1 | The Dead Rose

♪♪ Espresso • by Sabrina Carpenter

✿✿✿

LILAH

New York, USA, 2024

I expected the smell of coffee beans and fresh chocolate croissants as every evening, my mouth watering just at the thought of it.

But the mixed smell of alcohol, weed and tobacco hit my olfactory nerves through the nostrils, making my head spin and face shirnk.

It's been twenty fucking minutes.

I'm forcefully staring at some prick for twenty fucking minutes and feeling his nasty irritating glare all over my body.

The creature known as men, are so fucking annoying. They don't know how to keep their eyes and the thing into their pants where they belong to. They'd run toward you like dogs if you give them a single positive glance.

So fucking ludicrous.

But here everyone thinks women are fragile and weak. Trust me, a woman can bring a man to fall on his knees with a single glance whether he's dangerous, inhumane or vicious; from a mighty king to a relentless warrior. And history is its biggest testimony.

Pulling out my red lipstick and compact mirror from my Louis Vuitton purse, I reapply it on my plump lips.

Don't waste your time thinking that I'm a rich bitch, because the purse is just a replica.

I look around the club through my mascara smeared lashes as my gaze meets a lot of drunk people until it again meets the bastard I have some business to do with for tonight.

I pause when my eyes lands on the familiar tattoo of a dead rose on his neck. I clearly remember Robbie had the similar one on his neck too. That means I'm after the right person, I have to be.

I'm almost there.

"That tattoo, it looks so familiar. Do you know anything about that?" I murmur to Jimmy, the bartender.

"Don't ask this question to anyone. If they hear it, they'll suspect you as an FBI agent and kill you." Jimmy whispers cautiously, looking around to make sure nobody hears him.

Jimmy, the short blonde who looks naive and amicable with a cute face and charming smile. You'd be nothing but a tomfool if you underestimate him because he has all of the most hidden information about the underworld in his cryptic brain.

Don't judge a book by its cover, right?

"Then you tell me." I raise my eyebrow and take a sip from my drink.

"The tattoo is a sign of the Bratva and it indicates their loyalty to the mafia family. When they assign as a member of the mafia, they cosign their life to the Devil and get the tattoo. Only exclusive members, who have seen him, get the tattoo on the neck. But the others get it on their wrist." He murmurs and keeps serving the drinks to the people.

That means Robert was an exclusive member and he had seen the boss. When he said he messed up with the boss, that means whoever the boss is implicated behind Robbie's disappearance.

"Who's that?" I ask through gritted teeth.

"Ivan Volkov, the Russian mafia king, is known as the Devil to the underworld. He's also called as 'the boss of all bosses'. Gosh, nobody dares to speak about him." The fear in Jimmy's eyes is clear like crystal as he whispers carefully.

Ivan Volkov.

At a venture, electric sparkle spreads like wildfire with my corpuscles throughout my body, rushing everywhere through my psyche and provoking a storm in the respiratory system. I shouldn't feel shivered and burned like this just hearing a name. Maybe because I saw this name on the top of headlines of newspapers and news channels before and totally aware of how dodgy, inexorable and appalling the personality is.

"But I don't care. I'll find him out at any cost." I grit out as I feel pure rage ignites inside me.

Whoever the boss is, I'll fucking destroy him if I don't find my brother.

Jimmy gasps at me and widens his eyes. He signals me to calm myself down.

"Don't talk like that in a place like this. Whatever you do, stay cautious from that man tonight. He's a fucking psycho." Jimmy gestures at my prey and warns me before someone calls him and he disappears.

I can't help but roll my eyes.

I shift on the stool, that makes my black skirt ride up a bit showing more of my unblemished skin. The hungry glares on my upper thigh aren't unnoticed by me. I let them imagine and eye-fucking eye-fucking whatever they're seeing because they can only enjoy the sight but never can touch, what they have seen so intangible.

