Falling for the Billionaire Mob Boss

Octavio, a shrewd businessman who was ready to get involved in any business provided it wasn't legal. He always thought legal was boring. Average height and bulky, his face was always clean shaved as he claimed it made him look younger. Legally, he was into the sales of modern artworks and ceramics. On the side, he ran a smuggling ring and underground sales of rare objects. His latest job was to source for a collection of rare artifacts for a buyer he often referred to as the Collector whom to Octavio, was a regular as they had done several businesses over the years.

Octavio and his men waited patiently for their buyers. He pulled out a cigar and sniffed at it the whole time - maybe it was some source of inspiration, no one could tell. A couple moments later, a number of black jeeps stopped at the entrance of the trade venue. It was all dark as it was night already, so the vehicles belonging to both parties had their headlights on. A good number of men came off the black jeeps and waited for their leader to step out from his vehicle before making their way to the spot where Octavio and his crew stood. "And here they are" Octavio said with arms outstretched in a welcome gesture, "Welcome Victor."

"Hello Octavio." the leader of the buying team, Victor replied and bowed as a sign of courtesy. Victor had an intimidating look. He was a direct opposite of Octavio. He was much taller and almost perfectly built. He wore a tattoo on his right cheek to conceal a scar from a bullet wound.

"There is your money." said Victor as he ordered a mean looking man to drop two black bags to the ground inbetween both parties "We will like our cargo now."

"Ah yes" replied Octavio. "I'll just get-"

"Not you. Someone else should" Victor cut in. He held a cold gaze at Octavio, who understood the intention and smiled warmly.

"Trust...must be hard to come by these days." Octavio lamented.

"Don't get me wrong, my boss trusts you, I don't."

"No offense taken. It's quite normal." Octavio replied, then he signalled for the cargo to be brought forward and two of his men retreated almost immediately towards a parked vehicle behind them. He was no stranger to distrust. In this line of business, it was a powerful weapon every party wielded including him. Although he was a great actor and had mastered the act of concealing it. You couldn't pick anything from his speech, tone or body movement, but as the saying goes; everyone has got that day.

The atmosphere was tensed up. Both parties had come fully armed and who could blame either. It was a deal that could go either way.

Victor thought it all felt wrong, he noticed sweat drops formed on the forehead of some of Octavio's men, eyeballs rolled in their sockets on immobile faces, scanning and monitoring every bit of the scene for the smallest movement and they all had their hands at ready positions to grab their weapons if need be.

At the time, Octavio wore a flat smile which confirmed Victor's suspicion that something was definitely wrong. "You know it doesn't seem fair...to me. After all these years of doing business together, I'm yet to know my real contact, the Collector. And this, which happens to be our biggest deal, he sends a representative again." Octavio finished with a click of his tongue.

Victor arched the corner of his lip a little to form a faint smile "it is not really necessary but-" He held back the rest of the sentence. He thought 'this might be it'. A statement like Octavio's never came from a heart with good intentions.

Octavio looked expectantly, waiting for Victor to finish his statement but Victor retained his silence. "Not like I'm trying to poke nose, but this meeting he..., your boss ditched our deal for-"

"I never made mention of any meeting." Victor cut in.

Octavio clicked his tongue again. He had the look of someone who was caught right in the middle of a mischief. And of course he was. Although he had mastered this act and could pull off looks without giving out anything, today seemed different. For whatever reason he just couldn't just get into character and now he was an open book from which Victor read freely.

"Sorry I usually take it upon myself to keep tabs on my clients. You should know better. I hope you understand... Its just business." Octavio said, and then he nodded towards one of the men on Victor's team.

Victor immediately docked as a bullet flew past him and caught one of Octavio's men in the chest, knocking him out.

The venue for the deal was a warehouse section of an abandoned private port acquired by Octavio and serverd this very purpose. It was his home turf, his trade center for such off-record deals such as this and he had a good record here.

