Page 33 of Seduced By the Russian

Both Lisa and the party shifted to the back of his mind; Nikolai went into his office like a crazed man with intent. Even though he had no clue what he was looking for, Nikolai always kept a record of everything he did in the Bratva, so he just started with that. Something had to catch his eyes along the way. He would know what he was looking for the moment he saw it.

Opened ledgers and files filled his table, turning it messy, yet he had seen nothing yet. Fear held Nikolai as he persisted in his task, and he kept on hoping that everything was just him overreacting. But deep down, Nikolai knew that wasn't the case. That engraving had spurred something in him, impactful enough to have gotten him worried. He remembered how Lisa looked so familiar when he first met her. What if his head was right? Dmitri had been insisting that Lisa was here for a reason, and for the first time since he voiced that out, Nikolai was beginning to think that his best friend was right. What if someone had sent her?

Nikolai found the first ledger he had kept after the death of his parents and flipped its black cover open. The images from the reports were brutal, and his childish scrawling cast his mind back to when it all happened. And just like that, it clicked.

When Nikolai turned sixteen, he was at that stage where he could rebel against the stronghold his father had on him. The late Davydov was a tough and ruthless man, and didn’t change his attitude even with his only child. Nikolai thought his father hated him and that there was a possibility that the man wasn't even his biological father. They were supposed to go on that trip together, but out of spite and stubbornness, Nikolai had decided to stay back. That plagued him for years after their death because if he had been there with them, maybe he would have died as well rather than being left all alone, struggling with the ropes of leading the Bratva - something his father had been trying to teach him but Nikolai had thought it was just all part of his wickedness.

Nikolai knew his father had been making moves to take over from Kuznetsov, and the other four members of the leading families knew how close he was to making that happen. And that included the Petrovas - the only ones who were vocally against it, not hiding their distaste over Davydov being their new head. Nikolai had overheard his father talking to his mother one night about how the Boss of the Petrov family had openly declared that the late Davydov would only become their leader over his dead body, and Nikolai's father thought that was exactly what would happen. It didn't make sense to Nikolai at the time because he used to spend time with the Petrovas when he was younger. Although the memories were vague now, he still remembered laughing in a wide expanse of land along with other kids.

When his parents died suddenly in that accident, Nikolai's world came crashing down. Those days were the darkest in his life when laughter perpetually ceased from his lips, and he lost the desire to do any other thing that avenged the death of his parents. His matron tried reaching out as much as she could, but there was little that could be done for a sixteen-year-old boy who, for some reason, blamed himself for his father's death. Maybe if he had been serious about his training, then he might have been aware of the attack and would have done something to prevent it from happening.

Nikolai was deprived of the opportunity to know if that was possible, and in a blind rage, he carefully mapped out how to eliminate the Boss of the Petrov family. He studied how they worked from the intel he placed in their midst, and got everything he needed to know about their operations. Nikolai executed his plan so brilliantly that his father would have been so pleased, but that thought only got him angrier, so much that everyone in his path at the mansion fled when he approached.

He didn't just want the Petrova family to suffer his pain; he wanted them to be forced to go extinct, to run away from everything they hold dear to, including being one of the five leadership families in New York. So, Nikolai struck on a sunny afternoon, when every member of the family was out in the pool, enjoying the weather. The horror in their eyes as he fired the first bullet brought a smile to his face - the first smile since the death of his parents - and then, he turned into a maniac as he hunted the Boss, who was being shielded by his men. Every one of them dropped to their deaths before his eyes, and before long, the Boss was standing alone, pleading for his life.

"I've got a family that needs me," his shaky voice sounded inaudible in the middle of all the shootings and gunpowder in the air. "Don't do this, Nikolai. Remember, you always saw me as your second dad."

"You should have thought about that before you fucking killed my first one." Nikolai didn't even recognize his voice as he yelled in anger. He wanted this man to die slowly, for his limbs to be shredded piece by piece until there was nothing left until he wished for death. But Nikolai didn't have the resources for that yet.

