Broken Promises

two

|Xavier's POV|

I stare at the ringing phone in my hand before rolling my eyes and placing it back in the inner pocket of my suit jacket, turning my eyes back towards the blubbering mess of a man sitting tied to a chair in front of me.

"What the f**k were you doing in my area, pal?" I hiss, digging the tip of my gun into the stab wound in his thigh as tight as I can as he screams out in pain. Tears and snot running down his face, mixing with blood from his wounds make him look even more pathetic than earlier.

"The Albanians..." he chokes out, "I told you already..."

I press the gun further into his wound, knowing full well that he is only going to survive for a couple more minutes, considering the sheer amount of stabs, broken bones, and nerve damage he has undergone since my men first found him two days ago.

"You know more than that." I growl at him, my voice becoming the version of itself that has my enemies quaking with fear.

Satisfaction curls in the pit of my stomach when I see that it is having the desired effect on this man as well.

"Who is your Capo?" I ask, the mouth of my glock deep inside his flesh wound, making more tears escape from his eyes.

"I don't know..." he chokes out once again, his voice strained by the agony that he is currently suffering through.

His reply makes me roll my eyes and just when I am about to speak again, my phone begins to buzz in my pocket incessantly.

I remove my gun from his thigh and let my arm rest against the arm of the chair I was currently sitting in, I lean my back against the tall cushioned rest behind me, making me feel like I am sitting in a throne— of sorts, and when I pull my phone out again, I see a message from my father.

Come to Kalindi right now, your future wife is already here.

The persisting headache only grows tenfolds reading that message and I realise that my days of freedom are finally over.

"Please...just let me go..." the man's pathetic voice interrupts my trail of thoughts, my anger reaching its peaks as I load my gun and pull the trigger without even a single moment's notice.

The bullet goes straight into his skull, staining the cuff of my white shirt with his blood but I quickly cover it with the sleeve of my black suit.

Buttoning my suit jacket, I stand up from the emerald green armchair I was sitting in, staring down at the rotting man in front of me.

"Get him out of my sight." I mutter, and the men standing against the walls of the basement I am in quickly break into motion as they drag his body away.

I am checking my messages as I walk out of the basement and enter a lift with two of my trusted men.

"Raph, I want all details regarding this buffoon exposed to the dark web, I want to send the Capo a message." I tell the one standing next to me. He immediately nods his head, and I know that I do not have to tell him twice.

When the lift opens again, it is in the lobby of the apartment building owned by me, and I find none other than my best friend standing in front of me with a s**t eating grin on his lips.

He spreads his arms wide, "it is time!" He says in a nagging sing-song voice which is enough to make me glare at him heatedly.

My men follow after me as I step towards Azriel, "you should be at Kalindi, instead of here." I tell him in a disappointed tone. I had expected him to be my proxy while I wound up with the torture of one of the Albanian mafia soldiers.

He shook his head, "and be the subject to all your father's questions regarding your whereabouts? No way in hell." He grumbles.

I roll my eyes, irritation sparking up inside me as I realise just how much tonight is truly irking me.

Tonight is the night I have been taught about since I was four years old.

The night when the world will know about my arranged marriage with the Princeton heiress— the girl who will inherit all my father's business and I will inherit hers.

The whole situation feels like a f*****g trap.

The two rival families of New York mafia have had their ups and downs but I never thought that my father would broker such a losing deal with Alistair in hopes of uniting us.

Alistair was a f*****g rat and I knew because I have made it my business to know every single detail about him and his family ever since I got involved in this business.

I denied my father of this deal but all he would tell me is that he had made an oath which could not be broken.

"Come on, let's get this over with." I mutter as the two of us sit in the backseat of one of my limos, making our way to Kalindi for my dearest future wife's twenty fifth birthday.

"You aren't a least bit excited about tonight?" Azriel asks, keeping his phone back in his pocket as his eyes regard me with curiosity.

I cannot help the scowl that appears on my lips as I look outside at the buzzing streets of New York.

"This is a death sentence. Being tied to a woman I have never met is irritating." I mumble.

"But you know everything about her!" Azriel pointed out.

I roll my eyes at that, "I know everything about her family, but whatever knowledge I have about her has been provided by Alistair himself, which could very well be misleading." I tell him, "I don't even know how she looks in real life. The last photo the world has of her is from her first year at Oxford, which was about four years ago."

That is when Azriel's phone pings and he pulls it out, looking at the screen. "That can change right now, boss, seems like the media has been obsessed with her for the last few years while she was abroad. And now, every news outlet is posting the pictures of her from tonight. They call it her 'glow-up' of sorts." He tells me, pushing the phone in my direction, "would you like to see how she looks now? Trust me, you won't regret it."

I have to close my eyes while my index finger and thumb pinch the bridge of my nose. My headache is truly making me nauseous by this point.

"I would rather not." I mutter and take in a deep breath just as the car comes to a stop.

This is it.

My life is going to end.