Pseudo (6 page)

“Sophia?”

“Yes?” Elizabeth replied and just as she turned her head towards Dmitry he kissed her passionately which continued during the rest of the drive back to the hotel.

Elizabeth could not believe how she felt. She wanted nothing more in that moment than to make love to Dmitry and to be with him forever. She could not believe what was happening; She was meant to be getting to him but he was actually getting to her. This had never happened before.

“Sophia, I want you to join me in my room tonight, will you?” asked Dmitry as they had pulled up to the hotel and were about to get out of the limo.

“But what about your business partners?”

“I will see them for a few minutes then excuse myself. Here is my room key. Go ahead and make yourself at home. I will not be more than fifteen minutes,” Dmitry said, giving her another kiss before they exited the limousine. 

Coming back to her senses, Elizabeth realized this would be her opportunity to get more data and to place the microphone. She and Dmitry went their separate ways upon entering the hotel.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Max and Juan had arrived to the hotel bar about fifteen minutes earlier.

Juan had been to see his old friends who were Mexican drug lords. They met up at a casino, played a few rounds of poker and had a fun time.

Max found a “high end” brothel and spent about three hours with three women he picked up there. Max had a different view on sex and women than Dmitry and Juan. Dmitry got women for free because they were all over him. Juan had his wife and Max had his prostitutes. Neither Dmitry nor Juan agreed with him doing that but they had tried to get him to change his mind so many times they just eventually gave up. They told him it was his life but they didn’t want to hear about it. So, Max would go off from time to time and do his thing and no one would hear about it.

“Hey Juan, Max! How was your night on the town?” asked Dmitry in the most enthusiastic manner they had ever seen him.

“Well, it was good. I got to catch up with old friends,” Juan replied looking at Dmitry with curiosity.

“Yeah I had some fun. We’ll leave it at that,” said Max smiling.

Dmitry and Juan looked at one another with a pause then decided to move on in the conversation. “Well, Dmitry, are you done with your entertainment for the trip? You already dismissed her?” asked Juan sarcastically.

“Actually, Juanito, she is waiting for me in my room. I was going to have you two meet her but, you know,” said Dmitry with a gesture.

“So, how many times?” Juan asked again being sarcastic.

“Actually, for the record, nothing has occurred between us - yet,” replied Dmitry.

“Okay, well, we are set to go on Sunday when you are Dmitry,” said Max sipping on his beer.

“Yeah, the setup is perfect, we’re just a bit down the road from the bank and all is going to go according to our plan. We can be out of her on time on Sunday evening!” exclaimed Max.

“Listen guys we are going to see how tomorrow goes. I might want to hang around here a bit longer with Sophia. So we might postpone it until next weekend,” replied Dmitry.

“Are you feeling okay? Business is business Dmitry. You know as well as I do that once we are here we can’t delay it any longer. We’ve got to roll. You are putting a lot of things at jeopardy by having our presence here so long and you know that,” Juan said putting his Corona down.

“Juan, you bring up a good point but you’ve brought up another point that maybe there is a time to stop and move on with what one has. I don’t know what it is about this Sophia but she inspires something in me. I’m looking at changing my ways in life and moving on to settle down. We could divide up all the assets and you guys get what you earned then we all fade into the world. Imagine that,” said Dmitry as he grabbed both their shoulders with an inspired smile on his face.

“Well, decide Dmitry, it’s yes or no, right now,” said Max.

“Max, you need to calm down. I give the orders. Things go as planned until Sunday and then I will make my decision; Sophia is either entering business with us or we are quitting. I will know by then if I can trust her to live our life with us and be part of the business or not and if not, then it’s over. I am not going live my life without her as my wife,” Dmitry said slapping his hand down definitively on the bar table.

“Alright, you said it and I have nothing further to say,” Juan responded.