Aiming for his heart, Nikolai pulled the trigger, and Petrov fell to the ground, twitching like the coward and weakling he was. Nikolai's father had always talked about his first kill and how proud it had made him feel.

But for Nikolai, the lust for more bloodshed ran through his bones, and he realized that killing their Boss didn't even bring the closure he felt it would. His father was still dead. Nothing had changed.

Nothing would ever change, but at least he had eliminated the Petrova family from the five leading families. That was when Nikolai made the decision to replace his father there and worked his ass out towards it.

Returning to the present, a thought struck Nikolai and he returned to the newspaper clippings inside the ledger. There, in black and white, was a reported news about the kidnap of the only daughter of the Petrova family, her chocolate and caramel balayage framing that face he would recognize anywhere in the world.

Lisa was the daughter of the Boss he killed nine years ago.

Her real name was Yelizaveta or Elizabeth Petrova.

Nikolai slumped into the backrest of his office chair as the weight of his discovery came crashing on him. This was the reason why she had looked so familiar to him. He had probably seen her countless times before his parents' death. She had already been kidnapped before Nikolai launched his attack on her family, but even then, she would have been too young to do anything about it.

Nikolai didn't think Lisa - no! Yelizaveta - remembered anything about her childhood, because Nikolai was very observant, and it would have been incredibly hard to keep it away from him. But then again, Nikolai didn't want to act too sure about that until he had enough evidence.

Now, Nikolai had to know if Lisa remembered anything at all from her childhood or if Dmitri was right and the only reason she’d appeared in his life was to seek revenge. If Nikolai's best friend was right, Lisa was going to regret the night she walked into his moving vehicle, because he would make her life a living hell.

Every member of the Petrova family was his enemies, as far as the Davydov name was concerned. And now, Lisa had entered that list.

Chapter Sixteen

Nikolai hadn't come down for breakfast that morning, and Lisa was beginning to get worried. She was used to him sitting across the table, ignoring her throughout the meal. He sometimes acted like he was the only one at the table, sometimes inviting Dmitri, who hated eating at the same table as her, but always obliged because of his boss.

But it was different today.

It was eerily quiet.

"Was it because of what I did yesterday at the party?" Lisa asked herself as she took a sip of the freshly squeezed juice, wishing she had a definite answer to her questions. But she would say that yesterday ended on a good note. Thinking about how Nikolai had taught her how to touch herself and then watched from the chair at the foot of the bed brought a bright red hue to her face. Lisa bit her lips as she remembered how his eyes were fastened on her, unblinking the whole time. He made her feel like she was the center of his world, that in a room of a hundred people, she was the only one that mattered.

Such a shame that it was only the both of them in that room.

Lisa had no idea Dmitri was in the room already until he rudely cleared his throat, pulling a chair out noisily and plopping down on it. He glanced up to look at her for a second, raising an eyebrow at how red her skin looked that early in the day. But he returned to his meal, forgetting her altogether. Left to him, she would be out of the mansion already, but Nikolai had other plans, and as much as it looked like Dmitri detested being under the same roof as Lisa, he was loyal to Nikolai as well and believed in whatever his boss told him.

Now, Nikolai wanted them to wait. And that is what he would do.

Lisa thought about asking Dmitri why Nikolai hadn’t come down for breakfast, but decided against it upon the realization that he wouldn't tell her anything reasonable. He didn't even want to hear her voice, for some reason unknown to Lisa.

Returning to her room after breakfast, Lisa remained there through lunch, which she asked the matron to bring upstairs. After waiting for a while, Lisa decided to check up on Nikolai herself. He hadn't seen her all day, and it was troubling. Even when he was angry at her, they still bumped into each other in the hallway a million times a day, almost like it was intentionally orchestrated. But this felt different. It felt like Nikolai was intentionally staying away, and Lisa didn't like the thought of that.

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