12

Chapter 12

Vladimir

Saying those harsh words to her while tears threatened to spill from her eyes seemed like the most inhumane thing I’d ever done in my life. As I walked past her and headed to the attic where I’d intended to have a drink and clear all the fog in my head, her sniffles trailed behind me, increasing my guilt.

“Vladimir,” she croaked, but I had nothing to say to her for now.

She didn’t just dash my hopes, she toyed with my emotions and made me look stupid. Even though I had done the same in the past, I didn’t expect her to take her revenge to a greater level. But a greater part of me was asking, was this really revenge?

My phone vibrated in my pocket and I brought it out, wishing that whoever was calling wouldn’t aggravate my anger. I pressed the phone to my ear without checking the caller ID.

“Hello, what’s the problem?” I asked coldly.

“That’s no proper way to speak to your Capo.” Dmitri’s voice came on the line.

I heaved a tired sigh. “Look, I’m sorry…”

“There’s no need to apologize, I understand how you feel. But I have something for you that might cheer you up.”

If Dmitri was promising that, then it had to be true and I was more than interested in anything that would get me out of his house for a while.

“Now isn’t the time to play gatekeeper, brother.” I told him, albeit gently.

“Alright then. Just take a few of your very good knives, we’ll need it to carve some assholes nice and clean.” He informed me.

A surge of adrenaline roared through my veins and instantly I swerved and returned to my room. “I’m on my way.”

We had taken off on our motorbikes, Dmitri, Armen and I, heading for the bar where we ought to make things right at a neck-break speed.

The helmet kept my hair from flying around and covering my face while I shifted gears, running at a higher speed than the others until I got to the downtown bar that the offender was in. He didn’t even know that we were coming and that added to the fun. The element of surprise had to be the most exciting prospect of attacking your enemies.

I could imagine the look that would be on his face when we barged into the bar.

I was one step away from opening the door when I felt a light grip on my wrist.

“I know that you’re furious about whatever is happening between you and Guila, but we can't afford to mess this up because your head is too far up in your ass to see why you should be careful.” Dmitri warned me.

He knew that I wouldn’t listen, but he went on to preach about logic and reasoning before he let go of my hand.

The exterior of the bar had a shabby appearance, but all of that was a facade to keep the authorities from coming for their usual secret inspection that wasn’t a secret anyway.

I pushed the door open and was met with loud music, people swaying their sweaty bodies recklessly to the rock’n roll song that blasted from the speakers. Some of them had had more than enough shots of alcohol which caused them to stagger around. Warm Led bulbs tried to hide some couples who were on a high sexual overdrive at the corner, but my sharp eyesight caught all the details.

But that wasn’t what kept me from going forward. It was the memory of Guilia coming to me for the first time that night and asking for a one night stand which we never had that spurred me on.

The owner of the bar, the person we had come here for, was hanging around a table filled with people that seemed like important customers of the bar and momentarily I shoved down the bittersweet memory aside and traipsed toward him before he’d see me and think of bolting away .

His expression evened out and his face turned pale the moment our eyes collided. His feet remained rooted on the spot while I marched towards him, ignoring the surprised looks on the faces of the people he had been speaking with.

“For someone who has been complaining about low sales, you don’t look too bad at all.” I accompanied my statement with a dark smile while re-adjusting the collar of my brown leather jacket. Not that it needed readjustment, I just needed to immerse myself in the spirit of what was coming.

He shuddered uncontrollably, taking slow steps backward while I matched his pace until his back hit the counter and then he flashed me a nervous smile. ‘Come on, man, we don’t have to do things this way, I can settle you without anyone finding out about-’

My fingers closed around his neck as he choked. “It’s one thing to defer in your payments and it’s another thing to try to make me go against the gang. What made you think that everyone is as disloyal as you are?” I questioned through gritted teeth.

His eyes watered as he struggled, clawing at my wrist and dragging his nails over the skin of the back of my palm. The vein on his forehead was ticking and protruding .

“Please,” He squeaked and gasped, his eyes widening in shock, not believing that I would choke him in his own bar.

Without having to look back, I already knew the people moving behind me. He wasn’t able to see them in time because my huge frame had blocked out any other line of vision.

I released his neck and watched him crumble to the ground while massaging his neck slowly. Dmitri stepped forward and crouched in front of him with Armen taking a position beside me. I reached into my holster and produced a Karambit, clean, sharp and well-polished. It was my favorite carving knife and I was just waiting to use it once Dmitri ran out of patience with him.

