2 Passport Photo

The elevator dinged and I stepped out. My shadow followed.

She wasn't smiling anymore. She was nervous, but not of me.

I spoke, "Why are you afraid?"

"This is a rich place, filled with rich people. Rich people always want what does not belong to them."

She had a point to a degree, but not really, as poor people had the same degree of covetousness, it just so happened that rich people had a way of getting their way more often. From her perspective, though I understood how she thought as she did.

Reaching my room I entered it. I'd come up the back way from the hotel lobby.

We'd been seen by no one. We would have a night's rest and peace and face the hell of getting out of Moscow in the morning.

She closed the door of my room, but stayed near it. By necessity of habit, I made a thorough search of the place and did a scan for digital bugs as well as checking my own for alerts.

We were the only ones to have come in and knowing that helped me to relax even more. I picked up the phone and glancing at Sonia I asked, "When was the last time you ate?"

She blinked and then said, "Yesterday. I'm not sure when actually."

I could understand that given what she'd been through in the past 48 hours. The hotel service came on the line and I ordered a lot of things I normally wouldn't have.

Not because I didn't like them, but because I tended to not want to splurge on myself, but when it came to her things were different. Right now she could use spoiling.

I ended the call with the hotel service and punched in a new number. It was late, but in a city like Moscow there were always those people you could call to do an odd job at whatever time of the day or night it was.

I beckoned with a finger and Sonia came over to me. She looked lost and the perception occurred to me that she had been raised in the country and that cities were an alien environment to her.

This may be in fact the first hotel room that she'd ever been in. Her amber eyes found mine and I asked her, "Do you know what your clothes sizes are?"

She blinked, but then nodded. The phone stopped ringing and speaking into it, I said, "Tanya, it's Rorian."

"Aye dear boy, what brings you to mother Russia?"

"How do you know I'm in Russia?"

"Ahh it is simple, you call out of the blue even as sirens blare in the background saying someone, most likely an American, has kicked over the hornet's nest. I can put two and two together, you know. I may be getting older, but I'm not dead yet."

Stifling a smile I said, "Well, I need you to be your usual discrete self. I need some clothes."

"But of course! I will have a selection for you by morning."

"No, Tanya. They're not for me."

There was silence on the other end of the line, then Tanya spoke dramatically, "So it was you! I hope you know what you're doing this time my friend."

By way of answering I said, "Here she is."

I handed the phone to Sonia and listened as Tanya questioned her as to her sizing details. Eavesdropping in on the conversation I appreciated the fact that I had been right.

The girl did have big breasts for her slim size. They were natural too. I was sure of it.

Sonia handed the phone back to me. Tanya's voice was wry sounding as she said, "I will get it put together for you. Enjoy your evening big American."

"Good night Tanya." I said and hung up the phone.

Sonia immediately reached out to grasp my arm with strong articulated fingers that had seen their share of hard work in their lifetime, "You trust her?"

"Only to a degree. In general, from this point onward I am the only one you can trust."

"I know."

Meeting her gaze, I said, "Then you should know you're safe with me and that I won't hurt you, but the catch 22 is that you're not safe, because you are with me. Make sense?"

She nodded.

"You can have the bedroom, I'll take the couch. Go ahead and take a shower if you want. The food should be here by then."

She nodded again and I sensed something emotional swirling in her as she looked away. I reached a finger out and touched the skin of her chin.

Boy was that a mistake! Following through though I turned her head until her gaze met mine and lifting an eyebrow I asked the question silently of what was wrong.

Her eyes of amber were in turmoil and tears were threatening as she spoke, "I have no money to pay for this!"

"Have I asked for anything?"

"No, but I am not the girl you came to save!"

"That may be, but you're the girl God put in my path to save and I'm content with that. How about you?"

She nodded her head vigorously.

"Go get a shower Sonia. It will warm you up and help you to calm down."

She nodded with tears spilling down her cheeks and hurried away. She stopped when she reached the bedroom doorway, "Thank you again!" and then she was gone.

I turned away and put a hand to my head. What on earth was I going to do with her?

In a way I already knew the answer to that. I was going to keep her.

I would at least give her a choice though. That much I would do.

I'd never met anyone who affected me like she did. It was dangerous, even crazy, perhaps, but the stark reality of it was that for several months now, maybe even years I had been mentally losing it.

I for lack of a better way of putting it needed someone. Someone who knew what I was.

What I was capable of. Someone who knowing that still wouldn't look away.

In a way she'd enslaved me with that first glance in the mansion tonight. She'd seen inside my soul and said, "Save me. Protect me. Anything, just help me."

I'd answered the call. I'd like to think I'd have done what I did for anyone, but I wasn't sure of myself anymore.

