Handcuffed To The Mafia Boss

Chapter Six

"Ta-da." I exclaimed in happiness when we reached the spot I wanted us to, and with the alcohol in my veins and the crave for drinking more of it, believe me when I say, I would have clapped in enthusiasm if I could.

However, the stranger I was cuffed to didn't look as happy as I did because his eyebrows were furrowed and he was carrying a frown on his lips, looking at me in a weird way. 

"What?" I asked him, confused.

He shook his head, pressing his deep and dark brown eyes shut in a mixture of something that seemed like disbelief and disappointment. "You're an idiot."

I nearly pouted. "You're mean."

"They're both facts, Juliet. I'm mean, and you're an idiot." He commented shamelessly, and I further furrowed my eyes. Why was he so arrogant? "We had to go to a hotel room in the adjacent building." He hissed, "And all you did was bring us to the roof of this building, which is all commercial by the way. The hotel is there. There." He pointed towards our right indistinctly.

I rolled my eyes. Very impatient. There. Another very gentleman trait of my stranger. "Patience, Oliver." I ridiculed.

"Oliver?" He grumbled under his breath and I could see Smith, who had trailed us all the way up here, trying to hide a smile by pursing his lips. At least Smith was a softie.

"This," I said, walking towards the edge of the right side of the terrace, "Is the adventure."

He raised an eyebrow, looking at me with disinterest. 

"What?" I asked him, getting annoyed now. Why was he such a buzz kill?

"What is your adventure, Juliet?"

"We jump." I tell him, the excitement visible in my eyes.

"Wh– What?" He asked in a mumble, "We....jump?"

"Yes," I casually agreed, "We jump from this building's roof, to that. It's just the jump of... five feet. They're just five feet apart."

The stranger almost shrieked in return, "And twenty floors high!" 

"I know, James." I blinked my eyes, "Exactly why I called it an adventure." 

"This is proof you're an idiot."

"This is proof that you're just scared of the jump."

He scoffed. "I'm not scared of anything."

"Except jumping from this terrace to the other?" I frowned.

"I'm not scared of it either, it's just a mad pl–"

I cut him off. "Then prove it."

"Prove what?" 

"That you're not scared of it. Jump." I encouraged.

He opened his mouth to say something but shut it again. "Okay."

"Okay?" My eyebrows raised in disbelief. He actually agreed?

"Okay." He repeated, taking a deep breath and gulping.

"Sir, I would highly recommend against doing that." Smith intervened, and he looked doubtful of the plan. Doubtful? He looked very, very nervous about the whole thing. "You are both drunk."

"Drunk? What are you talking about? I'm completely in my senses." The stranger argued with a ridiculing face, "And I'm sure, as is Juliet."

"For once, I actually agree with Lucas. Yay." I nodded, enthusiastic again.

"Luc..." The stranger groaned, but chose to ignore the new name I had given him. "See," he told Smith, "We agree. Don't mistake her idiocy for being drunk. She's a sober idiot."

I ignore his comments as well. "Hurry up, Elijah. We don't have all night."

"This lady should be banned from naming. Can you imagine a baby named Elijah? Can you, Smith?" The stranger continued talking to his employee, ignoring me again– which was completely okay with me.

Who even wanted this mad man to talk to me?

"I'm still worried, Sir. It's twenty floors high and a four feet jump." Smith's voice lowered and was directed towards his boss. I looked away, giving them the privacy to finish their conversation.

"Four? Damn, I thought it was five."

"Sir..."

"Nothing's going to happen, Smith." The stranger sighed, his voice determined, "I've survived worse. What will a little jump to me?"

"If you're sure, Sir." Smith's voice was still so, so doubtful.

"I am." On the contrary, the stranger sounded awfully confident about himself as he looked away from Smith, and faced forwards again.

"So, what have you survived?" I curiously asked him when he turned back to me. So much for not eavesdropping and giving them privacy.

"An hour with you." He smirked.

I rolled my eyes. He thinks he's really witty, huh. Lame... that's all he was. 

"Let's get this done with, shall we?" I ask in a bored tone.

"If you're so impatient to die." He answered stepping closer.

I fake smiled at him. "You're cuffed to me. I die, you die with me."

"It goes both ways, Juliet. I die, you die with me." He reminded me, amusement flickering in his eyes.

"Okay, Romeo." I joked.

He raised eyebrows when he looked at me, suddenly halting. "Romeo?" 

"Yes, one of your many names for the night." I raise my eyebrows casually, and my eyes then slightly widen in realisation, "Wait, is your name Romeo?"

"No." He replied, his gaze hardening as he stopped looking at me and stared ahead. "I'm not Romeo."

I narrowed my eyes suspiciously. "Then why'd you react that way?" Maybe his name was Romeo. He just didn't want to accept it to me.

"Because, Juliet, I wouldn't die for you." He answered, voice cold and hoarse as if someone had vacuumed all the frustration in this world and suddenly locked it in him. 

"What?" I blinked, and then realisation struck me, rendering me silent.

"If you're dying, I would simply let you." He added, making the sudden heaviness in my chest a hundred times worse. "Now, shall we?"