My lips tilt up a bit when I finally get the positive glare from the man who's tattooed and pierced from head to toe, looks like nothing but an abominable monster. Even an alien is far better looking and less weirder than him, though I've never seen an alien except on the internet but most of the people say they never exist.

Whatever.

I gulp the last bit of my virgin-mocktail and stand up, before making my way toward the man.

The man acts as if he's aroused by my presence near him as he keeps staring at me with hooded eyes before gliding his dirty gaze up and down my body, shamelessly.

Asshole. I'll make sure you learn a lesson before you die.

The silky white shirt I'm wearing isn't tight at all but I made sure it shows my cleavage a bit more than needed and one sleeve is off-shoulded. On the other hand, the black skirt reached above mid thigh, showing my long legs thoroughly.

I know what I'm doing. I'd be mistaken to think he's a stupid, shameless and characterless random guy. Because he's nothing but a cold-blooded serial killer, attached to some illegal business and works under a psychopath's command.

"What a rare beauty!" My prey, whose name's Landon as far as I know, speaks through the blasting music.

"Thank you, handsome." I blatter my eyelashes and sit beside him, a bit more closer than needed.

"The pleasure is all mine. Let me buy a drink for the rare beauty of tonight." The man smirks abominably, directly looking at my bare cleavage.

"Why don't we find a better place? This place is so... noisy." I force out a seductive smile, slightly leaning forward and brushing my fingers on his clothed chest.

Gosh, he smells like shit.

"So impatient, huh? I like little girls like you when they're so eager. Let's go, darling." He smirks before wrapping an arm around my waist and pulling me forward with him.

So eager, my ass.

Pushing the drunken bodies, the man makes his way up the stairs. We keep walking until he stops in front of a private room.

He yanks me inside and pushes me to the wall before starts kissing my neck, smearing his crappy smell all over my body.

Ywak !

"Wah, at least lock the door before you fuck me." I advise, cringing at my choice of words.

I would love to choke myself to death even before thinking about him fucking me.

"When innocent girls like you talk nasty, it turns me on." He grins cheekily, before locking the door.

Good thing that he finds me innocent.

The tattoos on his face makes him look like a demon when he grins. Without wasting a second, he leaps on me and starts undressing.

He pushes me on the bed with only his boxers on and hovers over me. When he's about to undress me, I start my game. The game I've been playing for months now to find out my older brother Robert. I'm so so close to my destination.

I smile cheekily at him one last time and hit his vagus nerve, making him immobile. His crappy face falls in my neck and his unconscious body puts all its weight on me, making me groan.

"Fucking disgusting monster!" I curse and push his body aside, finally able to breathe.

I fix my dress, stand up and roam my gaze around the room as I find a chair in a corner. I grab it before placing it beside the bed. I lift his unconscious body by his forearms and pull him in the corner of the bed and somehow place his back on the chair.

"Gosh! What do you eat for so much weight, buddy? You should diet." I huff at the unconscious body.

The man is so ponderous that I almost choke out of breath when I try to move him again. I feel fatigued as I toil away.

After so much assiduity, I finally manage to drag him up in a sitting position.

His mouth is now hanging open, drooling, eyes open and turn toward me. He is looking like a thousand year old Greek mythological creature's mummy.

"Aghh, disgusting!" I grimace and jab his chin to close his mouth that stink like a sewer.

The first thing I plan on asking him is if he brushes his teeth or not.

I attempt to pull out his socks but that's outrageously a fucking bad idea. They smell so fucking terrible that make me almost senseless.

"Gosh, I would die even before killing this horribly insanitary man." I groan in frustration.

How the hell those girls were straddling him? Didn't they smell this sewer?

I somehow manage to tie his hands after ripping his shirt into two pieces. Then I tie both of his dirty legs by his belt with one leg of the chair. I tie the knot so tightly until I confirm to myself that he won't be able to rip it off.

Alright.

It's time to wake the tattooed mummy up.