chapter 49

"Ahh I'm so tired, sugar" She said and plopped down on the bed, cuddling with Doodles.

"Hmm you worked hard today, darling" He replied while scrolling through his laptop.

She pouted and turned the other way.

"Doodles I'm so bored and since I have no one to play with, will you join me?" She said it deliberately loud to make him aware of her mild anger.

He barked in response and Ailee smiled.

"Good boy, mama's so proud of you baby" she said, giving him belly rubs.

" Come on Doodlee poodlee boo, we'll have ice cream, '' she said and left him alone in the room.

She strolled around the house admiring the clear night outside the windows with a tub of ice cream in her hand. Doodles was also busy eating his ice cream in the kitchen.

She stopped near the glass door to the garden and reflected on the past year. How much development she has shown in her overall personality like how she is able to take care of her emotions in a better way and how she is slowly overcoming her social anxiety.

Ofcourse Xavier plays a crucial role in all of this and she is utterly happy and blessed to have him by his side.

She remembered dreaming about her prince charming from the books but never really thought she would find someone even remotely close to that because those are just fictional characters.

Xavier has unknowingly recreated a lot of those toe-curling scenes with her that when she even thinks about makes her blush and hide her face in shyness.

And surprisingly, both of them are doing incredibly well as their first time in a relationship.

She jumped when the doorbell rang loudly in the silent house and instinctively looked at the stairs waiting for him to appear and a minute later Xavier was coming down while putting on his sweatshirt and locked eyes with Ailee.

"Zai-"

"Go up Coco. I have some people coming in" he kissed her on the lips and pulled away.

She looked worriedly at him when she sensed he was not in a good mood and nodded.

"Take care" she mumbled and held his shoulders to kiss his jaw. He patted her bum and moved to the door.

She quickly ran up and waited by the door to peek at their sudden guests. She saw an unfamiliar group of men and seeing so many males together she decided to just go and hide in the room but the realisation of having forgotten her ice cream and Doodles downstairs hit her hard.

She slapped her forehead and slumped down on the sofa and played unicorn academy on his laptop while snuggling in the blankets.

She was relieved there were no loud noises coming from the living room, meaning they were not fighting.

___

Xavier sat down on the couch and five people followed. The five leaders of different teams he created long ago. Some of his most trusted men.

"Is it confirmed?" Xavier asked.

"Yes sir, and we also ran a check on what Mr Igor said and it came out to be positive." Enzo replied.

" Fuck" he muttered.

" As soon as I received the news, I double checked it, sir. They are meeting on Monday. There are two locations set and are fully equipped for the same. We will send teams to both of the places beforehand and pull out as soon as the original one is revealed. We'll leave no blindspot. The B. R. will have to come to light." Enzo gave the details.

"Hmm and the dealer?" He asked with furrowed eyebrows.

" He is an Asian dealer of drugs and firearms." Trevor, one of his security team leaders said.

" Name?"

" Michael Ru"

" I know him. He won't meddle in my business"

" Do we take him as well?" Enzo asked.

" No need but stay alert"

"Waiting for your orders, sir" Trevor said.

"Hmm deploy team one and five to the locations" he said after a moment's silence.

" Yes sir"

" I don't want many people on this so keep it quiet. " he warned.

"Sir, do we-"

"No, I'll be there myself," he said.

Enzo nodded firmly and continued reporting to him.

" And Sir, I think they're slowly catching up to us. The sudden disappearance of Dino and Alvaro made them suspicious. Someone came looking for them in the clubs downtown."

" One more reason to hurry the fuck up and get it over with then." he shrugged.

"Yes, sir," They said in unison.

They talked a bit more on the plan and then stood up to leave.

When all the cars drove past the gates and the serenity fell over the surroundings once again he sighed and went inside.

He slowly walked to his room, hearing the soft voices from the inside grow louder.

Upon reaching inside, a small smile broke onto his lips. His little girlfriend was curled up in a ball with a blanket tightly wrapped around her. Only her nose and chin were out. Something was being played on his laptop with a low volume.

He advanced towards her petite frame and peeked at what she was watching and shook his head with a little laugh.

"Oh baby" He shut it off and put it on the table and picked her up.

He was carrying her to the bed when she stirred in her sleep.

Yawning continuously and with barely open eyes, she snuggled closer to his warm chest and asked,

"How... did your..... meeting..... go?"

"It was okay" he gently put her down and unwrapped the blanket to cover her properly in layers while she lay there sprawled like a starfish on the whole bed.

"Do it quickly, I'm cold, Zai" she whined.

He drank a glass of water before coming and lying down next to her. She was almost asleep when she felt his hand snake around her waist and pull her back.

She turned around sleepily and put her head on his chest and started playing with his hair because no matter how much he denies it, she knows he loves it when she does that.

"Who were those people?" She asked a while later.

"They work for me," he answered.

" Was it really urgent? Like a really really big thing?" She felt sleepiness fading into the back of her head with all those questions surfacing in her mind.

" Hmm sort of" He saw where this was going but didn't feel like stopping her. Might as well prepare her sooner than to struggle later.

