Chapter Eighteen
“I learned they have a daughter. Do you know anything about her?” Nikolai asked, breaking the silence that had settled in the room as everyone waited for his arrival. They were in a meeting in his office with some of the Russian Bratvas he worked with - the same meeting he almost missed because he had let Lisa sleep in his arms.
“She was kidnapped when she was six,” one of the men answered in a voice that looked like he needed a cup of warm water. “No one has heard anything from her since then. Her parents, too, stopped looking when it wasn’t yielding any fruit. I think they concluded that she was dead because they have a headstone with her name at the family’s burial ground.”
“Mh.” Nikolai thought that was pleasant to know. “So, who’s the new leader? Someone has to be dishing out the orders.”
“Aleksei Petrov,” the same man spat out with venom. “He is the son of the late Petrov. News have it that he was studying in Africa when his father died. No one knows why he only just returned to New York after all these years, or why he thinks this is the best time to plot his attack. Something must be fueling his sudden drive.”
“Interesting,” Dmitri murmured, scooting to the edge of his seat. “Do you think it has anything to do with his mother?”
“I don’t think so. That woman went into shock when her daughter was kidnapped, and it only worsened with the death of her husband. She is lost in her head and barely has the energy to fuel any revenge. It has to be something else.”
“So… what could it be?”
“His reasons don’t matter to me,” Nikolai opined strongly, the strength of his words returning the room to its former state of silence. “I don’t give a fuck about what makes that family tick or breathe. All I want to do is get them off my back and make them regret they even thought about it in the first place. We’ll start with Aleksei.”
Nikolai glanced at Dmitri, and a silent instruction passed between them. Dmitri was the only person that Nikolai had told about Lisa’s true identity, and he wanted to keep it that way for now. The rest of his men would eat her alive if they found out she was a Petrova, and Dmitri was the only one with a reasonable level of self-control.
“This meeting is over,” Dmitri announced suddenly, following Nikolai’s unsaid orders. He got on his feet and padded to the door in all confidence, opening it wide enough for three people to get through at once. “We’ll send a message when we have further instructions. For now, do nothing.”
Nikolai said nothing until every single one of them was out of the room, the slap of their feet on the ground dying with their departure. Sighing, he retrieved a bottle of whiskey from the bar in his office and returned to his chair behind the mahogany table. Dmitri plopped down into the one in front of him.
“What’s the plan, Boss? You have a wildcard.”
Nikolai wouldn’t exactly call Lisa that, but Dmitri was right. He had to use her to accomplish his aim. That was the essence of everything, wasn’t it?
“I’ll let them know we have their daughter,” Nikolai muttered, placing his hands together on the table. “They’ll know better than to mess with me, knowing their precious daughter’s life is on the line.”
“Where can I come in?” Dmitri asked, always ready to help. “I can abduct her and mess her up a bit. Her bruised face should be more than enough deterrence for them.”
Nikolai tried not to wince physically as the unsettling idea of Dmitri affected him. He didn’t want any form of harm to come to Lisa. None at all. “I have another plan,” Nikolai countered with an air of finality, bringing an end to the discourse.
Dmitri was going to have to do it his way.
***
Lisa stepped into the building, with Nikolai planted right beside her, unbudging. The last time they were out together, there was no other person there except Dmitri, who was still clueless as to the fact that they had been fucking each other like animals, or better still, that Nikolai had been fucking her on every single surface in the mansion. That was a better description.
But today, much to Lisa's surprise, they were in his tattoo parlor located in Brighton Beach, very close to where they had taken a walk the first week she had gotten to his mansion - the day she realized she was attracted to the monster. But Nikolai, who held her hands tightly in his, acted like no monster today, at least not to her. He was glaring at every single person who dared look at her, even though it wasn't a very long journey into the room where he had booked an appointment for her. Nikolai didn't care whether they were his clients or not - all that mattered was that they needed to get their eyes off Lisa, and for some weird reason, she didn't know how to respond to that.
This was what Lisa had wanted all along - to be shown off by Nikolai and treated like his woman. But this gave her a weird feeling, like there was something she wouldn't like coming after this. She tried to warm up to his grip on her hands or when he looked at her with a straight face to check if she was comfortable. Nikolai could read her body language so easily, so Lisa wouldn't be able to hide the fact that she felt all of this was too good to be true.
Yet, she asked no questions.
The hallways leading to each room were dimly lit, lined with neon lights hanging from the ceiling. Stepping into the building reminded Lisa of Nikolai's trait - darkness. No matter what it was, he found a way for his true nature to be acknowledged. On the way up, they met a lot of his men that Lisa had now grown familiar with, and she was spurred to ask him if it was some sort of family business since almost everyone was there. But as she made to say it, Nikolai suddenly pulled her firmly in the opposite direction from where they were headed. They took a door that looked unused and landed in a small, bare room. The only furniture in there was a really low wooden table and a chair, as well as a lot of tied-up bags that Lisa didn’t really want to know what held inside.
At this rate, there were a lot of things about Nikolai she felt safer not knowing, like all the secret meetings he had in his office, and the strange looking men that came and went as they pleased, with somber expressions on their hard faces. Quite a conflicting look to Lisa. She made it a point of duty to always stay indoors when they were around.
