Chapter 45
SLADE
Georgino’s body has been cut up into so many different pieces.
His head is the only thing that you can tell, out of all of these pieces of his body, was from a human. If I were to take his head and leave this mess here, people would assume that it’s just regular meat that someone would pick up from the store.
The room smells like shit. I’m fucking exhausted and want to go to bed, and I need a shower to get this smell and blood off of me.
And then there’s Isabella.
I know she’s waiting upstairs. Ryker came down here to check on me and see what I was doing. He told me that Isabella locked herself in the room and I told him that I'll deal with her later and to leave.
He didn’t look scared when he saw the mess I made because he knows better.
He knows me and what I am capable of. That’s why I made Isabella leave because I didn’t want her to see the real me.
The monster.
The devil that my dad said I am.
I leave my torture room and make my way upstairs.
I already told Niko to have someone clean that mess up after I leave.
My team is used to what I do.
They understand what to expect when they work for me. I pay them a good amount and make them sign an NDA so they’ll keep their mouths shut while doing any job I request of them.
I probably pay my team more for one job than what Isabella gets paid per month
When I walk inside the bedroom, Isabella is thankfully sleeping.
It’s nine at night.
I’ve been in that room for almost the whole day.
I strip off my clothes and put them in a bin where they will be either thrown away or dry cleaned. I turn the shower on and jump in, immediately closing my eyes and relaxing.
Most of the time I was torturing him and playing with him a little bit, making him regret his decision of targeting Isabella. And the rest of the time spent there was me just thinking.
I was thinking about Isabella, my mom and dad, that night, my siblings, myself, everything.
I haven’t killed or tortured someone in so long and I realized how good it feels to have someone’s blood on my hands.
The pure adrenaline from the kill rather than the intensified high I would get from snorting coke.
After I wash my hair and my entire body, I turn off the water and get out of the shower.
I wrap a towel around my waist and walk up to the mirror.
I'm Satan's spawn.
A devil in disguise.
My dad created me this way.
He made me look the role with the scar on my eye and act the role with the coke lines he’d made me take for missions when I was still a minor.
He molded me into what he wanted me to be.
“Slade?” Isabella says from the bedroom, probably just now waking up. I walk away from the mirror and go into the room, opening my drawer to get sweatpants out. “Is everything okay?”
“Everything’s fine. Go back to bed.” I close the drawer and drop my towel to put my sweatpants on.
“Is he...” She trails off but I know exactly what she is trying to ask.
“Yes. He’s dead,” I answer her. “Why? You’re wondering if I actually went through with finishing the job or not?”
“No, I knew you would.” She looks sad and almost defeated. Isabella sighs before saying, “We need to talk, Slade.”
My whole body tenses and I already know where she is going to go with this “talk”. She wants to leave.
She’s been begging to go back to New York since we first got here.
“There is nothing to talk about Isabella.”
I’m fucking tired.
All I want to do is sleep but then you have Isabella here going against every little thing I say.
My eyes feel like they are going to close and I’m going to fall asleep any second.
“Now that Georgino’s gone, you can’t keep me here. I’m leaving with Becky this Sunday.”
I chuckle and shake my head lightly. “I don’t know who you think you are, Isabella, but you don’t make the rules. You aren’t going anywhere. You’re staying here by my side as my wife.”
Isabella gets out of bed and she holds up her hand that has my ring on it. “This is fake! You forced me into this for god knows what reason. This isn’t how a relationship works, Slade. We just met not even six months ago and you dragged me to Russia.”
“I have already explained to you more than ten times why I dragged you here with me. You were in danger. I wanted to protect you.”
“And the marriage?” She raises an eyebrow at me.
That, she can never know.
I did want to marry Isabella but she can’t know why I had to marry her so quickly.
I could have taken the long route and done things the right way but I needed to get this shit over with.
I didn’t want to think about my father’s dying wish for me anymore.
“To protect you. You’re under the Rykov name so no one would dare touch you.” I walk up to her. “I have enemies, Isabella. A lot of them. But I also have allies too that would help my family if they needed it. You’re a part of my family. You’re a part of me so that’s why I made you marry me.”
Isabella’s eyes start to water. “I want to go home. I want to go back to New York.”
“Not gonna happen Isabella. So stop fucking asking.”
I reach the door, ready for this conversation to be over but then she says, “I wish I never met you! I hate you!” Tears fall down her cheeks.
I stride back up to her and get in her face. My hand makes its way to her throat and she gasps.
“I have done so much for you. I literally confessed my love to you last night, killed a guy who was making your life hell, have given you everything I didn’t even have to offer, Isabella.
You’re saying you hate me because I fucking fell for you?
” I ask but she keeps quiet and glares at me with watery eyes.
“Even though you hate me, baby, I’m going to keep falling for you because I can’t help it.
You’re in my blood Isabella and I can’t get you out.
No matter how much you hate me, you’re staying there. ”
Isabella shakes her head. “I just want to go back to my life.”
“Your life is here now.” I let go of her and walk out of the room, slamming the door behind me.
I can hear her crying from outside the door, screaming how much she hates me.
She’ll get used to it.
She’ll learn to love me.