Deadly Possession - Chapter 6 (Patreon)

To eat, or not to eat. I'd been staring at the box of Chinese food for the past hour. Having war with myself on whether or not I should eat it or just be safe and don't. Like he said earlier, if he wanted me dead he would have done it while I was asleep. Or just let Luca do it.

If he didn't want me here for sex, then why did he want me here? My stomach growls aloud and that box of food suddenly looks more tempting than it did. He specifically set it out for me. What if he poisoned it and that's the only reason he placed it out so specifically?

My hand was on fire. I can see why I was supposed to take those pills every 4 hours. Because if I didn't, then I would be feeling like this. I wanted to cry from the pain, but I didn't want to be doped up on something and him to come and take advantage of me. I gruffly turn away from the food and go in snooping around the house.

Maybe if I knew my surroundings better, I could find a way out of here. These were one of those moments I wished that I was trained like my comrades. All I could do was hack networks and read people. I'm sure that if one of them was captured in my place, they'd have escaped by now.

All the windows were sealed shut and I had no remote or anything to access them and make them open. I couldn't even find out where my location was. I let out a frustrated sigh sinking into the couch. I was pathetic. Maybe if someone else had been on duty that night, they would have lived.

Images of the carnage flashes through my mind. I shudder in fear and disgust. There was no way. How 3 men managed to take down an entire office of highly trained assassins, I will never be able t understand. But one of the men wanted me. And he wouldn't tell me why.

I stand back up and explore the house trying to get some kind of idea of who Nicolai really was. There was nothing on him in the Pasquino file. He must not have much to hide because he kept all the rooms in the house unlocked. There was his bedroom, 2 guest rooms, a workout room, the kitchen, the living room, yet there was one door down the corridor that was locked.

So he did have one thing to hide. I turn back around and make my way into the kitchen.

"You know, curiosity killed the cat." A scream erupts from my throat and I look in shock to find Nicolai sitting at the kitchen table staring at me with a glance of amusement. His dimples were forming on his face as he smirked at me.

"For an agent, you have shitty perception skills," h

e says when I don't respond. I feel my face burning in embarrassment. He doesn't wait for me to respond. He stands and grabs the Chinese food off the table placing it into the microwave.

"If I wanted to kill you, I would have done it ages ago. Or I would have let Luca do it," he says with his back to me. I shudder as Luca's name leaves his lips. I could go my whole life and never see him again and it would be too soon.

He places the steaming box down on the table waiting for me to grab it. I narrow my eyes at him. He lets out an irritated sigh and grabs a spoon, shoveling the food into his mouth. After he swallows I'm satisfied. I slowly take a seat at the table and pull the box close to me.

"Can I have fork please...," I mumble. I keep my eyes trained on the table. I hear rustling as he moves around and a fork appears in front of me. I hesitantly grab the fork with my good hand and begin to eat. The food tasted so good and I was so hungry, I had to stifle a moan.

When I realize the room is silent, I look and see Nicolai watching me with a curious gaze.

"How the hell did you get a job in such an advanced agency?" he asks. 

I can see that he's genuinely curious. I look down at the table shrugging my shoulders. It wasn't anything new. Everyone let me know how much I didn't belong there. I shouldn't be surprised that the man that helped take them down recognized it too.

"I was smart I guess." Nicolai shakes his head and leans back in the chair.

"No. There has to be more to it than that." I stare at him a bit insulted that he was disagreeing that I was smart.

"Well then why do you think since you know it all," I growl out. His eyebrows raise obviously in shock since he wasn't expecting such a response from me.

"Oh? Did I hit a nerve?" A small smile tugs at his lips and those damn dimples are deepening in his face.

"No. But since it's so obvious that my combat skills suck and I have nothing outstanding about me, I would love to know why you believe a top secret agency would bother hiring someone as useless as me," I say. Nicolai studies me for a moment and laughs. He laughs! A genuine laugh that he was amused. At me.

"Oh my gosh I did! Look, it has nothing to do with your combat skills. Even though I'm highly aware that you don't have any. It's just that you were unaware of the bugs in your computer, the cameras in your house, and all the hacking we did. If I'm being honest, we may not have been able to even get into the building if it weren't for you."

My heart sinks at his admission. So this was all my fault... And I was the one that lived. This burden would be on my shoulders for however long I had left in this world. Because I let things slip. I got too far into my emotions. I choke on a sob.

"A-are you crying?" Nicolai is looking at me in shock. I squeeze my eyes shut but the tears keep coming. I couldn't do anything right. Ever. And now because I was a fuck up, others paid for my mistakes. With their lives.

