Unnamed [18+]

Otto

|Sybella Fiori|

"Where are we Ilya?" my head turned to him. "This is not the way to the house."

"That's because my parents don't live in that house anymore," his eyes found mine. "Calm down, I'm not kidnapping you."

A deep sigh left my mouth "It's just the habit..."

"You have a habit of being alert and feeling like you're gonna get kidnapped? Might have to rethink who's in charge of your security," the man chuckled.

"Shut up," I slapped his chest with the back of my hand. "Antonio is perfectly capable of taking care of me."

"And why isn't he here?"

"I have two phones: one belongs to Sybella and the other one to Hazel, he tracks me with my Sybella phone which I left back at home; according to his data I've been at the apartment all day long," a proud smile appeared on my lips.

"Didn't you have guys looking over your shoulder 24/7?"

"Used to, got rid of them after one night out; Antonio dragged me out of a bar as if I was 16 years old," I grinned.

"What were you doing at a bar?"Ilya cleared his throat.

"I needed time away from everyone. Nicolas had been awful to me and it got to me so I decided to wear leather, let my hair down and go drink some tequila," a weak smile appeared on my lips at the memory. "I had been doing Hazel things for a week straight, it felt as if Sybella Fiori was slipping through my fingers."

"I'm sorry," he told and actually seemed sorry but for what?

"Why are you saying—"

"Because Santino and I should check on you more often, make you feel like yourself," the man let out a deep sigh.

"It's okay, Ilya."

"Now I'm making this about my own guilt, right?" He weakly smiled.

I nodded "Really masculine behavior," we both chuckled.

"I'm sorry," he leaned his head back as his eyes fell close. "Today has been a long day."

"Who did you have to kill?" I asked and he immediately opened his eyes.

"Someone who has been giving me trouble for a long time; I made rules so everyone could live in peace and there were no wars between smaller fractions but this man had been injecting chaos into the community for three years. I gave him three strikes but he blew it," he seemed unbothered; with time you lose sensitivity to killing people.

"What did he do to earn so many bullets?" I know his M.O.; Ilya never kills slowly, he hangs people from the ceiling and shoots the person's hands, knees and feet.

"He kidnapped and raped the daughter and heiress of Pietro Ravenov," Ilya gazed at me. "He thinks a woman should never have power because, according to him, you never think with your head and feel too much. One of his many vacuous and callous reasons to have done such an inhumane act..." he let out a deep sigh. "I should've done it earlier and would've spared Oksana of the pain and trauma but the important thing now is to get her all the help she needs."

"This isn't your fault, Ilya. That animal is the one who hurt her and now you're trying to help. The most important thing here is that she gets the necessary attention and I know you'll do everything in your power to give her that," my left hand reached for his right one.

His eyes fell on our hands as a weak smile appeared on his lips "We've really come a long way."

"Ilya you must realize that I never hated you," his head turned and our eyes met. "You're the one who felt ill just by looking at me and with good reason, taking in consideration what I did. However, despise has never been a feeling I've had towards you, just towards the attitude you took against me which was completely understandable but you could take the blow...I needed that money."