Things had gotten dark in my life. I killed more people than I gave help to.

I wanted that to change, but I was what I was. And the man that I was I needed to keep doing the things that I did and in a way she was living proof of that.

Closing my eyes, I whispered, "Is it wrong to keep her? Is it wrong to seek to brighten my own soul, with the zest for life that I see on fire within her soul? I'll do whatever you tell me to God. Anything, even let her go."

There was a knock at the door and I went to it. It was the food.

I let the servers in and closed the door after them. My hands still on the door the voice of my Creator spoke within my soul, "Who told you to go through the door?"

"You did." I whispered in reply.

"You see the world for only its darkness. You should have a son. Then you will understand what it is like, when one day you face the loss of him to a world that hates Me and yet one I formed out of nothing."

What was God saying?

Brokenly I whispered, "I don't want a son!"

"Why?"

"Because I never would want him to become like me."

"Each must choose their own path, nevertheless I tell you that you will have a son and she is his mother. Treat her as such and with time you will learn what you do not see in the here and now."

"What am I not seeing?"

"That those who put their trust in Me are kept from destruction."

Bitterly and yet in a way ashamed of myself, I blurted out, "And what of Francesca and her father, my friend! How have You kept them from destruction?"

"Bitterness does not become you son. It blinds you from seeing the reality of an answer you already know. Do not be afraid, for I have given you something sweet."

"Rorian?"

I jerked away from the door and combed my sweaty hair back. I glanced swiftly to Sonia.

Helpless not to do so I took in the vision of her dressed in a white bathrobe and trying to sound normal I said, "Yes?"

"Are you okay?"

Honesty beckoned, and with her I found myself wanting to be real so I replied with, "Not really. The food is here. Eat all you want. I'm going to get a shower."

I passed by her and forced myself not to linger. Her eyes watched me, but she said nothing.

Did she know that she'd been given away to a stranger? I did my best to force her out of my mind and move on with the business of getting clean, on the outside anyway.

*******

Feeling better, at least calmer, I stepped back into the main room. The first thing I noticed was that the food was untouched. The second was the sight of Sonia curled up on the sofa with a Bible in her hand.

She glanced up at me and I asked, "Isn't the food to your liking?"

She closed the Bible and got up. Softly she said, "Where I come from we wait for others in order to share our meal together."

She took a plate and put rather generous portions of everything upon it. I assumed it was for her so I started to reach for the empty plate when I found her holding the filled plate out to me.

I took it from her. "Thank you. Really sweet of you, but you didn't have to."

She shrugged and I watched those full breasts bump against the front of the robe that she wore.

She spoke as she filled her own plate with smaller portions, "It is just how I am."

"Sweet." I said in reflection as I remembered what had been said about this woman to me.

She glanced at me with that disarming smile I would never have believed that she possessed after seeing the stoicness of her face reserved for a room full of monsters. Softly she said as if in reply to my statement, "Yes."

Gathering herself, she whispered, "Thank you for giving me back that part of myself."

I glanced down at the plate of food that now lay all but forgotten in my lap and said, "Thank God, not me."

"I have." She said.

I expected her to sit back down on the sofa then, but she didn't. Instead, she came and sat down on the floor in front of my chair.

Her side rested in against my leg. Swallowing I gazed at the crown of her head and the wealth of rich brunette hair that sprung from it.

I couldn't help myself. Reaching out I let my hand rest briefly on her hair to see if it really was as soft as it looked.

It was. I took my hand away.

She glanced up at me and I said, "You don't need to sit on the floor."

Giving me a deep look of purposeful intent, she said, "I know."

"Then why don't you sit on the sofa?"

"Because I like it here better." She went back to eating and driven by the need to do something other than to reach out my hand and touch her hair again I ate to.

She served herself desert and when I was ready she put her food aside and served me mine before going back to hers. I admired the gusto that she had eaten with but found myself lacking in terms of the same ambition.

She remained seated until I was finished and then standing up, she said, "I'm going to bed."

I nodded and watched her go. Once she was gone from view I snapped myself out of the trance that she had put me in.

I had work to do. I needed to make a passport.

Going to the door of the bedroom I knocked. It opened.

Her eyes were welcome pools of invitation as they gazed up into mine. I looked away and managed to get out, "I… I need a photo, of your face."

I held up a camera and dutifully she came out of the bedroom and posed up against a wall and I took the shot that I needed.

"Do you need anything else, Rorian?"

"No, I... have a good night's sleep."

"I will." She said smiling and closed the door of the bedroom once more.

Going to my laptop I began the process of falsifying an alias. Typing my fingers filled in her new name…. Sonia Marlowe.