Rose and Thorns

Chapter 8

Nikolai Torrez

He watched his new boss enter into the infirmary with his angular jaw taut with anger and his eyes staring at the corpse of their men who were shot dead by their rival forces. If not for the myriad of emotions in his dark pupil, even Nikolai would believe he was Victor Gonzalez, the similarity in them was so eerie.

Nikolai had sworn on his life to keep the secret till his grave. It was a miracle that Ricardo had decided to trust him and kept him alive till now, unlike the others who knew about the duplicity.

No matter how similar they both looked in their appearances, the brothers were poles apart in their temperaments. 

An underworld boss was supposed to keep his feelings and emotions at bay. They were monsters who were raised to kill and shouldn’t be able to feel empathy towards their slaves and victims but this man’s eyes were full of pain and despair. It was frustrating enough to see him getting drowned in his guilt and shame looking at the dead bodies. What pissed Nikolai, even more, was the fact that Alberto hadn’t killed any of their enemies who tried to harm them. 

If Victor was in his place, he would have made sure those bastards begged for their deaths until their last breaths.  

As soon Alberto noticed Nikolai’s eyes piercing into his skull, he put on his stone-cold mask and tried to look ahead blankly. This was the only thing that Nikolai admired about Alberto, he was a fast learner and adapted to situations effortlessly.

He couldn’t believe it when he heard that a common man like Alberto was able to bring down three of his trained men. Nikolai had been with this man for three weeks now and what he got to learn so far is that he was kind and much more humane than his twin brother but good men didn’t survive long in the world they lived. Being good and kind would get him killed in the dark world of the mafia.

Alberto came closer and crossed his arms on his chest, “We were warned in advance about the attacks, right?” Alberto asked lowly.

“Yes, Boss..” Came out Nikolai’s unaltered voice.

“Then why is it that we did not bother informing our men? Or at least think of providing them with protective gears or bulletproof vests?”

‘Bulletproof vest? Psst’ Nikolai sneered mentally. 

Alberto gnawed his teeth when he saw the trace of a smirk on Nikolai’s face. His face grew harder and his jaws clenched tightly. “I asked you something, Nikolai..” He asked in a low yet powerful voice which sometimes made Nikolai forget that he wasn’t Victor.

“Sorry boss, but Patron didn’t think it necessary to inform them..” He answered him with a neutral face.

“And why is that so?” He inquired, his tone hard and crude.

Nikolai sighed, “Because they were meant to die anyway..” There was silence for a few seconds as if Alberto was absorbing his words.

Breaking the silence, Alberto chuckled humorlessly and shoved his hands into his pant pockets.

“You mean their lives meant nothing to you people and they didn’t deserve a chance to live?” He rebuked and glared at Nikolai, his face twisted in anger.

“I am sorry, boss. I just carry out tasks that I am ordered to..” He bent his neck down. The man standing in front of him might not be Victor but Nikolai was in no position to argue with him.

“I want their families to be compensated for their loss and taken care off. I want you to personally go and hand over the money to each one’s family.” Alberto instructed through gritted teeth before leaving the place.

“Yes, boss..” He sighed and shook his head. It pissed him off to take up this unnecessary task of having to deal with the families of the dead men laid in front of him. If it was for Victor, he wouldn’t have given a s**t about their families.

Throwing the stash of money into a case, he drove to his destination. He felt so annoyed. He was the second in command to the country’s most dangerous mafia lord and here, his new boss was treating him like a driver and a delivery person. He was sure Alberto’s kindheartedness was going to get everyone killed someday.

It was late night when he drove back home after accomplishing his job for the day. The Gonzalez’ estate was huge extending to several acres. It was in fact like a mini village and took him roughly ten minutes to reach his house after entering the gates.

Most of the men working for the Gonzalez had a decent house within the estate, luxury cars, and a huge bank balance. That’s how comfortable their life was working under Ricardo Gonzalez but everything came with a price.

Their lives were always at risk and they had vowed themselves to the Gonzalez until death. They had pledged their loyalty to Ricardo and his family and there was no escape from it, either you die protecting them or die in their hands. Any small mistake, and Ricardo wouldn't think twice to throw you under the bus.

Nikolai himself owned a five-bedroom Villa with a private pool, three Bentleys, and Millions of dollars in his name. Being the second in command to Victor Gonzalez, he was a powerful man in the dark world. Everyone feared and respected him for what he was yet he was nowhere close to Ricardo and his son. With one snap of their fingers, their bosses had the power to bring him on his knees and slice his throat open if they wanted to.

