Chapter 31
The more lucid Celine was the more frightened she became, she still held onto the hope that this was a dream and Mafia King Nolan wasn’t in her bedroom with a gun pointed at her.
“Get up.”
There was no mistaking that order and the raspy voice that said it, she sat upright in a hurry, panic in her eyes. Asher wasn’t around, she had no idea if he was even in the city, and the sound of rapid-fire gunshots she could hear meant that his men were busy.
“Need me to give you a hand?” Nolan spoke up again, sending her scrambling off the bed in a hurry.
Celine didn’t want to know what he meant by that offer, she was completely disoriented, and unsure of what to do. *Was this a common occurrence? Did Mafia Kings go attacking each other in their houses?*
She flinched and shied away when Nolan grabbed her arm to lead her towards the door, she was barefoot and wearing nothing but her frilly pink nightwear, not exactly the best outfit for a kidnap. *Was she always this prone to getting kidnapped?* Because getting captured twice in a week was rather worrying.
The severity of the situation hit her when they got to the doorway and she saw the familiar figures of maids lying lifeless in the hallway, a strangled sound left her, one which she quickly smothered with her free hand.
Fear turned her legs into jelly and they refused to work, slowing them down in the hallway. This caught Nolan’s attention much to her horror, tears making her blue eyes glisten as she stared at him with wide-eyed panic, trembling hard.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Nolan muttered under his breath, holstering his gun to pick her up.
Celine was too scared to struggle, her vision limited by her current position. She was flipped over so the most she could see of the chaos was the expanse of Nolan’s back, which was fortunate because the carnage would have knocked her out, and with how loud the gunshots got, she had no idea how they made it out safely.
Mafia King Nolan tossed her into a car and slammed the door and before Celine could even right herself up, the car was already moving. The car tore out the gates like hell was on its tail, she could barely see the faces of the occupants of the driver and passenger seat and she wasn’t sure she wanted to find out who they were.
After Celine was taken, Nolan’s men started to fall back, it couldn’t have been a moment too soon because reinforcements were showing up, leaving the usually peaceful mansion a bleeding battleground.
+
Celine didn’t remember getting knocked out, it was also possible that she just fainted from shock because falling asleep in such a precarious position was something even her couldn’t pull off. She came to in a dimly lit room where she was tied to a chair that was at least padded.
She had several questions but she would rather not have the answers to them if the person who held the answers was Mafia King Nolan. Much like her thoughts summoned him, the door swung open to reveal the very person she didn’t want to see the most, light flooding into the mostly empty room.
Being captured like this reminded her of the few lucid moments she could remember from the auction, it didn’t bring very great memories but it did give her a stark comparison of how well Asher treated her unlike everyone else.
Mafia King Nolan swept in, a cold scent of winter and pines washing over her, stained by the smell of cigarettes. He held a gun like it was an extension of his arm, coming close enough for her to feel his body heat, cold, dark blue eyes staring her down.
Celine was pinned under that cold stare in all the wrong ways, Nolan was terrifying. “W-Where’s A-Asher?” She blurted out, trembling hard.
Nolan tipped her jaw higher with the muzzle of his gun, the cold metal making her flinch. “Asher? Forget about him. Why don’t you belong to me? I’ll treat you better.”
Celine’s frightened look shifted to one of horror, *God no*, she’d like to be wanted but not by a psychopath who would kill innocent people just to steal her. Besides, she was already too attached to Asher, if the other factors weren’t reason enough to avoid Nolan.
Mafia King Nolan dropped his gun and then leaned down to bring them closer, and without thinking Celine panicked and headbutted him, catching him on the lip. She leaned back in shock, tears filling her eyes at the sight of the blood on Nolan’s lip.
Nolan watched her start to cry in disbelief, “You busted my lip, why are you the one crying?” He asked in surprise amusement, using his thumb to wipe away the blood from his split lip.
Celine’s face crumpled with tears, “Because it hurts,” She said in a teary voice, her forehead tinged red where it smarted.
Nolan didn’t hold back his dark chuckle this time, he wasn’t quite sure what he expected from Celine but he could see why Asher was so attached to her now. The image she presented in her dainty pink nightwear, crying for such a mundane reason, and the naivety in her big blue eyes. She was worlds apart from their world of crime.
She was still intriguing to him but his curiosity was satisfied; he caught her attention by tipping her face up again, this time with his hand, his cigar under his shoe.
Celine wished she could wipe her tears because they obscured her vision and like Mafia King Nolan could read her mind, he brushed her wet cheek with a thumb, the coldness in his eyes not alleviating despite the friendly expression he wore.
“Whenever Asher gets tired of you, I’ll be there to take you.”
Celine could only blink up at him plaintively, knowing that the Mafia King meant every one of his words. The realization that she would never be completely free of the Mafia Kings of Reef hitting her hard.