THE RUSSIAN MAFIA'S ANGEL

Ares was up early the next morning. Mostly because he couldn't sleep.

It had been a while since he was this restless. Especially on the day of closing any deal.

He rolled out of bed, and as he stood, the covers dropped off his body.

Stark naked, he walked to the centre of his room.

His eyes went to the mirror in front of him, and he flinched when he saw the dark circles in his eyes.

The princess of Prague hated imperfections.

She would toss out the deal with swiftness, if she saw a hair out of place.

But he needed to close this one. He was slowly legitimising his business.

A foot in all of these countries would help speed up the process.

He was still checking himself out, when a knock sounded on the door.

The door opened despite his silence, and a woman walked into the room.

"I didn't know you had returned," he said without looking her way.

"I just got in. The princess arrived safely. I'd be returning in an hour. Still have some deals to close," Vivian Valentin said, as she approached him.

"You work so hard."

"It's all for you," she stopped in front of him, and smiled. "My God," she whispered.

"Do you think it's appropriate to walk in on your God when he's naked?"

"Hmmm, nothing I haven't seen before. I just hate that you won't let me touch you. Why won't you let me touch it?" The red head whined, as her cheeks matched the colour of her hair.

"I told you already, Vivian. We can't mix business with pleasure. Besides, you're like my sister."

Her smile waned, and was quickly replaced with a dangerous glare.

"Don't ever call me that!" She barked angrily.

He had anticipated the switch. It was one of her most charming characteristics.

To easily go from pretending to be sweet, to this badass he knew.

"I need these dark circles gone. You know the princess loves perfection."

"Why do you have them in the first place? What's keeping you up?" Her features softened as she asked.

"My face is up here, Vivian." He snapped his finger, and her face grew even more crimson.

She lifted her eyes from his perfectly sculpted penis, she would give anything to taste, and looked at his face instead.

"You've not answered my question."

"I have Hades' daughter. Turns out she's a handful. I was up past midnight, trying to get her to tell me about the diamonds."

"Do you want me to step in? One session with me and she'll be singing like a fountain."

He smiled. It wasn't one filled with humour, but rather, amusement.

"The plan isn't to hurt her. Like it or not, she's the only one that knows about the whereabouts of the diamonds."

Vivian hissed, and rolled her eyes.

"For all we know, that drunk fool who gave you this information might have been lying. The only person aware of the whereabouts of the diamonds is Leah. Leah is dead."

"Leah is the girl's mother. And be respectful, Vivian. It's aunt Leah."

"Oh puhlease." She turned around with great difficulty.

She would have been very satisfied with just looking at him, but what was the point, when she couldn't even touch him?

"What's she like? Never saw her because I heard she doesn't like to be photographed," she asked, a hint of jealousy in her voice.

"The boys think she's pretty."

"What?" She whipped her head behind. "Prettier than me?" She asked, fury coursing through her.

"You'd have to ask them that," he said, and turned towards the bathroom.

"But I'm asking you!" She screamed after him. "What do you think of her? Is she pretty? Gorgeous? Or just whatever?"

Her response was the thunderous slam of the bathroom door.

"That—" she kissed her teeth, and stormed out in search of the boys.

Ares walked out of the bathroom with his towel tied around his waist to see Xander arranging his outfit for the day on his bed.

"Where's she?" He asked, causing Xander to turn to him.

"Who?"

"The redhead," he replied.

"Oh Vivian? She left again. Not before promising to cut off the tongue of whoever calls Hades daughter pretty again," he laughed.

"She's something, that one." He shook his head, and headed for his dressing table.

"The girl has been banging on the door all morning. Throwing curses too. What do we do about that? She must be a very huge inconvenience to Nadia."

"Nadia deserves to be inconvenienced. But I'm guessing the girl needs attention because she has always gotten that. Starve her, and she'll grow quiet eventually."

"Yes, boss. But you can't deny that she's quite the character. A pretty entertaining character."

Ares turned sharply to Xander.

"I need your head in the game. Her presence here is not for shit and giggles. We need our hands on the diamond before Hades gets a hold of it. It belonged to my father, okay? It's the only way I can even begin to avenge him."

Ares walked to his closet, and grabbed a boxer brief.

"You're right, and I'm sorry. I think I was caught off guard because I expected the daughter of Leonardo to be a little less chirpy," he explained, handing over Ares' pants to him.

He was zipping it up, when Ivar barged into the room.

"Boss, there's trouble!" He screamed.

"What trouble?" He asked nonchalantly.

"It's the girl."

"What do you mean by, it's the girl? What girl?"

"An-gel. The prin-cess?"

"What happened to her?" he asked in a voice that still communicated how much of a fuck he didn't give, as he buttoned his shirt.

"She fainted, boss.

His hand stopped midway into buttoning the top part.

"She fainted. Nadia is trying her best to resuscitate her."

Before he could respond, one of the boys, Dmitri, ran into his room.

"Boss?" He called, out of breath.

"What is it?" Ares asked.

"It's the prin-cess," he replied, trying to catch his breath.

"Yeah, I heard already," Ares said.

"You already heard about the princess of Prague leaving?"

"What?!"

Ares was out the door before he could hold himself back.

As he ran through the corridor, his head and heart battled.

His head wanted to go to the princess of Prague, because she could help his business.

But his heart, his heart dictated he went to Leonardo's daughter. Because she was the key to the diamonds, and the hope of avenging his father.

He slowed down at the intersection. Left meant the princess, and the right meant Angel.

For the first time in forever, the God of hell didn't know what to do.