Chapter 5

• ADIRA
• The audacity of this man!
• I mean, it’s not like I intentionally wanted to fall on him, though I might have entertained the thought once or twice. Or thrice. Sue me. The man is criminally fine. If God had a favorite, I swear it would be him.
• Even seated, I could tell he was . He radiated that calm, dangerous energy that said everyone existed at his mercy.
• The dim lights caught in his eyes, blue enough to rival the Aegean sea, and his hair— God, his hair— was pulled into a man bun, a single midnight strand, falling into those blue orbs.
• And of course, every woman within a ten-foot radius could see what I could. In fact, I was pretty sure the server hovering nearby was about to offer him her tits as a drink service. I was tempted to ask if she needed moral support.
• Still, I should’ve known someone that beautiful would come with a personality carved straight out of hell. Hence my current position: sprawled on the floor like a sacrificed virgin because my heels chose this very moment to betray me.
• “You could’ve caught me,” I glared up at him.
• He didn’t even blink. Just gave a cold, unreadable stare, and then, he fucking smiled.
• Are those dimples?!
• My anger faltered. My brain short-circuted.
• I felt like I was about to spontaneously combust.
• Focus, Adira!
• Murder. Yes, murder. That’s what I was supposed to be thinking about. Definitely not how the suit hugged his muscular body so perfectly.
• Ugh, stop it. You’re meant to be angry.
• Shaking myself out of my lust-induced daydream, I straightened, ready to unleash rage.
• “Who do you—”
• What the hell?!
• Suddenly, the whole club was filled with the sounds of rapid gun shots, screams replacing the sounds of laughter and music a few moments ago.
• Bullets flew everywhere, andthe glass table beside me exploded into a thousand glittering shards, pulling me out of my shock. A piercing scream ripped from my throat before I could stop it. It was a raw, primal sound that I barely recognized as mine.
• No, no, no. Not now!
• I began to feel the familiar clawing sensation of a panic attack consuming me and I remembered why I avoided stressful situations.
• My chest tightened, my vision became hazy, and my mind spiraled with worst-case scenarios such as me dying gruesomely here. This is so not what I expected today.
• Focus, Adira. What did Dr. Shane say to do in moments like these?
• Trying to breathe in and out, I remembered the grounding techniques he taught during our numerous and mostly futile sessions together.
• Well, I guess they aren’t all that futile now, are they? My overactive mind helpfully chimed in.
• Ignoring my thoughts, I squeezed my eyes shut and forced myself, through trembling lips, to whisper. “Okay, Adira. Let’s start with five things you can see. How hard can that be?”
• I shouldn’t have said that. As my gaze darted frantically around the room, all I saw was blood, corpses, glass shards, which were currently digging into my hands, broken furniture and… Is that a head—a dismembered head?
• “Oh God.” My stomach turned. “Okay. Nope. We’re skipping that.”
• I squeezed my eyes shut, sucking in a shaky breath. “Feel… Four things you can feel, Adira,” I murmured, trying to steady myself.
• The blood dripping from my hands. Body tremors. The tightness in my chest. The cold floor beneath my palms.
• With my eyes still shut, I whispered, my voice breaking, “Three things you can hear.”
• Screams. Gunfire. My fast-paced heartbeat.
• It wasn’t working. The grounding technique wasn’t working.
• My breathing turned frantic. The edges of my vision were closing in, black dots swimming everywhere.
• I needed to get out of here. Immediately.
• “Two things you can smell,” I whispered to myself, barely able to focus on my surroundings.
• Gunpowder. Blood—a lot of blood.
• “One thing you can taste.”
• The dryness of my mouth.
• It was no use. I was slipping.
• Pen.
• The thought hit me like a sledgehammer. I hadn’t seen her since the shootout began. Images of her bloodied, lifeless body sprawled across the club floor invaded my mind.
• My breath hitched, the kleftiko I had eaten this afternoon about to make a reappearance again.
• “No,” I choked out, clutching my knees and rocking back and forth as morbid thoughts of my cousin plagued me. She could be dead. She could already be gone. As I sat there on the floor, my mind spiraling further out of control, I saw him—the man that pushed me to the floor.
• Through the haze, I watched his sharp eyes scan the disaster around us, his expression grim and focused as he barked out words to people around him. I couldn’t hear him though. The words were muffled, drowned out by the insistent pounding in my ears.
• His gaze, filled with something fierce that managed to ground me for a strained heartbeat, locked with mine for a brief moment.
• Ignoring my reaction to him, I shook my head as vigorously as I could to get myself together, but that too was a total fail. As the blackness crept in, my words slurred as I mumbled, “I’m still murdering you if I survive this.”
• The last thing I remembered was the tormented look on his face before everything went dark.
• *************************************
• When I woke up, all I could feel was pain. My head throbbed, and my mouth tasted really bitter.
• Where the hell was I?
• As I groggily looked around me, I noticed that nearly everything was cloaked in shades of darkness, from blacks, deep mahoganies, and a medley of colors that screamed “depressing.”
• I groaned. “What kind of gothic cave did I get kidnapped into?”
• I hoisted myself off the bed, which felt like an Olympic event, and made my way toward the door. I froze at the sound of muffled voices coming from the other side.
