The Girl, The Guard & The Ghost

Explanations Part II

He nodded, “Miklos had given me a photo, but the i***t gave me a photo of his wedding day and Dimi had a damn veil partially covering her face. He assumed I knew who she was because she was Vasili’s daughter but most of my work for the family before then was in the streets, not the warehouses. He swore me to secrecy because nobody in the family knew he was married, and he wanted it kept that way. I didn’t care. It was a job with a steady pay.”

She smiled at him and nodded, “I know. She kicked me under the table, and I knew she wanted me to play along, and I was too damn shy to argue. When you took your seat at the nearby table she came up with her plan. She can come up with plans on the fly, with far more ease than most people.”

“I know. I watched her turn a man’s d**k into a giant flaming mess and it took her ten seconds to produce it.”

She giggled at his description, “poor Ben.”

He snickered, a smile pulling his lips, “she’s ferocious.”

“Yes, she is. Anyway, she said if Miklos got wind of doing the things, she planned on doing in college, he would pull her out. She didn’t want to go back to LA and live in the big house all alone while he was out sleeping with every woman he could find. She said you already thought I was her, so she asked me to roll with it. I didn’t like lying but then she said, if I agreed, I could take the monthly spousal support payment. It would pay for my mom to be in a better nursing facility and a portion of my education. I could work in the library, pick up shifts at the strip club if I needed.”

“Wait, you worked in the clubs while I was watching you?”

She shrugged, “you were given time off every time Dimi went home. She and I went to the airports together. I would hang out in the bathroom until you left. She would fly back to LA and her guard from LA would meet her plane. You would get your well-deserved time off to go spend with your family. I took shifts to bulk up the bank account and I spent extra time with mom.”

“But at a strip club?”

“Yes. I think you don’t understand the very real difference in pay between the library and the dance club. I could make in a night on a pole what I made in a month at the library.”

“Did you take it all off?”

“Topless,” she shrugged. “My bottoms always stayed on.”

She could almost see the steam coming out of his ears.

“When was your last shift? When did you stop working there?”

She looked away and then took a breath. “Two weeks before you found out.”

She watched as he pushed away from the table as if ready to leave and she fought the hurt in her chest. “I didn’t know the girls were going to set up a fund for mom. I expected with Dimi returning to LA, with her parents insisting she make her marriage real the cash flow was going to end. I had a small amount of money banked but not enough. You had dropped me off at the apartment near campus and I snuck out to the club.”

“How did you get past me?” his fists were clenched tightly on the table. “I always stayed in the parking lot until midnight.”

“I had one of the wigs Magda used to wear in one of her costumes.”

“The f*****g redhead,” he pointed at her, his lips a thin straight line. “Leaving at ten thirty multiple times in a trench coat and sunglasses. f**k Sienna, you did this more than once! At least fifty or sixty times in the last three years!”

“I know but I was desperate for the money.”

He rubbed his hand over his mouth in frustration.

She wanted to reach for him, but he was leaning so far back in his seat he may as well have been in another room. “Jonas, I am sorry. I know you don’t understand but there is something you need to know.”

“What? God, what else is there?”

“I never dated. I never let anyone touch me. I never once considered being with anyone else. From the very first time you switched from the table across the way in the coffee shop we spent time together in, and sat with me, it was always you. I wanted to tell you so many times but the risk of my mom being kicked out of her nursing home kept me from doing it.”

“Sienna, do you understand how hard it was for me to want my boss’ wife? I went to sleep each day wondering if it was my last day. If Miklos had found out how much I wanted you, I would have been dead. The level of stress this caused me every single f*****g day for six years. How can you sit there and tell me you cared for me when you put me through it?”

“Was it only want?” she whispered unable to meet his eyes.

“Sienna,” he groaned as he shook his head. “I could not allow myself to admit anything more. As far as I knew, you were Dimitra Lykiaos Laskaris, and I was nothing more than a f*****g soldier. My life is not mine. I owe this family everything. They took me in as a kid and gave me purpose. To be entrusted to take care of the boss’ most prized possession was a huge responsibility.”

“You never loved me then,” she met his eyes.

“I wasn’t allowed.”

