Mafia Boss’s Arranged Bride by Bella King
Chapter 9
Nikolai
This whole ordeal has gone completely off the rails, and I’m loving every second of it. First, my dad can’t even keep me and Michail straight, of all people. As if I didn’t spend the latter ten years of my life trying to be nothing like him. Then Annika’s father making jokes about me marrying her?
I’m expecting the rest of the time to go just as poorly, and I hope it does. I have no patience for them, for any of this. I reach for my cigarettes again, this time with the full intent to suck the last one down and go buy more before I hit the bar and drink the rest of my concerns away.
As I begin to light the cigarette while walking out the back door, I see Annika gazing out at the courtyard, completely exasperated. She looks like she could cry.
I know she’s going to see me if I leave, and that I’m not going to be able to keep myself from talking to her again. Michail is nowhere to be found, but if he sees me with her again, it’s going to be trouble.
Against my better judgement, I decide to slip out and grab her attention again. “Hey, are you alright?” I say tentatively, uncertain how exactly this woman will respond to me injecting myself into her life yet again.
Instead of flipping out at me, she starts to cry. Something in me breaks as I watch her. There’s no doubt this feels like a low point for her, and this is my fault. I took things too far, and she’s going to be the one dealing with Michail’s rage behind closed doors because of it.
I feel a surge of jealous rage at the thought of his laying a finger on her dainty figure. He has it in him to do it. Under that layer of wimpy submissiveness, there’s a demon inside. He’s fucked up deeper than I am.
“Ugh, I’m so sorry,” Annika says as she stifles back sobs. “Fuck, this is really embarrassing,” she continues, covering her face.
I’m not stupid enough to ask what’s going on? Because the answer couldn’t be more obvious if it was tattooed on her forehead. “What’s on your mind?” seems to be the more appropriate question, which is what I end up asking.
She laughs a bit. “I mean, this is all so ridiculous. All of it. I can’t stop thinking of all the friends I had growing up who got to graduate college, find boyfriends in the normal world, and let life fall into place the way it was supposed to.”
I nod, crossing my arms awkwardly as some of the guilt subsides. Maybe this isn’t about me after all.
“Your brother seems like a very nice guy, and I know he’s as much a victim in this as I am, but I resent the fuck out of my parents and yours for using us as bargaining chips. They should have to marry each other or something. I didn’t ask to be put here.”
Damn.
“Well, fuck, I guess it would be stupid to ask if you’ve been thinking about this a lot,” I say. “I thought I might have done something wrong.”
“Your issues with Michail aren’t my business,” she says. “My parents are treating me like I won the fucking lottery, though, and it’s awful.”
Part of me wants to reach out again and comfort her, but a bigger part of me knows that that would be a guaranteed suicide under even regular circumstances. I was pushing my luck the first time. A second time could mean all-out war between families.
“I have nothing to say to make you feel better, unfortunately,” I say. “I guess all I can say is that it takes a lot of strength to have this put into your life without letting it make you crazy.”
That seems to relieve her a bit. Her shoulders drop, the tension in her face begins to release her.
“You don’t need to be here. This isn’t your problem,” she says, turning her head and looking up at me with her reddened eyes.
“You’re right,” I admit, knowing that I should leave her alone. She’s not mine, and I have no right to confuse her by making her think there would ever be a chance in hell that we’d be together.
Annika sniffs, still trying to hold in her tears.
“Okay, well, I’m going to go to the bar, you know, the one I talked about before. I’ll see you around, though, Annika,” I say, laying out the final temptation even though I shouldn’t.
She looks up at me quickly, but then her eyes fall back down to her feet. “I’ll let you be on your way,” she says softly. “Thanks for talking to me. I really appreciate it. It’s nice to be treated like a human once in a while.”
Without a word, I nod at her and walk out to my car. I really do feel for her. None of us asked for this life, not me, Michail, or Annika, but that’s the life we were born into. You can run away, but you can never fully remove yourself from the mafia once you’re in it.
