Owned By The Psychotic Billionaire (Mafia BL)

ADRIEN’S POV

”I have always cared about you,” Orion answers smoothly, his tone unnervingly calm, without a single trace of doubt. ”You ran from me, Adrien. You threw yourself into the streets, you surrendered your youth, your body, your pride to scum like him, just to stay out of my reach.”

His thumb presses firmly against my lower lip, tracing the curve of my mouth with a gentleness that contrasts violently with the bound man screaming behind his tape a few feet away.

”You sacrificed everything you were just to escape me,” Orion continues softly, his dark eyes searching mine with a deep, unsettling emotional weight. ”You chose to be broken by strangers rather than be kept safe in my arms. Do you have any idea how much that broke my heart? Do you have any idea what it felt like to realize you preferred the violence of street rats over my devotion?”

”Devotion?” I let out a harsh, wet laugh, tears spilling over my lashes. ”You call what you did devotion? You would have kept me caged or killed me! You treated me like a prize!”

”Because you are a prize!” Orion snaps, his voice dropping an octave, heavy with sudden authority before softening back into a desperate whisper. ”You are the only thing in this miserable world that makes sense to me, Adrien. When you left, the light went out. And when I learned what this filth made you do... what he took from you...”

He turns his head slightly, glaring at the bound man on the platform with a look of pure, lethal hatred so cold it makes the air feel icy.

”I wanted to peel his skin off piece by piece,” Orion says softly, turning back to me with eyes full of tenderness. ”But that would be selfish. His punishment belongs to you. Because he stole your youth. He took the sweet, wicked boy I was planning to claim for myself and handed him over to swine.”

A cold shiver runs down my spine.

The logic is so twisted, so deeply warped, yet to Orion, it is the fundamental truth. He doesn’t view this man as a criminal to be punished by the law. He views him as an insult to his own ownership over me.

”You are insane,” I whisper, the words barely escaping my throat as I tremble in his hold.

”I am yours,” Orion corrects softly, his dark eyes fixing on mine with unwavering intensity. ”I am the only one who truly understands what was stolen from you. He made you beg for food, duckling. He made you kneel in dirty rooms for a roof that leaked rain. Now he will beg you for his breath.”

I turn my head, looking back at the man strapped to the elevated chair.

The man’s eyes are wide with a silent, desperate plea. Sweat drips from his chin, falling into the tire below, splashing near the floating candle flame. He twitches, and the rope sways slightly, the edge of the flame catching the tiny wooden board.

A strange, suffocating heat rises in my chest.

My mind flies back to those nights. The cold linoleum floors. The smell of cheap liquor on breath that wasn’t mine. The shame of wiping my mouth in dark alleys, holding two thin dollar bills in my shaking hand so I could buy a hot bowl of soup.

I had hated this man with every fiber of my soul. I had prayed for God to strike him down, to burn his house, to erase his existence.

And now, here he is. Bound. Helpless. Covered in gasoline, suspended over five tiny flames, waiting for my judgment.

”Look at him, Adrien,” Orion urges, stepping behind me and wrapping his broad arms around my chest, pulling my back flush against his torso. He rests his chin on my shoulder, resting his hand over mine. ”He is nothing. He is a bug under your shoe. Give me the command. Tell me to kick the platform.”

”I...” My throat is completely dry.

”Do you want to see him burn?” Orion whispers in my ear. ”Do you want to hear him scream the way you screamed in those rooms? I can make it very loud or I can make it very slow.”

For seven years, I dreamed of seeing this man suffer. I dreamed of screaming at him, of hurting him the way he hurt me, of making him pay for every tear I cried in those filthy rooms.

But seeing him now, trapped in Orion’s monstrous creation, a strange, hollow sensation settles in the pit of my stomach.

It is a feeling far too dangerous to name. It is not pity. It is not forgiveness. It is the realization that the man who ruined my life is nothing more than a pathetic, trembling rat standing in the shadow of a far greater, far more dangerous monster.

And that greater monster is holding my hand, offering me the match.

If I give the order, if I let Orion light this fire, I am tying myself to Orion forever. I am accepting his twisted gift. I am letting his madness become my justice.

And part of me... a cruel, terrifying part of me that I didn’t know existed... wants to watch the flames catch.

”Adrien,” Orion whispers close to my ear, his hand sliding down to rest over my heart, feeling the rapid, frantic thumping beneath my ribs. ”What do you want to do with him? Speak to me. I built this whole world for you today.”

My lips part, but no words come out. I stare at the bound man, then look up at Orion’s expectant, manic face.

”You really did all this... just for me?” I ask softly, my voice barely a thread in the vast, echoing warehouse.

”Every nail. Every drop of fuel. Every flame,” Orion answers without a moment of hesitation. ”There is nothing I would not do to give you back your peace.”

”This isn’t peace, Orion,” I whisper, a tear finally falling onto his wrist. ”This is horror.”

”It is justice,” Orion insists, his eyes glittering with that strange, beautiful, terrifying devotion. ”It is the only way to wash the mud off your skin.”

Orion leans in a fraction closer, his eyes softening into something surprisingly tender, almost sorrowful, looking at the tears trailing down my face.

”This is the very least I could do for you, Adrien,” Orion says quietly, his voice dropping into a tender, solemn register. ”It is the least I can offer, considering I ruined your youth.”

I blink, the statement hitting me like a cold shock. My brows pull together in utter confusion.

”What?” I ask, my voice trembling as I stare at him, trying to pull back from his embrace to look him in the eye. ”You... you didn’t ruin my youth, Orion. I ran from you. I made those choices myself. I ran away because I was afraid of you!”

Orion looks down at me, his dark eyes swirling with a quiet pain that catches me entirely off guard. He shakes his head slowly, a faint, bitter smile touching his lips.

”I clearly did, duckling,” Orion whispers, his voice carrying a chilling certainty that freezes the blood in my veins. ”I must have done something truly terrible to ruin you... for you to hand that vial of poison to your friend and tell him to use it on me.”

What?