A Beauty So Cruel Manuscript (2)

by Alone Eagle

  “So, clearly you have been talking to Natalie.”

  I couldn’t breathe for a second. Was he going to hurt her?

  “You think you know everything about me, huh?” he asked, interrupting my thoughts, leaning further forward in his chair.

  His voice was low, and it made me afraid. It no longer felt like Vlad was teasing me, more like taunting me this time.

  I shook my head. “No.”

  But I want to, I finished under my breath.

  He was my captor. I should know him. It would work better in our mutual interests, right? Oh, who was I kidding. I was lonely as fuck, and desperate times call for desperate measures.

  Then, he gazed at me. “You’ve spoken to me today much more than usual.” Then his eyes narrowed suspiciously at me. “What do you want? I’m not setting you free, if that’s what you’re aiming for.”

  Of course, he would think I would have a different agenda.

  I shrugged at him. “I don’t want anything. I was just curious about…you.”

  His hand grazed through his stubble, and my eyes followed the movement, my attention no longer on the flames but on him.

  For a few moments, we held each other’s gaze, staring at one another. I could keep eye contact with him now. The more I’d seen him, the more he’d been in my presence, the less intimidating he became. I thought he was going to ask me to leave, or he was going to leave himself. After realizing he wasn’t going to speak to me, I placed my hand on the arm rest to lift myself up. I was half-way up but than his deep voice stopped me.

  “People say I’m boring,” he said.

  I paused, and my eyes met his again. They were teasing and playful. A smile was on his lips again.

  I grinned at him before settling back into my seat.

  He doesn’t want me to leave yet. The thought was welcome.

  “Ask me something else,” he said after a moment.

  My eyebrows shot up. I sipped my drink nervously and licked the taste from my lips before asking, “How did you get the scar?” My eyes fell on the long, faded brown scar he had above his eyebrow.

  My question didn’t seem to bother him. “I was twenty. Some fucker from one of the rival families tried to nick me with a knife.”

  “It looks like more than just a nick.” The words came out of my mouth before I could stop them. I pressed my lips together. Idiot. I wanted to slap myself across the face.

  Then, there was a chuckle in the air.

  I turned back to look at him, astonished. Two laughs in one day? Maybe the apocalypse was coming.

  I opened my mouth to ask another question, but then he said, “It’s my turn to ask now.”

  I frowned at him and then replied, “Alright.”

  “Where are your foster parents now?” he asked.

  I looked at him warily. Was he planning on hunting them down? I remembered he asked Gabriele to do a background check. He had to have seen the report.

  “I don’t keep in touch with them. I moved from foster home to foster home.”

  My voice sounded monotone and robotic, like I was speaking about someone else and not myself.

  Vlad raked a free hand through his messy hair, tousling it more. “Why not?” he asked.

  I beamed at him instead.

  He looked caught off guard.

  “It’s my turn to ask the next question,” I said, sipping my scotch.

  He shrugged at me and gave me one of his smiles.

  “You seem… nicer now,” I said to him cautiously. My voice came out more accusing than I wanted to. It made me wince.

  Vlad’s smile spread further, exposing his deep dimple.

  “Do you want me to be mean?” he countered instead.

  I frowned at him. “No. Vicious Vlad is scary sometimes,” I slipped out.

  Crap. I shouldn’t have said that.

  He chuckled at me now. “That’s your nickname for me?”

  I gave him a sheepish smile.

  “You said you moved from foster home to foster home. Shouldn’t they have kept you until you turned eighteen?”

  He was clearly smart and calculating to have picked up on my weakness straight away and zeroed in on it.

  “Yes, but there were… issues.” I admitted.

  He arched an eyebrow at me. “Why did they transfer you?”

  I met his gaze, head-on. I didn’t want to answer that, I couldn’t reveal that much about myself, not to him. So, I asked him a question of my own that I was itching to.

  “Why does no one talk about your mother?”

