Nikolai Dimitri Leonov

The room is dead silent, no one, none of the twelve men in the room make a sound except for me.

All that is heard is the rhythmic drumming of my fingers against the dark wooden table.

"Nothing?" I repeat myself, my eyes scanning each and every one of them with an unmatched intensity. "There are twelve of you, ten if you graciously excuse Sergei and Eugeni as they were not even in the country, but you mean to tell me ten of our highest-ranked men could not tell we had a rat running rampant through my business while I was out of the country."

My Russian comes out rough as anger backs my words, all men stay unflinching at my tone but I could see how if I carried on a bit more I might start making them all flinch.

How funny, twelve of the highest trained, most qualified men in all of Russia flinching at a twenty-year-old heir.

What has this world come to?

I push my chair back a bit and lean my body forward, clasping my hands together and resting my elbows on the table looking each and every one of these men in the eyes as I intimidate each and every one of them.

"How funny, none of you have any more to add to this conversation?" 

Again absolute silence, nothing more than hushed breathing in the room, but if you listened close enough you could hear a foot tapping lightly on the floor, a leg shaking creating the noise.

A sign of nervousness.

Hmm.

I do my last sweep of the room and let out a scoff in disappointment, pushing my chair back with a loud scrape against the wooden floor and grabbing my coat jacket which had been hung over my chair, I button it up as I start to leave the room.

"You're all dismissed, all of  you keep a lookout, if you hear absolutely anything you better report directly to me, I don't care if you think the information is basically useless or if it's in the middle of the night you come straight to me." The threat was clear in my tone, if I found out they were withholding information it was essentially a death sentence, and even in the darkness of this world all truth came to light and it was a lot better for you if you lit the candle rather than being caught in the spotlight.

I open the dark, heavy wooden door and let it slam behind me. Heads tip in respect as I walk past but I barely pay any mind to any of them and make a beeline for my Audi. 

Once I was settled and in the privacy of my car, the one place I know I can't get overheard I dial the number I hadn't spoken to since I left Italy over a week ago and listen to it ring five times before it answers.

"You would think since we're now on other sides of the continent you would let me have some room to breathe," Livia answers like she always does, never with a hi or hello, how are you doing but with some way to act annoyed with me.

All the anger I was feeling starts to dissipate at a rapid rate and I feel lighter just hearing her.

"Good morning Princess, did you sleep well?" I tease.

"Sleep what's that, never heard of it. And don't call me Princess." Livia grumbles, her deeper morning voice coming out strong but even still I hear the amusement in her tone. "Now what do you want Leonov, don't you have better things to be doing than calling me at half six in the morning? I went to bed at like three this morning"

"Lucky you, I had a meeting from four this morning that just wrapped out right now."

She must hear something in my tone because I hear a shift in her then the next time she speaks, it's no longer full of banter but instead replaced with her renowned business tone.

"Have you found the rats running rampant in your ranks Nikolai?" Livia asks casually, using my full first name, something she does very rarely.

"Don't you remember the plan, Livia?" I mimic her using her first name as well. "This has been in full effect for months now, we both know how it's going to play out in the end, once we find out this unknown player which I remember correctly is your job."

"Don't worry, I'm getting there." My eyebrows raise, well that was news to me. To be fair I hadn't spoken to Livia other than the two of us, or well mainly me sending good morning and good night texts to her phone, as well as reminders for her to eat at certain times during the day knowing she would completely forget once her day started to get busy.

"Oh?" I ask, urging her to carry on.

"Are you doubting me, Nikolai?" Livia once again teases, but I hear the faintest note of doubt in her voice, like I could ever not have full faith in her.

"Never Princess, just curious." 

"I told you to stop calling me that." I can almost see her eye roll even though we're thousands of miles apart.

"I trust you Livia, and I know even though we've had some rough patches throughout the years, you trust me too and that's what we need to be able to go through this."

"This is so much harder than I thought it would be Kai," Livia whispers like she almost can't believe she's saying these words, like saying them out loud just makes them all the more real. "If I can't do this simple task how am I going to take over one of the biggest mafia's in Europe."

"Livia you can't expect the world at eighteen, you're, and even I'm still learning, we still have years before we are expected to take over. Even if it's in five years' time, think about the difference in your mental state from when you were thirteen. You were intelligent then but now you've taken it to a whole new level, Livy. You now play a game so well that I struggle to keep up someday and I just look at you in awe, you're two and a half years younger than me and are so much more cut out for this."

"You don't give yourself enough credit, Nikolai. You and I keep up with one another, we always have that's why it's so easy to fall into an ongoing rivalry, when you advance all I want to do is work harder to get to where you are and in areas I start getting better you work on them too. You and I push each other Kai, we don't compare."

"Yeah, we don't compare." I shake my head, a smile rising onto my face. I lean back in my chair, I had already driven from the warehouse back to my apartment but I didn't want to leave the little bubble Livia and I had created just the two of us.

"Speaking about ages, are you excited about you're birthday?" Livia asks, my nose scrunches up lightly at the thought. I hadn't thought too much about my upcoming twenty-first birthday but I knew plans were being made. My mother was organising a dinner party with almost all the affluent families in Russia and many from across Europe the night before my birthday. On my actual birthday, I have dinner with just my parents and then normally my best friend holds a  party afterwards for my friends that live here.

Due to the timing in the year, Livia had never been able to attend any birthday celebrations for me for the past many years since she's always been back home attending school but this year is a different story, her dad doesn't monitor her actions like he did the previous years.

"Just the usual, mom is throwing a gala in honour of her only child but Andrei is throwing his own party with everyone I've probably ever met. "I rub my eyes already exhausted at the thought. "You're invited by the way."

"Oh?" Livia asks interest piqued. "Did Andrei put my name on the list?"

"No. I put your name on the list." Admittedly I have always been a bit possessive of Livia so to say. She has never met any one of my friends when she's here, not even my closest friend I've had since I was twelve, though she's heard stories of them. But I have never really mentioned her to any of them either, they know about her by passing comments when I mention I'm heading to the Amalfi Coast but if she managed to attend my birthday celebration it would be the first of what seemed like two different worlds collided.

"I can't make any promises, Kai." Livia sighs, probably thinking about everything that can go wrong between now and next week Friday. "But I will try my hardest."

"That's all I ask, Princess."

"Can you stop calling me that?" Livia once again sighs but I can hear the humour in her voice. "I have to go now, bye Kai."

"Bye Livy."

I sit in the car for another few moments just breathing the serenity I felt for a few moments before I headed into my house, to get ready for what I knew was going to be a long and tedious day.

Surprise!!!

I have had the worst writers block paired with being the busiest I have ever been in my entire life but when you guys brought Repercussions up to 200K I knew I had to write a chapter for you guys. I had been writing this chapter over and over again but didn't really like anything so I scrapped all my ideas and managed to get out this so hopefully you enjoy it.

Thank you all for continuing to support me, I love you all so much

Ara <3