Entrusted to the Mafia king

The gunshot rings out and she stares at the body of the man on the floor in shock. She killed him, she is a killer.

It can't be.

"Is he dead?"

"Of course he's dead you dumb bitch!" One of his comrades snarls before he charges at her. How did she end up here?

...

Few minutes ago,

For the first time in her life, she has a gun pointed at someone and she backs away, her heart thundering in her ears.

"Don't come close!" She yells. "I'll shoot."

Her kidnappers glance at each other, exchanging unspoken cues.

"Put the gun down!" The first man snarls at her like she is a child. He is the one that just tried to slip his hand under her shirt.

"No." She says, backing away but her back suddenly meets the wall hard. "Don't move a single muscle, all of you! Now move away from the door."

"Is she playing?" Another one asks and they glance at the huge man at the back, their leader. He nods his bald head in an unspoken command, making her stomach plunge to the floor in a liquid pool of fear.

Suddenly, two of them run at her and she screams and shoots.

Her ears ring from the shock of the noise but it is nothing like the shock she feels when there is a loud thud and the same man that tried to molest her hits the floor. Time hiccups, and she watches the brilliant carpet of red begin to spread from underneath him.

No. It can't be.

"Is he dead?" She hears herself ask and the second man snarls.

"Of course he's dead you dumb bitch!"

No, she refuses to accept that. She did not just kill a whole human being, she is not a killer.

With a roar of rage, the second man rushes at her but she is still staring at the man on the floor in shock, at his eyes that are staring up at the ceiling sightlessly. Oh no he can't be dead...

The second man grabs her by the throat and shakes her.

"You will pay for that you stupid bitch!" He yells in her face and raises his fist.

Suddenly there is an explosion that throws her back against the wall. There are cries of shock amongst her kidnappers as they spin around to face the new threat.

New men in black stream in and suddenly the air is cackling with the spray of bullets. Amber screams and falls into a crouch, covering her ears against the noise. It dies down as abruptly as it began and a shadow falls on her.

She raises her face and looks into the eyes of a stranger.

He is striking and beautiful, so huge with deep piercing green eyes, granite hard jaw and a face from the depths of dreams and nightmares. Meeting his green eyes makes the hair on her nape to crackle.

"Are you okay?" He asks, taking a step closer.

She jumps up hastily and grabs the gun from where it fell from her jelly fingers, pointing it at his face. His eyes narrow at her.

"What is the meaning of this?"

"One more step and I will blow your brains out." She snarls but she cannot stop the pathetic shaking of her hand. He noticed that, damn him!

Those green eyes pierce her skin and expose her soul. "Can you even use that?" He asks, sounding genuinely curious.

"Do you want to find out?" She asks with false confidence even though her stomach heaves and tries to come up. Blood... death...

"Your father sent me." He says the magic words and her knees grow weak with relief. Finally.

When he takes a step closer again, she panics and jerks the gun back up.

"Don't fucking move!" She yells, suddenly having a rethink

Her father sent him? Nothing about him screams 'saviour'. In fact, the men that just terrorised her look like runts compared to him. All of her senses are telling her to run 'away' from him and not 'into' his arms.

"Why should I believe you?" She asks.

The smoke is clearing up now and behind him... there are too many of them decorating the floor and none of the figures are moving. She is in the middle of a burial ground. Her teeth starts chattering. "You could be working with them. Or for someone else."

"Listen woman." He says, sounding exasperated. "Get your ass over here and let me take you home. If I wanted to kidnap you, I would have knocked you out and hauled you out of here ages ago."

She stiffens and brings her second hand up to steady the gun.

"If you want to convince me you'll have to do better than that." She says and he curses an impressive string of expletives.

"We don't have time for this. Your friends over there have backup that are already on their way, and trust me you don't want to be here when they arrive."

Backup. Her hands start shaking harder, her body following suit. The last twenty fours have been the most horrible hours of her life and she would do anything not to have to relive it. He is offering her salvation but it feels like the devil offering candy. How can she ever trust a man with such cold eyes?

"Call him." She says hastily. "Call my father."

He growls in frustration and she tenses but he only digs his phone out, tapping on the screen so forcefully she thinks it might break.

"No fucking service." He growls.

