Anton
"Did you break into my fucking apartment?!" I heard her shout through the large house.
Money was a truly fine thing when it bought you a vast yet guarded space to keep an angered, beautiful, but crazy assassin in.
Especially when she had bounced back from the effects of her sedative within the hour.
"You're half an hour over the half an hour mark," I called back with disinterest, walking around the large foyer, staring at the Patek Phillipe on my wrist.
I'd had this place for a while, mainly as an escape. I liked Madrid, and the Mayor was more corrupt than people could imagine but in a very clever way, so I had no problem sliding in here unnoticed alongside the other 'controversial' figures who'd obtained permanent residency.
It was also good because I had absolutely no desire to open up shop here, I went undetected, and Leo's guys were only ever in Barcelona or the other smaller cities.
So, yes, this was my safe haven in a way.
But now I had a lunatic storming around it.
A lunatic that I loved, a lot.
I heard an elongated groan being let out from the third floor and I couldn't help but smile with a shake of my head.
"You're such an asshole, you know that? First of all you kidnap me, and then you break into my apartment!" She called, and I listened as the click of her heels sounded down the marble staircase.
"You wouldn't have anything to wear if I hadn't of broken in," I replied lazily, my eyes on my phone as I messaged Olik to see how things were.
"Well, if I didn't have anything to wear then I wouldn't have to go out with you, so it would've been a win-win situation for me." She shot back, her voice becoming less echoed as she got closer.
"I would've made you max out one of my cards then," I replied, turning around to see her.
I bit the inside of my cheek, watching as she trailed down the stairs, a venomous look in her eyes.
The section of her thighs on display, the rest covered by the boots and that thin skirt she wore, grabbed my attention immediately. I'd had my hands on those thighs, between them, trailing up them.
It had been too long.
"Eyes here," she muttered, standing face to face with me. I smirked with a shake of my head before taking her hand in mine and leading her to the door. She tried to yank it away but I held it tighter as I pulled her in line with me. "Let go,"
"You'll bolt, I can't be bothered for the added time of getting your ass back in the car." I mused, listening as she muttered profanities to herself.
We got into the blacked out Range Rover and I watched as she kept her eyes on the driver, like a lion stalking it's prey.
"Artemisia, stop." I said firmly
She looked over at me, her eyes dark and the rest of her expression void. I could see the assassin in her emerging, and I knew I had to stop giving her the upper hand with my relaxed attitude.
So, I returned the favour, and got back into my zone.
I wasn't fucking around, and she knew better than anyone that when I was in this mood, I didn't take shit.
"Could do this all day Artemisia, your fucking choice." I said lowly, and I watched as her gaze relented slightly and her jaw clenched.
"I hate you," she said, her tone so calm yet so threatening and truthful.
"I know," I sighed, turning my head to look out at the streets of the lavish neighbourhood.
"What's this piece of information then?" She asked, her tone still bitter.
"You can wait until dinner to find that out," I said, turning back to face her, meeting a fierce and irritated glare.
"I'll freak out either way, if it's bad enough for you to think it'll make me stay here." She pushed and I shook my head.
"Good thing I hired out the entire place and have it surrounded by guards," I responded curtly, and I watched as a look of frustration came over her.
"You're such a pie--"
"Artemisia," I cut in sharply, "at least fucking listen to what I have to say before you start calling me the piece of shit in the entire equation."
She shut her eyes, taking in a deep breath before leaning back into the seat and turning her head to look out the window.
Thank God she wasn't armed, because I knew that whatever was about to ensue would turn Artemisia into someone very far removed from the person I loved.
But I was prepared for that, because I was willing to love all of her, unlike my Italian adversary who only wanted a piece of her in a glass box that he was slowly making cracks in.
This had all been his own doing, and there was no other excuse.
-
Leandro
Hell.
It had been fucking hell.
He was dead.
She'd been gone for almost twenty four hours, and no one knew where the fuck she was.
But we all knew who had taken her.