  And just like that, I lost him.

  His gray eyes turned to steel, hardening him back into the brooding man I knew. His smiles, his laughter, his playfulness was all gone now. The coldness had returned. Vlad turned his face away from me, and after a few moments without saying anything at all, he rose and left me in the den on my own without a background glance.

  My eyes slowly landed on the fireplace again.

  When the flames were full, they leapt high and threatened to consume me and the entire house. But now that Vlad was gone, the flames were dying, whittled down to glowing embers. I stayed seated there until all there was left of the fire were the cold, grey cinders, and charred remains of the wood.

  A feeling sank into my heart.

  Like the flames, Vlad would consume me too.

  13

  Chapter 13

  Vlad had a delivery today.

  A shipment.

  His stomach churned as he made his way to the trucks. A lump always formed in his throat when a shipment came.

  He could hear their voices as he walked past them. He did a roundabout, making sure all the girls were accounted for. They were distanced from one another, in separate containers with a metal opening at the top. He made himself immune to them, hiding his feelings as he walked past them.

  Thirty girls.

  That’s how many were received. It was a high number.

  Just as he was about to reach the last container, he noticed a movement in the shadows. He was just about to mark her off as number thirty, but then he stopped when he heard her speak.

  “Hello?”

  The voice piqued his interest.

  He wanted to know who was inside.

  That voice sounded young. Too damn young.

  He couldn’t see her since she had hidden in the shadows.

  “Open this container,” he ordered Leo who stood beside him.

  Leo did as he demanded.

  Once it was opened, Vlad’s eyes dropped down to a small creature.

  Barely four feet tall.

  A kid. A damn girl. Not a woman.

  She had light brown skin with tangled, mousy brown hair, and large doe eyes that overwhelmed such a small face. For some reason, she reminded him of Dahlia. She wore a ‘Hello Kitty’ pink shirt that ended at knees and black tights. There was dirt on her arms and on her tights.

  “How old is she?” he asked Leo, his voice dropping dangerously low. He hoped that she was older, but that she just looked small.

  Please, let that be it.

  Leo tensed up but met his gaze. “She told us ten.”

  This isn’t happening.

  Vlad dragged a hand down his face, frustrated and angry. Then, he turned toward his men, but he kept his eyes focused on Leo and Gabriele. He shot lasers through his eyes at them. Leo looked away, but his cousin held eye contact. He didn’t know who to kill first. Then, they both stared at him, maybe waiting for his command.

  “Who took her?” Vlad demanded. “She’s too young!”

  The youngest age that they started was from eighteen.

  This little kid shouldn’t have even be in front of him, standing helplessly. She should be at home with her parents, safely tucked away, and protected. He didn’t want to hurt children. This was a child. This girl probably still slept with her damn teddy bear.

  Fury ran through his body as he waited for a reply that never came. He glared at Gabriele and Leo impatiently. He
didn’t like to repeat himself. Since he was a child, he’d hated it when he would ask his father questions but he wouldn’t answer.

  A ten-year-old Vlad stared up at his father.

  “Papa, do I have a mama?”

  His father Enzo looked sharply at him.

  “All the boys I know have a Mama. Where is mine?” Vlad bit on his lip as he waited for an answer. He’d already asked Natalie, but she always avoided the topic.

  His father turned away from him and stared silently at the wall.

  “Papa, where is Mama?” Vlad tried again.

  His father’s face turned red as if he were angry. He exhaled slowly. Maybe he was trying to calm himself down.

  “Papa! I want my Mama,” Vlad whined, tears wanting to leave his eyes.

  Just then Natalie heard his voice, and she said, “Little Sir, there you are. Come on, let’s not bother Big Sir. I made cookies for you. Do you want one?”

  Vlad turned around and grinned at Natalie’s sweet face before wiping his face.

  His question already forgotten and ignored.

  Vlad snapped back into the present.

  Leo and Gabriele exchanged a look.

