Chapter 3

Alex’s POV

The strobe lights flashing in front of me made me squint as I arrived at the nightclub, which seemed to be a popular hotspot in New York. I opened the door and got down, my eyes getting used to the lights before I looked in. It took me less than a day to find out everything about Sofia Griffin, the girl that ran away from my wedding. I had everything memorized, from her childhood friends to her favorite color. I just needed to find her now. I put on my shades to cover my blood shot eyes because I had a lot to drink before I got on the flight from Sicily to here, and I was feeling sick but I wasn’t going back to my hotel before I met her.

I found out why she had ran away. She was in the middle of a murder investigation about her parents, so I chose to go through that route. I was going to be the friend she needed here, and then I was going to completely destroy her from within before I killed her. I wished I had something better to do but I didn't. I wasn’t going to get what I have been preparing to get since my brother died, and it wasn’t like I had a job to go back to. If I wasn’t here, trying to pass time but taking revenge on the person that wronged me, then I would be back at home, proving my father right while I wallowed in alcohol.

I got into the club and looked around. I had her picture on my phone and it didn't take long to track her down while she was seated on one of the bar stools. She had long brown hair that was wavy, and she also had bangs. I couldn’t deny that she was attractive. She had a good body and a pretty face, but the only thing I could think about when I looked at her was how she would look when I was gutting her. I put back my phone in my pocket and removed my shades, knowing that the dim light in the club was going to hide whatever darkness was on my face.

I headed straight to her, plopping on one of the stools next to her. She shifted a little when she felt a presence beside her, but she didn't raise her head to look at me. She was twirling the straw in her drink while she stared intently at it, lost in thoughts. I had planned how I was going to approach her, down to how I was going to get her to warm up to me. I could just kill her like I did her step father, but where was the fun in that?

“The drink is going to evaporate if you keep staring at it that way.” I told her, bringing her out of her train of thought.

She raised her head to look at me before she smiled and looked away, “I will be fine.”

“Can I buy you a drink?” I asked. I had a feeling I couldn’t suppress somewhere in me that she was going to recognize who I was, but she didn't. Blake didn't allow anyone to photograph us. People knew that there was a big mafia in Sicily, but no one knew who we were. For all anyone knew, he was just a business man just like every other wealthy man in Sicily.

He had a ton of companies all around the world. He had a security company in New York, which was what I was going to use to get her to trust me. I decided to hire myself as the head when I went by tomorrow because they hardly did any work. It was just a cover to clean Blake’s dirty money. Maybe if I worked hard there, he would allow me back. If I committed to it, his heart was going to thaw towards me and he would give me the control of the mob. It was a long shot but I didn't have anything to do, so I might as well just keep myself busy with that and hope.

“No, I am fine.” She declined politely.

I nodded, keeping quiet as I looked around, watching people as they laughed and danced around like they had no care in the world. I remembered the time when I was happy. The time when I was at the peak of my ice hockey career, traveling on the road with my friends and partying all night while making loads of my own money. I missed those days. It was to no surprise how fucked up in the head I got when all of that was taken away from me one day because of some stupid damn injury.

“What brings you here?” She asked. I didn't think she was going to be interested in conversing with me, but she was new here and probably hadn’t spoken to anyone since she came.

“Booze,” I told her, even though I had no intention of touching a drink until I felt better. “But now that I am here, I think I will just enjoy the obnoxiously loud music and try to clear my head from the craziness of this week.”

She laughed a little and bobbed her head back, “Talk about having a crazy week.”

“Yeah,” I forced out a laugh. “What made your week so bad?” I asked her.

She turned to look at me sharply, and I thought that my cover had been blown but then I looked close enough and realized that she was just too drunk. The untouched drink in front of her but that didn't mean that she hadn’t had more before them. Audacious, moving to a city alone and getting drunk barely 48 hours in.

“I am in the middle of a murder investigation. So close, but it was a dead end, just like the ones I have encountered for the past two years since I started the investigation.” She huffed.

“You a cop?”

“No,” she took a sip of the cup in front of her for the first time since I came here. “My parents. They were killed in cold blood, in their apartment in New York. There is no lead, no clues, just dead ends that neither I nor the police have been able to crack. They have closed the case but it doesn’t settle well to me how they have died.” She explained.

I kept quiet, encouraging her to keep talking. I didn't know if she was going to remember me or this conversation when she woke up in the morning and the booze had cleared away. If she doesn’t, then I will have to find a way to reintroduce myself into her life again.

“I don’t understand how the people that have been divorced for so long will happen to be together on the same night when they were going to get killed. There was just too much for me to rule it out as an accident you know,” she slurred. “Someone killed my parents and I am not going to have a good night’s sleep before I found out.”

I wondered why out of all of the things she mentioned, she didn't talk about the wedding she was going to have. I thought that was the crazy thing that she had in the week but apparently, it wasn’t even in the back of her mind which meant that she never cared about it. Somehow, it made me even angrier with her knowing that she could have just canceled on me earlier and I would have found another bride sooner before all of this mess happened.

“The police these days are getting incompetent. I am so sorry about your loss. But have you tried a private company?” I asked her, digging through my pockets for the company card that my father owned which I was planning to take over.

She turned to face me, her thick brow raised in question. “What?”

“A security company. You are going to pay them and then they will find it out. They will put in extra effort into it and won’t rest until they find who it was that caused that tragedy in your life.” I explained to her.

She stared at me while she was processing what I had just said, “No.”

“Then you should. Drop by my office whenever you are ready so we can go ahead with your investigation. There would be a discount for you.”

“Why?” She croaked out, her hands reaching for the card.

“Because you are a special client. Make sure you give me a call because hiring us is being rest assured that your doubts are going away forever because we are going to find the culprit as soon as possible.” I explained it to her.

She carefully tucked it in her bag before she turned to face me, “Thank you, stranger.”

“I will be looking forward to meeting you again, Sofia,” I said.

She watched me stand up before she realized what I just said and she spoke up, “How do you know my name?” She asked.

A half-smirk formed on my lips as I got to my foot, “You are a special client.” I deadpanned again before I left the club, knowing that if I dropped something on her like this then she was definitely going to remember the conversation tomorrow, or even part of it. Either way, I couldn’t wait to get on with this game, because from the looks of it was going to be a hell of a ride.