"I thought you said I was getting a tattoo?" Lisa chimed, chuckling as Nikolai pulled her to himself. Even though she had a lot of weird feelings about this, it was hard to keep nursing them when Nikolai was like this with her. He made her have blank spaces in her head, and filled it instead with thoughts of him. Nikolai wanted everything about her to have some affiliation to him. He wanted to own her - to dominate her.
There was no doubt that he had succeeded.
"You are," Nikolai said in a playful tone, and Lisa raised an eyebrow in surprise. That was a first. "I just wanted to make sure the artist doesn't get the wrong idea."
"Which is?"
"That you are up for taking."
"No one would think that with how you've been hovering over me from the moment we got here."
"It sounds like you're complaining," Nikolai grumbled, wrapping her waist in one hand. "Are you?"
"You just love to see things that aren't there," Lisa murmured, certain that she was beginning to overuse the liberty he gave her.
But Nikolai only smirked and tightened his grip around her waist. "Maybe," he replied, shrugging. "That way, I have a reason to punish you without making it up."
"You are making this up," Lisa laughed, swatting his other hand away playfully as he started to toy with her hair.
His eyes darkened a little, but his smirk only widened. "I decide what things are made up and what things are not. Right now, I just want your ass in the air while I choke you from behind. Are you up for it?"
"What if I say no?" Lisa knew that was impossible, considering how her face already turned a shade of red from his mere words.
"I don't think you want to do that," Nikolai growled, gently easing away from where he stood behind her without letting go of her waist. Stepping to one side, he lifted Lisa up easily, and she yelped in surprise. He let go of her after dropping her on the table. She was on her knees, with the pace of her breath increasing. Lisa thought that Nikolai could hear her heart thump with how hard it slammed in her chest.
It felt like Nikolai was starved as he lifted her floral dress and let down his pants with such remarkable speed, slamming his hard cock into her without any preamble. Lisa felt the sting from how dry she was, and she cried out in pain. Lifting her hands, she tried to push him out of her, causing Nikolai to pause.
"It hurts," she said in a low tone, shaking her head.
Nikolai splayed his hands on her neck and pulled her back to his chest, whispering in her ears. "Stop pushing me out, krastoka . The harder you fight it, the more painful it will be."
Lisa shook her head still.
"Do you trust me?"
Lisa whimpered and nodded against his chest, almost immediately.
"I'm going to go in again. You'll feel a slight discomfort, but it will be gone before you realize it." Nikolai tightened his hold on her neck, pressing her with enough force to make her gasp for breath, but not so over the top that she forgot about the intrusion. As she stiffened her ass, trying so hard not to push him out, Nikolai reduced his pace suddenly. Each stroke became more careful and slower, and Lisa forgot all about her initial discomfort. But she was still a bit tense.
" Krastoka ," he breathed into her ears, and Lisa trembled in response. "Think about how you're mine, to do as I please. It'll get you started."
Then, Lisa let go, surrendering everything she felt - pain, building passion, and her need for air.
"Good girl," Nikolai purred, increasing his intensity. Lisa tried to scream - needed to scream, but it came out as a choked sob because of his hands on her neck. He did it purposely, because the walls around here weren't soundproof, and he didn't want anyone bursting in here to rescue a damsel in distress.
As if following his line of thought, the door suddenly burst open, and Dmitri appeared in the doorway, his eyes moving from Nikolai to Lisa in a slow fashion. Lisa had never seen Dmitri express any other emotion apart from hate. Maybe that was why his face looked the same even at the scene before him. The only thing that gave it away was the tick in his jaw with his tongue and the sudden change in his eyes.
Lisa tried to scramble away from the table, and Nikolai let her, even though he hated that his experience was cut shut. He had felt her pussy squeeze hard against his cock, and could tell that she was about to come. A few more strokes, and they would have both been there. But Dmitri had to walk in at the oddest moment.
Nikolai glared at Dmitri, and he turned his back on them, looking out into the empty hallway. The Russian Boss didn't owe him any explanation, but he knew his best friend was in shock right now and needed some sort of reasoning into why he was fucking the enemy.
Even Nikolai couldn't answer that.
"I need you to get a dress for Lisa," Nikolai ordered out of the blue, breaking the uncomfortable silence.
"What?" Lisa and Dmitri said in unison, both turning around to look at him in confusion. Ignoring Dmitri, Nikolai pulled Lisa closer to him roughly and caressed her face. "Go out on a date with me."
It wasn't a question, like Lisa had seen in all those romantic dramas that had serenaded screens growing up, where the girl started blushing and the man looked like he had accomplished a great feat. It was nothing like that.
Instead, it was a command that left Lisa with no other choice. But even if Nikolai had gotten down on one knee to ask her, albeit dramatically, she still would have nodded her head so ecstatic as she was doing now.
"Okay," she said excitedly, her head bobbing up and down. "Where are we going?"
"You'll see."
It was all Lisa could think about as she got her tattoo a few minutes later - a trail of birds from a single leaf on her left wrist - that the pain barely registered. Nikolai got a matching tattoo, too, much to her surprise.
Maybe everything was fine now. Perhaps Nikolai finally realized that he had fallen for her.
Lisa couldn't be more wrong in her thoughts.