Chapter 20 - Nineteen: Weird Homicidal Thoughts

Leo stood there with his hand to her throat and Kristina had her back to the wall with her hands gripping his, preventing him from strangling her further.

The scene looked bad, really bad, barbaric even. He was a monster for threatening his best friend's little sister like that and for what?

To prove a point?

To show who's more superior?

Kristina was like a sister to him for Christ's sake but here he was acting the evil villain, he was fucked up.

She hated him and it was all his fault.

Even though his pride wouldn't let him admit it, Leo knew that he had no one to blame for her hatred towards him but himself. Leo would give anything to see her smiling at him and treating him as a friend again instead of cursing his existence and praying for his demise. They used to be so close but now they were worlds apart and it was all his fault.

There had been a rift in the friendship ever since he turned twenty-one, ever since he joined the mafia. That wasn't particularly his fault because being part of the mafia wasn't a choice of his since his family practically ran the damn thing. He also understood how she had felt, what went through her mind at that time. Kristina thought she had lost her friend to the darkness of the underworld and now she had also lost her brother because of him.

Leo didn't force Johnny to join the mafia or anything but his decision was somehow greatly influenced by him.

Leo looked into her big blue eyes that were now filled with fear, fear of what a monster like him could do. He saw tears forming at the corners of her eyes, threatening to fall and he suddenly felt a prickling pain in his chest.

'Jesus Christ! He needed help. How could he even do this to her?' He thought and immediately let go of her then took a few steps back. He didn't know why he moved away, maybe to admire the spectacle he had created.

He saw the marks his fingers had left on her neck and ran his hand frustratedly through his hair. He had turned her into a crying mess. Kristina sat on the floor crying while hugging her knees to her chest and on seeing Kristina helplessly cry like that, all rage in him vanished into thin air.

All the anger he felt before was gone and now replaced with the feeling of guilt and Remorse.

Leo moved closer to Kristina and squatted down next to her. He took out a handkerchief from his pocket and started gently wiping the tears that fell on her face. It was truly a miracle that she didn't slap his hands or push him away and throughout that time, none of them spoke a single word, making the place dead silent and only Kristina's soft sobs could be heard in the room.

' Nice going Leo, you have succeeded in hurting two women in one night. First, you killed one that you didn't give a fuck about and now you made one that you care about cry. Smooth move asshole, just great!' Leo said in his mind.

He came here to talk to her but ended up making her hate him even more, like who the heck does that?

Leo knew he was crazy, that was a fact already but the problem was that he didn't want people to know about it. He wanted to keep the psychotic part of him hidden, possibly take it as a secret to his grave. Even though he tries his best to hide his symptoms, it still sometimes gets the best of him and makes him lose control of his actions. He usually had strange rage outbursts, frequent hallucinations that made him casually fall into a daze, and have been having weird homicidal thoughts. Thoughts of killing people in the most painful of ways and couldn't last long without killing or else he would get panic attacks but despite all those crazy symptoms, he still refused to get admitted into a psychiatric institution, thinking it was just a matter of self-control and if he learns to control his weird killing urges then he would be cured.

To him, staying in a mental institution was a waste of time and for the longest time, he had always denied that there was anything truly wrong with him. Leo did have a personal psychiatrist who he consults from time to time about his problem, thinking that it would be enough but deep down he knew that it wasn't. He needed serious help and it wouldn't come from one or two hours of therapy a week.

" I'm sorry." He muttered when he was done wiping Kristina's tears but all the crying left her eyes red and swollen.

" What do you want from me?" She asked and stared right straight into his dark blue eyes which was what people don't usually do. Nobody dared to look into Leo Kane's eyes as it was the same as looking into hell itself and he was sure that she saw nothing but darkness in them.

" A favor. I know that things had been rough between us these past few years and you know what Johnny went through, he was broken, he is still broken. He needed to find himself." He explained and took a deep breath.

" So your idea of helping him was to make him torture and kill people?" She asked sarcastically.

" He needed a stress reliever."

" No, he needed closure not fucking blood on his hands." She argued and Leo took a deep breath so he wouldn't lose it again.

" This was his closure, you can go ask him if he has any problem with it." Leo said in a calm voice and she just rolled her eyes.

" I don't know what kind of Italian voodoo you did on him, Leo. He is different now as well and you caused it." She blamed and a smile crawled its way to his lips. Her accusation reminded him of the good old days when she would always accuse him of the weirdest things like being too beautiful for his own good or how he was converting all her female friends into his admirers.

She really didn't change much, did she?

" Okay, let's make a deal. If you help me get what I want then I will let your brother leave the mafia, that's if he wants to." He negotiated and she shot him a skeptical look. Leo knew she had her doubts, everyone knew that the mafia was a lifelong commitment. You couldn't just waltz your way in and out of a mafia organization as you please without facing serious issues. Those who have tried to leave the mafia before have all faced death as leaving the organization was considered as a treacherous betrayal to the leader. This was so because mafias thought that if they easily let go of their members then those ex-members would have the freedom of snitching on the mafia hood to the police or even join other mafia groups as informants.

" What do you want?" She finally asked after silently thinking about his proposal for a while.

" Your sister." He answered without thinking twice and watched Kristina's expression turn into one of horror. Leo knew he was being a selfish jerk by releasing one sibling just to get another. He was sure that Johnny was also going to hate him for this but at this point, he couldn't care less, all he wanted was Becca. Then he saw uncertainty and confusion in her eyes.

" Why my sister?" She asked in confusion. Why on Earth would Leo want her sister? Has he completely lost his mind?

" Because she is Becca and I want her." He responded with an even more confusing answer. Leo saw hesitation and indecisiveness written all over her and quickly added; " I would never hurt her."

'Yeah right, tell it to the countless people you have murdered ' She said in her mind but still couldn't help thinking about the deal he wanted to make with her, it was a very tempting one, the same as one the devil would offer you.

She would get her brother out of that cursed organization called the mafia but in exchange, she would help Leo get her sister. As crazy as it sounded she was still heavily considering it. 'perhaps it wouldn't be too bad to say yes.' She thought. It wasn't like she was selling off her sister or anything like that, it was more of her agreeing to be Leo's wingman while he goes after Becca. Nothing bad in that, right? She was not selling her sister to Leo.

" You wouldn't go back on your word or try to hurt her, right?" She asked for confirmation and he shook his head in response. Then she continued; " I will do my best but I can't guarantee that she would want you as well or return your affection because no one can possibly love a monster like you." Kristina's words made him laugh and with a smirk on his lips, he said; " Leave that part to me." He placed the handkerchief he had used to wipe her tears in her hand and covered it. He then got up and left the house.

And just like that, Kristina had made a deal with the crazy mafia king. She knew that it was just the beginning because from the way Leo spoke about getting her sister, she was sure he would tear the world apart just to make Becca his, and now that he had the resources to do so, no one would be able to stop him.. Kristina thought that she was doing this to help her brother out but little did she know that she was getting her little sister entangled with a psycho.