•Previously•
"Silas, what are you doing there?"
"Mama, this lady is so pretty."
"He's still a baby, huh? You even lied about his age. This is ridiculous. I've seen him, that's enough, you can bring him back now."
"Niko, please, I have to get to work and we don't have a babysitter. We need somebody to look out for him. Please help me Niko, for your brother."
"I can help babysit."
"I'll pick him up later. Be a good boy Silas."
"Silas, I know you're there."
"What are you doing here?"
"I- I- nothing, S- Silas was just t-there. Come on Silas."
He was mad and who's fault was that?
Mine.
·•♪°•·♪°•·♪°•·♪°•·♪°•·♪°•·♪°•·♪°•·♪°•·
•Now•
°Nik's POV°
I just had my meeting with the men in the house. We've discussed the situation on hand. Velix, who stabbed Laine, and everything else.
Laine had been acting really weird since she was stabbed. It could be her emotional state but it looked like she was hiding something.
I had been tracking Velix's move, and the plan that my men and I planned seemed to be working too. Just a little more and I can finally get my hands on him.
There was zero information about Velix's family other than her sister that I knew from what Laine told me last time. She had been avoiding that subject too. Every time I mentioned a part of the incident she immediately changed the subject and sometimes tear up a bit. I don't want to push her away. So I'll be a patient man for once. For her.
I'm still mad at her for agreeing to babysit that boy. He's a mini version of the devil and I fucking hate him. He was flirting with Laine. All right, maybe not, but I still hate him.
We had the rat killed.
Everything was in order.
"Don, Tyra, she's dead." Darius busted my office door open and said with each breath he took.
"What?" I abruptly stood from the chair.
"She must've been poisoned, Don." Darius walked to the wall next to the door and leaned against it. Catching his breath.
"Find the person res-" Darius cut me off.
"We found out who did it. It was Veronica. One of our men saw her come up from the underground 30 minutes before Tyra died." Darius said with unsteady breath.
"Bring her here." I commanded.
"On it Don." Darius walked out of my office and down the stairs.
I received a call from the doctor, I answered.
"Yes?" I said.
"Don, the medicines were drugged. Thank goodness Ms. Key didn't take them anymore. It could cause cancer even sudden death."
"Thanks for looking into it Doctor." I replied.
"Of course, Don."
I hung up the phone and dialed Reel's number since he was the one responsible for buying Laine's medicines.
"Reel come to my office now." I spoke and hung up the phone.
A few seconds later Reel knocked on the door and got inside. "You called, Don."
"I trust you Reel, so I hope you're not betraying me."
"What are you talking about, Don?" Reel asked looking as confused as ever.
"The medicines you bought for Madelaine. Did you drug them?"
"No Don, I would never do such a thing. I bought them from our most trusted pharmacy and they gave me new unopened bottles of medicine I checked it myself."
"Alright, then I want you to give me the data of the medicines that were sold from the pharmacy this month."
"Yes, Don." Reel ran out of my office in quick strode.
I sighed and turned on my phone. A notification pinged in.
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James(most responsible dad): Nik, I hope you're not busy. Let's meet today. McCallister street, Rogue café.
Me: I am busy.
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I sighed as I sat down on my swivel chair, leaning my back against it. I wonder what Laine and the boy are doing.
"Get in." Darius said from outside the door before pushing a body inside my office. Veronica.
"Let's not waste more of my time, why did you drug her?" I asked leaning forward placing my elbows on my desk and joining my hands together.
"Nik, I didn't do it-" She tried to deny but I caught on to it. She panicked. Her eyes panicked. Her whole body stance changed. Her facial expression.
"Give me a reason to not kill you right here, right now." I pulled out my gun from the drawer and slide it on the desk pointing it directly in her direction.
"Nik, I-" I stopped her by putting my index finger in the air.
"It's Don to you."
She looked down at the ground and breathed out, "Yes Don."
"Why did you do it?" I asked twirling the gun in my hand now.
"She threatened me."
"Oh, she threatened you? How shocking, really. A person behind bars threatened you, so you poisoned her? I always thought you'd lie better than that. Guess I was wrong." I leaned back.
"I swear Ni- I mean Don, she threatened to tell-" She stopped immediately and her eyes started growing wider as each second passed. As if realization struck her.
