Chapter 4: The pervert

When Lazarus disappeared around the corner, my legs gave out.

I sank onto the wet stones, shaking so hard I couldn’t hold the notebook I no longer had. My cheek still felt warm where his hand had been, and I hated that I noticed.

I belong to you.

I had written it twice, in my own handwriting.

“Well. Look at the mice the garden caught.”

I flinched and looked up.

Leo stood a few steps away, thin, with sharp features and a smile that sat too wide on his face. A folded blanket hung from his arm. I had seen him around the mansion, always at the edge of the rooms of some of the maids, always watching them. I could tell he mostly had free time onhis hands.

Heard he was a pervert and a womanizer, some maids at the mansion do have s*x with him to get a thing or two from him, mostly money. I‘ve also heard he can be brutal and doesn’t hesitate to kill.

He tossed the blanket at me. It landed in my lap, and I didn’t touch it.

Take it,  he said. You look like a drowned rat. He winked. “A cute mute one, though.

I lowered my eyes.

“You really can’t speak?” he said, mockingly. “Not even a little squeak?”

My hands tightened in my lap.

“You caught the boss’s attention,” he went on, stepping closer. “Congratulations. Now you’re his toy. His informant, his little secret, and whatever else he wants, until he gets bored and throws you away.” His voice dropped. “And when he’s done with you, I’ll be waiting to have you.”He winks

His eyes crawled over me slowly, from my wet shoes up to my face. They didn’t hurry. I pulled my arms in tight.

I knew his kind of men. I had spent my life learning to read them and most of my life having to deal with them, especially being assaulted by those who called themselves my family. It wasn’t difficult to know I should be careful around him.

He winked again and jerked his head toward the house. Leave!

I grabbed the blanket, got to my feet, and walked away without looking back. My heart pounded the whole way.

His toy. The word sat in my chest like a stone. I didn’t really know what Lazarus has planned for me, and Leo had just made me imagine the worst.

 I was about to step into the elevator that went down to the maids’ wing when a large broad shadow stepped in beside me.

“It’s Black.”

I had never been this close to him. He was enormous, broad and heavy, with thick arms and a calm face, like a wall that had decided to walk. I had heard the maids whisper about Lazarus’s right-hand man, how handsome he was, how quiet. Up close, I understood why they whispered. There was a gentleness in his dark eyes that didn’t match the size of him.

The doors slid shut. The elevator hummed.

“Take this,” he said.

He held out a small black phone. Under it was a slim notepad  with a pencil tucked into the spiral, more smaller than the one I had. I was thankful but couldn’t help to think about when Lazarus finally read the things I had there.

“The Don took yours,” he continued. “He didn’t say you couldn’t have another.”

My throat tightened. I took both with shaking hands, he was so enormous beside me that I felt he could squash my little self. I‘m an overthinker but you wouldn’t blame me can you, after all I had been through in the hands of men.

“This phone is how he reaches you,” he said. “When it buzzes, you answer within five minutes. Follow every instruction he gives you.” He glanced down at me, and a small, soft smile touched his face. “He doesn’t care if you live or die, Delia. So for your own sake, keep every promise you made to him.

I nodded. It was all I could do, so I knew better the consequences of me failing to do my promises.

He looked like he wanted to say something else. Then the elevator opened, and he stepped back as I stepped out.

“Get some sleep,” he said..”.

He’s so nice, I thought to myself as I stepped out but he isn’t so nice on the battle field so I have heard. I never dreamt of being in the presence of the mafia and his guards but I have heard some scary and awful things about them. Now being tangled with them, I wondered how I would survive,

I stepped out, the phone in one hand and the notepad in the other, and heard the elevator close behind me.

——

I sat on the edge of my narrow bed with the blanket around my body, staring at the phone. Remembering the words he said, five minutes to respond to me.

My mind wandered shamelessly to how handsome Lazarus looked, his plump lips, his slick back hair that relaxed perfectly on his head, his emerald sparkly green eyes, he was so perfect , then I suddenly jumped up pacing through the room with my hands on my head and itching my head.

”My diary” what I had there also, what if he reads it tonight 

But I was alive tonight. That had to be enough for now.

Lazarus

Lazarus called Black and Leo into his private study.

“Today is Friday,” he said. “What has Sebastian told you about Vittorio? And don’t give me excuses.”

Sebastian was the one man he trusted completely. He ran Lazarus’s business abroad and kept watch on Vittorio from a distance and other businesses required.

“Sir Don,” Black said, “that’s exactly what I came to report. Vittorio is missing. Sebastian says he disappeared overnight. His daughters are gone too. They went into hiding. He must have warned them and told them to run.”

Lazarus laughed, low and cold.

Does he really think he can hide from me?

He doesn’t understand, Lazarus said. “I have men in every city where my businesses operate. There’s nowhere he or his daughters can go that I won’t find them.”

He looked at his men.

Pull everything we have on his daughters. Give it to the tech team. I want them found fast. I want news by tomorrow.

His jaw tightened.

“Vittorio crossed a line. I was patient with him. I gave him more time than he deserved. He doesn’t get kindness from me anymore. Now his family will pay for what he did.”

His eyes dropped to the desk, and something caught the light.

Delia’s notebook lay half hidden under a stack of papers. He hadn’t noticed it before, but now he saw a faint smear of glitter dusted across the cover, with some written words on it.

”The brutal Mafia god Lazarus is known to be a player while others have said he‘s a devil in human form with how he treats those ladies who truly like him.

Especially because he never sleeps With them more than once.

And he looks “gay”.

A slow, wicked smile crossed his face.

This little mute sure has the balls…