Excellently built and standing at about thirty feet, with most of the steel racks still in position and the office positioned strategically at one far end which oversaw the warehouse, thereby providing a general oversight of the venue. From the moment the buying team came in, Victor had noticed the office structure and placed a marker on it since it posed a good position for a sniper as the negotiation spot was a hundred percent in its view. One couldn't be more careful about such places. The warehouse was all metal except for the materials used in construction of the office section which looked like they had seen better days and quite oddly, a large partially covered glass which rested on one of the racks. Victor also noticed the glass when they walked in and it provided a view of his team from the negotiation spot so he often glanced at it from time to time to keep everyone in check. He had already seen the gunman prior to the shooting. The gunman had a few times exchanged glances with Octavio and made suspicious movements so that when he pulled the gun, Victor saw him in the glass and docked. To the others, Victor must have been a super human but it was just the glass.

The resulting gun battle was a nightmare. The shooter was gunned down almost immediately by one of his fellows close by. Bullets flew in every direction and as everyone tried to run for cover, they shot at each other and docked when possible. An escort shielded Victor while two others fired at random targets to provide some cover until he was safe in his bullet proof vehicle. Octavio ran straight for his vehicle in the heat of the gunfire. It was the same vehicle that the duo had gone to retrieve the cargo earlier. He drove off leaving the gun battle behind.

When he arrived at his fortress, his vehicle had some scars from the battle he just escaped. The vehicle came to a stop and a handful of armed guards hurried towards it. Octavio alighted and barked orders at the guards to return to their positions and asked for more men to be stationed at the gate. He thought if he was followed, they should be on guard to ward off the adversary. Although it was almost unlikely to happen since he couldn't recall seeing any headlights trailing him on his way back. He rushed to the rear of the vehicle and flung the trunk of the vehicle open only to find it empty. Octavio sat on the ground with his hands on his head. He looked completely drained.

Back at the warehouse, the fighting was over and calm was restored with dozens of lifeless bodies littered all over. The buying party was victorious and had begun to remove every trace of their presence at the scene. Of the seventeen gunmen that came with the buying team for the deal, there were just five of them left alive and Victor himself, making them six.

"I think we should be on our way." one gunman said to the Victor, who waved him off.

"Not yet. Look around again and make sure we're clear." Victor ordered.

He stepped out of the vehicle and made his way though the corpses. He turned over those that lay face down and in the process recognised one of the men sent to retrieve the cargo among them. But the other was nowhere to be found. One gunman saw a trail of blood from behind one of Octavio's team vehicle and alerted Victor who followed it into the empty office and behold his prize was there, much more than he expected; both the cash and the cargo.

Octavio's hitman bled from a fatal bullet wound at the upper part of his belly and another bullet had pierced his lungs which caused him to wheeze with each breathe.

"What do we do with this one boss?" One of the gunmen asked and lifted the man's face with the nuzzle of his gun.

"We leave him in here." Victor said and tapped the gunman's shoulder "we got what we came for, I don't think its nice to take more. Moreover this man is in need of help. It'll be wrong not to let him get a shot at it."

One of Victor's men picked a cellphone off a dead guy and tossed it to the dying man, while the crew left with everything they came for.

Kristine sat on the jetty and took in the environment. She had taken off her head scarf so that the mild evening breeze blew through her hair. The mood was great, the scenery was perfect. The dark blue waters met the light blue sky at a farther point. The waters were a perfect match to Kristine's blue eyes and her yellow sunflower woven dress fit perfectly in the background, making her presence a beautiful work of art.

She watched as the mini waves hit the shores, a number of boats riding at a distance and surfers waiting for the bigger waves. But one thing that wasn't a fit in this environment was the voice the male voice she least expected.

"Still on your bucket list of favorite places?" It was the voice of Darius her ex-boyfriend.

