NOVAS POV
I stared blankly at the red light through the tinted Rolls Royce window. My dad informed me of a dire meeting we had today in the city at one of the many restaurants we had as a "meeting place."
If I remember correctly, this was a "matter of urgency which involved an immediate act in response to the situation."
This leads me to where I am now. In my dads Rolls Royce as we head to solve this "matter of urgency."
"You seem in deep thought." He said, slightly glancing at me.
"I wasn't informed of any further details regarding the situation, so I was giving myself some possible insight." I said blankly.
"You'll understand when we get there," He replied, as we continued down the familiar street.
I never understood the secrecy surrounding anything mafia related.
It's like everyone who understood the vague undertones never told anyone else about it, even if it was crucial.
"Remember, it's all a part of the job." He added, before pulling in the back of the discrete restaurant. "Now come on, let's solve these matters once and for all."
As he got out of the car I couldn't help but wonder what he meant by once and for all.
I was pulled out of my thoughts when he knocked on the window next to me. "Let's go." He mouthed peering in.
I exited the car and began walking behind him inside the building.
Once we arrived in the dimly lit building my dad nodded at one of the workers before he followed us to a closed off room within the restaurant.
Being a widely known mafia has its perks, like having business rooms in random places.
Once we made it to the room my dad and I sat at the table.
"Can we discuss business in a different setting next time?" I asked as a worker placed down the menu in front of us.
It's like we always were at restaurants. I would honestly rather place a huge table in the forest and discuss plans there.
"I noticed it too, next meeting is out of state anyways, we'll have a different place." He replied, taking a sip of water.
"What's the problem?" I finally asked, cutting to the chase.
He stared at me blankly, not bothering to answer the question. "How about we discuss that later? Let's talk about you." He said smiling.
This was odd.
Really odd.
And completely out of character.
Noticing the confusion plastered on my face he spoke, "What I can't ask about my daughter's life now?"
"If it's about Mariah I dont have anything to say-"
"Morning boss," A deep voice said and I immediately turned my head watching as two suited guards approached our table.
"Morning," The other guard said, nodding.
They stood directly in front of our table and faced away from us.
He got security?
It wasn't odd or anything, he has security all the time. There's a lot of people in New York after my father.
He is a really popular guy after all.
I was just confused on why we needed security in our own section, it was already heavily guarded, but in the actual section?
Something was off.
I turned back to face my dad, "What are we–"
"I assume I was called here for a formal apology huh?" the top familiar voice said.
I instantly shot my head in the direction of the voice and furrowed my brows.
The guy from the party.
I scanned him from head to toe, making sure I wasn't seeing things. Looking somewhat similar to how I remembered from the party, he looked to be in his late twenties.
Unlike the party he had his hair slicked back with a clean shaven face. I lowered my eyes to the gray striped suit he was wearing.
My dad was right.
Phantom members were notorious for wearing gray, opposed to our recognizable white. I quickly averted my attention back to my dad who motioned him to sit at the circular table with us.
"Have a seat, please." He said, nodding his head at the chair on his right.
"I think I will thanks." the man said sarcastically.
Why was he here?
More importantly why was a member of the Phantoms here?
He grabbed the menu placed on the table."Funny seeing you again, weren't you going to kill me?" he man said, peering up from the menu in his hands.
I stared at him blankly remembering the scene play out. But most importantly I remembered how I couldn't bring myself to do it.
Because Mariah was there, and the only thing I wanted to do– was keep her away from all of this.
"I assume that is why I'm seated here today with the great Damon and Casanova Casper isn't it?" He continued after noticing the silence.
"That is one of the matters I've contacted you to discuss, yes," My dad replied.
"Well I-"
"What's your ranking?" I quickly cut him off.
How high up was he, to where his word could cause a potential war? The leader of the phantoms was also fairly unknown for the most part.
"Is that really relevant here, Casanova?" He questioned.
"Excuse her please," my dad said with a smirk on his face and my jaw immediately tightened.
I kept my eyes locked on the man as a visible smile grew on his face.
"When getting in contact with you I never quite caught your name?" My dad said, raising a brow.
"That's personal information don't you think? But to keep it short, you can call me Dynamo." He said, narrowing his eyes.
I kept my face entirely neutral, fighting the laugh about to break out of my mouth.
That name was so corny.
And I don't think I've ever said corny until I met Mariah.
"Okay then Dynamo..." my dad trailed off side eyeing me, and that only made it harder to hold my laughter back. "What can we get you?" He continued.
"Nothing unless it's a medium rare steak." He said jokingly.
My dad waved his hand at one of the workers motioning them to our table. "Can I get a medium rare steak and some scotch?" He asked, handing the worker the menu.
The worker grabbed the menu from my dads hands "Coming right up sir." he said heading off to a different part of the restaurant.
"Now where were we..?" he said leaning back in the chair.
If he was anything it was surely unprofessional.
Whoever he was running errands for should be ashamed.
Unless he was the boss— if that was the case then he himself should be ashamed– and also demoted with that name.
My dad leaned toward the table,"We want to give you an offer." he declared, staring at the man who raised his eyebrows in response.
"Let me stop you there—" he said sitting up in the seat fully, "I was explicitly told, that we don't want alliances, we don't want money, and we don't want guns."