He sighed as the day couldn’t be any more tiring for him. He hadn’t slept a wink the previous night because of the anticipated attack on them and this whole day went in running around to the deceased ones’ families. Parking his car, he silently stalked inside, seeking only three things, a shower, a hot meal and a woman to warm his bed.

Taking off his suit jacket, he dialed Ivanka’s number to call her for the night. Pulling his tie loose, he entered his bedroom only to be stopped by an intruder’s presence. A long hooded black cloak covered the person efficiently from head to toe. Fetching out his pistol from its holster, he thrust it in the air and carefully moved closer to the person.

The person was facing away from him so Nikolai had a hard time identifying the trespasser but whoever it was, was going to die tonight.

“Who the f**k are you?” He groaned and spun the person around, yanking the hook down forcefully.  

However, Nikolai was astonished when he saw the intruder’s beautiful face. “Sarah?”

He wasn’t aware that he had pressed the cold piece of metal against her forehead until he saw the terrified looks in those mesmerizing pair of blue eyes. He had always wondered from where she had got those eyes from but he got to know the answer when he met Carla brown three weeks back in Laz Vegas.

While both her brothers had inherited different shades of black from their father, she had got her mother’s torque blue eyes that every time managed to jolt awake his dead heart.

He snapped out of his daze when he felt her squirm in fear under the pistol that was still pressed on her head. Squeezing his eyes together and pressing his lips into a tight line, he brought it down and pushed it back into his holster.

“What the hell are you doing here?” He snapped, feeling annoyed by her presence.

“I-I.. wanted to see you..” She whispered and swallowed visibly.

Nikolai inhaled her floral scent deeply and relaxed his stiff shoulders to the sides. He knew this little girl held feelings for him and he couldn’t deny completely that it didn’t affect him. Ever since he saw her when she was just fourteen, he was enchanted by her mysterious eyes. Such a shade of deep blue orbs was not rare to see in Latin America yet it always captured his attention. But, he didn’t have a death wish by getting involved with her.

“Why would you want to see me, Sarah?” He moved away from her to fill his glass with scotch.

“Uhmm.. Niko..” She placed her hand on his shoulder but flinched back immediately when he growled at her.

“f*****g stop calling me that..” He lost count of how many times he had warned her about it before. It made him angry whenever she called him that. It felt like she was talking to a baby. He was a full-grown man in his early thirties and he was the most wanted hitman, for goodness sake.

“I’m sorry..” She bit her trembling lower lip and its effect went straight into his loins.

He ran his fingers into his disheveled hair. “Sarah, you shouldn’t be coming here..” He said politely but it still sounded heavy and terrorizing to Sarah.

Mustering up her courage, she lifted her gaze to meet his brown orbs, “Why shouldn’t I, Nikolai? I love you and I know you love me too but..”

“Stop talking nonsense and get out of here..” Nikolai hissed and turned away as his heart felt tight with an unknown emotion seeping throughout.

Sarah remained silent and stared at his defined back. She didn’t even remember how long she had been in love with this man. Her heart belonged to him even when he was a total asshole to her.

“You are my boss’s daughter and I will be in trouble if someone saw you coming and going out of this house..” He looked at her and tried to explain it to her in the gentlest tone he himself didn’t know he had. Maybe she was the only person who could bring out that tone from him.

“If I wasn’t your boss’s daughter, would you have loved me back, Niko?”

‘There she goes again’ He muttered to himself, as she leaned forward and snaked her small hands around his neck.

“Please Niko, stop rejecting me again and again. I can’t bear it anymore, knowing that you have the same feelings for me..” Her palm came to cup his stubbled jaw to make him look at her as she closed the small distance by softly pressing her lips against his. He didn’t kiss her back yet he couldn’t help but relish the softness of her plump lips.  

As a man, he was always attracted to the opposite s*x but it was always physical and nothing more. However, he couldn’t say the same with Sarah. How could he fool himself when he was certain that the feelings he had for her were definitely more than just physical?

She was such a gorgeous woman and if she was not his boss’s daughter and wasn’t engaged to the Russian Mafia head, Leonid Kozlov then he would have f****d her brains out by now. 

