Right Behind You

Chapter Eleven: Pills & Automobiles

"Poppin' all these pills she said she used to it

She wanna go way up, okay baby, if you used to it

And I know that you a grown woman

And I know that you know what you're doing."

-Pills & Automobiles (Chris Brown)

Andrei:

Kae was back to being quiet again. Her gazes at the dinner table were far away, her sentences brief, her mind seemed to be focused primarily on patching up the men and nothing more. At night time, she would retire to her bedroom to do it all over again.

I know because I'd watch her do it for a couple of weeks.

The night when Alexei called her out at the dinner table, and she ran off, I wanted so bad to lay a couple of hits on my brother. He had an idea that she had been through some childhood trauma and he used that to his advantage to scare her. She was doing so well, opening up to me. It seemed like her walls were slowly breaking down, but then to have my brother attack Kae again forced her to build those walls back up.

I've been keeping myself busy, managing the docks, deals, and making sure certain people kept silent about affairs. As a result, I hadn't been home much as I had to make my usual rounds in New York, California, and Arizona were consistent. My brother only seemed to care about expanding our trade and business and throwing all the shit that involved managing it on me.

This is the family business, unfortunately.

I arrived home relatively late, I missed dinner but it was fine with me. The last thing I wanted to see was my brother over a dinner table, laughing as if he had not scarred Dr. Kae intentionally. I wouldn't be surprised if she hadn't shown up to dinner for a while.

In the kitchen, I have the chef cook me something quick to eat and I headed up towards my surveillance office. As I walked there, I casually glance over at Kae's office and saw that the door was slightly ajar with the lights on. I stop walking and peered through to see what she was up to.

Dr. Kae is resting her head over her arms as she gazes blankly at the computer screen. Alexei trusted Kae enough to finally let her have a computer, I could tell that it made life a lot easier for her as well as the nurses. Of course, I had to rig everything so nothing could be tracked by the government or other authorities, but that was more for our protection than hers.

I watch as she sighed deeply and turned her gaze away from the computer screen to the door I was behind. I froze up.

Did she catch me watching her?

I straightened my back and attempted to walk away, but she was quick and ripped the door open, causing me to stop in my tracks.

Her eyes were wide and scared for a moment, but they relaxed. She touched her chest lightly and I realized she was breathing deeply.

"It's just you Andrei, I thought some creep was watching me or something." She brushed her curly strands of hair away from her face.

I gave her an odd look, "You mean my brother?" I asked.

She gave me a look that confirmed all too well what she failed to say to me.

I walked up to her slowly, she remained in place watching my every step. I stopped just shy of her shoes and looked up at her. "Kae, I'm sorry for what my brother did to you—." She cut me off.