The Unanticipated Visit| Completed

Back To You

Nikolas arrived at the flat with Leon and Orion.

Stepping out of their cars (Nikolas in a Mustang, Leon from an Audi and Orion, a Mercedes), they got out their luggage in staggered timings.

Nikolas was first to knock on the flat door while the others were getting out luggage and phones glued to their ears, dealing with business. The men had just locked their cars when the door was answered.

Sophie was the person Nikolas saw first, she rubbed her eyes of sleep and Nikolas gave her a swift hug, which was returned, before stepping through the threshold and taking off his black shoes.

Walking in, he scanned the conjoined room to see where Jasmine was. When he realised she wasn't in hindsight, he was about to ask Sophie 'where she was' but stopped after hearing shuffling on the couch and a soft sigh.

He traipsed around the couch and gazed upon a sleeping Jasmine. Crouching down, he put his suitcase beside the couch and his right hand had a mind of its own and softly touched Jasmine's smooth cheek.

The other men came in and reciprocated the same actions as Nikolas, Leon was last in and closed the door behind him. Sophie hugged Orion first and he spoke softly, "It's going to be okay. We've got you."

Nodding her head in understanding, she turned to Leon while Orion walked further into the flat to make himself comfortable.

Leon was next to embrace Sophie, a word was not shared but their hold on each other spoke more words than either of them could say at that moment. After a while, Leon bent down to the height of her shoulder and laid his chin on top of it. Sophie closed her eyes, breathing out as if all her troubles that day had disappeared and had gone into the hug.

As Leon and Sophie stood hugging each other and Orion chatting away on his phone in his native language, Nikolas switched the tv off and proceeded to lift Jasmine's sleeping form from the couch.

She squirmed closer to Nikolas' torso and breathed out again. Through the corridor and into her bedroom, Nikolas put her on her bed. On the opposite side, he tossed the fold of the duvet to present the bedsheet underneath and lifted her again to tuck her under the duvet cover.

When she was underneath the duvet, her legs folded towards her chest and hands held and tucked the warm blanket under her chin. Nikolas sat at the edge of the bed, stroked her cheek and lightly kissed her forehead before leaving the room and switching the light off, that he had switched on earlier, strategically.

He briskly walked back into the living to see only Orion still talking in Italian on his phone. But Leon was not in the room.

Nikolas sat down on the couch, which was still a little warm from Jasmine's body heat. Minutes after, Leon walked in.

"Sophie's asleep now. She was pretty tired, told me she tried waiting up for us." Leon informed.

In Jasmine's bedroom, she had awoken from her slumber and blinked a few times only to be met with the surrounding darkness. She sat up, remembering the events that occurred and glancing around, wondering how she ended up in her bedroom when the last place she was was in the living room.

"Niko," she whispered, realising she had missed his arrival.

Deep, low voices came from outside her door and she hurriedly got out of bed and stumbled quickly out of the room and opened the door to the living room.

"Come to è potuto succedere, lascio con loro I miei uomini più fidati e non possono nemmeno..."
("How could this have happened, I leave my most trusted men with them and they can't even...")

Nikolas spoke rapidly, almost shouting, when he saw Jasmine entering the living space, he stopped and their eyes connected. The two men on the couch took a glimpse at each other and their eyes returned to the couple.

Still keeping his gaze he started up speaking, "Assicurati che chiunque abbia fatto questo venga comprato da me. Mi prenderò cura di loro."
("Make sure whoever did this is bought to me. I'll take care of them.")

Though she had no idea of what he had spoken, she knew his command was deadly.

Nikolas sauntered up to Jasmine still gaping into her dark brown eyes. His hands were not hesitant to touch her skin. When his hands had grasp hold of Jasmine's small arms, pulling her in slightly he said nothing.

Breaking eye contact, Jasmine peered past Nikolas to see Leon talking on his phone with a laptop upon his lap and Orion typing away on his laptop that he had gotten out of his duffel bag.

Orion spoke suddenly but hesitated as Jasmine was in the room, "Boss, urm, gli uomini che hai assunto per proteggere le ragazze sono stati trovati morti."
("the men you hired to protect the girls were found dead.")

Nikolas challenged, "How do you know that?"

A perplexed Jasmine wondered what the men were not telling her. She tamed her wild tongue that was about to blurt out a thousand questions.

Orion answered, "Ho seguito la loro macchina e ho mandato le persone a guardarla. I corpi sono stati trovati nell'auto in un magazzino abbandonato ed entrambi avevano ferite da arma da fuoco."
("I tracked their car and sent people to look at it. The bodies were found in the car in an abandoned warehouse and both had gunshot wounds.")

Now moved a few inches away from Nikolas, Jasmine stood staring at his side profile, his face was turned to his left side, as he talked behind him to the Orion.

Nikolas turned his face to resume his vacant look with Jasmine, who was waiting impatiently for what was said between him and Orion.

"The men, who were supposed to be protecting you,..." He paused, not wanting the gruesome news to be true.

"They were found dead. The strange thing is they were never visible to the public, always had a low profile, you know, laid low. There was no way someone could have known where they were. Unless..."

Jasmine digested the information and found what Nikolas was saying didn't make sense. How could someone know where someone was if they are supposed to have a 'low profile'? Then she figured out Nikolas' thinking.

The room silenced waiting for Nikolas to continue.

He spoke harshly but venom escaped in this next sentence as his face scrawled, "Un topo è strisciato dalla sua casa nella mia mafia."
("A rat has crawled from its home into my mafia.")