When he realized that he was slowly giving in to her touches, his face etched with a fake scowl, and tried to loosen her arms from around his neck.

But Sarah only tightened her hold more. “Why do you keep pushing me, Nikolai? Why?” She pressed herself into his chest which gained a low curse from Nikolai as if he was trying to get a hold of the last strings of his self-control.

“Sarah, f*****g get out of here before I throw your dead body out..” He snarled at her with a murderous glare.

“It kills me to see you bringing different women here every night. I don’t want you to touch or even see any other woman who is not me, Niko. Is it too much to ask from you?” 

Her words stabbed at his heart but how was he supposed to tell her that no matter how many women he brought home, he always imagined her face in his mind while taking them. Keeping his true feelings for her aside, he tried to push her away.

“Please at least let me hold you for a few more minutes..” She hugged him at his waist and buried her face into his hard chest, inhaling the spice in his scent. “I wish I wasn’t the great Ricardo Gonzalez’s daughter. Then I know you would have wanted me..”

He heard her whisper and from the wetness on his shirt, he was sure she was sobbing silently. His throat clogged uneasily and his heart wished to hold her and kiss her forehead. It urged him to say, “I love you too, Sarah..” but that would happen only in his imagination.

He was a henchman

She was a mafia princess.

They were from two different worlds and could never have a future together.

She was young, naive, and was living in a dreamland. She did not know what would happen once her father finds out about them. 

He stiffened at the thought of a bullet in his skull. He wasn't scared of death but that didn’t mean he was ready to die. He was young and his life was worth living. Somehow the thought of death didn’t feel inviting to him.

“You have had enough, now get lost..” Even though his heart bled for her, he dragged her out of his house. She wanted to protest but before she could do that, he threw her out and slammed the door on her face.

Closing his eyes, he inhaled deeply running his fingers into his ha. He couldn’t help but think of what Sarah had asked him earlier.

‘If I wasn’t your boss’s daughter, would you have loved me back, Niko?’

If only she knew the answer to that question. He was on the list of wanted criminals by the Colombian government and he never dreamt of having a family. He only liked to use women for his needs and disposed them of. He was happy and there was nothing more he expected from life. It was Sarah who was planting such invalid hopes in his stone-cold heart.

Walking back to his room, he undressed and slumped on the bed.

****************************************************************

“Patron, Christopher contacted with our men..” Nikolai informed Ricardo during their morning meeting. After Alberto’s arrival, it had become a routine for him to keep Ricardo updated about Alberto’s performance as Victor. Until now the old man was only disappointed by his son since he wasn’t up to the benchmark. The benchmark being his other son, Victor.

“What does he want?” Ricardo asked burying his eyes into the file which he was holding.

“Ms. Carla Brown is trying to get in touch with you for the last two days..”  

“So it means she figured it out.. Smart as always..” Ricardo remarked, smiling to himself.

“What should I do, boss?” Nikolai went on, ignoring his patron's crazy-looking face.

“Hmm.." He sat there thinking about it for a while. "Well, tell him to put her online. I would love to talk to her.”

"Yes, boss.." Nikolai dialed the number and it got connected after a long beep sound. The beep meant this call was untraceable and couldn't be tapped under any circumstances. 

"Christopher, this is Nikolai. Boss is here.." He spoke and waited for his response. "Boss.."  He handed over the receiver when he heard the shuffling from the other side. 

Grabbing the handset from Nikolai, Ricardo cleared his throat before speaking, "Hello again, my love. It's good to hear your voice after so long.. 

Nikolai stood there reading each and every expression of this old man and wondered how it was possible for such a merciless and destructive man to speak in such a sweet tone. 

Is that what love does to a man?

"How can you be so sure that it was me, Carla?" Ricardo inquired, his voice provocative. 

"It was your duty to keep your son safe.. Not mine. I have mine safe with me." He continued. 

"Ohh really, why would I do that?" 

Nikolai was able to hear only one half of the conversation yet he understood it fully. Ricardo was trying to make the poor woman believe that he had no hand in her son's disappearance. She wasn't even aware of her other son's death. 

"You know you can't come here anymore, my love. You lost that privilege the moment you left me. I warned you, once you leave this place, you will never be able to return.." 

"Well, let's see.." 

With that, he ended the call. 

Composing himself, Ricardo let out an amused chuckle, “She found it out and believes that we have Alberto. She wants to talk with him through live call..”

