The ivory carpet was still warm with fresh crimson blood... One that didn't belong in a room so beautiful.
Tina didn't cry, she didn't yell either. There was no time for it. Her father, the man who had ruled the city's second-largest syndicate with an iron fist and a silk smile, was slumped against his mahogany desk... Dead with a dagger in his heart and her brothers captured.
The mafia princess was now just a girl in a ruined dress, listening to the heavy boots of traitors echoing in the hallway.
She knew the layout of the estate better than the assassins did, so she had an edge... she could slip through the servant's passage without being spotted.
As she ran, her mind raced, her blood pumped and her heart broke... Her family's empire was a house of cards, and the wind had just turned into a hurricane and blown it away.
She needed help. She needed to find a way to save her family before it crumbled completely.
And then she paused. One person came to mind.
There was only one person with the firepower and manpower to stop the coup. And he was the last person on earth who should want her alive.
She bit her lip.
Was there no other way?
No, there wasn't... She had to find him and ask for his help, if not, she was finished, her brothers will be claimed, her mafia ruined and their family legacy will be turned to dust.
The Adventure Club didn't have a sign, probably because everyone already knew what it was.
Then two guards, necks as thick as Tina's waist, stepped forward as she stumbled toward the back entrance, her breath coming in jagged, shallow hitches.
"What do you want?"one of the guards asked with a rude and sharp tone.
"I need to see him," she said, her voice frantic, though she tried to keep her calm.
"Boss doesn't see stray cats," the taller one grunted, his eyes scanning the bloodstains on her dress.
"Tell Nicholas... tell him the girl he cursed is at his door. Tell him I've come to confirm his words." after all years ago he called her all sought of names, told her her family will crumble and she will come begging and during that time, he will listen with a mocking grin.
The guard paused when his friend whispered to him that the girl was Tina Orgel, only daughter to Don Orgel.
There had to be no one who didn't know about the Orgel's and also Nicholas's past with her.
"Sure. Wait here."
Five minutes later, she was being led through a dimly lit corridor that smelled of expensive tobacco and danger.
The doors swung open revealing a large office that overlooked the city skyline, but the man behind the desk made the room feel small.
Nicholas Marino.
Five years ago before he moved to Russia, he was the boy who had jumped the garden fence to bring her stolen wildflowers. He had been lean, quick to laugh, and looked at her like she was the sun.
They had such a great past but then... What went wrong? Well, he was no longer Nicholas Marino, he was Don Marino…the leader of the most powerful mafia family in the country.
She clenched her fist, thinking about how they could never go back to those sunny days. Not after 'that' happened.
The man sitting there now was a stranger. His shoulders had broadened, filling out a charcoal suit. His jaw was a hard chiseled line and his eyes... That had lost the warmth Tina remembered and not to mention he was now married to the Bratva princess.
As she stepped into the light, he didn't stand from his seat, and he didn't smile either. He simply watched her.
Tina's breath hitched, caught in the back of her throat. She tried to steady her posture, to find that strong princess poise, but her knees shook. The silence that followed was so suffocating, until she couldn't stand it.
"My father is dead," she said, her voice cracking despite her best efforts.
Nicholas leaned forward, the movement slow and predatory. When his eyes met hers, there was no warmth left. They were the color of flint, cold and calculating. He looked at the smudge of dirt on her cheek, then down to her trembling hands.
"I heard," he said. His voice had dropped an octave in five years—it was a low grate that vibrated in her chest. "And you came here? To the man your father tried to erase?"
Those words landed like a blow but Tina couldn't back down.
"I have nowhere else to go, they captured my brothers and they're hunting me, Nick."
At the sound of his name, his gaze sharpened. He stood up, walking around the desk with a measured gait that made Tina want to run, get away and hide from him, but she didn't. She couldn't.
She would rather face him than the killers that were on her tail.
He stopped inches from her. She could smell his cologne of sandalwood and rain, and the heat radiating off him made her skin prickle.
He reached out, his gloved fingers tilting her chin up. The contact was electric, a jolt of heat that made her heart hammer against her ribs.
"The girl I knew wouldn't beg," he murmured, his thumb tracing the line of her jaw. His touch was firm, possessive, lighting a slow-burn fire that contrasted with the chill in her bones. "But then, that girl is dead, isn't she?"
He leaned down, his lips brushing her ear as he whispered.
"I'll help you, Tina. I'll get your brothers. But I don't work for free."
Tina swallowed hard, her eyes locked onto his. "What is the price?"
Nicholas pulled back just enough to look her in the eye, a dark, dangerous smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.
"I don't want your money, and I don't want your loyalty. I want you." His words made her breath hitch.
"Not as a guest, of course. But as my mistress. You show up when i call, satisfy me when i am stressed, and you do exactly as I say and I'll help your brothers get their freedom before the bigger hawks come for them. How does that sound?"
There was no room for negotiation. Though his terms were mostly to humiliate her but Tina still tried to get out of such a clause.
"You are married" she reminded him and he raised an amused brow.
"Yes, i am"
"So, do we have a deal, Princess?"
Tina knew, even though this man was more dangerous than most, there was no one who she could trust to keep his words beside him. And besides, it has never been recorded that a mafia man was loyal to his spouse.
She clenched her dress, bit her lip and made her decision.
"Very well. I... I will be your mistress, Nicholas."