The mafia's girl

The Gala

Narrator's POV

    "Omg is that Raphael Black? What are you doing over here all alone?" A voice that was all too familiar to Raphael said before snaking a perfectly manicured hand his shoulder. 

    It was a girl about Raphael's age, she looked like she had just stepped off a modeling runway with her perfectly pin straight blonde hair and light blue eyes.

    Raphael's body stiffened under her touch like he was disgusted by it. Arina only noticed the lustful look in the woman's eyes and couldn't help but feel jealous, she was supposed to be his wife for the night and a wife wouldn't like a woman that pretty near her man.

    "He's not alone, he's here with his wife, and who might you be?" Arina asked, wrapping herself in Raphael's arms, the blonde lady standing in front of her was fuming. The glare that the blonde sent Arina for speaking up, could put fear in anyone but Arina had seen much worst than a glare in all her existence and it did nothing but amuse her.

    "Oh really? And how would she feel about a cheap w***e hanging all over her husband?" the blonde girl snickered making Arina lunge at her only to be pulled back by Raphael's hold.

    "Vanessa, watch it! Show my wife some respect or get the hell away from us!" 

     Vanessa scoffed and tossed her hair over her shoulder in disbelief. Vanessa stood there looking back and forth between the couple then she smiled and leaned close enough to whisper in Raphael's ear.

    "She'll always be in danger as long as she's married to you because you're mine! I'll kill her, slowly, and i'll enjoy every second of it.", throwing one last glare at Arina she grabbed a flute of champagne off a passing by tray before stalking off angrily.

    Raphael wouldn't let anything happen to Arina but he knew just how crazy his ex could get, it was the reason he had cut ties with her.

    Grabbing Arina's hand, he kissed it and pulled her onto the dance floor, she giggled as she fell into his arms when a slow song had came on. They swayed back and forth instantly forgetting about what happened at the bar.

    Arina hated Raphael for who he was, what he did, but tonight, she genuinely felt safe in his arms and enjoyed dancing with him to the soft music playing in the background. Right here, tonight, he wasn't that man who killed her mother but the young boy who braided her hair and made her feel beautiful.

    She laid her head on chest as they swayed to the music while she listened to the soft and steady rhythm of his heartbeat. Nothing could ruin the moment, or so they thought, just as the song was ending and the pair were making their way off the dance floor, a tall man with ginger hair and a scar across his left eye had walked up to Raphael with a smirk on his face and his hands in his pockets.

    "Ah Black, nice of you to come out tonight, I haven't seen you since my proposal to marry your sister, by the way are you still considering your choices on that?" he said confidently.

    "It's never a pleasure, Dimitri. As for that proposal, you and I both know that I'll never allow for you to marry my sister, she despises you, just as the rest of my family, and the next time your father f***s with one of my shipments, I'll rip his head off." Raphael replied coldly, he hated the Russians, they were money hungry and whenever marriage was involved it was only for a heir to get more power.

    Dimitri just chuckled and looked past Raphael to the feisty brunette behind him sipping a glass of champagne. His eyes were taking in her figure in the tight red dress she wore, making her gag a little and Raphael tense, Arina knew it would be better if she wasn't around for the next part of the conversation and excused herself to find Leo. 

    "Babe i'm going to go find Leo, I'll leave you to finish up with your...friend", she said the last work skeptically, unsure of who the man really was to Raphael. 

    "You must have a death wish, showing you face after what you did to my guys." Raphael said menacingly, he hated chit chat and he hated Dimitri even more. The ginger hair man let out a slight chuckle that only pissed Raphael off even more and if they weren't at a social event, he would have blown Dimitri's head off right where he stood. 

    Dimitri smirked adjusting his suit jacket but not once showing any sigh of fear in front of the hot headed italian.

    "I just wanted to talk business, you love money, I love money, why are you so against a marriage between your beloved beautiful sister and I? Both of our territories will make a great amount of money and just think of the power, I'll treat her like the queen she is, shower her in the most expensive jewelry from diamond necklaces to tiaras and more, my friend just think," he said with a thick russian accent putting a hand on Raphael's shoulder. 

    Raphael's patience snapped and he whipped his gun out. "I'll never be you're friend, you'll never marry my sister, and I'll always have more power than you, so get out of my sight and stop with your bullshit." He all but growled making Dimitri smirk and walk away but not before muttering, "I could always go for a feisty brunette instead", under his breath just loud enough for Raphael to hear that he had whispered something.

