Promised pain

Fourteen

She instantly catches on that, glaring at me before she huffs out a breath, "Okay. I see what you did there." She exclaims, "Give me answers and I'll offer you mine, Sunshine." The nickname is starting to sound familiar on my lips.

The corners of her lips lift and she smiles, she breathes out harshly, the smile slipping off her face before her eyes snap up to mine and she reveals something I've never heard of about her before "The dark brings back demons from my past." She whispers hoarsely.

"What kind of demons?" I ask under my breath, leaning forward as I prop my elbows on the table, staring her down, "You only get one question for tonight, I can't do more." She admits, her throat bobbing up and down with the motion.

"I'm not exactly sure who these people are, they've been haunting me for so long. I don't even remember the first time I started seeing them. But what I'm sure of is that they're connected to my mysterious past." I mock at the end, answering her question as I stare at her before her lips part in surprise.

"You're not digging into that shit again, Enzo." She already knows about my poor attempt at manipulating uncle Alexander into helping me at the age of 19, it failed miserably and backfired.

He complicated everything further because of his connections, he, dad, and mom wanted to block away the truth from me, but I'm too far gone for that anyway.

"Watch me." I breathe out, ruffling a hand through my hair harshly as I tug at the strands, "Are you insane? Don't answer that. You definitely are. If they know that you're alive they'll come after you!" She nearly yells and while her concern touches me, I will not stop until I have the truth.

"I'm stronger now." I can't take down the whole Italian mafia, obviously, and while some of what she said is true, the capo will make sure to erase every single trace of my parents who did something I still don't know to make him hate them this much.

"Not more than a whole army." She shoots back. "Let it go, Levine, it's not our topic." My jaw clenches and I grit out, "They will kill you." She lets out after a beat, gulping hard.

"Are you scared for me, Sunshine?" I smile, raising an eyebrow as something inside of my chest clenches, "Of course I am." She doesn't hesitate, maybe I didn't realize how much one's company would mean to me before she came, or more specifically, her company.

Levine is the sudden ray of sunshine that lightened inside my place, my space, I would've never guessed that I would need someone like her, never in this life time, but right now, i wouldn't trade her company for another. Even if she would disagree.

"How romantic." The sarcasm in my tone is undeniable, and she obviously catches up on it but her body still reacts as always, cheeks reddening and all, "Don't get yourself killed." She finally sighs in defeat when she realizes that I'm not giving up on this.

"I'll try." And it's the truth, if I actually get into the spotlight and said Italian mafia realizes that I exist, lives will be flipped, mainly mine for that matter, but well, it'll take them time to connect the dots considering that I'm now Lorenzo Petrov, ironic, an Italian first name with a Russian last one.

It would probably be shameful for my great ancestors, who I don't give two fucks about, I'm fucking glad I became a Petrov, my life has never been better, doesn't mean I don't want answers, closure.

"I think that's enough—" her words are cut off when her phone screen lightens up and she reads what's on the Lock Screen, I don't even think twice before snatching the phone lying In front of her.

Malice finds its way through my bones with ease, as if it's not one of the most fucked up emotions, I reread the texts the motherfucker just sent, but what make my bones chill over are the photos.

More and more fucking photos of her at college, with her friends, laughing, I make out Andrew in the background, the bodyguard I hired, but currently, if he still can easily continue to access her like this, a sniper would be enough to get rid of Levine.

The thought makes me rage over, blood pumping into my veins harshly the further I continue jumping onto sickening conclusions, I tracked down the damn numbers numerous times, and for the first time in ever...I failed to find a single trace of who that bastard is.

The locations behind the numbers he uses all lead to different places, deserted ones, where not a single person exists, which proves how smart and obsessed he is to go to these lines just to fucking stalk her, which also concludes the fact that he's dangerous as hell.

But it's not normal for our lives to stop because of any slight minor inconvenience, and well, in our world, stalkers are indeed a minor inconvenience, "Don't tell me to stay home again." She already reads my thoughts, I look up at her from the phone, "You're not going to college." I state, it's easy for her to stay home, stay wherever the fuck she wants as long as money is thrown at them.

"The only solution other than staying home...."I let the sentence trail off, not exactly being able to guess if she'll agree, considering what she'll need to face there, "Is for you to come with me, work." Lots of meanings lie behind that word.

Illegal, dirty work, killing, blood, lots of things that I'm not sure if Levine would stomach or even approve of seeing in the first place, but as she sucks in a sharp breath and meets my eyes, the desperation of finding a way out shining through her eyes.

"I'll go with this option."

A vote is really appreciated.