A Toy For The Ruthless Mafia Lord

Katherine's head was spinning and her eyes were half closed as she went around the kitchen, trying to get dinner ready as quickly as possible so that she could go to bed.

As she stirred the broth, her shoulders ached badly from all the cleaning and scrubbing and mowing she had been doing throughout the day for the rich family she worked for, and the noise coming from the living room did nothing to help her aching head.

Her step-father, Ivan and her step brother, Wilson were arguing yet again over Wilson's recent fight that left him brutally wounded and almost arrested, and she forced herself not to listen to Ivan chiding his son for gambling away money that he had even stolen.

She didn't feel strong enough to intervene and be the peacemaker this time but when she heard the crashing sound of wood and the banging of the front door, she knew she had no other choice.

With a sigh, she turned off the stove and cleaned her hand on a napkin but when she turned towards the door, she gasped and almost lost her balance.

Standing at the door was a large man dressed in black, staring back at her with a sly grin on his face.

"Help!" She screamed at the top of her lungs and turned around to grab the closest weapon she could find.

But the man was faster, and even before she could raise the knife he had already grabbed her wrist.

"Help!" She screamed again in fear and tried to struggle out of the man's firm grip.

"Let go of me!" She yelled at the man, driving her elbows into his chest as hard as she could with the little strength she had but the man didn't even budge.

"You'd better stay still, bitch!" He growled and bent her elbows behind her back.

Katherine winced in pain but didn't stop struggling. The man raised her frail body above the floor and carried her to the living room.

"Let me go!" Katherine yelled again, her legs flailing around in the air.

The man dropped her with a thud but didn't let go.

Katherine, now breathing heavily looked up, searching for her family. Her eyes widened with shock when she saw that her step father was also pinned to the floor, with the foot of a hefty man on his back.

Wilson was also being held around his neck with blood flowing down the side of his face from an old gash on his forehead and about ten other men in black occupied their small living room. Tears were streaming down Wilson's face and he was shaking with fear.

"What is going on?!" She whimpered as tears began to flow from her eyes as well.

"What's going on, Papa? Wilson, what did you do this time?" She asked.

"You're talking way too much, bitch!" The man holding her said and smacked her head.

"Boss is here," one of the men announced and a pin drop silence descended immediately.

All eyes were towards the door, waiting for what was next. As if in slow motion, a man elegantly walked in with his left hand in his pocket.

There was a certain demonic charm around him with his dark and droopy eyes, his straight nose, the sharp set jawline and the most inviting lips any human had ever seen.

An unspeakable sense of royalty and power radiated with every step he took forward.

Ivan gasped in shock as he recognized the young man to be Lucifer Cain, a powerful and ruthless mafia lord that ruled one of the Five Families that controlled the States.

Wilson also went cold as he looked up at him. He had heard of how merciless Lucifer was; he knew he lived up to his name. But never had he had the opportunity to be in such close proximity with the man and even the temperature of the room seemed to drop drastically immediately he walked in.

"Sir... Please... I.. I ... We can fix all this..." Ivan began to stutter, throwing both Wilson and Katherine into a state of confusion.

"You know, Mr Cassius," Lucifer began in a voice so calm that made Ivan even more afraid.

"When you do something wrong, and decide to run away from your wrongdoings, the consequences are worse..."

"I know.. I know..." Ivan started to say but Lucifer raised his palm to shut him up.

"I have been provoked to the point of showing up in person, and that, Mr Cassius, never ends well. You really didn't think you could hide from me forever, did you?"

"I wasn't hiding, sir. I swear, I'll pay up," Ivan said with tears. He, of all people knew that it would only be a miracle if a man like Lucifer left him alive.

"You weren't hiding?" Lucifer asked with a slight raise of his brows. With a chuckle, he elegantly moved to one of their sofas and sat on it with his legs crossed.

"Then explain why you've been moving from house to house in the last six months. This is the fourth house you've moved into, if my calculations are correct, hmm?"

"Fifth... sir, but it's not because I was hiding. My fruit business has been terrible, sir, and I swear I've been gathering a lot of money to pay up but I barely even make any sales..."

