A beautiful nightmare

chapter Five

(Tatiana's POV)

Shutting the door behind me, I started to think of this whole thing as a bad idea. The room is pitch dark and I can't even make out anything, as I take a step not knowing where I am heading towards...I stumbled and fell to the floor.

"You are here" his rich baritone voice filled the silence in the room.

Y-y,_yes I stuttered completely at a loss of words. What am I doing here? I questioned myself as if a veil has just been removed from my eyes.

"Strip nina" I heard what looked like his bedroom voice, his statement completely taking me unaware with the damn butterflies feeling Lovelyn had always mentioned erupting from within me.

Excuse me? My heart dropped

Strip! He ordered making me look at him with wide eyes

You want me to strip? but why? I asked in fear

"I want every darn inch of you.

There are one thousand and one girls that are drooling over you on the net and I am sure 90% of them will willingly want to get laid by you I said failing to hold the tears falling from my eyes.

Exactly one thousand and one girls...not you, he said throwing the sultry voice I heard before completely out of the window.

Sweetheart...we don't have all night, I have work tomorrow and I need to be up as soon as possible.

I scoffed... more tears spilling from my eyes as I sniffed. Then I heard a swift movement and felt a warm but strong palm on my neck determined to squeeze air out of my lungs.

Suddenly the room echoes with his loud laughter, why are you crying? It's your fault that you make me want to do bad things to you, so stop crying, after all my mother went through worse.

You said my dad wanted you to take care of me, I said choking on my words as I tried to hold back the tears which were obviously annoying him as his grip on my neck tightened.

I can't brea... breathe...pl...pleas...please I begged him trying to get his hand off my neck, my legs hanging midway in the air.

He dropped me suddenly on the ground and walked out of the room as I coughed hard, very certain that my face had turned red. I held my neck still coughing as I tried to get up, stumbling on different items which made crashing sounds as I made for the door.

"How he was able to move freely in the dark was another thing I didn't like about him."

(Valentina's POV)

The mafia lord, Senator Paige stormed into his office, slamming the door behind him. His face was red with rage as he turned to us his underlings.

"My daughter has been kidnapped by the Eastian cartel," he growled. "They've crossed the line. We're going to war."

We looked at each other nervously, not sure how to respond. My lord is known for his violent temper, and this news would only make him more rash and dangerous.

"Do we have any leads on where they took her?" he asked.

Well... according to our findings I believe she is with him in his private residence, I answered as the next in command after my boss... the senator.

Then we rade his house tonight, everybody there who isn't Tatiana goes down...okay?

Yes sir we all replied but it didn't sit well with me so when the others left, I stayed back.

But sir...I started.

Yes Valentina! He half yelled impatient as usual.

Don't you think we are walking right into his bait? I mean he didn't hide it away from us and even made it public to the other dark associates, he is boldly challenging us meaning he has a thunderstorm up his sleeves.

Who is this rat anyway that dares to confront me?

I heaved a sigh of relief...grateful he was finally thinking. "Sir, Russell Kingston is a household name, he is the CEO of GlobalTech, currently the world's leading technology company. His coporation controls multiple industries, including finance, healthcare, and manufacturing. GlobalTech has partnerships with some of the biggest names in the business world, including Bank of America, Pfizer, and General Electric. The company is also heavily involved in philanthropy, donating millions of dollars to charities each year. And its sponsorship of major events like the Olympics and the World Cup helped to raise its profile even further.

There is someone thriving this big and you didn't deem it fit to inform me? He bellowed and I sighed.

"Sir, I didn't know we were going to be on "his wanted list" I seriously didn't see him coming this far neither did I know we were in his bad books already.

With all these excuses you make me want to skin you alive...he replied angrily.

I am sorry boss I bowed feeling anxious as I rubbed my sweaty palms against each other.

"Find out everything about The Eastian cartel and this Russell boy down to the tiniest bits... deadline is tomorrow evening."

I bowed again before taking my leave.

As I got into my own room, I closed the door and fell to the floor. My hands trembling in fear over the big lie I had just told the boss. I had failed to let him know about Russell since he started out his hustle five years ago even though I knew I could be killed for "conspiracy". I couldn't tell because Russell and I had a past...

Flashback...

We were walking along the beach, our feet sinking into the soft sand. The sun was setting, casting a golden glow across the water.

Russell turned to me and smiled. "This is amazing," he said. "We've come so far.

"We have," I agreed.

"And it's only the beginning." He said smiling broadly

"What do you mean?"

"Well, today was a big day for GlobalTech. We just landed a contract worth millions with an international organization."

"Wow, that's incredible," I said, excitement in my voice.

"But that's not all," he continued. "I think we're finally in a position to do something really meaningful with our success. Something that will make a difference in the world."

"What do you have in mind?" I asked.

"Well," Russell started, taking my hand in his. "I've been thinking about how we can use our resources to help people who are less fortunate. We could fund research into cures for diseases, or build schools in underdeveloped countries. We could do so much good."

I smiled, and leaned in to kiss him.

But babe, I still feel this thirst to secretly build an underground mafia organization, recruiting members and a bit of tech people with a common interest_To end the man who destroyed my mother and affected their lives with his evil in one way or the other.

I went silent remembering how Senator Paige was responsible for my education till I finished. schooling, my father worked under him and I was also contemplating to join "the Westian syndicate" which was the agreement he had with my father after I showed signs of brilliancy in tech and learnt on my own about software development and data analytics. Going back on my words meant my father's death so that evening I packed up and left without Russell's knowledge, I have lived in the underground agency since then not wanting to have a taste of love or the outside world except we had an operation.

To be quite honest, I knew Russell had a promising future but I didn't think he had a chance to compete with Senator Paige and his ancient mafia organization, now with the amount of success he has acheived, the level of power he carried and the authority he has garnered, this fight would mean one of the organizations going down.

Soon enough, I will have to face my biggest fear.. fight against the love of my life.