CHAPTER 23: A MAFIA LORD
CHAPTER 23: A MAFIA LORD
LILY’S POV:
“Sto… stop it. N-no, Stop it pl-please”, I whispered in fear, shaking my head as tears came down my eyes. My legs moved backwards as I retreated even though I couldn’t leave there.
Nikolai grip on Irina’s neck tightened and I could see a vein on her forehead, her skin pale and her eyes turning to the back of her head. She struggled from Nikolai’s clutches, trying to say something but no word came out.
“STOP IT ALREADY!!”, I finally screamed and just like magic, Nikolai immediately let go of Irina and she came crashing to the ground, coughing and hyperventilating, Nikolai’s finger prints were on her neck, red and large.
Nikolai looked at me and I saw the hunger for murder in his eyes and I flinched. He must have noticed me feeling uncomfortable, he blinked twice and that thing I saw in his eyes vanished.
“Lily?”, He called out to me and I shook my head moving backwards, looking for an escape. He walked towards me but I wasn’t having it.
“DON’T! Don’t c-come any closer”, I pointed my finger at him, I watched his jaw tightened and his eyes growing darker by the second.
My eyes moved to Irina and I saw she was getting better but still trying to hide the fear in her eyes.
‘Is this truly how Nikolai is? Is he capable of murder?’, I didn’t want to think about it. I feel like I know the truth but I am trying so hard not to believe it.
I finally got the courage to leave the dining room but Nikolai was not having it. I had my back turned to him and he grabbed my arm, I screamed in fear.
“Let me go!! Stop it!”, I struggled, what if he kills me like he tried to with Irina?
I struggled and he finally let go of my arm, I ran away and locked myself in the bathroom of my room. I went to the sink and splashed some water on my face, trying not to play back what just happened.
Irina seems to know who Nikolai is and I was dying to find out his true colors, I was contemplating on asking Irina or asking Nikolai himself but I knew the former was the best option.
I came out of the bathroom and coiled myself in the bed and cried myself to sleep, wishing more than anything to just wake up and it was a dream all along, that I wasn’t kidnapped, I wasn’t sold and I was safe home with Papa.
***
I woke up to a knock on my room door, I got out of bed and went to the door, opened it and no one was there.
‘That was strange’, I thought. I looked out of the room and still not a single soul.
I stepped back inside and closed the door, then I noticed a piece of paper on the floor of my room. I picked it and read the content.
[Meet me by the little fountain by 4pm if you want to know who Nikolai is… Irina].
… the note read.
I folded it and chewed it, took it out and flushed it down the toilet.
‘I won’t go… should I?’, I pondered. I was really confused if I should listen to the voices in my head and go meet Irina.Please check at N/ôvel(D)rama.Org.
‘But what if Nikolai finds out and punishes you and Irina, I mean you saw what he did to Irina this morning’, the other sane voice in my head said.
Or maybe Irina knows he went somewhere and this is my only chance of finding out?
It was already twenty seven minutes past three o’clock and I was still unsettled, I sighed and made up my mind to meet up with Irina.
***
I got to the fountain which had cobwebs on it, dried up leafs and look of dust but its water still ran peacefully. Irina was already there, she had her back towards me.
“Irina”, I called once I was close to her, she turned around and I saw a very visible bruise on her cheek. I was shocked.
“Did Nikolai–“.
“Yes. He did this to me, because I hit you Lily”, Irina said and I could see her usual haughty self was also bruised.
Did Nikola really did that to her? It was plausible and I should be glad that he defended me but I wasn’t.
“I’m sorry”, I apologized to Irina and I meant it. She scoffed and folded her arms.
“I don’t need your pity party, that’s not why I asked you to see me. Are you still interested in Nikolai’s true identity?”, She asked.
“I’m here, aren’t I?”, I replied, she smirked and nodded.
“Has Nikolai ever been rough with you?”, She asked me, I hesitated before nodding my head.
“I don’t know how you got here and he has refused telling me, same with Ivan. But I have a rough idea… you’re a hostage right?”, She asked but I didn’t say anything, she smiled as my silence gave her her answers.
“I was right… Well, to a large number of people, Nikolai is a deals on diamonds, importation and exportation of the mineral, but that’s all a cover up. Nikolai is the leader of the Mafia gang called Bratva…”, Irina was still explaining but I was too shocked to hear what she was saying.
‘Mafia? Diamond? Bratva? What is she saying?’, I asked in my head.
“Wait wait, I don’t understa–“, I tried saying but Irina interrupted me.
“You don’t need to understand and just hear me! Nikolai isn’t the person you think he is! He has killed alot of people, destroyed families, smuggled weapons and money, owns warehouses of guns and other illegal weapons… Don’t you see how he tried to kill me! Can’t you see the bruises on my face?! He wouldn’t even bat an eye when he is tasty for your blood!”, Irina said, holding my arms and trying to talk sense into me, I kept on shaking my head.
If Nikolai was such a monster, he wouldn’t have saved me that night from that snake, he wouldn’t have looked for me when I ran away and got lost, he wouldn’t have even called a doctor to treat me when I was I’ll and when I passed out, I mean the best doctor in the whole of America!
‘But you’re forgetting the fact that he practically kidnapped you Lily’, My inner thoughts reminded me.
He was a Mafia Lord? No wonder he was so good looking, but I thought those only existed in fictional books? He’s a dangerous person?
No matter how much I try not to believe Irina, evidence keep popping up in my head, reminding me of his heinous behaviors he has been portraying.
It’s no wonder Papa is after him and he kidnapped me to use me as a card against my dad, it was his plan all along.
How am I not sure he planned the auction too?
“Listen very well Lily, I can help you escape here”, Irina brought me back from my thoughts.
I furrowed my brows and shook my head in disagreement.
“I can!”, She said.
“No n-no you don’t unde-understand–“, I tried to explain but she cut me off.
“You have to trust me even though I have been rude to you before, I was only being that way for your own good”, She insisted, holding my face that I was shaking.
“NO! You don’t understand, he will kill me!”, I shouted and she paused. She took her hands off my cheeks and stood upright.
“You can always go into hiding”, She suggested.
“Don’t you get it?! He would still come after me or worse… my dad!”, I said. I just couldn’t risk it.
Nikolai knows everything about me and from what Irina just told me, he would come after me no matter where I go to.
“Then both you and your dad can–“.
“Lily”, Irina couldn’t finish her sentence when Nikolai called out my name and Irina and I flinched in shock.
I turned and saw his face but I couldn’t read anything from it.
‘Did he hear what we talked about?’, I swallowed hard.
“Come with me, I have something to show you”, He said and walked away not before giving Irina a deadly stare and I saw her break a sweat.
‘Where would he take me to?’, I dreaded every step I took behind him.