Dmitry's Closet by Nelson, S. (read people like a book .txt) 📕

The final footstep landed on the ground anchored bya large leather loafer. From the shadows, Dmitry stepped out of the doorway and looked over at Cory, who stood with the gun pointed.

“Shit, Dmitry. You scared the shit out of me,” Cory exhaled, putting the gun down.

“How did I scare you? You’re supposed to be cop for Christ’s sake,” Dmitry smirked, making his way across the room to the surveillance equipment. “Did you find anything meaningful?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t viewed them yet. I’m going to take it back to the apartment and see if there is anything incriminating on them.”

“Let’s hope that there is,” Dmitry said, looking back at Cory. “Why are you wearing those tight-ass pants?”

“Part of the cover,” Cory said, going back over to the bed. He pulled a pillowcase off of one of Anatoly’s pillows and wiped the gun down then placed it back under the bed where he had found it.

“All gay men don’t dress two sizes too small, you know.”

“This one does. Where is Royal?”

“Sick.”

“Pregnant?”

“No. She has flu.” Dmitry sat down in the chair by the desk and sighed. “I’m exhausted. Have you thought of possible exit strategies for Ivan?”

“Yeah.” Cory put his hands in his pockets. “I’ve also thought about some possible exit strategies for you, too.”

“We’ll get to that soon enough.” Dmitry waved off the portion of the conversation that he cared nothing about.

“Okay. Well, if I can prove on these tapes that he is up to illegal activity; I can roll this entire investigation over to him. Almost everything that they have on you won’t stand in court now. So, if I give them this bone, they’ll bite.”

Dmitry listened attentively with his hands crossed be-hind his head. Rocking the seat, he weighed his options.

“Get the ammunition, but don’t do anything yet. He’s my brother and a Vor. We must deal with him on our own.”

Cory nodded. “Okay. Well, I have to give them some-thing. This is an investigation.”

“Give them the fact that you’ve seen the surveillance room, but it was only a glimpse when the door was open. Give them information regarding the ten whorehouses after I get the deeds out of my name, and I’ll work on deciding the rest in the next couple of weeks.”

“Yeah, about that. I’m taking a week to go home and be with my wife and kids. Christmas is coming up, and I don’t want to miss it with them.”

“Of course.” Dmitry understood. “I plan to take Royal away forChristmas anyway. Renée can watch the place. How is your mother’s cancer doing?”

“Thanks to you, she’s in remission. We could have never afforded the treatments otherwise.”

“Then our little arrangement is worth it, dah?”

“Oh yeah. It’s worth it,” Cory sighed. “Let’s just hope that it continues to run smoothly.”

“It will,” Dmitry said,turning towards the monitors. “Head back up. We have customers coming in. I’ll stay down here and look around a while.” He peered at the busy noon traffic at Mother Russiaand his staff eagerly working. “I’m going to watch them work for a while to ensure that they are actually living up to my standard of customer service.”

“Alright,” Cory said, leaving Dmitry to his surveillance.

To Cory, Dmitry was a very odd man but in a lot of ways very merciful. Cory had blown his cover the night that Royal had her opening celebration. He had no idea that the building had a basement, because it was not on any of the plans that he and the team had gone over.

That night, seeing that only Royal’s car was there and Dmitry was still at the restaurant, and knowing that Royal always closed her door upstairs and never came down until morning, Cory snuck in after hours to comb the boutique’s back office for clues.

Anatoly quickly emerged from the basement, gun in hand and held him at gun point until Dmitry arrived. Cory was expecting Dmitry to kill him, but they took him downstairs to the basement and talked to him – asked him what it would take to flip. Cory had just found out his mother was in the third stage of cancer, and as an only child, he could not afford he bills.

Dmitry agreed to pay the doctor bills in full through a doctor that he knew who would classify the project as a charitable case. And just like that both of his problems went away. He would live another day and so would his mother. Now that his beloved mother was in remission, Cory felt that he owed Dmitry everything, including the useful Intel that he gave and the protection that he offered through that intelligence.

∞♥∞

After Dmitry left Mother Russialater that afternoon, he headed back to his house to check on Royal. He was quite surprised to see that she had listened and stayed at home. He had expected to pull into the garage and find her truck gone, but it was still there, which indicated that she was still sick. Carrying a small red bag, he walked up the long spiral staircase of the main hall to the west wing of his home, where he found Royal in bed watching television.

“Hey,” she said, turning off the television with her re-mote.

“Hi.” Dmitry closed the door behind him and walked up to her side of the bed. “Has your fever gone, yet?” He placed his hand on her head.

“Yep,” she said, moving his hand. “Did you stop to check on my shop today, since you wouldn’t let me leave the house?”

“Everything is fine.” He sat on the bed beside her. “I have surprise for you.” Handing her the small red bag, he leaned in to kiss her lips.

“What is it?” Royal asked, taking the bag.

A large smiled came across her face as she pulled a small Christmas tree ornament out of the bag.

“Oh, it’s so sweet. A figurine of the Red Square.” She held it up to the light to look at the intricately detailed work. “Does this mean that you’re going to let me