𝐋𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐂𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 | 𝟏𝟖+

𝟏𝟎 | 𝐛𝐞𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭

"I will tell you my rules for this fucked up situation Lorenzo, and you will listen to me without interrupting, because I sure as fuck will not hesitate to ensure your brain is splattered against all the furniture in the basement. Understand?" Lorenzo's body immediately tenses, and sits up, clearly not in a sense of comfort anymore. He nods quickly, swallowing his nerves and I can only tell because of how deep his Adam's apple just went down his throat.

I rest my chin on my palm, leaning forward so I place myself in a position where Lorenzo can clearly hear me. "We will only marry when I am ready. Our wedding will not be a traditional one by any means, we will sign a contract and that is it. Before then, we will not be considered fiancés, and after that, we certainly will not have a normal wife-husband relationship. And I will  even make it possible for us to not live in the same house. You're lucky for this arrangement, because otherwise you would be dead."

His eyes widen and he's quite obviously taken aback by my very clear five demands. He certainly knows better than to argue with me, because all Lorenzo does is look down and nod. I dismiss him, and he instantly stands up, hurrying away. And hopefully out of the damn house.

The only reason I'm going through with this freakish idea is purely to keep my father entertained for the few weeks. Before we even get to sign the contract, I'll make sure everything is sorted out.

Even if that does mean causing a war with the Italians by killing their prince.

♠

I feel my blood rushing straight to my head, almost like I'm going to explode at any given moment, as I'm speaking to my brother. According to him, after the break in of our surveillance system, the person, or maybe even persons, still have access to our whole footage. And that's why we're currently in my room, and not in my office. So we're in fact away from the cameras.

However, that doesn't take away the panic that I feel from just knowing that right now, there's a presence behind my cameras, have the ability the view every single movement made by my family and even me. They have the ability to know every single detail of my plans, and we can't do anything about it. In all honesty, I'm worried.

"What the fuck do you mean they still have access?" I spit, I certainly don't have men working for me that just lounge around all day and thrive with the luxuries I provide for them. If I truly wanted to, I could have them fending for themselves and working for me because I force them to. But I don't, and they're not showing any regards of gratefulness at all which just makes my blood boil even more.

"Anna, the last thing we need is for you to act irrationally. Get your shit together before the intruder knows that we know." He takes a stance before me, and I'm actually stunned by his maturity. If it was any other day, he would definitely leave my room with blood spraying out of his neck. However, today I actually understand where he is coming from and that I need to contemplate what I do before acting on my thoughts.

I usher for him to sit back down, because I definitely do not need Andrés believing he's got the upper end of the stick just because he said one sensible thing in his whole life. "Where is Ares? He was meant to take over as the head of security. He should've dealt with this." I reach out for the house phone, however Andrés stops me and the look on his face radiates pure confusion.

"Did you not get told?" His eyebrows furrow as he tilts his head at me, waiting for a reaction. I mirror the face he's pulling, and I'm puzzled. As soon as he realises I don't know anything, his mouth forms an O shape, and his face falls. He doesn't want to be the bearer of bad news at all, and that only rattles me because, what the fuck happened?

"Ares is dead. He was shot execution style."
♠
Nikolai Volkov

"Dimitri, idi syuda!" I yell through the headquarters, and instantly I hear him practically running towards me. The door swings open and I'm greeted with Dimitri clad in a suit, as per usual and his hair messy. He nods at me as a greeting and his eyes avert their gaze to the laptop in front of me.

Just like yesterday, I have all the cameras of the Spanish residence displayed on my computer. However, the only difference is that there's one extra. "That one was broken, boss." Dimitri's eyebrows furrow as he studies the display of her bedroom on my screen. The foolish girl believed her father genuinely took out the camera from her room, but in reality it broke from her continuously smashing it and Amidio couldn't be bothered to fix it again.

His eyes fill up with confusion as he continues studying the empty room, most likely taking in the surroundings. For Adrianna's type of persona, no one would take her as a clean freak. Every inch of her room is spotless, and it always is from what I can tell. Her morning routine is to get up, shower, get dressed, do her makeup and clean. And the cleaning takes around one and a half hours of her time. The benefits of having access to her cameras are that I can inspect her day-to-day life and know where she is and where she goes.

It makes my mission ten times easier, pains me to say it,  but I couldn't be more grateful for Dimitri that he actually went through with his plans. "Boss, turn the camera sideways." I snap my stare up to him as I observe his determination to find something out. He evidently spotted something and wanted to find out more, so I hold down the left arrow and the camera slowly turns.

I spot the black-haired girl, in deep thought. Her hair cascades down her back in waves, her eyes deep in thought as she stares at her wall. Anyone else would believe she's psychotic, but from having your mother as an alcoholic, you know when someone is hyperventilating.

Her chest is rising up and down, fast. It's almost as if I can sense her unease through the screen. Her lips part as she lets out a breathe, and her eyes flicker to her surroundings. Around two minutes have passed, and her breathing has calmed down efficiently. She was having a minor panic attack.

Dimitri takes control of the computer, zooming into her white bedside table. A black notebook comes into view, one that's opened. Dimitri, by the press of a few buttons, enhances the camera quality and that allows us to see the scribbles of her writing.

Ball. 9th of March.

And I'm guessing that the date of the ball her and her brother were discussing yesterday. Soon enough, some pieces of the puzzle fall into place and that allows me to join things together. If she's getting married, her fiancé will most likely be her date. The ball will be at her house, or one of her many residencies.

I hum, and Dimitri's posture straightens. We both think of the same thing, I need to get there. Somehow.

♠
This chapter could've definitely been better, but I had them meet again and it didn't feel right to have so much 'stuff' going on in only one chapter

Like, I just didn't know how to write it well and in good enough detail, so I've left it until chapter eleven.

FYI - The main character is Russian, if that wasn't clear enough.

This DOES NOT mean I support Russia. This is a work of fiction, any discrimination won't be tolerated. I'm half Russian myself and I won't condone people discriminating Russians just because of the war. The Russians never wanted this, it is the government!

Just wanted to make that clear.

Thank you x

Unedited