  Then, Leo spoke up, nervously, shoving a hand through his hair, “Don… you know I take orders directly from you, but when King asks me to do something, I can’t disobey him either. He’s still a Vitalli and the former Don.”

  Vlad’s eyes widened, then his expression turned stern. He let out a sigh. His father was always interfering. Obviously, Vlad was Don now and in charge of the business, but his father always liked to shove his nose into places where it didn’t belong. Sure, his father had begun the empire, but he had handed it over to Vlad willingly.

  He needed to back off.

  “Old man put you up to this?” Vlad demanded.

  Leo only replied, “He did.”

  Vlad jerked his eyes in the scared little girl’s direction, who was chewing on her lip now. “Was she harmed in the process?”

  Leo tensed before following his gaze. “Not that I know of. I placed the order. I wasn’t there though.”

  Vlad’s eyes tensed before they fell on the girl’s wrist that was bruised. It seemed like one of the men had dragged her.

  Maybe that was when she’d been abducted.

  Then, Vlad turned to the ten-year-old girl. He moved forward to the container, but she flinched and moved back. He paused, not wanting her to fear him.

  He gave her a small, sad smile. “I won’t hurt you,” he promised.

  The girl looked at him teary-eyed and suspicious.

  Then, the kid said something that made his heart drop.

  “I want my mama.”

  That longing was all too familiar to Vlad.

  Something about the child bothered him. It wasn’t just her age. It was her innocence. That was it. He saw parts of himself in her when he was that age.

  He blinked slowly and bit down hard on his lip in frustration but stopped when the pain became too much. His cold heart ached that the kid had suffered when she should have been with her mother.

  “What’s your name?” he asked her, sweetly.

  “Lily.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Lily,” he said softly.

  He had zero experience with children, but he sure as hell would try.

  “What’s your last name Lily?”

  She glanced up at him again. “Dawson.”

  “I’m going to get you home, okay?” Vlad said.

  The kid kept quiet and crossed her arms over her chest, looking away. Just then, Vlad stepped away from the kid and glared at Leo who cowered under his gaze.

  “Return her,” Vlad ordered.

  Leo looked like he wanted to protest but then kept his mouth shut.

  Vlad only stared him down. “Her name is Lily Dawson. Find out who her parents are and make sure she’s safely with them. There’s probably an Amber alert on her.”

  Leo’s eyes dark eyes widened. “Why can’t Gabriele do it?” he questioned. He stared angrily at Gabriele who only shook his head.

  Vlad rolled his eyes at him. “You placed the order, now you will take care of it. The child will be unharmed.”

  “Yes Don,” Leo submitted, bowing his head before taking the little girl and walking away.

  After a few moments, Gabriele turned to look at Vlad. “You think that’s the best decision? The girl has seen our faces,” he said quietly, jerking his head in her direction.

  Vlad dismissed his concerns immediately. “I don’t care.”

  She’s just a kid.

  “Dahlia heard our names and saw our faces, yet you didn’t let her walk free,” Gabriele accused him.

  Vlad’s eyes narrowed down at his cousin, but Gabriele’s expression didn’t match his tone, it was playful and teasing.

  “Mind your own damn business,” Vlad scoffed at him.

  Gabriele shrugged in response. Then, his expression turned serious. “Have you touched her, Brother?” Gabriele called Vlad brother privately, since they were blood relatives.

  Vlad only frowned, not taking the bait.

  Gabriele chuckled then, his eyes lighting up. “You haven’t touched her.”

  It was a statement now, not a question.

  “You talk too much,” Vlad shot at Gabriele, shoving his hands inside his pants.

  Gabriele’s smirk widened now. “Why not though? I mean, she is…pretty.” Then, he raised his eyebrows as if egging Vlad on.

  Rage filled Vlad’s heart before he turned on Gabriele, but his cousin didn’t cower before him. He didn’t fear Vlad like the others did since they had grown up together. They didn’t hurt their own blood.