It wouldn’t be long before I’d be asked to use my skills on him and truthfully, I was more than eager to end this with the slowest and most painful torture session in my arsenal, if Dmitri let me.

“Where is the money, Zac?” Dmitri bit out each word one after the other.

Zac’s eyes narrowed to slits, his breaths bursting out in quick terrified pants. “I…umm…,” He drew in a deep breath and clasped his palms against the other.

“Please, I promise that you’ll get it in your office tomorrow, Boss.”

“More lies, Zac?” I asked him, my face displaying all the subtitles my fist so badly wanted to display in full terms on his face. He had been saying this to our errand soldier for the past two months even though the bar had generated more than enough money to clear his taxes for the rest of the year.

“Why can’t I get my money tonight?” Dmitri asked calmly, which annoyed me in some kind of way.

Zac swallowed and swept a glance from Dmitri to Armen and finally settled on me. The ferocity of my gaze caused him to look away immediately as he blinked anxiously.

“We were robbed a few days back and the money we have right now is only enough to keep up the daily running of the bar.”

I was on the verge of ending this boring question and answer session as Zac’s lies did nothing but grate on my already fraught nerves.

“Hey, motherfucker, what the fuck do you take us for? We monitor every single business under us and do you think that we wouldn’t be informed if something as huge as a robbery took place here?” Armen intercepted.

He couldn’t say anything in his defense, knowing that he had been caught.

“So I ask again, Zac, when is our money getting to us?” Dmitri repeated in that too-calm voice that did nothing to calm anyone present.

We’d expected a response, but the sound of a gun being cocked drew our attention away from him. We had been surrounded by four young men whom I presumed worked for him.

“Get your asses out of here now!” One of them tried to be brave as he passed the order, but his jerky movement gave him away. He wasn’t even a Made man and they probably had no idea about who we were.

“I think y’all should leave before everything gets messy.” Armen issued a warning, but they were more brave than smart.

“We won’t leave if you don’t get your rotten selves out of our bar!” A gravelly voice yelled back.

My patience waned off that moment and without uttering another word, I flung the karambit at him, shutting his mouth up. He fell flat while Armen took care of the others. Dmitri gave way and squeezed my shoulder, a silent go ahead for me to do whatever I wanted.

"Please, have mercy, I promise not to default again." He cried soberly. His pleas reminded me of my favorite R&B song.

Without hesitating, I drove my knife into the bloody idiot's skull. Killing had never felt so satisfying. His dilated pupils that pleaded earnestly for mercy even till the point of death was nothing short of intoxicating. I was delighted by it and I wanted more.

More blood to be spilled, more bodies to carve a good artwork from. The horror that radiated from his body as he gave in to the drumbeats of death called out to my demons. It was magnetic, drawing something out of me to come and play.

My mind was creative in a delinquent way and I wasn’t going to hold back. As I pushed his lifeless body to the cold floor, I wished for only one thing, that it was Alessio's.

I hated that he married the only woman my heart beat for. And no, he didn't do it out of love, but to spite me and to prove to me that he could have whatever he wanted, including what was mine.

A crazy idea flitted into my mind and I pulled out my knife roughly, trailing the tip from the front of his skull to his sternum while blood seeped out of it but then someone was trying to shove me off Zac’s lifeless body.

"We can't turn this into a bloodbath, Vladimir. Get a hold of your emotions." Dmitri growled a disappointed warning at me and as much as I hated to admit it, he was right.

A few years back, I wouldn't have believed that I had one–emotions, but within me now resided a roller-coaster of emotions, running wild without any stopper in sight. Anger, hatred, deep disappointment all burned inside of me.

"It's so hard," I admitted, my voice cracking as I was slowly on the verge of breaking down.

Why did we still have a truce with them? I wanted war. I wanted to have a real reason to break Alessio the only way I deemed fit and this fucking truce held its head high as an obstacle.

"Let's go home," Dmitri said and I shook my head.

His home was the last place I wanted to be. Yes, Dalian was there and I was presented the opportunity to bond with him, but knowing that Guilia was still there... I halted the thoughts.

"I'm going to my penthouse or maybe I'll call a 'Mary' to calm my blood the fuck down.”

"Pray Guilia doesn't hear about this," He warned.

I scoffed. "She's married to another man. My sex life shouldn't bother her." I replied and walked away.

The truth was that it would bother her as much as it would bother me. And it was exactly what I wanted. For her to worry about who warmed my sheets at night and who did not. I was a fool, a complete one, but I was far too gone for redemption.