Chapter Eight
1609 Words
Marcus knew that he had made a great mistake the moment the gates closed behind him.
His car was a wreck, his forehead had been bashed, the airbag was out… he was a mess.
The sound of the gate closing was heavy, final… Just like something being sealed finally.
He sat in his car, or what remained of it, hands tight around the steering wheel as armed guards moved around him with quiet efficiency, like soldier ants or a swarm of bees. He was surrounded.
There was no shouting, no chaos and that was worse. They weren't panicking because they were in control…
And they were in control but he wasn't. Because they were ready, they had been expecting him to make this move...
Inside the estate, Dante was not in a hurry, he never was.
Viktor stood across from him, waiting for more orders.
His earpiece made a sound and flashed a blue light as he replied to the person on the other end.
"He's secured", he said to Dante.
"Good. Is he alive?"
"Very much"
Dante adjusted his cufflinks slowly, "Bring him to the west room"
"For interrogation?"
Dante scoffed, "For a friendly conversation"
Viktor didn't smoke because in Dante's world, those two things were often the same.
Dante walked to the door, whispered something to Viktor who also whispered something to his subordinate right outside the door.
In a few seconds, five guards were in the room, ushering Alina to the safety of her own bedroom.
She wasn't supposed to hear anything but the house carried sounds in very strange ways.
She knew Dante was going to kill Marcus but she had to stop him. She had to plead with him to let Marcus go just this one last time, she wanted to beg him to tamper justice with mercy because although Marcus was an i***t, he didn't deserve to die.
But she had one obstacle to begin with.
The guards.
They wouldn't let her out of the room. She thought of different escape routes, but the house was built like a fortress, and she was still too new to understand how it worked or whether there were secret passageways.
Just then, a thought popped into her head. She opened the door and her eyes met with the burliest of the men mounting her door.
She beckoned him to come.
"Who asked you to stand out here, Marco?"
"Boss' orders", he replied, avoiding eye contact with her.
"Well, I want you all to leave"
"I'm sorry, Mrs Russo, that's not possible. The boss will have our heads"
"What did you call me?"
"Mrs Russo, ma'am"
"Good. And who am I to you?"
"The boss's wife"
"Ahhh, you're smart. So, that means I get to give orders too and you must follow, isn't it?"
"Y—Yes ma'am"
He was as confused as the rest of them were and they all knew where she was headed.
"So, it's an order. Get out of my way. If you don't, I will forcefully go through and if you touch me, Dante will have your heads… But if you let me pass, I can plead on your behalf"
They were astounded. She'd won.
She briskly stepped out of the room, barefoot, and made her way to the west side of the house. She didn't know where the west room was but believed that it would be on that side, the west, hopefully.
Running down corridors restlessly, she heard Viktor's voice through a partially closed door.
"…not clean. He's already been approached"
Her steps slowed as she drew closer to eavesdrop.
Dante responded, his voice lower than Viktor's.
"I expected that"
Alina's chest tightened. They were talking about Marcus. She knew it even without hearing his name mentioned.
"…Vetrova Syndicate", Viktor continued.
The word meant nothing to her but the tone did. It meant danger, real danger.
"Is he useful?" Dante asked
"Potentially, if he's desperate enough"
Alina's breath caught in her throat. Desperate enough for what?
She leaned slightly closer to the door before she could stop herself.
"And if he's not?", Viktor asked
"Then he becomes an example"
The words froze something in her chest. Not punishment, not earning... An example, which meant Marcus would be eliminated.
Her stomach turned as she stepped back quickly, her pulse was racing.
She hadn't meant to hear that but now she couldn't unhear it.
——————
Marcus was escorted into a room that felt too elegant to be an interrogation room, too comfortable to be threatening.
That was intentional, he knew it was.
Soft lighting, dark wood and expensive furniture. There were no visible weapons but he knew better.
Dante would always want his enemies to feel comfortable and unsuspecting before he strikes them.
