Right Behind You

Chapter Fifty-Nine: Vacation

"I can't believe I still get like this

My body on fire, breathless
I only wanna be alone with you, oh...

It's alright
I'm coming for you baby
Hold tight
Lemme break on you like a wave
And don't you pretend like you can't feel it, oh...

I'm yours tonight if you say that you want it
Ah yeah, ah yeah
Our paradise if you think you can go there
Ah yeah, ah yeah
A sweet summer love vacation
Feeling the good vibrations
Our paradise if you say that you want it
Ah yeah, ah yeah."

-SUPERFRUIT (Vacation)

Andrei: 

"Man, if this is the life of a traitor, I think it's fair to say I'm stabbing everyone in the back!" Nikita grinned as he sat back in his lounge chair effortlessly. He rested with ease shirtless, a drink beside him as he basked in the sun that was beginning to beat down on us, the later it got in the day. Never did I think as I got on a flight to Iran, that I would somehow end up staying longer and now currently on a vacation trip to Dubai with my fiancée's family.

Life just comes at you quick.

I was beginning to realize this the more and more I sat and thought to myself.

I picked up my own drink sipping it lightly as I looked over the exclusive beach club we were currently at. Mahid and his friend Iman frequented this place very often whenever they were in Dubai, as they told us, so I assume it was no surprise this was the first place they took us to spend our first day in Dubai together. It was pretty nice; the beach wasn't too far off and it had a scenic view of the tall skyscrapers Dubai was known for globally; it was refreshing being here for things other than business.

I don't think I can remember a time where I actually sat down and relaxed for once in my life. I mean honestly without the burden of having to do something or watch and surveillance, someone, I was just purely enjoying what life had to offer. It felt weird, like I was doing something wrong or that I had to be doing something at the moment to feel productive. It was probably one of the reasons why I couldn't sit still.

"Don't let any of our clan members here you say that, man." I joked as I set my drink to the side of my seat. It was pretty hot on this beach, but at least there was the ocean breeze of offset the increase in temperature.

Nikita scoffed, "Fuck them!" I watched as he basked in the sun for a moment before popping his eyes open. "You know what I realized, Andrei?" He asked me abruptly causing me to look at him with an arched stare. "What?" I questioned.

He sat up a bit on his chair, a bit of his hair flopping against his face which he quickly batted away, "I realized how many precious years of my youth and time I've wasted for a family that not only corrupted me, but I blindly followed a maniac that would ultimately run what we all built into the ground... all of that just for one mistake and...boom! Now I'm just hanging on a beach, the first vacation I've had in a decade or so wondering all the things I've could've achieved and worked for in my life that would have had just a little bit of staying power. That would've meant something to me." He confessed.

I looked at him seriously, his words were really resonating with me at the moment because I felt the same. Nikita had been without family since he was a teenager, so we had all known each other for decades. We considered him family, his own parents being deceased at a young age, he fell into the Bravata very quickly, becoming Alexei's best friend in the process, always working for the family's best interest at heart.

I don't think there was anyone more loyal than Nikita.

So, for him to go against Alexei really meant that he had a complete change of heart and re-analyzed his life and what landed him here. Nikita grabbed his drink and sipped lightly, his eyes were full of clouded mystery. "I respect Omid... even though he's this scary Satan-reincarnate, death reaper. He has standards, he has an empire to fall back on, people respect him... he has a family." He turned to look at me almost a bit bashfully, "Is it weird that I'm thinking that I want to start a family?" He asked me.