Aching for His Discretion (The Discretion Dynasty #1)

2. Levi

Chapter two

Levi

L ooking down at the sorry excuse of a man as he whined in agony and pain, I rolled my shoulders backward, still annoyed by the stinging sensation in my arm from my pain medication wearing off.

It wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle, having been shot plenty of times before, but obviously this time was different, having gone to a hospital instead of being treated by my personal doctor for something as insignificant as a bullet wound. Although I partially thanked Dr. Lombardi for being absent, as I’d had the pleasure of being treated by a rather interesting medical student.

She was small, petite, fragile-looking, from what I recalled. I wasn’t supposed to end up in her care due to my patient file being classified for obvious reasons, but I didn’t quite mind her. She was a jittery and anxious little thing, that was for sure: intelligent but self-doubting and insecure.

I guess a majority of medical students were the same then. But still, she was different. Usually, I wouldn’t have been so tolerant of people openly defying my orders or commands, but God, she could barely walk straight with how nervous she was.

Never thought I’d show an ounce of pity for someone trying to do their job. If it were any other case, a bullet through the skull would have solved the issue of defiance, but she wouldn’t have deserved that.

“Diavolo, p-please. P-please, I’ll have the money soon!” the man on the floor begged, cutting my thoughts as I was no longer focused on the woman who had my pants tightening by just the mere thought of her.

“‘Soon’… I’m not quite a fan of that word, you know. I have a fucking business to run,” I muttered, annoyed, and he shook his head.

“I know. Believe me, I-I know. I-I just need more time—” he began, but he didn’t get much further as my fist found his jaw, sending him across the room into his wall.

“And I need my fucking money, Mitchel… I gave you enough time,” I practically growled, storming over to him as I gripped his collar in my hands. Hitting his body against the wall, he whined in pain as I glared into his eyes. He was lucky I hadn’t kicked his ribs in and let him bleed out on his shitty apartment floor.

“I don’t think you were worried about needing more time when you snorted ten kilograms of cocaine like a fucking addict, huh? Were you fucking worried about it then?!”

He cowered away from me as tears spilled from his eyes and blood leaked from his head. Throwing him to the ground, I pulled out my brass knuckle rings as he held his hands up in fear.

“Please, Diavolo, please—” he began, and I paused as I heard the faint sound of a door opening down the hall. The low murmur of a voice sounded like it was coming from next door.

I knew there were tenants in this building, but oddly, I had never encountered anyone on Mitchel’s floor.

Glaring down at him, I muttered, “Got a friendly neighbor next door, huh?”

His eyes seemed to widen as I stared at him expectantly. After a moment, he shook his head, fear clearly in his eyes as he spoke.

“She—she doesn’t know anything. She lives by herself, and she barely says anything to me. I-I promise. Sh-she probably didn’t hear anything,” he reasoned, and as if on cue, small sounds began to emit from his front door.

It sounded more like scratches than knocks, but it was distracting nonetheless. Putting away my brass rings, I made my way through his shitty apartment toward the front door.

“You sure about that?”

Upon getting closer, my eyebrows furrowed slightly as I could hear… purring?

Opening the door, I expected to see the so-called neighbor who kept to herself. However, I was met with an odd sight as something ran past my shoes over to its home down the hall.

Given we were on the edge of upstate New York, part of me assumed it was a mouse or rat running by. The last thing I would have expected it to be, however, was… a cat .