Page 43 of Ensnared
Setting the gun on the table next to him Dimitri took a deep breath. "Let's try this again. Tell me about your sister." He could see the kid trying to think and took pity on him. "Start with her father," he said, more than a little curious to get this answer.
Ricky's face softened. "Eve's dad was great," he admitted softly. "I think Mom said she met him when he pulled her over for speeding. Instead of giving her a ticket, he got her number." Ricky rolled his eyes but smiled anyway. From what little Dimitri could piece about the missing woman that story seemed to fit. Ricky leaned back a little in his chair as he continued. "I swear no time at all passed from when I first met the man and mom was pregnant. But then again, I was a kid so who knows. I just know that when he was there life was good. We were like a real family. We had our own house down in Enterprise. I remember it having a huge yard. He worked for the sheriff's department so there was actually money in the household which of course made Mom happy. And I think..." Ricky paused and Dimitri could see the traces of pain the memories caused him. "I think Mom was really happy then. Yeah, she loved the stability Eve's dad brought us, but I think she really loved him too, or at least that is what I tell myself and what I always told Eve when she used to ask."
"I take it she has no memories of him?" Dimitri asked, thinking of their age differences.
Ricky shook his head sadly. "No. For a while, when she was younger, she thought she did but I think she was just imagining the things I would tell her that happened. After a while, it kind of made her angry that she couldn’t remember him but I could. She never said it but I know it did."
Dimitri turned his chair and looked out the windows lining the far wall. The sky was dark and cloudy, the kind of day where the sky threatened to rain but never committed to the task. He imagined Eve, tried to picture her sweet round face wearing her round gold-rimmed glasses as a kid. He could easily picture the disappointment on her face every time her brother recalled a memory with her dad and she couldn't do the same.
"And after he died?" Dimitri looked at Ricky again. "Your mother just up and left?"
Any moment of comfort remembering the past with Eve's father quickly faded as Ricky turned his thoughts back to his mother. "Not immediately," he said bitterly. "She made sure to run up a bunch of debt, sell practically everything, and drop us off at our grandparent's house where she spent the next few years coming and going until finally, she just never returned."
Dimitri nodded. That added up to what Andrey had researched about the woman.
A few seconds of silence passed by before Ricky's chair creaked as he leaned forward. "Can you…can you not hurt her? Eve is the nicest person in the entire world." he implored. He held his fists tight in his lap, a clear sign of the strain this was taking on him. "She puts everyone first to the point she can't even see when people use her. She's had to go through tons of terrible friends to find the few good ones she did back in Santa Barbara only to let that asshole Landon convince her to move back to Vegas with him and use her for his fucking book." Ricky shook his head in frustration. "She doesn't deserve this."
Dimitri narrowed his eyes at him. "And what isthis?"
"This!" Ricky spread his hands out with a look of desperate frustration. "You and her…what you're doing to her because of me."
He speared the kid with a flat look. "You mean giving her a house to live in, putting her grandparents in a state-of-the-art assisted living condo, or maybe it's keeping you alive and well? Or maybe trying to get her to use an unlimited credit card I left for her?"
The scowl that had been growing on Ricky's face stopped and slowly formed into a knowing smirk that made Dimitri want to reach out and shoot the kid in the knee. Dimitri refrained from giving in to the urge, however. Although he wanted a healthy dose of fear from him, he didn't necessarily want to make a permanent enemy out of the kid. He thought of Eve and how much she loved her brother. It wouldn't do him any favors in the future if he hurt the idiot, he reminded himself.
Instead, he gave Ricky a look that told him his patience was dwindling.
Taking the hint, Ricky shifted in his seat and looked away. "Eve doesn't really care about money. Only when she has none does she think about it, but she doesn't think about it beyond that. So, you can save your money, she can't be bought." The smug smirk on Ricky's face didn't last long when he met Dimitri's cold gaze again. He knew what he wanted to hear and after a few seconds, he relented under the silent pressure with a heavy sigh. "Honestly, Eve could live paycheck to paycheck her whole life as long as she had her family, and friends, and could accomplish her boring dream of being a librarian. That's it. There really isn't anything more than that. She's just like everyone else, she just wants to be safe and loved…and have her freedom," he threw in with a defiant look.
The corner of Dimitri's mouth tugged with a smirk as he grabbed his gun from the table and stood up. He ignored Ricky's flinch at his sudden movement and walked past him toward Andrey, speaking to him in Russian.
"Keep looking after him," he ordered before walking out of the lab.
Chapter 24
Dimitrihadn'ttouchedherin a week.
Each night, he came home and settled into the bed beside her saying nothing and never reaching for her. A couple of times Eve had been awake. Keeping perfectly still on her side of the bed she laid there and listened as he silently moved around the room. When he finally did lay down, she just heard his deep exhale and heard the thrumming purrs as he scratched her cat's head. He didn't even say anything about Mochi being in bed! His silence should have given her peace—it did the exact opposite. It only made her more suspicious.
Putting her suspicion aside, Eve did manage to find one small silver lining in her daily routine—the loads of alone time she got. With no interviews to go on and her plans of escape thoroughly dashed after realizing the true scope of Dimitri's power, Eve had nothing to do besides hang around the house. The groceries weren't a problem. A service came through and restocked the fridge each week, all she or Dimitri had to do was add things to the list they left on the counter. The cleaning? Also taken care of by two discreet men who wore uniforms from the hotel. They reminded Eve of elves from the North Pole in the way they worked, silent and quick.
There was literally nothing for her to do but hang around the house other than apply for jobs and entertain herself. She considered going somewhere but every time she considered it, she could swear she caught glimpses of one of the enforcers doing his rounds giving her a look that told her if she went anywhere, he would be going too.
"Let a girl try and escape once and she's forever a flight risk," Eve mumbled to herself.
Honestly, she couldn't remember the last time she had this much time to herself. There was no peace in a Filipino household. If she or her brother spent too much time in their rooms, her grandmother or grandfather was guaranteed to disrupt that. They would find themselves completing random chores, going on errands, or eating an impromptu family meal. It did not matter; they would find a way.
So she spent her time getting back into the one thing that always made her happy. The one thing that she hadn't looked at in a while considering the drama in her life. Smutty webtoons! Hot 2D guys having sweet raunchy romance with other hot 2D guys were her version of therapy.
Today she was lying on the couch with her phone on the ground and her chin resting on her forearm. Lazily, she used her hand dangling from the couch to scroll the comic slowly up as she read each panel.
"Enjoying yourself?" the deep voice spoke from behind her.
Eve let out a small scream and nearly rolled onto the floor. With her heart pounding she turned to look up at Dimitri standing behind the couch giving her a wicked dimpled smile.
"What are you doing here?" She watched him leave from the bedroom window a few hours ago.
Dimitri ignored her question, his sharp eyes honing in on her phone. "Is this from the same show you were watching yesterday morning?"
