Authors note. For some reason I'm struggling with this story. I know what I want to happen. It's just getting pen to paper. Also I try to research as much as I can to make things correct. If I miss something please let me know!!

Thanks

Poison Ivy

CH 3

Dimitri

Monday morning rolled around and I was back at work trying to focus, but I couldn't.

Over the weekend Ivan had filled me in on his cousin Jesse. His aunt, Jesse's mom had him when she was eighteen. She was engaged to her high school sweetheart, his dad. Right after he was born his dad died in a car accident. His mom never really got over that and married the first man to give her any attention. According to Ivan he was very abusive to her and finally a few years back she left him, but Jesse decided to stay with him. He was all he knew as a father and he blamed his mom for the abuse. They helped get his aunt on her feet and that's when he started to lose contact with Jesse.

I knew what it was like to grow up in an abusive household. Unlike him I protected my mama not turn my back on her.

I was trying really hard to get my work done, but my mind kept wandering back to Rose. I was worried about her. Alberta had called me on Saturday to let me know that she was in the hospital. They had to heavily sedate her because she had some swelling on her brain. The Drs weren't sure how long she would be under sedation. It all depended on how long it took her body to heal. They also wouldn't know if she would have any lasting effects of her brain injury until she woke up. I know that I shouldn't care as much as I did, but I couldn't help it. I felt this overwhelming need to protect her.

"Belikov!!"

I looked up to see a wad of paper coming towards my head.

WHACK!!!!

"What was that for?" I picked it up and threw it back.

"I've been trying to get your attention for over five minutes."

"Sorry Adrian, I must have spaced and didn't hear you."

"You seem distracted this morning. Something on your mind?"

"Just going over this new contract of Victor's"

"Are you sure that's it and nothing else?"

I raised my eyebrow at him.

"Yes, why?"

"Oh I had a nice little chat with Ivan. He may or may not have told me about Friday night." He wiggled his eyebrows at me.

"What did he tell you?" I gritted out.

"All your dirty secrets!"

I almost jumped out of my seat to go find Ivan.

He started laughing at me.

"Chill Belikov. He asked me to look into his cousin Jesse. Although he did happen to mention the lap dance you turned down!!"

Seriously, Ivan doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut. This isn't something the Vice President of the company needed to know about.

Plus it was none of his business where I was on Friday night.

I was ok with him asking about Jesse. I'm actually glad he did. If anyone could find out what Ivan's cousin had been up to it was Adrian.

Here is where I mention that not everything we do here is legal. My boss, Mr. Mazur, deals with many things. Most of which is legit and legal, but he still does a few things under the table. People often compare him to a Mob boss. He can be very intimidating, and someone you don't want to cross.

You might ask why I work for someone like that? Well, he is actually great to work for and I am paid very well. That salary helped me send money back home to help my family in Russia.

Me and Ivan have nothing to do with that side of the business and Mr. Mazur has never asked us to. He left it up to him and his son, Adrian.

"So what did you find out?" I was curious if anything about Rose had come up.

"I just started to look into him so not a lot yet. Ivan gave me as much as he could. I can see why he's not been in contact with him for a couple of years.

It looks like he's had at least two DUI's, but the charges got thrown out. He's a lawyer and so is his step dad. I believe that may have had something to do with how those charges were dropped. I did find out he recently got fired from the Dragomir Law Firm, the same one his step dad works for."

"Did you happen to find out why he was fired?"

I wanted to know because he blamed Rose for getting him fired.

"He apparently broke his contract. I'm still working on getting a copy of that contract. I'm also working on getting any information on the girl he attacked. So far I'm not coming up with anything. Unless you know something that would help?"

"I don't know much. I know her real name is Rose and that she is currently in the hospital."

"Do you know which hospital?"

"No I don't, I'm assuming it's St Vladimir's. "

"That's somewhere to start. Although it will have to wait until this meeting with Victor is done. How is his contract coming along?"

"It's done, I was just going back over to make sure we didn't miss anything."

"Good, I'd like the meeting with him to go as quickly as possible."

Me too….

——————————--——————————

Unfortunately the meeting with Victor lasted three hours. He may be our oldest and best client, but he can be just as shady as Mr. Mazur.

During the meeting I received a call from Alberta. She had left me a voicemail asking me to call her back when I had a chance.

I completely checked out after that, all I wanted to do was call and find out what she had to tell me. I was hoping it was good news and that Rose had woken up.

Once the meeting was done I rushed to my office to call her back. The news wasn't what I had hoped to hear. She was still under heavy sedation and it looked like she would be for a while. Her body wasn't healing as quickly as they were hoping.

She apparently had several broken ribs. There were ones that were recently broken and ones that were a couple weeks old and starting to heal. She also had some internal bruising. According to Alberta she was a lot worse off then they initially thought when she was brought in. I had to wonder what she had been through to have so many injuries. I also wanted to go find Jesse and have a little "talk" with him.

Alberta was also calling me to let me know that police had been contacted because of her injuries. A Detective Croft would be calling me and Ivan for our statements.

I was familiar with Detective Croft. We headed the security portion of Mazur incorporated so we have worked with him several times. I considered him a good acquaintance.

————————————————————

"You sure left that meeting in a hurry."

"Sorry I had to make a phone call."

"And what kind of phone call had you running out of the room like it was on fire?"

"Alberta called while we were in the meeting. I was calling her back."

I told him as I went over the information she had given me in my head.

"That makes sense why you got so distracted." I just nodded.

"Are you going to tell me what she said?" Ivan stood there with his arms crossed.

"Sorry, she told me that Detective Croft had been assigned Rose's case and will be calling us soon for a statement."

"I've been meaning to call him and see if he's up for a round of golf. I'm glad he's the one assigned to her case."

