Chapter Two: Aconite pt 2

The moment I enter, twelve heads turn in my direction, some looking displeased to see me, but I couldn’t care less. Each man is seated around a large oval mahogany table, in a dimly lit room just big enough to fit them all in. At the head of the table is Uncle Dimitris. His dark blue eyes focus on me, but he does nothing to acknowledge my presence. He’s 54, with a slim-toned build that comes up to 6’1. His salt and pepper hair is flat to his head but slightly swept to the side revealing the lines of age etched into his forehead. His trimmed salt and pepper beard hides his pointed jawline and almost disguises his olive-toned skin. It’s even more toned down due to the long-sleeved black button-down shirt he’s wearing that becomes taught as he leans his elbow on the arm of his chair.

Sitting to his right at the table is my favourite man in the whole wide world. Mihalis Hatzis, my father. My father and Uncle Dimitris look like they could be brothers, but they share no blood. They are family by oath. My father has dark brown hair that is slowly greying, more so at the sides than anywhere else. His hair is thicker on top and trimmed at the sides, but his thin beard is definitely showing more signs of age than his hair. He has deep blue eyes and smooth olive skin with very few wrinkles. He’s still fairly toned, but a little slimmer than Uncle Dimitris, but he is hiding his figure under a grey suit and gold dress shirt.

My father smiles warmly at me, and I don’t hesitate to make my way to him, bending down to kiss his cheek.

“Geia, patera,” I greet him warmly.

“Geia, louloudi mou,” he smiles, patting the back of my head affectionately.

I walk over and gently kiss Uncle Dimitris’s cheek and stand at his side patiently.

“What the fuck is she doing in here? Even the wives were kept outside. No women are allowed in,” Zephyr snaps aggressively. That man is still living in the 50s. It’s 1989, get with the times.

“Dasha is here at my request. She is a member of this family, and you will all do well to remember that,” Dimitris says coldly.

“We have rules and traditions for a reason. She doesn’t belong here,” Zephyr says before turning his attention to me, “Women are good for one thing; carrying our names and our heirs, besides that, you have little to no value. Well, maybe you hold a little more value with that ass,” he grins sickly, as a couple men in the room snigger. Men I’ve known since I was an infant, mind you.

Zephyr Bakirtzis is the definition of a useless neanderthal. He’s 56 with sickly white skin, brown bushy eyebrows, and a salt and pepper beard that is so unkept that it’s varying in length. His hair is a mid-length mousy brown and if it weren’t for his beard and hair flopping into his eyes, he’d look emaciated. The man seriously needs more red meat in his diet. The dark brown suit he’s wearing is hanging off him and doing nothing for his complexion.

My father’s hand slams down on the table as he glares at Zephyr, “Speak to my daughter like that again, and I’ll remove your fucking tongue,” he says murderously. I do my best to hide my smile, but I do love how protective my father is of me, even when he knows I can take care of myself.

“Can we please get back to the meeting? Why have we all been called here today?” Helios asks with a frustrated glare at Zephyr.

Zephyr lazily lifts his glass to take a sip of the amber liquid inside and I step around Dimitris’s chair.

“It’s so frustrating how the loudest man in the room is usually the dumbest,” I say bluntly.

“Excuse me?” Zephyr asks in a hard voice as his glass pauses near his lips.

I slowly make my way over to him and can feel the tension building in the room, “For so many years I’ve heard you speak with this unrelenting level of confidence and arrogance, and yet rarely have you ever had anything of value to say. I wonder, is the reason why you want women to stay silent because you think they have nothing to say, or perhaps,” I say, placing my hand over the top of his glass and lowering it away from his face, “It’s because you fear that every woman in the room will prove how much smarter than you they are,” I say with a smug smile.

His brown eyes harden, and his hands shake trying not to shatter the glass in his hand, “Dimitris, are you going to sit there and let her speak to me like this?!” He shouts.

“Ever heard of the Blue Ringed Octopus, Zephyr?” I ask as I make my way back to stand at Dimitris’s side.

Still, no one dares say a word. No one but Zephyr, of course.

“What?” He asks, thrown by my question.

“It’s a tiny octopus with vibrant blue rings on its body, the name is exceedingly self-explanatory,” I say casually, resting my arm on the back of Dimitris’s chair.

“Why the fuck are you telling me this?” Zephyr spits, before downing his drink.

“Well, this majestic little creature happens to naturally produce a highly lethal venom. A neurotoxin known as tetrodotoxin. It’s found in a lot of sea creatures and is the whole dangerous appeal of eating fugu. You see it takes very little to kill someone. The beauty of this poison is the paralysis it causes. Complete shutdown of every muscle in the body. A person injected with a lethal dose can be left trapped in their own body in agonising pain until they suffocate to death, provided they don’t go into cardiac arrest first. Always depends on the dose, the source of injection, and the patient, of course,” I continue.

