I Tried To Kill Him, Now I'm His Wife

Two

Chapter Two

Lada

There were so many things I had mentally prepared myself to face in the unmerciful hands of Luciano Dante, but marrying him was not one of them.

I scoffed, the hilarity of the situation amusing me. "You are insane." I said, expecting him to hit me or wrap his fingers around my neck but instead, he just looked at me. He was too calm, too certain, and this unnerved me. It was as though it was all planned out and I had no option than to agree and play his game.

"I don't repeat myself."

"Well that's a relief," I said, finding boldness as the conversation dragged on. "I would be spared the trouble of hearing that nonsense a second time."

I felt his grip on my jaw tighten a bit. He was not hurting me, but I was reminded of how easily he could. I held my breath. It seemed I had finally gotten under his skin.

"Lada, do you think this is a joke?" There was almost a tenderness in the way he asked this question... as though he expected me to know better than to resist.

"I think you've gone crazy."

His grip on my jaw tightened a bit more and I followed the impulse which I had been resisting all along and bit down hard on his flesh, so hard that I drew blood. Luciano's hand remained where it was, unmoving, the grip not losing any of its strength, as though I had merely kissed it. Tasting his blood in my mouth, I looked up to his expressionless face and trembled. Was he human?

Pushing my head backwards as much as the chair would allow, he leaned forward and brought his face close enough for me to feel his breath on my cheek. My breathing was strained do to the pressure on my neck while my arms were stretched out as I was still handcuffed to the table.

"Not many people have made me bleed. Everyone else who has is dead."

My heart thudded, my brain was not getting enough oxygen, the two front legs of the chair was slightly off the ground now and I was completely at the mercy of the firm grip he had on my jaw while his blood trickled down my neck.

"Did you really think you were going to just walk in here and kill me? You thought you could kill god? Because that's what I am compared to you and the people who sent you."

He released me and I came forward with a thud, coughing and gasping for air.

"You've lost your mind, Dante." I said, spitting out the blood that got into my mouth. He had not paid his bloody hand any attention and I wondered whether he had lost all the nerves or pain receptors in it.

"No, I actually found it." He said, looking at his hand for the first time and smiling. Then he wiped it on my neck, and collarbones.

"What?" I said, struggling to keep my composure as he did this. Fear was screaming in every cell in my body.

"You." He said, and allowed his thumb to brush lightly against my cheek, so lightly I wondered if he was conscious of his own action.

I jerked my head away. "You don't know me."

His face was expressionless again. "I know who you are, Lada Albatross."

He actually knew me, but how? Was this a setup? Had me organization sent me here to die? Did Luciano purchase me from Volt? No. They couldn't do that.

The silence between us was heavy, heavy and loud. Finally, he took a step back, allowing me to breathe freely.

“I will make this simple for you,” he said, walking back around the table as though we had casually been discussing business. “You have two options.”

"Marry you or die." I said, rolling my eyes, still thinking of how it was the strangest possible thing he could have said to me. "They sound equally terrible. In fact, I think I would rather die."

"I'll start with your family then." He said casually, taking his seat.

I let out a short humorless laugh.

He continued, unfazed. "See, you're probably thinking I have no idea what I'm saying because you have no 'real' family... but Volt? All the friends you've made there... I think there's even a love interest. Harry, right?"

My heart was thudding out of rhythm. He was not bluffing. He was not bluffing at all. I leaned forward with alarm in my eyes and remembered his words about burning my world to the ground... It suddenly had meaning.

"Don't look so surprised now."

"You don't know anything- you know nothing about Volt. If you did, you wouldn't be sitting here throwing empty threats at me."

He reached down to pick up a small suitcase from the floor, then fished out a file and waved it slightly at me.

"There you go." He slid it towards me.

With shaky hands, I opened it. My blood ran cold.

Pictures of me. Pictures of my best friends. Pictures of us together.

I looked further. Names. Aliases. Operations.

Luciano Dante had enough to bring down our whole crime syndicate legally, but here he was asking me to marry him.

"There's no way..." I mumbled, the fight leaving my spirit. "You can't-"

"I told you, Lada. I have searched for you for a long time... and you came right to me."

I took a sharp breath and was about to speak when he said-

“By morning, they’ll start disappearing. One by one. Unless you say yes.”