"How fucking convenient." She bites back, her heart pounding. She must make a decision, and fast. Trust the dangerous stranger or not?

"Enough. We've wasted too much time." He says and takes another step closer.

"One more step and I'll shoot!" She yells, not caring how psychotic she must look, psychotic enough to give him pause.

He eyes the muzzle of the gun like it is offensive.

"Woman, you are shaking like a leaf. If you're going to mistakenly pull that trigger, you had better aim away from my head or my heart,."

"Or what? You'll be fucking dead." She says, not sure why she is antagonising him so much.

"You have five seconds to make your decision." He says, making her eyes narrow.

"Or what?"

He bares pearly white teeth, feral as any wild animal.

"Or you'll be leaving this damn hole over my shoulder."

Indignation stiffens her spine and she opens her mouth to protest, but suddenly they hear it, the whirring of helicopter blades.

"Boss!!" One of his men yells and the next second, everything goes to hell.

He runs for her just as the rest of the wall explodes into dust. She screams and then she is tackled to the floor by a hard body, the breath knocked right out of her.

She is disoriented as arms haul her up from the floor and the devil-man takes one grim look at her and scoops her into his arms.

Her words die in her throat and she clings to him as he starts running. As the air fills with the spray of bullets from above, she thinks that this will probably be her last moments.

The kidnappers open fire behind them as he bundles her into a waiting car. Another explosion behind them makes her cling to his arm.

"What's going on?!"

"Backup arrived. My snipers took down their copter. Now fasten your goddamn seatbelt!" He orders and slams the door, making her jump. Oh he is pissed.

He hurries into the car and without wasting a second, peels tires racing out of the alcove. She screams and hurries to fasten the seatbelt and immediately a car hurtles into pursuit after them.

New smatter of bullets pepper the car from behind and she screams and ducks.

"Why are they still shooting?!" She cries in dismay. She is going to die here in the middle of nowhere.

Their pursuers bump their car hard from behind, jerking her so badly she gets whiplash and the blood drains from her face.

"They are trying to kill us!" They are no longer concerned with taking her alive. This is just pure vendetta now.

"Hang on." He bites out and if it is even possible, he goes faster.

Heart pounding, she grabs onto anything within reach, her wide eyes on the rough narrow road ahead. They are hurtling forward at speeds insane enough to make her stomach churn and yet the speedometer continues to climb.

"Slow down will you?!" She yells with her heart in her throat. "You are going to get us killed."

"Would you rather the fuckers behind us have you?" He snarls. "Hold on tight and keep that pretty mouth sealed, Princess."

Her spine stiffens and she glares at him. How dare he? She has never heard anyone say 'Princess' in such a condescending manner.

"I'm not a fucking 'Princess!'"

If he knew the amount of humiliation she has been put through in the last twenty fours that she was kidnapped he would not dare to look down on her like that.

"Sure, you're not."

"I'm not." She says emphatically.

"Babygirl, if you didn't notice, I am trying to save both of our fucking asses. I'm sure you can find the time to bicker later."

A new round of bullets spray their car and she screams and ducks.

"The car is bulletproof." He says, making her jaw drop.

"You couldn't have told me that earlier?"

"Hang on."

Once again, he doubles the speed in the span of two seconds and she gags, working to keep the contents of her stomach down.

"I think I'm going to throw up." She says and he throws her a glance.

"Keep it down, Princess. My leather won't take the abuse."

She glares at him, her queasiness forgotten.

"Don't fucking call me that." She snaps and he grins, making her blink and do a double take. What was that weird flip in her gut? The man is psychotic, no matter how good he looks.

"Was that intentio-"

She screams again when he makes a hard turn and hits her head against the side of the car. She turns to him with a feral growl.

"Slow down will you? You will get us fucking killed!" She is so sick of it all. She wants to wake up and leave this nightmare behind. The bastard simply ignores her and increases the speed.

She grips the side of the car with all her strength, her heart pounding in her ears.

"We are going at the speed of light!" She gasps.

"If it will make you happier, perhaps we should stop the car so you say hello to them." He growls, gripping the wheels tight. "Maybe they won't spray your pretty face with bullets."

