•Evangeline•╌─═❁═─╌For the past hour, I have lain in my bed trying to make sense of what happened between Scott and me. Was it all there was to his friends? Is that what he wanted all along? I couldn't believe that I refused to believe that it was the only thing Scott wanted, from the past few weeks our relationship had been nothing but platonic. He never showed any interest in me, he treated me like you would treat your best friend. I picked up my cell phone from the nightstand and scrolled to his number. I contemplated if I should call him or not. As I was about to click on his number, a loud clattering sound from downstairs fell on my ears. I shot up from my bed, there was no one else in the house except for me. All of the household staff had gone home, maybe it was one of the guards. I swallowed as a feeling of unease crept up, I felt heavy footsteps coming upstairs. This doesn't feel right. Scared out of my wits, I clicked on Scott's number, it rang and rang but he didn't pi
•Nikolai•╌═❁═╌The gunshot rang out the entire dining room. Everyone glanced at me and then diverted their gazes back to their meals not questioning me or my authority. The Russels seemed wary of my decision to kill my own men off.The truth is he had pissed me off two months ago and since then I have been trying to get my revenge. He had shown a desire to marry Evangeline and that for some reason pissed me the fuck off. Leaning back, I rested a forearm on the table. Anger burned in my chest, I had to keep it in check so, I won't kill every single fucking person in here. And I really wanted to put a bullet in Paul Russel's head. Grace's mother showed her distaste by glaring directly at me. Apparently, she did not like the idea of blood while she was peacefully eating her dinner. Why the fuck was she married to a Don then? I'm pretty sure Paul had done some pretty fucked shit in front of his family. It was the reason Grace turned out to be a fucking walking disaster. In all honestl
•Evangeline•╌─═❁═─╌They had taken me out of that cell for some reason. I was now in a bedroom with no windows and dim lighting. They hadn't tortured or beat me up for two days now but that did nothing to the pain and swelling all over my face and body. I pulled the covers closer to me and tried to snuggle more under the sheets. I wanted to disappear and reappear somewhere else. I just wanted this torture to end. The bedroom door opened and a woman walked in. She offered me two pills and a bottle of water. I looked between the pills and her. "For the pain," she said dryly like she wanted to be anywhere but here. I slowly got up and took the pills from her. I don't know what it was, these pills could be anything but painkillers. I wasn't going to swallow them. She kept staring at me, waiting for me to put them in my mouth. So, I did, I placed the pills under my tongue and took a sip of water. The woman took the bottle of water back from me and left the room. Once she was gone, I g
•Nikolai•╌═❁═╌I gripped onto the weapon in my hands. I gestured for my men to stay back. The dirty old building stood in the middle of nowhere. This is the location that man had sent me. It could be a trap and here I fucking was. It looked like something Ignacio Reyes would own. He was a fucking scum. He didn't belong to any of the mafia's family, he was more of a small-town gangster that had made big and decided to cross me after I had put a bullet in his father's head. I had more men, more wealth, and more power than him but that didn't stop him. He was hellbent on destroying me. Someone gotta teach the fucker that no one gets away after crossing Nikolai Costello. A few of the men were out patrolling the area. They were unaware of our presence. Putting the silencer on our guns, I aimed at one of their heads. A bullet shot out of the barrel of my gun piercing into his skull. One bullet, that's all it took before he slumped on the ground like a puppet released from his strings. A m
•Evangeline•╌─═❁═─╌I opened my eyes to a familiar ceiling. A ceiling I hadn't seen for more than a month ago. The last thing I remember is Ignacio hovering over me. I have no idea what happened after that. How I ended up here. I couldn't believe I was here. I was in Nikolai's home. I couldn't believe that I was in this bedroom. At first, I thought it was the figment of my imagination but then I tried to touch things around me and they felt so real. They were real. I was no longer in Ignacio's captivity. I was no longer in that dingy, dirty cell. I was no longer in Ignacio's bed, tears pooled in my eyes as I thought about what Ignacio might have done to me. I lost consciousness, I don't remember anything. I looked down at my clothes, they were just simple PJs, not the kind of revealing clothes that he had made me wear. Did he force himself on me? Did he assault me? I didn't feel different. How do you know if you have been assaulted? I sat up and brought my knees to my chest. I sa
•Evangeline•╌─═❁═─╌I slammed open the bedroom door and took off all of my clothes before running to the bathroom. I didn't even care to flick the lights on as I moved closer to the bathtub. I fill the bathtub, the water nearly overflowed as steam surged from the scalding water. I step inside, the hot water burned my skin but I didn't care. The burn felt like it was washing away their hands, their touch. I clenched my jaw to distract myself from the burn. This is good. It will wash their hands off me. It will wash off their touch. I squirt a good amount of body wash on the loofah and started to scrub. I scrubbed, and scrubbed, and scrubbed, the blistering water scorching my skin. Their laughing faces flashed before my eyes. I remembered the way their bodies smelled, their breath smelled. It just made me scrub more violently. Their every single insult, their degrading remarks, and their dirty words resonated in my mind. I wanted to wash it all off, off my body, off my brain. Every
•Evangeline•╌─═❁═─╌Another day...Another morning... Still, it did nothing to calm the turmoil I felt inside of me. Everything around me was just the same but I didn't feel the way I used to. I feel hateful all the time, anger is the only emotion coursing through my veins right now. Ten days, I spent ten days in that cell but it felt like a year. It felt as if that cell didn't belong in this world, time passed by slowly there. I looked out of the window and felt nothing... this view always brought me comfort but now it did nothing to me. Nothing to calm the storm brewing inside of me. I remember looking out of this window and dreaming of a life outside these four walls. I thought it'd be a fairy tale. I thought my parents were wrong and the world out there was anything but evil. “The world is a dangerous place and you are easy prey, Evangeline. You are innocent and naive and you lack physical strength. This world will chew you alive.” My dad wasn't wrong. He wasn't wrong at all
•Nikolai•╌═❁═╌I'm weak.Too fucking weak.I let her get too close to me.Until recently, I only ever really loved one woman in my life. My mother, I respected her, loved her. Anastasia Costello. I thought she was the only one who really knew me, the only one that can tear down my walls. I thought my ability to love ended with her, and I was fine with that. I've watched her writhing in pain, struggling to breathe, tears leaking out of her eyes but she couldn't move. My mother fought long and hard with the disease before she lost that battle. I thought that was it. My only weakness, the only woman I ever loved is dead and now I'm fucking invincible. But then she happened.The morning Charles Bolton died, I didn't fucking know what I was getting myself into when I brought his daughter into my home. I hadn't given it a second thought, I didn't even know what I was going to do with her. The men in my circle had many ideas about what I should do with her, but I didn't fucking agree wi