Mafia Men: Nikolai's Inferno - Chapter 44: Chapter 44

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 Elijah 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 with them. I thought she could just live here, and do her own thing while I would barely notice her existence. But she was fucking everywhere and it was impossible to ignore her presence in the house. She got under my skin like no other woman had done before.
I fucking avoided having sex with her because I knew if I did that measly little girl would have me wrapped her pinky finger without knowing it. She was addicting, her taste, her smell, her soft fucking skin. Even if we hadn't fucked, she still had me wrapped around her finger, I have no fucking idea how she pulled that off.
I apologized. I fucking apologized to her. I never apologize to anyone. If she had asked me to drop to my fucking knees in front of her I would have and the thought pissed the shit out of me. Nikolai Costello drops to his knees for a woman-scratch that--for a girl.
A woman's tears never affected me, if anything I always thought of them as a sign of weakness but I couldn't bear the sight of her tears. Watching her so fucking unhappy messed with my sanity. I want her back, I want that innocence, that doe-eyed look back. I want her fucking smiles back, I want her to mess with my shit. 2
I leaned against the doorframe as I watched her. Her petite figure resting on the bed, she was laying on her stomach, I wanted to fucking run my hand across the curve of her back.
She stirred and rolled on her back. Her eyes slowly opened as she blankly stared at the ceiling. She turned her head and her eyes landed on me. She squinted them, her jaw clenched. She got off the bed and made her way to the bathroom.
Words are a rare gift from her these days. She mostly scowls and turns the other way when she looks at me. She spends most of her time in her room, she uses her cell phone, draws, and writes stupid shit in her journal.
She was angry, infuriated. She wanted revenge, she wanted me to give it to her. I have an idea of how those men must have treated her. It had been a month and still, she hadn't been the same since she got back, but letting her into my world, into those tunnels was not the right way to get her back.
I will fucking wait it out, let her anger slowly chip away, piece by piece. I won't let her get the taste of it because I know there's no fucking going back once you go down that road.
My phone vibrated in my pocket, I pulled it out and pressed it against my ear. It was Scott, he was waiting for me downstairs. Heaving a sigh, I eyed the bathroom door. I turned before I went downstairs and met Scott in the living room.
I know he wanted to ask about her. He glanced at the stairwell every two seconds like he expected her to walk down any minute now.
Which she did.
I heard her soft footsteps getting closer and closer to us. I slightly turned my head to glance at her, but she didn't acknowledge us, she went straight to the kitchen.
Eleonora, the cook, I had sent to her home told me she learned a thing or two about cooking but she still fucking sucked at it.
"I'm gonna talk to her," Scott said.
"Don't" I warned.
"Sweet cheeks" Scott grinned at her, she stilled but then continued walking as if nothing happened. "Sweet cheeks!" he called again.
From what I heard, they had gotten quite close while she lived at her father's place and they got into a fight the night Evangeline got kidnapped. Scott thought that if he had not left her alone that night, she wouldn't have been kidnapped. There weren't many people in the world Scott felt bad for.
"Don't call me that! My name is Evangeline," she snapped at him.
My jaw clenched at her tone and I forced myself not to react. I don't take disrespect well. Scott was my underboss even if anyone had insulted one of my soldiers I'd put a fucking bullet in between their eyes. 2 I could feel the anger rolling off Scott's body. We were the two most ruthless men in New York City getting owned by a fucking eighteen-year-old girl.
"You're still mad?" he asked
"Nope, I'm just not interested in talking to you anymore," she answered.
"I told you I'm sorry, what more do you want from me? I don't go on apologizing to stupid little girls but I did to you," Scott snapped back.
Something snapped inside of her at his words, I could see it in her eyes, she looked like she was ready to murder Scott, light his body on fucking fire. "Then don't, I never asked you to apologize! I told you I don't want to talk to you! Get over yourself!"
"Evangeline," I called her name through gritted teeth. "That's enough!"
"Am I being disrespectful to your men, Nikolai? Well, I'm not sorry, you can throw me out of your house if you want to, I don't mind," she crossed her arms over her chest and shot me a glare that told me that she was trying to push me.
She has no fucking idea what happens when someone pushes me too far.
"You're not fucking leaving this house any time soon, get it through your thick skull."