A little over two months back and Kristine would had been overly excited to have heard that one voice. They were lovers for a staggering four years until Darius started keeping late nights and missing dates. It went on for many months and for each missed dates or late night, he had a perfect alibi. Common instincts told Kristine it was over, but she decided to hold on and hope for the best. She kept up the act until she decided to check-in Darius' alibi one evening, and it turned out to be true in an unexpected way. Whatever she saw that evening wound her up so bad she now detested the one voice that could soothe her even in her most troubled state of mind.

"I was around and felt you'd be here, so I thought I should check and well, I wouldn't say to my surprise...But you're here."

Kristine did not reply, react nor flinch, even when she felt the urge to, she maintained her calm instead and continued to admire the environment.

"I see we're still on this. I'll take my leave now." He said and retreated towards the direction he came from.

Kristine held herself from uttering a word. She knew if she did, she could ruin her healing process and she wasn't going to let anyone have the honours. He was lesser than a stranger to her now. She had erased him from her life and it had to remain that way. This short encounter showed how her recovery process was going.

Not too long ago, Kristine had enrolled for a therapy session and was set on a path to recovery. Although it worked perfectly, one thing from the past still had her in the lock - her late dad's debt.

Aaron Richards was a top business man and socialite in his time. Lots of occasion had him headlined and ofcourse he lived up to expectations.

Average height, non-athletic build with a well trimmed moustache, he was a figure that brought life to every environment he stepped into. He dealt mostly in mid grade artworks and although he had an eye for the bigger things, he was one to thread lightly.

One October, when the leaves on some trees in the park had all gone red-brown and they shed so much that it looked like someome had shook them on purpose. On this day - a day Kristine could never forget, she had gone to the park with her dad; a normal routine during the autumn season for the both of them. As a kid she loved to feel the crunch of leaves under her feet and view the brown nature-themed park, beautified by the green lake. The duo sat by the lake and dipped their feet in the water, feeling all the goodness and calm when a man walked down to them and excused Aaron.

"Aaron Richards." a voice called from behind them. Both Kristine and her dad turned around to see a man dressed in a dark suit and shades standing behind them. Kristine looked at her dad and noticed his face had turned blue. 'maybe he has a fever' she thought to herself.

"I'll be right back. Don't go anywhere." Mr. Richards said to his daughter and joined the man towards a row of trees not too far off where two other men waited.

One of the duo wore a black suit just like the one who came over and stood at a towering height, and the other, a very young man, wore a beach shirt and a pair of white pants. He had an unlit cigar and sniffed at it the whole time. Although it was odd for Mr. Richards to leave Kristine alone as it never happened before, but she thought it was business and must be very important.

The conversation continued a long time and Kristine noticed the young man in beach shirts demonstrated aggressively towards her dad, who stood mute and sometimes took a pleading position. She couldn't place things together as she had never seen anyone act like that towards her dad. At a point she got up and walked towards their position.

"Your daughter may have to grow without a father." she heard beach shirt speak. Mr. Richards saw his daughter and her facial expression betrayed her. The other men turned and saw her behind them, wearing a frightened look. Beach shirt smiled and motioned for her to come over, but she was too scared to move and looked at her dad who nodded as a sign that it was okay.

"Hello Kristine" beach shirt greeted.

Kristine was silent.

He was much younger that she thought initially. 'What could her father want from this kind of person?'

"You may not know me. My name is Octavio and I'm your dad's friend." he smiled.

It was obvious he was forcing a friendly conversation which wasn't part of his plan. She remained silent.

Octavio continued "me and daddy, we are business partners. We discuss business okay?"

Kristine nodded.

"Did you?" He asked.

Kristine looked at him expressionless still no word.

He rubbed his hands on his forehead and let out a sigh. Perharps he noticed he scared the little girl. "Were you listening to our conversation?" He asked plainly.

Kristine shook her head.

"Good. Its never good to listen to grown up conversation. Daddy ever told you so?" He asked and looked at Mr. Richards, who had a look of pain and regret on his face.

Kristine nodded.

"Good girl" he smoothened her hair "now go wait for daddy" he finished and handed her a candy which she took and walked off, not looking back or sideways until she got to her dad's van.

