Nikolai had to pat himself on the back at how much self-control he was exercising. He knew that Luis Caddel had something planned out, and he wanted to see it play out, physically incapable of risking Angelo’s safety.
He placed a hand in the pocket of his trench coat, his other hand holding a long-forgotten cigar between his lips, forcing his tense muscles to relax.
The door handle slowly turned, and he couldn’t help but remember what Silvia had told him about Angelo bumping into his father and falling physically ill for days after.
He glanced over at Luis Caddel, whose complete attention was focused on the door, a feverish tinge in his eyes. It reminded him much of his dad, and once again, he had to put in a lot of work to stop himself from digging the dog’s heart with his bare hands.
The door finally opened, revealing Angelo standing on the other side with his eyes blown wide, bloody sweater slipping down a thin shoulder, his hair wild and down around his shoulders.
Nikolai bit down on his cigar, the familiar taste of burning nicotine on his tongue. He calmly discarded another cigar - he had almost forgotten that smoking cigars around Angelo never went down well.
Angelo was yet to notice him, the assassin was frozen like prey on the stairs, staring right at his dad with an expression he had never seen before, and he planned to make sure it never had to be repeated.
"Come over here," Luis Caddel ordered him over, "What should you say after running off?"
Angelo didn’t move, his hands clenched into fists beneath bloody sweater paws. "S-Silvia..." He stumbled over his words, "Can you..."
"You haven’t even apologized yet, and you’re already making demands?" Luis tutted, but there was no hiding the almost manic excitement in his dark eyes.
"Silvia, that fucking whore," He went on, "You just had to run off to someone pretty fucking annoying, didn’t you?"
Nikolai straightened up, he hadn’t thought about that. He only figured that Angelo wasn’t that important to Luis Caddel, but it seemed like Silvia had done way more for Angelo than she could have imagined.
"Straighten up, you look sloppy, and don’t be rude to our guest." Luis held up a hand in Nikolai’s general direction.
Angelo pushed out his chest out of pure habit, glancing over to whom his dad was pointing at, only to freeze for a second time, his pale green eyes widening for a different reason, hope making them glassy.
"But it doesn’t matter now," Luis interrupted their prolonged gaze, his jaw hardening in disapproval, "One, two, three Mafia Kings can’t fucking keep me away from what’s mine. I said. Come over here."
Angelo relaxed his spine, he was still terrified, but Nikolai’s presence had eased some of the terror. His dad’s hold over him was almost absolute, but Nikolai was downright indestructible, Nikolai was... here? Why was he here?
"Guest?" He repeated, making no effort to get closer to his dad.
Even if he wanted to, which he absolutely did not, his body had been reduced to acting on survival instincts, he wouldn’t approach without external force.
Luis rose to his feet, impatient. "Mafia King Nikolai here had something important he wanted to say to me," He spoke as he closed the distance between them.
"Don’t look so surprised now, didn’t you whore out your body to an Alpha to come kill me?" He went on, the distance between them closing.
Angelo was an inch away from a panic attack, finally forcing his body to take a step back. He was a little too late, however, because Luis Caddel already had a firm grip on his leash.
He flinched like he had been hit when the leash went taut, applying pressure on the choker around his neck. He cowered away, curling into himself, eyes fixed on his damp, socked feet.
"I-I d-didn’t," He mumbled, barely intelligible.
"Taunting me isn’t going to end well for you, Caddel." Nikolai’s voice was pure frost, his fists clenching and unclenching like he could already feel them connecting with Luis Caddel’s face.
"This is between me and mine, Mafia King," He mocked, returning to his seat while pulling Angelo along. "Stay the fuck out of it."
Nikolai was about to ignore the potential risks and lunge at the dog right then. Angelo had stopped looking at him, the assassin wouldn’t take this from anyone else, he could snap the chain and strangle his dad with it, but Nikolai knew all too well why he couldn’t.
It was like staring at a different version of his own dad, but twisted and dark a choice it was, he would rather be beaten to an inch of his life and thrown in a metal box than the pure depravity Luis Caddel tainted his son with.
"I don’t care how you manage to convince him to go against the High Council," Luis refocused on Angelo, who whipped up to look at Nikolai, genuine surprise on his pretty features made more exquisite by the blood stains on them.
Luis tightened his hold on the leash even further, pulling Angelo closer, and making him stumble slightly. "Eyes on me." He demanded, grinding his teeth.
They were there because Nikolai had something important to say to him, but with the involvement of Angelo, it had been easy to deduce what the Mafia King wanted.
Well, Alpha Eaton had already predicted that the Mafia King wanted him dead, so that wasn’t new news, he just recently learned firsthand the reason why.
As someone from Haines who had had a run in with Mafia King Ivan Lauder, he knew how much of a horrifying monster the Mafia King had been, and his son, Nikolai had been the one to kill that monster.
Nikolai might have killed his dad but his reputation was no better, granted, he wasn’t the spawn of evil like the previous Mafia King was but he still terrified most.
Luis Caddel didn’t like that Angelo had gotten tangled with him, intimately, if the Mafia King’s actions were any indication. He had gotten too lax, Angelo used to belong to him, wholly, completely dependent on him, and he planned to return things to the way they were.