"Idiots!" Cain muttered as he clutched an ice pack to his head.
When he had fainted, he had hit his face on the floor and one eye had been bruised. The bruised eye was swollen nearly shut, but he didn't need two eyes to see that he had failed. And he blamed it all on the incompetent guards he had brought to help him.
He had awoken in Pamela's room and was disgusted to have seen them out on the floor like dummies. His head throbbing with pain, he had gone to the bathroom and had dumped a bucket of water on them.
The fool, Harrison had the guts to say that Pamela had been the one who had taken him down. He could still understand James who had been knocked out by a man but Harrison? How could a mere woman take him down? How dumb was he?
"We're sorry sir." They said in unison.
The sound of an ambulance wail made him swallow the acid reply he had been working up for the blockheads. He angrily stoned the icepack at a wall and made his way downstairs. To his surprise, not only was there ambulance, but also the police and the press with their news vans.
His heart skipped when he saw his superiors, Maya Johnson and Art Dwayne. He hated the looks they had on their faces, especially Dwayne. How the fuck was he going to explain his reason for being in Pamela's house? What was he going to do? Was it over for him? If he was caught his skeletons would be dropping out of his closet, one by one and that would end him.
His eyes lit up when an idea struck him. Halfway to the ambulance van, his knees buckled and he almost went down. Thankfully, two cops were nearby and they had rushed to support him. A gurney was rolled towards him and he was strapped on one. Reporters pounced on him, asking him myriad questions.
"Mr. Rodgers cannot make a comment right now." Johnson said and signaled for the EMTs to shut the van and leave. "We will give you a report later on."
That was the last he heard before a drip was passed into his arm. The sedative was so heavy that he couldn't help but succumb to it. He didn't fight it anyway, he had a plan that was going to work perfectly well. But for this evening, he would gladly give in to rest.
When he awoke, he felt very hot, and his head pounded. He sat up and looked around. It was daybreak and he was in a hospital room with another patient who was asleep. A drip was being passed to him and his side was filled with dozens of flowers pilled so high that Cain couldn't see the man's face.
He chuckled. The average American. Has kids, doting wife, caring parents, neighbors that dropped by to borrow sugar. It annoyed him to have been put in a room with the man. Not that he was jealous, no, he just hated things like that.
He turned away from the patient and was surprised to find a bouquet of roses on his bed side table. Who the hell would send him flowers? Probably the nurses had thought he would be depressed to see his roommate with lots flowers and him without and thought to give him one. How thoughtful.
Whatever the case was, was he ignored it. He looked around to see if he could leave. He hated being static. He ran his hand over his bandaged scalp and his swollen eyes. It seemed the swelling had reduced.
He looked into the direction of the door when he heard a doctor and a nurse come in.
"Mr. Rodgers. How are you feeling?"
"So-so."
The doctor checked the dressing covering his wound. Cain moaned when he peeled the bandage off to take a look. "Hurts bad?"
"You have no idea."
He applied his stethoscope to several spots on his chest. "Your heart beat is good, strong in fact. Your vitals are too." He looked at the nurse. "Replace his IV bag and get him something to drink."
The nurse nodded and started to remove the empty IV tube while the doctor made him breath up a spirometer to keep his lungs clear. After he was done, they both left but the nurse returned with a cup of sprite and a straw.
"Do you need anything else?" She asked after she had made him sip a few times.
"Yes. My life back."
She laughed. "Well then you're in luck, because you're in a better shape than you were yesterday. You'll be discharged toady."
"Good. Good."
As the nurse turned to leave, she stopped and said, "Nice arrangement of flowers by the way. They are really beautiful. But not as beautiful as the young lady that brought it." She winked at him and he grinned at her as she left.
The moment she shut the door, his grin froze and he yanked the bouquet from the table, searching if it had a card. It had none. What the hell was the nurse saying?
By the time he was done with the discharging paper works, Cain had convinced himself that the nurse was crazy. Two uniformed police men were asked to escort him home, which he refused, saying he didn't want to "inconvenience" anyone. They insisted and he agreed. The moment they stepped out of the hospital doors, they were attacked by news reporters.