She looked back at where the men stood and saw Octavio had resumed his confrontation with her dad.

On the way home Kristine sat in the passenger seat of the van, strapped in as Mr. Richards drove home. She was obviously lost in thought; better put, she was physically present in the van but mentally at the park replaying what she saw earlier. It was the first time she had seen anyone confront her dad as he was a man who commanded respect and people loved him. She had seen him confront a number of people, although they were bad people according to him. 'Could he be a bad person now?' she thought to her self, then she turned and looked at him.

Mr. Richards noticed his daughter's stare and pulled up by the road side. He saw the curious expression on her face and knew she needed an explanation.

"I know you have questions" Mr. Richards started "you know sometimes business goes bad, and not everyone takes such events lightly especially those who invested large sums."

"The weird man is one of such people?" She asked

"As a matter of fact, he's our biggest investor. Things went bad, real bad. And now he's very upset."

"I'm scared dad." she said as tears began to form at the base of her eyeballs.

Mr. Richards looked at his daughter and took her face in his palm, his pain was visible. He knew what could happen if things went worse and although he had a plan for every bad scenario, he still had doubts about this one. "You don't need to be scared. Everything will be just fine." he assured her.

At supper, Kristine played with her food. She obviously lacked appetite and Mr. Richards knew exactly why, but he also knew not to talk about anymore. He would just let her rest and by morning she'll be like nothing happened. Kristine stayed up that night. She replayed the event in her head over and over again, and tried to contrast it with her dad's assurance. But in the end, she thought the man's behaviour was more realistic than her dad's assurance, and whatever the problem, it was far from being just fine.

*

Kristine's phone rang and she hurriedly picked it up. It was her friend Camille.

"Hey" "You good?" Camille asked.

"Uhm yeah. Any news?" Kristine asked.

"Guess what" Camille requested.

"You're getting married?" Kristine asked.

"Maybe if you had a husband, I could have considered him an option" Camille joked. "We found it... The location."

"Don't mess with me. You know this is very important." Although Camille sounded as serious as possible, Kristine needed to be very sure she wasn't getting pranked.

It was a normal routine between them, but whatever was at stake this time was too important to be used as a prank tool.

"I'm not messing honey. The best part is we got the go ahead." Camille said.

Kristine threw her hands in the air for a victory punch. "So when do we leave?" Kristine asked.

"Uh about that, I and the team will go ahead. I'll make the arrangements so you'll meet us there. You've got four days" Camille revealed.

"That's no problem. I don't care if the arrangement would have me strapping myself to a plane wing" Kristine said.

Camille laughed over the phone and ended the call.

Kristine couldn't contain her excitement. She screamed from the excitement and shot both hands in the air. That was a call she had been expecting for some time from her best friend Camille. And when she got home, she cared little about anything else, not even a meal nor her voicemails. She began preparations at once.

The area of operation was large and teemed with workers in teams. Kristine came into the tent and dropped some map she retrieved from the jeep.

"Hopefully this one turns out to be worth it."

"What do you mean?" Camille feigned as if she was upset.

"I didn't mean to upset her majesty" Kristine mocked and bowed.

Camille began unfolding some maps. "It's not like I forced you to come with me anyway."

"But then, what will you do without me?" Kristine asked and went over to hug her friend.

Kristine loved ancient history and stuff that came with it. Although she wasn't a collector, she wrote journals on historical and rare artifacts. She also did some papers on archeological sites and luckily for Kristine, her best friend Camille was an archeologist. Whenever she had a job that concerned something of interest to Kristine, she took her along. This was such a time.

Camille's team had been contacted after a ruin was discovered which was believed to have some sort of ancient artifacts.

"The guys working on the north chamber, who are they?" Kristine asked.

"No idea. Two weeks prior, management notified us we would be having company and we are to give them as much assistance as they require. Seems odd" Camille said and proceeded to unfold one of the maps Kristine retrieved earlier. "We are at the airstrip, ready to board and zoom off and the next thing we see are these mean looking men, I think a few of them, maybe three of them were armed, and there's their horrible looking boss whom I think should be somewhere around right now, looking for whatever precious artifact brought him here."