"Liar!" Lucifer growled and simultaneously threw a pen knife in Ivan's direction.

The knife stopped right in above of his head with it's sharp tip buried into the wooden floor.

Sweat began to pour down Ivan's face as he realized how closely he had just avoided being stabbed in the face.

Lucifer then rose and began striding towards him.

"Please, sir, please," Ivan begged as Lucifer squatted in front of him and drew the knife out of the floor.

"If your business has been bad, explain how you got five thousand dollars to gamble with at Giovanni Ivanovo's casino two nights ago. I'm sure you didn't think I had my men planted there as well, hmm?"

Katherine gasped at this new revelation. Her stepfather that always yelled at Wilson for gambling with stolen money was also guilty of the same thing! She felt her stomach churn with disgust and she was now too weak to even struggle. The whole situation was too much to deal with in just one night.

"I.. I'm sorry, sir, I'll pay up soon, I swear," Ivan pleaded, hiding his face away from the glistening end of the pen knife.

"It's a little too late, Mr Cassius, my patience has thin out. Now, I want you to die a slow death," Lucifer brought the knife closer to Ivan's eyes with every word. Ivan's breathing became uncontrolled as he tried to struggle free.

He searched his head for a bargain that would be appealing to Lucifer but none came and the knife seemed to be just in front of his eyeball and an idea then struck him.

"Take her! Take her instead! You can keep her until I pay up!"

Katherine's eyes narrowed in confusion at his words, and before she could register what was happening, Lucifer turned and stared at her, his dark eyes boring holes in her body. She cowered at the intensity of his gaze and her blood ran cold.

With smooth precision, Lucifer stood and started walking towards her. She heard her stepfather sigh with relief.

"W-what's going on?" She asked shakily and began to struggle again.

"She won't disappoint you sir, trust me, she can cook and clean and can even offer bedroom service! She's fitter than she looks sir, trust me!" Her stepfather continued as if he was advertising a product to be bought.

The man holding Katherine stood her up to her feet when Lucifer advanced.

"Let go of me!" Katherine yelled, panting. Several strands of hair fell across her face as she struggled and she glared at Lucifer with contempt when he stopped just in front of her.

He looked her over with indifference and raised her chin up with his index finger. She looked a little lean and her eyes were sunken with stress but he reasoned that she'll look perfect after she had been well fed.

"Yes, yes, take her and let us all go, please," Wilson pleaded with tears still cascading down his face.

"Get her to the car," he said to the man holding her.

"What? No!" She protested.

"And what about him?" Lucifer asked, ignoring Katherine's yelling.

"M-me?" Wilson stuttered and felt a hot wetness flow down between his legs.

"I don't think he'd be of much use, sir, He's as useless as a hole in the head" Ivan said, shaking his head.

Lucifer looked Wilson over with expressionless eyes. Ivan was right. Lucifer definitely did not want a sissy like Wilson under his wings.

"Keep your eyes on them," he said to his men as he placed the penknife back into his pocket and walked out to see Katherine still struggling with all her might.

She kicked the man holding on to her as violently as she could and when that didn't seem to work, she bored her teeth into his arm.

"Fuck, bitch!" He yelled and reflexively slapped her hard across her face, causing her to fall to the floor.

The man had barely recovered from the sting of the bite when he felt a hotter slap across his own face making him to stagger backwards. He held the affected area and looked up to see Lucifer's angry face.

"My girls are never to be beaten. Understood?!" He asked in a stern voice.

Without waiting for a response, and to the unmasked surprise of his bodyguards, he bent and picked up Katherine's unconscious body from the floor and into the limousine.

TWO

Lucifer, adorned in an immaculate white shirt which was opened at the collar, sat at the edge of his desk with his legs crossed at his ankles, eyes dark and droopy, his presence alone oozing power.

He twirled a large Havana cigar between his index finger and thumb as he watched Katherine's sleeping body. His eyes ran through her perfect body as she lay on the couch and he unconsciously imagined her tied to a bedpost.