Cain wanted to laugh out loud in excitement. Just what he wanted. They had saved him the trouble of calling a press conference. Putting on his best victim face, and pretending to be hassled and tired from repeatedly saying "no comments", he stopped.
"Mr. Rodgers can you tell us what happened to you?"
"No comments." One of the policemen said but Cain gave him a smile that said "I don't have a choice!"
"I was attacked." He said and millions of questions were thrown at him from various angles. He raised his hand to quieten them and they obeyed immediately. It made goose bumps rise on his skin. "I was attacked by Pamela King Gusev, and her supposedly late husband, Devlin Gusev."
The questions came at him again and the moment he raised his hand, they all went still. He was enjoying the power he had over them. He would be the most popular man in the town by the end of the day.
"Yes, what I am saying is, Devlin Gusev, who reportedly died three years ago, is in fact alive and kicking. I have my face to show for that."
There were chuckles of laughter. "Are you saying the rumored drug mafia faked his own death?"
He looked straight into the biggest camera in the sea of cameras and blinding lights. "Yes. Devlin Gusev faked his own death, and he is on the run. We all should be careful. Do not walk at night. Lock your doors and windows. We will reveal more as we find more details. Thank you."
He was happy about the outcome of the interview. He had been planning to call a press conference but the press conference came to meet him, hassle free. He knew his superiors would foam at the mouth when they found out what he did but he couldn't care less. They wouldn't be able to hurt him because he had the support of the people. At least he hoped he did.
The moment he said his goodbyes to his escorts and shut the door of his apartment, his phone rang. It was Tucker. He answered.
"Yes?"
"You'd shit a brick if I told you what I found."
"What?"
"A flight heading for Russia was booked in a hurry, few hours ago. I have a friend who works there. He said the woman sounded "very desperate" and agreed to pay double the original price. The flight was booked under a Mr. and Mrs. Travis. My guess is it's an assumed name."
Cain's heart skipped in excitement but he tried to downplay it because he didn't want to jump the gun. "It could be anyone. You could be wrong."
"Yes. But guess how they paid for the flight?"
"Cash?"
"No. They used an account name of an Artemis Dwayne."
"Bloody fuck!"
"Are you convinced it's them?"
"Beyond reasonable doubt."
"Well if you want to catch them, you better hurry. They're halfway across the Atlantic as we speak."
~
Asides the bruise discoloring on her collarbone where she'd caught the bed frame and the gash on his head which he'd hidden beneath a hat, Devlin and Pamela looked like any ordinary couple who had just arrived in Russia for a vacation.
Getting hotel reservation had been easy because they had Art's credit card. Devlin had called him after they had escaped from Pamela's condo and despite the fact that he had flown through the roof at first, he'd helped get them plane tickets and had met them briefly to give them his cards. It would be dangerous for Devlin to use his accounts as his every activity would be watched and closely monitored.
The shower went off ending Devlin's train of thought and the door to the bathroom opened and Pamela stepped out, wearing a towel around her. His body reacted. The thought of her wet skin against his made him feel hot all of a sudden. He kept eating her up with his eyes, wanting to touch her, to kiss her in spots that would make her tingle and cry out and to hold her close.
She looked up and caught him staring. It seemed she understood because she didn't to ask what he was staring at; she didn't need to ask, and if the look she returned was any indication, it seemed she wanted it too.
In a second, he covered the distance between them and took her in his arms. He let the towel slide off her body and momentarily stopped, taking in the sight of her naked. They might be in danger, might have narrowly escaped one and might still be running from one, but the sight of her naked didn't fail to awaken a deep feeling of excitement and arousal.
He took her head in his palm and kissed her lips, which were warm and inviting. It made him tingle to think of other places that would be as warm and inviting to him. His tongue slipped easily past her lips and moved against hers in a long, warm kiss that left them both short of breath but full and overflowing with desire for each other.
Her fingers blindly sought and found his fly and started to unbuckle it. He made a throaty sound when she took him in her hand and made a slow, deliberate stroke from root to tip. It almost drove him mad. His head swam when she lowered to her knees and began to work wonders with her tongue. When he was at the brink of loosing it, he tried to bring her back to her feet but she refused and kept on artistically working, driving him closer to the edge of ecstasy. When he came, she took in every bit of him, every single drop.