Katrine was okay with Camille's story except the parts where she said she had no idea who the guys were and when she called the boss horrible looking. She knew her friend was lying especially after the look she wore while she talked about the looks of the man. "How cute?" Kristine asked.

"Have you been listening at all?" an irritated Camille asked. "You skipped the part where they are armed."

Kristine let out her hands in a 'whatever' gesture "Do you think they'll use it on us?"

"Just don't get into any sort of argument with them" Camille adviced.

"Why?" Kristine asked.

"Because they are armed!" Camille responded.

"Oh okay" Kristine said.

"I feel you intentionally want to wind me up" Camille said, then proceeded to picked up a bag and handed another to Kristine "help me with this."

They left the tent and made for a location Camille marked on her GPS.

"At least we are safe. They'll protect us if these local militias come around. Do they have them here? You know...like in the movies"

Camille let out a sigh and came to a stop. She turned to Kristine "maybe chances are we will get shot by them before the militias come" she turned back to the path and kept moving "and that would be courtesy of you".

"It can't be that bad" Kristine muttered under her breathe.

Camille began to struggle with the gps device. "Maybe its broken" Kristine suggested.

"Uh no" Camille held the GPS towards Kristine's face. "Yes. Its actually broken."

"That's on you" Kristine said.

"I agree. Just get the other from your backpack please." Camille requested.

Kristine checked the backpack but couldn't find any device, not even the map. She recalled seeing both on the table back in the tent. "We should return to the tent."

"Why?" Camille asked.

"Because we left both the device and our map on the table." Kristine said.

"Oh. Okay"

Both ladies returned to the tent and immediately they stepped in, Kristine felt something was wrong.

"Didn't you say we left the map and device on the table?" Camille asked.

"Yeah. Except someone was here" Kristine replied.

A few more stuffs were missing including a journal. But who could have taken them? Due to the busy nature of the site, the person would definitely be caught except it was someone who didn't care about being caught. Camille walked over to a few workers stationed not too far from the tent and asked if any of them saw someone go in, but they gave a negative reply. Kristine thought that was weird but Camille knew who it was that moment. Only one person could make the workers lie.

"I think we both know who has our stuff" she said to Kristine.

"Hell no!" Kristine replied with wide eyes and clenched fists. Camille grabbed her by the elbow and pulled her towards the tent but Kristine threw her hands off and began to walk hurriedly towards the other group.

Camille followed after her. Kristine got to the other crew's area of operation.

"Who is in charge here?" Kristine demanded rudely.

One of the workers pointed towards a man who sat under a tent. When she arrived his location, she noticed a couple of books spread on a table and some maps. There was another man offering some sort of explanation she cared less about.

"These belong to me" she picked up an open map from the table, the journal and the gps device. "Weren't you taught not to go through people's stuff without their consent?"

The man did not flinch, neither did he utter a word. He just let her rant. He wore a hat and sunglasses such that she couldn't make out his face. "In a sane environment this would be considered theft" she continued. "I'm not calling you a thief, but you took what wasn't yours."

Camille walked in and grabbed the map from Kristine and handed it over to the man "we are very sorry for the misunderstanding. We were never here." she apologized.

"On the contrary, I and my team planned on getting to the site by tomorrow and since we all have the same goal, why don't we go find this place together?" he spoke at last and took off both the hat and sunglasses.

He was extremely handsome. For a moment Kristine seemed lost.

"Never mind. We didn't mean to interrupt." Camille replied and bumped her friend who seemed to recover from a dream.

"uh...we will pass. Thanks." Kristine said

"I insist" he was authoritative.

"A minute please" Camille requested and pulled Kristine outside the tent "this might be a bad idea."

"How is that?" Kristine asked. "this is exactly why I came. I can't let someone else get to it. Moreover, you said management asked all assistance be given to them if they requested. So, I think we will only be doing what is expected of us."

