragomir was nowhere to be found.
"Oh my…." I gasped.
Karolina and Sonya were weeping and swearing in Russian. Victor, Natasha and Jesse were all smiling though.
"I bet you weren't expecting us," Abe said not looking away from Zoya.
"Are you kidding? We were counting on it," Christian said.
Dimitri was unblinkingly aiming his gun at my father, leaving Christian and Kirova to protect the rest of his family but my father was his for what he did today.
Abe laughed.
"Mr. Ozera. I heard you were feisty and so full of whit. Its refreshing. What I had meant was, I bet neither of you thought you'd find me still standing her along with my companions."
"You wont be for long," Dimitri said. He sounded…different.
"Oh and the man that I hear is screwing my daughter," Abe said smiling completely now. He moved his eyes on me and I couldn't help flinching. "I bet you thought you'd be safe and away from me didn't you Rose? You thought you'd get the perfect ending to such a tragic story. My dear you were gravely mistaken."
Lissa automatically grabbed my hand and squeezed it tightly.
"You should be happy I'm here ot take you away from all of this. Once all of these lovely people realize that all of this happening simply because you decided to be defiant, they'll turn on you and hunt you down the same way they've hunted me."
"They wouldn't do that," I said. "All of this is your fault."
"Oh how I wish I could take such credit. Yes, physically it's my fault, but technically-and this is going to be hard to admit- all of this is about you! Because of you Rosemarie! I came here and stayed here to see my darling daughter again. I stopped running and hiding because I realized hide and I run from no one. Especially you."
"Enough!" Kirova shouted. "Put your weapons down," she ordered.
He chuckled darkly. "Let's see who gets a shot off first, us or you."
"Our guns are aimed at you, moron," Christian said.
"Yes but do you really think I didn't come with a little insurance. Where do you think Eric is? He and a few of my other men have long distance weapons on all of you. I imagine you all would be long dead before you fingers pulled he trigger."
I felt like my walls were closing in, like none of this would ever end.
It all had to end…