They switched positions and he nibbled and her love button, wanting to make her visit the same heaven she had brought him to. When she was at the brink, he quickly buried himself into her, loving her with a slow rhythmic oscillation, moving in sync to their heart beats. It was just like the first time, only better.
When she came, her walls closed around him in spikes that triggered his own release. Spent, they lay spooned together, breaths heavy, sweaty, but fulfilled in the passion of lovemaking.
"Babe?"
"Hmm?" He pushed aside a handful of her hair and kissed the back of her neck.
"Are you really an orphan?"
Devlin groaned. "Don't ruin this moment."
She turned to face him. "You promised to tell."
"Why did you think of this now? After the earth shaking lovemaking we just had?"
"I don't know but I realized that you never mentioned your mom."
"I don't need a mom to be happy. I have you."
She said nothing but lay facing him, her hands beneath her cheek and he assumed it was her way of telling him to go on.
He chuckled mirthlessly. "I do have parents. Had. The last time I saw my mom was when I was ten. She never called or tried to find me afterwards."
"I'm so sorry."
He shrugged with disinterest. "I'm over it."
"Are you?"
"Yes. I don't hold her accountable for anything. I was a mischievous child. Caused trouble a lot, especially after my father died. I and my step-father never went along. He was the reason she disowned me. Decades later, she still doesn't care."
"I'm so sorry baby. You didn't deserve any of that."
"But I don't regret it."
"How did you come to the states?"
"It was the wedding anniversary of my mother and her husband. They decided to take all the kids on a vacation to a ranch in Texas. I had two younger siblings. When we got there, I saw the way they excluded me from everything. I felt like a baggage, an unwanted fifth wheel, so I stole her money and hopped on a train bound for nowhere without looking back. I just wanted to leave. And she never cared."
"They never reported you missing?"
"Not that I heard. I ended up becoming the property of the state, I mean how would a ten-year-old survive on his own? Thankfully no one adopted me because I was less than agreeable. Few years later, I met Rob."
Pamela smiled fondly. "The knight."
"The knight." He repeated. "I swore never to come back here and whenever business led me here, I stayed as far from Kaliningrad as possible."
"But here we are. And I have a feeling you didn't bring us to this particular city for nothing."
He sat up. "No, Pamela. I didn't come here for nothing. I came for my revenge. It's about time too."
"What?"
"Think of it. If my mom had been a better mother I wouldn't be here. I might not have met you and I mght have. My point is, it would have been in a different situation, and not one filled with danger. She failed me."
"Did you ever look for her? What if she regrets what happened and is looking for you but just can't find you? You changed your name you know."
He laughed dryly. "I didn't tell you, I called her once."
"Really? That's great! Shows you still love her."
He snorted. "I was feeling lost and thought forgiving her would make me feel better."
"How did she feel about it?"
"She hung up on me. After I said my name."
Her lips parted slightly in a surprised expression. "When was this?"
"A few years ago, shortly before we met."
"I'm so sorry."
"Sorry's not it. She's a bad parent. I know it's hard to imagine anyone who carried and birthed you to hate you but it happens. I'm a living witness to that. She needs to pay."
"But what if she hung up because she was caught off guard? Maybe she thought it was a prank. And because of the guilt, she had to hang up?"
"I called again, Pamela. Swallowed my pride and called again. She picked up and said, "Never call this number again." She evil. She has to pay."
"Is there any use trying to convince you to change your mind?"
"No."
"What exactly are you planning?"
"I'm going to destroy her." He stood and paced the room. "I did a research about what she's been up to. She's the CEO of the company my dad left, "The Chernyshevsky company." Brings in millions every year. She's always in the news, known as a reputable woman, one with principles. How ironic. That's what she cares the most the about. Her reputation. And that is what I will destroy. I will make sure her perfectly ordered life crumbles, brick by brick until she is left with nothing."
"Oh God."
He reached for the bedside table and handed a card to her. "And my little brother's engagement party is the right place to start."
~
Hello there, here's the promised chapter. Thank you so, so, so much for reading. Don't forget to vote, comment your thoughts, and if you haven't, please add this book to you library and reading lists and share. Thank you.
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