Fearless

♕ one ♕

He had encountered dead end after dead end and was about to give up when he heard her rustling around in the hallway of his suite.

He simply can't believe that after all the roadblocks in finding the mysterious figure known as Fearless, she would turn up literally right outside his door. Or in his hallway.

"I don't believe you." He shrugs and starts dragging her chair across the room.

When he reaches the balcony door, he tosses the chair with her in it out like it's a measly bag of flour.

"I want you to prove it," Marco smirks, a gold tooth peeking out from the back of his mouth and catching Antonina's observant gaze.

He begins to kick down the wooden fence surrounding the balcony of his suite, which is on the top floor in one of the most prestigious hotels in all of London.

Once the wood finally gives way and forms a gap large enough to stick Antonina's chair between it, he tilts her slowly and watches her face carefully for any changes.

However, she feels nothing except the exceptional winds that being so high above the ground causes. She even turns her head and looks down, but she can see only clouds covering the night sky. The streets of London are but a fog illuminated by hazy moonlight.

Antonina grins slightly, marveling at the beauty of this city even though she's one wrong move away from plummeting to her death.

She holds Marco's stare, and he pushes two fingers into her neck.

"What are you doing?" Antonina asks calmly, moving away from his cold touch.

Marco grumbles and says nothing in return.

He's feeling her pulse, which will tell the true story about whether the little girl in front of him is actually who she claims to be.

Because while she can train her face to be stoic all she wants, the true story lies inside of her body, her heartbeat. It's calm, beating away steadily like it always has been since she first entered this hellish world.

He curses under his breath, realizing his mistake but vowing to never admit it to the woman in front of him. A man of Marco's prestige does not make mistakes, or rather, does not show he does.

He drags the chair back inside and sits down in front of her.

She cocks an eyebrow. "You are one strange man, Marco Dragotti. I'll be honest with you and say I came here to kill you."

"My dear, I could've guessed that. It's the only reason why anyone would ever see your face," He admits.

"I do like to keep my identity a secret, for reasons I'm sure you can imagine." Antonina shrugs as if it's nothing serious.

Marco knows that if she revealed her face and real name, Antonina would be dead before she even got on a plane back to wherever she came from. The bounty on her head is astronomical, almost being enough to rival his.

He's heard the legends that Fearless leaves behind, the gruesome scenes she creates. Even the people who hire her aren't quite sure if she's the real deal because they never see her in person. Soon, they realize her authenticity once they watch the international news and see the carnage on screen.

At that moment even the most hardened criminals know they must pay up or be unable to sleep at night because of the paranoia of Fearless hunting them down and killing their entire family for their unpaid debt.

Of course, Antonina has never murdered anyone she wasn't paid to kill, but the rumors about her hide the truth.

She's glad because, after five years of assassinating the biggest names in the world, she's only had one person refuse to pay. Antonina doesn't think much of it now because it was in her earlier days before she built her reputation that leaves even the strongest men shaking from the mere mention of her name.

But Marco Dragotti doesn't look scared to her. In fact, she notices a look of relief on his chiseled face.

"How did you find me?" He asks.

Marco Dragotti owns this hotel under one of his fake aliases, and all the staff knows that if they utter one word about him staying here, it will come back around to his ears.

And he will kill them.

That's not a rumor like most of Fearless' public persona. He yells his crimes from the rooftops, sheer arrogance stewing in his bloodline for generations.

He told everyone to their puny, scared little faces the day he bought this location and all of their other chains that if they speak a word to the authorities about who exactly owns this massive hotel giant, they will be dead by the next morning.

It was but a minor dip in his massive fortune.

"You got who I really am out of this, but you'll have to kill me before I name my clientele. Sorry." Antonina grins, her lackadaisical indifference regarding her own death even catching a person used to similar grandiose statements like Marco off-guard.

He remains silent, which annoys her because unlike usual, she can't force him to speak like the other men and women she's had under her grasp.

"Are you going to kill me? Torture me? Marry me and force me to bear your wicked little children?" She jokes, tapping her foot on the floor impatiently.

She has other jobs to focus on and can't be bothered with having to deal with the head of the Dragotti Gang all night.

Either kill her or let her go. That's how she sees this night ending.

However, Marco Dragotti does neither of the aforementioned.

"I'd actually like to hire you...for the biggest hit of your life."