The Taste of Silver | Fortune's Fool #2

22 | expensive linen shirt

** this chapter's unedited because i really wanted to update for you all so please point out any errors/typos :) **

[ e x p e n s i v e   l i n e n   s h i r t ]

♥ gabriel ♥

I'D HAVE NEVER thought that a mere one-week long family cruise would lead to me wondering just how much sour baggage it took for a cruise to become a damn sinking ship with no lifeboats.

And I thought my family relationships were bad.

We were in Portsmouth and had arrived late since Talisa overslept. I highly questioned just how accidental it was. The port wasn't far from the station but considering how late we were, we took the taxi.

I glanced to the left at Talisa. She was in sweatpants and some limited edition Nike trainers with her eyes shut. There was a look of indifference on her face as if she'd rather be anywhere else in the world but here.

"Admiring my beauty?"

Her seafoam green eyes snapped open. The iris was actually a surprisingly bold and vibrant colour that stood out against her toffee coloured skin. Considering how her pupils were normally dilated, I'd never really seen her natural eye colour. Most of the time it was obscured by the black from the centre of her eye.

"Don't let Dedushka catch you. He'll castrate you with an emotionless face worse than your own."

I looked at her with a straight face.

She shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly, kicking her feet off from the black leather seats of the cab. "No, I'm completely serious. I've never seen him smile. To be honest, most of the Lisin men and my mum's relatives are the same. So at least you'll have that in common. It's more than I have in common with them."

There was always bitterness when she spoke about her family and it was getting to the stage where I was close to asking her what the issue was. I didn't care enough though which led to me thinking about why I was even here.

But even a shadow of distraction was still a distraction. And if this meant I wouldn't think about her for a week, then it was a no brainer.

"We're here," I commented, pushing open the black car door and stepping out.

"Dammit. Can we just pretend I died on the journey?" she muttered under her breath before following me out of the car. Unlike her, I'd decided to wear a sharp white shirt and trousers and it was lucky I did.

I gave a frosty look to her. "I'm usually the one saying stuff like that. I don't like this role reversal."

She cracked a smile. "Better get used to it, liubimy."

Following her towards the large cruise towards the end of the port, I snarled in annoyance. "What did I say ab-"

"-about calling me that?" Talisa mimicked in a deep voice that sounded nothing like my own. "Sorry, Gabriel but I think you should be preparing yourself for the hellhouse by the name of the Lisin family instead."

She wasn't joking.

Standing in front of a luxurious huge cruise were seven men all in freshly pressed black suits with shades on. The one on the far left had his eyes trained upon the pair of us, the disapproval within his gaze being felt from metres away.

"Well, if it isn't Talisa. It's been a while. I didn't think you had been given an invite."

He spoke in a thick Russian accent, the rich tone of eliteness was rumbling through every word. Despite its deepness, his snide demeanour was easily apparent.