With This Ring

With a sigh I finished my beverage, and thought of how I was going to handle this assignment. Moments later my cellphone lit up. It was the old bull.

“Do you have a way to convince her?” he asked. “She is my flesh and blood and I would prefer if it wasn’t against her will.”

“I will try my best,” I replied.

Chapter Six

Freya

“Freya!”

I jumped at the sudden call and looked up from the desktop screen I had been staring at.

“Are you done with the email?” Britney asked. “They’re like waiting for a response.”

“Uh …” I looked towards the inbox open on my screen and moved to check it. “I’ll do it now.”

“What?” she groaned. “You’ve been staring at your screen since I sent it almost ten minutes ago. Where’s your mind at?”

“Sorry. I’m on it.” I quickly viewed the stone variations for the bracelet in our line and tried my best to focus.

Britney rose from her crowded desk and went over to the window overlooking the busy late afternoon Bronx Park. “I like the emerald, it gives an interesting addition to the charms but the cut of the crescent looks a little too clean, which makes it boring. How about … What in God’s name is going on down there?”

I looked up from the photos. “What is it?”

“Well, it looks like some celebrity is visiting the area …”

I was immediately disinterested and went back to my analysis. “Britney, what if we just go with the sapphire set and—”

“There are men in suits downstairs waiting by two SUVs. They look so vicious. Oh, the door is opening … It’s not a celebrity!”

I looked up then and saw her mouth hanging open.

My heart began to race.

“I don’t know who that is, but by God he looks fucking good. I need a closer look.” I watched my business partner run from our office and begin her sprint down three flights of stairs in the old building to catch the sight of a man.

I jumped up from my chair and rushed over to the window, my heart pounding within my chest. I saw the two black SUV’s she had been referring to and a few suited guards surrounding it, but no demon. My phone began to ring.

I turned and watched it warily as it rang to disconnection. Then I walked back to my desk and picked it up. It had been my father calling. I immediately called him back.

“Printsessa,” he called as if he had not thoroughly humiliated me in a public place just a few hours ago.

“Papa,” I replied, as I touched my cheek. “You haven’t hit me since I was sixteen.”

I could feel his smile. “I loosened my hold on you from then. You were becoming a woman.”

“Then why are you tightening it once again?”

He chuckled softly. “I’m beginning to realize that adult or not you’re still my baby girl. And I have to protect you.”

“How can you then give me to an Ivankov? Have you forgotten what they did to Anna’s family? And ours. They’ve tried to kill you so many times.”

“Freya,” he said to me. “I’m not going to be around forever, and your brother is no more. Beyond us no one else is as strong as they are. I need to be assured of your protection. We are enemies, but with our goals aligned and simple courtesy we will be able to exist just fine. We will be formidable. And there’s no one else in the world beyond Maxim that can even come close to being worthy of you.”

“I want nothing to do with that demon.”

“He is a powerful man. You need a man like that to keep you in line. You are too independent and headstrong.”

“He is a ruthless killer,” I shot back.

“He is dependable,” my father said. “As long as you become his, he will ensure your survival through thick and thin. His sense of honor is without compare.”

“Fuck honor,” I muttered, the tears falling from my eyes.

“I hate it when you talk like a whore in the gutter.”

“I’m upset, Papa.”

“Well, I have to go. I’ll talk to you later, angel.”

But I couldn’t let him go. “Papa, wait … please.”

“It’s for your own good, Printsessa. I’ll call when I get to Moscow,” he said and ended the call. I held the phone to my ears as I stared out of the window at the ugly apartment block across the street. It felt like the very ground had been kicked from under me or a giant vampire squid had wrapped its muscular tentacles around me and was irresistibly dragging me down into the dark deep ocean floor where there would be nothing but the bones of all the poor dead sea creatures. I shivered at the depressing image.

Just then the door to the office swung open and I immediately wiped my face clean of all emotion and turned around to face the man who was playing with my world.