With a slight tilt of his head, he silently ordered the guard standing by the couch to wake her up which he did by splashing some water on her face.

Katherine muttered something in her sleep and blinked many times as she slowly sat up.

A corner of Lucifer's lip curled up in a smirk, displaying his dimpled left cheek, as he watched her childish reaction to the disturbance.

Katherine rubbed her eyes and yawned as she tried to recall everything that had happened and why her room seemed so different, but when her eyes landed on the blurry figure of a tall man staring intently at her, the yawn was cut short and she became fully awake.

The events from a few hours ago began to play in her head and she remembered how she had been betrayed by her own stepfather and dragged away from her house.

"W-where am I? Who are you?" She asked shakily, trying to mask her fear by putting on an aggressive facade. Her eyes darted across the large room with so many bizarre paintings and floor-to-ceiling windows that showcased the city's stunning skyline.

As soon as her eyes landed on the pen knife lying on a small glass table next to a large bucket filled with cold rum and gin, she didn't think twice before running to grab it.

The guard took a step forward to stop her but Lucifer raised his palm, stopping him. His smirk grew wider as Katherine shakily pointed the knife towards him yet he was unfazed.

Her courage stimulated something within him. Not many people had the audacity to threaten or oppose him, yet here she was, pointing a knife towards him without even thinking twice of the consequences.

"I'll use this on you if you don't let me go, and I'm not bluffing!" Katherine said in a stern voice.

"Katherine darling," Lucifer started and stood up straight. He liked the surprised look on her face as he mentioned her name.

"It displeases me that you think I'm holding you against your will," he paused and slid a tall bottle of wine towards himself.

"But I won't stop you if you intend to leave. The doors are unlocked," he added as he poured some of the wine into a glass.

Katherine looked from Lucifer to his guard with confusion.

Was he just giving her the opportunity to leave? She asked herself.

She gulped and tightened her grip around the handle of the knife, hoping that she would not have to use it.

"Don't move," she said to Lucifer who shrugged nonchalantly and took a sip from the glass, running his tongue over his lower lip afterwards.

Walking backwards, Katherine shuffled towards the door and took hold of its handle.

Feeling victorious, she flung the door open with a small smile and quickly turned around to run but was instead greeted with two vicious looking armed men staring back at her.

She staggered back into the room and swallowed hard. The knife was quickly pulled out of her hand by the guard who had woken her up and when she turned sharply to get it back, she realized it was no use. Whoever this man was, he was powerful, and he definitely was not going to let her leave so easily.

Lucifer smiled as she walked back to the couch dejectedly and Katherine wished more than anything that she could slap that condescending smile off his face.

"Good girl. Now that we've established the fact that there's no running away for you, why don't we get to the introductions?" Lucifer said and dumped his half full glass on the table.

"You already know my name, what other introductions do we need?"

"I'm called Lucifer Cain."

"I don't care if you share names with the devil," Katherine snapped.

Lucifer's brows raised slightly with fascination at the harsh tone of her voice but he waved it off with a chuckle.

"What do you want with me? And what business do you have with my father?"

"We're going straight to the point now, aren't we? Well here's the deal, you'll work for me for as long as I want you to until your father pays up what he owes me."

"Work for you? After you forcefully brought me here? Why would I want to work for a man as heartless as you are?"

"Because you have no choice, dear Katherine," he replied and smirked in that way that showed his dimpled chin. Katherine swallowed hard when she found herself taking in this ungodly detail about him. His smile was charming yet there was something unnerving about it.

"And if I'm not wrong, he has a bad heart, doesn't he? And he gets this occasional seizures from time to time, that's why he has to take medication. I'm sure you don't want to imagine what it would look like to watch him convulse to death, do you?" Lucifer's smile was gone now as he spoke.

Katherine stared at him warily as her heart pounded against her chest. She still felt the sharp sting of her stepfather's blatant betrayal and she was extremely pissed at him, but she couldn't ever bear seeing him convulse. The memory she had of those moments when she was younger had been etched to her mind so deeply that she was ready to give anything to make them go away.

