Whiskey Sunrises

21- Ghosts

Dedicated to ChillinForAKillin,

The girl who hails from the great land of sheep and pig farms ;) Thank you for your amazing, badass female characters- especially Circe.

Enjoy!

xxx

Nikolai's POV

I was fuming.

I knew that Vera would be a problem the moment I realized that she was my brother's new play thing. She was desperate and pathetically clingy whenever I was in the same room with her over the past years, never getting the message that a one night stand was exactly that. One night.

She'd always find excuses to contact me, using the few connections she had to get invited to the same parties and events I attended. It didn't matter if I had a date or was alone, she'd always hang on my arm or touch me every moment she was close enough to do so. At one point, she told someone we were going to get married and that I simply didn't like public displays of affection. As If. My mother nearly tore off my head- not because I didn't tell her that I was 'engaged'- but because I would want to give someone as pathetic and life sucking as that leach the Volkov name (Mother's words, not mine). By the time my father calmed her down enough to hear my part of the story, she wanted to tear Vera's head clean off her shoulders.

By the acidic look she was shooting the very bloody woman, she had the exact same urges she was having back then. My feelings weren't very far off- my father was the only one who looked even relatively calm. Even Sergei said that if Alayla hadn't beaten her up, he would have found another woman to do it for him. We were all currently sitting in the TV room, waiting for the taxi to collect the vile excuse for a woman.

"I don't want to see you anywhere near my family again, Vera. If I do, you won't be very fond the consequences." My father warned in a low tone. She simply nodded in response. Apparently, she hadn't said a word since they left the gym.

"Oh, now you're silent? You had a lot to say to my sister back in the gym. Why don't you repeat some of the things we couldn't hear? God, you're a pathetic excuse for a human." Jax vented, getting up and moving outside. He was just as furious as I was. Getting up, I sent a glare toward Vera and followed my future brother-in-law. I had absolutely no desire to send her off.

"What do I do, Ajax? I've already apologized. Do I give her space? Do I coddle her? Take her away for a while? That might me difficult because of the wedding planning and my family being here, but I can make it work-" he cut me off with a raised hand.

"Niko, I mean this in the nicest way possible, but shut the fuck up. Al will tell you what to do and if she doesn't, she'll show you. She'll be more distant if she wants space or stick close to you if she needs you to be attentive. If she wants a break, she'll tell you that too. She hasn't worked through everything the way she should have, but she did the same thing when my dad passed. She beat a guy up because he asked her if she had daddy issues two months after he died. Stop freaking out." he laughed a bit at the end, amusement written clear on his face.

"I just want to help her." I sighed, running a hand through my hair. "She said she wanted to forget about everything that happened, so I didn't bring it up. That was my first mistake."

"She's as stubborn as a mule, if you would have pushed her, she would have lashed out. I know most people say that you need to do the opposite of whatever a woman tells you to do, but my sister and Maya taught me that that is absolute bullshit. They tell you what they want, and God help you if you don't listen." he chuckled.