Mafia Men: Nikolai's Inferno novel Chapter 8

•Evangeline•

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I paced back and forth in my supposed bedroom. I will leave soon, go back to my home. I shouldn't get too comfortable here like I did with the library.

You are sitting in my chair...

God damn it! I should have asked for permission first. I glanced at the wall clock and it was almost midnight. He asked me to come to his office at night but he didn't specify exactly when.

I combed my hair and smoothed my dress before I stepped out of the bedroom. I descended the stairs and then stopped, is it appropriate to go to his office in the middle of the night?

"Hey, sweet cheeks"

I jumped up at the deep voice from behind me, I turned and saw the man who was with Nikolai earlier in the library.

He was almost as handsome as Nikolai but less intimidating, he and Nikolai could almost pass off as brothers but this guy had a friendly aura, the kind of personality that one can easily warm up to.

I tucked my hair behind my ear and shifted on the balls of my feet. "Hi..."

He offered me his hand. "Scott Baldoni"

I placed my hand in his and we shook hands. "Evangeline Bolton"

He grinned. "I know who you are, Evangeline" he paused and thought for a while. "Well, now I do, a week ago I didn't even know that you existed"

"A week ago I didn't know you existed either" I replied, shrugging my shoulders.

He laughed at that, for some reason he found it amusing. He leaned against the nearby wall, putting his hands in his pockets, he appraised me up and down. "Is it true that your father had locked you up in a room your entire life?"

I wrapped both of my arms around myself and nodded. I don't know why everyone kept making a big deal out of it. From what dad told me, most people hid their children from murderers and really bad people. And he was right, I could never forget how brutally someone had murdered them. "Yeah..."

He raised an eyebrow. "He used to hit you or something?"

My eyes widened at his words. "No, he would never..." My heart suddenly drowned, thinking about my parents' death all over again. "My dad loved me... he loved me so much, he didn't want me to get hurt, so, he always tried to protect me..."

"That's weird as fuck! What about your mother? Was she a nutcase too?"

Irritated by his words, I pursed my lips. "Nutcase? Did you call my dad a fool?"

He snorted. "A psychopath is a more accurate word but then again in the underworld everyone is"

I frowned. "What's the underworld?"

The amused expression got replaced by shock. He stood up straight and approached me with calculative steps. "You don't know anything about the underworld? The fucking mafia?"

I shook my head. "No one has ever told me anything about it"

Then a smile stretched across his face, he laughed a little. "What did your dad say he did for a living?"

"He worked at the bank," I told the truth.

"The bank?" he laughed while saying the words almost like it was unbelievable for someone to work at a bank. "You poor little thing..."

I crossed my arms over my chest. "Stop talking to me like I'm a stupid person. I may not know many things but I'm a fast learner"

The way he talked to me made me feel less about myself. It's not my fault that I have been kept away from many things. The only world I know is from books, movies, and documentaries that my father had shown me.

He grazed his thumb over his lower lip as his eyes dropped to my chest and then to my bare legs. He stepped closer and I stood my ground. If it was Nikolai I would have been intimidated but Scott didn't have that effect on me. I wasn't afraid of him nor did I get nervous in his presence.

He frowned. "Aren't you scared of me?"

I shook my head. "Nope, not even a little bit"

He chuckled lowly, the previous playfulness swept off of his face and now his gaze turned dangerous like he wanted to eat me alive. My confidence wavered a bit but I still stood my ground. My mother did not raise me to be a coward.

"You should be scared of me, maybe, I'm the monster your father warned you about..." his voice changed, he suddenly became so brusque.

"You don't look like a monster..."

I know I was playing with fire here. He might be dangerous, he might murder me the way my parents had been murdered but I wasn't going to cower away from him.

"Appearances are often misleading, sweet cheeks. Didn't your father teach you that?"

I finally took a step back as it was getting a little too strange for me. "Are you trying to scare me?"

"Maybe..."

I swallowed uneasily. "Well, It didn't work"

He finally chuckled, getting rid of the tension between us. A part of me was a little relieved that he changed his demeanor. "You have so much to learn about this world, sweet cheeks"

I stuck my nose in the air. "And I will, I told you I'm a fast learner"

"Have your parents told you about the birds and the bees?"

I titled my head, lots of thoughts conjured up in my mind. "The what?"

"Sex..." he said as a matter of factly like I was supposed to know everything about it.

"You mean gender?"

His eyebrows shot up, and then he burst into a fit of laughter. "How old are you?"

I shifted my weight from one foot to another, my teeth gritted, and I dug my nails into my palms. I felt embarrassed and agitated by his constant degradation.

"Eighteen!"

Before he could say anything, his phone started ringing. He pulled it out of his pockets and glanced back at me. "It was fun talking to you" he winked. "Sweetcheeks..."

He turned and disappeared into the next room. I was so glad that he had left. I know I might come off as ignorant that is because I have never had the privilege to learn things as normal people do.

I have taken my dad's words over everything, I had no choice. I had nowhere to go, or no one to ask.

It's only been a few days but I have come to realize that no one hides their children like my parents had told me. People were looking at me like I was some kind of stupid animal, it made me feel embarrassed and less about myself. I didn't like this feeling at all.