The Girl, The Guard & The Ghost

The Ghost

Sienna was trying desperately not to let the tears consume her but as a sob escaped her lips, she knew she was fighting a losing battle.

He didn’t love her. A conversation they’d had once years ago, when he had first sat closer to her in her favorite shop in Boston was now on repeat in her head. Six years ago. She’d been young and desperate to keep him busy while Dimitra did her thing. She’d asked him if he had a wife. His response was men in his line of work don’t get married. She had questioned why not, and his response was love was an emotion a soldier should never have.

“Are you okay, Ms. Lawrence?” the driver asked through the now lowered partition.

She looked at him in confusion and shook her head. She was a painfully shy woman with the inability to look most strangers in the eye and so she admitted to herself she had not really looked at her driver. Was this another one of Miklos’ soldiers who didn’t allow himself to love?

“I’m fine,” she whispered, “or I will be.”

“Whoever he is, he’s not worth your tears,” the man said simply. “A woman should never shed tears of sadness over a man.”

She sniffed and a smile tugged her lips, “you’re right.” She noticed a building coming up on the street and frowned. “Um, I wanted to go back to the compound. You’re taking me in the opposite direction.”

“Yes, I am,” his voice had a hint of a smile to it.

She reached for her phone, and he gave a chuckle.

“The phone won’t work.”

She felt a moment of panic, “What is going on?”

“I believe you and your friends asked me to help you.”

“Mr. Caputo.” She realized now as he spoke his accent was different from Miklos.’ For an anthropologist she sure missed one of the most basic clues. She relaxed as she regarded him in the mirror, “I thought we were meeting later in the week.”

“I did say this, but I also wanted to meet alone and knowing the company you keep, I knew it would not be likely they permit you to be alone with me.” When she didn’t answer he spoke again, “the man in the coffee shop certainly did not want you to meet with me alone. He was very condescending.”

“He was.” She agreed. “Where’s my other driver?”

“Asleep. Do not worry about him. He’s safe and no harm shall come to him. We simply put him to sleep, moved the vehicle and put a duplicate in its placed for you to climb into.”

“I really need to start looking people in the eye,” she mumbled to herself.

“It isn’t a bad idea. You also need to be far more observant. For example, the man you had coffee with, the one who you are shedding tears over, had a hickey just below the collar of his shirt. It was why he kept his shirt buttoned higher than fashionable but when he shifted to the right, it was visible. You were so focused on the contents of your mug you missed the way he adjusted.”

“A hickey?”

“It is not a burn from a flat iron. His hair is quite short.” He shrugged, “I would surmise it’s likely the woman he’s been dating off and on for the last two years.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Sienna Lawrence, twenty-six, master’s degree in Anthropology, achieving your doctorate focusing on science and anthropology and the effects of DNA testing on society. You’re examining how having data at the fingertips of the everyday person is affecting societal constructs such as family and friendships. I read your work and it’s riveting.”

“You read my work?” She leaned forward, “that’s an invasion of my privacy.” She was torn between being annoyed at the intrusion and the tidbit of information he’d shared.

“When I am asked to do a job, Ms. Lawrence, I am very thorough to ensure I’m not being set up. You can understand my position is a precarious one.”

“Yeah, yeah. Go back to this thing where Jonas has a girlfriend.” Her heart felt it was rupturing.

“In Boston. He made a detour on his way from Greece to Boston. She stays in the apartment the family had put him up in while he was covering you as Dimitra.” He frowned, “I do not see the resemblance. He f****d up. If I were Miklos, Jonas would be dead. Your family leader is weak.”

“What? Why?” She wanted more details on this woman, but he had distracted her with his comment on why Jonas should be dead.