“And now? Now you know the truth could you see yourself being with me?”

He gave a single shake of his head, “Sienna, I want to say no. I want to hold onto my pride and walk out of here and not look back. You hurt me. You lied to me. You put me in a dangerous situation I should never have been in. God damn it, I walked in on you in the dorm showers getting off on a dildo moaning my name. If Miklos had found out the woman, I thought was his wife was getting off with my name on her lips, I’d have been dead.”

She blinked back the bitter tears.

“But I can’t walk away,” he admitted quietly meeting her eyes as her gaze snapped back to his. “I am consumed with thoughts of you all the time. You are trapped in here,” he tapped his temple, “and I can’t get you out.”

“So now what?”

“We need to start over,” he said simply. “We need to start like two people who don’t know each other at all, and I want to learn about the real Sienna Lawrence, not the fake Dimitra Lykiaos-Laskaris.”

She felt her breath quivering with excitement at his words. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” he nodded. “We can learn about each other and talk and get to know one another. We’ll take it one day at a time.”

She nodded, “I’m willing to try if you are.”

“Good. No more dancing though? Not for cash. Please?”

She giggled, “I have no need. The girls set up a fund for mom and paid all my student loans off. Mom has her healthcare paid up until she’s a hundred if she lives this long. I have a new job which pays six figures, which is great. I’ll be living in a condo which is currently under renovation.”

“You bought a condo?”

“No. The girls bought a building with two units in it. They have offices downstairs and two condos upstairs. Darya’s sister Lyra is going to live in the one Darya was going to take. She’s been through it lately and Darya offered her the place to stay. I’ll be renting the unit above. It’s not far from where Mom’s home is and it’s commutable to the university. It’s secure and I get to pick out exactly how I want it to look. I’m staying with Dimi and Miklos until it’s ready since they refuse to let us back at the beach house.”

“Considering the guy who kidnapped your friend can get in and out without any trace, I’ll have to agree the beach house isn’t safe.”

“The Ghost,” she whispered.

“What?”

“The guy who kidnapped Magda is known to Miklos as The Ghost. He’s really excited about this guy.” She saw the surprise on his face and then like Miklos and Kostas, his excitement and she rolled her eyes, “he even asked to be there when I meet with him.”

His excitement dropped and his eyes rounded. “What the f**k are you meeting him for? Sienna, do you know who this guy is?”

“Yeah. He bought our s*x dungeon in Boston and he’s some kind of mafia kingpin.”

“He’s not some sort of mafia kingpin. He is the mafia kingpin. He’s the reason mob movies exist. He makes Miklos look like a p***y. He’s the guy who took Magda?”

“Yeah.” She had a feeling the soldiers didn’t get as many details as the upper management of Miklos’ mafia.

“Why are you meeting with him?”

“Darya traded favors.”

“Excuse me?”

“He wanted his cousin who was in Miklos’ holding cell. Darya exchanged his help in locating the woman who stole from me for his cousin.”

“I don’t understand.” He massaged his temples and inhaled deeply, “explain this to me please? Why are you meeting with the number one most wanted man on the planet on every government list?”

“It’s easy. Dimitra is a certified genius, but she has never been able to find the woman who stole from my mom and left her to die. He can, or at least it’s our hope.”

“To what end?”

“I need to know why, Jonas. I need to understand why this woman left my mom all alone for days, weeks maybe, and took everything from her. Darya, based on Magda’s experience with him and the fact his computer skills far outweigh Dimi’s, suggested he might be able to find the woman who left my mom to die.”

“I don’t like it.”

“Jonas,” she spoke softly, worried she was already ruining the beginning of them, “I must do this. I need to know why.”

“Why? Why can’t you accept you got f****d over and move on?”

“Because I was there, Jonas. I was there in November, and I should have stayed. I should have realized the woman was scamming me. My mother had already deteriorated. The amount of guilt I have in me for not recognizing I had put my mom in danger and left to go back to school then stayed longer than I was supposed to, eats me every single day. Those three months I left her behind she deteriorated so much she rarely has a day of lucidity now. I made her worse by not being there. I need to confront this woman for my own peace of mind.”

“You can’t get back the money or your mother’s mind. What is this going to do really? Are you going to have her killed?”

