Reckless Games (Reckless Mafia #1)

Chapter 23

Angela

I put the shirt away and slowly turned around, my face expressionless as I carefully observed him. Jacob stood there, waiting for my reaction, his eyes watching intently, ready to catch anything that would put me on thin ice. I raised a single eyebrow, refusing to give him the satisfaction he sought. “What’s your point?”

“I’ll elaborate then. Why didn’t you kill him when you had the chance? You had enough time, a perfect aim—everything was a piece of cake for you in that moment,” Jacob said, pushing himself off the door frame and making his way towards me. “So how come you missed when you’re the best Nikolai has?”

“I didn’t miss. I never miss. The plan was to shoot him, and I did. The bullet hit him,” I explained, keeping my head high. “And saved Nikolai.”

“The plan was to shoot him in the heart, Angela. Not his arm. And you missed.”

“That’s the third time you’ve said that line: ‘You missed,’” I mocked him.

“Yet you haven’t explained yourself properly even once.”

“There’s nothing to explain,” I said, shaking my head and resuming my task of packing. But it wasn’t seconds later that I was pulled back by my arm and forced to face Jacob.

“Who are you fooling, Angela?”

“What are you trying to prove with all of this?” I yanked my arm out of his grip.

“That you. Never. Miss. Angela. You never miss your target. That’s what you’re best at! You’ve never missed an aim before this. How come you did it at such a crucial moment when you had the perfect chance?”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re just exaggerating the matter.” I said, exasperated and tired of the argument. I just wanted a break from everything.

“I know exactly what I’m talking about. I was there the whole time.” He was right. Sebastian was holding Jacob at gunpoint the entire time at the warehouse on the second story. Nobody could see them, but they could see everything. It was Nikolai’s order. If I had failed the mission yesterday, it would have been Jacob’s head. And much to my dismay, Nikolai knew I would not let that happen to Jacob. He was my only friend here. Nikolai knew exactly how to make someone dance to his commands by pulling the perfect strings of their weakness.

“I did kill him!” I exploded. “Why are you so fixated on the gunshot, ignoring the fact that I literally launched a grenade at them? There were four of them. And we were just two. I used my brain to get rid of them all in a single shot!” I shouted, having enough of his bullshit. Jacob stayed silent, staring into my eyes, trying to see into my soul. But my walls were not see-through. He would not get anything out of it.

“The bodies,” he started calmly, “were not found.” An unknowing relief washed over me at his words, but I made sure to keep it covered. He didn’t have to know how he just ended the turmoil that had been gnawing at me since yesterday, wondering if my plan had worked. "Nikolai sent the men with me. We found none of their bodies.” Of course, he wouldn’t have. Most grenades detonate about five seconds after the trigger is released, giving a few critical moments to react. The kill radius from a grenade’s explosion is about fifteen feet. I was thirty feet away from them. I threw the grenade only about thirteen feet away from me before Nikolai and I made the run for it, getting us far enough in those five seconds to escape the brutal damage. We ended up with a few bruises, but nothing crucial. Which meant Lorenzo and his friends had enough time to create the space needed to escape the explosion. Yes, it sounds crazy, but I had everything calculated.

Apparently Nikolai had everything planned, from the first attack on Lorenzo a year ago to how I would enter his life after saving him and making him fall in love with me. The latter part was surprisingly easy; he was already infatuated before I realized. The attacks on his mansions, burning the house, my kidnapping—everything was planned. Except…

“How could you let such an important target escape?” Jacob’s voice sounded hurt this time. I did not answer immediately. Instead, I picked up the shirt that had slipped from my hands earlier.

“I’m only human, Jacob. Humans make mistakes,” I whispered.

“Yeah? Like the mistake of falling in love with Lorenzo Martinez?” My head whipped around, eyes narrowing at his words. My heartbeat sped up, and I struggled to keep my emotions in check.

“Are you out of your mind?” I hissed back.

“Stop bluffing, Angela.” He moved closer, taking my hands in his. I grew stiff but did not break eye contact. “I could see it in your eyes. And your eyes don’t lie. Back at the club, when you got drunk, the excitement was real when he came to get you. And don’t even get me started on what happened at the warehouse.” I could not say anything. My mind was blank, incapable of forming a coherent thought. “I thought I was your best friend, Angela,” Jacob complained. “I was the one who always got you out of trouble whenever Nikolai was harsh on you.” That was true. Jacob was the only other slave Nikolai had besides me. The rest of his men were loyal to him. But we were rebels. We were the passengers of the same boat, both homeless orphans. Jacob was two years older than me and soon took the role of the big brother I never had in my life. “I always had your back, and you shared everything with me. Since when did you start hiding things? You could have told me!”

“And then what?” My voice exploded with irritation. “Hm? And then what? Have you forgotten the third rule of the Bratva, Jacob?” My eyebrows shot up solemnly. “Let me remind you: Your feelings don’t matter!” I fought back the dam of emotions threatening to burst. “I betrayed Lorenzo Martinez. He hates me, and there’s nothing more to it. That’s the end of the story!”

“You didn’t betray him; you saved him,” Jacob said softly.

“I fucking shot him and gave away the only thing that meant the most to him—to his enemy—after he proposed to me! So stop assuming things.” Jacob kept staring at me silently.