• “Nónos, we cannot keep the girl. What if she figures out who we are? It’s too risky. We could expand through other means, and you know that.”
• Boss? That’s not ominous at all and why the hell would he want to keep me?
• “She’s our best option,” A second voice chimed in, deep, smooth, and annoyingly familiar. It was the fucking asshole from earlier. “And you know it.”
• Revenge simmered in my veins like molten lava, even as fear twisted my stomach into knots.
• “Andronikos, you’re my friend, but this is madness! She’s the enemy and she’ll ruin everything we’ve built. This is a mafia empire that took years to establish!”
• Enemy? Mafia? Was I trapped in The Godfather: Greek Edition?
• Deciding that I’d heard enough, I tried to quietly get away from the door. My clumsy self obviously miscalculated and collided with a nearby table, causing a loud noise that could wake even the dead.
• Shit.
• I am so going to die today, I thought, praying to every deity I could recall that they hadn’t heard that.
• Silence fell, heavy and eerie, before the man, Andronikos, broke it, his voice cutting through the tension.
• “Did you hear everything you needed to, Adira?”
• Double shit.
• Trying to slink back to the bed like a ninja, the door swung open, and suddenly a very large man pinned me face-first to the floor.
• “Really?!” I wheezed. “This is your idea of a welcome party?”
• “Release her, Iason,” Andronikos commanded, his voice smooth, dangerous, and fucking amused. “I think she’s disciplined enough not to try anything while we talk... amicably.”
• Iason reluctantly let me go, but stayed close enough like a predator eyeing its prey, the shadows accentuating the gleam in his eyes.
• I wonder who took a shit in his breakfast today.
• I turned my attention to Andronikos, whose smile had the kind of charm that could land someone a role in a horror film. With my hands raised in the universal sign for “I mean no harm,” I cautiously spoke up.
• “I’m not going to pretend I didn’t hear anything. But we could totally act like it never happened. Even the part about you keeping me. I’ll even forgive you for tossing me on the floor at the club. A nice deal, right?” I forced a smile, but it felt more like a grimace.
• Nikos chuckled, but it was the kind filled with malicious intent.
• Having had enough of his games, I straightened my posture and matched his gaze with defiance.
• My father didn’t raise me to back down from any man—no matter how handsome he was.
• Momentarily taken aback, he laughed even harder displaying the deep indents on his cheeks.
• And there go my ovaries!
• “It’s cute that you think you can intimidate me,” he began, his accent heavy. “But I’m the one making the bargains here.”
• He stepped closer, grasping my chin in a way that was both unsettling and oddly thrilling.
• Raising my head so our eyes locked, he continued, “Honoring OMERTA requires that I kill you for overhearing what you did, but I’m going to make you an offer.”
• Don’t combust, don’t combust, don’t freaking combust! I chanted in my mind, trying to focus on his words rather than the storm brewing in my chest.
• “You see, I plan to expand my empire in America, and you just happen to be the perfect solution,” he declared, his eyes glinting with mischief.
• “What?” I blurted out, utterly bewildered.
• “Your company, of course!” he exclaimed, as if he had just suggested we grab ice cream.
• “Maybe not everything right away,” he continued, a pondering look on his face “but being a major shareholder has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?”
• I blinked, trying to process this absurdity.
• “And if I don’t agree? What are you going to do, kill me?” A murderous glint flashed in his eyes, and I felt my heart drop to my stomach.
• “Kill you? Too easy. I’ll rather destroy your family and let you watch as I kill them off. One by one. Something you could’ve avoided by giving me what I want. Then, I’ll take your company, but I’ll still keep you around. I need a manager to attend my legal affairs, after all.”
• He released my chin and turned away, casually taking a seat on the bed and playing with a knife that seemed to have appeared from nowhere, its blade glinting dangerously in the dim light.
• “Now you have four minutes to make your decision,” he said, glancing at his watch. “Or Iason calls my men to finish off your family, starting with dear Penelope.”
• Wait, how did he know about her? And she’s alive? Thank, the gods for that!
• “Yes, she’s alive,” he said, rolling his eyes, as though reading my thoughts. “But she could cease to be in,” he looked at his watch again, “one minute. Time’s ticking Adira.”
• Panic surged through me. What would Baba do in this situation?
• Baba’s not here Adira, you are! I thought sweat dripping down my back.
• “5-4-3—” he chanted in a sing-song voice.
• “Fine! I’ll do it!” I blurted, the words flying out before I could stop them.
• Satisfied, Andronikos nodded, stood up and began to leave. Pausing, he turned back with a glint of amusement in his eyes.
• “Iason will give you the papers to sign and show you the video feed of your family, so you know I wasn’t bluffing about killing them. I have eyes everywhere Adira, and it’ll do you well to know that.”
• As he was about to open the door, he quickly turned around. “I can’t wait to do business with you, Adira.” And just like that, he left me alone with the brooding Iason, who seemed to glare at me like I offended him when this was just our first meeting. I’m definitely going to give him something to cry about later.
• Slumping onto the bed, I buried my face in my hands, trying to process the metaphorical shithole I’d just been thrust into.
• What the fuck have I gotten myself into?
• ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
• Andronikos smiled as he left the room.
• He, the devil himself, had just decided her fate.
• Little did either of them know, the real war had only just begun.