"This is insane. She is a minor."
"The work she did doesn't look like that."
"Boss....." Brian interrupted the ongoing conversation between Dimitrios and Igor. Looking at his Igor understood there happened something which needed to be discussed just then.
"Yeah..." Igor asked him.
"She is screaming and shouting to meet Bratva."
"What she is actually speaking? Sorry, cursing." Dimitrios's playful smirk didn't go unnoticed by Igor who already tried to dilute the situation but failed twice.
"Call the f**king Bratva." Brian kept his head done while speaking the curse word. It was a direct disrespect to their boss. The man whom the world fears must not be annotated like trash. If it would have been someone else, his or her body would have been cut into pieces but because of her naivety and young age and Igor's interference, she was surviving.
Brian doubted how far Igor could protect the girl who already made a permanent place on the black list of Bratva.
"Nice... Let's clear some point to her." Dimitrios was about to turn away when Igor came to stop him.
"Boss, I am coming too." He was not confident enough to let him meet her alone. Fire and Ice could never be kept together. And just with a small interaction, Igor understood Iris inherited the same stubbornness as her father but Dimitrios had his long way of merciless character too.
"Why? Can't I handle her? Don't you think you are crossing your limits nowadays quite often?"
Igor bowed his head with a shameful expression plastered on his face. Of course, he had nothing to do with Iris but he couldn't trust Dimitrios too with Iris.
"I am sorry, Boss. It won't happen again."
"Well, you can join me but you would stay outside of the matter." Dimitrios winked at him and walked inside the cellar where Iris was kept tied down. Because of her continuous shouting, Brian had to put a gag in her mouth.
When the door of the cellar got opened, Iris's bloodshot green hues came to his notice. He took a few steps to reach her and stood as an almighty king.
"Girl, I heard you were saying something."
Iris thrashed in her bound position but nothing worked except bruising her already bruised wrists and legs.
"Oops. You can't speak." A throaty chuckle left his mouth hearing that Iris felt disgusted as well as angry. She felt like cutting open her ropes and strangling him right at that moment with her bare hands.
"I have some questions for you. I want a proper answer for them." His next sentence made her feel kick him in his guts but she chose to glare only instead of thrashing more. One thing she understood, was the more she was thrashing around the more she was getting exhausted, and since she had seen her parents die, she had no food in her stomach.
"Brian, open her mouth." Dimitrios didn't give her a chance to think more. Brian came and removed the gag. The moment she got freedom of her speech those hateful words came out as it is.
“You, a shit… you…. You killed…..” She couldn’t complete her sentence when a splash of water came in contact with her face. Dimitrios threw a jug of water making her stop blabbering and cough a little due to the sudden invasion of the water in her throat.
“This is to wake you up from your dreams.”
"You...." She screamed again but before any more words got out of her mouth she found herself dangling in the air with her bound wrists and legs. It took barely a second for Dimitrios to pick her up by her shoulder and made her hang in the air.
"Here, no one raises his or her voice above me. Do you understand?" Dimitrios brought his mouth close to her and chewed every single word before throwing them on her face.
"I don't care." She matched his tempo and spoke with the same intensity without knowing the severity of the situation. She was still not sure of his identity and every single action of her was pushing her more toward the destination of no return.
"Shhhhh..... Your voice......its too much..." Dimitrios gripped her tiny shoulder in a painful grip digging his fingers more into her skin.
"Ah...... " A painful yelp left her mouth when he chose to give her a playful smirk.
"It hurts. Doesn't it?"
"Boss...." Igor came forward after watching the entire encounter and her hanging body above the ground.
"Oh... Igor...." Dimitrios laughed and released his grip making her fall on the cold hard floor. Hissing in pain she glared at Dimitrios but chose to be silent for a certain time.
"Now.....my tiny little girl..... Tell me who gave you the details of my arrival in that club."
Iris blinked her eyes twice to understand the question. She didn't even know he was the actual Bratva. Whatever her tiny brain remembered she followed. She ended up in one of those random clubs where he could arrive.
"No one." She spat those words making Igor widen his eyes. Even though he was about to gesture her to go with the flow, she didn't even catch his hints.
"Nice. Loyalty, I can see." Dimitrios brought his hand towards her cheeks and stroked twice before grabbing her jaw in his iron grip making her lips pout.
"But this Loyalty should be towards me, not any other."
He added again pushing her body backward and releasing her jaw. Her cheeks turned red as he already bruised them.
"Who are you? Release me." Iris lost her patience and she didn't bother about anything but her freedom. The vengeance she had planned, she could not see that failing just after one of her tries.