“We will start with the most basic of he did not know who he was covering. He is thirty-four and has been part of the family since he was thirteen and his abusive stepfather put him on the street. Vasili brought him into the fold and trained him to be a soldier, a guard as you will. He was assigned many jobs covering Miklos over the years as he’s slightly older than his boss. Miklos trusted him to watch over his wife and to provide reports. He watched the wrong woman for eight full years which means, Dimitra was in danger this entire time. She is the daughter of Vasili Lykiaos and as a result, she is a target. Running the streets and carrying on as she has the last number of years without protection was foolhardy. Her pride could have gotten you all killed. As an enforcer, Jonas should have known his mark and protected her with his life. Instead, he sat in coffee shops and libraries ogling what was not meant to be his while his assignment was all over the world in cities like London and Dubai.”

“Well, we tricked him.”

“You and Dimitra share similar features, Ms. Lawrence, but you are in no way identical. Your hair is more a caramel color, hers is borderline black. Your eyes are more narrowed and hers are rounded. Your face is perfectly symmetrical, like La Madonna, and hers is not. She has one eye a hair smaller than the other and her nose is slightly offset.”

He wasn’t wrong. He was good.

“Jonas f****d up the most basic of orders by following the wrong woman around for years. He then, doubled down on his fuckery by getting a hard-on for the boss’ wife, regardless of the fact you weren’t really her and then,” he continued, “he allowed the boss’ wife to go dancing in strip clubs without recognizing the woman he had been m**********g to for years and years could simply put a wig on and walk right past him. He’s a doofus. I would put him out of my misery.”

“Good thing you’re not Miklos then.”

“Indeed. I would be ashamed to be running such an organization as his. Very disorganized,” he laughed.

Sienna shivered with the sound of his laugh and recalled Darya saying his laugh was like listening to a God exhale. Kostas had slapped her in the behind when she’d said it but then agreed. She was inclined to believe they were wrong. It wasn’t a God. It was the devil. This man’s laugh was wicked as sin.

He started speaking again, “now, in studying the little trio I have dubbed Geek Girls Gone Wild,”

“Hey!”

He laughed louder now, “I’m not wrong.”

“No but still.” A smile tugged her lips.

“In studying your friends, I merely had you an as acquaintance and didn’t pay you much mind but in reviewing you have played an important part in their lives, and they care for you as much as they care for each other. A rare oversight on my part. I took the time to go back and review what I missed.”

“And what did you find?”

“You have spent eight years living up to the expectations your mother has for you. You work diligently to be the best you can be. You were never the smartest girl in your class in college, but you were the hardest working one which earned you high respect from every professor. Despite a very deep religious background, garnered from your mother who worked mostly in end-of-life care, you have, when comfortable with your friends, a very wicked sense of humor and a filthy tongue. You danced for cash to care for your mother, which tells me you have a deep-seeded sense of responsibility. You are loyal to a fault, despite wanting to come clean to your guard, you protected Dimitra’s freedom over the freedom of your own heart. You also don’t like to look too closely at other people in case you do not like what you find, Jonas included.”

“He has a girlfriend?”

“Not one he loves,” he said with a smugness to his tone. “He took up with her one night after dropping you off at your apartment two years ago. Likely around the time Vasili started pressuring Dimitra to return home and provide the heir he wants so much. For what it’s worth, he went there yesterday to end it.”

“How do you know all this stuff?” she asked with wide eyes.

“I think a more important question, Sienna Lawrence is how I know all this stuff and yet you are not afraid of me.” He held her gaze for several seconds in the mirror. “Even Magda is fearful of me after spending time with me and even the men in your organization fear me. You aren’t afraid.”

She shrugged, “I have no idea. I feel though, if you were going to kill me, I’d be dead already.”

“There is truth there,” he laughed again.

“Where are we going?” she asked curiously.

“A walk. There is a hiking trail ten minutes from here. It’s secluded and then I can gather more of the information I need to begin my search for your missing con artist.” He winked, “though, your coffee date did provide good intel already.”

“You listened to the whole thing?”

“Of course, I did.” He had no remorse.

