“Dobroi nochi, Mr. Sorkin,” I say casually and he starts screaming behind me, demanding that I let him free. Then he gives up, confessing that he did accept a bribe, confessing to everything I have accused him of.
His screams have no effect on me and I close the basement door behind me, reveling in the silence.
So, Lyla is a dancer? Then it makes sense why she has the most seductive body I have ever seen, hypnotizing even for a man like me. It also means that she must perform and I thoughtfully make my way to the bedroom.
A new evening is coming. And I have already made plans.
5
Lyla
Sitting in my makeup chair, I yawn from my lack of sleep previous night.I don’t think my eyes finally closed until about two hours before it was time to wake up. I don’t want to admit it but the Russian left a lasting impression on me.
My body is usually tender from dancing but this is different, the ache is different like my body is hungering for something.Him. And like a sulky, hormonal teenage girl, I take up my lipstick writing on my mirror,
Alecsily Dolokhov.
There it is, written in cursive hot pink and I blush beneath my heavy makeup. I keep thinking that he gave me his name because he wanted to do something good. Something decent. To keep me safe in this city that’s his playground.
But maybe that’s just wishful thinking and I grab a face wipe and rub off what I wrote, just in time before the prima ballerina, Nicoletta walks in. She shoots me a big smile and I shoot one back in surprise. Usually she never interacts with us lesser dancers, but now she throws me a look full of empathy.
“Are you okay, Laura?” she asks, putting her hand on my shoulder and I don’t have the heart to correct her.
“Sure. Why?”
Lowering her voice dramatically she says, “Because of what happened to your friend.”
My eyes lower and I murmur, “So, you heard about it?”
“Everyone’s heard about it. This must be so hard on you.”
It is. Usually Trevor is always in the audience when I’m preforming and afterwards we always go and grab a bite and have a whole night out on the town.
Picking up my powder brush I say, “It’ll be fine in the end. He’ll show up and then everything will go back to the way it used to be.”
Nicoletta nods and she sits down on the chair right next to me, crossing her legs and she inspects her face in the mirror, absently adding, “You must miss him so much.”
I get a lump in my throat and no matter how much I swallow it won’t go away. “I do. So much.” What makes it worse is that nobody knows what I know. They just know that Trevor is missing and that the police are trying to find him but they don’t know that the police is useless in this.
Whenever the mafia is involved, there is nothing law enforcement can do.
“Well... when he does show up,” Nicoletta continues, “you should show him how much you care about him.”
“I will,” I say in a low voice but Nicoletta lets out a short, excited laughter and I look to her in confusion.
“Oh and I bet he’ll love it when you do,” she smirks and I get a strange feeling.
“What do you mean?”
Sighing, she shrugs her shoulders that are even frailer than mine. “I’m not sure if I should tell you this. Maybe Trevor will get upset.”
I doubt Nicoletta really cares whether Trevor will get upset or not. Tensing I say, “If you know something that I don’t then you should spill it.”
“Okay!” she says feverishly, her eyes shining with excitement and that strange feeling in my gut starts growing. Squirming dramatically as if pretending to be uncomfortable, Nicoletta continues, “A couple of weeks ago I forgot my water bottle here and went down to get it while the rest of you were upstairs warming up.”
Frowning, I murmur, “And?”
“And get this,” Nicoletta’s eyes flare, “I walked in on Trevor! He was in here all by himself.”