The Mafia King's Property

~Cecile~

"Come on, Ava, let's go"

I whispered furiously to my best friend, Ava who was still bouncing on her toes and looking suspiciously behind her shoulders for any guards that may have been patrolling.

"Cecile, this isn't right. Let's go back in"After looking left and right and seeing no signs of movement, I shuffled closer to the wire fence and lowered my voice so she could hear me clearly without anyone overheating our conversation.

"We have to go. You know that this is not the kind of life I want for myself"She was making us go over everything again despite going over it earlier. The tides were changing and I wasn't so sure if I liked it. She was the confident one always telling me to stand up against the million and one rules that governed my life while I was the scaredy one who remained comfortable in the miserable life that I was living.

"But..."I rolled my eyes even though she couldn't see me very clearly because of how dark it was. " Ava, you're my best friend. It's my birthday tomorrow. Please, let me have a taste of life beyond these walls before I'm signed off to some man"My father was already hinting at marriage. I knew this because he kept telling the maids to make sure that I was always looking prim and proper. How pitiable was it that in 19 years, I had never gone past the walls by myself? I was always accompanied by a host of guards and I just wanted a free night.

She gazed at me for so long that I feared that she was going to turn around and go into the house to tattle on me so I let out a breath of relief when she rolled her eyes with a small smile on her face because I knew that she was as usual, in my corner.

"Fine"I smiled and moved backwards so she had enough space to roll out of the small hole that we created in the only blind spot from the cameras that were in my fathers mansion. She hesitated for a moment before putting one foot through the hole and maneuvering the rest of her body through it. Once she was out, I grabbed her hand and pulled her along with me while I ran, our laughter loud and carefree.

"Where do you want to go, Cecile?"We were finally in the town of Moscow and I was taken aback by the life that was going on around me. Though it was late at night, people still bustled past us like it was only midday. I turned around, my eyes wide and eager to soak in as much of the life that I could see around me.

"Cecile, we don't have so much time. Do you want to go to the movies? I have some money to purchase the tickets"Ava's hand on my shoulder, I turned to face her with the biggest smile on my face.

"We're not going to the movies"She frowned at me and I knew she was confused because when I told her that we were sneaking out, that was what I told her I wanted to do because though the mansion I lived in boasted of a theatre that could house more than 50 people in one sitting, I really wanted to experience sharing a theatre with a room full of people.

"Then, where would we go?"I took my eyes away from her and pointed down the street. Across from us, there was a long line of people queuing up to get into some place. When the door was opened, I could hear loud music coming from inside and I wanted to know what was going on in there if people were so eager to get in that they didn't mind being on a line.

"You want to go to a club? Your father would have my head"Ava was probably right to be scared. For some reason, people trembled when my father walked into a room but I still didn't know why. To me, he was just father. He loved me and took care of me. He made sure to have dinner with me at least once a week and play with my hair while telling me jokes. There was nothing scary about him to me.

"You exaggerate, Ava"While my father wasn't going to be happy finding out that I went past my security detail and left the mansion to go to a club, he wasn't going to be as livid as to take her head off her shoulders. Besides, my father was simply a business man who was guarded by numerous men because of the risky business of money lending that he was involved in.

"No, Cecile, we can't go in there"She shook her head at me and removed her hand that was enclasped with mine.

"Why not?"

"Have you been to a club before? Do you have any idea how dangerous it can be in there?"I understood that she was looking out for me but I rather wished that she wouldn't. I already had millions of people, yes, I was exaggerating but I already had a truckload of people watching every step I made and reporting back to my father. I didn't need her to join them in that.

"You speak like as though it were a shooting range and not a regular club. Besides, you've been to a club before and so, you know how things go down in them. I've not been to a club before and that's why I want to go in and experience it"

Wasn't the main reason for us sneaking out to have an experience? She already had the experience of being to a club because she didn't have the kind of father that I did so why was she stopping me from having fun with my life?

"Ava, this is just one night. Come on"I nudged my shoulder into hers repeatedly until she smiled and pushed me back. We shared a laugh as she let out a huge sigh and conceded. "We're only going to spend an hour. We'll be out before sunrise"I squealed on the spot and gave her a big hug before grabbing her hand again and running into the street.