 “What do we do now, Patron?” Nikolai willed himself to inquire, fighting his anxiety. The woman was too brilliant for her own good and there was a possibility that she wouldn’t believe it’s Victor who is staying here. If that happened then all their efforts will be in vain.

 “Call Victor..” Ricardo commanded, ignoring Nikolai’s question. He didn’t have to answer this slave dog.

 “Yes Sir..”

 After few minutes, he walked in with Alberto whose face was straight yet his eyes held so many questions.

 “Victor, I just talked to your mother..” Ricardo announced with a tinge of mockery in his voice.

 Alberto stood still, his heart pummelled mercilessly with anticipation. If his mom had called him, it only meant that she had figured out the whole situation.

 “She thinks I abducted you..” Ricardo went on. 

 “Isn’t that true?” Alberto folded his arms against his chest as a partial smirk stretched on his lips.

 “It is.. But she doesn’t need to know that. Carla wants to speak to you through live call tonight and I want you to prove her wrong. You have to make her believe that it’s my son Victor who is here and not Alberto..”

 Alberto didn’t bother answering as he stood there zoned out, trying to process his father’s words. He could cheat anyone in this world but not his mother. The one person who gave birth to them. He was one hundred percent sure that he wouldn’t succeed in deceiving his mom.

 Willing himself into composure, he cleared his throat, “Father, that’s impossible. She will never believe in our lies. She knows her children too well..”

 “Well, then do something to make her believe and let me warn you..” Ricardo stood up from his seat and came closer to Alberto, “If you fail me, consider you and your good-for-nothing family dead. You know very well that I don’t make false threats.”

 Alberto couldn’t help but feel the chills that jerked down his spine. He knew his father wouldn’t hesitate to kill everyone involved with him if he doesn’t succeed in his task.

Nikolai watched as both his superiors stared at each other murderously. He could clearly sense the emotions in them. While Ricardo was provocative and patronizing, Alberto was exasperated and resentful. He pitied the Alberto. 

He definitely didn’t belong to this world and yet he was thrown into it due to circumstances. But Nikolai couldn’t blame Ricardo completely. He was not only doing this for his own survival but for everyone who was associated with him. He wished Alberto understood that soon and acted wisely. There was no point in fighting the inevitable. This was bound to happen and Alberto better accepts it soon.

Later that same evening, Alberto was called into the control room where Nikolai and Ricardo were already seated in front of the large screen.

“She will be online in a few minutes. Remember, if anything goes wrong..” Came out Ricardo’s threatening words.

“I know, you will kill us all..” Alberto interjected. “You have already mentioned that a hundred times before.”

 Ricardo chuckled enjoying the feel of having the upper hand here.

 Soon enough the incoming call popped on the screen illuminating the previously dim room. Alberto quickly squared his shoulders and lifted up his chin. With a curt nod from him, Nikolai answered it.

“Hello..”

In spite of preparing himself, Alberto felt his throat in knots and stood paralyzed to see his mother on the other side after so long. She looked so frail than the last time he saw her. He could see some worry lines etched in the corner of her eyes as if she had grown a little older in these three weeks.

A stinging pain rippled through Carla’s heart when she saw her son. Since the room was dark she wasn’t quite sure if he was Victor or Alberto but whomsoever he was, it had to be one out of her two sons and that thought alone made her heart swell with motherly love. Her eyes began to well up and her throat began to clog with a whirlwind of bottled-up emotions.

“Alberto, what are you doing there?”

That left Alberto shell-shocked. He couldn’t believe that even after he tried to mask his black orbs with a pair of teal contact lenses, his mother was able to recognize him.

As babies, Alberto and Victor had remarkably similar physical features, their eye color being the only way for Carla to tell them apart. Even in the dimly lit room, she could tell that the eye color of the person standing in front of her was steely grey which was, of course, Victor’s eye color while Alberto’s being pitch black ones. Yet something in her heart kept telling her that it was not Victor and perhaps Alberto.

“I’m not Alberto..” He declared in a menacingly cold voice which sounded very alien to Carla. For a moment she doubted her own instincts. She thought maybe she was being delusional and this was really Victor. Her eyes searched for anything in him that would give her a hint. 

That's when her eyes got fixed onto the scar under the chin, Carla had recognized it all too well and narrowed her eyes on it. It was Alberto who had that scar from a fall when he was four years old.