"Then what's the goddamn plan?" She bites out, not daring to loosen her grip on the grab handle. "Frustrate them into picking our bits and pieces off your precious leather after we crash?"

They make another hard turn and her head hits the window again. Her heart stops in her chest when the car skids dangerously on the uneven road and for one terrible second, she thinks they will overturn. He gets the car under control at the last minute and her heart painfully returns to its location.

"That's it, I'm out!" She gasps, shuddering. "It's fucking locked!"

He turns shocked eyes to her.

"Did you just.. try to go out the door?!" He asks. There is no way he can be convinced she is not a demonness from the depths of hell.

"Keep your eyes on the road!" She points frantically.

"Are you a fucking lunatic?" He asks, his voice rising.

"Look at the goddamn road I beg of you!"

The car lurches dangerously as their pursuers bump them hard and her stomach heaves. This must be a punishment from above.

"Can't you go any faster?!" She demands, turning in her seat to watch them. They are dangerously close and their car looks like it had seen better days. "Go faster!"

"Make up your damn mind woman!" He growls but to her relief, he does go faster.

When she turns back around, she immediately wishes she didn't. Her heart leaps out and lodges in her throat.

"Turn around! Now. That's a dead-end!"

He sets his jaw grimly and to her horror, he speeds it up. Oh yes, she always knew it. She knew he would be the death of her the moment she saw him.

The huge wall looms ever closer and she pulls at him insistently.

"You! Can you not see that? You have to turn the car around now!"

Right before they hit the wall, she ducks, thinking of the family she'll never get to see again and then he is making a sharp left, so narrowly that the headlights shatter with impact. Behind them, she hears the loud grind of metal colliding heavily with stone and when she spins around in her seat, the second car is totalled. It resembles a mashed tin can and she is sure not one person inside survived that.

"Hang on!" He barks and she startles, growing quiet.

Death, so much death. Before today, she had never seen a dead body. Now there is a can of mashed humans eating their dust, and earlier, she shot at a man and killed him.

The tears start coming and she sniffles, mortified. She is crying and her heart feels like it is breaking and she does not know where the pain and the anger that is tearing at her chest is coming from.

The car comes to a sudden halt and a second later, her door is yanked open and he drags her out. His face swims in her vision as she chokes on her cries.

"What is it? Where are you hurt?" He asks urgently, grabbing her arm and examining every inch of skin he can access.

"I'm not hurt." She hiccups. He stares at her dumbstruck.

"Then why are you crying?"

Hot tears fall harder and her body starts shaking with them. She feels like she is coming apart.

"I don't know!" She gasps.

She is the most enigmatic creature he has ever met. His forest green eyes hold her prisoner as she speaks through chattering teeth.

"I held a gun today. And I 'murdered' someone. He used to be loud and lousy and disgusting and now he is dead! I-I did that. There were people chasing us down and now... it feels like this nightmare will never end. I-I was pawed by those disgusting fuckers and they were going to-"

He suddenly takes her face between huge hands and she catches her breath right before he kisses her.

She freezes, a mountain of tears clogging up her throat. His lips are so soft. It is impossible that anything on this man would be soft and yet... his lips are exquisitely soft and firm.

When he moves his lips on hers, the rest of her thoughts are quickly burned away to ashes. She gasps and he invades her mouth, boldly leaving his stamp on every inch of her. His hands hold her face steadily to his as he burns her senses to the ground.

He kissed her to shut her up, but now he thinks he must have been possessed. Why he cared that she looked so alone, so broken and so beautiful was beyond him, and so was why he couldn't resist kissing her.

The moment his lips touch hers however, he knows he has a problem. Her lips are soft, pliable and when she lets out a soft moan and opens for him, he is lost.

Without hesitation, he takes what she offers and invades her mouth. He angles her face to better plunder her mouth and she clings to him, marvellously soft everywhere. Her taste is exquisite, different, unique. His body is alive like it has never been and when he presses her back into the car, he suddenly knows why he has been wary of her from the start. The beast inside him creeps up like an evil surprise, the insatiable demon he has succeeded in immobilising in chains. And as the beast awakes, his hunger sharpens on a new focus. Her.

He has discovered a new obsession, and in the one person who is off-limits to him.

