Chapter 4 : Blood on the Marble

Bella pushed through the staff door at the back of the casino. Her shift was over but her hands still shook. She needed air. Just five minutes away from the noise, the lights, and the man who kept watching her like she already belonged to him.

The hallway was narrow and dim. She turned left instead of right. She thought it led to the employee break room but it didn’t.

Her sneakers squeaked on the clean floor. The walls were plain white with no signs. She kept walking anyway. Anything was better than standing still with Mikhail’s words still ringing in her head.

She heard voices up ahead, lowly and calmly and one of them sounded like Mikhail.

She slowed down and she should turn around. She knew she should, but her feet kept moving until she reached an open doorway.

Inside was a small room with marble floors and no windows. It had bright lights overhead and Viktor stood by the wall with his arms crossed. Another man sat tied to a metal chair in the middle of the room. His shirt was torn and blood already dripped from his nose.

Mikhail stood in front of him with his jacket off and sleeves rolled up. A gun loose in his hand like it weighed nothing.

The tied man looked up at Mikhail with wide eyes. “Please, boss. It was just one call. I didn’t tell them anything important.”

Mikhail tilted his head. “One call is enough, Dmitri. You spoke to Rossi’s man. You gave him the new girl’s schedule.”

Bella’s stomach twisted. The new girl. That was her.

Dmitri shook his head fast. “I swear I didn’t know she was yours. I thought she was just another waitress.”

Mikhail stepped closer. “You thought wrong.”

He raised the gun and pressed it to Dmitri’s forehead calmly with no anger, but just cold.

Bella’s hand flew to her mouth. She couldn’t move, and couldn’t even breathe.

Dmitri started crying. “I have kids, boss. Please. I’ll disappear. You’ll never see me again.”

Mikhail didn’t blink. “You already disappeared the second you picked up that phone.”

The gunshot cracked loud and sharp and blood sprayed across the white marble. A red mist hit the wall and some of it landed on Mikhail’s shirt, and some of it landed on the floor right in front of the doorway.

Then, Bella gasped and Mikhail’s head turned slowly. His eyes found hers through the blood spray still floating in the air. And everything stopped. She stood frozen in the doorway. Her legs wouldn’t work and her heart hammered so hard she could hear it in her ears.

Mikhail lowered the gun and a drop of blood slid down the barrel and fell to the floor. Viktor noticed her next and he straightened up fast. “Shit.”

Mikhail didn’t move. He just stared at her. Those ice-blue eyes locked on like they had in the champagne room. But this time they were different. They were harder and hungrier. He took one step toward her, then another.

Bella backed up until her shoulders hit the wall behind her. He stopped right in front of her. Close enough that she could smell the gunpowder and the blood on his clothes.

“You weren’t supposed to see that,” he said quietly.

She couldn’t speak because her mouth was dry. Her hands pressed flat against the wall like she could push herself through it.

Mikhail reached out and wiped a tiny speck of blood from her cheek with his thumb. The touch was gentle and almost careful.

“You’re shaking again,” he said.

She swallowed hard. “I… I was looking for the break room.”

He nodded once like that made sense. “Wrong turn.”

Behind him, Viktor was already moving. He grabbed a black tarp from the corner and started covering the body. Like this was normal. Like this happened every night. But Mikhail didn’t look away from her.

“You know my name now,” she whispered.

He tilted his head. “I knew it the first night you walked in.”

Her eyes widened. “What?”

“Isabella Moretti,” he said. His voice dropped lower and rougher. “Daughter of Carlo Moretti. The girl who ran from the Rossi wedding. The girl whose father sold her to pay his debts.”

She felt the floor tilt under her feet and he stepped even closer. His body blocked the whole doorway now. “You walked into my casino. You took my job. You looked me in the eye when everyone else looked away. And now you saw what I do to people who betray me.”

Her breath came fast and shallow and Mikhail lifted his hand again. This time he tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. His fingers brushed her skin and left a tiny smear of blood.

“You just signed your own death warrant…” he growled, his voice was low and lethal. “Or your new life.”