Owning the Mafia Don

Lucien

It had been one day since she had gone missing, thought Lucien. And he was nowhere close to finding her.

He had reached out to everyone he could think of, trying to find where the man he was seeking, Dmitri Rudenko, had holed away his woman.

He kept drawing a blank.

He had sent his men to the various hideouts where Rudenko famously tortured his victims; and had set them on fire. Schwartz had overseen that, personally.

But there was no sign of Proserpina. It was as though she had vanished.

Lucien felt it like a blow; he had never thought she would be captured in this way. He had always been convinced of his infallibility.

He drank again from his tumbler of whiskey as Schwartz entered the room. Aiyana Laughing Water was with him. The woman studied him solemnly.

Lucien wanted to lash out at someone, anyone, but Schwartz stepped forward.

‘Mate, ‘he said in a low voice, ‘You cannot go around drunk. Think of the wee babies. They need you.’

Lucien stood up, lurching slightly. It was mid-afternoon, and after seeing the video, he had not been able to stomach the idea of any food or rest. Unshaven, he looked frightening, his hollowed eyes and fierce expression more menacing than he knew.

He smote the wall behind him. The pain on his knuckles, which began to bleed, was something he remained oblivious to.

***

Earlier

The video had been like a blow to the gut.

He had leapt to his feet and then he stood, still as a rock, as he watched the screen. They had decided to put it up on the large screen in his study so that it might help the men in identifying the place where she was being held.

Lucien felt his blood turn to ice as the video began to play.

There were others in the room with him, Schwartz and Beston and the other trusted men who stood about the room in silence. He could sense the pain radiating from his friend, who made a choked sound when the camera focused on Proserpina. It was the same room where she was in.

Proserpina, HIS Proserpina, was dishevelled-looking, piteous, but still standing up to Dmitri Rudenko who had her in a stranglehold, twisting her arm brutally. She winced but refused to scream and fall to her knees. Her chin was raised defiantly, although she stood, looking so tiny between the hefty men and Dmitri.

Then he saw Oleg.

***

Oleg.

The man they called the Brute.

The brutal killer who enjoyed stringing up victims and torturing them till they died slowly and painfully.

A sadistic ba*tard,, thought Lucien, his hands curling into fists of impotent fury.

He had a reputation for raping women repeatedly, brutally, and enjoying it. And he had been looking at Proserpina with open lust.

He had been touching Lucien’s woman, hurting her. Fondling her breasts roughly as she squirmed away in panic, an act that made Lucien growl in rage.

The sight of the man licking his Woman’s cheek, her revulsion and despair as she tried to struggle and move away from him-all of it had driven him crazy.

He had forced himself to watch it till the end, his fury growing. He wanted to howl and kill. But he restrained himself.

And his heart went out to his courageous little woman, standing there, resisting Dmitri Rudenko with all her might, although she was all alone and so vulnerable.

The sight of her exposed body and the rounded stomach, a reminder of his unborn twins, further fueled his anger. She needed to be found.

And FAST.

***

Poor Schwartz had left the room midway, his face white and strained, unable to look at the deliberate cruelty being meted out. He was a gentleman, and the sight of Proserpina, standing half-naked as she was publicly humiliated, being groped and physically hurt by Dmitri Rudenko and his men, had affected him deeply.

His love for her had not diminished. He would always hold a torch to her…

But Lucien Delano had used that anger to shovel his energy: he had continued to call his contacts; he made sure that every one of the other man’s hideouts was razed to the ground, his men killed. The anguish in her eyes as she faced the camera-how she had finally called out his name-it smote Lucien like a hard blow.

A deep, unpleasant suspicion was growing within him.

Had Rudenko left the country?

***

Dmitri Rudenko

On the other side of the house where he was holding Proserpina, in his large room with the air-conditioning going on at full throttle, Dmitri Rudenko and his right-hand man, Oleg, observed the small figure as she all but collapsed on the bed. The camera was recording all her movements in the room during her solitary confinement.

Dmitri had a cold gleam in his eyes.

“We need to get rid of her as soon as possible.’ He growled.

Lucien Delano was like an enraged lion, tearing up all his old hideouts and killing anyone who opposed him. Three of his lairs had already been destroyed, and the men were killed horribly.

The man would trace him down soon, and Dmitri wanted to make himself scarce before that development. He also wanted to get rid of the defiant little woman, pretty package though she was, so that Lucien Delano would never be able to find her.

He smiled thinly.

***

Proserpina

There was a tiny washroom, filthy and old, with a cracked washbasin and a closet that did not flush. Water came trickling through an old pipe. I used it anyway. But even though I was so tired and thirsty, I knew I could not drink the water.

When I pushed open the flimsy door, a man was standing in the middle of the room with a bottle of water and two slices of old, mouldy bread.Property of Nô)(velDr(a)ma.Org.

He placed it on the floor, his eyes running leisurely over me, and I avoided his eyes.

Thankfully, I drank the water and screwed my eyes shut. It was tepid and tasted strange.

“Please God, I thought dully, ‘let my babies, all of them, be safe…’

Thinking of my precious, unborn children, I hoped they would be alright. I had to tell myself that I would emerge safely to be with my family. Yet a small degree of hopelessness was beginning to settle in me.

What if Lucien could not find me???

Then, determinedly, I stroked my belly and jutted my chin out.

NO!

I told myself. I would not allow myself to become weak and give in to despair.

I had come a long way, loving my family and my man. I would NOT let that monster or his lackeys break me.

Emotionally, if not physically.