Dangerously In Love

Chapter Eight

Nikolay

I held her note in my hands and stared at it. It had been a month since I felt something. I wanted her to be mine. I wanted to be able to hold her every night in my arms. I wanted to make her feel the only girl in the world. There was a knock on my office door. "Enter." Demitry came in carrying Anya. She was all smiles and so was Demitry. 

"Papa! My papa!" She reached out for me and I took her into my lap and kissed her forehead. Demitry sat at the corner of my desk.

"So, have you found her?"

"We're still looking. You have no idea how hard it is to find someone when all you have is a first name which could have been short for something or not even her actual name." He frowned.

"It was her name and I need you to search harder, Demitry."I glared at him and Anya poked my cheek, softening my glare.

"Papa, who is Demmy looking for?" Anya whispered.

"Demmy is looking for a girl that I met at a party." I smiled at her.

"Demmy needs to find her cause you love her, papa?" She was a curious little girl and I loved her for it.

"No, sweet girl I don't love her but I like her very much." She smiled big and hugged my neck.

"Demmy find her! Find her! She makes papa smile!" She looked at Demitry and pointed her finger at him. Demitry and I both laughed. I held Anya in my arms and stood up. Demitry and I both walked out of my office. 

"I think we need to eat some lunch little lady." Anya giggled. 

"Mac and cheese, please papa!" I tossed her in the air and she laughed. 

"Mac and cheese it is, malyshka." We walked into the kitchen.

"What's that word papa?" She poked my nose.

"It means baby girl. You are my baby girl aren't you?" She beemed up at me and shook her head yes. I kissed her nose and hugged her tight. The cook made Anya her mac and cheese and I had steak and a baked potato. She ate it all and drank all of her milk.

"Can we go see Natalia today, please papa?" Natalia was her aunt. She was a nurse at a new clinic in the city. 

"Of course we can! Let's go see her now, huh?" I picked her up and my car keys. I decided to drive myself today. Demitry met us at the door and so did Elana. When did she get here?

"Demitry, when did she get here?" I looked at Elana.

"She got here right after you all went into the kitchen. She has a doctors appointment with Natalia." He kissed Elana's forehead.

"Well, that's just perfect. You can ride with us then. We're going to see Natalia too. She hasn't seen Anya in a couple weeks anyways." We walked out the door and got into the brand new SUV that I just bought. It was a sleek black 2016 Cadillac Escalade. It was ideal for our large family and for long distance travel if we weren't flying. I buckled Anya into her car seat as Elana got in next to Anya. Demitry was sitting up front with me. We drove into the city which took about forty-five minutes. We got there and all walked in. Elana signed in for her appointment while Anya and I waited for Natalia. 

Natalia walked out and saw us in the waiting room and Anya ran to her and gave her a huge hug. "Anya! This is a surprise! I have some work I need to finish up but I'll be back okay?" She hugged Anya tight and kissed my cheek. She was Anastasyia's little sister and I always looked at her as the little sister I never had. Anya crawled back into my lap and slowly fell asleep. Demitry came over and sat with us while Elana went back with the doctor. A couple walked out and Elana stopped to talk to them. 

Did she know everyone? Seriously, this girl had to know everyone. Elana glanced back at me as the woman looked up. Those eyes. Pure dark green eyes. I knew those eyes. I stared into those eyes a month ago. The girl looked at me with wide eyes, she had been crying. The man beside her was protective and had an arm around her. 

Ria. That must have been the fiance she was talking about in her note. I stood up and handed Anya to Demitry. The man looked up and I instantly recognized him. He was an Italian enforcer. No, Ria couldn't be an Italian. Her parents must have been forced to do that to her. She whispered something to him and she began to walk over to me. 

This wasn't happening. Natalia walked out and came over to me, kissing my cheek. Anya woke up and jumped up into Natalia's arms. Ria stopped walking towards me and instead I could see the tears forming in her already tear stained eyes. She ran out of the door and the enforcer ran after her. 

"Natalia, take Anya to that ice cream place. I need to take care of something."

"Don't mess with that girl, Niko. She's the Italian Don's daughter. It'll get you hurt or worse...killed." 

"I need to talk to her." I ran after Ria. "Ria, please wait! I need to talk to you."

"Don't take another step." The enforcer stood between Ria and I. "I will kill you if you come any closer to her, Russian."

"I could kill you faster than you could pull your gun. I just want to talk to her. Please." I tried to reason with him, but he was an Italian. They didn't reason well at all.

"I don't want to talk to you. I have things I need to take care of and honestly if I had known who you were before that night I wouldn't have done what we did." I felt my heart shatter. She regretted our night together.

"Ria, please just talk with me. You just walked out on me. You broke your promise."

"I'll give you five minutes with her. Touch her and I'll kill you." The enforcer walked over to their car and got inside.

I stepped closer to her and she stepped back. "Ria, please."

"I'm sorry for what I did and that I broke my promise  but I can't be with you, Niko. You know that and I know that. We'd be fools to think that we could be together. This isn't some fairytale. This is reality and reality is that your family and my family hate each other. We kill each other. For f***s sake you almost killed my brother and my fiance! Two years ago you, Niko, you almost killed my little sister and my mother."

"I'm sorry, Ria. Please. I don't like what I do but it's who I am."

Tears were rolling down her cheeks. "Today is literally the worst day of my life, Niko. The man I want to be with is the Boss of my sworn enemy but yet the universe decides that you're also going to be the..." she stopped talking.

"I'm going to be the what, Ria?"

"I have to go, Niko. If my father finds out I even looked at you, I'm dead. I'm dead already. Plus, you have a girlfriend and a child. How could you even sleep with me knowing what you had? You clearly love her." She got in the car and drove away. I fell to my knees and cried. She thought Natalia was my girlfriend and that we had a child. No, Ria. My sweet, Ria. Natalia and Anya came outside with Demitry. 

"Demitry, get me a secure line to her phone. Now." I got up, picked Anya up and put her in the carseat. "I'm going back to the house with Anya. Sorry Natalia, you can come by for dinner tonight but we have to go." She nodded. 

I called the number I had for Marco's fiance. Low and behold Ria picked up. "Hello?"

"It's me. Go to a place where you can be alone. We really need to talk."

"No." The line went dead. She hung up on me. We got home and I took Anya inside to my mother and called a meeting. I was angry and pissed off.

"What's the situation on the nightclubs?" I yelled at them. My father stepped up.

"The Italians took the lower east side club by the river but other than that we found a soft spot in the Italian Don. A sick woman, said to be his mistress is residing not but thirty minutes from here. We kill her and we'll break him."

"Good, I need to kill something and that gives me reason. Lure the Don away to the club. Send him information that we're attacking. I want that house vulnerable."

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I dialed Demitry's number, "Meet us at this address." I hung up and sent him the address of the house that my father had talked about. I grabbed my gun and got into the Escalade with five of my strongest guys. We drove to the house and it was dark, no lights were on that we could see. We went in from the back. None of the guards were there, we quietly walked farther in. 

Two guards were outside a main door. I shot them both quickly. The shots resonated through the hall. I expected more enforcers to be here. The decoy worked. I got a text from my brother  Viktor saying that the Italians at the club were slaughtered and the mess was cleaned up. I kicked open the doors and saw the woman lying in the bed. She looked at me with pleading eyes. I didn't think twice about what I was going to do.

"Don't do this. Please." She begged.

"Do svidaniya."