She is lost. She clings to him as he claims every corner, every crevice of her mouth and her body comes alive with insatiable need. He kisses with complete domination, tasting her and leaving his imprint on her tongue. She cannot drag in a single breath but breathing is the last thing on her mind. The press of his hard cock against her stomach ignites her body and she shudders.

More. She wants more of him.

She moans and grinds against his hard cock, needing to have all of him, right there in the dirt.

To her dismay, he is suddenly pulling back, leaving her bereft and staring up at him dumbly. The wafting breeze between them feels offensive but it knocks some sense right into her. What has she done?

Of its own accord, her hand rises and the loud sting of her palm against his cheek rings out clearly. The imprint of her hand blooms quickly on his cheek, red and angry.

She stares at her hand dumbly, unable to believe the violent tendency she just displayed. She is mortified of her body's response to him, of the fiery need consuming her body and urging her to drag his face back to hers, and the need to apologise nearly brings her to her knees. She is a mess. Her chest is heaving like she ran a marathon and colour remains high on her cheeks. She watches a nerve tick on his jaw with apprehension and hikes her chin up, dragging the tatters of her pride together.

"Don't you ever kiss me without my permission again." She bites out.

I'm sorry, she doesn't say. Kiss me again. Make me forget everything about this horrible day.

He looks at her coolly, making something inside her to twist painfully.

"Trust me Princess, that will not happen again."

She opens her mouth to say something but no sound makes it out. A good thing too, or she might end up begging him to forgive her, to continue from where he stopped.

"Come with me." He says and after a little hesitation, she runs to catch up.

"Where to now?" She asks and he throws her a short glance.

"You're going home."

She follows him to a clearing where a copter waits. Her heart starts to pound anew and she grows cold feet. Biting her lip, she throws him a side glance, overthinking.

He definitely hates her after what just happened, and she is about to get into copter with him, a stranger she met in the middle of nowhere.

"There's a copter." She says.

"No shit." He grunts and marches forward but stops when he realises she is not following. "What is it this time?"

"I'm not following you in there." She says, holding her breath. "Not without proof."

His eyes narrows at her and she gets the distinct impression the man is not used to being challenged.

"I just risked my neck to get you out of that slaughter house and you don't even have the decency to trust me?"

"You saved me and then you kissed me!" She bursts out. "Who kisses a woman they only met a few minutes back? It reeks of ulterior motive. I don't trust you. I want you to contact my father or I'm not moving an inch from here."

"Or what?" He asks, taking a step forward and she hurriedly takes one back, reaching for a weapon she has since lost.

His lips pull into a predatory smirk and she flushes with trepidation.

"Do you finally see? You are completely at my mercy."

She can probably outrun him, if perhaps she catches him by surprise. Just then, someone sticks their head out of the copter and yells.

"What is taking so long?!"

No way, she freezes, staring at his familiar face. She would recognise his voice anywhere, and the sight of his face is so welcoming tears spill down her face.

Dre, her father's right hand man.

She breaks into a sprint, gingerly side-stepping her rescuer and runs for the copter. Dre jumps down from the bird, his bushy beard hiding the ever present frown on his lips and she does what she has never done in her life, she throws her arms around him and holds on tight.

"You came!" She gasps, relief making her head spin. The sobs are rising from her chest again and she clings to him as he pats her back awkwardly.

"Of course I came Miss Amber." He says and she laughs hysterically. He's formal as ever. The dose of familiarity is like a balm to her soul.

She feels his presence behind her before he even speaks and she pulls back but is startled by the look on his face as he stares at Dre's arms around her shoulder. She suddenly feels the ridiculous urge to pull out of his arms. Why should she care? She has never met anyone that confuses her as much as he does but for one, she is grateful her mediocre trust in him was not misplaced.

"Axel. Thank you for bringing her back to me."

Her nape tingles at the mention of that name. He does not look away from her for even a second as he replies.

"I'm only returning the old man's favour." He replies.

'Axel'?! She thinks with alarm.

That name is notorious, practically blueprinted for the single most feared man, the king of the largest and most dangerous cabals this side of the world.

"Axel?" She repeats out loud, looking between the two men and Dre puts a hand on her shoulder.

"It's time to go home."

Wait." She says. Yes, she will but this is suddenly more important than even that. What connection does this man have with the notorious Axel?

