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 undeniably fine. If God had a favorite, it would be him.
• Even seated, I could tell he was big and the way all the other men in the room seemed to defer to him suggested he was the boss. I could barely see him under the dim lights, but his eyes shone like beacons—blue enough to rival the clearest ocean. And let’s not forget that midnight black hair, currently styled into a man bun that screamed, “I’m too handsome to care!”
• I was pretty sure the server hovering nearby was about to offer him her tits as a drink service, which is a new level of dedication I might consider for the next job at the company.
• But I should have known that someone as jaw-droppingly beautiful as him would also have a sour personality, hence my current position sprawled on the floor like a common rat after my heels chose this very moment to betray me.
• I’m so going to kill him; I thought as I glared up at his stunning face.
• My anger faltered when I noticed the smile on his face.
• Are those dimples?!
• I felt like I was about to spontaneously combust.
• Focus, Adira! I repeated over and over to myself.
• Murder! Yes, murder—that’s what I was plotting in my head. 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 decided it was finally time to unleash my fury upon him.
• “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, and I guess one of them landed beside me cause the glass table near me exploded into a thousand glittering shards, pulling me out of my shock and eliciting a scream from my lungs—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 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 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.
• I think I’ve seen enough, I thought as 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. My body trembling uncontrollably. The asphyxiating 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 breaths quickened, became shallower. I could feel myself figuratively falling, but I carried on, determined to evade this panic attack cause this wasn’t the time— I needed 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.
• The panic wasn’t subsiding. If anything, it was rising, suffocating me, pulling m under like an unrelenting tide. My chest felt like it was being squeezed in a vice, and my vision… I think all I can see at this point are black dots. I need to get out of here, I thought desperately as I tried to crawl out from where I’d taken cover.
• 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.
• *************************************
• I awoke to a chorus of murmurings coming from a direction I couldn’t ascertain.
• Where on Earth am I?
• As I groggily surveyed my surroundings, I noticed that nearly everything was cloaked in shades of darkness—blacks, deep mahoganies, and a medley of colors that screamed “depressing.” It felt like I had stumbled into a gothic art exhibit gone wrong.
• I tried to hoist myself off the bed, which felt like an Olympic event, and made my way toward the door, only to be greeted by a heated argument 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, and you know it.” A second voice chimed in—definitely the rude fool who had made a mockery of me earlier. 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—a mafia empire that took years to establish!”
• Enemy? Mafia? Was I trapped in some surreal blend of crime drama and a bad soap opera?
• Deciding that I’d heard enough, I attempted to stealthily retreat from the door. My clumsy self obviously miscalculated and collided with a nearby table, creating a cacophony that could wake even the dead.
• 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?”
• Oops, I guess they heard that.
• Trying to slink back to the bed like a ninja, the door swung open, and suddenly I was pinned down by the other man, hands behind my back on the floor.
• “Release her, Iason. I think she’s disciplined enough not to try anything while we talk... amicably,” Andronikos said, clearly reveling in the drama. Iason reluctantly released me but remained poised 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 to the floor at the club. A nice bargain, 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 goes 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 have 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 will call 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 is 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?