Mia sat nervously in front of Danila as the waiter poured them wine. Danila saw her fidgeting and knew she was scared of him. At the same time, he wanted her to witness how he killed Arseniy.
He needed her know that when it came to her, he would never hold back.
"If you drink, you will feel better." He said as he raised his glass and clinked it with hers, still on the table. Mia took a sip and lightly touched her cut lip.
"Do you all just not feel any guilt for taking someone's life?" She asked not looking at him.
He pondered her question. He did at some point, but not now.
"Probably the first few times but then you know, my life is on the line too. If it's not someone else, then it's me. Or in this case...you." He said matter of factly as he leaned on his elbows on the table and enjoyed watching her in front of him.
"Why do you do this? Why couldn't you just be...normal? You seem like a good guy." She said quietly.
"I am a good guy!" He smiled. "I don't litter, I take care of my parents, I stand in line nicely, I pay taxes, I served my county. You know, all the regular stuff, I do!"
"What did you say to him before you...you shot him?"
"Ehh. Just an expression. From the army." Danila said as if brushing it off.
"You served in the army? What did you do?" She was always curious about his past but there never seemed to be a good time to talk about it. He was loving her curiosity and answered honestly.
"I did. I was a sniper." He watched her eyebrows raise as he said those words.
She was surprised and incredibly impressed that he was a sniper.
"So why...why are you doing this? Armed forces seem like a good career." She wondered out loud and Danila smiled as she spoke. "Why would you give that up?"
"Yeah, I worked contract for a few years after the army but when you have to put your life on the line for only a few thousand dollars a month...this life is much better. Plus, I did it because I wanted to serve my country...I have principles too, not because of a good career path. I was already deeply in this...world...before I served."
"How old are you?" She asked trying to figure out his relationship to Kirill.
"Twenty seven."
Her eyes widened, "You're only twenty seven?!" And he smiled and nodded from her surprise.
"Yeah. The military contract work was just a thing to do. This is the purpose." He said darkly.
"When did you meet Kirill?" She wanted more details now.
"I'm surprised Kirill hasn't told you anything. You don't know anything about Artyom, you don't know anything about my friendship with him...tsk, tsk, tsk." He looked at her shaking his head.
She thought about his words. He was right. Kirill was secretive and she hated that.
She was like an open book but Kirill kept dark secrets hidden in his past and she wondered if there were more awful details he hadn't shared with her.
"I met him when I was a teenager, I don't know thirteen, fourteen? He worked with my dad and we hit it off. He is like ten years older...and I was spending time with shit people but he was like an older brother and I learned a lot from him." Danila explained and Mia listened intently.
As Mia ate slowly, she thought about who on earth Kirill was. He knew Danila's dad as well it seemed, and Danila was right, Kirill didn't tell her a lot.
"Do you want to go somewhere warm for a break?" Danila looked up at her and interrupted her mental gymnastics. She heard the question but didn't realize that was even possible.
"Are we...allowed? For lack of a better word." She asked, unsure if he was joking.
"Of course! You're my girlfriend, remember? It's almost January and you arrived back in October so...we've been together for two months now. I treat my girlfriends well. Let's go for New Years. We can both rest and come back renewed." He smiled gently and poured more wine in her glass.
"So you don't drink vodka, do you drink at all?" He asked as he noticed she only took a few sips.
"Sure. I'm just not in a very drinking mood lately. I was pretty drunk when I first saw Kirill in my life." She lightly laughed and immediately winced at the pain in her lip.
Danila didn't know this detail and asked her when that was and she explained to him their initial encounter.
Danila listened to her with bated breath. He had no knowledge of this but started calculating the years and figured this was right around the time when Kirill suddenly started his transformation.
Damn, Kirill rose through the ranks and changed himself for her, he thought.
"Wow." He only responded with one word and Mia looked at him as if asking what that meant.
"Kirill was...different before. When I met him, he was angry...and belligerent. He did a lot of drugs and he fucked around like his life depended on it. A different girl on his arm every week." Danila chuckled. He watched Mia's angelic face look at him hungry for more information and decided to tell her more.
"He was always very smart and calculating but it was like he was hellbent on destroying himself. Then one day he was just different...it was almost like something happened one day and he slowly became...better. Seems like that day was the day he saw you...He struggled a lot with quitting coke and he actually started taking care of his health. He stopped smoking like a chimney and went to the gym! I was so shocked. He is a big guy but he never deliberately did anything to improve." He paused but Mia encouraged him on.
"He cleaned himself up and started dressing better. He became calmer and not so explosive or angry. And at some point he stopped dating completely. He never brought any girls around anymore, like...never. We would all get together and have someone with us but he was alone. Now it makes sense why that was...he was waiting until he saw you." He paused to take a sip of his drink and watched her take the information in. Clearly, this was all news to her.