She takes a step forward when the ground suddenly lurches and then it is coming up to meet her.

She hears someone shout, a barked command. She tries to hold on to consciousness but it spirals out of her reach. The next moment, she is plunged into the darkness.

...

She is back in that hellhole, and she has a gun in her hand.

No, no, no, she wails. Not again.

She knows how this will end, she knows that at the end of this day her hands will be stained with blood. And then they are.

To her horror, her hands turn ruby red with blood, the gun is slick with it. Her apprehensive scream is snatched by the air, right out of her mouth. The blood drips loudly to the floor, grotesquely, an evidence of her sin, innocent no longer.

Her assailant sees her weakness and rush her, and her fingers find the crook of the gun by memory, pulling mechanically.

"No!!!" She screams as the bullet punches into the same man.

"No!! I'm sorry!" She cries but the light drains out of his eyes and he drops to the ground like a log.

"No. No. No." She cries, she didn't want to kill him. She wanted to save him this time!

The second man rushes at her, tackling her hard into the ground-

Amber wakes up screaming.

"Sshhh, you had a nightmare." Her personal maid is sitting up in her bed and patting her head down. "Was it the same one?"

She is sweating and shaking as she sits up in bed and nods.

"The same fucking one."

It has been three days since she was rescued and since then, she has been going through alot. She cannot close her eyes without the dead rushing to embrace her. She is reliving everything that went down when she was kidnapped and her fucking therapist said it is only the natural way for her to heal.

"Fuck!" She screams and throws a pillow across the room.

"Perhaps you can start running again." Vicky suggests quietly. Just the mere suggestion is enough to give her shivers.

"I can't. You know I can't." She says, throwing the covers off her. She was snatched off the street while she was out for her usual morning jog. She has not set a foot out of the house once since she woke up to find herself back home. "I'm as good as a fucking vegetable. What am I going to do Vicky?" But her maid doesn't have answers.

An hour later, she is at the table having breakfast with her parents.

"Sweetheart, I noticed you didn't go for your run today." Her father says and she grimaces.

"Are you still having trouble sleeping?" Her mother asks at the same time.

"I am."

"But darling, you are safe now. I have men that will watch you discretely throughout your run and I will soon find out who the mastermind behind your kidnap was. You are safe."

"I know." She mumbles, picking at her food.

Her parents mean well, and in fact they have matching expressions of worry on their faces but neither of them can understand the full gravity of what she went through. There is only one person that comes to her mind that could completely understand her, because he was there.

She sits up suddenly, eyes sparkling.

"Dad. What about the man that saved me? I'd like to thank him personally."

She has asked him twice before, and each time he evaded with one excuse or the other. It is the one thing she has asked for since she returned. As unbearable as her rescuer was, she has found her thoughts persistently revolving around him all day, reaching for him after every nightmare. They were at loggerheads the entire time they were together, but she has not felt so alive since then.

Her father's jaw hardens and her hope plummets down her belly.

"Dad?"

They exchange a glance before he turns to her and she knows what he will say before he says it.

"I will hear nothing more about your 'saviour'." He said with finality.

"Dad!"

"He is a mercenary that I contracted to bring you home and that is about it. You will speak no more of meeting with him, he was well compensated for his work."

"Dad!"

"Listen to your father." Her mother interjects.

She pushes her chair back and rises in anger.

"I'm not six, Mum." The cutlery drops with a bang and she feels every bit as childish as she claims not to be. "I'm twenty one, old enough to know it is mannerless not to thank him."

"Not while you are under my roof." Her father says and her hands fist angrily.

"Your father and I know what is best for you darling. Sit back down and finish your breakfast." Her mother adds.

She laughs, incredulous. Good for her for getting comfortable under their 'roof' when she could have moved out as soon as she turned eighteen like her brother did. Now she may as well turn forty in this house and she will still be treated like a teenager.

"Is it about the house then? Good grief, it is high time I moved out anyway."

"Silence!" Her father says and put down his fork. "Amber, sit. Let's talk about this reasonably."

She is already shaking her head. She is her father's softest spot and no doubt he relaxed his guard when he realised she has no hunger to leave home yet but it has become a way for both of her parents to look down on her.

