Fearless

♛ two ♛

♛ two: conditions and compensation ♛

"You...want to hire me," Antonina drags out each syllable purposefully, marveling at how the words sound on her Russian tongue. "For a...hit?"

He smirks...that cocky smile sending rage through her body once again.

"That's right."

"Chertovski mudak," She curses under her breath, always loving when she can disguise her swears under her first language.

He paces around her, taking his chin in his hand and contemplating a situation not yet told to her.

"What did you just say?" Marco Dragotti asks her, surprisingly not mad at her. The look he gives Antonina is one of playful curiosity —as to how a cat bats their prey around before devouring it.

It astounds Antonina that a person like Marco Dragotti can be playful at all.

"I was just saying something in my first language. Nothing important," She backtracks, not wanting to explain that she called the most powerful man in the world a fucking asshole to his face.

"Ah, a pure Russian beauty." He kneels down to look at her, studying each one of her almost perfect features with scrutiny.

She spits on his face.

"Don't flirt with me or I will claw both of your eyes out before slowly castrating you," She grumbles.

"Does saying you have the most beautiful green eyes I've ever seen count as flirting?" Marco teases Antonina while wiping saliva off of his cheek.

He enjoys the reaction to his compliment consisting of Antonina writhing violently underneath the ropes bounding her.

If she were unleashed at this moment, Antonina would follow through with the actions she had just described, Marco Dragotti has no doubt about that.

After he allows her to release all her pent up energy, the gang leader seems keen to get back on topic.

"I've learned of a...how do you say it, when a group under your direction plans to kill you?" He searches for the word in English. Marco was brought up speaking Italian through-and-through, only painstakingly learning English once he took over the Dragotti Gang after killing off his father's translator in one particular altercation ten years ago.

"A coup?" Antonina suggests, but he shakes his head. "Rebellion? Uprising? Takeover? Mutiny?"

"I guess mutiny..." His voice fades, not liking how it sounds. "Is the right word for it. My men are planning to murder me and take over the Dragotti Gang. I want you to kill them before they have the chance."

She taps her heels on the floor, contemplating this dangerous game of risk and reward in her head.

If Antonina says no, she will most surely die a horrible death at the hands of her father's sworn enemy. If she says yes, there's a good chance she will die on this mission anyway.

There's killing a few wealthy businessmen with gang ties here and there, but killing the entire upper leadership level of the biggest criminal organization in the world is in a whole other ballpark Antonina —or anyone in the world for that matter— has experienced.

The Dragotti Gang is comprised of the most hardened criminal professionals on the planet. They can sniff her out as an assassin better than any of the wealthy bankers she's offed ever could.

"Why can't you do it?" She asks, not yet refusing or committing to his ambitious proposal.

"If I kill them, those below my right-hand men would just become more passionate about hating me. I command respect, and a lot of people don't like me because of it. I'm afraid to say that the majority of the gang members are on board with assassinating me even after all I've done for them. Loyalty means nothing to these men," Marco Dragotti rages, remembering the lessons he was taught by his father.