Irresistible Love

ZACHARY

“Been a while, isn’t it?”

The dark room lit up when Max switched on the lights, and the two hostages looked up, squinting their eyes.

“You son of a bitc—”

“Nicholas!” His father cut his son off and shook his head, warning him not to open his mouth.

“See? Your father is such a polite man and indeed…intelligent.” I chuckled as I took a seat on a chair before them.

“Why have you kept us alive?” Vito was talking to me for the first time. He had been tight-lipped from the day they had been captured. This piqued my interest.

“Well, someone is in a talking mood today,” I teased, earning a glare from Nicholas.

“Honestly, I take my words back. You two are the dumbest people I have ever met in my life.”

I sighed as I rolled up my sleeves and then crossed my arms across my chest. As I took in their appearance, I leaned back in the chair and lifted my leg and put it on the other one.

My people had completely forgotten what the word sanitization meant. The hostages were wearing the same clothes in which they had been captured.

Their shirts were dirty and bloodied, and their hair was messy. They had bruises and blood stains all over their skin, and they smelled like rotten rats.

“Jeez!” My nose scrunched up when the scent of raw blood reached my nostrils, and my eyes fell on Nicholas’ leg.

“Seth!” I called the guy who was supposed to be the caretaker of the two guests.

“Yes, Boss!” Within a minute, he entered the room and stood between us, exchanging glances with our guest.

“What is this way of handling our guests, Seth? Where are your manners?” I asked, and although he didn’t understand what I meant, he hung his head low and waited for me to continue.

“Look at his leg. He is bleeding. What have you been doing? From now on, take better care of our guests, do you understand?” I raised my voice a little at the end, and all he did was nod.

“Now, what are you waiting for? Go, serve our guests. His leg is bleeding. Go and bring a cloth and mop the floor. Do you have any idea how costly the flooring is?

“His blood is ruining my floor, and this place has started to stink. I don’t want people who come to my house to think this place is a butcher’s shop or something. It’s terrible!” I huffed at the end.

Seth nodded and left, leaving the four of us, including Max, who was standing in the corner of the room, to talk privately.

“You little… ! Untie me this instant, and I’ll show you what I have!” Nicholas spat, suddenly enraged.

“Easy there, tiger… I believe you don’t want me to hurt your father now, do you? Hmm?”

“Nicholas,” Vito hissed at him.

“Why have you kept us alive? What do you want?” Vito added.

“Why? Do you have a desire to die soon?” I asked as I raised an eyebrow at him.

“But…,” I continued, leaning forward in my chair as I stared straight into his eyes.

“Even though my desire is to kill you here this instant, I won’t. I won’t until and unless both of you beg me to kill you.

“You fucking rats even have the guts to look straight into my eyes after what you did to my sister? You dumbasses of the century thought barging into my territory and abducting Juliette would have been a good ide—”

“Huh! What’s the point anymore? The bitch is already dead,” Nicholas spat.

Instantly, silence shrouded the room, and I stopped and stared at him with a blank expression, unmoving. I felt as if I was being stabbed all over my body. My chest tightened, and my jaw locked as my fingers formed into a tight fist.

“Max…”

“Yes, Boss?”

“Have Rafael amputate his hand. Torture him to the extent until—”

“What? Wait, no!” Vito interrupted.

“Until he is on the brink of death. But be careful, don’t kill him just yet. Let him breathe and suffer. He should understand what it feels like when a person is on the brink of death.

“He should feel how my sister was feeling when he killed her mercilessly. Record a video of everything, and send it to me.”

I got up to leave and adjusted my suit.

“No! No! No!” Vito yelled.

“It was all my plan. Not his. Don’t kill my son. Kill me in his place. No!” he begged.

“Don’t worry, your turn will come soon after,” I said icily. I turned around, avoiding Nicholas’ curses and Vito’s pleas.

“Unlike you, I won’t separate a family, as I know how it feels when the person you love goes away. The sadness you’ll feel is a lot stronger than any physical pain. The heart aches like hell.

