“It’s fine. You can leave it, we are already late.” Axel said.
“Oh, okay.” She replied and he walked ahead of her, he walked out and she trailed behind him.
They got out of the house and Axel walked towards a different car. He got into the driver’s seat and Lily entered and sat in the passenger’s seat.
She had never seen him drive himself before. She looked inside the car and was amazed, it looked more pretty than it was on the outside.
Axel ignited the car and drove out of the mansion, Lily hurriedly used her seatbelt seeing the way he drove.
He drove into the streets and he moved really fast which made Lily scared. He kept breaking the traffic rules and she feared the cops would be after them.
“Axel.” She called and he glanced at her.
“Yeah?”
“Can you please slow down?” She asked and he ignored her.
After some minutes of what seemed like torture to Lily, the car finally stopped in front of a building. She breathed out in relief and glanced at him.
He didn’t look bothered as he walked out of the car. Lily loosened the seatbelt and walked out too. She stared at the building which looked like a company, but the building had no name on it. It was a ten-storey building.
Axel moved closer to Lily and held her hand, he was about to walk but Lily didn’t show any sign of movement which made him look at her.
“Wait, shouldn’t I know a few things about where we are going? Like what I am supposed to do?” She asked.
“Nothing, just be Mrs. Blackwell. Just be my wife.” He replied and looked away immediately. Those words made Lily’s heart flutter and she unconsciously smiled.
He pulled her gently towards the entrance, they walked into the building and surprisingly, the ground floor was empty.
Lily kept looking around as they approached the elevator, they got to it and entered.
Lily thought he was going to press the button to a floor but instead, he brought out a black card and raised it to the camera in the elevator.
Some new set of buttons suddenly popped out next to the former ones and Axel pressed the fifth button. They disappeared immediately after he did and the elevator started to move downward.
Lily was speechless, she had a lot of questions but she didn’t know if she could ask. Axel’s expressions never look like he is ready to entertain questions.
It was longer in the elevator than expected and Axel kept going through his phone, Lily finally recalled her phone and she sighed. She left everything back at the house.
She poked her head to see what Axel was doing and she noticed he was going through a list of names, he suddenly glanced at her and she hurriedly looked away. All these while, Axel was still holding her hand.
The elevator door opened and Lily sighed in relief.
‘Finally.’
Axel walked out with her, they walked down the hallway and Lily kept looking around. There was only a door and it was at the end of the hallway.
‘What is this place?’ She thought.
They got to the door and Axel brought out the black card again, he placed it at the scanner next to the door and the door opened up.
They both walked into the room and Lily was surprised to see different people dressed in black and they were all seated at a table.
The table was filled with different things Lily could recognize and could not. The room reeked of an unpleasant smell that Lily had no idea what it was.
The table was a really long table, next to every man was a woman which Lily assumed to be their wives.
There were men in suits at every corner of the room standing guard.
She noticed the table had only two vacant seats left and it was at the top of the table, as everyone noticed Axel’s presence, the room fell silent.
He walked towards the empty seat with Lily. They both got there and Axel took a seat and Lily also sat next to him.
She had no idea what was going on, what the gathering was all about but all she knew was that it was a secretive gathering and it was terrifying.
“Shall we begin?” Axel spoke up and one of the men standing placed a file in his presence. Lily noticed there were eyes on her and she felt uncomfortable, most of the men in the room were middle-aged men and old men. Only Axel and a few were young.
The wives in the rooms were young, only a few were old women. They were mistresses to middle-aged men and old men.
“You are late.” The middle-aged man next to Lily said and her heart jumped a little because of how deep his voice was.
“It is not easy being a lord, is it?” Axel asked without turning to him and the man rolled his eyes before looking away.
Axel opened the file and Lily was surprised to see a lot of blueprints, images of ships, vaults, and many more.
‘Who the hell are they?’ She thought.
“These are the past operations that were done, and looking at it, only a few were successful and that is because our territory isn’t wide enough, which means we are extending it.” Axel explained and everyone in the room started to mutter.
“Moving on.” He said and they kept quiet again.
“By extending the territory, we need to know the best spots to make the business move faster. According to my research, some of the Russian bases are great, which means we are going to take over the place.” He added and this made the murmurs louder.
“What? You can’t do that. That is going to start up a war amongst us. A war that we have managed to end for a few years.” The man who spoke earlier said.
“Yes, I agree with him. We don’t want to get on the bad side of the Russians, we benefit from them too.” Another middle-aged man said.
“We will benefit more if we take over.” Axel replied and the man next to Lily scoffed.
“You have only been a lord for a few days and you are about to ruin everything.”
“If you are uncomfortable with the way I do my things, get out.” Axel replied calmly and the man kept quiet.
“But he is right. We can’t do that.”
“Because you are weak. It is about time we are being feared, not us being scared. This is our city and we should have the upper hand, not them.”
Axel answered and they murmured again.
“I can’t have a kid telling me what I should do.” The man next to Lily spoke up again. All these while, Lily was just looking back and forth between them.
“You are not even supposed to be where you are, I am supposed to be on the fucking seat, you showed up with a nobody as a wife days ago and you are already the lord. Who the hell do you think you are?” The man yelled which made Lily flinch, Axel glanced at her and saw how scared she was.
He looked at the man and everyone stared at him. The room was silent and everyone waited to see what Axel would do.
He could do a lot of things but he kept glancing at Lily who looked terrified.
“Moving on.” He said and looked away. Everyone was surprised he didn’t do anything. He might have been just a mere member days ago but he was feared by most of them.
Axel had his own territory he ran outside the organisation.
The meeting came to an end after an hour and everyone was starting to leave. The man next to Lily tried to walk out too but the men in the room blocked his path.
The room was already empty and it was just Lily, Axel, the man, and Axel’s men.
“Hey.” Axel said to Lily and she turned to him.
“Wait outside for a few minutes.” He ordered and Lily nodded in response. She walked out of the room and waited outside. The hallway was empty too.
Lily sighed and played with her fingers as she waited for Axel, she suddenly heard a gunshot and she froze. Her heart raced in fear as she remained on the spot in fear.
Axel walked out and looked at her, he saw the terrified look on her face.
Lily could hear her heartbeat as she looked at Axel.
She hoped it wasn’t what she was thinking, she hoped she was wrong.
“Breathe Lily.” Axel said and she gasped, she didn’t realise she was holding her breath.
She couldn’t fight back the tears that clouded her eyes as she stared at Axel. Just a question kept popping into her head at the moment.
‘Who the hell did I get married to?’