Olivia Davis is living her best life, until her father Henry, steals from a ruthless Mafia lord, Leonardo De Luca. Leonardo has one solution. He wants Olivia Davis as payment.
Lihat lebih banyakDeath.
It clung to me like a second skin. Or maybe I was being dramatic, but one thing was certain: if I stayed in this basement another day or night, I was going to die. This was not how I wanted my life to end. I still had dreams I wanted to accomplish. I had so much that I wanted to do, and dying here in this room that smelled like piss and was home to rodents was not part of my plan. I wanted to go back to how things were before. I had not been rich by any standards, but I had been free and content making ends meet. I had an apartment, well, a shared apartment in an affluent neighbourhood. A business that paid the bills. I had thought that with time, as things got better for my family, I could go back to school and study to be something, but all of that had gone to shit the minute my dad called me at three am. One thing anyone must understand about my dad is this; my dad is not a weak man by any definition. He has always been the hero in my life since I was a little girl. Until the night of the phone call. The call which altered the course of my life and his. And, here I was, with prison food and water in a plastic cup that I was sure the men took a piss in before pouring my water in it. A punishment for my family and my sins. My dad has a thing for the casino tables. He used all our money and then borrowed some from the wrong crowd. He owes the Mafia a huge lump sum of money, money he doesn’t have, money I don’t have either. When he called me that night, I promised to lend him money from the family joint savings. Imagine my surprise when I ran to the bank in the morning and had the woman with thick layers of foundation and stained teeth tell me in a drawl that there were zero pounds in that account. I shifted a hundred times since I woke up. Shivering against the stone wall; I could feel the cold seep through from the concrete floor. I did not know time. I only estimated that I’d been in here for about a week, and no one had said anything. Now, you might be wondering how I ended up in a stinky, rodent-infested basement. It’s pretty easy. Dad dug a damn deep hole for the both of us and now the Mafia wants their money. I should not forget the part where I spit on the boss’s face. Epic moment which sealed my fate. Keys juggled outside my door and I shifted my weight again and looked straight ahead with a hardened look. In the time I have been in this cage, I’ve learned one thing. The bastards that came in here to give me food, loved the smell of fear. It was a flipping turn-on for them. The lights switched on. That was new. They had never switched on the lights before, they opened the door and slid in the food like I was a wild animal. I never begged or whimpered, I would only fold my arms and wait for them to close the door again. The best way to survive, as I came to realize was to keep a hard face, shut up, and only scramble towards the food once the door was closed.Food that tasted like shit and was never enough.
Bright light filled the room, and I dared to raise my head and look at the man who came in and stood in front of me, looking down at me.I had never seen his face before.
Interesting. He looked nothing like the bulky man in black suits who came here every day. He had on a denim jacket and leather pants. Even though he was not bulky, he had muscles that was for damn sure. Even the loose denim jacket he had on did nothing to hide that fact. He seemed fascinated as though he knew something about me. From where I was sitting, I couldn’t tell what colour his eyes were, but I knew there was amusement there. He brushed his hair back with his hands and looked at me for a minute before his face broke into a lopsided smile. “My brother wants to see you.” He said in a voice that was rather small for a man his size. However, it was rich and soothing. I liked it. ‘Brother?’ My brain played catch up, did he mean he was related to that monster? If I thought he was good-looking before, his relation to the man who put me in here, left a bitter taste in my mouth as I scrambled to my feet. “I’m sorry about all of this.” He pointed me to the door, he was polite too. If I was being a good judge of character, I would say, he didn’t fit in with the cruel De Luca family, but then again, I didn’t know anything about the family and how they behaved until I was thrown into this pit. The door closed behind me and I stood outside at the foot of the stairs. “Shall we?” he said and led the way upstairs. I followed on wobbly legs. My legs hadn’t had enough exercise and were moving slower than I would have liked. The walk from the basement and through the house was longer than I remembered it being a week ago. As I looked around the long passage, I yearned to be outside and have the sun beat against my back and plant my feet on the grass. “My name is Cici, by the way.” the man in front of me said as he glanced behind him. I said nothing and just kept on walking. If this was his way of making small talk, he had the worst timing in the world. He turned again with his brow raised, and I swallowed, there was no reason for me to be rude to him, He was not his brother. The closer we got to his brother’s office, I forgot about the sun and grass and focused on my sweaty palms. I remembered being in that office, with his brother, the boss man, Leonardo while he barked orders like he owed a share of the sky. That had been the last time I was in there, after I had spit on the man’s face, and told him to go lick his balls. And look at how that had turned out. Here I was, going to meet him face-to-face again. Cici tapped on the door and opened it, when the door fully opened, Leonardo sat in his chair playing with a cube puzzle. He was not alone. The thinning hair full of grey facing him, I could recognize it anywhere. I had not seen my dad since the day Leonardo threw me into the dungeon. Although I was still mad at my dad for the position he had put me in, I was still very much concerned about his well-being. He gestured for me to sit without a word. I took the seat closest to my dad, and only once I had sat down did I notice how old my dad looked. He had aged four times his age since I’d last seen him. My dad turned to look at me, although he didn’t have anything to say, the pleading was written all over his face. “I hope you had time to think about