House of Stone

#vote# Josie ‘Dimi?’ I blinked rapidly against the light. ‘Are you ok?’ I opened the door wider to let him in and then looked up and down the corridor to see if anyone had followed him. There was supposed to be a security entrance, how did people keep getting far enough into the building to be able to hammer on my door? ‘Are you alright?’ I asked again, because he hadn’t answered me the first time. ‘Are you hurt?’ I switched the light on so I could see him better. ‘No not me.’ He sighed. ‘I’m sorry Josie but I need you to come with me. I need your help. It’s the boss.’ He was shaking his head. ‘You need to come and help.’ The look of concern left my face in an instant. He wanted me to go and help the man who had left me alone in the hospital on the worst day of my life. But the last time Dimitri had asked me to help it was to try and save the life of my baby. Still, I stepped away from him. ‘No. I can’t do that Dimi. I’m really sorry.’ It had been three months and I was no where near getting myself back together. Seeing him again this afternoon had almost pushed me over the edge again and I had fought not to spend the entire afternoon crying. I couldn’t bring myself to see him. ‘Josie, please…’ ‘No Dimi. It’s over. I can’t do it. I don’t want to see him again.’ He didn’t say anything so I repeated. ‘I can’t.’ He shook his head. ‘It isn’t over until the boss says it is over, and for him that isn’t now. Just come and see if you can speak some sense into him, because he is out of control.’ ‘No. No, no.’ ‘Please Josie. All I am asking is that you come and speak to him. He is making everyone suffer with him. You know what he’s like.’ I sighed. Yes I knew what he was like. Relentless and it was always his way or no way. Dimitri was just as bad. He knew just what to say to make me feel guilty. He knew I wouldn’t let everyone else suffer as well. A look of doubt passed over my face but Dimitri knew he had won. He was already plucking my coat from the hook by the door. ‘At least let me get dressed.’ I protested, but he was putting the coat around my pyjamas and guiding me out with his arm around my shoulders. I hardly had time to catch hold of my keys before he was closing the door behind us. The guard had spotted us and the imposing metal gates were swinging open before we had reached them. The tyres crunched as we drove up the driveway and skirted round the back of the house, coming to a halt by some outhouses. I could hear the noise as soon as I got out of the car, it sounded like a crowd at a sports game, shouting, cheering, laughing and I almost came to a halt as we rounded the corner and I saw the crowd in the courtyard but once more Dimitris arm was around me pulling me tight into his body to offer what protection he could as he forced his way through the crowd his other arm extended, pushing away the mass that was paying no attention to us. There were twenty or thirty men gathered round making the noise I had been able to hear and right in the centre was Laszlo, shirt off, bare footed and covered in blood. There was another man in the centre of the circle with him and I watched as he landed two punches into Laszlo’s face, another into his torso and then a third onto his face. And Laszlo didn’t even move let alone flinch. He was actually smiling as he looked up. ‘Again.’ Blood sprayed from his mouth as he said the single word. He beckoned to the man to hit him again, but his opponent seemed exhausted and was struggling to raise his arm, he staggered into the crowd drunkenly and with a cheer those closest pushed him back encouragingly. ‘What’s he doing?’ I turned to Dimitri and his face was grim, but he shrugged his shoulders. ‘Not fighting back.’ What? What did that mean? ‘Well… make him.’ This was ridiculous. ‘Oh I tried. Niko tried, even Alexi tried. He might seem like a thug but he always prefers a fair fight.’ ‘Well if none of him can’t stop him what do you expect me to do?’ Dimitri shrugged again. The other man was still staggering round so taking a deep breath I stepped forward, far enough to get Laszlos attention. His hair was tousled, falling across his face and he had a black eye and a cut across the bridge of his nose, another over his eye. There might have been more but there was too much blood to tell. His body glistened with sweat and I could see bruises beginning to form. Niko and Alexi were on the other side of the circle. Alexis face was blank but Niko looked at me and raised his hands in a helpless shrug. That was it? That was the help they were going to give me? I was almost tempted to just turn around and leave them all to it. It Laszlo wanted to get his face smashed in who was I to stand in his way. ‘Do something.’ Dimitri prompted, giving me the tiniest of pushes into the centre of the circle. The movement was enough to get Laszlos attention and his eyes locked onto mine. That same look the he gave when he was sure he’s got what he wanted, and for some reason that made me angry enough to take another step forward, my hands on my hips and I blurted out the first thing that came into my head. ‘What is wrong with you? What are you doing?’ He growled with laughter. ‘Stress relief.’ ‘Look at the state of you.’ My jaw clenched. ‘You want to look dorogaya?’ His teeth were bared in feral a smile, holding his hands away from his sides giving me a full view of the perfectly contoured torso that was gleaming with sweat and shadowed with bruises at the same time. I shook my head with disgust. ‘Not really.’ ‘No? You always liked to look. You liked to touch even more.’ He came towards me in what I can only describe as a swagger and I felt my anger growing. ‘You like to see a real man.’ All I really wanted to do was punch him in the face, for his arrogance and his assumptions, but I didn’t. And I didn’t resist when one arm went round my back tangling into my hair and the other roughly cupped my face. He looked absolutely furious. His mouth crashed against mine so hard I tasted blood, his or my own I didn’t know and his pelvis ground into me. What had I been expecting? This is how it always ended. Laszlo always got his way. Everyone was cheering and jeering and Laszlo raised his head. ‘f**k off, all of you.’ I was so angry I barely registered what was going on around me and I pushed out of his hold and started walking towards the house, not stopping until I got to his study. I don’t know why I picked that room. It was the nearest and it seemed safer than his bedroom but it wasn’t a room I had spent any time in before. He followed me, slamming the door behind him, which irritated me. I didn’t think he deserved to be angry about anything. Then he walked straight over to me, one hand in my hair anchored me in place as he reached down and pulled down my pyjama pants. The waist was elastic and offered no resistance. He gave a grunt when he realised there wasn’t anything underneath. His mouth moved over my cheek and to my neck as one hand went to his belt, freeing himself, already fully hard. I could smell the whiskey on his breath. He could drink vodka like water but whiskey was what he drank when he wanted to get drunk. We both fell back onto the sofa, him landing heavily on top of me and I winced slightly, my ribs were still sore. That pain was almost matched by his thrusting into me before I even knew what was happening. It hurt. ‘I can be a man for you dorogaya.’ His voice was hoarse. I didn’t know what this new word he was using was. He usually called me malyshka, baby. ‘I can be whatever you want me to be. I missed you so much.’ He thrust hard and I caught my breath. I wasn’t ready for him and my hand gripped the top of his arm, my nails digging into his flesh but I didn’t stop him. He groaned and thrust into me again, it was easier this time, I was stretching accommodate him. One of his hands burrowed under my pyjama top and was squeezing my breast, his thumb stroking over the hardened n****e and he was pressing kisses over my face and neck his breath hot against my skin. He only thrust into me a couple more times, deliberate, deep thrusts, before I felt his release and he stilled on top of me. He was murmuring something but I didn’t know what he was saying. His face was nestled into the crook of my neck as he fell asleep. I lay with his weight pressing me into the sofa. One hand was resting on his sweat soaked back, the other still curled round his bi-cep. He was asleep, he was snoring a little bit and I absently wondered if his nose was broken, he didn’t usually snore. My mind was racing. I had asked him what was wrong with him, but what was wrong with me? It had been such an awful idea to come back here and now I was trapped on the sofa under 250lbs of angry, drunk, sleeping Russian. This was not how things were supposed to go. ‘Come back and talk to him.’ Dimitri had said.