She pulled her gaze away from him and sighed.

"What do you want me to do?" She asked exasperatedly.

"I run one of the largest strip clubs in the country and those long legs of yours look like they'll be perfect for dancing. You will pole dance at my club and entertain my esteemed guests until your stepfather repays his debt," Lucifer explained as he slowly paced around the room.

"Pole dance?" Katherine looked horrified. "I'm sorry but I have no idea how to do that."

Lucifer began to chuckle softly again and pace around the desk.

"It's not an option. It's an order."

"Okay okay, mister, I think we need to strike a bargain here. I should be allowed to stare my own terms and conditions, right?" Katherine opted boldly and Lucifer looked impressed for a split second but his indifferent visage soon took over his look of surprise.

He advanced slowly towards her and when he was just a few feet away, her breath seemed hooked in her throat. His presence was overwhelming and extreremely intimidating. And when he bent slightly to her face level, she was too dumbstruck to even move an inch away. Her whole body seemed to turn to mush as she looked into his dark mysterious eyes, eyes that seemed to see even to the innermost parts of her being.

"Get yourself ready for tomorrow night," he added quietly, not caring to listen to her terms before lifting himself up and then dismissing her with a wave of his hand.

The guard who had been watching the whole exchange then ordered her to leave.

"Don't touch me!" Katherine shrieked when he held her arm.

Lucifer watched until they were both gone and then he sighed.

Katherine's feisty behavior did not sit right with him and he reasoned that she might end up causing trouble for him at the club where he wanted her to work.

He needed his girls to be calm and submissive, and even though Katherine seemed the exact opposite, there was something about her that still excited him.

"She'd be better off with Señor Castello," he said thoughtfully and picked up his phone.

Castello was an Italian business man who had made a name for himself in the construction sector yet his major income came from his trafficking of foreign girls and Lucifer knew that he would be more than interested in a young American girl who was good looking.

"A call from you always means a good thing, Cain. How are you?" Castello asked.

"Business, Castello." Lucifer said, cutting out the niceties.

"I have a good looking American, young, promising."

"Ah! Sounds good already. What's the price?"

"Thirty thousand," he replied flatly.

"Thirty! What the..." Castello paused abruptly and Lucifer narrowed his eyes.

Even though Castello was over twice his age, he knew better than to cuss around Lucifer, especially when talking business.

"Forget about it then, I don't have a second to spare..."

"I'll take you up on your offer, Cain," Castello said quickly.

"My consigliere will come down there tomorrow to finalize things."

"Good," Lucifer said and ended the call.

Seeing that it was nearly midnight, he took off his suit and locked his doors through the invisible button on his desk before walking towards a private elevator that led to his room.

His room was a palatial space that could even make for an art gallery. He loved the silence, the solace, the dim lighting and most of all, he loved that his home and office was just an elevator away.

As he walked into the bedroom, he felt too tired to even change into his nightwear so he just took off his shirt and collapsed on the bed and was dozing in seconds.

The nightmares soon came again. And this time, they were worse. The sounds were clearer and the images were more vivid.

He could hear his mother's voice screaming for help and his father's grunt as he swore to Giovanni Ivanovo that he would pay for what he had done.

It all happened when he was just ten years old but the memories were fresher than any other.

The image continued to replay in his head, faster, louder, making him clutch the sheets as he watched from the small opening of the closet as his mother and father were both killed by Giovanni Ivanovo in cold blood.

The guttural sounds of his mother throwing up before finally giving up the ghost was what jerked him out of bed while screaming out her name.

"Mother!" He screamed out from his sleep, his face wet with tears and beads of sweat trailing down his body.

As he sat up, he realized that it was morning already and he had experienced yet another sleepless night.

He pulled out five tablets from the bottle on his bedside table and swallowed them raw, not minding that he was taking one extra pill everyday.

His phone rang from the bedside table and he sat up with a grunt to get it. He hoped it was Castello's consigliere who had arrived.

"Boss?"

Unfortunately it was Antonio, his capo.

"What is it?" He asked distastefully.

