ONCE UPON A PAST

Agent Johnson stepped forward, lifting both his gold card and official badge.The guard, egg to his face, went pale, and began to stutter.“Sir–sir–”“Save it,” he cut him off, returning both cards into his pocket. “If this is how you treat your guests, then shame on you! The ladies are with me, or do you have a problem with that?”“No– no sir.” He stumbled all over his words.“And you?” He shifted his gaze to the big guy.“No, agent.”“Good,” he finally looked towards Ivy and Yasmin. “Wait,” his voice rose a little high just as the bigger guard was returning to his post. The guard paused, and turned back to him.“Both of you, apologize to the ladies,” he ordered.They wasted no time, the apologies flying out of their lips like gushing water.“Ladies, are the apologies to your taste?”Yasmin smirked mischievously. “No, I'd like to hear it again.”“You heard her. Come on.”With faces reddened with shame, they apologized once again.“What do you say, Ivy? Is that enough?” Yasmin questi

DO THE CRIME DO THE TIME

TWENTY MINUTES EARLIER “Scream as loud as you want, Gustavo. Scream even louder. No one can hear you. No one will hear you. I need you to understand that single fact.” A smile, tightened like a predator, formed on his face as he stared at the screaming man.Those words didn't stop Gustavo. He clung on to the single hope that maybe there was a tiny miracle out there for him..Maybe if he kept on screaming, someone would hear and help him out.If that wasn't the case, then he had conserved the little energy he could in the last few days of being locked away brutally, for absolutely nothing.“Yuki? Doesn't his screams remind you of those men the vultures ate their bodies whilst they were still breathing? Remind me again what their crimes were?”“Betrayal,” Yuki quickly answered, also with a smile on his face.“Aha! It truly was betrayal. Nothing quite as irritating as a man who is unloyal, is there?”“I can't think of anything, Vlad. If you can't be a man of your words, cut off your bal

HIS MOST DIFFICULT PUZZLE

“Great, you're here V. Ivy is–”“Is fine,” Ivy said, interrupting Yasmin.The latter, dumbfounded by the switch up, turned towards Ivy. Her face wasn't contorted in pain anymore.In fact, she looked really fine.“Okay can someone tell me what is going on here?” Vladimir questioned, his eyes flickering about.“No–”“I'd like to ask you exactly that question too.” Agent Johnson beat Ivy to a response.“Huh?” Vladimir looked at him, his brow slanted.“It's not very obvious, but there are bruises on her body, and on her face. She almost lost her balance that time with you around, and again just a couple minutes ago. It's standard procedure for the law to question situations like this.”It took just a second for it to click in Vladimir's head the possible conclusion the agent was gunning at. And when it did, he huffed in alarm.“Excuse me? You think I hit my wife?”“Oh my God! Where did that come from?” Yasmin blurted in shock.“Apparently from the agent,” Vladimir replied, still flabberg

TETE-A-TETE

The answer in her head that was devoid of every other thought in that moment, scared the hell out of Ivy.Yes.It was yes with all capital letters.Yes she wanted him to place his lips around hers like the other day. Yes she wanted to feel all of those confusing yet explosive feelings she felt, just like on that day.Yes, yes and yes!“You have no idea what you do to me, do you?” He went on breathlessly, looking directly into her eyes.Her scent was a torture to his senses. Tied to her essence in the most wicked way, his insides convulsed with need.“Do you?” He pressed.Cluelessness dimmed her eyes. “I'm trying here, Ivy. God knows I am. What else do I have to do to make you see how hard I'm trying? Do I need to split my head into two so you can reach into my brain and see firsthand the efforts I'm putting on? I understand, darling–” he paused, and took a deep breath. “I understand how you've lived up until now. I've given all of the grace I have. But you've got to meet me halfway.

HARD TRUTH

At the Bratva villa, doctor Ben Branch returned to Sheila Greene's side, interrupting her thoughts about the result she learnt about earlier in the day.“You haven't said much, Sheila. Any other day and I wouldn't think too much about it. But today?”She shifted her gaze to him, and adjusted the pillow behind her back for better comfort. “What do you want me to say? I'm grateful I don't have a heart condition but cancer of the breast?” She snarked.He let out a painful smile, sympathising with her plight. “It's not the end, you know right? We can get some surgery done before it spreads.”“Oh please. I knew the lump was there. Never cared to check it out. I just always thought if I ignored it, it'd go away, you know? I guess that has always been my problem. Ignoring things and hoping they went away.” Her eyes took a distant expression, as several thoughts went through her head in that moment.“You're talking about Ian.”Her breath caught at the mention of that name. “Careful now, Branc

A COMMON GROUND

“He's unlike any man I personally know. Not like the men we used to know growing up. You know the lords of the time. He actually leads with his heart a lot of time. I see him and I see the biggest contrast between the past and the present. And Gods willing, the future. In the best way of course. Why do you ask?”“Isn't it obvious? My precious girl is married to him. For all of my attempts at shielding her from this exact fate, I couldn't when it was time to back it up with actions. But I know and now you'll know that this marriage isn't forever. It's for a purpose.”“The Cillian Greene case,” he said, remembering vividly how the entire thing played out.“Yes, that. Unfortunately, she's the only one capable of putting an end to that bullshit. She doesn't know how, neither do I. All I know is that the lawyer said something about her being the password, whatever that means. Just like you said before, I'm saying this to say that until this marriage is dissolved, I need to know the charact