Her Russian Millionaire

Chapter 11

After their heated reunion, Jalisa and Erik made their way upstairs. Only pausing for Jalisa to change out of the lingerie Stone had forced her in, they met up with Nikita and Marie in Marie’s room. The older woman was still struggling against the men Erik had assigned to protect her while Nikita was sitting cross-legged on the bed, clutching a teddy bear and rocking back and forth. Erik’s men sat around, smoking cigarettes and drinking water, the typical calm-down ritual after a fight.

“Sister!” Nikita cried, throwing the teddy bear against Marie’s headboard. Jalisa, now dressed in one of Erik’s oversized t-shirts and a pair of denim shorts, climbed onto the soft bed and embraced her sister.

“Did anyone hurt you?” Jalisa asked. She pressed her hands to the sides of Nikita’s face and looked deep into her eyes, trying to nonverbally communicate how important this was.

“No, no one hurt me.” Nikita buried her face into her sister’s shoulder, inhaling the scent that has comforted her since she was a child. “I was so scared, though. A couple of times I was convinced that I would die. My chest felt like it was on fire and I couldn’t stop shaking. I just had to keep praying and hoping I would I see you soon in heaven.”

“You probably had a panic attack. Hopefully, it will never happen again, but if it does, I want you to take several deep breaths and focus on things around the room. Look at the lamp, describe the shape and color out loud. Sometimes it helps to distract your brain like that,” Jalisa advised her sister. “No matter what, remember that both the Lord and I are with you at all times. You will be protected.

“I’m guess it’s over? What happened downstairs?” Marie looked at Jalisa.

“All I know is that I was in that room waiting for the man to show up when there were big crashes outside. I got scared and hid under the bed for a bit until I heard gunshots coming from somewhere upstairs. I knew I had to get out and find Nikita. I made finding her my first priority. As I was climbing up the steps, some men I didn’t recognize opened the door and were talking loudly about Marie. I dashed to that crate where the entrance to the basement is hidden and went inside, where I hid and began making plans to rescue Nikita from them. I crouched down in some spider-infested corner when the men came in after me. They found me and told me they were with Erik and I had no choice but to believe them,” Jalisa explained, she then turned to Marie. “What’s your side of the story?”

“My side? Are we trying to assign blame here?” Marie huffed. “Very well. My side is that I was sitting here, minding my own business, when this sh*t storm happened. I was in the middle of trying to distract Nikita by feeding her a snack and asking her to explain that video game she loves so much. I wasn’t really paying attention, but she seemed happy enough-”

“I wasn’t happy; I was humoring you for my own good. I knew that my sister was downstairs about to be forced into s*x work. I was planning on boring you to sleep then going to rescue my sister.” It was a fourteen-year-old’s plan, naive and hopeful. Still, it touched Jalisa’s heart that her sister would try to rescue her.

“Anyway! The door was locked so these two assholes had to kick it in. I consider myself a very prepared person so I grabbed my trusty long barrel revolver and looked out. I didn’t know the men out there so I started shooting. They just shouted at me that they were there to protect me – which they were with Erik. I learned a long time ago not to trust men, so I didn’t. Erik showed up; the men tackled me. Yadda, yadda, yadda… now we’re here. It’s not my fault.” Marie pointed at Erik. “It’s Stone’s fault.”

“I agree,” Nikita spoke up. “I was only around him for a while, but he made my skin crawl. He told me that nothing bad was happening and I told him that that was wrong. I said that bad things were happening to Jalisa and that men would hurt her. Did it happen to you?”

“No. Erik saved me. Nothing bad happened to me. What else happened while I was gone?” Jalisa asked. Nikita’s side to the story wasn’t vital, but it was healthy for her to get it out.

“I was eating the ramen noodles that Marie boiled for me and I was talking about video games. There was a big crash and then Marie told me to hand her the box under her bed and she pulled out a gun and I went into the corner. I covered my ears and prayed and rocked back and forth and thought for sure that I was going to be a goner.” Nikita started crying again. “This is Stone’s fault. He should pay!”  

“No one is trying to ‘assign blame,’ but if we were, I agree with you. It’s Stone’s fault. He’s a monster.” Erik rubbed the back of his neck, the blood on his hands weighing him down. “I guess my side of it is that I felt that Jalisa was in danger and I did what I had to do to protect her. Also, Stone died in the fight. We have a mess on our hands that needs to be taken care of quickly and quietly.”

“Is anyone going to call the cops?” Nikita asked.

“Listen to that!” Marie cackled so hard she started screeching and put her hands on her stomach, as if she had to physically contain her laughter.

“No, baby.” Jalisa pulled Nikita close. “We can’t call anyone. Everyone here would be in a lot of trouble. You and I are black women who don’t have identification yet, Marie is a prostitute, and Erik is an immigrant. Are you even legal, Erik?”

“I’m working on it. It’s hard to get papers for the government that cover up mafia work,” Erik admitted.

“Erik’s an undocumented immigrant. The police are not on our side. None of ours. If we can handle it ourselves, we need to.” Jalisa looked to Erik again. “I assume your mafia connections can take care of this.”

Erik looked away from her and to his hired men. He spoke rapidly in Russian, giving them orders to contain the scene, fix the glass, dispose of the body, and clean up. The hired men departed at once, obeying Erik without hesitation.

“Now what do we do?” Nikita asked.

“We need to get out of here. Let’s go back to my place. I’ll give the hotel room to Marie and she can stay there the night.” Erik put a hand out and helped the girls off of the bed. After packing up their things and giving Marie the details of the hotel room, they were in Erik’s car and speeding off toward home.

Once they were in, Erik had one of the women he employed take Nikita into the kitchen to cook for her. At such a young age, seeing such violence, she needed a healthy meal high in natural fruit sugar and lean proteins. The woman began to make breakfast for dinner while another woman set up Nikita’s video game.

Jalisa headed upstairs. The stress of everything that had happened was getting to her. The one thing she needed right now was him and his love. She pulled him into the bedroom.

“I need you,” she whispered.

“I don’t know.” Erik looked anywhere but at her. “With your mental state…I just don’t want to take advantage of you.”