I nodded, taking a deep breath as I looked ahead too. It wasn't as hard. It wouldn't be as hard if we weren't twenty floors up and slightly drunk. Slightly. Oh, and handcuffed, of course.

"So here's the plan," He said as we stepped towards the very edge. "We climb up, and on count of three, we jump together."

"Sir, I hope you know how insane this sounds," Smith added from behind, "There's a high chance you both fall down. As your security, I cannot recommend you to do that.

Security? Smith didn't look like security. He was muscular, sure, but still leaner than the stranger and just didn't give off the vibe that a security man would. Besides, if the stranger here was rich enough to afford personal security, how was he not rich enough to pay something to the hotel staff and buy his way inside? Why go through this crazy life endangering experience instead?

"Well lucky for me, I'm not asking for your recommendation." The stranger answered, pulling me out of my thoughts as he turned his gaze to me. "You ready?"

"Yeah." I nod, licking my lips slightly. It must've been the alcohol in my veins, or I had to really been as much of an i***t as my stranger was painting me to be to agree to this suicidal plan.

"Are you a good jumper?"

"Yes, I've won the Olympic gold a couple times." I answered scrunching my nose, staring at him in disbelief. "You're asking dumb questions." 

"Geez Juliet, I simply meant to ask if you'd be able to jump four feet across in those long ass heels you're wearing or are we going to tumble down?" 

Groaning mentally, I quickly removed my heels with my free hand and threw it across easily, the clattering sound of it falling on the polished floor of the roof of the adjacent building following soon after. "There." I told him.

He raised his eyebrows, half nodding to himself in disbelief as he pulling my hand closer to him, climbed upon the thankfully thick railing. "There's this thin pavement connecting the two buildings," he said as I followed his lead up, and carefully leaning ahead, saw what he was talking about. There was this thin concrete pavement on the side connecting the roofs of the two buildings. 

My eyes flickered downstairs for a brief moment. We were twenty floors high on the very edge. I could see cars speeding down on the main road, and the little space between the two buildings was nothing but a narrow alleyway. On the right there was a wall connecting the two buildings, with the pavement that I hadn't realised was present earlier.

This was scary. Scarier than I thought it would be.

I gulped. "Let's walk on the pavement," I suggested, trying to keep up my confidence, "That is so much more of a sane plan, right?"

"Right...right." He agreed, "I walk ahead, you follow my lead, alright?"

"Yes." I shuddered. Carefully, he stepped from the railing onto the pavement. I knew his breath was trembling too when he took a careful step forward, his cuffed hand behind him for my convenience as I followed his lead, stepping out onto the pavement too.

This was madness.

Looking down and seeing nothing but a height of twenty floors was madness. It made my breath tremble, my knees almost shake but I knew it was also moment like these that made me so grateful for being alive. That made me feel alive.

Death never scared me anyway.

He took another step forward. I followed.

Another step forward. I followed.

And then one more.

And before we knew, we were on the other end of the pavement. Slowly and steadily.

His free hand gripped the railing of the other roof and I have no idea how he did it, but in one stride, he jumped inside putting all his weight on his free hand.

I think what he forgot was that his other hand was cuffed to me, and he jerked me forward, making me lose my balance.

I knew the cold air hit me. I knew I shrieked. I knew I felt the ground vanish under my foot. I knew Smith's shout mingled with mine. I knew I was fear stricken, waiting for the great fall and to reach the ground where death would welcome me because of this insane plan that I had myself concurred, and I don't know what happened in that little moment that my eyes were shut, but everything that I awaited never came to me.

Instead, I felt one warm hand holding me tight and a now familiar voice playing in my ears. "Open your eyes, Juliet."

Breathing deeply and sharply with my mouth, gasping and panting for air in fear, I opened my eyes to straight look into my stranger's brown ones in the dim light of the night sky, and I just stared at him for a moment before realisation struck me and I started looking around, taking quick steps away from him. We were on the other building's roof. While I let that realisation soak in, I conveniently forgot that our hands were cuffed, making me recoil in pull towards him.

My breath hitched when I found myself so close to him. So much closer than before.

"We... we're here." I stuttered, breath still shaky. "How?"

He just stared at me before a little smug smile-smirk made its way his lips. "Guess I'm not as drunk as you thought if I saved your life, Juliet."

"How did you do it?" I asked again, voice a soft trembling whisper. 

He chose to not answer me, the smile on his lips only growing. "Our rooms on the nineteenth floor, all we have to do is take an elevator without going through any metal detectors."

"Y- Yes." I nodded in quick agreement, feeling dizzy by how close he was to me.

"Let's go then?" He asked again.

I gulped. "Yes." This time, my voice was a lot more louder and confident.

"Leave my hand then."

"What?"

"Leave my hand." He repeated, the smirk on his lips only growing. My eyes deviated to my hand tightly holding his, the ones which were cuffed together. I may have held his hand subconsciously somewhere along the pavement out of fear. 

Looking away, I instantly left his hand. I knew the smile on his lips was still smug, so I avoided looking at him and looked everywhere else in nervousness.

"Niklaus." He said, making my eyes flicker back to him immediately. "That's my name. Niklaus Brown."