Chapter 24 Dancing with fire
LISA
We aced the first stage of our assignment and subsequently the first presentation. I still couldn't believe that Axel made that kind of good partner but then, I was starting to see just how perfect he is
with buildings and living in a facade.
He was so good at it that one would never see past his flirtatious smiles, contagious energies, and playboy manners to the lethalness that really made up his existence.
No one would see his hands and see the blood on them, they can't see the number of lives he has taken with his hands, the number of pains he has inflicted, the kind of torture he had carried out on
people.
Just like people would see me and see the girl with a baggy top and pants and big glasses and sneakers, they wouldn't see a girl who dances on poles to seduce unsuspecting victims, who'd and has
put holes in a lot of people's heads.
And that was exactly what I was one step away from doing right now.
Put a hole in the fucking head of Axel Ivanov.
Instead, I forced myself to plaster a fake plastic smile at the guy holding his car door for me like a fucking gentleman.
"Get in the car, Red," he said mildly but I could feel and hear the command in his words. It was no ordinary suggestion, it was a command he was making clear that I should never disagree with.
But he's definitely going to have second thoughts coming.
"Don't be ridiculous, there's no way I'd get into your car and..."
"You've gotten into it twice and I didn't murder you."
I rolled my eyes and ignored him, "and allowed you to drive me to your house. Think about it, Axel, why would I willingly go to your house when something is not wrong with me?"
We were in the middle of doing the second stage of our assignment and of course, we just had to need a material that was already taken by more serious students and Axel just happens to have it in
his house.
And of course, he was expecting I'd just go to his house with him.
Go with Axel to his house with everything going on between the two families and with the kind of reputation he has, there's no way in the world I'd do that.
"And what's wrong with my house? The last time I checked, it's not a secret torture room or detention center."
"Just because you keep your businesses in less conspicuous locations does not mean your house is completely absolved of all guilt. You know what, you go and do that part of the assignment in
your house, I'll do the last part."
With that, I started to turn and walk away but a hand grabbed my hand, forcing me to stop and turn back. I turned back to see Axel towering over me, his dark and unreadable.
"Red, in this school, we're both students, students paired to do an important assignment together, I'd very much appreciate it if you start treating me the same way every other student is treating me in
this school."
I met his hard glare with an even harsher glare of my own, "trust me, the students would never be treating you that way if they know who you are."
"But they don't, right?" His hold tightened around my wrist, "just get in the car, Red, we're wasting more minutes by standing here."
"I don't assume you're deaf too," I muttered and a glare crossed his face, "I'm not getting into your car and I'm not going to your house, if we don't find another way to do the assignment, then you'll do
it alone and I'll do the last part."
I expected an angry retort or mishandling after all the Ivanov Mafia were quite notorious for mishandling women but instead, Axel's hold on my wrist loosened and he stepped away from me.
"And why are you so against the idea of going to your partner's house to do a school assignment?" His dark voice gave way to something smokier and his eyes took on a smoldering look that kindled
a look in
my
lower abdomen.
Damn my stupid body for always reacting like that to him.
"Are you perhaps afraid of something?" He tilted his head down so we were on eye level and his face was mere inches away from mine, his lips hovering over mine and we only needed a slight push
and our bodies would be pressing against each other.
I tried to maintain his stare down but I couldn't... not with everything going wrong with my body, not with every nerve going haywire in my body, and definitely not with the liquid heat that was starting
to pool in my panties.
I hated this man, hated everything about him, everything he represents. If we had the chance, my family would wipe him out and vice versa but apparently, those were logical things you could use your brain to come to a conclusion with.
My body's reactions to Axel Ivanov, the same man who wouldn't hesitate to put a hole in my head weren't logical at all. My brain couldn't control it.
"Are you afraid of what you'd do if you were in an enclosed space with him?" He taunted, "maybe you don't trust yourself with him?" He was baiting me. He knows that and I know it too and he wasn't even being subtle about it at all. He was throwing the bait out there, waiting for me to bite it or take the coward's way out.