No one knew who had killed him.
Olik and Petr turned up to the meeting accompanied by twelve other Russian men, all armed with machine guns and pistols.
They said that Artemisia had found something out, and she had decided to leave with Anton. It was entirely her choice, and if we didn't believe her then we should check her apartment and see the majority of her possessions gone from it.
It was an extremely weak coverup at best, and the anger that soared through me was immeasurable.
"What did she find out?" Domenico muttered, taking over the speaking role considering I was too absorbed in my anger to say anything that would benefit us.
"Who killed David," Olik mused, and my head shot up.
I stared at the Russians in the room, and then at my men. There couldn't be a shoot out, not unless we wanted to have to scramble for all of our resources, and half of them were flying here from Sicily in that very moment.
There was no way she could've found out, unless I had another fucking rat problem, and if this was the case then I would kill like Anton did.
Ruthlessly, unnecessarily and emotionlessly.
I would bring that person to the ground, and all their loved ones down with them.
And then I would find Artemisia and drag her ass right back to me.
She would come around, maybe in a month, or a year, or ten, but she would. I knew she would. And whilst she did, I would refuse to let her out of my sight again.
"How," I snapped, my eyes narrowing in on Petr who stood looking totally disinterested and unfazed by the horrendous amount of tension in the room.
"Rat," Petr sighed, "A big one, close to home."
He smirked, the Russian fucking smirked at me, taunting me with my own failure to see the biggest threat in all of this.
I looked over to Luiz, my body filling with a rage that required an immediate channel of vengeance. But I couldn't, I couldn't fuck things up with Clementina's family just yet, I needed them begging for forgiveness and a chance to prove themselves before I made my vindication even sweeter.
"Get her."
-
Artemisia
Anton made me eat first, purely because he enjoyed this game of keeping me on the verge of exploding.
I knew though that either way, there was going to be a commotion. I just didn't know if it would be aimed at him for waisting my time with insignificant news that would subsequently lead to me escaping, or if it was going to be soul-crushing and leaving me wanting vengeance and to destroy everything in my sight.
I didn't know, and as he sipped his wine in front of me I could tell that he didn't know either.
"Can we please just get this over and done with Anton," I sighed, leaning back in my chair.
Anton peered around the room, and I watched as the guards took steps back into the walls of the empty restaurant, lining them like a second barrier in case I was to tear through them.
Nine Russians stood, evenly distributed around the parameters of the room, staring at their leader as he pulled out his phone and opened the files app.
"What, Leandro said he didn't love me?" I mused, leaning forwards on my elbows.
"May as well have done," Anton immediately mumbled in response, and my mouth dropped open momentarily at the rudeness of his words.
Then the waiter came over in a rush, and removed everything on the table.
Everything.
The glasses, plates, cutlery (the steak knives being the first to go) and even the salt and pepper shakers.
Maybe it was going to be worse than I thought.
"What the fuck, Anton?" I muttered, looking around the room.
"Just taking precaution Angel," He sighed in response, I glared at him given the nickname, but he continued what he was doing and then placed his phone on the table. "Press play when you're ready,"
I noticed the ending tag of the file, '.pem' meaning Privacy-Enhanced Mail. This was secure, and duplicated, and probably hidden in enough places digitally that there would never be a way for Anton to be able to eradicate all of them, or Leandro to find all of them, unless he had written down all of the copy locations it automatically made.
Anton never gave a fuck about risk, he was untouchable, and here he was using one of the most secure file types to show me something.
"Why can't you just tell me what's on there?" I said, a small trace of fear in my voice as I began to think of what it could possibly be.
"Arté, I can't keep on being the bearer of bad news. What they speak about, they managed to do it, I found out when we landed." He said gravely, and for the first time there had been genuine sentiment in his words, even given the fact he had put me through this arduous and mentally draining process of waiting.
I looked up at him, my light eyes meeting his dark ones, both of us in a state of suspense.