"Tell?" I raised an eyebrow her way, she gazed everywhere but me. Avoiding eye contact.
"I-"
A knock on the door interrupted us and Veronica sighed in relief.
"Come in." I gave the permission and Reel entered the room, walking towards me while eyeing Veronica suspiciously. He gave me a small frown before handing me the folder filled with papers.
While I flipped through the pages one by one, stopping once in a while to look at both of them. Reel had his hands behind his back standing in position. Veronica, on the other hand, moved too much, playing with her hands, hair, moving one foot to another.
I don't trust her.
At one point, I stopped and stared at the page. One, in particular, caught my eyes. Only our members have access to the pharmacy to take medicines for free but have to sign a paper before that. Here lies Veronica's signature.
I tried putting two and two together. It took me a while.
She bought poison twice this month. One for Laine, one for Tyra. Laine said a woman stabbed her, blonde hair. Veronica has blonde hair. Every time they crossed with each other in the house, they would give each other glares. Laine would tremble, I thought nothing of it, but now it's clear as day.
Velix's sister, Laine mentioned something about Velix having a sister on the day she was stabbed. If the person who stabbed her was Veronica, Velix's sister...
I looked up from the files, stared right at Veronica, and pointed the gun at her.
"You're Velix's sister." I accused.
"I'm not, my last name is Holley. We don't match." She blurted out.
"I never mentioned Velix's last name either. Why did he send you?" I clicked off the safety, ready to blast her head off.
"Because my whipped brother needs somebody to be his spy." She answered harshly. "If you kill me now, you'll lose Madelaine forever."
"Stop spitting bullshit." I harshly cocked the gun at her head.
She scrambled in her pocket and took out her phone showing me the screen. It was Clara, Madelaine's mom with a blindfold over her eyes.
"Leave her out of this."
"How does it feel? You're about to end me and you're about to end her. And I'm sure Madelaine is going to kill herself too after she found out what 'you' did." She smiled. I can see the familiarity now between her and her brother. Their eyes were exactly the same, those fucked up eyes. "Let me go and they both live."
Reel looked at me and I nodded at him once. He snatched the phone from Veronica's hand and called the number they sent the footage from.
"Hey sis, how's it going?"
"Velix, I'm about to die, my dear brother, I think you know what to do huh?" Veronica purred.
"Oh, that's a shame, are you sure? Cause there's no going back." I heard a gun's safety being clicked off and a woman whimpering.
"Fuck off Velix, let her go and I'll let your sister live another day." I decided in a second.
"There's your favorite guy, Clara, the one who was supposed to protect your daughter is a murderer." Velix told Clara and she cried even louder. "You just handed your daughter to the devil and he's going to kill her."
Clara shrieked. "No, please don't, don't"
"Leave her Velix!" I said through the phone.
"Fine, South deck, tonight. Bring Madelaine too, I missed her so bad." He said slowly, riling me up.
"That was not part of the deal." I spat.
"Oh, but it is now, I said so." He hung up the phone.
I took a deep breath and pulled Veronica's arm with me bringing her to the VIP cell. No sunlight, no air, no food, nobody could approach, only me. It's a four-wall room, really secluded. Only walls, ceiling, dirty ground, and a fucking toilet bowl.
"Why did you stab her?" I shoved her inside the cell and she fell on the ground with a thud.
"B- because, she doesn't deserve you. Do you see just how fucked up she is? How blind can you be Nik? I can give you what she can't but you never even looked at me, not once. All we had was a professional relationship, I don't want that. I need more. Look, I know we have different thoughts on this. But if you agree to be in a relationship with me none of us will get hurt. I'll even tell Velix to let them go and he'll never bother them anymore. One chance."
I laughed, so hard.
"Do you really think I'd believe you? You both clearly have different plans, and you expect me to believe that your crazy brother will let them go if we date. There's something wrong with your head." I locked the cell door.
"You have a choice but you don't want to choose the right one. What a shame." She blabbered.
"Why did you poison Tyra?" I asked.
"I guess you'll never find out." She smirked. "Come in here and get the answer out of me, maybe I'll tell you all about it." She leaned her back against the concrete wall. Looking at me seductively.
I walked away and met with Reel in the lobby. "Find out what Tyra knows that caused Veronica to poison her." He nodded and walked away.
