Chapter 90 Reading her lies
AXEL
My head always ended up being a mess after any little interaction with Lisa these days, I could control my emotions and expressions with anyone else but not around her. Even when I managed to successfully control my emotions by masking them, it's a fucking struggle and I almost always lose the struggle.
I don't know why I'd asked her about the memories we shared when I knew deep down that her answers would most likely hurt me. It had slipped out of my lips before I could drop myself and it rendered all the commandeering I'd been doing earlier as null and void somehow. It's all because I let myself get lost in my head while it replayed all the memories of where I would've given the world just to keep watching her smile. I should've never let myself get wrapped up in our memories after what she'd done and how she'd crushed my heart.
After the question had slipped out, I needed to do damage control so I masked my feelings again just to get an answer out of her. Things had gone south when I realized that she might've been lying to me by hiding her face while she told me that those memories were nothing to her. That's when I began to put a few pieces of the puzzle together, I knew Lisa was bold and daring and always owned up to her shit without fear, so why would she cower that way when I'd asked her about our memories together? That couldn't have been right.
Her body language had shown that she'd tensed up when I shot the question at her, that's when I decided to observe her calmly as though nothing that could leave her lips could hurt me any further. I was more focused on reading her body language while she spoke, and that made most of what she'd uttered to sound like gibberish since she looked unsure of her replies. What finally gave her away was when she stuttered aimlessly when I asked her the biggest question that had crossed my mind when everything went down. I asked her why she'd kept me alive because I was prepared to die at that point but just not without a fight. I knew that she'd never spare victim of hers so that they wouldn't live to testify, so why on earth did she let me go when she could've easily taken me out with a blow to the head judging from how weak and stunned I was?
The fact that she couldn't answer that meant that she hadn't come up with a lie for that question since she didn't expect it. Now, I knew that I really owed myself the opportunity of finding out the real truth and I was determined to get to the bottom of everything, real soon. Before my thoughts wandered further, my phone rang and the caller ID showed that it was Prince as I rose it up to check. I abandoned my thoughts that very second and held the phone up to my ears as I picked up the call.
"Fuck, Axel- Bad news, the Volkovs know that you've taken their daughter, hostage man. They even raided one of our bases and got away with injuring a couple of men and killing off three men as well" Prince said in a tone that showed how tense he'd been. I knew that he was sure we could take them anytime but he was tense because this wasn't just an ordinary mission, it was a rerun of a mission we'd already lost woefully once and we needed it to be smooth and this disruption might fuck with that.
"Relax man speak to me, any more damage? So I know how much hell I'm giving back to them" I replied in a bid to calm him down, but truly I planned to give them just as much hell for all the shit
They've been pulling lately.
"Nah, that's it. But you've got to hurry up with getting answers about the shipment's location from Lisa before this site blows up in our faces and becomes an actual war" Prince replied after taking a deep breath and I knew I had to act fast before things escalated and we lost more resources or men to the Volkovs.
"Okay man, I'm on it. Just keep in touch, I'll have this sorted as soon as possible" I reassured him and ended the call after he simply let out a sigh in response.
I immediately dialed a number on my cell to call Lisa's father and pass across my message if they didn't drop the bullshit they were trying to pull. He picked up the call on the third dial and I cleared my throat loudly before I addressed him.
"Do I have Mr. Volkov on the line? This is Axel Ivanov" I introduced myself in a clear and audacious tone quickly and awaited his response.
"Very good, I drew blood and you've come to me on your knees to beg I believe?" He asked in a very cocky tone and I laughed instead of honoring his folly with a reply because he had no idea what
was coming his way soon.
"If you think I'll lose my mind just because you've kidnapped my daughter, you must have another thing coming. I'm sure she'd even be safer with you when a war blows out over here when you don't release her" He continued speaking which made low laughter erupt from my throat again because of his guts and empty words.
"Think whatever you'd like to, it means absolutely nothing to me. But if you don't deliver the shipment intact to us, I'll keep sending over different body parts of your daughter to you for as long as you take to deliver it." As the words about dismembering her left my lips I cringed and shuddered lightly at how disgusting and gruesome it sounded for me to talk about Lisa that way. But, I hoped he could hear the confidence that boomed in my voice and took me seriously, else he'd regret ever trying to play me for a fool.
"The most important thing they teach Mafia dons when they're undergoing training is to never have a weakness, worse of all a weakness that's a woman as that's the most powerful and easy to manipulate in their enemy's favor. But you were dumb enough to fall in love with the daughter of your enemy and you believed what you had was real? What a fucking joke" He continued talking calmly and I could tell just how much he believed every word that left his lips, he truly didn't think his daughter was at any risk while being held hostage here.
"Lisa has really done well this time around, she's undoubtedly proven herself to be the best at her game. She successfully manages to seduce you in no time and sabotages a mission of yours that no man would've been able to predict" He boasted and I could hear the happiness in his voice for the mission Lisa had just single-handedly pulled because I let my guard down around her. I didn't let his mockery and teasing push me off guard though, I knew that he wanted to manipulate me by bringing up the past and trying to make me feel insulted. I had no intention of making him think he had any effect or power over my emotions even if he'd stooped low enough to use his daughter's victory as bragging points, fucking coward. I might've had a weakness that they could easily exploit but now that the so-called weakness was a card on my side of the board game, I knew that I could get back everything I lost to them so he'd shut the fuck up about his feeble victory.
"Oh, don't be so sure of yourself after one small victory that you hardly had any hand in, you'd have stood nothing against me and you know it" I heard him snicker after I said that but we both knew it
was the truth and that's all that mattered.
"So all this confiden-" I started but he immediately cut me off mid-sentence.
"You better have my daughter sent to my doorstep tomorrow morning unless you'd like to lose a lot more of your men. If she's not home by the time I'm up bright and early, you'll regret ever setting your hands on her, watching and seeing." He calmly threatened me after rudely interrupting me while I'd been speaking. I couldn't lie, his guys definitely pissed me off even though I knew he'd regret all of this by the time I'm done with him in the next couple of days.
"This'll be fun. Since you'd rather do this the hard way, you'll receive your first package of your daughter's severed body parts bright and early in the morning since you want to see her so bad, parts of her should do as well" I responded, and cringed internally again because I'd spoken about her severed body parts again and my mind had painted me a cruel visual image.
I also made sure that I'd ended the call quickly before I could hear a peep out of him again, I couldn't bear any more useless back-and-forth3 banters about the shipment anymore, I just needed action to be taken, these words and threats did no one any good.
I'm truly looking forward to fucking shit up in the next few days, he wanted to play and I'd never back down from a game where the odds were in my favor and all the best playing cards were in my palms as well.