" Zai?" She said slowly, propping her chin on his chest and met his eyes.

He was all too familiar with that look. The one where she looks at him like he is a fragile piece of glass and it makes him feel weak and soft.

" Are you in trouble? Like any kind of trouble?" She asked so innocently that his heart melted into a puddle.

" No, why would you think that?" He cupped her face and caressed her cheek with his thumb.

"Because lately you've been so stressed and cautious like you are waiting for someone to pop out from random directions. I'm worried." She rambled.

"Don't worry, it's under my control" he continued comforting her with his gentle caressing.

"Just tell me, I will hunt down everyone who hurt you, promise" she said with her lips pressed firmly in determination.

He burst out laughing and in that melody she forgot what she said for a minute and basked in that rare moment.

Him laughing so genuinely that is.

"Where'd you learn that from, darling?" He asked with a smile.

" A movie" she said with a pout.

" Hmm but I'm enough of a bad guy for the both of us, yeah?" he said in pure amusement.

" Please tell me you'll be okay- no safe"

"I will, Coco. I know what I'm doing, "he said.

" And your brother?" She asked after some time.

" My brother?"

" Yeah, is it about him?"

" Mhmm it's not. He might be linked to it but not entirely. It's my problem" he explained in simple terms.

"Can I ask you questions about your family? Is that COMPLETELY okay with you? Say no if you're even just one percent unsure" she asked and sat up.

He raised an eyebrow in question and nodded slowly.

" Get up," she demanded out of the blue.

" Why?" he asked, confused.

"Because it's easier to comfort you that way, you smarty boy"

He sat up and leaned back on the backrest.

"So-"

Suddenly there was scratching from outside and light tapping like sound.

"Oh" she facepalmed.

" You left Doodie out" she quickly got up and let him in.

He came and settled on his bed near theirs.

"So first" she came and straddled him and kissed all over his face.

" I order you to stop whenever you feel uncomfortable, okay?"

He nodded and hugged her waist tightly.

"You are my incredible boyfriend and are so much loved by so many people so never let your past ruin your present, hmm?"

He nodded again.

" Okay you may start now or I might end up giving you prep talks all night" she smiled sheepishly and rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.

Sometimes it's easier to speak when there's no one watching so that they don't see the vulnerability in your eyes and you don't see the look of judgment in theirs.

Ailee was doing it for the exact same reason. She wanted him to feel at absolute ease considering he has probably never spoken about it out loud and it will be harder for him than other people.

"What do you want to ask?" He copied her position and rested his head on her shoulder.

"Were you two close when your parents were around?" She started hesitantly.

"No, we were hardly coexisting"

" Oh... but....why?"

He clenched his jaw and sucked in a sharp breath. She felt them both on her slightly exposed shoulder and shuddered.

"My father cheated on my mother with his," he said after a few minutes of silence.

She gasped and balled his shirt on his arms.

"That's terrible"

"It is, but it gets worse" he chuckled in a way that was anything but humorous.

"His mother, Loraine knew very well that my father was married and his relationship with his wife was weak but she took that as an advantage and stabbed her in the back"

" St- stabbed her in the back? She knew your mother?"

"Mhmm she was a distant relative of hers"

"Oh" she was now drawing hearts on his broad back.

"My mother didn't know about them even when Igor was born because she was habitual of dad's absence for days. She thought it was all normal" he sighed painfully and pulled her closer.

" Then I came two years later. Mama said she saw him smile for the first time when he held me in the hospital. I don't know if that is true or not. He never expressed it. His close friend and right hand man was a father figure to me, uncle Maksim"

" He trained me hard like an animal but atleast he cared enough to put an ointment on my wounds while my father just turned around and left saying I needed to work harder."

"My mother was the only person I remember hugging me and lulling me to sleep. When I had fevers I would see the blood of all those who were killed in front of me, a six year old, in my nightmares. I had no friends, no cousins. I was always surrounded by adults who worked for my dad."

" One day, when I was eight. My mother came back home crying and angry. And my life was no longer the same. She found out about Igor and Loraine. She stopped paying me attention. I would eat alone, go to bed alone, completely alone I was but I didn't mind because I knew she was hurting. She would scream at my father and he would ignore her completely but sometimes he would beat her up. So two months later she cheated on him as some sort of revenge."

She sniffled quietly and subtly wiped her tears on the blanket. She couldn't get the picture of little Xavier experiencing such traumatizing events, out of her mind.

" My dad killed him in front of her and then shot her to death."

"My God- Zai..... I'm so sorry that you had to go through so much pain" she said with wobbly lips and he shook his head.

" Father immediately brought Loraine and Igor to our home. She was there for two purposes only and that were to take care of me and give Igor his name. But she never did her part. She would pretend to be my mother in his presence but behind him she would not even spare me a glance. There were times when she abused me verbally and physically but as I grew stronger I showed her my place in that house. I almost killed her once in self defense and after that she became scared of me"

"You know she once sat on me and choked me so hard that I stopped breathing and almost damaged my trachea. But Igor saved me for the first and last time"

" He did? But why was she harming you like that?" he nodded to the former part of the question.

