Inhumane

A hand was firmly clasped around her wrist, threatening to crush the bone as the man dragged an unwilling Rai with him.

"Let me go!" Rai screamed with a hoarse throat but the man's hold only tightened as he shoved her inside a room. She fell, harshly tearing the skin at her knees. another man appeared in front of them holding a pen and a sheet of paper.

"What…what do you want Luca?" Rai voice trembled and dread curled around her throat like a vice ready to choke her to death.

"No more running away, Lovely Raina." Luca deadpaned in that bone chilling deep voice of his and Rai shook her head in denial. Her wide eyes welling with tears.

"NO!" she spat and Luca stopped blinking before he threw his head back and laughed like a maniac Demon from hell, burning her ears.

"You will do what I tell you to," his lips quirk up in an unforgiving smile, "it's time you learn that I don't take no for a yes."

He jerked his chin and the other man who tried to hand Rai a pen and the sheet of paper.

"Now be a good woman and sign our marriage certificate." Luca ordered in a tone that seemed to leave no negotiation door open and Rai almost feels her world flip and she squeaks, scared to death.

"WH–what?! NO! I WILL NEVER MARRY YOU. I HAD RATHER JUMP IN A POND FULL OF PIRANHAS THAN LET YOU CLAIM ME AS YOURS–"

Something cold digs in to her skull, almost knocking her to her ass from the force of it and a sob clogged her throat when she realised she was being held at gun point.

"Sign." She shook her head again. Hell bent on defying the man even when she was shaking like a leaf.

"Fuck you!"

The room goes deathly quiet and then Luca points his gun at the pen and paper man.

And then shot him dead in the head.

Rai screamed and the man crumbled to the ground, lying in his own pool of blood.

"Now sign, or the next will be you." Luca grabbed her by the hair and tugged her towards the paper, forcing her to pick up the pen now dripping with warm blood.

"I–I hate you!" her chin wobbled and she whimperd as she helplessly dragged the pen over the document.

Sealing her fate with the devil incarnate.

"The feeling's mutual." Luca stated with triumph. he lets her go with an unkind shove.

"You are mine, Raina Moretti." He chuckled darkly as he stated at the document with an unnerving obsession. that was the last thing she heard before her head spinned and everything dark.

Rai wakes up with a throbbing headache and her whole body drenched in cold sweat. Her teeth chatter not from the cold but from the shivers that still wracked her body following her out of her nightmarish slumber.

Fuck. It was a dream.

A fucking dream.

That man plagued her life and now her dreams too which were supposed to be a safe haven for a woman like her whose whole life was filled with dangers and risks.

To let a human affect her like this was the proof of her distraction and weakness. She couldn't afford to lose her focus. Not now. Not ever.

Not when she seemed so close to wrapping up her mission for which she was planted by the order as a spy in the Moretti family almost a decade ago when she was barely eighteen.

And now she was letting a man get on her nerves. she was letting meager emotions like fear, panic, confusion and anxiety get the best of her snd she was almost ashamed. Her feminine features contorted into blinding rage as she fisted her hands to resist from slapping herself. Her cheeks flushed remembering the dream. More of a nightmare. She was not shy whatsoever but drowning in utter embarrassment.

To witness herself so vulnerable and helpless at the hands of a man–that too at Luca's– any woman like her would want to dig a hole and bury herself.

"Fuck my life." She groaned and rolled out of her bed to get ready for the day. She had many things on her agenda today and the most important of them was to not blow up her cover by any means.

She gathered her hair in a ponytail and freshened up. She threw a pair of dark blue jeans with a plain black t-shirt before slipping her feet inside her ankle boots.

Being a shadow among many things cultivated by the order wasn't easy. It was a nightmare. But she didn't know any life other than being a shadow in the day and a blade at night.

Raina Vitale was a woman of few words.

Snooping, killing, torturing, beating, cheating, manipulating, betraying.

A woman who was trained to butcher humans. A woman who will smile at you one movement and stab you in the back the next minute.

No matter how hardened or jaded she was, all it took was the right button to push and her fake mask will slip, acquainting you with the monster that lived behind with its sharp teeth bared at you.

Fortunately, there were a very few unlucky bastard who dared crossed her but they didn't live to tattle tale on the lying bitch she was.

Except that smug bastard who managed to get under her thick skin and somehow was still breathing. Someone who pushed all her buttons and glimpsed behind her mask but what he saw there? He liked to call it the little monster–his monster.

Only if he knew.

Gritting her teeth she slammed her apartment door and headed for her day. Her mood was soured and something told her that it was just the beginning.

.....

an urgent meeting was called in at the M Holdings to discuss a project they took over recently in the seperate board room reserved for the higher ups. A group of several men dressed in expensive suits sat around a round discussion table and heatedly whispered amongst themselves, sometimes objecting and criticizing each other's speculations.

Salvatore Moretti's visage darkened with each passing second as he watched from the head of the table.

Silence!" he boomed as he slammed a fist on the table, startling everyone except Luca who had already been observing the man like a hawk out to prey. he was always extra cautious around his father for he was the last person he trusted.

"If i hear one more gibberish, I will see through it that none of you walk out of here." he threatened and the men grimaced. Luca could see behind their false obedience as clear as day. given the opportunity, they wouldn't wait to tear him into shreds.

Salvatore's gaze shifted toward his son who dared to bluntly stare back at him. he was aware how every men present at the table was now watching them with undisguised curiosity, he didn't know when this son of him became so audacious. he could already pick up the disobedience and change in his attitude since he returned from England. no matter how much he would love to teach his son a lesson, he was his only son and heir who will carry on his legacy one day.

Thankfully, shortly after, the meeting was dismissed as soon as it was called, the men began to leave one after an other until it was only him and his son left other than their Personal Assistants.

"you can drop the act father, everyone here knows who's better deserving for the seat and now that you are turning old and withering, it's my responsibility as a filial son to free you of this burden and replace you, don't you think?" Luca feigned a harmless smile, his pearly whites peeking at his father.

Salvatore stared at his son for a second, taking in his words before his menacing laughter echoed through the room. it took him a while to calm down and something sinister twinkled in his eyes.

"I will my dear son. I will...but you will need to get married and bore me a grandchild before that so that I can die in peace knowing that even if my son turns out to be a disappointment, there will be someone to take over later." Salvatore snickered as he laid his condition. he knew he was aging but being at the top and in control mattered to him more than anything. even if he steps down, he could control his son until his grandchild was born. he could train the little boy into the perfect heir expected Luca to be then he can discard his son with nothing to lose. he thought.

Luca gritted his teeth yet his smile didn't falter. he knew what his scum of a father was playing at and hell will freeze over before he obliged to his demands. what Salvatore didn't know was that Luca was born from him and carried the blood of the sinful and wicked and he had his own game he wanted to play with his father.

"Alright. I will get married in a month. so you can enjoy this position while it lasts." Luca shrugged nonchalantly as if getting married was a piece of cake and left the room.

But Salvatore had other plans for him as the older man picked up the glass and took a sip of the wine. He glanced at Luca's back over the rim of the glass and smirked. he was a sick man who had always thought of his own son as a competition the more he was growing into a man. he couldn't help but think how his son resembled the man his own father wanted him to and it made him sick with jealousy and hatred.