Mafia Boss’s Arranged Bride by Bella King
Chapter 17
Annika
The air is too cold for a woman in just her underwear. What was once just storm clouds have evolved into a turbulent thunderstorm outside the windows of the building.
Nikolai grabs my wrist again and pulls me toward a dark back hallway with only a red exit sign to light our way. We bolt through the door into the pouring rain and are met with a black sedan waiting for us.
“Nikolai, what the fuck is going on?” I ask as he shoves me into the back seat of the car.
“No time to talk right now, princess,” he replies, his voice deep and urgent. He jumps over me into the other seat in the back of the car, and the driver speeds off before Nikolai can even close the door behind him.
He reaches over me and slams the door shut, struggling against the inertia of the speeding vehicle.
The panic in my body has been loosened by action, and my bones are vibrating inside my arms and legs. I feel a horrible chill passing through me as I try to collect myself, to remember what happened as fully as I can.
Where is my family? What happened to Michail? Why is Nikolai rescuing me from his own family?
Nikolai sees that I am shaking uncontrollably, and I notice that he is not shaking at all. He seems calmer than I have ever seen anybody in any situation, even despite what we had just endured. This realization settles on me like the heavy rain outside, and I slam myself into the furthest corner of my seat as Nikolai tries to reach out and touch my shoulder.
“Don’t fucking touch me,” I scream, my eyes large and glassy with warning and terror.
He recoils. “Please calm down, Annika; we need to-“
“Shut the fuck up! You’re not going to tell me to do shit,” I cry as I kick him away from me.
“Don’t forget the situation you’re in right now, Annika. My father just slaughtered a room full of people to make a point, you understand? You need to trust me whether you want to or not, or you’re dead. So don’t fucking kick me,” he replies, grabbing my ankle and anchoring it to the seat where I can’t reach him.
I try to kick him away from me again despite his warning, if only out of sheer frustration and anger than genuine fear for my safety.
He presses my ankle harder into the seat until it begins to hurt. “That’s enough, Annika. You need to listen to what I’m about to tell you, okay? And I need you to listen closely, so I don’t repeat myself, because we both know that there will be people looking for us very soon, and I don’t have time to explain everything all over,” he says.
I pull my foot back as he releases it, curling myself up against the car door. I’m shivering to near convulsions now. My corset and lace panties are rigid and chilled by the rain like a shell that encapsulates me. All I can do is stare at him and wait for a release from this awful limbo.
“We’re on our way to a safehouse on the other side of the island. I established it years ago, and I know the people there very well. We can stay there for a bit before we figure out what to do next,” he explains.
I frown, trying to listen to his words as the car speeds along. It’s so difficult to focus, but his stern expression lends me some comfort. He’s not making light of the terror we just witnessed. He’s not the one behind it.
Nikolai removes the coat from his broad shoulders. He places it over my legs gently, careful to avoid touching my skin directly as I become stonelike and unmoving at the potential of his touch.
The coat feels so warm and safe compared to the cold of the car now that I’ve felt the contrast. I release my arms from around my body and pull the coat up closer to my chest, taking a deep breath of his smokey scent and rich cologne that’s soaked deep into the fabric.
“When we get to the safehouse, you’re going to need to take on a new identity. The more people who know who you are and where you’re from, the harder it’ll be to stay undercover. I trust these people for the most part, but neither of us can afford the risks.”
He pauses for a moment, staring deep into the distance despite looking right at me. “We both know what my father is capable of now.”
He leans back and leaves me to process what he just said. We’re driving over the city on a network of highways that makes me feel like we’re going to space, and my mind is hardly able to grasp anything, let alone the complicated jumble of words he just spewed out at me.
I swallow hard, and after a moment, once the coat has warmed my wet body, I’m able to speak again. “Did you know this was going to happen?” I ask.
Now that I’ve slipped out of my dream state, my head feels like it’s going to explode, both from the pain of the gunshots ringing in my ears and the sheer inescapable weight of the situation. Nikolai looks out the window again, and for a moment, I’m angry that he is ignoring my question.
Before I can snap at him for ignoring me, he sighs. “No, I couldn’t have known. My father doesn’t trust me with family affairs, remember?”
“And Michail?” I ask, afraid of what he might say, but needing to know anyway.
“Michail probably didn’t know either. I doubt he would put you in harm’s way like that, even if he is an insufferable cunt,” Nikolai answers.
Nausea builds in my upper abdomen, the kind of nausea that can’t be calmed by deep breaths and happy thoughts. Even if Michail wasn’t a part of this, people died, and it’s because of this stupid fucking wedding. I should’ve never agreed to it in the first place.
