Mafia Princess by Kennedy Slope

Chapter Twenty-Nine

The sound of the creaking door opening caused me to jump out of bed. I didn’t know how long I had been laying in the bed, but I knew that it had been long enough for me to doze off for a short while.

“I brought you some food,” a man said. He was tall and blonde, and there was a deep scar down the side of his face. The room was incredibly dark, and it made it difficult to see the person walking into the room.

“Who are you?” I asked. I sat tensely on the edge of the bed. I had known Zane, which made dealing with him slightly easier, but now, there was a new person in the mix.

The man’s face fell slightly as if he were offended by the question. “You don’t remember me?” he asked.

“Should I?”

He walked closer, and I gripped the sheets in my hands in an effort to keep myself from scurrying away. I was tired of showing everyone in my life my fear. It was time that I needed to be stronger.

He slid the tray off food on the edge of the bed. “I guess it has been a long time, and I wasn’t exactly the best brother when I was in your life.”

I inhaled sharply. “No,” I muttered, but I couldn’t stop my eyes from searching this man’s face. “Nikolai?” I whispered.

A smile formed across his face, and I could see the brother who had died several years ago. The last time I had seen Nikolai alive, he had come in my room to sneak me candy that our mother denied me because I had done something wrong.

“What?” I could barely form any thoughts as I looked at the man who claimed to be my brother. His face was scared, and his normally longer hair was shorn close to his scalp. He also had a tattoo that crawled up his neck, which was new.

Nikolai reached out, and I immediately scooted away. He looked hurt that I moved away from him.

“I’m sorry,” I said. I didn’t know what I was apologizing for.

“It’s alright,” Nikolai said. “I understand. This is all a lot.”

I nodded. “Why am I here?”

Nikolai sighed. “I told Mama that we needed to ease you into this slowly, but you know how she can be.”

I nodded. I more than knew how our mother could be. Nikolai had always been her favorite, and I had suffered her wrath. My father had been close to Nikolai, but he had been hard on him since he was the heir.

“Once she found out about Anastasia…”

“Is she okay?” Anastasia didn’t look well when she’d come to me in the library. She was thin and ragged looking.

Nikolai looked away, and I immediately knew something bad had happened to Anastasia. “Nikolai…” I reached out towards him, unsure of what to do. He saved me from trying to figure it out by getting up from his perk.

He began pacing back and forth. “Don’t look at me like that,” he said.

“You loved Anastasia,” I said. At least from what I could remember. She’d been devastated to lose him, and now, it seemed like he could hardly care.

Nikolai stopped pacing before me. He kneeled down before me. “You don’t understand what I’ve been through,” Nikolai said. “I loved Anastasia, but I’ve worked so hard, and I can’t let anything stand in the way of my plans.”

“What plans?” I asked. “What has our mother convinced you to do?”

Nikolai sneered and got up. The sweet natured brother that I had known growing up was replaced by a man who was damaged and on edge. We’d spent less than five minutes together, and I could already tell.

“You’ve allowed yourself to be brainwashed by that Blanchi trash,” he said. “That's why we had to take you. I told Mama that we needed to convince you of the truth.”

I tried to keep my emotions in check. I had so many questions about things, mainly how the hell my brother was alive, and where he’d been all these years, but I wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity to hear about whatever he and my mother had planned.

“What’s the truth?” I asked.

“The truth is that that husband of yours is a demon. A rabid dog that needs to be put down.”

I was shocked by the venom in Nikolai's voice. When we were children, he was always happy and joyful. Even in the midst of a war, he never seemed to be someone who held onto darkness.

“We are all guilty in this,” I said as diplomatically as I could.

Nikolai sneered. “Your new husband tried to murder me. He left me broken and bleeding, and he didn’t care.”

I didn’t know what to say. Nothing that I did say was going to make things better for my brother. I didn’t absolve Dom of his many crimes. But I couldn’t hide my head in the sand and pretend that Nikolai hadn’t killed people who Dom would mourn.

My mind recalled Matte, and the way his mother had wailed at his funeral.

“Did you shoot me?” I asked. I could barely get the words out from the thickness that had closed my throat.

Nikolai looked away from me, and I knew that he had.

Tears filled my eyes. “Why?” I asked.

“You weren’t my target. The shot ricocheted. It was meant for him, but the bastard has some luck.”

