Chapter 26: Chapter Twenty-Six

Present

Gloria stared calmly up at the unfamiliar ceiling. It had become far too common for her to wake up in beds she had no recollection of climbing into. She sat up and looked out on the midmorning skyline of New York City. The floor to ceiling windows captured everything with brilliant clarity… including the haze that never seemed to dissipate just below the clouds. She closed her eyes and rubbed her temples to try to recover memories from the night before.

She remembered falling asleep in the tub. It was maybe two or three seconds, but the moment her nose dipped below the water, she launched herself out of the tub and onto the plush white carpet beside it. It had taken all of her strength to wrap a towel around herself and stumble out to the closest comfortable piece of furniture. Luckily it had been a bed. Unluckily there was a half-dressed, or half-naked depending on how one looked at it, man already under the covers. Frankie had made every sound of surprise and protest known to the American lexicon before she’d settled beside him and gone limp. She had fallen asleep quickly. She remembered that. She also remembered him saying something.

“Jeez, Gloria, you’re soaking wet,” he’d said.

Then he’d chuckled to himself… softly… off and on for the next few minutes. So proud of himself. She’d apparently fallen asleep then: with the sound of his laughter in one ear and the sound of his heart in the other as he pulled her against his chest.

Now she was alone in the bed. His side had already been made, the edges of the sheets and blankets tucked securely into the mattress. She flung back her own corner of the king-sized bed and went to the bathroom for her morning rituals. She found the clothes on the counter and put them on, grateful after two days to finally have clothes that fit.

Gloria splashed cold water on her face and decided to listen to her growling stomach. As she trudged barefoot down the stairs, she started to make out Frankie’s voice… and he was talking to someone. Gloria’s steps slowed in the hallway as the voices became more clear. She stopped at the edge of the living room and hallway, the kitchen in sight, and peered in at the unsuspecting people.

Frankie was in a pair of black boxer briefs and nothing else. She leaned against the wall and took the opportunity to admire his physique. He’d pulled back the top half of his dark wavy hair into a knot to keep it away from his face. The muscles in his arms and torso coiled and released as he tapped his pack of cigarettes against the counter and pulled one out. His boxers left little to the imagination. She found herself biting her lower lip while admiring the hard planes of his ass. Then there were his legs: just as heavily tattooed as his arms and torso, there was no bulk to hide the bands of muscle that supported the rest of his frame. He was lean. He was lethal. With startling clarity, she accepted the cold hard truth: she freaking wanted him. Then Nora walked closer and blocked her view.

“So you kidnapped her?” Nora yelled.

Frankie rolled his eyes. “Keep your voice down, you’ll crack the windows. I didn’t kidnap her. I saved her.”

“Which you wouldn’t have had to do if you’d not stopped us from going to Florida,” Nora reasoned.

Frankie lit his cigarette and turned around to flick on the exhaust fan above his stove. He leaned over the stove and blew the smoke into the fan before turning back to face Nora with an expression of barely contained irritation.

“You think Vasiliev would’ve just left you alone? ‘Oh, Asher, I just hate Florida. The humidity. I can’t take it. My perfect coif will never survive. Let’s find another Russian Princess. What’s another sixteen years if we can avoid the heat,’” Frankie mocked.

“Cut the crap, Frank, I want to know what your plans are,” Nora hissed with a slap of her palm against the island for emphasis.

“Everyone is so concerned with my plans all the sudden.” Frankie took another pull of his cigarette and blew it into the exhaust again.

“You kidnapped a Russian daughter, Frank. You killed, what, a dozen men?”

Frankie barked out a laugh as he shook his head and took another pull over the stove.

“Are you using her for revenge? Because of what happened with…”

“Don’t,” Frankie warned, turning to Nora with a look that would make anyone else shiver with fear.

Nora merely rolled her eyes and shook her head. “You don’t scare me, Frankie. It isn’t Gloria’s fault that Stephen was killed.”

“You think I don’t know that?”

“Then what is she doing here? Is she in the chamber? I swear to God, Frankie if she is in the…”

“Jesus Christ, Nora, she’s not in the fucking chamber. She upstairs… in bed,” he said, a cheshire grin pulling at his face.

Nora went after him with her hands. Frankie shielded his face but didn’t move away or defend himself as Nora slapped at him. “I. Can’t. Believe. You. You slept with her?!”

“Hey, she crawled into my bed,” he reasoned, the smile pulling impossibly higher.

Nora smacked the back of his head and he rubbed it as she paced around the island. She placed her elbows on the marble and buried her face in her hands. She sighed and sanded her hands against her cheeks before she looked back up at Frankie.

“When I started this mission, you made me a promise,” Nora said softly.

“Oh, come on, Nora,” Frankie whined, turning away to flick his cigarette into the sink.

“You said you would be a silent partner. You said you would let me make the decisions. You said you would leave the girls alone. You promised me,” Nora reminded him. Frankie crossed his arms and leaned back against the counter, studying Nora with shrewd eyes. “Don’t give me that look. There’s no worming into my brain to find a clever way out of this. You broke a promise and now Stephen is dead.”

