Touching Rune

Chapter 3-2

Sergei could feel the frustration coming off his friend. In truth, Dimitri was the only human on the planet that Sergei trusted and he knew his friend felt the same. A lifetime of danger, first on the streets of an unforgiving city, then in the cutthroat world of the super-powerful, was enough to make anyone jaded about humanity.

He set the tablet he had been working on aside and folded his arms across his broad chest. Something else was bothering his friend and it wasn’t the scar on his face. Dimitri looked... apprehensive.

“I was invited at the last minute to attend a charity event to raise money. Simone and Petre invited me. I could hardly turn them down,” Sergei said. “We are leaving as soon as it is over.”

Dimitri’s head turned and he scowled darkly at Sergei. “You could have told me,” he said. “What is the charity for this time?”

Sergei shrugged. “I don’t know. Probably another hospital or orphanage benefit.”

“Will Ms. Ferguson be attending as well?” Dimitri asked in a voice devoid of emotion.

Sergei’s lips curved, pulling on the scar on his cheek. “No. It was time for us to part ways,” he responded in a hard voice. “She was making demands. It became necessary to end our acquaintance.”

Dimitri’s eyebrow raised in surprise. Sergei’s latest lover had been the beautiful but shallow Eloise Ferguson, a top model and a horrible actress, at least in Dimitri’s opinion. She had tried to hide her greed for Sergei’s wealth behind a fake smile and a camouflage of innocence. There was absolutely nothing innocent about the former beauty queen who had lost her virginity at a very young age.

Dimitri had made it his business to know everything about the beautiful actress who came from an upper middle class family. She liked beautiful things and had a tendency to live beyond her own financial means.

“What demands?” Dimitri asked.

“She claimed she was pregnant,” Sergei responded.

Dimitri grimaced. Several other women had tried that same trick before. There were advantages to being a cold, cynical bastard. One was to make sure that each of their lovers was on some form of birth control and checked regularly. The second was neither of them ever let the woman they were with supply or touch the condoms that were used.

Sergei had caught one of his previous lovers purposely damaging a condom in an attempt to snare a lifetime of support from him. Dimitri had never given any of his lovers a chance in the first place. He had seen things even Sergei had not and had learned to be cautious at a very young age. Of course, none of his lovers were aware that he was as wealthy as Sergei. They all thought he was the lowly bodyguard, fit only to amuse them if they couldn’t draw Sergei’s attention.

“Is she?” Dimitri asked carefully. “Has she been seen by a doctor?”

“Two,” Sergei replied, picking up the tablet. “The first was her choice; the second mine. I want Dr. Umberto Angelo’s medical license. He took a bribe and lied about the results. It is not the only thing he has done. I will send you the information about his tax evasion and hidden accounts so you can hand it over to the authorities. Also check what he has been doing on his frequent trips to the Philippines. I think you will find he has been indulging in other unlawful activities.”

“Done,” Dimitri said, reaching into his jacket pocket to pull out a small notepad.

Sergei shook his head. “When are you going to come into the twenty-first century and use a computer to help you take notes?” he asked in amusement.

Dimitri scowled at the softly glowing tablet. “You know I always break the damn things,” he grumbled. “They don’t like me.”

“Yet, you are a master at setting up security programming.” Sergei looked at Dimitri again and frowned. “What is bothering you, my friend? You seem distracted tonight.”

“Do you think you will ever find a woman you could trust? One that you would want to spend the rest of your life with?” Dimitri asked, glancing at Sergei before looking back out at the colorful lights decorating the streets.

“Do you mean like we used to talk about finding or just one that I can trust enough to breed an heir?” Sergei asked before a sudden ugly thought crossed his mind. “Have you… found someone?” he asked tersely.

“No,” Dimitri snorted out. “I don’t think there is a woman alive that I would be interested in being tied to for the rest of my life.”