"I don't want to," I said suddenly, "whatever this news is, I don't want to hear it."
He could sense my fear, my panic, and my resistance to the truth. I knew that there was something on that file which would prove to be irreversible, something that would turn my life upside down, and the fear was blocking me from facing reality.
"Arté," he murmured, pulling his chair around the table and sitting next to me. "I think, and I know you may say I'm being biased, but I think you do need to hear this."
I stared at the phone, the play button standing out like a diamond in the rough, expect this was a dagger in a bed of feathers, and I was willingly about to stab myself with it.
I reached forward, hesitantly, feeling the warmth of Anton's body radiating into mine as he sat close.
The recording started.
"He knows too much," Luiz muttered, and I looked over at Anton who had his eyes focused on the screen.
"I know." Leandro muttered, and my heart dropped as I fixed my eyes on the phone. "We'll kill him, long-release poisoning."
"And Jacob and Alvaro?" Domenico asked and I clenched my fists under the table, shutting my eyes and doing all I could to keep it together.
"They won't figure it out, we'll be fine." Leandro responded, and I felt sick to my stomach.
It could've been anyone else, maybe Sam or even one of the guards, but that was all a load of bullshit. I knew it from the graveness in Luiz's opening sentence.
"Leo..." Luiz rasped, and I could imagine the powerful gaze held between the two of them as he said his next words, "you love her. If she ever finds out about us killing David it'll drive her away from you forever, maybe even cause your downfall if she teams up with Anton."
There was a pause, and I looked over at Anton who was looking into the distance, his jaw clenched and his hand balling into a fist and relaxing rhythmically.
"If she doesn't find out it was us, then I'm fine. If she does, then I'll get her back anyway. Neither of us can stay away for too long, and when we do find each other again then I know she won't keep fighting it, if she does still hate me by then."
I felt my breath get caught in my throat, my hands beginning to itch, urging me to destroy something, tear it into pieces, leave it unrecognisable.
I wanted to tear Leandro to pieces and leave him unrecognisable.
I felt the movement next to me, a shadow of a hand drifting in my vision as black spots began to emerge in my sight.
"David's dead," I said, emotionless, a statement, a fact, one out of my control.
One that I could've changed if I'd been given the fucking chance, but no, Anton knew and he decided to kill me before I could save the man who had saved me.
I would never hear his voice again.
I would never see that grin as Jacob, Alvaro and I bounded into the gym with coffees and bagels and more importantly smiles.
I would never get to hug him, and let him take care of me one more time after months of working too hard.
I would never be in the same room as him typing away on his laptop whilst I napped on his couch.
I would never be able to have my strength challenged in the way he did, making me strive to be the untouchable and determined person I was.
I would never get him back.
I couldn't run to him anymore when I needed to escape.
He had been my hero, my own father, and now Leandro had gone and killed him because 'he knows too much'.
I would make him pay. I would make anyone remotely linked to it pay. But, I would start with Leandro, and Anton.
Anton had it coming first.
I angled my body and sent a flying strike to his jaw, causing a grunt of pain to emerge from his lips, and whilst he recovered I reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the switch-knife.
Flicking the blade as he got to his feet, I immediately swung at him, cutting through his white shirt before attempting to stab him in the thigh.
But my catharsis was cut short due to two men flinging me back into the wall and pinning me there, knees pressed against my thighs and elbows leaning on my spread out arms.
"You're a fucking monster!" I shouted at him, rage filling my being as I thrashed against the hold of the two burly men.
Anton didn't respond as he faced away from us, I watched as his hand went to his face and reappeared slightly bloodied, I assumed a product of the strong punch I'd delivered.
He spat on the ground, mixed heavily with blood, and a momentary feeling of achievement came over me as I watched him in pain, but then I remembered why he had gotten in the first place.
Anton slowly turned to face me, his shirt torn and the blood from the slash coating the fringes of the fabric.