She rolled her eyes and looked to the side out of the open doors. My soldiers were all patrolling all around the driveway, there was no way to get out of here. I stared down at her and noticed the detachment on her face. That's what was wrong with her. It was like she was present, but she wasn't really there she was somewhere I couldn't fucking reach.
I hated that.
She turned her back towards us and went into the kitchen. Probably to cook breakfast for herself, she didn't know how to cook shit.
"I'll be right back," I said to Scott, who nodded still clenching his hands like he wanted to punch something or someone. It won't be Evangeline, I will fucking break his hand off before he does that.
I followed her into the kitchen and saw her using her cell phone while she placed some of the ingredients on the counter. It looked like she wanted to make pancakes. She played a video and placed it before her while she followed whatever the lady in the video was narrating.
"Do you remember the rules?"
She stopped whatever she was doing and glanced at me, her facial expression was bored, uninterested.
"I remember" she answered and before I could say anything she added. "But I could care less for them"
Rage coursed through my veins. She was testing me, trying hard for me to slip up so she could hold it against me.
"Evangeline, don't disrespect my men. I won't tolerate that shit."
She slammed the bowl in her hand on the counter with a loud bang. "I am not asking you to tolerate me, I can leave if you want."
I could feel the heat of her glare. Every time she opened her mouth to show how much she wanted to be anywhere but here only strengthened my decision to never let her go. She was fucking mine. And she had no idea what lengths I'd go to, to keep it that way.
I held her gaze. "What do you want?"
"You know what I want."
"That is never going to happen."
"Then I will never follow any of your stupid rules."
I took a step closer to her. "I can just fucking force you to listen to me, you fucking realize that right?!"
"I'd like to see you try."
"I won't have even the slightest bit of a problem in breaking you, Evangeline."
"Then do it, what's stopping you?"
She challenged me, she fucking challenged me. I was tempted, I was so fucking tempted to take on that fucking challenge and show her who the fuck holds the power in this house.
"I'm not letting you anywhere near those men, do you understand me?" I snapped at her.
Her lips parted slightly at first but then they curved into a smile. It felt like it had been years since I had last seen her smile but that smile wasn't normal. It was filled with malice like she knew something I didn't. "You have them..."
"What?"
"The men who kidnapped me... you have them."
"We are not talking about that."
"Take me to them."
I gave my head a shake. "No"
Her eyes lit up with something I could only comprehend as delight. "Where have you kept them? In the tunnels?"
"Evangeline, it's never going to happen."
"Nikolai..." her voice turned soft almost shaky and feeble, she took a step closer to me and held my arm, squeezing it. "I just want to see them, I won't do anything. I just want to see them suffer. Please, Nikolai, please." 2
I let out a breath and shook my head. "If I do this. If I take you to them. Would you then listen to me? Would you follow my rules? Would you turn back to your real fucking self?"
Fuck, I can't believe I was considering this.
She nodded eagerly. "I promise!"
I closed my eyes for a second and looked out of the kitchen window and then back at her. "You will see them through a glass, okay?"
She beamed. "Okay!"
"You will only be there for fifteen fucking minutes, okay?"
"Yes."
"After this, you will fucking listen to everything I'll tell you to. You will fucking behave and follow my rules like a good girl, okay?"
She hesitated at this one and then after a beat, she nodded. "Okay..."
I turned and walked out of the kitchen grumbling to myself. I went in there to teach her a lesson and came out surrendering to her fucking request. 4
I walked straight out of the fucking house because I might lose my mind if I stayed in here with her for a few more seconds. Scott followed behind me, I'm pretty fucking sure he heard our conversation from the kitchen.
My phone rang and pulled it out to see my father was calling me. My patience was hanging by a thread. I pressed my lips together and answered the phone.
"Grace is moving into your home."
It was the first thing my father said to me after I had picked up.
"What the fuck?"
"Grace, your fiancé will be moving into your home."
I gripped the phone tightly in my hand. "I don't think the church will approve of it."
The Cosa Nostra was quite strict when it came to religious values and living with your fiancé before marriage was extremely frowned upon.
"The church will not approve of your whore either, Niko, but you are keeping her in your home anyway."
"Don't call--_"
He cut me off. "You keep her around to warm your bed. It's Grace's duty, not hers. If Grace is there with you---"
I hung up and slammed my cell phone to the ground to the fucking ground. It fucking broke into two pieces.
I ran a hand through my hair frustratedly. "Fucking piece of shit!"