"Me too."

"So this means that she's awake and has made a report?"

"Unfortunately no. Alberta told me she had a lot more injuries than they first thought and some of them were old ones. I'm guessing one of the drs reported it."

"Like father, like son." He said under his breath.

"You know that's not an excuse! I grew up in the same kind of household and I'm not like that!"

"Sorry D. You know I didn't mean it like that. I just hate to see he's taken after him. My aunt went through so much and tried her hardest to get Jesse away from him."

"It's fine." I grumbled, it wasn't fine. I wasn't fine.

"It's been a long day. Why don't we head on out? We can stop for some takeout on the way home."

"Ok, but you're paying this time."

"Fine, fine, but if I'm paying I get to pick what we eat."

I rolled my eyes at him and went to grab my duster and forgot I didn't have it. I had left it with Rose and had yet to get it back. Thankfully it was early spring time so it wasn't too chilly out.

"Alright let's get out of here!"

———————————-—————————

We had just sat down to eat when my phone rang. I didn't need to look at my caller ID to know who it was. It was Croft.

"Belikov."

"Croft."

"I was just saying to Tanner that we haven't heard from you in a while."

"Yeah, been busy with work, just finally got a little bit of a break. Family good?"

"They are, I just signed up to coach Parker's little league team."

"I didn't know he was old enough to play."

"Yes, this is his first year and he's super excited."

There was a short pause.

"I'd love to sit here and catch up, but I've got to get to the reason I called. I'm sure you know what this is all about?"

"Yes I do. Ivan is here as well. Is it ok to put you on speaker?"

"Sure that will make this go quicker."

I hit the speaker button and layed my phone on the table.

"Croft."

"Zecklos."

"I've been meaning to call you about a round of golf now that the club is open."

"Sounds good, we'll get that scheduled once I'm done with this case. I have a feeling it may be a long one. Speaking of, I have a question for you Belikov, off the record before we start."

"Shoot."

"What in the world were you doing at shadow kissed anyway? It doesn't seem like the place you frequent."

I glared at Ivan who just laughed and shrugged his shoulders.

"It's not, that would be Ivan's fault. He dragged me there. He's the one that likes to frequent that club."

He chuckled.

"Now that makes more sense."

"Hey I take offense to that."

"It's not like you go enough to be a favorite and the owner to know you by name."

"I just know how to treat a lady."

Croft cleared his throat, getting our attention.

"Now, if you two are done, I'd like to get this started."

"Sorry."

We both muttered at the same time.

"I'm going to have you go one at a time and tell me what happened on Friday night. Don't leave out anything, even if you think it isn't important. Belikov you're up first."

I told him everything that happened that night. I even told him that Ivan had paid for me to have a lap dance. Which they both got a good laugh out of, but it was important for him to know that when I was talking to Rose, she was interrupted. I believe that she went outside to talk to Jesse.

This is where it got complicated. I never told Ivan the real reason I walked outside. I knew he didn't believe my story about going outside to get air. I really didn't want them to know the real reason why I walked outside, but I felt I needed to tell Croft the whole story. He was a good detective and would be able to tell I was lying anyways. So I sucked it up and told him. I thought Ivan was going to have a heart attack when I told Croft. He jumped out of his seat and mouthed 'I knew it'.

Once I was done giving Croft my statement and Ivan calmed down. He recounted to Croft what happened when he walked outside. I had asked Croft to please not put why I walked outside in the report. It didn't matter to the case why I walked outside just that I did.

"Well I think that covers everything I need. This should be enough to charge Jesse with aggravated assault. I'm hoping I can have a warrant out for his arrest by morning so I can go pick him up."

"Sounds good. Do you think he'll be able to get out of these charges like the others?" Ivan asked.

"I hope not, but I'm not letting this go easily. After talking with the club owner and one of the bouncers. I'm making it my personal mission to bury his ass. I won't be able to charge him with her older injuries until she's awake and tells us what happened.

We will still be able to charge him for Friday night since we have witnesses and it was all caught on one of their security cameras."

Ivan's head shot up when he said that. I knew what was going through his mind. He was going to get that camera footage.

"I'll let you know once I get the arrest warrant and have him in custody."

"Sounds good. Don't hesitate to call if you need anything else."

"I won't, I have a feeling this isn't going to be an easy one."

——————————-——————————-

I didn't want the phone call with Croft to end. I knew once we hung up the phone Ivan was going to want to talk about what happened on Friday night. I knew there was no way I was going to be able to get out of it this time.

I was right. As soon as we hung up from Croft, Ivan stood up and grabbed a bottle of vodka and two shot glasses.

"I knew you were lying. Question is why? Why did you feel the need to lie to me, but tell him the truth?"

"It's not like that."

"No, I'm not done. We've known each other basically our whole lives. You couldn't trust me enough to tell me why you went outside. What did you think I was going to say?"

He poured himself a shot and tossed it back.

"Did you think I was going to make fun of you? I'm your best friend!"

"What do you want me to say? That I felt this instant connection with someone I just met? That we had the best conversation? That she got me to loosen up and be myself for once and it honestly scared me?"

"Not every woman is going to be like Whitney. You have to let that go!"

"I know and I'm trying, I really am!" I all, but screamed at him.

He grabbed the bottle of vodka, poured us each a shot, and slid one over to me.

"That's all I wanted was the truth D. For you to say it out loud and admit it to yourself. So how about this? I will leave you alone and not ask anymore questions if once she wakes up you go see her? You don't have to slip her your digits. Just go and visit and see how she's doing."

He raised his glass.

I wanted to see her again. I needed to know she was safe.

"Ok."

"Ok?"

"Yes I will go see her once she's awake."

I raised my shot glass then tossed it back.