"I could've saved him! You could've told me before!" I shouted, yanking my arms down as hard as I could. I took the guards by surprise, and pressure pointed them both simultaneously causing them to fall down.
I stormed over to Anton and put all my force into the next punch that flew into his stomach, causing a groan to emerge as he doubled over, but the next thing I knew he had yanked my hand so hard to the ground that I was on the floor, looking up at him as he straddled me, pinning my body to the ground.
"Ostav' nas," he said lowly, taking his eyes off me and peering around the room at his guards.
(Russian: Leave us)
The sound of footsteps leaving the room, the weight of his body over mine, the intensity of the entire situation.
David was dead, and I could do nothing about it.
I shut my eyes, moving my body underneath him, but he took my arms and pinned them above my head, clutching onto my wrists in a painful way.
"Don't ever think of pulling shit like that again Artemisia," he grunted and I opened my eyes, his filled with rage and anger.
Usually I could get myself out of a position like this, I'd done it many times on the job, but now I was drained and I could feel the tears starting to come.
"You could've told me," I rasped, feeling the tears fall, "I would've been able to figure something out, the outcome would've been the same for you. I would be against Leandro."
"I needed you here," he muttered but I shook my head
"You needed me here for the wrong reasons. You just wanted to be able to convince me that you were the good guy in all of this after I found out. You wanted to manipulate me and take advantage of such a horrible situation." I said quietly, the energy leaving my body.
There was no point in fighting.
There was no point in trying to get away form the reality of this life.
It was a life I was really starting to loathe.
I wish I had never taken this job, it would've saved my sanity but it also would've saved David's life.
I wish I had never given into Leandro and his sick ways of keeping me around.
"The only thing Leandro has been doing is manipulating a situation and taking advantage of your vulnerability Arté. The fact is that yes, maybe I could've kept you in New York, but you wouldn't have been able to reverse it and keep David alive, and you would only be at a higher risk of dying, because you would've killed or tried to kill Leandro immediately, without thinking of the consequences."
He seemed drained, frustrated, desperate for me to listen, but I knew this was not about me. This was about Anton not being in possession of something, and hurting everyone to get that thing back.
"You didn't take me for my own benefit Anton, you're such a fucking liar." I said through bitter tears, shaking my head and narrowing my eyes at him.
"Angel, you're alive right now. You wouldn't be if i'd left you in New York." He sighed, wiping my eyes.
There was a silence as the tears continued to fall, all I could feel was this horrendous grief, this weight keeping me on the floor and it had nothing to do with Anton. It was like I had given up, I had no energy to be the person I once was if David wasn't here.
It was a fact I had always been aware of, as was David. He knew that as soon as I had his go-ahead to walk away and start something normal, I would. I didn't have it in me to walk away without his support, he was the only one that mattered to me.
Never did I think it would happen because I would lose him though.
I was the lamp and he was the plug. He'd been taken out of the socket, the chord connecting us severed, and there was no possibility of me ever turning back on.
"You have to know that you staying there would mean you dying Arté," Anton rasped, getting off and lying on his back next to me.
"Leandro wouldn't kill me," I whispered, fixing my gaze on the dimly lit chandelier
"But Domencio and Luiz would if you killed him, which is what you would've done straight away." He murmured, propping himself up onto his elbow to look down at me.
It was true, if I had found out about Leandro being responsible I would've killed him on the spot, I wanted to kill him now, I don't think I would ever lose that desire to end his life considering he ended the life of someone who gave me mine.
I looked over at Anton who was staring into the distance, clearly in deep thought. His shirt had patches of blood all over it, and his lip was cut, and I started to feel the guilt wash over me again.
No.
Regardless of what he said, he did this for his own benefit. Pretending that he had done this for me would not work, but maybe it was worth making it seem like I believed his bullshit.
My plan would be slow and steady, I wouldn't jump at the first opportunity to make him think that he had me, it had to be gradual and it had to fuck with his head.
I was going to use him, just as Leandro and Anton had wanted to use me in their bloody game of chess.