"Oh wow........" Dimitrios laughed rather with his laugh shook the entire cellar hearing her words. Someone had finally asked him his identity. They say Bratva doesn't need an introduction but here the young girl broke every single stereotype.
She attacked him. She dared to bring a knife so close to him and then she asked him his identity.
"You.......Iris...... Yuri......Ivanov....... You are asking me?" Dimitrios kept on laughing but the moment he pronounced her father's name, a pain shot through her heart. A mere whisper came out of her mouth.
"Dad...." She still did not believe that her father was no longer in that world. No one noticed that the corner of her eyes was soaked with a large drop of tears again.
Realization hit her hard when she remembered how perfectly he announced her name adding his father's. That obviously meant that he knew his father.
"You knew him..." Iris whispered which was ignored at first as Dimitrios was busy laughing.
"You knew him," Iris shouted that time making everyone look at her feature. She was shaking due to anger and pain.
"You sick, murderer...you knew him." Iris tried to get up from the floor but those restraints didn't support much as her balance was almost destroyed because of such captivating ropes around her wrists and legs.
"Of course, I knew him. Ever since you weren't born." His playful smirk and molesting words felt like some sharp pieces of shards that pierced through her heart easily.
"How hurtful it is to be betrayed by someone you know already." Iris thought in her mind. If that man had already known her father then her father would have surely known him too.
"What happened, dear? Where does your voice go?" Iris's bloodshot eyes met his cold ones but she couldn't utter anything. The pain in her chest was unbearable, and she couldn't ease that.
"You...." A mere audible whisper came out when Dimitrios grabbed her by clutching a fistful of hair and brought her face dangerously close to him.
"Yes, me. A murderer, precisely your parents' murderer as you say."
His breathing was fanning on her face. The hissing sound of her pain lost its track to come out. Her feet dangled in the air once again as he gripped her tightly to pull her off the ground beneath her feet.
Igor kept on looking at her face. One side of her temple turned purple. Her body lost all the colors. Whatever she was doing, she was just pushing herself with the leftover rage she had. Every single pore of her body was screaming exhaustion and anger.
"Can you hear me clear?" Dimitrios jerked her head tightening his clutch and she only hissed in pain. All the life she had spent being her father's princess. Nobody had ever treated her badly or rather no one had ever raised a voice on her. But this time the table was turned. She was living under his mercy.
"For today onwards you would remember two things only. I am your master and you are my prisoner."
"Never...." She spat even before Dimitrios could finish his words.
"Oh, really?" He released her hair and that time before her body could touch the floor he slammed her hard on the next wall.
"No..... Dad.....save me..." A painful moan left her mouth and those words came out involuntarily. Her pain made her forget that he was no more. Her teenage brain didn't get a hold of the severity of the situation. Her stubbornness put her in a pile of distress again.
"He is dead. Don't you remember?" Dimitrios made her remember and her heart constricted again inside her ribcage. A fresh trail of tears appeared in her eyes as she soaked her chins once more. Instead of looking at the monster, her eyes landed downwards, and somewhere she accepted the defeat for the time being. Not every time people are in right place to react.
"Let's start again little disappointment. What will you remember?" Dimitrios spoke in a hoarse voice but Iris chose silence over everything.
"It's not that hard girl. Just remember I'm your master and you are my prisoner. Well not exactly, my slave. Now, tell me, what will you remember?" Dimitrios used another free hand to grab her jaw again to meet her determined eyes.
Iris understood just using one hand he slammed her body on the wall and if she kept on fighting like that, her plan would never succeed.
Igor was watching them intently but he was praying inwardly too for Iris to speak whatever Dimitrios was demanding right at that moment. Because that was the only way to calm him down.
"I won't..... I'm not your slave....." Iris spoke again like a broken record but what Dimitrios did right there shocked everyone. He released her and she almost slumped on the floor. Grabbing her arm he made her stand again and placed the silver knife he was carrying in her hand but that time he put the sharp end in her palm making her clutch it tightly.
"Ah.....No...." The sharp metal cut through her delicate palm. Fat tears covered her face, the more she struggled the deeper the wound became.
"Boss...." Igor couldn't help but shout watching her bleed. That delicate skin got ruptured already and Dimitrios wasn't ready to leave it.
"Stay out of it." He growled and the next moment he withdrew the knife and threw it away.
"Remember this welcome gift. Every time you deny it, your punishment would increase. To survive as long as you can."
Iris blinked her eyes only looking at the figure towering in her small frame while she was just lying limp on the floor with a broken heart and shattered life.
Leaving her like that Dimitrios turned on his heels when her whisper caught his ears for the last time along with her sobs.
"Who are you?"
Turning his head he came towards her and stood like a knight with hands in his trousers' pockets.
"Bratva.....The one you are searching for so far......."