Owned By The Psychotic Billionaire (Mafia BL)

ADRIEN’S POV

She had been spending time with him while my mother was bleeding to death. She had been trapping him in her web while I was begging him for help on the phone.

A sharp, gasping breath comes out of my mouth. The smell of the courtyard flowers suddenly transforms into that same suffocating perfume inside my head. It’s nauseating.

I force the memories down with everything I have. I shove them into the deepest, darkest corners of my mind, locking the door tight and throwing away the key. I cannot think about this right now. Not in this place. Not in front of these people.

I know that if I were to run away from this crowd right now, if I left this church area and walked north down the narrow dirt road for about a mile, I would find the old graveyard. I would find the old, gray marble headstone where my mother has been buried for over ten years, completely left behind and forgotten by the man who promised to love her forever.

”Adrien.”

Alexis’s soft, worried voice breaks through my dark thoughts.

I blink my eyes rapidly, forcing myself to look at the world around me. The courtyard is filling up with people. Rich, well-dressed guests are walking around, drinking expensive champagne from fancy glasses.

They are acting like the bomb explosion from a week ago was nothing more than a small, poorly timed accident.

I slow down my steps just a little bit, letting myself fall back a few inches so I am walking right next to Alexis. Orion and Niko are a little bit ahead of us, talking to each other in low, quiet voices.

Still, Orion’s hand stays right on my lower back—a warm, scary weight that tracks every single move I make without him even needing to look at me.

I look over at Alexis. He looks very pale. His eyes keep darting nervously toward Niko’s stiff, straight back. There is a weird, quiet energy between the two of them now.

Something changed, something got twisted in the dark after that terrible bombing. I can’t tell if it’s a good or bad thing.

”Are you okay?” Alexis whispers, his eyes looking up and down my face. ”You look like you just saw a ghost.”

”I am fine,” I say quickly, my voice sounding much sharper and tighter than I mean for it to. I look ahead at Niko. His posture is so perfect it looks fake, like a predator pretending to be prey.

Looking at him makes a spark of irrational anger light up in my chest. It is a good distraction from the heavy sadness that is trying to swallow me alive. I lean a little bit closer to Alexis, keeping my voice down to a very low whisper. ”What about you? Is he... treating you okay?”

Alexis blinks his eyes, a light pink color climbing up his neck. ”Niko? He... yes. He makes sure I have everything I need.”

”That is not what I am asking you, Alexis,” I say, making my voice drop lower. I let him hear the real worry and the bitter anger in my tone. ”I am asking you if he knows what a boundary is. I am asking if he actually understands the meaning of the word ’consent.’ Or does he just take whatever he wants from you because he carries a gun and works for a total psychopath?”

Alexis stops walking for a split second. Then he quickly speeds up to keep his pace, his eyes growing wide with pure panic as he looks at Niko’s back to see if the man heard us. Niko does not turn around, but I notice his shoulders stiffen up just a tiny bit.

Good. He should pay attention.

”It is not like that, Adrien,” Alexis says in a very soft voice. His voice shakes a little bit, but he sounds strangely sure of himself. ”He... he has never forced me to do anything. Not really. In the beginning, I admit that I was absolutely terrified of him. I thought he was going to kill me, or do something even worse. But... I’m not scared of him anymore. Not at all.”

I stare at him, completely unable to believe what I am hearing. ”You are not scared of him? The guy is a walking machine who kills people for a living, Alexis.”

And kisses people for nothing too.

”He is just unusual,” Alexis murmurs. A tiny, almost invisible smile touches the corner of his lips before it disappears completely. ”He has a very specific way of looking at life. To him, everything about life is completely different from how others see it. Once you figure out his desires... it actually feels kind of safe.”

”I’m honestly quite fascinated by the weird way his mind works.”

I let out a sharp, mean laugh. The sound is full of bitter amusement. ”You’re fascinated? That is a very beautiful way to put it, Alexis. Truly. I think doctors have a much more realistic, less romantic word for what is happening to your brain. It is called Stockholm syndrome. Go look it up on the internet whenever your boss decides to give your phone back to you.”

Alexis flinches like I slapped him. His jaw tightens up, and he looks away from me, fixing his eyes on the stone ground.

I feel a small wave of guilt in my stomach, but I don’t say sorry. How can I? We are both trapped like animals in this beautiful, expensive hell. But at least I know the truth about the person holding my leash. I don’t look at Orion and see ’weird little habits.’

I see a dangerous monster who is just waiting for the perfect moment to rip my life away. And it would be better for him to see the same thing too.

Up ahead, the stone path opens up completely into the main part of the courtyard, and the absolute craziness of high society hits me right in the face.

The guests are laughing out loud. They are clinking their glasses together, saying nice things to one another, and looking at the old stone walls like they are at a museum.

These are the exact same people who, just seven days ago, were screaming for their lives, covered in gray dust and the blood of their friends.

These are the exact same people who stood in that private hospital room and watched, completely frozen with deep horror, as Orion grabbed a billionaire by his neck and snapped his spine like a dry stick.

They literally watched a murder happen right in front of them. They watched this man walk out the front door holding my wrist like a prize he just won.

And yet, here they are today, smiling right at him.