“I won’t let you suffer that heartache. Even though I want to be the one to kill him with my own bare hands, I can’t. I don’t want my hands to be stained by his filthy blood. That is why I’m letting you have this honor, Max.”

“It would be my pleasure.” Max smirked as he picked up his phone and called Rafael.

“Make sure that the pain is visible in his eyes and that he begs for his life. Record it, and send it to me. Then kill him,” I ordered, and he nodded.

I walked out of the room as both father and son continued to yell at the top of their lungs.

“You asked for it!” I found myself muttering venomously.

***

“Is this okay?” I heard Cristina ask as she pointed to the pile of files that she had arranged previously.

“Hmm? Yeah. You may go now. It’s too late already. I’m sorry I had you working this late, Ms. Dimir,” I said as I checked the estimation file, rolling the pen between my fingers and adjusting my reading glasses.

“It’s perfectly fine for me…,” I heard her say and gave a “hmm” in reply. “…Sir,” she finished, and somehow, her tone seemed to change at the end, making me look up at her.

“It’s already nine in the evening. Get going. It seems as if it would rain outside today. Wait! Let me have my driver drop you home.”

“No! I have my car, sir, and I live nearby. Thank you for worrying about me. I shall be leaving now.” She smiled, and I chose to stay quiet at the part where she thought I was worried about her.

I wasn’t worried about anyone but just wanted to fulfill my responsibilities as her employer. I kept her working late, and it was my responsibility to make sure that she got home safe.

“Good night, sir!” She smiled and bowed a little. I turned to my file and just nodded in response.

I heard the door close. I looked up from my file and toward the window. It was a cloudy night, and I could even see lightning far away, indicating that it would pour soon.

I was anything but eager to return to the place that was supposed to be home. It was nothing but some blocks of bricks and concrete for me. Juliette was my real home.

All of a sudden, I found myself wondering how it would have been if she were here today. Having been scared of thunder, she would have definitely called me home.

Although she had never told me about it, I had known all about what frightened her.

In the beginning, when we had been strangers and fought with each other, when she had loathed me, she had slept at the edge of the bed, maintaining as much distance as possible between us.

But at night, she would jolt up from her sleep as lightning struck outside, clutching the duvet close to her chest, frightened.

Even though I would be awake and witnessed her waking up to the sounds, I pretended to sleep when she would wave a hand before my eyes, wanting to check if I were awake.

And when she would hear thunder again, for the second time, I would find her snuggled close to me, the duvet acting as a partition between us. She had zero trust in me, yet she would stick close to me whenever she was frightened.

I would hear her troubled breathing, and to ease her tension, I would cover her with the blanket and place my hand on her body, still pretending to sleep.

She would gasp and check multiple times if I were awake, and when she made sure I was sleeping, she would snuggle comfortably and sleep with my arms around her.

Such nights would be the only time she didn’t push me away. Somehow, my presence would make her feel comfortable.

Not only thunder, though—the woman had been even scared of little things like snakes and rats too.

I still couldn’t stop myself from laughing whenever the scene of her yelling at the top of her lungs, frightened just by a mere dirty rat, came into my mind.

She had run all across the room, screaming and frightened by the poor thing. If it hadn’t been for Hilda shooing the rat away, I was sure she would have fainted from a panic attack. It was like a rat was enough to kill her.

However, amid all this, she had never explicitly told me about the things that scared her. It hadn’t been necessary, as I had gotten to know them all.

If it weren’t for me watching all her moves, I would have never known about them all. But then I had started to take care of them.

I had done my best to keep her happy, even though she hadn’t loved me then, and I hadn’t also been aware of my feelings for her. Still, I had found myself taking care of her.

But I had failed.

A notification on my phone broke my train of thought, and I closed the file in my hand. I threw it on the table before getting up and putting on my blazer.

I picked up my phone and walked out of my office, handing the cabin keys to the guards.

“What is it, Mom?” I asked as I put the phone on loudspeaker and got inside my car, ready to drive back home.

“What is this tone, Zac?” she sighed. I drove past my office building and switched the wipers on as it began to pour.