At the sound of Stephen’s name, Frankie’s expression turned murderous. “I’m not talking about…”

“You need to talk about it, Frankie. Stephen is dead.”

“Shut up,” Frankie growled, turning away to get another cigarette.

“You didn’t go to the funeral. Have you spoken to your parents at all?”

“Leave it alone, Nora.”

“Gloria doesn’t need to be involved in this. She has been through enough. What her dad and Sergei put her through…”

“Have you read her contract?” Frankie suddenly asked, pivoting on his heels to study her face, to detect any deception.

Nora gave him a dubious look. “You know only Accardi reads the contracts. But no matter what it says, you cannot use her and that contract to get back at Sergei.”

Frankie turned again but this time he went for the coffee maker. “I’m not using her to get back at Sergei,” he said on a sigh, taking two mugs down from the cupboard.

“Or Ivan.”

Frankie looked upward as if asking God for patience. “Or the fucking bastard who contributed to half of her DNA,” he said as he poured two cups of coffee.

“Then what is it?”

“What is what?”

“Frank. Why is Gloria Rubanov asleep in your bed upstairs?” Nora asked.

Frankie turned, holding the two mugs of coffee in his hands. He walked up to Nora and lowered his head so they were at eye-level. “Because I fucking want her to be.”

“You’re such a fucking asshole,” Nora hissed, reaching for the cup in his left hand.

“Uh, uh, uh,” Frankie said with a click of his tongue and shake of his head. “Not for you.”

Frankie’s eyes snapped straight to where Gloria was hiding. She jumped slightly, taken off guard, wondering if he’d known she was there the entire time. He hadn’t looked her way once. Had she tripped a silent alarm when coming down the stairs? Had he scented her? His dark eyes were magnetic, they slowly skimmed down her body as if he’d spent the entire night before molding his hands to its contours and now knew it by heart. She gulped.

“Gloria,” Nora said on an exhale. She rushed out of the kitchen to grab her. Gloria’s eyes stayed locked on Frankie’s until Nora twirled her away. “Are you okay? Are you injured? Did he…” Nora gasped and delicately touched the slowly healing bruises along Gloria’s neck. Tears brimmed in Nora’s eyes.

“I’m okay,” Gloria tried to assure her. She gripped Nora’s wrists and nodded that she was fine.

Nora swallowed, her eyes were filled with worry. They flicked over her shoulder to where Frankie stood watching the reunion. She licked her lips and shook her head. When she spoke, her voice was low as if they were in a dumpster hiding from a monster and speaking too loud would give away their position. “I need to get you out of here. You’re in danger. Come with me. Now.”

Nora gripped Gloria fiercely and started for the door.

“What?” Gloria asked, startled. “Nora, no, I’m okay.”

“Nora,” Frankie called calmly from the kitchen.

Nora didn’t pick up her pace but something in the way she tightened her hold on Gloria’s wrist gave away her desperation. Nora got to the door that opened to the elevator and tried to pull it open. It didn’t budge. She swiveled around and pushed Gloria behind her.

“Open the door, Frank,” Nora demanded.

Frankie stood in the living room doorway, leaning casually against the wall. He shrugged and shook his head as he took a sip from his coffee cup.

“Don’t make me force you.”

Frankie’s eyebrows shot up. “I would love to see what you think you can do to make me change my mind.”

Nora walked to the security keypad and entered a number that turned the system green. She smirked proudly and flicked Frankie off as she yanked the door open. Then came the sound of a slide being racked. Nora froze. Both she and Gloria turned to see Frankie in the same position as before. However, instead of the mug being in his right hand, it was in his left. In his right hand was now a handgun which he kept relaxed by his side.

“Leave the girl,” Frankie commanded as he took another sip of his coffee.

“Come on, Gloria,” Nora said with a shake of her head in disbelief.

“I said,” Frankie began, taking a step and raising the gun up. “Leave. The. Girl.”

Nora stared at the barrel of the gun pointing between her eyes. “Frankie Donati. You have never once held a gun to me.”

“You’ve never tried to steal from me.”

“She’s a person.”

“She’s my person.”

Nora continued to stare and Gloria could feel the woman’s palms getting sweaty. “If you do this. If you hold me at gunpoint, it will change our friendship forever.”

“If you take my girl from me, it’ll change our friendship forever. We’re at an impasse, Nora. One of us is going to be hurt. Only question is who is going to deliver the blow?”

Neither of them would back down… and neither would she. Gloria removed Nora’s hand from her wrist and took a step backward toward Frankie. Nora shook her head. Gloria nodded her own. Then she took another step back.

In her life there were only moments, little flickers of time, when she felt truly and utterly safe. They were fleeting. They happened rarely. She learned to stop looking for them. Then he came and those moments turned to minutes, hours, days. Gloria was raised to fear but when she looked into his eyes it was the last thing she felt. She was young. She had a heck of a lot more to learn about the world. But this? This she knew. Gloria took a few more steps back until Frankie’s arm wound around her waist and she was safe from the world again.