Trouble

𝐊𝐑𝐈𝐒

Rumors - NEFFEX

“Whispers all around say she’s got a reputation”

It was raining the day she showed up at my door. I wasn’t particularly surprised by her appearance, in fact, I had most certainly expected it. But even I, could not have foreseen the state she turned up in... and how far down I would fall from that point.

She had her mother’s beauty and her father’s determination. The way she had burst into her bar, demanding help had been... startling, to put it mildly. Not that I could blame the kid, she had only just lost her father. Her father, who had worked for me.

Bill had been somewhat of a father figure to me after my own dad kicked the bucket, he had been my right-hand man. Even as I worked on gathering information as to who had done it and why it was Bill who had been targeted instead of me, if it was to cripple me, this girl kept running around, distracting me with her hasty, impatient need to have revenge.

The first time I had seen her had been at her father’s funeral, which I had arranged for.

She looked at me, eyes simmering with barely contained rage. After the service, she approached me, coming to a stop beside me as I lit a cigarette.

“Those can kill you, you know,” she said by way of conversation.

I ignored her, pocketing my lighter in my pocket.

“Dad always said he tried to get you to stop.”

And so he had. This was my first smoke in three years. I risked a glance at the girl, slightly startled by how truly ragged she looked. One wouldn’t think she was only twenty.

“They say you were on the other side of the door when it happened.” I finally said, turning slowly to properly look at her.

“He locked my room. All I heard were the gunshots. It was in the middle of the night.” She sounded tired as if she had repeated it a hundred times.

“I have my best men out to track down the bastard. I trust you already have my number?”

She nodded.

“Good. I also trust that you know to contact me at the smallest hint of you being in any danger at all when you’re out of the house?”

“What if I’m in danger while I’m in my house?”

I gave her a wry smile. “You won’t be in your house; you’ll be in mine. I promise you, no harm will come to you there.”

She scowled, fists clenching. “Does this mean I’m a part of your... organization now?”

“No. I doubt your father would like you to lead the kind of life he did.” I snapped, maybe a little too harshly.

“He seemed pretty happy working for you, from what I saw.”

“My line of work is not one that many people are suited for. Trust me, darling, you don’t want to be stuck as a mafia member for the rest of your life.”

But she was insistent, all of a sudden. “Why not? I can probably help with your investigation too if I joined your-”

“So that’s what this is about.” I cut her off with a dark chuckle. “You want to join my men so you can have your revenge. You’re thinking too much about a short-term plan, sweetheart. Once you join my organization, there’s no turning back. Once you’ve had your revenge, you can’t skip off to have a normal life. You’ll be sworn to work for me till the day you die.”

Her eyes had dropped down to the ground, like a puppy being scolded, a tactic I suspected to have worked quite well to dissolve her father’s anger. I took her chin between my thumb and finger, tilting her head up to force her eyes to meet mine.

“Think well before you make such a daring request. Think if you actually possess the strength of both body and mind to take a life, if I command it or even the life of your father’s murderer. And also think, if it would be worth living the entirety of your life working for someone like me.”

She opened her mouth to argue, but I placed a finger on her mouth, quieting her. “I am not refusing your request immediately. I am only advising you to take your time and think carefully about this decision that you’re taking. Take a week. Think it through carefully and if you still want to do this... I will not deny you.”

Which is what brings us to here and now, a week later, to Allison Cartwright standing on the doorstep of my house, drenched to her bones. Her eyes held smoldering fire, her hand clenching her side as she gasped. I noticed the cuts and bruises covering her face and arms, and I suspect there were a lot more under her thin tank top.

“I didn’t know where else to go.” Her knees buckled, making me hurry forward and catch her shivering form.

“Bloody hell.” I swore, shifting her so I could support her with one arm as I helped her in, shutting my front door against the relentless rain. I fished out my phone from my dressing gown.

“Liam, you were supposed to be staking out in front of Allison’s house, what-”

“Sorry, Boss.” Liam’s weak voice responded. “There were too many of them, even for me. It was all I could do to send the kid to your house before getting away.”

I could feel a headache coming on as I lowered the wounded girl onto my couch gently. I hurried to the bathroom to pull out the first aid kit from the medical cabinet.

“Did you see any of their faces? Any sign as to who sent them?”

“Not that I can particularly remember at the moment, boss. I’ll work on it.”