I felt as though I couldn’t breathe. I’d known that someone from my family had ordered the hit, but it was something different to hear it being said. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to react.

“We’ve all had to make sacrifices,” Nikolai said. “Your being hurt made Dom more open with you, and his men began to lose trust.” The glee that Nikolai felt was evident in his tone.

“I’m going to be sick,” I said, jumping up from the bed. I moved towards the window. I couldn’t get any air, but as I pressed myself against the cool glass, I was comforted by the feel of the chill on my cheek. I closed my eyes as I tried my best to keep myself from breaking apart.

“Do you know what you’ve done?” I whispered.

“You’re fine,” Nikolai told me. “More than fine. I watched you and Dom, and he started to believe you. To care about you.”

“Dom cares about me because he cares about me, not because I was shot.”

Nikolai shook his head. “He didn’t trust you before that. Isn’t that what you told Mama when she asked you to get close, gain his trust, and kill him?”

I turned away from the window. “How long have you and our mother been working together?” I asked. I wondered if Nikolai was the reason I married Dom in the first place. This whole time I wondered if my marriage to Dom had been a ploy between my parents to get rid of the Blanchi’s once and for all. Now, I was wondering if my father knew anything about it.

“We’ve been plotting our vengeance since the day Nikolai called me from the hospital,” my mother said.

I had been so focused on Nikolai that I hadn’t heard her enter.

She walked in, as put together as always, and gave Nikolai a kiss on the cheek. She looked at my brother as though he had hung the moon.

“Look at this,” she said, a tight smile on her face. “Both of my children together again.”

I looked closely at my mother, unsure of what I had just heard, and that was when I noticed the dark stain on her dress.

“What is that?” I asked, pointing a shaky finger to the stain. There wasn’t enough light for me to make it out clearly, but my gut instinct told me that my mother was covered in blood.

“It’s nothing,” she brushed at the stain before turning her attention back to Nikolai. “We need to get going.”

Nikolai said nothing. He gave our mother a short, curt nod before turning his attention back to me. “Let’s go,” he said. He walked towards me, and I moved away.

“I’m not going anywhere with either of you,” I said. “Where’s Papa. Does he know what you’ve been doing?”

My mother scowled. “Your father was weak, and the Bratva has no place for weak men.”

I didn’t miss how my mother talked about my father in the past tense. “No…” I said, tripping over my feet as I tried to get away from them. “You wouldn’t.” I fell to the ground as my grief overcame me.

I couldn’t breathe as my eyes focused on the blood splattered on my mother’s dress. I knew in my bones that my father was dead. It was the only thing that made sense.

“You want to take over the Bratva,” I said.

“The Bratva belongs to your brother.” She reached out and caressed Nikolai’s scared cheek. The action made my stomach turn. “He’s strong enough now.”

I looked at Nikolai, hoping that he could see the truth in my eyes. That he wasn’t too far gone to listen to reason. “She’s using you,” I said. “The same way she’s using me. She wants to control the Bratva, and if you get in her way.”

Thwack. My mother slapped me so hard that my head hit the ground. “Shut up, you ungrateful little bitch,” she howled. She kicked me in the stomach, where my wound was still healing, and I felt myself gasp for breath.

“Mama!” I looked up to see Nikolai grab our mother and drag her away from me. “Don’t.”

The wild look in my mother’s eyes didn’t leave, and I knew if Nikolai wasn’t here, she likely would have killed me.

“I’m fine,” she muttered. She blew a stray piece of hair out of her face. “Get your sister, and get your things. We are leaving.”

“If Dominic Blanchi is coming, this is our chance…”

Nikolai stopped talking as our mother glared at him. “We aren’t ready for him. We’ve lost the element of surprise thanks to that idiot girlfriend of yours, and now, we need to regroup.”

I wanted Nikolai to fight against her, but I knew that he wouldn’t. He wasn't the same brother I’d once loved. My mother had taken his pain and warped him with it. He was her creature now, and that made him my enemy.

“Luckily, we have your sister with us,” my mother said. She reached out towards my face and ran a red, manicured talon down my cheek. “And Dominic will do anything to get her back.”

My mother’s words chilled me, and for the first time, I prayed that Dom would stay as far away as possible because I wasn’t sure that he could win against someone who was willing to lose everything.