"Hey, if I hurt your feelings I'm sorry. That was never my intention. Lissette. Come on now, stop crying." Nicolai is trying to comfort me but I don't listen to him. Another sob escapes my lips and I can feel my thighs getting wet from the tears that are falling.

Why was I here. Why was I alive? I didn't deserve to live. This was all my fault. Every single bit of it. I was the reason everyone was gone. They may have hated me, but I didn't want them dead. Never. I feel a hand on my face and a thumb wiping my tears.

"Lissette... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings." I open my eyes and everything in me wants to flinch away from him. But what I see upon opening my eyes makes me stay. He was looking at me, as if he truly cared about me. His aqua eyes searching my face and his brows drawn up in concern.

After a moment he moves away from me sitting back in his seat.

"Why are you crying?" 

Before I can stop myself, the words are pouring out of my mouth.

"I-I-It's all my fault.. They're all dead because of me-" I can barely get the sentence out. Saying it aloud was what made it even worse. Hearing the truth.

"Lissette, it's not your fault. I'm sorry I shouldn't have said that. You didn't know, and it was a matter f time anyway before we found another way in," he says. I guess he was trying to make me feel better, but he was only making it worse.

"Why did you let me live?" I barely squeak out. The room is enveloped in silence as he contemplates his answer.

"Because, watching you like I did, I slowly began to realize who you were." I look at him and his face is dead serious. The first time I've seen him like that.

"You were someone that had never experienced life. You lived life to please others. You just went through the motions but you never did anything for yourself. I felt pity for you. You hadn't done anything for yourself and we were going to kill you. An unsuspecting, undeserving innocent. I'll be honest, that has never bothered me before. But with you, it did." I don't know how to respond to that. Part of me felt embarrassed about the way he spoke of me, but I knew it was the truth. It was the horrible truth.

I was so pathetic, even the big bad mobster felt pity towards me.

"So, what are you going to do to me?"

"I don't know yet."

"I'm not going to be free again, am I?" I ask looking at the floor. I already knew the answer. A part of me wanted it not to be true though.

"I'm sorry, Lissette." Silence stretches over us. I slowly stand from my seat and leave the room heading into the room that I woke up in. Or as I now knew it, my prison.

~

2 Weeks Later

Nicolai

"He still hasn't woken up, and I still can't find any leads on Elise's whereabouts." Romelo is sitting across the table from me rubbing his temples in frustration. We've been trying to find any trace of Luca's last location before he came back, but we've come up empty. He wasn't kidding when he said "disappear".

I'm pretty sure Elise has had the baby by now. And she was probably assuming the worst.

"Damn," I grumble. Romelo closes his laptop and leans back in the chair.

"What do we do, Nicolai," he asks.

"I don't fucking know." And I really didn't. Luca was unconscious, his wife and heir was missing, and in the even of his wife and heirs demise, his successor, Matteo, was missing as well. Dr. Shotwell has already given us a talk about pulling the plug but we both shut that idea down immediately. We weren't going to give up on our Capo.

"So. How's the agent?" I look up at Romelo in irritation. He's smiling at me. He did this every time we saw each other or talked to each other on the phone. He thought this was funny. Usually women were my forte. I liked my women willing and loving. And they usually were. Lissette hadn't spoken to me since that first night when I told her she wouldn't be free. I was just being honest. And I learned real quick that honesty is not always the best policy. If I were Luca or Romelo I would have dealt with her attitude by now. But I'm not them. At all. I couldn't hurt her.

I motion to the door in the far corner of the room.

"She won't come out. Not even to eat." I had to leave her food in front of the door and leave the house for her to come out and eat it. It was ridiculous.

"I'll tell you one thing, Nicolai. You have a lot of patience. I admire that about you." 

I grunt in response. He was so strange. It's not that I had patience, I just had empathy for others. Which was something he and Luca lacked. And that's why they were impossible to beat.

"Why don't you let me have her for a few days.. You know, to break her in for you.. To show her she needs to show you some respect." I clench my fist as irritation bubbles through me. There was no way in hell that I was giving Lissette to Romelo to "break in". He might kill her.

Romelo was a sadistic man. He craved violence and pain. That's why he and Luca were so good together, especially when it came to fighting. I never understood why Luca chose me to complete the 'Elite Team' he wanted to put together. I always stood out with him and Romelo.

~

(Flashback)

Pain explodes through my chest as Luca lands a kick, throwing my body across the room and into the wall. I cry out as the wind is knocked out of me. We'd been training like this for 3 days. Luca was abnormally strong and he never held back. I hunch over dry heaving trying to catch my breath.

"Come on, Nicolai. Why are you holding back?" He says. I can hear the irritation in his voice and when I look up, he's watching me with a level expression. The bastard hadn't even broken a sweat.