As I knelt beside Allison, opening the first aid kit, I put the phone on speaker so I could speak more comfortably. “Did you at least haul your ass to the infirmary? Or a hospital?”

A weak chuckle came from the phone’s speakers. “Yes, ma’am. How’s the kid? She got hurt, the little sprite jumped in to try and help me. I think she might have gotten stabbed.”

“Yes, I derived as much from her state. She’s currently bleeding on my sofa, if I can’t get out the stains, I’ll have to buy a new one. And I really liked this one too.” I shook my head, shushing the girl when she protested to my lifting her shirt up to see her wound better.

“You could have put her on the floor.” Came Liam’s cheeky reply.

“And risk Bill haunting my dreams? No thanks,” I muttered. “If you don’t have anything else to report and if you can’t make yourself useful, hang up, you prick.”

“Maybe stop yapping into your phone and actually help stop the bleeding? So you’ll have lesser blood on your precious sofa?” Allison spoke, voice weak but distinctly snide.

“Save your breath and smart mouth later, kid. Focus on not dying first.”

“Not that you’re doing much to help stop that from happening- what the hell are you doing?!” She yelled out as I ripped her shirt up.

“Shut up.” I told her, my focus entirely on her wound now.

“But-”

“Shh.” I shot her a look, making her scoff but shut up.

“If you’re worried about me seeing your chest, I would like to point out two things, one: I am not a man at the moment, and fortunately for you I’m also biologically feminine if it helps ease your mind.”

After a few seconds of silence, curiosity got the better her. “What’s the second one, spit it out already.”

“You lack your father’s patience, I wonder if you really are his kid,” I muttered.

“Oi!” She glared.

I smirked at her, obviously getting under her skin. But seeing her get riled up even in her exhausted and bloody state was something that was giving me an unusual amount of pleasure. “Trust me, darling, hearing the second reason isn’t going to improve your mood.” I touched her stab wound with a swab dipped in antiseptic, causing her to let out a short scream of pain, weakly trying to throw me off.

“Hold still, you’re not really helping either, you know that?” I griped, holding her down firmly with one hand, gently cleaning her wound. Thankfully, it wasn’t as deep as the all the blood had made it seem. I took out a bit of thick rope for her to bite down on for what came next.

She looked at me with disbelief when I held it out to her. I raised my eyebrow, the corners of lips quirking up as she reluctantly took the bit in her mouth. I began stitching her wounds, which hurts like hell when you don’t even have anesthesia to numb the area. To Allison’s credit, she bit down hard on the rope, muffling her screams as much as possible. I made a quick, efficient job of it, but the girl didn’t even have enough strength to take the bit out herself.

“C’mon kiddo, we have to get the rest of you cleaned up and into some different clothes.” I tried to nudge her gently.

“I’m not a kid,” she huffed tiredly.

I quirked a smile. “You handled getting those stitches much better than any other of my men on their first time, I’ll give you that. Now are you gonna move your ass, or will I have to carry it?”

“You might have to help me get up-”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake.” I huffed impatiently, hooking my arms under her shoulders and knees respectfully and picking her up against my chest. She let out a yelp and a groan of pain as her arms wound instinctively around my neck.

I effortlessly carried her into my room and somehow managed to open my bathroom door with a little maneuvering and shuffling before dumping her unceremoniously into the bathtub.

“Whoa, this tub is huge. You sure it isn’t a swimming pool for kids?” She muttered under her breath.

“Think you can scrub yourself off on your own?” I asked, turning to take my toiletries out of the bathroom cupboard and setting them down beside the bathtub where she could comfortably reach them. But rather than hearing me, Allison seemed to be rather preoccupied admiring how lavish the bathroom was.

“Kid, can you stop gaping and respond so I know your brain hasn’t been affected in the fight?” That caught her attention.

“They were there because of you.”

I frowned at her, not grasping the context. “What?”

“Those people, they came after me because of you. They tried to kidnap me but dad-” she momentarily choked on the word, but she didn’t need to finish her sentence. I understood what she meant to say. Bill had taught her how to defend herself.

“What do you mean they came because of me? Tell me exactly what happened, and I don’t want you to leave out anything, do you understand me?” I hadn’t even realised how authoritative I had sounded, how I’d ordered her like I would my men.