“Why would someone ever put their family in that position?” I ask, the nausea in me driving my righteous anger from my body as if vomiting the words forth would absolve me of the sickness itself. “What kind of fucked up shit is that?”
Nikolai looks back at me, any previous tension or aggression being replaced by a feeling of deep sorrow. “I don’t know. I really don’t. I always knew my dad was capable of evil for personal gain, but I never thought it would be this bad.”
“Well, it is,” I snap.
He shakes his head. “We’re alive, at least.”
While a million questions float through my head, we pull into an industrial area where there are rows and rows of derelict buildings and parking lots overgrown with weeds. Had I happened upon this place on my own, I would have never assumed that there were people living in these places.
The thought is so eerie to me – encountering such a quiet, lifeless place and not even knowing that there could be entire families or communities under my feet as I casually walk through.
Now, though, the thought brings me peace. If Nikolai’s family has no idea this place exists despite his knowledge of it for so many years, I feel safer here than I could possibly feel anywhere else.
A pang of homesickness squeezes my heart as I think of my house, of my bed, and my clothes hanging exactly where I left them before I left to have my life changed irreversibly forever.
I don’t even know if my own parents are alive or my fiancé. This morning, all I could think about was how upset I was to give up my personal bathroom and share a bank account. Now, those worries would be a charmed life. Michail would be a dream come true, even if I never really loved him.
“Here, let’s go in this way. There’s a side door that leads down to a basement here,” says Nikolai says, snapping me out of my thoughts of regret as we emerge from the car.
I wrap his coat all the way around my body now, concealing my near-nakedness as I prepare to engage with a group of complete strangers of which I have no knowledge or connection at all. As we exit the car, the driver immediately speeds off, leaving us alone in a place I’ve never been before.
Nikolai leads me toward a grey building with a number of broken, dusty windows that are illuminated only by a low red light glowing at the base of a set of crude metal stairs. He gently takes my hand as we descend the stairs.
“You don’t need to do that,” I say defensively.
He looks at me, right through me, and takes my hand more deliberately. “Maybe not, but I really think I should.”
His words stop me in my tracks. I suddenly feel so vulnerable and so weak after what happened that I could burst into tears.
He takes my hand firmly in his and leads me down the stairs to a rusted metal door at the base. When we arrive, he pounds on the door like a cop.
After a few moments, someone answers the pounding and opens the door slightly. “What’s the password?” says the voice of someone barely visible.
Nikolai laughs. “The password is ‘I have a gun.’”
I try to gauge if he is joking or not.
“Okay, but who is that?” the person behind the door asks, pointing a finger at me.
“Someone who needs a place to hide for a few days, Teague. We can talk about it later.” Nikolai says.
Teague scoffs. “You mean she’s running from someone? Someone affiliated with you? No dice, dude. Sorry,” he says as he begins to close the door on Nikolai.
“Teague, I’m the reason that you had a place to run when you needed one. Don’t be a hypocrite. We can talk about it later, but for now, you’re going to let us in.”
Teague concedes to Nikolai’s request, opening the door and letting us both in. I can feel his eyes on me, sizing me up. He’s much bigger than me, and I hold Nikolai’s hand tighter. I know he’s supposed to be on our side somehow, but Nikolai is the only man I can trust at the moment.
We’re led down a musty, dark hallway lit only by camping lanterns powered by a generator at the end of the hall, where another rusty door greets us.
I feel like I’m exploring abandoned buildings with my friends, maybe with a boyfriend that I’m trying to be brave for. The feeling is unusual for me as I was never the type to sneak out or go where I wasn’t supposed to. It was always just a weird fantasy I had.
Teague opens the door for us, and we enter a large warehouse space with two lofts on either side. There are makeshift rooms separated by boxes in various corners of the space, and in the hazy lights that stream through the yellowed windows, I can see multiple clusters of people huddled together, eating food or smoking.
As we enter further, I notice some of them watching us, and I have the feeling that Nikolai commands a presence around these people. They know him very well, and he’s the one with authority and power.
Teague brings us towards a group of people toward the back of the room ,where a more established communal area has been arranged with couches and tables.
“Nikolai, Jesus, it’s been forever since I’ve seen you,” a voice calls out from across the room as we approach.
“Hey James, yeah, it’s been really weird back home. That’s actually why I’m here,” he replies. “Everyone, this is Annika. She’s my girlfriend, and I’d like you to treat her with the utmost respect.”
