Page 58 of His Smile
"No," he smiled softly,the hand that toyed with the hair at her back pressed itself against her bareback just above her naked backside. "The women we get are from all over.Most from Russia, some from the Ukraine, some are from other parts of the US,and all want to work there."
He laughed at her quizzicallook, and his hand moved in soothing, reassuring circles on her back."Trust me, the women I employ, which is a little under forty of them, makeobscene amounts of money. Each one of them drives luxury cars, a few even livein Alexei's building. Some have houses, a couple have families, and put theirkids through elite private school. From what I am told by the woman I pay tomanage them, they more than like their work. And it is the same for the fewstrip clubs that Mikhail owns. A contact overseas offers the women theopportunity, and they are brought over to us. Now," he lifted a hand toher chin, capturing her full attention as he gave her a serious look."That is only how we run things. I cannot speak for the other men in theother states. I will not lie to you and tell you that the others that workunder Vladimir are as progressive as we are when it comes to the sextrade."
"But how do you knowMikhail treats the women at his clubs nicely," she pressed, thinking ofthe silent, bald stocky man with the young wife. He seemed gentle enough, butRahina hardly knew the man.
Leaning back against theheadboard, Roman regarded her for a couple of moments as if mentally debatingsomething of great value.
"I know Mikhail treatsthe women he has working for him well because I sent my sister to him."
Rahina's mind and bodyfroze.
Roman continued with a sigh."My sister is an idiot, first of all. She is older than me by eight years.Technically, we are half siblings, but I always looked to her as a motherfigure when I was a kid since she took care of me when our mother was out. WhenI went to the military, she told me she went to work in a factory, I found outyears later she had actually followed in our mother's footsteps and startedworking as a bartender and sleeping with random men. When I joined the bratva,I realized very quickly having an idiotic sister, that I did not wish harmed,would be a liability. I knew I was going to make enemies, lots of them, and Ihad no time to worry about her, so I changed my name."
"Your name isn'tRoman?" she asked, startled.
"Yes, my name is Roman,but my surname is Domeshev, not Mashir."
"Oh," she lookedaway towards the window in thought for a moment before turning back to him."Why, Mashir?"
"Because supposedlythat was the surname of my real father, or so my mother claimed," Romanadded with a shrug. "It didn't matter to me; I just needed a name thatwould put distance between me and my sister."
"So, what happened toyour sister?"
He grinned widely. "Ibecame really good at my new life and made a lot more enemies than Iexpected," she rolled her eyes at his bragging tone. "At that time Mikhailhad been sent over to work with the guy running things down here at that time,but we all knew Mikhail was going to take over and I knew I could trustMikhail. He was not like the rest of the guys, I never heard anything about himtreating women badly. So, I took a chance, I forced my sister to go withMikhail. I assumed she would work as a bartender or something; what I did notexpect was to find the idiot stripping in his clubs."
Rahina's eyes went wide.
"Yeah," hescratched at the stubble on his chin as he looked beyond her, lost in hismemories. "You can imagine my anger. I trusted Mikhail with my onlysecret, and he had her dancing in one of his fucking clubs."
"Did you get into afight with him too?"
"Nearly, but my idiotsister intervened and explained she liked working there and had asked Mikhailto do it."
"Wow," Rahinadidn't know what to say. "Where is your sister now?"
"Still working forMikhail, as the manager to his clubs now. If you ever meet Misha again, youwill most likely see my sister, Vera. She is like a mother to Misha."
"Well, I hope I get tomeet her one day," she admitted. "I didn't think you had anysiblings."
"That was exactly whatI wanted the world to think," he winked.
"And now? I know youdon't want people knowing about her now, is it still dangerous for you to havepeople you care for around you?" The moment the words were out of hermouth, she regretted them. She didn't want him to think she was trying tosubtly lump herself in with people he loved. If Roman ever told her he caredfor her, she wanted it to be because he truly felt that way not because shecoaxed it out of him.
He didn't say anything for along moment. The muscle in jaw flexed as he stared past her and out the windowto the large backyard. "A lot of my enemies are dead and the rest—wouldrather not be. Besides," his tone lightened as a smirk returned to hislips, softening his expression. "I would not care if anyone found outabout my sister.”
Nodding, she ran her handdown the length of his arm, watching as her fingers glided over the hard risingflesh of his bicep and down to elbow and back up the wide expanse of hisforearm. The tattoos on his arm varied from words written in Cyrillic, an imageof a gun surrounded by knives and ivy, and four sets of tally marks totaling totwenty. Every time Rahina looked at the obvious scoring system, and her breathshallowed a little. Was this how many people he killed? She wanted to ask him,but she felt childish, even thinking of asking him such a question. Shesupposed she was really curious about what he felt when he looked at thenumbers. When he glanced at them, was he reminded of these people's facesbefore they died or did the extensive unnamed list invigorate him at the sight?Or was it even a list of his kills, she thought?
"Does it botheryou?" His voice was quiet and intense.
"Is it pathetic of meif I told you I am bothered by the thought of these being marks of your femaleconquests in the past?"
The bark of laughter wasunexpected.
"Rahina, baby, thereisn't enough room on my arm for those types of numbers.” The honest answerstung at her heart.
"That does not make mefeel any better," she huffed, trying to scoot away.
"Sex with other womenhad only ever been about the release. With you, it is different,” he assuredher, his deep voice coaxing her anger away.
