Him (A mafia story)

Chapter 30

The flight to Italy wasn't as bad as I thought because, unsurprisingly, Nikolai had his own private plane. The seats were more like big, fluffy armchairs than seats you'd typically find on a plane. They reclined all the way back and, as a bonus, Nikolai kept blankets on board.

I settled into one of the seats by the window and looked out at the runway. "How long is the flight?"

"Eight hours." Nikolai said, taking the seat next to mine.

He closed a curtain that separated our seats from the rest of the plane where Marco and Roger sat.

I nodded. "That doesn't sound too bad. I've never been on a plane before." I admitted.

He looked at me.

"Are you nervous?"

I thought it over for a few seconds before shaking my head. "I don't think so. I think it takes a lot more to scare me now than it did before."

"I'm sorry for everything you've gone through." He
admitted, placing his hand over my stomach.

For the thousandth time, I thought about how lucky I had been with the gunshot wound. If it had been even an inch lower, I would've lost the baby. It was a miracle that hadn't. Dante had tried to take everything away from Nikolai.

My mind wandered to the conversation I'd had with Julia about Dante weeks ago. She had mentioned that some bad stuff had happened to Nikolai. "Can I ask you something?"

He studied my face for a moment. "What is it?"
I looked down at my lap, fidgeting with my hands. "Well your mother had mentioned something to me about Dante....." I trailed off, looking up at him to gauge his reaction.

Nikolai looked away, his jaw clenched. "You want to
know what happened to me in the three days Dante
had me."

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." He hadn't even told Julia what had happened, I wouldn't blame him if he didn't want to talk to me about it.

"Even when I was a kid, I knew what my future was. I knew about the mafia. My parents never hid it from me."

He started, surprising me. "I knew about it, but I wasn't involved. My mother didn't want me involved until I was older. I was eight years old when Dante took me. That was the last day of my childhood."

I placed my hand on his shoulder, but he stood up,
making my hand fall. Before I could say anything, he
started unbuttoning his shirt. He turn to the side and
pointed out some scars I hadn't noticed before. There were three faded circles right above his left hip. "I don't remember much of it, my father said I probably blocked it out. What I do remember is being stabbed by a hot fire poker over and over again."

I reached out and traced my fingers over the faded white marks that dotted his side. "That's terrible.... I'm so sorry that happened to you." I said, looking up at him.

"It's a reminder of what Dante started." He said
bitterly, buttoning his shirt back up. "I'm going to finish it. He came for me, killed Isabella, killed my mother and tried to hurt you. He's done enough."

I nodded, understanding just how much this man had changed Nikolai's life. He had tried to take everything from him on more than one occasion. It was understandable that Nikolai wanted him six feet under.

The seats in the plane were hardly big enough for two people, but after the plane took off, Nikolai insisted that I sleep with him on his seat so that he could hold me. I'd eventually given in so, seven hours later, when they touched down on Italian soil, I woke up in his arms

"Destiny, we're here, cara mia." Nikolai whispered gently into my ear.

(My beloved)

Regardless of the amount of times that Nikolai had
talked about his mother country, nothing could have
prepared me for the wave of hot humidity that hit me as soon as stepped outside. That was the first thing noticed. The second was the rolling hills of green that surrounded the isolated runway. Other than the car waiting for us and the plane we had just gotten out of, there was no one or nothing in sight.