  “Look at her again, and I will rip your eyes out,” Vlad growled at him, losing his cool.

  Gabriele raised his hands in surrender, yet he was still smiling. “I’ve never seen you so affected by a girl before.”

  Vlad pressed his lips together before growling again, “You’re lucky you’re my blood.” Then, he turned his back on Gabriele, heading toward his car.

  It was time to have that long-overdue chat with his father.

  ❖

  Vlad entered his father’s mansion, which was ten minutes away from his own. His father had handed his crown down to Vlad when he was twenty-eight years old. Vlad had moved out because his father liked to be controlling. He didn’t know why his father had retired but didn’t want to go on vacation either. Half of the time he couldn’t stand being around his father. They were two different people. They might look similar, but they were nothing alike.

  A nagging feeling always bothered him that, one day, he would become like his father.

  With no humanity left.

  He wanted to run the empire his way.

  Enzo’s guards greeted Vlad, technically now they were Vlad’s men, but he let his father have some around for security. His father’s estate was much larger than his own and was more traditional. The mansion was old, built in the nineteenth century, and his father hadn’t remodeled it. It was like one of those haunting, spooky, brown castles, and Vlad always dreaded coming here.

  He knew his father was home. Where else would he be?

  Enzo sat in the living room using his cellphone. He took off his silver designer framed glasses as he stared up at him. A half-smile greeted Vlad, but he didn’t return it.

  “Hello son,” his father said warmly to him. “What brings you here?”

  Vlad took a seat on the black couch across from his father. He clasped his hands in his lap and leaned forward, exhaling slowly before dropping the bomb, then looked his father dead in the eye.

  “Children. You know I don’t sell children,” Vlad spat out. He got right to the point, without bushing around. He didn’t come here to chit-chat, but to make a clear stand. Enough was enough.

  Enzo raised his thick, black eyebrows at him.

  “They’re profitable.”

  Bile threatened to rise in Vlad’s throat.

  “I will say this once, Fat
her.”

  I will not repeat myself to you like I had to my whole childhood.

  “I do not and will not sell kids. I have always been against it. If you give my men orders again without asking me, I will forget the fact that I’m related to you.”

  His father shot up from his chair as if on cue. His eyes narrowed at him in confusion, then swiftly turned to anger. His eyes heated as he glared at Vlad.

  Vlad didn’t fear his father. He respected him…. sometimes, but that was all. They weren’t close, he couldn’t remember a time they ever had been. They weren’t normal. They only spoke about business when they met.

  “I made you Don. I made you everything you are.”

  Vlad remained seated and then leaned back, relaxing. He laid an arm across the couch and crossed a leg over his thigh, getting comfortable.

  He shook his head and spoke, “People follow me because I’m Vlad Vitalli not because I’m Enzo Vitalli’s son. I’m the most feared man in New York, Father. No one else is, not even you.”

  His voice was calm as he spoke, and his voice didn’t waver. He had never stood up to his father like this. The brothel, the human trafficking, he continued it out of respect for his father. Even the most powerful men sometimes had to bend to family.

  Famiglia was the only thing people had till death.

  But if he had it his way they would be disbanded. That would however mean going against his father’s wishes.

  Enzo smiled at him cruelly. “Arrogance doesn’t suit you, Vlad. If I can make you Don, I can take it back.”

  Vlad only shrugged, not fearing his father or the underlying threat. “You can go ahead and try. Your men that you gave me are mine now. They fight for me. Your time has gone. That power you’re longing for is mine. They will follow a younger, stronger leader.”

  His father was in his fifties, and he was aging. He had more chronic health problems now while Vlad didn’t have any.

  Enzo clenched his jaw as he stared down Vlad, not saying anything.

  “This is my first and last warning, Father. The next time I hear you have done something against my direct command, and I mean any kind of disobedience or betrayal at all, I will take care of it the way I take care of traitors. Do you understand me?”