“I’m driving back home, Mom. Let me call you back after I reach home—” I stopped talking when my eyes fell on a car parked at the side of the road, with its lights on and hood open.

It wasn’t the car but the lady who’d caught my attention. Pacing around the car, she seemed to have gotten completely soaked in the rain.

“I will call you back, Mom,” I said as I hung up without even hearing her reply.

“Ms. Dimir?” I said once I parked my car next to hers and rolled the windows down.

“Mr. Sullivan?” She seemed off guard for a moment, but then as she recognized me, she ran toward my car and looked in.

“What’s wrong?” I found myself asking.

“Thank God! Mr. Sullivan… Oh, it’s my car. It gave up on me,” she cried. I glanced around and saw a group of well-built guys coming toward us, crossing the road.

Not wanting to create a scene, I made a decision and looked back at her to find her staring at them, looking frightened.

“Close the hood, lock your car and get in,” I said, and her head swung toward me.

She nodded frantically and, without a second thought, ran to her car and closed the hood. She took her purse out before locking the car and running back toward me.

She got in and closed the door in a hurry. I locked the door and looked at her to find her taking deep breaths. She looked terribly frightened because of the situation.

As I pulled up to the crosswalk, the group of guys banged on my window, seemingly drunk.

“Oh, God!” I heard her whisper as I sped up and turned the heater on.

“There’s a towel in the backseat. Use it to dry yourself before you catch a”—she interrupted me by sneezing—“cold.” I glanced at her, and she gave me a sheepish grin.

“Excuse me,” she murmured and fetched the towel from my back and used it to wipe herself dry before wrapping it around her body.

As I drove in silence, I could feel her gaze on me, making me feel uncomfortable. I stared back at her, raising an eyebrow, to which she shook her head, whispering a low “nothing.”

“Yes, that building over there.” She pointed at the building, and I nodded in response, driving in that direction.

As my car came to a halt, I unlocked the door and waited for her to get out because it was still pouring heavily.

In that moment, I did not want to do anything but return home, where I could rest peacefully after having worked continuously for days.

“Thank you so much for dropping me off today,” I heard her say, and I nodded in response.

Her eyes brightened, even in the dark, and she smiled widely, opening her mouth once again to speak. “Would you like to have a cup of coffee at my place?”

“No. It’s all right. Thanks for inviting me, Ms. Dimir,” I said and saw her smile drop after hearing my reply.

“Then…I guess I will be leaving now,” she smiled, and I patiently waited for her to leave.

“Good night,” she said as she finally opened the door and walked out in the rain.

I thought she would run straight into the building’s wing, but she stood there with her purse over her head, which had me rolling down the window, saying, “Go in, Ms. Dimir!”

“No, you go first,” she said, and I found myself a little irritated by the situation.

“Ms. Dimir, just go in!” The irritation in my voice was obvious, at which she seemed slightly taken aback. She regained her composure and smiled, turning around and running back into her building.

“What a woman,” I muttered to myself as I rolled up the window and drove off toward my home.

Parking my car, I got out, avoiding the umbrella kept under the back seat. I walked toward the house with the rain drenching me, but a figure came running in my direction, catching my attention.

As I squinted and wiped the rain away from my eyes, I recognized the person who came running toward me completely drenched…but it looked like she wasn’t alone.

“Kiara?” I heard myself.

“Zach—Zachary!” her voice croaked as she stumbled to a stop before me. I caught her by her arms.

“What in the world are you—”

“She is alive! She is alive!” she cried as she looked up at me, avoiding my question.

“Kiara…” It was Kristian who was running after her. He ran up to us and stopped right next to me, completely drenched as well.

“What are you—”

“She is alive! I saw her!” Kiara cried as she pulled herself up and grabbed my forearms. She shook them, frantically trying to gain my attention.

“What? Whom did you see? Who is ali—”

“Juliette!”

The loud clap of thunder was heard, followed by flashes of lightning, and suddenly, the rain stopped with the three of us standing motionless on our spot, staring wide-eyed at each other.