An impish grin came over her face, albeit a little shy, which went completely at odds with the fiery look in her eyes. “Help me wash up and I’ll give you the report,” hazel eyes gleamed with a challenge, "ma’am." She finished mockingly.

So that’s how she wanted to play this. Fine, two can play at this game. “Be careful where you use words like that, darling,” I purred. “And if you address me that way, I expect you to comply to my command.”

Taking her chin between my fingers, I gently raised her head to meet my gaze, our faces only inches apart. “Is that understood?” She gulped, averting her gaze as her cheeks flushed a light red.

I tightened my grip on her chin ever so slightly, making her eyes flit back to mine. “I said, is that understood?” She has no choice but to nod her head to the best of her abilities.

“Good girl.” I smiled, dropping her chin and moving to remove her ruined shirt. She yelped, swatting my hands away.

I raised my eyebrows, trying not to laugh at this girl’s antics. “What is it now? Didn’t ask me to help you wash up?”

“I didn’t expect you to actually- I mean- I-”

Watching her get flustered was definitely cute, but I knew I couldn’t afford to seem soft. Not to anyone. So, I became Kris the mafia leader, cold and crisp and all about business. “You have two options to answer me with to this question: Do you need my help washing up? Yes, or no?”

“Yes but no.” Was her small answer. I gave a frustrated sigh, fingers pinching the bridge of my nose.

“Whatever am I going to do with you?”

“I have a few ideas. All of them involve a lot of sweating and require a lot of energy.” Mischief sparkled in those dark brown eyes, startling me with her response. What could she possibly-? Surely not...?

“You could let me join your gang and train me,” she said, an innocent smile on her face but the look in her eyes told me she knew exactly what she was doing.

Could this chit of a girl, this tiny being with so much fire and no strength or power, possibly be flirting with me and playing innocent about it? I was rendered speechless which seemed to offer some sort of satisfaction. This was payback, I realised, for making her flustered only minutes ago.

A small predatory smile raised my lips despite myself. “Well, that definitely gives me an answer.” I moved forward, swiftly grasping her wrists as they came up to push me away once she realised my intentions. She tried to break free, but it was of no use. I raised her arms above her head and easily pulled off her shirt, taking away my hands to pull them off completely. Her hands immediately came up to cover her chest, her eyes glaring at me as she opened her mouth to start on a string of verbal abuse.

“There’s nothing you have that I don’t already possess.” I settled myself on the edge of the tub, smirking at her. “Now are you going to take the rest of them off or am I going to have to help with that too?”

“This could be considered sexual harassment.” Her voice was low, anger simmering in them but also a tinge of fear. I felt a little guilty, wondering if I had taken it too far.

I opened my mouth to apologise but her next words stopped me short. “Whatever, I’m too tired. Just do what you have to do, but...” she trailed off, looking at me with a doubtful gaze that wondered if I could be trusted.

“I will only clean away the dirt, nothing more. I promise not to take advantage of you. I may have done a lot of... morally questionable things, but I don’t molest people.” I promised, taking on a gentler tone to soothe her.

She nodded reluctantly, and I gently removed her pants, leaving her just in her underwear. I didn’t touch those, moving instead to wet a towel and slowly being scrubbed away at her arms and legs.

After we were done, I went out into my bedroom and brought her some of my clothes. The pants fit her well enough, but my shirt hung a little loosely around her slim body, shoulders a bit bigger than hers.

After helping her get dressed, I helped her to my bed, setting her down gently.

“You can sleep here tonight,” I told her. “You’re already pretty tired, I’ll have the guest room made ready for you tomorrow.”

“What about you?” She asked tiredly.

“I’ll take the couch.” I shrugged.

“Seriously? I bled all over it, remember?” Ah. Right...

“Just sleep here.” She groaned, patting the space beside her.

“I don’t sleep well with other people beside me,” I said stiffly, going out of the room. When I came back with the extra mattress and sheets from the guest room, she had fallen fast asleep. I noticed the dark circles underneath her eyes, wondering when was the last time she had a proper night’s sleep.

She seemed so innocent, so young. Too young, to be involved in things like this. I sighed, pulling the covers up and tucking it beneath her chin. Spreading out the mattress on the floor, I made myself comfortable and soon drifted into a fitful sleep, thoughts filled with worry as I tried to think of who could have targeted Allison and why would they have done it because of me.