“Good. Then if you’ll excuse me, good night gentlemen. We’ll be in touch in the morning,” Dmitry said as he turned to leave.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

While Dmitry was socializing with Juan and Max, Elizabeth got well oriented in Dmitry’s suite. She placed the microphone underneath the office table situated where SJ would be able to catch everything said in the main room and kitchen. Having taken care of that first thing, she placed her purse on the floor where Dmitry would not see it.

Elizabeth stood in the room looking around for any revealing documents but there was nothing. She spotted a safe under the office desk “Smart man, it must all be locked up in there,” Elizabeth thought. She kept looking around in anticipation of his arrival to the room. Realizing that she needed to go back to being Sophia Hayward, she went to the stereo and turned on some romantic classical music. She then dimmed the lights and went to the kitchen to see if there was any champagne. Having found none, she called room service to order it. Dmitry was still not back yet so she went to check out the bedroom, looked in the drawers and found nothing of interest. In the nightstand drawer she found condoms “Well, at least he is thinking safe already,” Elizabeth thought. She went back to the main room to sit down on the couch and wait for Dmitry’s arrival.

Five minutes later Dmitry walked in the room.

“So, how are your business partners?”

“Oh, good as they can be. Enjoying the city. A little pushy sometimes though!” replied Dmitry as he greeted Elizabeth with his customary kiss on her hand which led to kissing all the way up her arm then to her lips, kissing her so passionately she nearly lost her balance. He wrapped his arms around her waist, moving her backwards to the bedroom where he picked her up and gently laid her down on the bed. Joining her, they continued to kiss.

Elizabeth was beside herself with different emotions. That was it: she was in love with this man, but she was married and most of all he was a criminal. “But if I love him, true love, nothing else matters,” Elizabeth thought while continuing to kiss Dmitry. They then made love passionately and then Elizabeth fell asleep in Dmitry’s arms.

Elizabeth woke startled around 4am as she momentarily forgot where she was and what was happening. She sat up straight and gasped. Dmitry, out of instinct reached behind the bed, grabbing a pistol: “What is wrong Sophia?” he exclaimed.

“Oh, nothing, Dmitry, nothing, I just got disoriented for a moment. I’m okay,” she said putting her hand on his chest. She thought she had missed finding the gun in the back of the bed, but at least he had it there and would protect her. They both laid back down to sleep.

Another hour went by and Elizabeth was still unable to sleep. All kinds of thoughts were running through her mind now “What am I going to do? I am a trusted CIA agent; if I fail this operation then it’s a bad mark. If I succeed then I ruin this Dmitry’s life. He loves me and god knows I love him but who knows, if he really knows me not the lies I’ve told, would he still love me? Oh god! I can’t take this anymore - I’ve got to get some fresh air.” Elizabeth then slipped out of bed, found a bathrobe and went out onto the balcony. She was deep in thought when Dmitry came out to join her.

“Oh! You scared me!”

“I’m sorry; I just noticed you got up. You can’t sleep?”

“Yeah, I sometimes have that in foreign places…”

“Look, Sophia, I know that there must be something troubling you and that you’re not just ‘having trouble sleeping’. Tell me, what is?”

“Dmitry, I can’t share my problems with you. You don’t want to know my problems.”

“Sophia, I want to know everything about you. Good and bad. I don’t care,” replied Dmitry as he put his arm around her shoulders.

Elizabeth broke down in tears and before she spoke motioned him to the bedroom, realizing that her agents were on either side of them and that the microphone was in the main room. Dmitry held her hand and followed her. Elizabeth continued sobbing.

Dmitry wrapped his arms around her and patted her head. “Sophia, I don’t care what it is. Tell me. I love you and I want you with me always. If what is on your mind presents some barrier to that, I want to know so I can destroy the barrier. It’s okay.”

Elizabeth attained some sense of composure and braced herself to face whatever was going to come next whatever that meant, even if he was going to kill her. She would rather be dead than live the lie or walk away from him the rest of her life and live without him. She was going to tell him the whole truth and how she felt “Dmitry, I don’t know where to start. There is, there is just so much I’ve not told you or so much I’ve told you that isn’t true,”

“I know that,” replied Dmitry.