Talk about the devil, or in this case, think about the devil, and he will appear.
Dante walked into the room a moment later. He was alone and Marcus found that more intimidating than guards because it meant he didn't need them.
"Mr Hale", Dante took a seat across from him, crossed his legs and leaned back comfortably while lighting a cigarette.
Marcus forced himself to sit straighter, "I— I just came to talk", he explained
"So I've been told"
There was silence as Dante puffed smoke and blew into Marcus' face.
"Well? Talk! I have better things to do"
He took out the revolver, screwed on the silencer, c****d it, and dropped it on the table between them.
"I think there's been a misunderstanding", he began to blab frantically.
"About what, Marcus?"
"Alina"
The name sounded so wrong coming from his mouth, in this room. That name was too soft, too human, too innocent to be involved in this, his world.
"What about her?"
Marcus hesitated at first but decided against it, "She's not meant for this life, this world, your world"
Dante's eyes darkened almost imperceptibly.
"And you are?"
Marcus swallowed hard, "Thats not what I—"
"You approached my home, you contacted my wife, associated yourself with people who are not… casual acquaintances"
Marcus stiffened, "I don't know what you're talking about"
"No?", Dante tilted his head slightly.
"No, I don't"
"Well, you see, the Vetrova Syndicate don't approach irrelevant men"
Marcus's stomach dropped. He'd been exposed but how? The mysterious man told him they were very discreet so how did he get exposed?
"They reached out to me", he finally admitted, "I didn't go looking for them. They came to me"
"And yet you answered"
"I just… I just wanted information"
"About my wife"
Marcus clenched his jaw, "I care about her"
"No. You don't. You only care now because I have her, and you feel I chose her because of the great value I will get, while you will lose. And now, now you're trying to reclaim it"
"It's not like that", he was sweating profusely in the well-air-conditioned room.
"It's exactly like that"
The calmness in Dante's voice was unnerving and suffocating, it was driving Marcus crazy.
"You don't even care about her", he blurted uncontrollably, "I know you're marrying her for business. And if you did care about her, you wouldn't treat her like a possession"
The room went still. Dante didn't react immediately. He crushed the cigarette butt in an ashtray, picked up the revolver and casually shot Marcus in the knee.
He squealed, first in disbelief and then in pain. He screamed so loud the whole city would have heard but unfortunately, the room was soundproofed.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry… please get a doctor. I don't want to die", he cried
"First, you will never say her name before me, ever again. Second, you don't get to define how I treat my wife"
Marcus was in pain and couldn't take his eyes off the blood that was now staining the immaculate white rug beneath his feet.
His hands were bound, so he couldn't use them to contain the pain or stop the blood from flowing.
"I would never hurt her, I swear, she means the world to me", he continued, still crying.
"Oh, really?", Dante slid his phone out of his pocket, retrieved the video of the night Alina was humiliated by Marcus and showed it to him.
"That was a mistake. I didn't mean anything I said that night. I was drunk"
"Yes. And yet you jumped into bed with your mistress immediately she left"
Saying that, he stood up. The conversation had ended exactly how he wanted it and he had passed the message he wanted to his pass across.
"You will never contact her and if you do, you will learn what happened to men who confuse access with permission"
Well, that meant one thing to Marcus. He would live, he would be walking or crawling out of the Russo estate alive, and that gave him hope.
Dante stood up, picked up the revolver and walked out of the room. Almost immediately, a stream of guards came in and bundled Marcus out.
He couldn't walk but his knee wasn't badly injured. Being a professional shot, Dante's bullet had only grazed his knee and not caused any permanent damage.
But Marcus, full of mouth and words only. He wouldn't hesitate to bully and suffocate if given the power but he couldn't take half the treatment if the same was meted out on him.
He was escorted out of the room and down the corridor that led to the large hallway where Dante stood, ready to open the door.
But as he did, he was greeted with a shocking surprise.
There stood Alina, as white as a ghost, still as a statue.
- Writer