"I meant working with him. You just disrespected him a few minutes ago, called him a thief, not even considering the fact you wanted to be violent because he went through our stuff. Do you think he will let that slide easily?"

"Well, I err – had a ch – change of heart." Kristine stammered "maybe he did too."

"Wow that was fast. I'll be damned." Camille cursed under her breathe as they both retreated into the tent.

"We agree on one condition" Camille said politely

"Go on." the man said.

"My friend has to get what she's here for." Camille demanded.

"Sure. I have no problem with that. I saw your jottings and we are here for different things, just same location." the man replied.

"Perfect." Kristine said almost inaudibly.

"Alexander." he said. "Alexander Williams."

"I'm Camille, and my friend is – "

"Kristine" Kristine cut in sharply wearing a toddler's smile "Kristine Richards."

Whatever was wrong with Kristine, Camille could not understand. A while ago she was ready to chop off someone's head and now, she's acting weird. Kristine stayed up late into the night. She was lost in thought, smiling at intervals and muttering some inaudible words to which Camille couldn't make sense of. Camille had also stayed up because she thought something was wrong with her friend and needed to keep watch over her.

Kristine glanced at her watch which read 4:08am. She sighed in disappointment. "it should be morning already."

"Are you okay?" Camille asked.

"uh yes – yes I am. Why ask?"

"You've been acting weird since we met with whatever his name is?" Camille said.

"You're exaggerating." Kristine fired back.

For a moment Camille almost lost it but she swallowed her words and let silence win between them.

"How do you rate him?" Kristine asked.

"Ugh I knew it." Camille said.

Kristine got off her bed and went over to her friend. "Tell me please." she demanded.

"Mysterious, and judging by the people he surrounds himself with, he's definitely up to no good." Camille said.

"Initially you told me he was horrible looking and it turned out to be the opposite. Now you say he's up to no good. Tell me what should I believe?" Kristine said.

"Who cares about what you believe?" A triggered Camille asked. "I'll still be the one you'll rub your sorrow on when the time comes."

The tone of Camille's voice must have hit Kristine so hard on the wrong side so that the joy on her face seemed to wash away. Everything her friend just said was the direct opposite of what she expected.

Camille noticed the effect of her reply on her friend and immediately felt bad. But it was for her own good. She sat up and hugged her friend. "I just want you to be careful. Better to watch before you take a leap so we don't end up with another Darius episode."

Kristine got up and returned to her bed without saying a word.

Morning came and both ladies went on with their preparations without a word from either of them. They got set and moved over to join Alexander's group. He couldn't help but notice the coldness between both ladies. Kristine seemed to be absent minded and Camille wore a guilty look. He intended to interfere but thought it was best that way for whatever reason.

"You know, maybe it would be better if we stayed out of your way." Kristine broke the silence. The words were difficult for her, but she still let them out and when Camille tried to say a word, she stopped her. "I know I've always wanted this, but I'm not in a hurry. You can have today and we will have another day. We don't want to be a burden"

"I actually don't mind." Alexander replied.

"Well I do. I and my friend, we'll just run through some other stuff and choose a much better time to come up here." Kristine replied while turning to Camille and giving her a raised brow to which Camille nodded in affirmation.

Alexander took a long look at both ladies as if he expected a change. Kristine who though was lying, didn't look it one bit and kept to her decision while Camille only held Alexander's gaze for a few seconds and turned away like someone caught in an act. Kristine noticed the awkward moment and for a second, she though she saw some resemblance between the duo, but then she had known Camille for so long and was acquainted with her family so she brushed the thought aside. After all it was normal for people to have some form of resemblance to others.

Kristine never missed her home like this moment. She wished she was tucked in her soft bed, shut away from the world including her best friend Camille. Although she felt bad Camille didn't pick her side, she thoight about her words. After all, Alexander walked with armed guys with questionable appearances. Well, she just wanted to go home at that moment.