Assigned to Her [Mafioso Book#4]

Chapter XXXV: Blind man's bluff

The usually opened rich cream curtains were drawn shut, bathing the room in blinding darkness and a chill with all other sources of light turned off. In the midst of the darkness sat the Regnante Mafia Boss, his suit jacket and waistcoat discarded, his tie hanging loosely from his neck and the first two buttons popped open.

A decanter stood on the table before him with a glass housing its contents grasped loosely in his hands, the man reclined in his large office chair and pinching the bridge of his nose.

Salvatore opened his eyes to hear the office door creak open, watching a silhouette step inside and fumble against the wall before the lights overhead turned on. The sudden sharpness had him hiss and clamp his eyes shut.

"There you are," His wife exclaimed in exasperation. "I've been searching all over for you,"

"Nicole..." He spoke hardly above a whisper, rubbing his forehead against the nauseating pounding in his head.

"You say we're going out of station, fine, I won't argue with you on that. But where are we going-?"

"-Nicole-"

"-I have to pack for the kids and I need to know what the weather is like over there so I can take their clothes accordingly and then you just disappear out of nowhere-"

"-Nicole!" He finally exclaimed when the pain was getting too much for him to bear, his wife jumping at the harshness of his tone. "Turn off the lights, please," He asked more calmly.

She eyed his figure uncertainly, before going back to the doors and turning off the lights, ignorant to the way her husband sagged against the leather.

Making her way across the room in the darkness she turned on the lamp in the corner behind Salvatore before coming to stand before his seated figure. His eyes closed shut, an empty glass housing ice dangling loosely in one hand while the other rubbed at his forehead.

"Salvatore-"

"-You guys won't stay in one place for too long," Her husband responded to her previously posed questions. "Wherever and whenever the kids want to go, they can be taken. The jet will be at your disposal and I'd suggest sporadic movement so that there doesn't seem to be a pattern-"

"-Baby," Nicole halted his chatter and crouched before him, taking his face into her hand and tilting his head up to look at her. His blue eyes dimmed. "What happened?"

"You're having a migraine, Salvatore, it's been ages since you last had an attack. Did something happen?"

"Other than the fact that my children were attacked and their existence is now known in the underworld?"

"Salvatore,"

"I received confirmation," Her husband sighed, placing a kiss against her palm before leaning into her touch, looking up at her from below his lashes. "The Romanov heir has declared war on my Mafia,"

The breath got knocked out of Nicole at the words, his wife letting out a stuttering breath before lowering herself to her knees in front of her husband. Pressing her lips into a thin line and clenching the hem of her sweater. Her mind racing with every possible course of action following this announcement.

"From a Mafia standpoint," Salvatore swallowed and threw back his head. "I can very easily wipe out their name, and remove the Romanovs from the books of the underworld... but then..."

"It's Marco," Nicole exhaled and ran a hand through her hair before looking up at her husband's exhausted figure. "I...I-I don't know what you should do,"

"He didn't leave me with much of an option here," Salvatore chuckled humorlessly. "Even if I ignored this threat to war, Nicole, he broke our contract which explicitly stated that he cannot do anything against me. The attack on Victoria and Demetrio, and now this war..."