"The girl from last night, boss. She's escaped!"

THREE

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Lucifer roared, already storming out of his room.

The elevator seemed to take too long to get him up to his office and he fought hard to keep still.

"We just saw the..."

He hung up before Antonio could finish his statement, knowing fully well that the elevator would not be able to contain him and his ferocious anger if Antonio said anything more.

Red and boiling with rage, he flung the door of the room open to see three of his men staring in his direction like confused idiots. There was a flicker of fear in their eyes as he advanced closer.

Lucifer looked around the room and put the pieces together within seconds; it was obvious that she had removed the curtain from the window and pulled the bedsheets off, tied them together to form a long strong rope and then tied one end of it to the immovable legs of the bed.

Lucifer's anger grew as he traced the makeshift rope to the window where she had escaped down from.

"How the hell did this happen?" He barked angrily at the same time that his hand grasped the throat of the nearest man. "About a dozen men were right in front of that door and none of you noticed a thing?!"

It was totally unheard of. He had a very competent security team so how could such a weak-looking girl be smart enough to escape without their knowledge and they couldn't notice until she was gone! And more confusing was the fact that she had the courage to even do so.

"I'm sorry boss," the man said with a choked voice, not even bothering to pull Lucifer's hands away.

A whiff of cocaine fanned Lucifer's face.

"You fool!" Lucifer snarled and pushed the man aside violently.

"You were all smoking away the little piece of brain you had left while she ran away!" His chest heaved with anger.

"I... I can tell the boys to mobilize a search party immediately if you wish," Antonio said in a bid to quell Lucifer's anger but it only seemed to make things worse.

"Wonderful thinking! And what would people think when they realize I'm searching for a young girl who has outsmarted well trained men like all of you!"

Lucifer turned sharply and walked out of the room followed by Antonio and two other massively built men who were good with guns.

"Get the car ready! We'll leave for Cassius's house immediately," he ordered and walked into his room to put on clean clothes.

He could almost not believe what was going on. And to think that Castello's consigliere would arrive soon to take the girl!

He knew he had to find her, and quickly, before anyone else knew that the girl had escaped. He knew, of course, that the girl's first instinct would be to go back to her home to hide.

They were in front of Ivan's house in minutes, and with the way the man was staring at them with blunt confusion, Lucifer had a hint that he had no idea of the whereabouts of Katherine. But he didn't want to take chances. And he definitely was not going to reveal that she had escaped.

"Cassius!" He beamed and threw his arm over Ivan's shoulder as they both walked back into the small apartment.

As they walked inside, Antonio waved two fingers, a silent order for two of the men to search around just incase Ivan was hiding Katherine somewhere.

"This is a completely unexpected visit, sir. I...I hope Katy hasn't done anything wrong?" Ivan asked fearfully, knowing how difficult Katherine could be.

"She's perfect, Cassius," Lucifer said and elegantly lowered his weight onto one of the couches.

"Home alone?" He asked, noticing the quietness.

"Yes, sir. Wilson's out to play tennis, so he said."

Ivan was shaky as he poured him some wine and when he handed it to Lucifer, he only brought it to his nose and sniffed it.

Cheap wine.

"S-so what brings you here so soon, sir? I don't have your money yet."

"I know you don't. I want to know more about Katherine because I'm very picky about the people that work for me. Tell me about her birth, her upbringing, her education," Lucifer said to pass time, knowing his men must be sweeping the area searching for Katherine by now.

"Um, okay, sure. Her birth," Ivan seemed fidgety. "She's not actually my biological daughter."

Lucifer's eyes narrowed and he was suddenly interested.

"Go on." Lucifer requested and sat back to listen.

"Kat's birth mother was Madelyn. She was one of the most perfect women to ever walk this earth." A small smile spread through Ivan's face as he reminisced on the days when she was still alive.