“This is so embarrassing.” She was flushed red knowing Jonas had mentioned the shower and dildo thing.

“Meeting with a potential lover to see if you’re both on the same page should not be embarrassing Sienna. It’s communication one-oh-one. Jonas is a fool. He withheld information from you today and he should have cleared the air, told you how he’d moved a girl into his apartment a year ago but ended the relationship, albeit after one last f**k, and was ready to move forward with you. Instead, he belittled your need for closure and made you feel silly for needing what you need. You could do better.”

She shrugged, trying not to think of his one last f**k comment. “He insinuated he wasn’t able to allow himself to have feelings for me, so he never let them grow.”

“You can’t control love, Sienna.” He made wide eyes at her.

She realized his eyes were so dark they were almost like coal. “How would you know? Have you been in love?”

“Definitely not.”

“Then how would you know?”

“In my line of business, I know the risks and dangers associated with having a partner. The longer you are with a woman, the more likely you are to you end up catching feelings.”

“What are you? Celibate? A monk?” She leaned forward her brown eyes glittering with amusement, “if you tell me you’re a eunuch the girls are going to be so disappointed.”

A loud roar of laughter echoed around her, and she grinned cheekily. What was wrong with her?

“None of those things. I simply do not date. The women I spend time with are one and done, two at best and it eliminates the need for more intimate conversation and anyone getting caught up. I could be killed or arrested at any given time. It’s best not to leave a woman waiting on me, especially since I would never reveal my true self to her.”

“Okay, but you told Magda you wanted her to seduce her. Did you want more with her?”

His eyes held hers for a long moment again before he pointed a finger at her reflection in the mirror, “I repeat I expected you to be more fearful of me.”

“You spanked her and sent her home. She said apart from the spanking you were a gentleman all week.”

“I did spank her. She behaved like a child. I regretted it immediately.”

“You have a bad temper and an impulse control problem.”

“I have a bad temper, no impulse control problem, but a very real need for obedience always. Unlike your friend Kostas Masalis who can be a switch and take a d**k up the ass, I am not the type. It is my way or the highway. I also despise sneaky behavior and I cannot abide being lied to.”

“But you lie.” She called him out. “You can’t be the man you are, with the connections and businesses you run without lying. What makes you above the rest in your own rules?”

“My rules, my law, my punishments.”

“Sounds hypocritical to me.” She folded her arms and leaned back in her chair pensive about his words. “And you put hands on a woman.”

“I’m about to put hands on another one,” he shot back.

She chuckled at his words and his quirked eyebrow told her he didn’t appreciate it. Tough. Something about him made her feel far safer than Miklos or Dimi did. Perhaps it was because she knew he had already researched her and knew her life story. “I’m too vanilla,” she retorted.

“How do you know? Have you ever been spanked?”

“I’ve barely been kissed,” she snorted with a wave of her hand.

“Are you telling me Jonas didn’t even once take liberties and kiss you?”

“No. He would never. He is loyal to his boss.”

“Even after he heard you getting off?”

“Oh my god!” her skin felt it was on fire as the blush stole it. “Why?”

He was laughing at her again, “I’ll add chicken-s**t to the list of adjectives I have for the p***y of a man you find yourself thinking you’re in love with.”

“I love him.”

“Do you? Or do you simply like the idea of an illicit love, one you weren’t supposed to ever have? Romeo and Juliet, Guinevere and Lancelot, Padme, and Anakin.” He made mocking eyes at her as he pulled onto a secluded trail and parked the car.

She hadn’t even realized where they had driven, and she understood he had kept her quite distracted during their drive. Not being from the area, she’d never find this place again and she knew it. He could dump her body, and nobody would find her. Yet, the thought almost made her laugh. His words filtered and she giggled.

“Star Wars does not belong with Shakespeare and Arthurian Lore.”

“Sure, it does. Broaden your mind,” he got out of the car. “Get out. Let’s go for a walk.”