"Cecile!"

She shouted at me when we were almost knocked down by a vehicle that had to steer very quickly away from us. I laughed at the curses that came out from the drivers mouth as we kept on walking.

"You are bad for my health"

I smiled at her and she couldn't help but return the smiles. My red hair blew into my face from the sudden gust of wind and I rubbed my hands up and down my arms at the goosebumps that covered them.

"I didn't think it was going to be this chilly"

I commented as I wished that I at least had the foresight to grab a jacket to throw on my ensemble of simple black shorts with a net like long sleeved top and finished off with knee high boots.

"Seems like a bad omen to me. Perhaps we should just go. We'll still find some good movies to watch"She was just hell bent on us leaving and not going into the club but I was just as fixated on getting in.

"We're going in"

I pulled her to the line and before long, we were standing in front of the bouncer.

"I.D's"

I looked at Cecile who rolled her eyes. I didn't know that we needed I.D's to go in. I didn't even own one. My good mood plumetted at the next words that he said.

"No I.D, no entrance"

Cecile groaned under her breath before digging her hands into her purse and producing two identical slabs of paper from where I was standing. She handed it over to the bouncer who scrutinized it carefully before giving it back to her.

"Enjoy"

He said as opened the door for us and gestured for us to walk in. Still taken aback by that, I was the one who got pulled inside my Ava.

"Where did you get that from? How did you know to take that with you?"Questions started spilling from my lips the moment we were inside as I whispered to her.

"I had a feeling it was going to be needed"

She looked away and focused on the club that was in full swing. I followed suit and my jaw dropped open at the new life that I was being exposed to. The music was so loud that I could barely even hear my thoughts.

"Let's go get a drink"

I was almost bouncing on my heels because of how excited I was.

"No, Cecile"

"Come on, Ava, what harm can it do?"Oh, it really could do a lot of harm. Looking back at that moment, I wished I had known what was going to happen in less than 30 because maybe then, I wouldn't have known what true fear felt like. But alas, it was already too late and I was living in the consequences of my actions with only regret as a companion.

~Alessandro's POV~

"What do you mean that she's not on the estate?"I bellowed at the guards that were meant to be following her every move and watching her so nothing like what happened actually happened.

"Where is Cecile?"

Neither of them could give me an answer. They all had their heads bowed as they shook in fear. It had been so long since I felt such raging anger that made me want to tear a man from limb to limb. Deep down underneath all the anger was fear that was so palpable I almost choked on it.

"Where are the IT guys? Where the fuck is my daughter?"One of the men took a step further and fell to his knees.

"I'm sorry, Don. I do not deserve to live. Please, take my life"

As I stared at that excuse of a man, all I could feel was irritation. First off, in the Russo cartel, we did not feel fear no matter what and yet, the bastard was before me asking for his life to be taken away in exchange for his cowardice? Once my daughter was found, I was going to have to whip my men back into shape because it seemed like I was being too lax with them.

"Where the fuck is your princess?"

Another man stepped forward but instead of falling to his knees like his cowardly comrade, he stood his ground with his head bowed.

"She must have left the estate with her best friend, Ava because they are both nowhere to be found"

I balled my hands into fists as I walked up to the one that was speaking. He was brave enough to not take a step back even when the tips of my shoes grazed the tips of his.

"You dare tell me to my face that my daughter left the estate where all of you were on guard?"

My voice was low and chilling as I shook with so much anger and fear that it only took my willpower that I had cultivated so graciously over the years to remain standing. He swallowed but kept his head bowed.

"I should take your heads off your necks for this"

I was really going to end up clawing someone's heart out if I didn't hear something encouraging in a few minutes. I walked away from the man and I heard him breath a sigh of relief. My back to them, I rested my hands flat on the surface of my desk.

"Have you checked the cameras?"

There was silence as no one dared reply to me. I slammed my fist on the table because they were being too cowardly for my liking. Sensibly, one of them again spoke up.