my proposal.” Leonardo said, and I faced him. Feeling bile rise to my throat at the sight of him. I had a sharp retort and was ready to shoot when I felt my dad’s hand on mine. Prickling my bubble and bringing me back to reality with a punch. We were screwed. I needed to keep that in mind. I knew one thing, Leonardo did not want to kill him, and otherwise, there wouldn’t be a need to torture me in his basement for a week, giving me enough time to think about his ridiculous proposal. But before I can give a polite answer, the door bursts open. And we both turned in time to see...what the fuck?Olivia When Leonardo woke me up, I couldn't help but panic. I wondered if he already knew about my latest fuck up. But the man only wanted us to watch the sunrise together, no one would believe that Leonardo could be that kind of a man. If anyone had told me about this version of him, I would have laughed in their face. I wasn't laughing as I laid my head against his chest so I wouldn't be able to look at his face and see all his emotions on full display and be reminded of what I had done. Leonardo was the most powerful person I knew in the city, his power was not loud and flashy, but it was subtle, for an outsider like me, I hadn't even known that people like him existed until I had come into the fold. Now I had betrayed him, not only once but twice over and he didn't have a single clue about it. I felt bad for judging my father when he borrowed money from the wrong crowd and dragging me into this but looking at my choices, I was just as bad if not worse. Because anyone w
Leonardo I sat watching the smoke from the cigar twirling to the air and disappearing into nothing. Everything was going south and after fruitless meetings at the house, I was meeting Stanley at the club. Someone had it in for me and in every turn I took, they were ahead of me. It seems like I was chasing a ghost. Stanley walked in looking prim and proper and sat down on the velvet couch before he took out an envelope from his pocket. “Is everything here?” I asked him as he placed it down on the coffee table before us. “Yes boss, he assured me everything was in there.” He laid back on the couch. I looked at the envelope, all my answers laid in that small envelope or the answers I thought I needed. “Nikolai should be here any minute now.” I said, putting out my cigar on the ashtray. “Nikolai is coming?” he asked, and I looked at him a little longer before I nodded my head, everyone was a suspect until proven innocent. It was only a matter of time before my mom was on my case
OliviaAt first, the wedding was going to happen in a matter of days, but Leonardo changed his mind. He said he was giving me some ‘time’ to prepare for the big day, but I suspected he wanted to make it as special as he could for both of us.In the weeks that followed, Leonardo’s mother came in full force with the wedding preparations. She seemed genuinely happy at the idea of us getting married, even though she had been rooting for Anna.Zera had gone back to her house and was only expected to return a few days before the wedding, a date that was fast approaching.Leonardo was in and out of the house. He and Stanley had more ‘private’ meetings in his study, and I didn’t need to guess what the agenda of their meetings was.Guilt chirped away at me every night when I looked at Leonardo’s face as he came to bed and the line on his forehead protruded from the stress he was facing.“Don’t wait for me,” Leo said as he finished his meal. We were having a quiet dinner, just the two of us. C
Olivia The awkward silence that followed Leonardo’s announcement; I could cut it with a thin knife. Anna looked broken, and I didn’t blame her, she had put her all in preparing for the wedding. When she looked in my direction, I averted my eyes and focused on the golden lines on the marble surface. I couldn’t face her broken stare. “When did this happen?” she asked, her voice cracking under the weight of her distress. I looked at Leonardo for answers but he couldn’t be bothered instead he looked annoyed that he was being questioned. Damn him. If Leonardo could do something like this to someone who was like family, only one question remained: what he was going to do to an outsider like me when the truth came out? I didn’t want to stick around and found out what would unfold next. I excused myself and walked over to the double doors that led to the Terrance outside, the minute I opened the doors, a warm breeze slapped my face and I smiled, knowing I would take that an
Leonardo The rest of the lunch sailed by smoothly, with Olivia fidgeting like a cold puppy. I knew that the marriage proposal was a shock to her, but if things went the way I had planned, we wouldn’t have to pretend for long and will be both out of it sooner than expected. I pressed the ignition button, and the car came to life with a roar of the powerful horse engine it was. I seldom had the time to move around without one or two of my man following me, but when it happened, I made the most of it. “Can I ask you something?” Olivia said from the passenger seat as I navigated my way out of the parking lot. I threw a glance at her, “Shot.” “Why are you doing this?” “Doing what?” “Why do we need to get married?” If I knew the answer to that question, I wouldn’t be where I was. I inhaled. “I told you, you don’t have to worry about it; it will only be on paper and won’t affect our arrangement” Who was I kidding? My feelings confused me and my thought pr
Olivia “Want some cream to go with your coffee, ma’am?” The server asked. I shook my head. “No thanks, black is fine.” He flipped his writing pad closed and left us alone to place the orders. Leonardo had said he wanted to talk away from the mansion. We took a drive around the city and settled at a cosy Italian cafe just outside the city. I wondered how he stumbled upon these spaces. I was getting better in knowing the things that he liked. From the first time I’d been with him, it was clear to me that he favoured rustic and authentic over modern when it came to eating out. “Scared someone might recognize you?” He asked with a catch of amusement when he caught me looking around. 'You do not know half of it.' I thought to myself and made an effort to smile and appear carefree. “You wanted to talk.” I said, rubbing a shaky hand on my pants under the table. “Yes, but before I can get to that, tell me about you.” He leaned on his arms on the wooden table. “Wh
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