"Let me meet with him then." She says. A compromise and she'll not ask for anything for a year.

"Meeting with him is out of question." Her father insists. "Speaking his name in this household is forbidden. Tell me anything else you want, Princess and you can have it."

He had called her Princess too, but delivered in that spectacular way to bring a rise out of her.

"I don't want anything else." She says with finality. "And I think I'm finally ready to see what the world has to offer."

Despite her parents' attempts to bribe her, she stands her ground and at the end of the day, she is watching her parents' car pull away from the driveway of her new apartment and she feels a shiver of something. Foreboding? Anticipation?

She waits until the automated gates close behind their car then she spins around, racing into her apartment and turning the three locks in place, her heart pounding.

Her mouth goes dry when she looks around at the pristine space that is now her apartment and realises just how alone she is, for the first time since she was kidnapped. Perhaps she overreacted...

A sound makes her shout but it was only a knock at the door.

"Jeez calm down Amber." She chastises herself as she pulls the door open to admit Dre.

"You called me." He says and she nods.

"I need a favour." She says, holding her breath.

"No. Your father forbade it." He says when she has explained everything to him.

"Do you know how I felt when the hands grabbed me from behind and I couldn't do anything about it? Useless. Incompetent. I thought I was going to die Dre."

"It doesn't matter. If it is self defence you are interested in then I shall find you the best teacher."

She plops down on the luxury sofa with a sigh. "I can't sleep a wink since I was rescued. Immediately I close my eyes, the ghost of the man I shot is ready to torment me, even the ones that I didn't kill."

"I'll arrange for you to see a new therapist if your current one is not good enough." Dre says logically.

"A therapist cannot help me and you know it. I have to become strong enough to protect myself."

"Then what you need is self defence classes. I will arrange it but Axel is off-limits."

She almost screams in frustration. Why are grown men shaking in their pants because of one man?

"Dre, tell you what? Whether you lead me to him or not, I will find Axel myself. I called you here because I want to give you a chance to control this narrative."

He stops in front of her.

"You do not understand, Miss Amber. Axel is not the type of man you want to get tangled with. He is into darker practices. Do you think you saw a lot when you were kidnapped? Axel will make all of that look like child's play."

"So it really is The Axel." She breathes, awed. Everyone has heard a story or two of Axel. She had assumed that anyone with the misfortune of coming across him would lose their life. Never in her wildest imaginations did she think he would be saving hers.

She stands and faces Dre fully.

"What do you say Dre? Are you with me or against me?"

She has him. She knows he can never leave her to find such a dangerous man by herself.

It is a selfish decision which she has made, partly due to her stubbornness and some sick curiosity. But she is not prepared for how much that decision will change her life.

He parks his car and gets out, slamming the door behind him and Stent, his second in command falls into step.

"I've just concluded the arrangements with Dohal group. They'll meet with us tomorrow."

"Find out how many representatives they will be sending over and plan ahead. They must not leave here with a single complaint."

"Yes boss. I've set up meetings with everyone involved. It will go smoothly."

"I'll be counting on you."

The chairman of Dohal group is a prickly untrusting son of a gun and if it goes smoothly, they shall become his shield against his worst enemies.

He blows into his apartment and heads for his room, pausing for a second to sniff and instantly recognising that scent. Sure enough, she is waiting for him. She is stark naked and spread out on the bed before him, the best kind of stress relief for the hectic day he has had, and she sends a vixen grin his way.

"Welcome darling." She says, rising and crawling slowly to the end of the bed. He stops and stares at her curvy body, waiting for the familiar stir of lust. There's nothing.

"Sonya."

"Meow." She says and shakes her ass in the air.

Role playing is an enjoyable pastime for the both of them, but playing cat is a particular favourite for her.

She throws an inviting grin at him and pushes her ass into the air.

"Meow meow."

He grabs a handful of her ass and squeezes, and then he slaps it, hard. Sonya is a beautiful redhead that has never failed to make his cock hard before. This is a first.

"Get dressed." He says curtly and turns away, ripping his tie from his neck.

"Axel?" She says, sounding confused. He starts ripping the buttons off his silk designer shirt, feeling like he is suffocating. She comes to stand in front of him with a frown marring her brows.

"Did I do something wrong?"

