Mafia's midnight muse.

chapter 2 : hello kitty

The silence that followed her departure was louder than the screams of the man Ruthran had just broken. He stood frozen, his heavy boots planted in the grime of the alley, staring at the spot where the fog had swallowed her.

He lifted his hand. There, stark against his olive skin and the dark splatter of blood, sat a neon-pink bandage featuring a cartoon cat with a bow.

It is absurd.

It is insulting.

It is the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. a mild smile came in the corner of his lips...

"Sir?" Arjun stepped out from the shadows, his hand resting on the hilt of his weapon. He looked at the man on the ground, then at Ruthran. "The car is ready, we can leave now. She saw your face and The Mess. Should I... find her?"

In the underworld, witnesses were liabilities to be liquidated.

Ruthran’s eyes were unfocused, his thumb tracing the smooth plastic of the bandage. His face was unreadable.

"No," Ruthran whispered, his voice sounding like shifting gravel. "Leave her be. It's an order."

He climbed into the back of the SUV, the leather cool against his heated skin. As they drove through the neon-lit veins of the city, he didn't look at his phone or his ledgers. He looked at the bandage. He remembered the way she didn't recoil from the blood on his shirt, but rather worried about the scratch on his knuckle. Her soothing eyes and her worrying words just clung on to his memory. It started to haunt him by making him remember his past.

*I know you’re scared, but take my hand.*

The memory from the fire merged with the sensation of her small, trembling fingers in the alley. He closed his eyes, and for the first time in weeks, the darkness behind his eyelids didn't turn orange. He slept for a few hours, not much… but it helped.

The next day, the estate was under a shroud of tension. Tasha was throwing a tantrum in the foyer, her voice screeching about a diamond necklace she wanted for a gala. Ruthran, still in his red silk night rope, walked past her as if she were a ghost, sit on the dining table to have a sip of his coffee.

"Ruthran! Are you even listening to me?" she demanded, grabbing his arm. Her long, acrylic nails dug into his skin, right next to the pink bandage he had refused to take off.

He stopped. The air in the room seemed to drop twenty degrees. He looked down at her hand, then up at her face. His eyes were void of any affection—only a cold, predatory stillness remained.

"Take. Your hand. Off me," he said, each word a rhythmic thud.

Tasha gasped, recoiling as if she’d been slapped. "What is wrong with you? Are you OK baby? Or should I make your mood better?" With a slutty smile, She climbed on him as her long nails traced around the back of his neck, started to kiss him on his lips....

Ruthran seemed to be enjoying her tricks as she removed his rope and hugged him tightly. he started to pull her hair back and kiss her deep as her breathing started to be rapid… he grasped her waist, and he made her lie back on the table and his hands travel from her waist to the back of her hair and trace back to her face. While he was kissing her lower neck, The room was filled with their moans.

During the heat, Tasha saw the old dirty bandage in his hand and tired to remove it. he stopped her by grapping her hand looked at her with pure vemon. For a second, it made Tasha scared for her life. he walked away From her, started dressing up leaving her back

" What the hell just happened, ruthran?"

Ruthran didn't answer. He walked out of the room, turned to Arjun, who was waiting by the door. he joined the walk

" Sir, everything is set for midnight as per the info he gave last night... mass trade is happening tonight in the southern side, sir. if we make them move towards us, it will be the win."

" Make sure our guys are ready. There should not be a single loss from our side."

" Yes sir, we are loaded and ready."

" Good," Ruthran stopped and faced Arjun. " One more thing: Find out where the girl is. Find out everything about her . I want her life on my desk by sundown. But Arjun..." he paused, his gaze narrowing. "If she realizes she’s being watched, it’s your head."

By 11:00 PM, Ruthran was driving himself. As his people took a separate van and fled towards their marked position. He reached the place and he positioned himself towards the ally of the coordinates. He found her sitting in front of the shop. Minutes later, he found himself parked across from a flickering neon sign: "24-Hour Noodle House."

The shop was a relic, a grease-stained window into a world he never stepped a foot on. She was there.

She was sitting in a plastic crate outside the shop, with a steaming bowl of noodles in her lap. But she wasn't eating. She was blowing on small pieces of meat and tossing them to a litter of stray puppies huddled near a trash can.

She looked younger under the harsh fluorescent lights—fragile, but possessed of a strange, quiet grace. She was wearing an oversized hoodie that swallowed her frame.

Ruthran stepped out of the car. The wind carried her scent to him again, and his lungs expanded, greedy for the air. He approached her slowly, his shadow stretching long across the pavement.

The puppies scattered. Diya looked up, her large, doe-like eyes widening as she recognized the man from the alley. She froze, a piece of chicken halfway to her mouth.

"You," she breathed.

"Why," Ruthran's anger surfaced in his voice. He tried to make his voice soft, but it still came out like a command. " Why am I finding you in the odd hours in odd places?" He leaned against the brick wall, a few feet away, careful not to crowd her.

Diya tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "I like the night. It's quieter. The stars don't judge you. And I work here," ruthran's eyes judged the whole shitty place and a million ideas to destroy bombarded in his mind.

She looked at his hand. "You kept the bandage."

A ghost of a smile touched Ruthran's lips—a rare, dangerous thing. "It served its purpose. Why are you feeding the dogs instead of yourself? You look like a gust of wind would knock you over."

She looked down at the puppies, her expression softening into something so pure it hurt his chest to look at. "They're hungrier than I am. Besides, I'm used to it."

"Used to what?"

"Being hungry," she said simply.

The words hit Ruthran harder than a bullet. He reached into his pocket, wanting to give her everything—gold, cash, the city itself—but he stopped. This girl didn't want his money. It would prick her self respect , so he didn't.

"It's not safe here," he said, his tone shifting back to the protective Alpha. "There are movements in the shadows tonight. Go home, Diya."

She flinched at her name. "How do you know my name?"

Ruthran realized his mistake. He hadn't introduced himself, yet he knew her soul. He stepped closer, the heat radiating off his body. "I know many things. Go home. Now."

Diya stood up, the empty noodle bowl clutched at her chest. She looked at the dark street, then back at him. "I'll be more safe here than I am at home," she whispered, her voice breaking.

She turned and walked away, her head down, leaving Ruthran standing in the cold. before locking the door of the store, she turned toward him and said " if its nit safe for me, its not safe for you too.. go home" she locked the door when inside. her words started to buzz on his ears and mind like a hornet.

*Safer here than at home.*

He knew that look. He knew the feeling of a home that was a cage of fire. He turned to the darkness of the alley behind the noodle shop.

"Arjun," he called out.

His enforcer appeared from the shadows. "Yes, Boss?"

"The gang war tonight," Ruthran said, his eyes turning into chips of black ice. "Change the coordinates. We’re moving the hit three blocks East. Nothing passes the east block. I mean nothing... not even the sound that could scare her.. I want everything swiped off completely."

"Consider it done." Arjun made a signal for everyone to move, and the war started there with the guns blasting and blood flowing like rivers. Arjun walked on it crapping off everyone comes in his way while everyone in his gang followed his orders and blassting everything.. Bodies just started to pileup there.

Ruthran looked back at the plastic crate where she had sat. He picked up a small, forgotten ribbon that had fallen from her hair. He pressed it to his chest, and for the first time in twenty years, he felt like he could finally breathe.

But as he looked up at the moon, he felt a dark premonition. He had found his angel, but he was still a devil. And devils had a way of burning everything they touched.