“Since you have shit in your ears, I’ll repeat. Why are you telling me this?” He hisses.

I chuckle, “Oh, I wasn’t telling you. I was telling the other gentleman in the room. I wanted them to have the facts so they can decide whether or not to attempt to save your life.”  

The men around the room begin to whisper as Zephyr’s features drop and with trepidation in his eyes he slowly glances at his now empty glass on the table. He looks at me with fuming anger in his eyes as he jumps to his feet, slamming his hands on the table.

“What the fuck have you done?!”

“Sit the fuck down,” Dimitris says with a coldness in his voice that sends a shiver through my spine. Dimitris is a businessman, and death and murder are part of the job, but he has always been rather aloof about it. However, there is a coldness he exhibits only in the rarest of cases, and Zephyr has definitely earned it.

“Dimitris–”

“Don’t you dare fucking speak my name as though we’re friends. I understood Mihalis’s rage when you sat there and insulted his daughter. I feel that rage tenfold every day when I think about my daughter, Athena. That girl is the light of my life, and my enemies snuffed that light out,” he says through gritted teeth as he rises to his feet, “Day after day she hides in her room, too traumatised to even let me hold her and bring her comfort because it reminds her of the men who dared touch her. I have always protected my family, so I found it hard to believe my enemies could get to her so easily, and that’s when I knew. I had a traitor in my family,” he sneers.

The room has turned deadly quiet, everyone hanging on Dimitris’s words while Zephyr begins to turn pale, and it’s not from the poison he ingested.

“I knew I had to find who was responsible for what was done to my daughter, and so I called on Dasha, who didn’t hesitate to look into it. I’ve always admired her skills, and the skills of the women in her family, and she didn’t disappoint,” he says, sliding his hands into his pant pockets.

“It didn’t take me long to find out that while you may manage several clubs that the family uses to funnel money through, you’re also in the Ariti family’s pocket. I managed to capture one of them and it didn’t take him long to talk,” I smile darkly.

“You helped them abduct my daughter,” Dimitris practically growls; the men in the room shrinking under his energy. All the men except my father, who has kept his eyes on Zephyr this entire time. Probably hoping he suffers in the worst way possible. “Because of you, grown men tortured and brutally raped my little girl. They took her innocence, her hope, HER LIFE!” He screams as his body begins to shake with rage.

“Dimitris, you can’t believe a word she says,” Zephyr argues feebly, much to the disgust of everyone in the room.

Dimitris storms over grabbing Zephyr by the throat and slamming his head into the table, pinning it in place, “You dare to fucking make excuses for what you’ve done! You’re a traitor to me and this family, but even then, I’d have given you a quick death. But for what you helped them do to my daughter, I want you to suffer. I needed time to think about how I wanted you to die, but when I decided, I called Dasha here immediately. I called you all here, to witness what happens to those who cross me. What I am willing to do to the next person who would fucking think to touch my family!”

Dimitris lets Zephyr go, who, on shaky legs, rushes to the door and tries to pull on the handles. Dimitris adjusts his shirt and smooths out his hair as he makes his way back over to his chair. He looks at me with grateful eyes and squeezes my shoulder.

“Efcharistó para poli, Dasha,” he says appreciatively.

I smile graciously and squeeze his hand, “I’m glad I could help you bring Athena a little justice.”

“Let me the fuck out!” Zephyr screams as he pounds on the door. He loosens his tie as sweat forms on his brow, and in a state of panic he begins moving from man to man, begging each one to help him, but each quickly shoves him away.

“How much longer?” Dimitris asks.

“Working himself up like that isn’t helping. Paired with the dose I gave him, I give him another twenty minutes,” I say while turning the poison ring on my finger over. Works every time.

“Then these are twenty minutes I hope to never forget,” he says as he sits down in his chair and leans back watching intently as the minutes tick by and Zephyr slowly succumbs to the effects of the poison.

Days like today I’m glad I followed in my mother’s footsteps.

I come from a long line of assassins. Knowledge and skills passed down from mother to daughter. Sometimes the odd kill is a quick way to turn a profit, but then there are times like right now, where I’m able to give someone justice. Athena was a bright young girl, who at just sixteen had her whole future ahead of her, and a group of men took that from her. They violated her body and mind in ways she may never recover from. I may not be able to take back what was done to her, but I could at least make those men pay.

Took a little time, but I managed to find every single one and give them the deaths they so greatly deserved. The only one left was Zephyr. The one who started it all. His death will act as a warning to every man in this room, and maybe, just maybe, it will stop it from happening again. And if it doesn’t, then let them know I’ll be coming for them. They may all know me as Dasha Hatzis, daughter of Mihalis Hatzis; right-hand man of the of the most powerful mafia family in all of Greece. But to the rest of the world, I am known by my codename - Aconite; a lethal assassin who fears no man.