“What do you mean?”

“Sophia, I don’t know what lies you’ve told me but I know there is something you are hiding from in life. You have dyed your hair; it’s beautiful but far too dark for your fair complexion and you’re wearing colored lenses. I can just tell that there is something you’re walking around when you talk with me. Even though I know these things, I still love you,” Dmitry said kissing her lightly on the forehead.

“Well, see it is far, far deeper than that Dmitry. I guess, where to start - I am not British,” she said as she stopped speaking with the accent “I am American. I live in New York and…and…and…oh god! What have I done?” she said as she burst into tears again.

Dmitry was somewhat in shock but nonetheless, he held Elizabeth in his arms. “My name is Elizabeth…Duarte,” Elizabeth said as she continued sobbing. That was where complete shock hit Dmitry. He had never seen a picture of Juan’s wife so never knew what she looked like. “I’m in the CIA and I’m on an operation right now to uncover you and your partners to get you put in jail in a place like Guantanamo! Your main room is bugged; that is why I brought you in here. I know that someone mentioned my name - the CIA, we bugged some conversation you guys had where you said I was lethal to your criminal operation. I have been using you Dmitry! The problem is that from the first time I met you, I started falling in love with you. I tried to brush it aside and say that you were just fucking with me and that I would get to you and get the data I needed, even if it meant sleeping with you. Each time you would look at me, kiss me, touch me - anything I would have this feeling that I loved you and you were the only person that I want to spend the rest of my life with,” Elizabeth said still sobbing.

Dmitry was still in a state of shock about everything but most of all that he had slept and fell in love with Juan’s wife. “What the FUCK am I supposed to do now?” yelled Dmitry as he let go of his hold on her so abruptly that she nearly fell.  “Elizabeth, my partner is Juan Duarte. He is from Colombia. That is your husband?”

“Oh my god! No. No, you’re wrong. That can’t be.”

“But I’m not. That is why you were mentioned as being ‘lethal’ to our work. I told Juan he would have to deal with you. He never showed me a picture of you and I didn’t find out about you elsewhere. I did not want to be sticking my nose anywhere that would bring CIA interest.”

“That fucking lying piece of shit!” exclaimed Elizabeth in anger at the betrayal.

So many thoughts were running through Dmitry’s mind “What am I going to do now? I love this woman even though she completely lied to me. There is something about her. But more importantly, what is she going to do now? What about Juan? Well, she got us into this mess and if she really still loves me as she says she does, she is going to come up with a plan to get me out of CIA investigation eyes and to get away from or get rid of her husband.”

Dmitry abruptly stood up, walked over to Elizabeth who was still looking out the window and crying, grabbed her, kissed her and said: “Listen, you are a fucking bitch for lying to me like that and for your ill intentions towards me. If you were the same as any other bitch that gets in bed with me, I would have you killed or kill you myself. But understand one thing very fucking clearly Elizabeth: I love you regardless. I still want to live the rest of my life with you by my side. You even had me in the frame of mind of stopping all my current illicit activities, just taking my businesses and money and moving on in life and getting my guys to do the same. I will still do that and have you as my wife and you will bear my children if you choose. Your choices right now are either stay with me, which means you are going to have to find a way to get me out of your investigation and get Juan taken care of. Or, your other option is you can return to your ’normal’ life but you will take this as a failed operation as I will literally get on a plane and get the fuck out of here within one hour and you nor I will ever hear of each other again. Are your choices clear?” Elizabeth paused staring at Dmitry’s eyes but also her whole future before her. “Elizabeth, you don’t have a long time to decide. I really will leave within an hour and you really will never hear of me again, make your choice. NOW!” Dmitry said shaking her as he said it.

“Okay. I’ve made my choice. I am with you and will do whatever I have to do to stay with you,” replied Elizabeth.

“Good, then, what are you going to do?” said Dmitry, realizing that it was already past six in the morning.