“You’re hurting,” he stated breaking the silence.

“Why do you fucking care, Jacob?!”

“I do care!” he boomed. “I care more than I should about you because—” He paused.

“Because what?”

“Because I'm… I’m your only friend,” he scoffed, sounding disappointed in what he had just said.

“Just stop,” I sighed, exhausted from the conversation. “Don’t you want to get out of here? To get rid of this hell hole? To get rid of this damn thing that controls your whole life?” I pointed at my wrist, where the chip was embedded. The chip that controlled Jacob’s and my lives. The chip that could electrocute us to death. The chip whose remote was in Nikolai’s and Sebastian’s hands.

I could not stop the tears from leaking from my eyes anymore. And from the way Jacob’s eyes were red, I knew he was facing the same struggle. He gently took my hand, running his thumb over the scar and uneven skin where the chip was embedded. My thoughts traveled back to the time Lorenzo had questioned it. I did not lie to him that night. I had never lied to him ever, in fact. I had just not given him the full truth. I had always wanted to be a surgeon. That was my dream. And this mark on my wrist was given to me by these monsters I was trapped with since the night of my parents’ deaths.

“I’m sorry.” Jacob’s eyes softened. “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you from this that night.” My thoughts traveled back to that night when it all happened, making my skin crawl.

It was the day I was going to meet Nikolai to inform him of the latest news about the mission at hand. As I approached his office, I heard voices coming from inside.

"She is strong, no doubt. Which is why I decided her fate would not be the same as the other girls I have," Nikolai said, his voice carrying through the partially open door.

What was he talking about?

"Still, what if she finds out that it was you who caused the accident?" Sebastian’s voice joined the conversation. "It's because of you her parents are dead. Because of your love for her mother and hatred for her father." A cold dread settled in my stomach. I leaned closer to the door, my heart pounding in my ears.

"And who will tell her?" Nikolai's voice held a challenge. "Good food was all she ever wanted. I still gave her a luxurious life in my mansion, trained her to be the best killer out there. She can protect herself in ways no one else can. I gave her more than she bargained for. More than the crappy life her father would have given her anyway. Poor him, should have thought twice before running away with one of my women and impregnating her. She was my favorite out of all of them."

My soul left my body. I peered inside to see Nikolai and Sebastian talking casually. Jacob was there too, his eyes cast down in guilt and remorse. It was clear he did not want to be there.

The walls started to close in on me, making it hard to breathe. I needed to get out. I stumbled backward, knocking over a vase. It shattered, echoing through the corridor. They all turned to the noise. Panic surged through me as I made a run for it.

"Don't let that bitch get away!" Nikolai barked.

I sprinted down the hall, my heart in my throat, but they caught up to me just as I reached the mansion's entrance. Nikolai’s hand clamped down on my arm, yanking me back. He slapped me hard across the face, and pain exploded through my skull. The second slap sent me into darkness. The last thing I remembered was his voice, dripping with venom, "You’ll pay for this with your life, you ungrateful brat."

When I woke up, my entire body ached, but the pain in my wrist was the worst. It felt like my skin had been torn apart and cut multiple times. I looked down to see it coated with dry blood. I started to cry as Jacob entered the room.

"Gosh, you're awake! Finally! I was so worried," he said, hugging me tightly. I kept crying until I finally managed to ask, sobbing, "What did they do to me?"

Jacob could not meet my eyes. He looked down in shame and guilt. Before he could answer, we heard footsteps approaching. He moved to stand at a distance from me quickly.

"Ah, so the princess is finally awake," Nikolai mocked as he entered with Sebastian.

"You bastard! You killed my parents!" I lunged at Nikolai. But before I could reach him, everything changed. A jolt hit me like a truck—sudden and violent. Pain shot from my wrist, racing through my veins, igniting every nerve in my body. It was as if a thousand knives were stabbing me simultaneously, each one sharper than the last. My muscles seized up, contracting uncontrollably. I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. My body was no longer mine; it was a puppet dancing to the cruel strings of electric current.

I tried to scream, but my jaw locked tight. My vision blurred, and the room spun as every fiber of my being was consumed by agony. The pain was all-encompassing, obliterating everything else. I couldn’t hear, couldn’t see, couldn’t feel anything except the searing, relentless electricity coursing through me.

Time lost all meaning. Seconds stretched into eternity. I was trapped in a hellish loop of pain, each jolt feeling like it would never end. Just when I thought I couldn’t take it anymore, that I would surely die from the intensity, it stopped.

I collapsed to the ground, gasping for air, my limbs trembling uncontrollably. My muscles twitched from the residual electricity still lingering in my system. The world slowly came back into focus, but everything was tinged with a hazy, surreal quality. My breathing was ragged; every inhale was a struggle against the lingering pain.

Nikolai bent down to my level, his cruel smirk piercing through the haze. "Next time, I'm not going to be so generous, princess," he said, flashing the remote in front of my eyes.

I tried to focus on his face, but my vision was still swimming. My body felt like it had been shattered and put back together wrong, every part of me aching and raw. I caught sight of Jacob, his face twisted with helpless anger and sorrow. He looked like he wanted to kill Nikolai, but he couldn't. I saw the mark on his wrist. The same mark that was now on mine.

“It wasn’t your fault.” I managed to whisper after breaking out of my thoughts.

***