"Of course," I purred, taking the coward's way out again and trying to sound stern even though everything going on with my body was anything but stern, "I don't trust myself with you, I don't trust that
I won't be able to overlook my intense hatred for you and not put a hole in your head."
"Come on, Red," his warm breath ghosted my face, spreading goosebumps all over, "what I'm talking about has nothing to do with hatred and you know it. If you can't stand being in an enclosed space with me, just say it, I know I'm irresistible, it just shows that beyond the murderous streak running through your veins, you're a pretty normal girl having that kind of reaction towards me."
I chuckled and stepped away from him. I had to step away before I do something stupid and give in to the urge to grab his collar and press my lips against his.
"It's so obvious you think too much of yourself."
"Is it? Then prove me wrong by following me home to do a simple assignment, prove me wrong by making it so obvious that I think too highly of myself."
"That's a bait, Ivanov and I'm not taking it."
"Nah, it just shows that you're a coward, and isn't that really unbefitting for the almighty Lisa Volkov? I mean, what does failing this little challenge make you?"
I glared at him, glared at him hard, fury wrapping itself around my throat and forcing a thousand retorts into my brain but I couldn't say any of them out because no matter what I say, they were not
going to prove anything.
The only thing I could do to prove him wrong was to...
I sidestepped him and got into the car.
"Maybe you should learn to always speak for yourself alone," I retorted before slamming the door shut and took a while before he crossed over and he slammed the door shut after him.
With that proud grin, I wanted to wipe off sitting on his face.
This was all shades of wrong.
I thought to myself as we drove further away from the school premises and towards where Axel lived.
It was all shades of wrong.
Here I was, sitting in Axel's car and allowing him to drive me to his house, his apartment, the apartment of the enemy.
Axel and I might have talked and flirted and danced around a fire these past weeks but it didn't change the reality of who we are, mortal enemies who'd never see eye to eye on anything, mortal
enemies who'd kill each other at the slightest provocation and here I was, sitting in his car and allowing him to drive me home with nothing but a fully loaded gun just because of a stupid and useless assignment.
What a fool that I was making myself out to be.
What an idiot I was for actually taking the bait and allowing Axel to manipulate me into going with him.
Anything could happen, once I stepped into his gate, I was at his mercy to do whatever he pleased with me. I, a Volkov, was going into the house of the Don of an enemy group with no protection. He
probably had a series of guards waiting there for us and even if he doesn't have any, I was no match for him. He could easily torture me, break me, bound me, use me as leverage to get whatever from
my family because after all, that was what his family does best.
God! How could I have gotten so stupid to allow this to happen? Where was the smart girl, Lisa Volkov, who was notorious for her skills? Because she definitely wasn't the one in Axel's car and
allowed him to drive her to his house.
Axel Ivanov's house.
I've never seen Axel Ivanov in action but the words on the street and the stern warning I've gotten from papa and my brother was more than enough to make me weary of him. I've never feared him because I had no reason to but I know a lot of people feared him in our world and of course, he has given them more than enough reason to do so.
He was the Don, not the official Don but rather the official Capo of his family. His dad was still the Don but he was just a step away from retiring and everyone knew Axel was going to step into his
shoes hence they started calling him the Don and he deserved it.
I wasn't even going to get started on the kinds of atrocities he had committed but what made him most notorious and feared was one major thing, he single-handedly planned and orchestrated the
plan that brought the Russians to their knees at just 15 years old.
That was a deadly and lethal plan for it to have gotten rid of the Russians who have always been a torn in our fucking neck since forever. They were powerful, too powerful that everybody feared them.
Instead, it blossomed into clashes over arms and drugs, and shipments. Axel never hesitate to kill our men they should as much cross his men, we've always retaliated but there's only so much we
could do because of the stupid factor since he got rid of the Russians.
And now, I was willingly going into the house of that same man.
I could only imagine the proud smile on Papa's face.