"I...I'm... not..." I can barely get the words out. My chest hurts so bad. Luca walks over to the bench and grabs a towel handing it to me.

"I know you, Nicolai. Something is holding you back." He tosses the towel over my head and I hear the retreating footsteps as he walks away.

"Glad you decided to take me up on my offer." I hear Luca's words and look up in confusion. There's a boy standing in the doorway to the gym. He has black, unkempt hair and bright blue eyes, they were the color of a blind persons eyes, except he had a pupil. But damn, if looking into those eyes didn't make you shiver. It was like staring into 2 empty pools of death and despair.

I'm still knelt on the floor as the boy and Luca come towards me.

"Nicolai, I'd like you to meet the newest member of our team. Romelo. I've known him since we were both babies and he's the perfect person to complete the team." Romelo is staring down at me and I feel goosebumps breaking out across my skin from his gaze. It was disturbing. I could see his eyes shifting across my face as he studied me.

I hold my hand up.

"It's nice to meet you." I say, trying to make nice. If this was the guy that I was suppossed to entrust my life with, I wanted us to be friends and not enemies. He stares at my hand as if it's roadkill or something. I hear Luca laugh.

"He's not much of a people person now, but he'll be better in time." I slowly rise from my position on the floor finally catching my breath, even though my chest is aching.

There's a commotion in the hallway and we all look to see the Capo of the south passing by the room. Close on his heels is a young girl, her hair is pitch black and bright almond colored eyes are wide as she tries to keep up with his pace.

I see Luca out of my peripheral tense.

"I'll be back. I have some business to take care of." He growls out leaving us in the gym alone. I'm not gonna lie, I did not want to be in this room with all thise heavy equipment and this psychotic looking kid right next to me.

"So... Um, Romelo. What bring you here?" I ask. He slowly turns to me, his face not even taking on any expression.

"Opportunity." That's all he says. I study him for a moment longer until it finally clicks in my head who this guy really was. There were rumors going around the family that someon broke into the house of the Patellos, and slaughtered them, leaving there only son, Romelo alive. I saw the photos from the scene. It was gruesome. And I saw the picture of the surviving son. And now he was standing in front of me.

"I can't believe I didn't recognize you earlier! You're that kid that was in the news a few weeks ago.. I-I'm sorry, man. I couldn't imagine going through something like that." I say trying to show him my condolences. He doesn't even look at me.

"Don't be. I'm not." His answer throws me off.

"Well... I hope they find who did it soon so justice can be served." I say. Romelo scoffs.

"They won't find anything." He says.

"What?" Romelo finally turns and looks at me. And for the first time today, a smile creeps onto his face. But it's not at all kind.

"I killed them." He doesn't even wait for me to respond. He just shoves his hands back into his pockets and exits the room.

~

"Nicolai!" I jump as Romelo snaps his fingers in front of my face. I must have been daydreaming. Before I can say anything, the door to the room Lissette is in opens and she emerges. She was wearing a shirt and some large shorts. But she still looked beautiful. I had managed to get her nerdy ass glasses and she now wore them on her face. She looked good enough to fuck. Like she just rolled out of bed.

Her gaze travels up and she freezes. Immediately glancing between Romelo and me. Romelo doesn't hesitate to take advantage of the situation. He sensed her fear and now he wanted to play. He stands from his seat walking towards her.

"Mmmmm you are exquisite aren't you?" he says simply. He walks around her body looking her up and down. His fingers slowly graze her face, knocking the glasses she had on off. She squeezes her eyes shut and I can hear a whimper escape her.

"Romelo." I warn him but he continues his torture.

"I haven't the slightest idea why Nicolai hasn't taken what's his yet." He pauses at her front and studies her for a while longer. He leans in whispering something in her ear that makes her visibly pale and tears begin brimming her eyes.

"Romelo!" I say a little louder. He raises his hands stepping away from her fragile body. An amused laugh leaves his lips and he walks to the table grabbing his laptop and heading to the door.

"What the hell did you just say to her?" I ask. Romelo shakes his hand at me.

"I'm sure she'll tell you later." He continues walking to the door.

"Where are you going?" I ask incrediously. He was suppossed to be here the whole day. We had to figure out what to do with Luca.

"I have a date," he says simply before walking out of my home, and closing the door behind him.

What?

I turn to Lissette and she's still shaking in her spot in the living room.

"What did he say to you?" I ask. She only shakes her head and takes off back into her room, slamming the door shut and I can hear the lock clicking into place. As if I don't have a lock for my own home. I growl in frustration and head into the kitchen to make her a meal for the day. Now becuase of Romelo she was definitely not going to come out anytime soon.

Why did women have to be so difficult?

My mind flashes to Romelos words.

"I have a date." 

I scoff aloud. Lord help whoever that woman was.