Vitus and Leila

Chapter ten: food for two

After Leila had served the new customer, she had explained to Julie how she had met Vitus. Julie was sceptical and warned Leila against falling in love with him, as he would only hurt her. Leila had laughed it off, saying that she had never had a boyfriend and she did not want him to be her first, or last for that matter.

The rest of the work day came and went uneventfully.

Just as Leila was whiping down the tables and Julie was counting the money in the till. The door opened and, just as he himself had announced, Vitus Sorokin came marching through it. "I'm back" he said sinically. Leila ignored him and started picking up the chairs to place them on the tables. Vitus frowned, He turned around and left the shop, Leila looked confused, he can't of given up that easily, can he? She wondered.

A second later Vitus had come back into the shop with two of his secruity guards. They walked over to the surrounding tables silently and started putting the chairs on top of them, just as Leila had been doing. Leila stood there aghast.

She looked at Vitus, his big hands were in the pockets of his leather jacket, his large feet stood rooted to the ground. Leila looked up to his face, his icy blue eyes, were staring right into hers. This time Leila didn't shudder, slowly but surely she was getting accustomed to feeling like his eyes could see into the depths of her soul.

"Leila, I'll mop up, you can go now, of you like" Julie called to her. Leila shook herself and noddes, "thanks Julie, I'll just take off my apron and grab my coat." As Leila walked off to the staff room. Vitus had a minute to himself to think.

She had ignored him when he first came him, but after he had ordered his guards to pick up the chairs for her, she had looked at him differently. He thought he had sensed some sort of warmth towards him, but he wasn't sure.

Leila came back and looked up the large man towering over her, Vitus stared down at the petite woman infront of him. Their eyes locked. In that moment, they both knew, their lives, no matter how different, would never be the same again.

Julie cleared her throat "Are you going to stand there all night?" She asked them both. "You're in the way!"

"Sorry Julie" Leila muttered and headed towards the door, Vitus large arm passed her and opened the door for her. "When did you learn to be a gentleman" Leila tried to joke lightly. Vitus smiled at her. Leila blushed.

"This way" Vitus said leading ahead.

Vitus' two guards followed them closely. They were so discreet that Leila wouldn't have noticed them if she hadn't known about them. But that didn't stop her from turning around to look at them every few metres.

Vitus stopped infront of a small italian restaurant.

"One of my favourites" he smiled and opened the door.

Leila walked in, the restaurant smelled deliciously of warm bread and feshly cooked pasta. Leila's stomach rumbled.

"Haven't you eaten today?" Vitus asked sternly. "I had breakfast." Leila answered honestly.

"Breakfast? You need to eat more, Leila, you can't survive a day on just breakfast." He scolded.

Leila nodded. She didn't trust herself to speak, she didn't want to explain, that she normally ate well, but he had made her so nervous that morning, that she wasn't able to stomach lunch. Additionally her growing confidence seemed to keep getting her into trouble around Vitus. She chose to stay silent.

"Sir Sorokin" a man dressed in a black suit came striding towards Vitus and shook his hand "my deepest condolences." He said compassionately, Vitus thanked him shortly and then he showed the two of them to their table.

What was that about? Leila wondered.

Just as Leila sat down, she caught a look of the other guests and shrank down into her chair. She knew now her feeling hadn't been wrong. Everyone in the restaurant had stopped eating and they were all looking at her.

"Leila, are you ok? Shall we go somewhere else?" Vitus asked worriedly when he saw that she had turned as white as a sheet. His words didn't register, Leila was frozen in fear. There was nothing she hated more than being the centre of attention.

Vitus beckoned his guards over and whispered something to them, then he stood up, picked Leila up and carried her behind the curtain into the private area. "We're alone here, tell me if we should go somewhere else or not." Vitus said caringly sitting her down on a small cushioned bench, Leila shook her head. Vitus nodded. "It's ok, you don't have to speak, if you don't want to. I'm going to order us some food now." He informed her.

When the food arrived Vitus stood up to go and sit opposite Leila, he told the waiter to put small amounts of the different dishes onto Leila's plate. Leila smiled at Vitus weakly.

Slowly she started to pick at the bread, the pasta and the sea food. Her mouth watered, the food was delicious. She increased her eating speed and finished her plate. Then she looked up at Vitus and turned red, he was staring right at her. "I like seeing you eat." He said seriously. Leila dabbed at her mouth with the cloth napkin infront of her.

"Sorry about that" Leila said uncomfortably.

"It's fine, honestly, I should have know they would all stop and stare. Normally we always sit here in the back but today I thought.. well anyway.. it's fine." Vitus had stopped himself from saying something, Leila looked at him gravely. "Tell me" she said firmly. Vitus shook his head "no. We're here for you to do the talking not me" he joked lightly.

"If you don't talk, I don't talk" Leila bargained stubbornly.

"You promise you'll tell me everything I ask, if I tell you what I was about to say" Vitus answered.

Leila but her lip.

"Promise?" Vitus prompted.

"What if I honestly don't know the answer?" Leila asked.

Vitus chuckled, "I'm not a monster, if you don't know the answer then just say" he stopped and then said seriously "I'm not going to hurt you, Leila, I want to protect you, that's why I keep asking you out about the kidnapping."

Leila blushed.

I want to protect you. She replayed those words in her mind, they felt so good.

"You don't have to say anything, I'll tell you about the kidnapping." she said quietly and continued to explain how she had taken a shortcut a couple of weeks ago, what she had then seen and how the men had taken her and brought her back again. She finished by explaining that the man in he park had been 'Bert' from the questioning room.

Vitus nodded, Leila wondered how he could look so calm. Little did she know, that he had heard this story before, when he had questioned his crew. Now hearing Leila's side of the story, he knew his men had been honest. He also knew 'Bert' was going to lose his head.

"Thank you for telling me" Vitus said earnestly. "I'm not going to lie, you saw that I knew Bert that day down by the river. He is.." Vitus paused and corrected himself "..he was, one of my men." Leila looked at him questioningly. "I don't let my men take innocents." He explained. "You have now confirmed the story my crew had already told me. Heads will roll." His last sentence made Leila shiver. She knew Vitus wasn't joking.