“What a lovely surprise. Miles how are you doing?”Nicole tittered, going over to him.
He nodded his head and offered his hand to which she took.
“You look fully healed Miles” Nicole grinned.
Raphael came over to both of them and wrapped an arm around Nicole’s waist.
“And so do you. How are you Mr Raph?”He inquired, his gaze landing for a brief second on Raphael’s hand encircled around Nicole’s waist before pushing it back to their faces.
“He is so possessive of her. It’s good. It makes this more fun” Miles thought to himself.
“I am good Miles”
“We were about having breakfast, do you mind joining us?”Nicole prod.
“I don’t really think…”Miles attempted to object.
“Oh c’mon stop” Nicole pushed with a lopsided grin.
Raphael dug his nails into her skin causing her to wince silently.
She held on to the arm he placed on her waist, trying to push it off without drawing anybody’s attention but it only got him to dig his nails more into her skin.
“What the hell is wrong with Raphael?” Nicole mused to herself.
“Well if you insist. I can stay for some minutes” Miles gave in with a broad smile.
“Well breakfast is ready. Shall we?” Raphael cooly made his voice known.
They turned towards the dining area, miles going to sit directly opposite Leila.
Leila gave him uncanny stares.
She had planned it all- cooking up an errand and telling Sofia to go outside so she could spot miles.
Everyone would believe it was sheer coincidence.
“Looks like we’ve got a guest”Thomas spoke, his eyes browsing Miles.
Miles adjusted in his seat. Literally everyone was looking at him. He was the centre of attraction.
“Why were you outside the gates of our mansion Miles? Were you spying?”Raphael perused him with such a serious expression on his face.
Nicole was forced to look at her husband’s serious face and raised brows.
She wondered why Raphael was being investigative.
“Oh no. I wasn’t” Miles responded.
“Actually I saw miles by coincidence”Sofia added in his favour.
He passed a smile.
She returned it and looked back at Raphael. “I was going out to check for something in the nearby store. On my way back I spotted miles. He didn’t even recognise me at first. The man was about walking past me” she chirped.
Raphael let his apprehension fall and his face wore a smirk. “I didn’t mean to get you frightened miles”
“It’s not a problem”
“We got to know miles through my accident. My car rammed into his indirectly saving me from hitting something that would have been more fatal”Nicole introduced him.
Raphael’s capos nodded their heads.
“So it was a good and bad thing”Luca said amused.
“Yes. I was in a coma. But at least I indirectly saved some one”Miles laughed.
Raphael still had his arm around Nicole’s waist as they all ate. The only difference was this time, his grip on it had faltered but she was definitely sure that it would leave his finger marks on her skin.
“Do you stay around here Miles?”Nicole asked curiously.
“No, actually I was just coming from my office colleague’s apartment. You know, um office duties”he replied evasively.
“What are you into Miles, I mean your job?”Raphael threw another question at him before taking a sip of his orange juice.
“I’m a software engineer” Miles stated proudly.
Nicole’s eyes lit up at once.
Leila downcasted her head, pretending to focus her attention on the food. From the corners of her eyes, she could spot the glitters that shone on Nicole’s face.
An uneven smile was on her face.
She cared less about the methods Miles would use to get to Nicole. All she wanted was to get Raphael and before she could get him, Nicole had to be out of her way.
Raphael was hopelessly inlove with the dark skinned melanin lady, he wss obsessed and crazy about her. The only reasonable logic to get him for herself was for her to make Raphael turn against Nicole.
And Miles was going to do just that.
“Are you being serious Miles?”Nicole asked excitedly.
“Yes I am. I work in HCL technologies. It’s located in Centro Direzionale hibiscus”
“Via Pio Emmanuelli yes?” Raphael inquired to which miles gave a satisfied nod.
“You know Miles, I have a bit of experience in your field”Nicole informed him in high spirits.
He knew fully well she was very technologically literate– well thanks to Leila.
“Really?”He asked, feigning surprise and curiosity.
“Yes. I studied all these back home. I worked in a tech company back in my country”
“I’ll really love to know more about that Nicole but I think I should be heading my way now”Miles informed her, standing up and pushing his chair backwards.
A frown washed upon Nicole’s face.
Raphael noticed her frown and in instant, he had his hand digging into her skin once again.
Nicole recoiled and faced him, wondering why he was giving her painful scratches.
They both exchanged glances at each other, none of them saying a word.
“Here is my business card Nicole. Now I’m the one giving you a card” Miles offered, coming over to Nicole and Raphael.
Nicole reached for it and her eyes examined it with care.
She attempted to speak but Raphael cut her off.
“It was nice having you stop by Miles”
“Thank you Mr Raphael. I’ll be on my way now”
Leila watched him go, before her eyes locked with Raphael’s gaze on Nicole.
Raphael had already started getting uncomfortable. A devilish asymmetrical grin formed on her lips.
That was the goal.
A few more push and he would start flaring up.
“Dear wife, when I come back later in the night we will talk about this card you collected”Raphael venomously said in a hushed tone to Nicole’s ear causing her to shrink in her skin.