"I went to the army but I kept in touch with him obviously, and everything that was happening here. That's when he really became who he is...I mean he already had a ton of influence and power before I left but when I was away, he became the Tsar. I don't know about New York but I know...and everyone knows, that here, he is the boss."
"How many people has he killed, do you think? Ballpark it." Mia asked clearly curious in the gruesome detail but tried to make it light.
"Oof...that's very hard mathematics and to be honest, I have no idea. I only know of what I've seen and that's a reasonable number." Danila responded but then regretted formulating his sentence like that.
Mia raised her eyebrows at him,
"Why don't you just give me one instance...of when he killed someone...in front of you." Mia was intimidated with this conversation but her pull to find out more information was immense.
Danila told her about the man who looked at Kirill's girlfriend wrong and as he said it, Mia understood that Danila really was playing with fire since he had concrete evidence of what would happen to him if Kirill found out about that kiss between them.
"I see..." Mia smiled slightly and looked at him with sly eyes. "So if I tell Kirill that you kissed me in the privacy of your home after groping me in your club, you will end up dead in a garbage can?" She joked but he smiled too and leaned closer to her.
"Maybe...but if I tell Kirill that you asked me to feel you up while sitting on my lap and imagined me fucking you while you moaned into the microphone...I'm sure he will spare my life."
Danila had a sparkle in his eyes and knew this was checkmate.
Danila's response ignited a fire inside Mia and she suddenly felt hot all over her body. She was faithful to Kirill but being reminded of their sound room activity created a massive conflict in her.
Danila watched her smile fade as she looked at the table and touched her fingers to her lips. He immensely enjoyed how he made her feel in this moment and wanted to press on,
"You really liked when my hands were on you, didn't you, Mia? And you liked watching me fuck that girl...she really did look like you...we look good together." He spoke in a low and deep voice, still leaning close to her.
"You're a good girl, Mia, but...it's okay to be confused." Immediately, Mia was reminded of her friend's words years ago when she was conflicted about Kirill. She shot her eyes up and saw the determination on Danila's face. "He never has to know...he will never find out. He is smart but he can't read minds...it's up to you...I won't take you like that girl in the video. I'll be gentle...but I have a feeling...you like it rough."
"Stop." Mia quietly said. "Stop." And she shook her head slowly.
Danila smiled and leaned back on his chair as he watched her cheeks flush and adjust how she was sitting. He knew she was thinking about him being inside her, just like he was.
Mia picked up her glass of wine and slowly sipped on it as he stared at her.
She was descending into absolute madness inside her head. Danila was becoming bolder and she was losing strength. He obviously made it his mission to seduce her while Kirill was away and she was both scared and excited at the prospect.
Danila was attractive in his own right and she remembered how she flirted with him in New York. She knew she could never cheat on Kirill; she would be eaten alive by guilt. But it seemed that no one else she kept coming across had the same moral standards, including Kirill.
"How come you don't have a girlfriend?" She asked him wanting to linger on the topic. He smiled at her again but didn't want to answer.
"I have you. It worked out well."
"No, in real life. Seems like you would have no trouble with that." She ended her sentence not believing she was speaking to him like this.
"I got divorced last year and I don't want to spend time with anyone." He answered simply.
"You were married?!" Mia asked loudly in disbelief.
"Yes...why is that so shocking?"
"Because you're so....you're so young. And you're already divorced." She tried to justify her reaction.
"Well...in Russia we live fast. We live 100%... we don't wait around for five years before proposing to a girl we love. And we don't wait around if it doesn't work. Talking about living 100%, we need to go pick out some skanky bathing suits for our trip. Remember, you're my stripper girlfriend now. Not good girl Mia."
He joked and began to get out of his chair. Mia looked up at him with no humour on her face and he saw how her long eyelashes moved to reveal her eyes look up at him. Only at him.
"Stop calling me a good girl." She didn't sound very happy.
Danila bent down to her and placed his hands on the soft handles of her chair trapping her in front of him. He got right in her face and whispered,
"Yeah? You want to be called a dirty fucking slut instead? Fuck...I would do that for you...and so much more...We're being watched so don't pull away." And with that he slowly leaned in and kissed her soft lips as Mia closed her eyes and almost moaned into him from the sensation of his lips on hers.
But as soon as the kiss started, it ended and he straightened up and gave her his hand so they could walk out together.
He led her through the restaurant as she walked behind him and her chest flushed red. Danila knew they were being watched for the last twenty minutes and he knew this was Oleg checking to make sure Danila wasn't a liar.