The Boss
1174 Words
HAZEL
I can’t take it.
“Axel,” I say, my voice too loud in the room. “I am not in the mafia. This has nothing to do with me. I don’t want to be anyone’s boss. I don’t want anything to do with anyone.”
My chest tightens, panic pressing into my ribs. I look at Axel directly.
“Actually, if you wanted to do me a favor, you would do me a favor by letting me go.”
The words hang in the room like smoke—sharp, thick, and impossible to ignore. And for a moment, it feels like nobody breathes.
“I want to get out of here. That’s what I want.”
The words spill out before I can stop them. “I don’t want to be the boss of one of your men. That’s the last thing I want. What I want is to go back to my life. A normal life. One where I don’t need bodyguards and I’m not being traded like...”
My voice cracks. I swallow.
“...like someone’s property. I don’t want someone holding my life in their hands and deciding what I do, where I go, or what I am.”
I look at Axel. He is still looking at Nico. Not me.
“Understood?” Axel says, voice flat and final.
Nico nods once. “Yes, Don.”
“Okay. You’re dismissed,” Axel says.
Niko clenches his jaw, flicks one last look at me... cold and cutting, and leaves the room.
I glance at Kat.
She is smiling. Bright. Sweet. Victorious. My stomach twists. Talking to Axel now… would be pointless. He won’t listen. Not when he’s like this.
So I stand. The chair scrapes harshly against the floor. I don’t apologize. I don’t look back. I walk out, and the second I clear the doorway, I run.
“Nico! Nico, wait!”
Nico keeps walking. His strides are longer than mine. I practically chase him down the hall, through the foyer, to the front door. He opens it; I catch up just as he steps through, and I grab his arm.
He jerks away from me like I burned him. His voice is tight, held in place only by discipline. “Don’t.”
“Look, Nico, I know what you’re thinking,” I say, breathless, desperate. “You probably think I went to Axel and asked for this... that I wanted control over you, but I didn’t, okay? I didn’t.”
He stares at me. Silent. Hard.
So I keep talking.
“I didn’t know he was going to do that. Not until he said it, right there at the table. I swear to you… I have no power over Axel. None. You know he makes his own decisions. I wasn’t included. I don’t want this.”
“You know me,” I add quietly. “You know I don’t want this.”
For a long moment—nothing. Then Niko lets out a small laugh. Not amused. Not friendly. Something tired and resigned.
He shakes his head.
“You don’t know, do you?” he says.
I blink. “What do you mean, I don’t know?”
He steps back. Still shaking his head.
“Yeah. You really have no clue.”
He turns and starts walking again. But I chase him again.
“What do you mean?” I demand. I tug his sleeve. I need him to say it. “Nico. What do you mean?”
He stops.
Slowly.
His back is to me.
The morning air is cold. The door stands open behind us. It feels like the whole world is holding its breath.
And then, without turning, he says,
“Hazel… You really don’t know why he did that, do you?”
“I don’t!”
My voice cracks, frustration and fear twisting together so tightly I can barely speak.
“That’s why I’m asking you. I don’t know what’s going on. I’m worried, I’m nervous, and then all of this happens, and then more things keep happening.....”
My words spill out in a rush, shaking, choking.
“I don’t know if I’m still supposed to pay the money he received. The money he gave back to me. I.....”
Niko lifts his hand, cutting me off.
And then he says it.
“He knows.”
I stop breathing.
“What?” My voice is small. “He knows? What do you mean he knows?”
Nico’s eyes flick to the door behind us, to the hallway, to the windows, checking shadows and corners for ears.
“He knows about the f*****g kiss,” he snaps, voice low and sharp, like it hurts to say it.
My stomach drops so fast I feel dizzy.
I glance behind us, just like he did, making sure no one is there, then step closer.
“He knows about you and me?” I whisper.
Niko shakes his head hard.
“I didn’t do anything with you, Hazel.” His jaw is tight. His voice is shaking now for the first time. “Let me just remind you that you kissed me. I didn’t ask for that. I didn’t want my life thrown into a blender because of one second of your impulse.”
The words slap. I flinch.
Nico drags a hand through his hair.
“Hazel… My father is one of Axel’s captains, but I am the lastborn son,” he says, voice rough. “I was working my way up. I was earning a name for myself. And then he just...made me your bitch.”
The word scrapes across everything inside me.
“That’s right,” he says, with a bitter laugh that doesn’t sound like a laugh at all. “He made me your b***h. Which means I don’t get to work with the rest of the men. I don’t get to go on missions. I don’t get to move up. I get to guard you. Babysit you. Fetch you water. Walk behind you like your shadow. He didn’t kill me, Hazel…but he might as well have.”
My breath catches. I hadn’t thought... I hadn’t realized.
“So… he knows?” I ask again, though I already know the answer.
Niko nods.
“And you don’t understand why that matters,” he says quietly. No mockery. Just truth.
I stare at him. My chest feels tight.
“I don’t know why this is such a big deal,” I admit. My voice is barely more than a whisper.
Nico just shakes his head. Slowly.
“He didn’t kill me,” he repeats. “But you see what he did instead.”
He looks at me then. Really looks. And what I see in his eyes isn’t anger anymore... It’s a loss.
It’s a man mourning something he worked his whole life to earn.
He turns to go.
“Nico...” I start, but the word feels heavy, useless.
“Just go back inside,” he says without turning around and leaves.
- Writer