"Get dressed and get out." He says plainly and she flinches like he physically slapped her.

"Baby, is it something I said? Or are you not in the mood for the cat? You know I'm very flexible. I can switch it up right now. Come on, I want you so bad. I've been waiting all day for you to come back."

She tentatively reaches a hand out to touch his exposed chest and he grabs it, squeezing so hard her face contorts with pain.

"How dare you?" She immediately starts shaking.

"I'm sorry." She gasps. "I-I wasn't thinking."

He throws her hand down and she steps back, regaining her composure with a sulk.

"Go. I will call for you if I need you."

"Yes sir." Still pouting, she spins around and marches out of the room.

He puts her out of his mind immediately. Being the youngest daughter of the Sheldon group, she is an incredible asset and he has sealed many deals with a lot of ease thanks to her. But right now, he has a bigger problem than keeping his pet happy.

He stomps into the bathroom and stares into his own eyes. The banked fury in them threatens to engulf the world. It has been days. 'Days' since he rescued the woman from the kidnappers and yet the memory of her is fresh as if it was yesterday. What was spectacular about her? Nothing. There was nothing special about her so why the fuck is the thought of her plaguing his mind?

His hand lashes out and hits the mirror with a loud explosion. Instant fiery pain accompanies the explosion and he flexes his hand gingerly, observing the pieces of glass stuck in his knuckles. At least his head is quiet at last.

"Boss?"

Couver's voice filters in from beyond the bathroom door.

"Coming." He calls and wraps his hand in a white hand towel. Conver's eyes go to the towel immediately he steps out but he wisely reserves his comment.

"There's something you must check out."

An hour later, he has scoured the evidence and he is livid. He turns a green eyed gaze to the offender and the man pales, looking like he would like nothing more than for the ground to open up and swallow him.

"Forgive me Boss!" He cries, prostrating flat on the ground. "I have been so stupid! I didn't know what I was doing. I was out of my mind."

"Raise your head!" Axel snaps and the man does, shaking like a leaf.

He paces around his kneeling form slowly and the room holds its breath. Stopping in front of the culprit, he looks down his nose at him.

"You stole from me." He says finally and the man shakes harder.

"No!" He says urgently. "I would never! You know me boss."

His leg cuts through the air and smashes into his head, and Hart sprays an arc of blood from his mouth. Axel presses his boots into the man's ear and grinds his head to the ground.

"I do know you." He says. "I trusted that you would have the good sense of preservation to keep your nifty hands from my money when I gave you that post but what did you do? You embezzled. You stole from me you fucking idiot."

Garbled nonsense come out of his mouth as he attempts to spew more lies but he grinds his face harder into the ground, effectively cutting him short.

"You did it smartly I will give you that, stealing only sums you know will not be missed. But every thief within my territory will be caught and you know what happens to the fools that dare to steal from me."

He removes his boot from his head and Hart springs up, crawling forward on his knees to grab at his trouser pathetically.

"I have a wife, Boss." He pleads. "She just got pregnant, we are expecting a baby. Please spare me this once."

A kick throws him some distance away and Axel pulls out his gun. The sudden acrid smell of piss emanates before the wetness leaks from underneath the man's thighs. Perhaps embezzling one time could be considered a mistake. It is hard to paint it as one when it has been going on nearly every month for two years straight. The law on this land is carved in stone, and the only payment Axel collects is in blood.

"You should have thought of that before you stole from me." He says.

"Please!" He yells but the plea is cut short by the bullet punching into the middle of his head and going straight through. He hangs suspended for one second before his body crashes to the ground and stares sightlessly away. Blood immediately seeps out of the mortal wound on his forehead and Axel holsters the gun and examines his ruined knuckles with distaste.

"Axel what happened?!" Stent says with alarm, stepping forward.

"Nothing to worry about. Get rid of that." He motions to the body and turns away, leaving the room in a rotten mood. His hand goes to his neck but his tie is gone, and his buttons are popped. So why the fuck is he suffocating?

A certain mischievous smile floats into his mind and he sees red. Wherever she is, she had better hope she never runs into him or he will wrap his hands around that pretty neck and kill her himself.

A few minutes later, he shoves his ruined hand at the doctor.

"Fix it."