She didn’t understand why Alberto had to lie about something like that but she immediately wanted him to end that idiotic game and come back to Las Vegas. She thought it was something to do with his marriage with Abigail and she was okay to even end the engagement if he so much hated it.

She sneered at him, “I’m your mother, Alan and if you think you can fool me then you are completely wrong. Now, stop your nonsense and get back here. You don’t have to marry Abigail if you don’t like her but running away from your life isn’t a smart move, young man.”  

Alberto averted his eyes from the screen. His chest felt tight. Too tight to even breathe. He hated to see his mother suffer like this. She was too good and didn’t deserve any of this.

He sighed and rubbed his forehead using his fingers, “Mother..” He spoke gruffly, “I don’t know why you think I’m Alberto but to clear your confusion, I’m not him..”

“Alberto, stop lying to me..” She yelled loudly.

“I’m not..” He groaned with a grimace plastered on his face.

“I don’t know why you are doing this but stop it already. Come here before I come there and drag you back home.” She shifted her gaze on her husband, “Rick, please send him back, I beg you. He is all I have got.” Her voice was cracking at the end and slowly turning into soft sobs.

Even a cold-blooded killer like Nikolai was being affected by their disposition. He watched the woman sob with pain and anguish and he could feel a slight jab at his heart.

Alberto's eyes were beginning to brim with tears seeing his mother cry and the contacts he was wearing weren’t helping much as they were irritating his eyes painfully.  

Her cries were his undoing. His whole life he had tried so hard to make her happy and proud. She already had so much to cry about and he was careful to never add to her miseries. This was not what he wanted but then suddenly sensed his father’s deep stare at the back of his head. He remembered his words from the morning.

Well, then do something to make her believe and let me warn you. If you fail me, consider you and your good-for-nothing family dead. You know very well I don’t make false threats

With a defeated sigh, he closed his eyes tight. He had to do something fast or he might regret his whole life or he might not even live to regret it.

He walked forward from the darkness so that his face was illuminated by the light from the screen. And when he opened his eyes again, Carla gasped and went rigid seeing his grey eyes blank and empty of any humanly emotions. She watched him stare back at her with his jaws clenched, hands rolled into tight fists to his sides.

“You don’t believe me? Huh?” With that he pulled out something from his back and before she could comprehend more about it, she heard a loud bang within the room followed by a distressful howl of pain from the man standing next to her son.

“Arghhh..” An unbearable pain penetrated through Nikolai’s left arm and he bent down clutching the source of the pain but Alberto was fast enough to grab him up by winding his arm around his shoulder.

“Do you believe me now? Is your son capable of doing this? Can your Alberto hurt people like this?”

Carla’s cries ceased as she stood frozen to see the sinister smile on his lips with the pistol held against the man’s head.

This cannot be my Alberto

He is not capable of hurting another human being.

Any amount of doubt she had earlier was vanished now but she didn’t care anymore if he was Alberto or Victor. As a mother, she had failed her children. This is not how she wanted her sons to turn out to be. This is not the life she wanted for them. She wished she had never met Ricardo, never fallen in love with him and never given birth to his children.  

“Tell me..” Alberto roared shoving the barrel of the pistol more into Nikolai’s skull. “Do you believe now or do I have to kill this dog to make you believe?”

Carla gawked at him with complete shock and defenseless grief.

“Carla, I hope you got your answers. Now, go look for Alberto. I’m sure he is just hiding from you to escape from his wedding. See you, my love..” With that, the video call was ended and the room was flooded with darkness until the lights were turned on.

“My son..” Ricardo exclaimed, “I can’t tell you how proud you have made me tonight. You have proved that your veins after all carry my blood.” He stretched his hands out to engulf Alberto in a hug but he plunged the tip of the pistol against his chest and stopped him.

“Yes you have successfully woken up the beast inside me and now you are going to spend the rest of your life feeling sorry for that..” With a last glance at Nikolai, Alberto made his way to leave.

Ricardo sighed and shifted his eyes on Nikolai, who was seated on the floor tending to his wounds.

“Did you expect that from him?” He asked Nikolai.

“No boss..” He grunted pressing his lips into a thin line. “I thought he was possessed by Victor for a minute there..”

Ricardo chuckled proudly and before walking out he said, “Go treat your wounds, Nikolai..”

‘f*****g bastard! He shot me..’ Nikolai cursed as he got up to go towards the infirmary to get treated.