Episode 28.3

He smiled and suddenly approached her and stole a fleeting kiss. Then he looked to where his boss's car was, stopped, expectant, watching the whole scene from a distance without caring about being discovered.

"Wow, so you have another admirer..." he said.

She looked at him scared, how dare he?

-Why did you do that? she protested.

Her unexpected smile disarmed her. "You mean the kiss?" Sorry, I was tempted," she said.

Irina went from anger to surprise.

"Come for a walk, I'll invite you to dinner," he insisted.

"No... I can't" she walked away and almost ran to the building because she didn't

she wanted that Italian to do that again, damn her, he had left her heart in her mouth from fright. What did that guy think? Hell he was a thug, he must have had a gun in her pants and her brother wanted that man to be her husband. He must be crazy! Would she end up dead on the honeymoon or...

When she opened the door of her apartment, her brother was waiting with a glass of vodka and a meat dumpling, apparently he had a plate of pirozhki that he was nibbling hungrily without stopping. He looked tense, nervous and apparently hadn't slept a wink all night.

"Nicolai... are you okay?" Her—she was forced to ask.

He was staring at her, not seeing her, and suddenly told her to move away from the door as she pulled a 9mm pistol from her pants.

Irina held back a scream as she whispered to him to run and hide in the secret floor, a place that was only accessed through the service room. She obeyed without saying anything while her brother held the gun and waited uneasily.

It wasn't the first time he forced her to hide, they lived like that, on the edge of danger without knowing when those Italian mobsters would fill the apartment with lead, the apartment or her car or them... Because she knew that every time she left she couldn't go back.

Suddenly she heard the cell phone, her brother was calling her, but would it be him? The entire apartment was completely silent, she heard some voices, but she hadn't fired a shot.

—Come... It's Massimo, there's no danger.

She came in somewhat dazed, not knowing why the presence of someone had upset him so much to the point of asking him to hide. She didn't want to see the Italian again and she hoped that he had left after talking to her brother, but it wasn't like that... There he was staring at her and with something else that she couldn't understand .

Her brother was very serious and he didn't take long to question her.

—Irina, Massimo says that you got out of someone's car, who was that man, where do you know him from?

She looked from one to the other and stammered that she was her boss Romano... Not knowing why she changed her name because she didn't trust that gangster nor did she want him to get involved or...

"You shouldn't have let me bring you here and tell me... Since when have you seen that man?" You did not tell me.

Massimo, who looked from one to the other, seemed to be waiting anxiously for her answer. Did she just feel jealous or...? That day everything had been crazy, the bad thing is that she was starting to get used to it and that was the bad thing.

"I'm not going out with him, he's my boss and he only offered to bring me today because your driver wasn't there or wasn't answering his cell phone," she explained, upset.

Her brother's eyes sparkled and the Italian smiled amused.

"And you think he just wanted to bring you home?" Wow your sister is very naive, or should I say something silly? She, she said.

-I am not dumb! —Irina protested on the verge of tears, she couldn't stand her brother scolding her and that Italian making fun of her too.

Nicolai took her aside from her.

"I don't want you to go back to that job, you won't." I've already told you what I expect you to do, and I know you'll be sensible. You are alone Irina, very lonely in this city, but don't trust that boss of yours, he will make you believe that he is interested in you, but he will only want to take advantage. Use you Irina. It's what those kind of people do.

She looked at the Italian. Why was he listening to everything? Did she know he Russian? She didn't take her eyes off him and apparently she had no plans to leave either.

"Go take a bath, Massimo wants to take you to dinner." They must know each other a bit, right?

No, she didn't want to go to dinner, but apparently she had no choice.

She obeyed as she always did and wondered if that southerner would kiss her again or try something else tonight. Well, she would give him what he deserved if he tried. He calls her dumb and makes a jealous scene like she's her fiancée or something.

After showering, searching for some appropriate clothing, she decided on a long jean skirt and a butter-colored yarn sweater with a high turtleneck. Earrings and some makeup... no, he didn't want to paint himself, but he also didn't want to go looking tired as a horse. He hated looking bad, even if the date caused him indifference.

As she was leaving the room he saw his brother and told her in his language: "I don't want to go out with him, please... I don't like him. He is a show-off."

He smiled slightly.

-Smug? No... Massimo is many things, but I can tell you that he is loyal and will keep his promise.

"Her promise to him?" Which promise?

Nicolai was very serious when he answered: — He wants to marry you soon, he asked me. You already know them, right?

-Marry with me? But he doesn't even know me, what promise are you talking about Nicolai? What is all this? He begins to suspect that once again you are hiding something from me, perhaps half of the story of that man. he can't want

Just marry like that, unless something compels you. How do you expect him to accept something like that?

His brother didn't express anything, he knew how to put on that marble face when he didn't want him to know that something was wrong...

—Irina you must do it, it's for your safety, so that you're safe, no... It won't be a real marriage.

-Oh no? So it will be a fake marriage? And how do you know? What are they plotting between the two, what business are they up to?

Suddenly they found themselves in a new discussion.

—Irina, listen, it may seem rash to you, but it's not... You'll need Massimo, only he can you trust, no one else. Don't be impulsive, stubborn, or push him away. Maybe after they meet they end up falling in love, why not?

"So you don't think it's a sham marriage, or do you expect me to turn it into something more?" That I fell in love with your gangster friend? You must be crazy or very desperate to ask me for something like that.

He had hit the nail on the head! Because she suddenly remembered the scene that afternoon when her brother pulled out a gun and forced her to hide.

—You will have no alternative... When it is time you will have to flee this city, but I will not be able to go with you, we will have to separate and no one will know that you... You are my sister. Because if you fall into the wrong hands, if those bastards catch you Irina, you already know what they are like, you met them once.