What did that mean?.. she thought.
Did she make him angry?
She whipped her face slightly to look at Raphael and he had no expression on his face. He was neutral.
Nicole gulped and nodded to his demand.
Breakfast continued with everyone discussing calmly to each other but only Nicole was restive.
Raphael’s hand would occasionally move from her waist to her thighs, gripping it in such a fearsome manner that she would downcast her head and press her lips together tightly to keep herself from screaming out.
And when she took cursory glimpses of Raphael, he was the least concerned. He would go on talking like he wasn’t digging his nails into her flesh.
The marks of his nails would be dented permanently in her skin if he didn’t stop. It kept on going on till they had all finished breakfast.
“When I come back, I expect to see you naked and those perky breasts and dark brown luscious nipples under my lustful view while we discuss about this card you collected principessa” Raphael gravelly whispered again into Nicole’s ear before letting go off her waist.
Nicole felt jitters spreading rapidly through her body and it wasn’t in the good kind of way.
She watched Raphael and his capos head out of the huge double oak doors of his mansion.
“What’s wrong Nicole? You seem tensed?”Leila stylishly peered.
“No-nothing”Nicole stammered.
Leila shrugged her shoulders.
“If you say so” she gave in, walking out with a wily grin.
* * * * * * *
RAPHAEL
“Zoom in on that” I ordered one of my men, Adriano, whilst my fore finger pointed at the white screen of the monitor.
I was seriously trying to concentrate on finding ‘The Ghost’ but somehow my mind kept on flashing back to how nice Nicole was with Miles.
I know that’s just how Nicole is, it’s her attitude to be naturally nice but…. I feel a grenade explode in my head whenever I think of it.
My heart races and so does my jealousy. I can’t stand her being too friendly with any man.
I love her so much and I just want her for myself only.
I feel like stabbing something repeatedly to get this uneasy feeling off me.
Damn!
What the hell. My fist balled up in an instant and I don’t know if it’s cause of this stupid villain hiding in the shadows or the fact that Nicole was too friendly with Miles.
“Fuck. Can something just fucking happen already!”Dante bellowed, cutting into my thoughts.
I and the capos were examining the footages of the casino before the attack.
So far we got nothing.
Not even Mario showing up.
Just normal performances, drunken men and women being sexual in public, nude scenes, gambling and the likes.
I took my hair in my hands, fisting into it and closing my eyes for some seconds.
I opened them and I spotted some one walking into the rowdy casino.
Mario.
I could see the relief on everyone’s face
“Finally” Lorenzo impatiently growled.
“Lets find out what he was doing”I muttered.
Mario had himself drinking and dancing with nudely dressed women.
He was literally enjoying his life.
If only he knew he was minutes away from his death.
That’s just the thing about life.
I smiled at the thought. We pass our death day each fucking year and we have no clue.
“Can this man just do something already?”Luca spoke in annoyance.
I could sense the irritation in my capos faces.
Mario’s death wouldn’t have been much of a shocker if he hadn’t quit or gotten more gun wounds than the other victims.
Each had one hole in their flesh but he had fucking six. Why?
“Zoom in on Mario. Let’s see if we can spot any weapon on him” I ordered Adriano.
The young red haired followed my orders. He was a tech wiz just like Nicole but he was more advanced. He hacked into more complicated and highly secured security systems.
I remembered during the last election in the country, I had him and his minions hack into the governments data base for political reasons.
Probably I could get him to teach Nicole all these…. I mused.
She would make a splendid hacker.
“Capo dei capi no sign of any weapon” Adriano made known to me.
I passed knowing glances at the others. My suspicions were right after all.
We watched intently as Mario suddenly walked out of the casino, his steps sloppy. He had ingested a booze of alcohol.
“Give us outside footage” I instructed.
Mario was talking to a man with coffee brown scattered hair and what seemed like a broken nose. He was on a black apparel, black hoodie and black pants.
From the man’s face, he seemed vexed. His lips were drawn downwards, pulled to a scowl.
His nostrils flared as he watched Mario speak.
“Volume”I instructed.
“You are making a big mistake” We heard the man gruff.
The entire room was as silent as a graveyard at this point. Even the sound of a pin falling could be heard.
“Go tell boss that if he pays me what I demand then I’ll keep my mouth sealed” Mario replied with so much audacity.
We watched the man give Mario an uncanny smile.
I knew that Mario knew something.
My suspicions had fully been confirmed.
“Whatever that happens next, it’s on you” the man angrily threatened before walking away and into a parked car.
“Pause that!”I commanded in a haste before the car could gear to life.
I wanted to get the plate number of the car.
“He must know who the ghost is”Marco lowly said.
Marco–he was always quiet. He was the youngest amongst us. Sometimes I wondered what always goes on in his little mind but he was extremely loyal.
“I think we’ve gotten our lead” I proudly said with a cunning smile.
I passed glances at my capos. They all had their guns ready to spill blood.
“Let’s go get that mother fucker”