“No. I want to look her in the eyes and tell her what she’s done and ask her why.”

“She’s not going to care. People like this woman do this day in and day out with no regard for the people they scam. Do you think you’ll make her feel guilt? I guarantee you it won’t. She won’t feel anything. All you’re doing is setting yourself up for disappointment.”

“Why can’t you support me in this?”

“Because I think it’s a fruitless endeavor. If you told me you wanted to do this so you could take actual revenge and get the money back or throw her on Dimi’s uncle’s freaky island, I’d get it. To do this only to talk to her? Sounds like a waste of time to me. In the end, you’ll cry because this woman will have no remorse and you’ll be no further along.”

She scowled at him, “well, I’m doing it. I need to know.”

“And he’ll f*****g take you like he took Magda?”

“He took Magda because she was a job.” She fought a smile, “and he might have had a bit of a crush on her.”

“Men like him don’t have crushes, Sienna. If he wanted her, she’d be his.”

“He returned her to Ares because she loves Ares but –”

“How do you know?” he shook his head. “Sienna, you’re naïve. You don’t know the reputation of this man if you think he had a sentimental response and returned her out of the goodness of his heart.”

She was shifting uncomfortably. “You think I’m naïve?”

“Yes. You forget, sweetheart, I followed you around for eight years. I watched you bury your nose in books everywhere we went. I was in the library with you when you could barely make eye contact with any man who checked a book out or who dared flirt with you. You barely speak unless spoken to. The fact you’re going to be a college professor baffles me because I’m not sure how you’re even going to address a classroom full of strangers.” He leaned back in his seat and regarded her coolly. “Come on Sienna, if you can’t be honest with yourself, how do you anticipate being honest with me?”

“Jonas, you’re right. I am shy. I’m quiet and reserved and I tend to think a long time before I speak but I’m not naïve. I’m not blind to the horrors in this world, Jonas. I’m simply hopeful humankind has enough humanity in it to balance out the good and bad.”

“I really don’t want you meeting this guy alone. He’s dangerous, Sienna. He could make you disappear off the face of the earth and nobody would be the wiser. He could make it, so we all think you were nothing but a dream. You’re going to trust him?”

“No,” she wrinkled her nose. “I’m taking advantage of an opportunity to get closure on an issue which has bothered me for eight years. I’m not entering a relationship with him.”

“I’ll have a chat with Miklos.”

The arrogance of his statement coursed down her spine like a blade.

“No, you won’t,” she shot back cutting him off. “Jonas, you just sat here across from me and told me you don’t love me because you never allowed yourself the possibility to feel anything but lust for me. You told me you want to start over as if we are strangers. You don’t get a say in how I live my life if we’re not in any kind of relationship right now. The people who actually love me, despite me being a shy naïve fool, support me in this and I will rely on their opinions and thoughts. You left,” she pushed away from the table and collected her purse. “You left me and f****d off to Greece. I get you needed time to think but two months have gone by. By the way, my mom is doing good in her new home. I’m excited to have landed a new job. I can’t wait to have my first condo in LA. Those would have been the answers to basic questions exchanged between two people having coffee together. You sat down at this table with the goal to make me feel guilty and for what? To make you feel less of an asshole for disappearing for two months?” She hung her bag over her shoulder and shook her head, “this was a mistake. I’m done.”

“What?” he stood up beside her and reached for her. “Sienna.” He frowned in disbelief.

“No. The only reason you called me this week is because I had coffee with the professor who taught this class last year. You don’t love me and I’m not even sure you like me. I’ve had two months to get over you Jonas. Did you think I lay in bed every single night pining for you and praying to God for him to bring you back to me? Get over yourself.” She paused, “and for the record, you saying Dimitra is Miklos’ most prized possession is straight out of the dark ages. You and your caveman club should go pound the sand elsewhere.”

She stormed out of the coffee shop and made her way to the car Miklos had left for her. She slid into the back seat. “Take me home.”

She noted Jonas coming out of the coffee shop as the car pulled away from the curb, his fingers running through his hair frustratedly. She wiped her angry tears off her cheek and for the first time wondered what the hell she had seen in him.