Perfectly Normal (11 page)

Chapter Five

“Hold still,” Nico told her as
he showed her again the place to strike in order to disable an opponent. He was demonstrating on her though, and Columbia did have a terrible ticklish spot. “You are doing very well and hitting the target nine times out of ten, but it occurred to me that you might figure it out if I show you on yourself.”

“It tickles,” she said and wiggled again. They were in the gym, the heavy rain kept th
em off the rooftop deck. It had been a few days since the threesome and things seemed back to normal. She was almost disturbed at how normal, Nico hadn’t mentioned it since and had gone back to behaving like she was genderless and sexless. Dimitri hadn’t made a mention of it and didn’t seem to mind her spending time alone with Nico. She had assumed he’d be a little more possessive of her and had almost hoped to see that side of him again.

“It isn’t supposed to make you laugh, it’s supposed to terrify you,” Nico said in a stern voice, but Columbia caught the ghost of a smile cross his lips.

“Where’s my bodyguard? Maybe he can show me?” she asked, dodging the subject. She knew Dimitri was deep in the middle of a consultation over some part of his business empire. He wanted to start teaching her the ins and outs of what he controlled, but she wasn’t there yet. She barely passed her Math finals, she didn’t think she would know how to manage billions of dollars, several multi-national corporations and who knew what else he was up to.

“Your bodyguard is not here,” Nico said. “I am here and I am showing you how to kill a man.”

“I already know how,” she said tersely, “I’ve shown you a hundred different ways to do it.”

“Yes, and you managed to get it right ninety of those hundred, but those ten times you failed are going to be the ten times you die.”

“I can’t die ten times,” she replied and rolled her eyes. She really was starting to feel like a rebellious child around him. She didn’t know if she liked it, she wished he would lighten up, especially now that they were friends.

Nico sighed. He pursed his lips and looked like he was going to give up on her.
She didn’t want him to give up on her just yet. She needed to get this, to understand it and make Nico and Dimi proud of her. “Perhaps we need a break,” he said and edged towards the door.

“No,” she exclaimed and stopped him in his tracks, “I’ll get this. Let’s try again.”

She forced herself through the motions, striking him where she was supposed to, but both of them knew her heart wasn’t entirely in it. She didn’t have a hard time shaking the threesome, but she was having a hard time with the prospect of moving. Dimitri had been talking about it since the incident in McDonalds, and they hadn’t left the apartment since. It made for maddening repetition interspersed with little pockets of sex and loving her Dimi.

“Better, much better,” Nico said as she made a killing blow to his neck. She s
uspected he’d allowed her to make contact, but felt pleased with her progress nonetheless. Before she met Dimitri, she would have dropped to the ground in a ball if she’d been attacked in the street. Now she felt she would stand a chance.

“Thank you,” she exhaled, breathless from the exertion.
“I do believe I’ve been improving.” She wasn’t as fit as Nico or Dimitri yet, but was definitely increasing her skill dramatically. Her body was leaner than before, but muscle replaced fat so she was hard and strong where she was once soft and weak. She still hated the way any physical activity made her scars stand out, angry and red on her skin, but Nico didn’t seem to notice and Dimitri professed to love them.

“Yes, but you’re still not good enough to get cocky,” he said and swept her leg out from under her in one swift movement. She grunted as she fell, but
he caught her on the way down, setting her on the floor with a gentle movement. He sat, straddled her and held her arms above her head. “See? You’re dead again,” he said with a smile playing on the corners of his mouth.

She groaned and replied, “Fine, I’m dead again,” while she wiggled underneath him.
She saw a brief spark in his eyes and instantly realized she could use it to her advantage this time. She purposely lifted her hips under him and made contact with his cock. She felt it, and was sure that her maneuvering excited him. With a quick shove, she pushed up and managed to unseat him. She pushed harder, rolled away and leapt up in triumph. “Ha!” she said, “Bang, you’re dead,” and pantomimed a gun at him.

He stood up, brushed himself off and
self-consciously tugged at the front of his pants. “Ok, now you know my weakness,” he admitted, “and I’m dead. You caught me off guard and took advantage of me.”

He looked so distraught that she reached out to comfort him. “I’m sorry,” she said and rubbed his
arm, “it was stupid of me.”

He swept her leg
out from underneath her again with a swift roundhouse move. He had her back on the floor in an instant. This time he stood above her and leaned down a few inches from her face. He grinned and said, “Never be sorry for winning, and use any means possible, anything to your advantage, even if it is your body.”

It was time for her to be unsettled and she stammered a reply that came out incoherently. He stood up, gave her his h
and and helped her to her feet. “I guess I deserved that,” she said at last and had to laugh, “I let my ego get in the way.”

“Exactly,” Dimitri said from
the doorway with a deep laugh. He crossed the room and reached them in a few long strides. He hooked his finger under her chin and tilted her face up to look at him. She hated feeling like she’d been caught doing something wrong; she knew she wasn’t doing anything wrong. “I saw you get caught off guard because you were gloating, little dove. This isn’t a movie; there is no time for a victory speech at the end of your fight. You should always be prepared to look for the next opponent.”

“I wasn’t really gloating, was I?” she said and glanced at Nico.