"We found the hole that was made in the wire fence by the east side of the estate and we assume that's where the girls passed through when they snuck out"

My fingers itched to wrap them around the necks of each and every one of the men gathered in my office but I held myself back. If I went on a killing spree, I was not going to be able to stop myself.

"The cameras?"

I let out through gritted teeth.

"That area of the fence is a black spot so we were unable to get any tangible information from the cameras"

There was one thing my father always told me. He said that there came a time in a man's life where his life as a leader and as a father were like parallel lines that didn't meet. The time I was in was one of those times. As a leader, I wanted to tear their hearts out of their chests and watch the life leave their eyes gradually but as a father, I knew that finding my daughter was more important than any punishment I planned on letting out to them.

"Have men been dispatched into town to look for her?"

I knew that would already have been done but I still was going to ask because I needed to be sure that my daughter was going to return to me safe and sound with not a strand of her hair out of place.

"Yes, Don, we have more than 2 counts of men searching for her as we speak"

I was sure they were confused that I wasn't acting in the way they expected because typically, at least 3 of them would have been lying face up with a bullet sized hole in their forehead while the smell of coppery blood remained pungent in the air.

"And her friend?"

To say that the surprise Cecile was giving me on her 19th birthday was an unexpected one was too much of an understatement. My daughter who never for one day, stepped out of line, spoke up against me or even blinked when she was told not to snuck out of my estate. No one could have seen that coming, not even myself because it was the last thing I would have expected from her.

"Still unaccounted for, Don"

If there were no answers to any of my questions, then what were they still doing there? Throwing all caution to the wind, I moved my leather jacket and took out my Smith and Wesson .38 and before anyone could blink, the man that spoke was laying on the floor while my gun smoked and my ears rang with the loud sound of the gunshot.

"Anyone else ready to die?"

Not even one soldier moved a muscle. The one that was standing beside the man from earlier stood with blood splattered all over his face and clothes but yet still didn't shake.

"Now, where is my daughter and where is her best friend?"

I twirled my gun around my fingers, the smell of blood already hitting my nostrils.

"Take him out"

Two of them moved rapidly and did as I said, bending down at the hips and carrying their fallen brother out. As the door opened, I saw a flash of blonde hair.

"Bring her in"

Before long, Ava, my daughters beat friend was kneeling in front of me.

"Where is Cecile?"

She did not dare meet my eyes. Instead, she was focused on the gun that was by my side. I grabbed her chin with my fingers and made her look up at me.

"I do not repeat myself"

Her eyes were blotched red and her face sticky with tears. It looked like she had been crying for hours.

"I told her not to but she didn't listen"

My ears perked up at what she was saying.

"Where is my daughter, Ava?"

She let out a sob that had my heart beating faster as she shook her head wildly.

"Where the fuck is Cecile?"

Ava was getting more and more hysterical with every question that I asked. She was crying so hard that she was even having trouble breathing. I didn't want to think too far ahead but I doubted Cecile was in her room waiting for me with the way Ava was reacting to my questions.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry"

Her words were like darts to my soul and I raised my eyes up to the ceiling as I realized that my daughter didn't return with Ava like I hoped.

~Cecile's POV~

My head hurt like I had been involved in an accident, sustained a head injury and still got dragged down the tarmac floor until I passed out just to be woken up again with someone bashing my head in with a baseball bat. Very descriptive imagery but that was how I felt. I didn't even want to open my eyes because I could already feel the pounding behind my eyes from the light that was coming into the room without a care in the world.

"Ughhhhhhhh"

I groaned out loud as I threw my hands over my head to shield my eyes from the onslaught of light. It felt like someone was shining a very bright light behind my eyes without caring how sensitive I was to it. One of the maids must have opened the blinds and forgot to close it. As if that was not enough, my mouth felt like cotton balls were in it. I didn't understand why I was feeling the way I was so early in the morning but I knew that it was nothing a glass of water and a hot shower couldn't fix. I was going to have to tell Ava that I was never going to a club again because the morning after wasn't worth it.