This was interesting.
My dad tilted his head before responding, "So what is it specifically you guys want..." he trailed off slowly.
"You know what..." he challenged, "And it's worth way more than money. It's a price I know for a fact you're unwilling to pay." He said with a smirk on his face.
And I immediately knew what he was referring to.
"That's not possible and you know it's not, how will I prevent the potential destruction from occurring between us then?" My dad questioned, obvious irritation growing in him by the second.
"It's inevitable."
I averted my gaze back to my father who had a blank expression on his face.
Silence filled the room until he rose out of his seat, "We're done here?" He asked stretching.
"Of course." My dad said flatly.
"I hope to see one of you soon. You know under what circumstances though." He said, slowly looking at me.
I shook my head, catching on to what he was insinuating.
I looked at him walk out the section before averting my attention on my dad who was already staring at me.
I opened my mouth to speak until he pulled a revolver out from under the table. He carefully placed the revolver on top of the shiny wood, never breaking eye contact with me for a second.
I furrowed my brows at him as my heart rate started to pick up.
Because I can't.
"Nova–"
"No." I responded blankly.
"This isn't up for debate, we have a very short window of time Nova–"
"No, I won't." I replied blankly.
When I was going to kill him at the party, I realized that I couldn't bring myself to. Whether Mariah was present or not, doing so just didn't feel right.
"I'm not about to argue with you about this," He said, rising from the table and grabbing the gun.
He tossed it in my lap before pulling me up from the chair.
He grabbed my hand. "Put that in your waistband now." He instructed, leading me toward the front of the restaurant.
"I don't care if you're in love, or if you've gone soft, but this is your job at the end of the day, and this is what comes with it." He said tightly. Pulling my hand as we walked through the sea of tables.
Once we made it to the front of the restaurant I squinted my eyes as he pushed the door open.
"Do you realize it's broad daylight?" I said as I spotted the guy walking down the sidewalk.
My dad didn't respond as we sped walked in his direction.
"And we kill him then what? the war really starts, do you realize how sudden this is?"
And once again, I was met with no response.
I tried my best to keep my composure as we inched closer to the guy.
I opened my mouth to speak once again until my dad cut me off. "Don't say a word."
The guy cut down an alley and my breathing got shallow.
This couldn't be happening.
My dad led me down the alleyway with the guy before grabbing him by his shoulders, pushing him up against the brick building.
"This is convenient huh?" The guy said smiling as my dad held him up by his shirt.
"Extremely." He said before throwing a punch to the guy's cheek. He smirked at my dad as blood started trailing out from his mouth.
"Nova."
I knew I didn't have a choice now.
I pulled out the revolver from my waistband and looked at my dad.
He gave me a nod of approval and I brought the revolver under the guy's chin.
He kept a smile on his face as I stared at him deeply, coming to the realization that there was no way out of this situation, and my dad was right.
This was my job.
I wrapped my finger around the trigger but never pulled it.
I couldn't.
Not when she was on my mind.
"Nova." My dad urged me as I kept my eyes on the man. "Nova." he sternly repeated.
"Nova!?"
I flinched as I heard the sound of the shot ring throughout my ears.
I quickly dropped the gun and turned my head in the direction of the alley entrance, seeing a figure quickly run through my peripheral.
Once I met her eyes, my blood turned cold.
"Mariah." I breathed out.
I wasn't able to see her well due to the beating sun, and the distance but I knew–
I knew she was scared.
"Mariah," I repeated, making sure this time it was audible.
I began walking toward her and she slowly backed up.
"Mariah I-"
I cut myself off when she ran away from the alleyway. I jogged after her trying to catch up to her.
"Mariah, let me explain." I called out once I got close enough.
I furrowed my brows when the only thing left in the air were the words that just came out my mouth.
I grabbed her wrist, turning her to face me completely.
And when I met her eyes my insides crumbled completely.
Her glossy eyes stared up at me with an unfamiliar look. I kept my hold on her, continuing to stare into her eyes, searching for what changed.
Something was missing— was gone.
I tore my eyes away from hers as I saw the tremble in her hands. She clenched her hands together in a fist upon me noticing.
"Mariah, please let me explain this." I pleaded. I've never felt so weak before, so vulnerable.
So wrong.
She slowly shook her head, keeping her watery eyes on me.
The silence was killing me.
"Say something." I whispered.
This couldn't be happening.
"Please?"
"Yay! Reunited!" I suddenly heard Noah call out, walking toward us. Mariah dropped her gaze to the ground.
"What's going..." he trailed off and Mariah pulled her arm away from my hold and began walking away.
"What happened? Did you say no?" Noah raised a brow.
I kept my gaze to the ground. "Why would you bring her here?" I questioned lowly.
"What do you mean? What's going on?" He asked.
"Just take her to the estate Noah." I said flatly.
"Bro, is nobody here going to tell me–"
"Just go! Leave! Take her to the estate Noah." I turned to face him as a tear fell from my eye.
"Thats all im asking you to do." my voice broke.
"...Nova," he trailed off reaching for me.
I shrugged his hand away and began walking back in the direction of my dad.
When I made it back to the alleyway my dad was staring at me with an empty expression on his face.
I furrowed my brows as he shook his head in disappointment.
And it felt like my heart stopped.
What did I just do?