Laine. I sprinted to her room and opened the door after knocking a couple of times.
"Laine, we need to go." I spoke up. The little devil was sleeping on her lap on the bed and she was reading a book.
"Why?" She whispered.
"No time Laine, leave him, someone will watch him." I whispered.
"Okay?" She questioned but went to change her clothes. "Where are we going? Did something happen?"
"I need you to trust me, can you do that?" I glanced at her, she nodded slowly.
As we drove, something came to my mind. "Why didn't you tell me it was Veronica?"
She stiffened and replied, "I don't know how to tell you."
Laine turned to the window and stared outside as we passed by trees and houses.
After a while, she spoke, "I'm sorry for making decisions like that for you."
I looked at her questioningly.
"The Silas thing." She queried.
We stayed quiet after that, no matter what she does, I just can't get mad at her. Never.
We arrived at the south deck. We waited in the car, it'll be stupid not to bring bodyguards with me. So I told my assassins to watch closely from up there. If anything goes wrong they will shoot him right between his eyes.
"Is that- mom?!" Laine shot up from her seat, trying to open the car door.
"Baby- wait! It's a trap, let me do this sweetheart. Please. Trust me." I held her hand.
She sucked in a deep breath and nodded.
I got out of the car and touched the gun tucked behind my pocket, making sure it's still there.
"Good evening Nik Russo. Where's Madelaine?" Velix greeted nonchalantly holding Clara's arm in a tight grip with the blindfold still over her eyes.
"Take off the blindfold." I pointed.
"Happy now?" He tore it off. Clara adjusted slowly to the surroundings and when her eyes met mine, I saw fear.
"Pass her to me."
"Ah, ah, ah, not so fast Russo. First my sister, Madelaine, then you can have the milf." He retorted.
"Bring her," I called to one of my men. They dragged Veronica next to me. "Now give her." I barked at Velix.
"Madelaine, I know you're there, come out baby." He sang. "Or your dear mama's gonna die." He took out the gun from his pocket and pointed it at Clara's head. "Just come out Mad!" He yelled.
I pointed the gun at Veronica's head too. "She'll die."
He looked taken aback. "Aw, now what is this?" He tsked and blew out a whistle.
Tons of masked people came to surround us with their handguns pointed all around me.
"You're outnumbered." He mocked.
"Am not." I signaled for my assassins to point their guns at his head. Now there are 6 red dots on his forehead while everybody stood frozen, eyes shifting from one to another trying to find where my assassins were, but they were too good at their job.
"Hah, alright, put your guns down." He ordered his men and they all backed off.
"Now give her." I extended my hand as he pushed Clara to the ground. I caught onto her.
"Vero." He called.
I gestured for her to walk. She did. Now each of us has what we wanted.
"This is not the end, I'll make sure of that." He commented before leaving with Veronica and his men trailing behind him like lost chickens. They drove away from the deck.
Laine opened the car door quickly and ran to Clara for a hug.
"I'm sorry, mama." Laine cried out.
"It's not your fault Mads." Clara comforted. "Come on, from now on, you'll live with me in our new house." Clara side-eyed me.
"I- I can give you a ride." I said when they started walking away.
"No need, thank you. Have a good night." Clara responded without looking back at me and pulled Laine with her, who looked sad and hesitated whether or not she should continue walking with her mother.
I nodded and she smiled sadly, mouthing a thank you.
I guess I'm alone again.
"Don, I heard you're here and I was just nearby so I thought why not just meet with you face to face and talk about this." Romano stepped out of the dark from behind.
I gestured to the car, we got inside and he continued, "As you know Don, we've been working on plan B, but didn't have enough time to lure him in. I overheard everything and I have a better plan in mind." Romano snapped his fingers.
"Elaborate." I took the bottled water and drank half of it.
"We know he won't let this go, especially his obsession with Ms. Key. Now that she is out of your reach since Mrs. Key wants her to stay with her at their new house. Velix will definitely do something about it. When he tries to break into the house we will all be alarmed. This is where we step in. The question is do you want him dead or alive?" Romano pinched his beard on his chin.
"I want him dead."
"Then that'll be easier. We get inside the house and kill him. I'll make sure nothing happens to Ms. and Mrs. Key." He smiled proudly.
"I'm counting on you Romano."