Ruthless

Chapter 5

Audenzia's POV:

"Audenzia you need to hurry up!" My mother hollers from down stairs. A few days have passed since I have last seen the mysterious man, I decided to just forget about him and hope I never see him again. Tonight there is a big annual masquerade party hosted by some people my father work with.

I've never been allowed to attend because apparently some men who attend are involved in human trafficking and other awful things my father doesn't want me around, but this year I convinced him to let me go.

This ball is big for business, each year my family goes and makes several of our biggest business deals. I am excited to finally get in on some of the action this year, even if my father is watching over me like a hawk.

I bring my attention back to getting ready, and slip into the stunning black heels my mom had gifted me just for this occasion.

I was dressed in a long dark red gown with a slit up the side of my leg, a deep V in the collar, and it was backless. It showed several of my scars, but I stopped letting that bother me a long time ago. I refuse to let those men control me ever again. In my hands I held a silk black mask to cover my face since it was a masquerade after all.

I made my way down the large staircase in our house, catching disapproving looks from each of my brothers and my father. "Go change." My father demands. I roll my eyes and keep walking down the stairs until I reach the bottom. "Let the girl live, Keanu." My mom defends me, I am thankful because I am not in the mood to fight with him.

He rolls his eyes but doesn't dare to try and fight my mom.

"Let's go," Isaac says, signaling that the limo picking us up had arrived.

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Once we arrived at the ball, all eyes were on us. I hated it.

Nobody has really met me, or even seen me. My father likes to keep me away from the spotlight which is how I like it.

"Keanu, so glad you could make it!" A man approaches my father and pulls him into a hug. I recognize the man as Caesar, my fathers best friend. "Looking lovely Milana, Audenzia." He smiles to my mother and I.

"Thank you, Caesar. Is Isabelle here?" My mom asks, "Yes she is. I believe she has already made her way to the cocktail bar."

My mom laughs, "Count me in!" She jokes before leaving us and going to find Isabelle, one of her good friends and Caesar's wife.

My brothers have already left to go speak to some people here. I wait for more men to approach my father before slipping away to do some business of my own.

Xander's POV:

"Lovely." Keanu says, lifting his glass up to mine. "Here's to our alliance to take down Victor"

We each take a sip of our whiskey before I dismiss myself. Keanu and I just sealed the deal on working together, and I couldn't be happier with our deal.

This ball has been going on for hours, everything is slowly winding down. I try to search for Dominic to tell him I am heading out. Looking around, my eyes land on a familiar woman, but I can't seem to remember from where.

When she turns around though, I know exactly where I've seen her before; it's Audenzia. She recognizes me at the same time, and hurriedly makes her way across the room.

Quickly, I follow right behind her into an empty hallway.

"Not so fast," I say, grabbing her by the arm and pinning her to the wall. My eyes take in her dress, which is a stunning red that hugs her curves perfectly. There is a deep V leaving almost nothing to the imagination, but what really catches my eyes is the scars covering her. Why did it make me mad at the thought of someone doing this to her?

Her blue eyes were shooting daggers at me, "My eyes are up here" she snaps.

"What are you doing at a place like this?" I ask her,

"Same thing as you." She responds. "Doing business with criminals are we?" I tease her, my arm snaking around her waist. I hear her breathing pick up a little, but her eyes are still staring straight into mine looking angry.

"Let go of me." She demands, trying to move from my grip. This makes me tighten my grip, not hard enough to hurt her. "I need some answers from you before I let you go."

"Yeah I don't think so" she says before bringing her knee up to my crotch and twisting out of my grip. I am able to grab her arm once again and pull her back against the wall. "That was very effective" I smirked, which seemed to make her angrier. One hand was wrapped around her waist, holding her in place, and the other was on her arm, pinning it to the wall.

"Why are you after Fred Ashton?" I ask even though I know she isn't just going to tell me.

Of course, I am met with no response and just silence, "Look I really don't want to do this the hard way, but I will if you don't start talking."

I couldn't just let her go again, it was out of the question. I usually don't hurt women, but what other choice did I have if she didn't talk? I needed to know things that only she could tell me. I was silently praying she would just stop being stubborn so I wouldn't have to hurt her.

To my dismay, she didn't say a word. "Have it your way," I spat, roughly grabbing her arm and dragging her outside.

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Audenzia's POV:

When I didn't answer him again, he got angry and dragged me outside. I tried to escape his grip but he was too strong.

I never anticipated to be outside tonight, so I found myself freezing cold with the wind not helping. I finally managed to twist away from his grip, I couldn't run inside because of the balcony he hand me cornered on.

"I don't like repeating myself, Audenzia." He says in a sick tone, slowly approaching me.

I knew I had to get out of this fast. I am an amazing fighter but technique does only so much in a fight with someone twice your size and strength.

Everyone had to be unarmed to enter, which makes me lucky and unlucky in this situation.

"I really don't want to do this, but you are forcing me." He says before attempting to punch me, but I dodge it and swing a punch right back at him hitting his jaw. He grabs both of my arms with a painful amount of force. I try to free my hands but fail.

"You don't know what you are getting yourself into by keeping that pretty little mouth shut."  He hisses before dropping my hands aggressively before punching me countless times. Remember your training.

He stops punching me to ask me again, "Why are you after Fred Ashton" in a terrifying tone. I respond with a punch across his face twice but he dodges the second one. We fight for around thirty seconds trading off punches and dodges before I realize there is no way I'm winning this.

He is a very experienced fighter with incredible strength, no matter how skilled I am he has a huge advantage over me. I need to find a way out....

That's when an idea sparks in my mind.

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