" Because I refused to go to a boarding school and took a stand for myself"

" I was a fucker from a young age. I would back answer anyone and everyone except father. An army of soldiers would gather at my one word but no one listened to her and Igor. She hated my guts for that."

" Then my father died. He had heart attacks back to back. Sad that he didn't die in the field as he always wished. And now when his will came into light, Loraine went berserk. Every single penny and piece of land was under my name and she couldn't bear it. Then in her craziness I found out that my dad actually loved me as his only legitimate child."

"But he was still his father as well" she mumbled, feeling bad for Igor.

"Hmm but he was the way he was" he replied.

"Dad had already appointed his most trusted men to be my guards and they laid their lives to protect me. They threw both of them away when she tried to stab me with our kitchen knife one day." He laughed at that memory for some reason.

She looked at him, confused so he explained.

"That incident is quite funny to me, I have never known a toy in my entire life but knives and she being an untrained person thought she could defeat me with that poor kitchen knife."

"And then Loraine's death happened. For which I was blamed."

" What? That wasn't you, right?"

" No. It was my gun training week which only happened once a month and when I got back to my room late at night she was already lying there in her own pool of blood. I was just thirteen but I was used to seeing deaths so I calmly went to her and picked up the weapon. And that was my mistake. It made it look like I fired it. I didn't care though, she brought enough troubles in my life and I felt nothing for her brutal murder. Igor entered that very moment and tried to kill me in his rage but I was a lot stronger and bigger for my age and he was not, so naturally he was sent to hospital with seven fractures and till date he believes that I'm the culprit. "

"This is so bad. I feel so bad for you" she sniffled but controlled her cries for later because she didn't want to be seen as a cry baby. She wanted to be strong for him.

"Don't. It only helped me grow strong" he said.

" Why didn't you look into it? Who was the actual culprit then?"

"Because I didn't care what Igor or anyone else for that matter thought of me. But uncle Maksim had different plans. He tried to catch the person behind it but ended up being dead"

" Oh no"

" Mhmm he was the only person who kept me connected to my roots. I closed that case then and there and invested everything in me to take over what my father left for me."

"I thought your mostly a-"

"A legal business owner, yes. Though I was raised in it and for it, I never wanted it. I will soon legalize everything that is left and leave this in the past."

" It's a good thing but, are you sure?" She asked.

" Hmm I was fine with keeping a small part of it with myself as a memory of home and though I'm more than capable of protecting myself, I'll have a constant fear of losing my family to this, like many others. I got something to protect for the first time and I'm not about to lose it" Her heart warmed up hearing his genuine confession and how he claimed her and her family as his.

"You just won me all over again, you know? And you'll not lose us" she kissed his shoulder lightly.

" Mhmm"

" But I'm still sad and angry and frustrated and-"

" Why?"

"Because no one should go through those harsh circumstances, especially a child"

"Hmm would you have hunted down every single one of them if you were there?" He joked.

" Zai, it's not funny and, you were keeping this all to yourself?" she asked.

" Hmm I never felt the need to share it to anyone and nor was there anyone interested, they all already have a fixed image of me in their heads" he raised his head from her neck and put his chin on top of her head.

"Luka? What about him? How did you guys meet?"

" He was the son of one of the squad members who were assigned to protect me. I didn't know him until the death of my dad"

She nodded and looked at him.

A minute passed and she kept staring at him.

" What now?" He asked, confused.

" I just can't believe how much strength it must've taken you to face all of that without your parents and siblings. It is just insane"

" Mhmm it was hard but I was stronger" he flexed his muscles and she giggled.

" I know and just so YOU know I am so proud of you for being so brave and I am so happy to have you as mine, hmm?" She joined their foreheads and closed her eyes.

"Don't worry, we'll make lots of happy memories to make up for the time you couldn't" she said with a bright smile.

" You are like a dream come true Xavier"

" You are like a dream come true Ailee"

She laughed loudly when he copied the same tone she spoke in and squished his cheeks.

" I'm trying to be serious here Mr"

" Mhmm"

" Ahhh also why don't you like anyone calling you Xavier? I'm very curious about that"

" There's nothing special about that to be honest. My father gave me that name and he was the only one who called me by that. He thought calling me by my first name was a disrespect to me and to him. But my mind has only bad memories attached to it. My father ruined me from my birth, you see? So I Iet you call me Xavier because it's the only way my brain would accept it and move on from that"

Ailee, with the baby pout, embraced him in the warmest hug, trying to transfer all his sadness to him.

" Come on now let's sleep" she got up from his lap and went to the bathroom to quickly freshen up. He checked his phone for any important texts in the meantime.

When they were all snuggled up to each other she broke the silence again,

" Zai?"

"Hmm?"

"No matter what anyone says to you or about you, just believe in yourself and know that Luka, me and my family will always and always stay by your side. You won't ever have to face any challenges of life alone again. That is my promise to you"

"I know baby I know. Thank you for giving me a chance." He kissed her behind her ear and closed his eyes.

Both of them thought over their lives for a few minutes in silence and then drifted off to slumber.

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