"My head hurts so much"

I made the decision to open my eyes so that I could trudge downstairs and look for a way to stop the march past that was happening in my head. Slowly, I opened my eyes and blinked rapidly as they adjusted to the brightness of the room. The first thing I noticed was that the walls were painted a dull grey which was quite unlike my room where the walls were a soft pink.

"Where am I?"

I looked down at myself and noticed that while I was still in the same clothes from the day before, the bed I was laying in wasn't mine. My bed was a king sized, 4 poster bed with so many bed covers that I could burrow under them and feel like I was in heaven. The bed I was laying in however, was just a foam on the floor with some flimsy, thread bare sheet used to cover it. I sat up sharply. Way too sharply that I felt a fierce pounding at the back of my skull which made me hold my head in my hands.

"Easy there, Cecile"

The voice of a man in the room with me made me forget about the pain in my head as I looked up at him. He was seated on the only chair in the room.

"Who are you and what do you want from me?"

I asked as I sat up more and pulled my legs closer to my body. How did he even know my name? He crossed his one legs, one over the other as he reclined better into the chair.

"I'm hurt that you don't remember me. We had a great time last night"My heart fell to my stomach. I looked down at myself immediately. My clothes were still in their place but it was very possible that he had his way with me and put my clothes back on. If he did indeed touch me though, wasn't I supposed to feel some type of way since it was going to be my first time?

"Oh, I don't mean that. Wait, do you really not remember anything from our time together?"

He inclined his head as he looked at me before running his eyes up and down my body.

"He wasn't lying when he said that one pill was enough. Perhaps I should have believed him"

He sucked in a breath through his teeth before looking back at me.

"I can't tell if it's a good or bad thing that you can't remember last night"In all that he was saying, there was only one thing that was standing out to me and that was the first thing he said about a pill.

"You drugged me?"

My eyes were wide in astonishment.

"Of course I did, Princess. How else was I to get you here?"

He was smiling and shrugging like we were talking about something as mundane as the weather and not him practically drugging me and then kidnapping me. The way he called me Princess irked me because it was not said in an endearing tone but a mocking one.

"I want to go home. Take me home right now"

My voice was resolute. I didn't know what game he was playing or what he wanted from me but all I wanted was to get away from him and go back to my fathers house.

"Sorry, Princess but you won't be going home anytime soon"He got to his feet and adjusted the suit that he was wearing.

"My father would never let you get away with this. He will comb through the city for me"I really didn't know how things like that worked. I didn't know how my father who was a mere money lender was going to comb through the city for me as i bluffed but that was the only thing I could put my hope in.

"Good thing you brought up your father because he owes me a great debt that he hasn't been able to give back"

My father owed him? No, my father didn't owe anyone. Instead, people owed my father lots and lots of money.

"You're holding me here because of some money that my father gave to you? Why would you borrow some money when you can't pay back?"

He chuckled before putting one hand into his trouser pocket.

"I see that you have no idea who your father really is"What was he on about? Of course I knew my father and I knew him very well.

"My father is a money lender, the biggest one in Moscow and the whole of Russia"He shook his head at me and chuckled again like there was some joke I was not aware of.

"Maybe if we met under different circumstances, we would have made things work and had more drinks. Not spiked ones of course"

There, I knew that there was something familiar about him. He was the one who came up to myself and Ava while we were at the bar of the club and offered to buy us a drink.

"What did you do to my friend, Ava?"

"I had no use for her so I disposed of her somewhere else"My heart stopped for a moment at his words. Did he mean that he killed Ava? No, I wasn't going to let him feed me with those lies of his. I had to believe that Ava wasn't dead.

"Just wait till my father finds you. He'll turn you over to the police without a second thought"

Again, he shook his head at me before walking to the door. Resting one hand on the doorknob, he turned to me.

"You've really led the life of a Princess. Too bad all that's about to change"

He opened the door and two burly men that were outside walked in. I scurried off the bed when I saw that they were headed towards me. However, despite how small I was, I was no match for them no matter how much I tried to get past them. They caught up with me and seized me by the arms.

"See you later, Princess"I saw the ghost of a smile on his lips just before my vision went black and I fell limp in the arms of one of the men.