"It was years ago," Ivan started. "She was pregnant when she came to me, you see, very young and very beautiful, yet very scared. The slightest noise frightened her. I don't know why she was so afraid or who she had been running from but she couldn't walk the street without turning back to check if she's being followed. And at that time, I was also nursing a heartbreak as well. My wife had just left me because she claimed I was too irresponsible and bankrupt so she couldn't live with me anymore. She left Wilson to me and I had no idea what to do. That was when I took to gambling," Ivan paused and looked downwards, as if ashamed of the path he had taken.

"The first few times were successful but afterwards, not so much. Madelyn came into the picture one fateful night and she received Wilson so warmly that I was certain I'd found the woman of my dreams. As the time for her delivery drew closer, she fell terribly sick yet she refused to be taken to a hospital or any public place. The nurse kept saying that we have to take her to a hospital but Madelyn screamed that we shouldn't...," Ivan said solemnly and wiped his eyes.

"She knew she wasn't going to make it. She held my hand and made me swear that I wasn't going to let him have her."

"Let who?" Lucifer asked.

"She didn't live long enough to say his name," Ivan replied just as the door flung open and Antonio walked in.

He shook his head in Lucifer's direction, signalling that Katherine was nowhere around the premises.

Lucifer rose to his feet.

"Her mother. What's her full name?"

"It's Madelyn Dixon, sir."

"Madelyn Dixon," Lucifer repeated to himself. "And what did she do?"

That look of embarrassment came over Ivan again and he hung his head downwards.

"She was an exotic dancer before she met me, but I swear she was a good woman!" He replied defensively.

Lucifer looked up at Antonio, both men thinking the same thing. If she was an exotic dancer like Ivan claimed, it wouldn't be difficult to dig up her history.

"Thank you for your time, Mr Cassius," he said to Ivan and walked out.

"Find out everything you can about a woman named Madelyn Dixon. I want answers in two hours, perhaps she has some relations that the girl may have run to."

"Yes, boss," Antonio replied as he opened the door of the limousine for Lucifer to get in.

They were back in his office in less than thirty minutes but his mind wasn't at rest.

Castello's consigliere had called twice but he had completely ignored both calls and left a voicemail for him to wait until the next day.

The situation pissed Lucifer greatly. He hated when his associates did not keep their part of the bargain and he had never envisioned that such could happen to him as well.

The response he had been waiting for soon came when Antonio knocked on his door and walked in with a thin file.

"One of the most shocking revelations ever made, boss," Antonio said as he passed the file to Lucifer who impatiently scanned through the papers.

The first thing that caught his eyes was the sultry photos of the woman, scantily clad and standing beside a pole. The striking resemblance between the woman and Katherine was obvious, but that was not what made his brows furrow.

What threw him into shock was the name of the clubhouse where she had been a dancer for four years.

The Pyramid.

An exclusive clubhouse which was owned by Giovanni Ivanovo, his biggest rival as well as the man who had killed his parents in cold blood yet he had not been able to take revenge on him because he was a well respected drug lord and was heavily protected.

"Give me a summary," he said to Antonio.

"Apparently, Giovanni was very high-handed and abusive to his girls, Madelyn included. There were complaints that he used them more and paid less yet none of them was bold enough to confront him to his face. Our sources say that Madelyn was Giovanni's favourite sex toy, but she ran ran away all of a sudden, no trace, no reasons, she just disappeared."

"And why do you think that is?"

Antonio shook his head. "I'm afraid I don't know."

Lucifer remembered the story Ivan had told him about meeting Madelyn.

He quickly put the pieces together and a lazy smile spread across his lip.

"Because she was pregnant! She knew it would be dangerous to raise a child under Giovanni's watch and that's why she must've ran away from him, from that life. Yet she knew how ruthless Giovanni could be. She knew Giovanni would torture her for running away if he found her and that was why she seemed to live in perpetual fear."

Lucifer dropped the report and sat back with a smirk as the stories added up.

Giovanni was a man whose wings he had been trying to clip for so many years and here was a wonderful opportunity, presented to him on a platter.

Katherine would be the perfect means to get his revenge on Giovanni but his worries also increased now that she had escaped without trace.

"We need to find her," he said to Antonio when he realized how much he would lose if Giovanni found out about her first.

"Pronto!" He added.