“Then my apartment is robbed… Oh Asher they stole my grandmother's necklace.” I start sobbing hard and we stop talking while she rubs my back.
“I’m so sorry, Pen,” she murmurs over and over again. “I wish I could magic it back for you.”
“I don’t get how they got in through the security gate.” I wipe my eyes and sigh.
“Thomas is cheating on me.”
“That rat bastard,” she growls. “I never did like him.”
“He says Carmen is his girlfriend,” I say bitterly.
“It makes sense they know each other.” Asher tops up our wine. “Through his parents. Their fathers work together at some big law firm, I’ve seen the articles. It doesn’t make sense why he’s two-timing you though. He’s a dickhead.”
I wipe my eyes and look away. “I wish I was someone else.”
Asher looks at me with sadness in her eyes, then perks up, “Then let’s be someone else for one night. There’s this club called Afanasy that I wanted to go check out. You can borrow clothes from me, I’ll do your makeup, and you can play pretend. Just pretend you’re someone else.”
I look at her with big eyes. “I can’t pretend I’m some supermodel.”
“What have I told you about that?” Asher says, putting her hands over my own. “I’m bigger too. It’s just about confidence. Tonight, we pretend we’re the most confident ladies in the world, okay?”
“I don’t really want to spend the night being miserable…” I sniff. “Okay.”
She isn’t joking when she talks about dressing up. She makes me take another hot shower and use all her fancy cleansers to get rid of any trace of dirt or makeup on me. Once I’m dry, she puts me in one of her black leather dresses, sexy black boots, and fishnet stockings. I don’t like a lot of makeup so she does a smokey eye look. It feels like a lot of makeup but when I look in the mirror, I see it doesn’t look that bad. We then fix my hair so that it cascades down around me. While we do this, we have a few pre-game shots and another glass of wine. I’m feeling a little silly but also excited. I want to be confident. I want to be someone other than me today.
After she’s done with my hair, she comes up behind me and puts a black chocker around my neck with a heart pendant.
Then She has a hot shower and changes into a similar dress, only in dark blue. She goes for a very fancy and flashy makeup look and curls her hair into large dark curls. When we finish our last shot, she calls a cab, and before I know it, we’re in the queue outside the club. Asher and I huddle together, and slowly, we move forward with the crowd. She has to remind me to stand tall a few times, but soon enough I’m in the swing of it, and I feel a lot more confident. I don’t know if it’s the alcohol or what, but I’m ready to party. The bouncer notices us, and he waves us over. He lets the two of us in. The music is pumping as we make our way through the wall of bodies and go to the bar and order martinis.
“Should we be mixing our drinks?” I ask Asher.
“We can do whatever we want,” she responds with a rather manic laugh.
Once we have our drinks in hand, we move nearer to the dance floor and start dancing. Asher does most of the talking, or rather, yelling over the music.
“I bet you Carmen got Tom to date you so that she could get the inside and get your promotion.” She sips deeply on her drink. She’s had theories the whole night, and it comforts me a little because as Asher says, “I’m clearly a threat if she thinks she needs insider information to beat me.” It still seems a bit far-fetched though.
Thinking about it, Tom was never very romantic toward me, and we didn’t go very far. I sigh, thinking of all the times I wanted to, and he’d make an excuse. Clearly, the reason was that it was all fake.
Eventually though, Asher drops the subject, and as we drink and dance, I begin to relax a little by little.
Asher is right. I can pretend to be someone I’m not, and with the alcohol in my system, I feel more confident. I feel as though I can get away with anything, even maybe attract someone for a one-night stand. And why shouldn’t I? I may be curvy, but I’m sexy as hell, and I deserve a win.
We go to the bathroom to freshen up, and then we go to get more drinks. Asher goes to pay, and the bartender holds a hand up. “The owner of the club has covered your drinks. Don’t worry. He says if you want anything else, it’s on him.”
Asher smiles at me. “See, good things do happen.”
The bartender gives her a strange look, as though she wants to say something, but she doesn’t. I turn to her. “Can we have some shots of tequila, please? Just one each.”
The bartender nods and goes off when a large, burly man is suddenly near us. When he speaks, he speaks with a thick Russian accent.
“Madams, the owner of the club, Mr. Milov, would like to extend an invitation to the VIP section of the club. Your drinks will be brought there for you.” He motions for us to walk ahead toward the roped-off area.
I smile at Asher and nod. “Yeah?”
Asher grins. “VIP? Hell yeah!”
We walk toward the roped-off area and into the VIP section. It’s not overly crowded like the rest of the club is, and the music seems clearer on this side rather than just loud noise to move to. We look around, Asher is in her element, but I feel a bit awkward. A man walks over straight to Asher. “Hello, I am Luka.”
“Asher,” she says, offering him her hand which he kisses. “Do you own the club?”
I look surprised and look around the room because I don’t want to seem as though I’m staring at them or interfering. I scan the room and startle when a man meets my eyes. He’s sitting in another roped-off section. I give him a small smile and nod.
Chapter 3 - Kervyn
Arseny continues to talk my ear off, leaning near me as he plots what he wants to do with the woman of another family. I couldn’t be less bothered, to be honest. All the women in our type of life are the same.
I want someone unique, someone special. All three of my brothers and I are single at the moment, though Luka has a different woman every now and then just for fun. I don’t think he’ll ever seriously settle down.
At forty-six, I am the oldest of the brothers and leader of the Bratva Vegas empire. Danil is the second oldest at forty. Arseny is third in line at thirty-eight, and Luka the man-whore is thirty-five. Though vastly different from each other, we are family, and that matters most in this weird world that we inhabit.
I thought tonight was going to be a typical night, much like every other night. I’ve considered excusing myself from Arseny and going upstairs to the apartment above to sleep. It’s been a long week, and there isn’t much keeping me downstairs aside from my brothers.
They keep saying I need to live a little, well, at least that’s what my two younger brothers say, and they’re the ones with me now. Danil is more headstrong and down to Earth and often gives more practical advice than drinking whiskey and chasing tail.
Luka nudges me, and Arseny glances at him. “What?”
“Look over there, the girl in the blue dress. I love a confident, curvy girl.” He motions to the open dance floor. We all share light brown eyes, tall figures, and dark hair, but Luka and I share one more thing—our taste in women.