He shrugged and smiled, “You actually were,” he said and looked at Dimitri out of the corner of his eye, ”but it was all just part of our training, nothing out of the ordinary.”

“I know that,” Dimitri replied congenially, “or else I’d have you torn apart on the floor by now. Now please excuse us.”

Nico gave a slight bow and exited the gym.

“It really was nothing,” Columbia reiterated, “I was trying to use what I’ve got to my advantage.”

“You know it drives me mad to see you using your body to get what you want,” he said and took her hand.

“It meant nothing, I’ve told you before I’ll do whatever it takes to survive,” she replied. Her heart skipped a beat though, she settled in, hoping to get a rise out of him. She loved his angry fucking, so much energy and excitement.

“I know that,” he told her, “I am simply reminding you. Besides, I have something to tell you.”

She hid her disappointment and wondered why he wasn’t jealous of her move with Nico…or why he didn’t seem bothered by the other night. “What is it?”

“I have found our next destination,” he told her, “we will move in a couple of months, once the place is ready for us to move into.”

“
Where is it?” she asked.

“
That’s the best part,” he replied and looked extremely pleased with himself. “We’re moving to Malta. A house this time…on a private ten-acre estate next to the ocean. We have our own beach and land to explore. I know you are growing tired of being confined here.”

She
wasn’t as excited as he thought she would be, but she didn’t want to see him unhappy. She didn’t think moving to Malta would change anything. Nothing would be different unless they stopped hiding, and the only thing that would allow that would be Sergei’s death. She felt her throat tighten and breath come shallow at the thought of a lifetime of hiding and running. Instead of telling him this, she simply said, “That’s amazing, I can’t believe it though.”

“Why not? I do everything I can
to make you happy,” he said.

“Sometimes I feel like this is a fairy tale,” she replied, “I wonder when I’m going to wake up or find out that things aren’t what they seem.”
She didn’t let on that she was thinking of the type of fairy tale that leads to something terrible. She should remember that not everything in a story leads to a happy ending, and she didn’t know how theirs would end.

“This is no fairy tale,” he said and took her hand, “this is just our simple reality, and the reality is that your happiness brings me great contentment.”

“I’ve never had anyone look out for me before,” she admitted, “it feels foreign to me. It’s been a lot to process.”

“I suggest you begin to get used to it,” he said and led her out of the gym towards the dining room, “because nothing is going to change. I will continue to care for you and I will continue to provide for you…and fight for you if need be.”

She followed him to dinner with one thought on her mind, the source of her current conflict…if he was so protective, why had he allowed Nico access to her body? She loved that it had happened, but both men being so aloof about the situation puzzled her. It annoyed her if she was re
ady to be honest with herself. There had been some small part of her hoping for a more dramatic aftermath, but so far she had not gotten what she had hoped for. She didn’t know what this meant, but she believed she would have to approach it at some point.

*****

Three days passed and Columbia’s unease grew to almost unbearable heights. She was nervous about moving, but Dimitri hadn’t mentioned it so she could pretend it wasn’t going to happen. She was still nervous about the encounter in McDonalds and whether people were down on the street looking for her right now. At the moment though, her biggest obsession was how easily Dimi and Nico had slipped back into normalcy after the wild night they shared together. She and Dimitri still fucked every chance they got, but both men acted completely nonchalant around her and it was kinda driving her crazy.

She didn’t know how she’d ended up in the bathroom, but she was there. It was as though her anxiety was expressing itself in a fu
gue state, like conscious sleepwalking. She found herself staring at her razor blade, a beautiful platinum and diamond device with a straight razor. Dimitri had gotten her this beautiful item because she could never get used to waxing. She preferred to shave her legs in the bath.

Lately the razor fascinated her.
Probably more than normal. Definitely more than normal given her history for self harm.

Did he not care about Nico fucking her mouth because he was going to make her leave?
Did he share her because she was nothing more than a plaything to trifle with and discard when he was bored?

She knew these
thoughts were unfounded and ridiculous, but she couldn’t keep them from creeping through her brain at the worst times. Right now for example, why would she think these things as she was standing in front of the blade?

If he forced her to leave, she would have nothing. She would be nothing. She would have nowhere to go and never find another man like Dimitri. So why had she
initiated the encounter? She thought it would be fun to share him with Nico, but he had directed it the other way. Why did she need to seek thrills to be content? She was so fucking impulsive at times, it seemed she wasn’t suited for this life. Her impulse control had gotten her into trouble on the street near the market, lucky for her it had been planned by Dimitri and Nico, but it still made it obvious she was the weak link here.

And the officer in McDonalds. She had stood there, dumb and struck silent by his accusations, Dimitri had been the one to save her.

She was going to bring him down if she stayed here. He would be fine without her, he would get used to her being gone, and part of her wanted to leave before he rejected her.

She shook her head and stared at herself in the mirror. She didn’t know where these crazy thoughts were coming from. Of course Dimitri wasn’t going to force her to leave, of course he loved her and she should believe him when he said he allowed it to happen for her own sake.

Still, the razor called to her. She thought maybe one little slash would help, one sharp, stinging reminder that she was still alive, that she was still somebody and she was still in control of her own fate. Some small release to alleviate this building stress, to exorcise the demon thoughts that threatened her very existence with Dimi.