    When Arina found Leo, he was in the middle of dancing with a girl who had jet black hair and the same hazel eyes as Raphael so she waited patiently to the side, taking in her surroundings. 

    The ballroom was decorated in all beautiful designs of gold and white with marble floors, she could only imagine how much it cost to decorate the whole place. Minutes later Leo and the girl who Arina assumed was his date had came over to her smiling brightly. 

    "Hey Rina, where's Raphael?" he asked looking alert and ready to shoot the whole place up. "Oh, he's at the bar having a conversation with some ginger dude, who's this?" Arina asked but before Leo could get the words out, the girl had threw herself on the brunette squealing loudly.

    "Omg I'm Rosalie and you must be Arina, my brother wouldn't shut up about you, for years he promised that he would find his way back to his princess! He hasn't been around lately so I assumed he finally found you, it's very nice to meet you! she rambled. Arina and Leo laughed at her excitement, when Raphael came rushing over to the group looking pissed.

    "That bastard Dimitri is planning something, i'm going to bring the car around, Leo don't let the girls out of your sight not even for a second!" 

    Raphael rushed off without another word, Rosalie and Leo looked like they we're used to him during so but Arina was still curious about the ginger haired guy from earlier.

    "What's the deal with this Dimitri guy? Why's your brother so pissed?" she asked sipping another flute of champagne finally feeling the effects of the alcohol. Rosalie rolled her eyes. 

    "He's Tristan Markov's son, he's also in line to take over as the next leader of the Russian mob. He's been trying to marry me since I turned sixteen and he just wont give up, he probably tried to threaten our family again and in the process pissed off my dear big brother." 

    Arina had nodded her head up and down smilingly widely, something she often did when she thought people were insane, when Leo's phone pinged, he had led both girls outside where Raphael was waiting in his car drinking straight from a bottle of bourbon. Once she was in the car, he sped away still drinking from the bottle of alcohol until Arina snatched it from him.

    "Do you really think i'm going to let you drink and drive while my life is in your hands, i'll give it back when we get home." 

    Raphael slightly felt better at the mention of Arina calling the mansion her home, the night had been hectic and he wanted to get extremely drunk and go to sleep, once they were back at the mansion Raphael snatched the bottle from Arina's hands and locked himself in his office. 

    Arina rolled her eyes throwing herself on the couch, just when she had finally gotten comfortable the front door opened and two figures were trying and failing to sneak into the house.

    "You guys suck at sneaking around," she said making Leo and Rosalie freeze. They were hand in hand and Rosalie's shoes were occupying her other hand. "Please don't tell my brother, i'll be too hungover to put my best into that argument," she begged, Arina stuck a thumbs up and turned back to the tv.

    She had a feeling that there was a connection between the two when she saw them dancing tonight, she almost felt the same way with Raphael but pushed it deep in the back of her mind. He had taken everything from her and if she fell in love with him, there'd be no going back.

    It was her senior year and she feared she wouldn't be able to go to graduation, or see Charity ever again, or find a love and get married, Arina was on the verge of tears from the thought of never being able to go back to her normal life.

    "Princess! Princess! Where are you?" Raphael drunkenly slurred while tripping over his own two feet, he looked horrible, his hair was messy, and his shirt was wide open.

    Quickly wiping at her eyes, Arina stood and walked over to the drunken man with a glare that softened at his drunken state.

    "Shut up! Everyone's sleep and you'll wake them up by being loud." she whisper yelled at him.

    "I missed you carina (pretty)" he whined wrapping his arms around her waist, still slurring his words, she groaned trying to push the heavy man off of her before giving up and pulling him over to the couch, the task itself was extremely hard so Arina was thankful she had already took her heels off. 

    Raphael was still fully dressed so Arina helped him take his shoes off and sat his gun on the table before laying him down and standing up to go get some sleep herself when Raphael reached to wrapped his arms back around her waist. 

    "Don't leave, stay with me, please" he slurred looking up into into her blue eyes with his dark hazel ones. Arina sighed, and tried to pull away from him, but anytime she made any progress he got louder and whiny.

    Giving up she made herself comfortable on the other side the gigantic couch and pulled a blanket over them, that was laying on the back of it, closing her eyes she relaxed until Raphael pulled her into his arms. 

    Too tired to complain Arina just closed her eyes and let sleep take over, hoping that tomorrow would be a better day.