1 Chapter One

Drip...drop...drip...drop....

In a small New York Cafe a curly haired girl sat by the window. She was dressed in practical fall wear with a fluffy tan sweater turtle neck and blue jeans. A closed laptop sat on the table in front of her, cool to the touch from not being used for a while.

Leaning her head on her hand, her large brown eyes were wide open, but it was obvious that she wasn't paying attention to the hurricane-like weather outside.

The Cafe was void of life with only one worker behind the counter cleaning up for the night. Aromas from coffee and food infiltrated the air from a long day's work.

Plop!

Nikita jerked out of her trance as her head slipped from her hand. She blinked twice before regaining her focus on reality.

Noticing the increasingly darkening outside, she clicked on her phone to look at the time.

The phone illuminated her face reading [7:56pm], she then opened the phone and reread the text she had received.

[Nikita Nolkov, Meet at Good Morning Cafe, tomorrow, if you fail to show everyone in the store will be implicated.] Nikita's gaze became complicated. Who was messing with her?

Nikita had turned twenty-one three months ago, and could be said to be in the prime of her life. This is of course if she wasn't Nikita Nolkov, the heir to the Nolkov mafia.

Her father Igor Nolkov was a bastard of a human being.

He originally started as a small time gangster, but was able to ascend that status after getting involved with Lesedi Nkosi, her mother and the daughter of a South African diamond typhoon.

While he gained a lot from their union, it wasn't to say Igor didn't love her mother, he loved her a lot, he just loved power more.

After marriage Lesedi started to discover more and more of Igor's dark side and realized that raising her child around this monster wasn't an option.

This resulted in her trying to escape with Nikita.

Igor found out she was gathering items to leave the country and flew into a rage.

Nikita could still vividly remember, Igor's cold dead gaze, the screaming and the sound of the gun going off.

Nikita's heart sparked with pain causing her to sigh and ruffle her already disheveled curly hair.

Afterwards, Igor's possessiveness went to another level when it came to her. She became known as the trapped princess of Nolkov mafia. Her father wouldn't let her out of his sight, and she was taken out of school to be taught by private tutors.

Unable to leave the house, Nikita became quiet and spent that majority of time reading books. Everyone lowered their guard against her and thought her unproblematic.

That is until she hacked into his security system, released twenty slaves, stole 251,000 dollars, and disappeared all in one night.

Nikita watched as the girl working closed and locked the doors for the cafe.

Finally closed?

She ended up staying here for the entire day, but no one showed up to speak to her.

"Are you sure you are alright girl?" A light female voice sounded as a pepping hot cup of tea appeared on the table in front of Nikita.

Steam flowed from it carrying the scent of earl grey. Nikita looked up at the middle-aged blond woman standing next to her.

The woman's hair was tied back in a messy bun and her work professional all black clothing, had turned dingy from wear.

However, despite her looking tired anyone could tell that she had a very warm and welcoming personality.

Nikita mumbled thanks before taking a sip of the red colored liquid. The cup fit warm in her hand and complimented the dreary weather.

"Angelica, it's fine not to pay attention to me, I just didn't feel like going home." Nikita leaned back in her chair while her friend took a seat in front of her.

"How can I not be worried? Normally when you get off work you bolt out of here like your house was burning down, but today you just stay here without even getting paid? Did your house actually burn down?" Angelica spoke in a joking tone.

Nikita let out a small laugh before faking a hurt expression, "Is it not enough to say that I couldn't go a day without seeing you."

"Mmhmm, what do you want? A raise? For a lazy employee like you?", Angelica scoffed, "keep dreaming!"

Nikita let out a laugh.

"Yes, yes I know, you are a cold blooded company that runs on their employees' blood and tears, I wouldn't imagine asking for a raise."

"At least you know better, Sara has been hounding me for one from the moment she started. I already pay her twenty dollars an hour! I swear you girls treat me like a sugar daddy or something."

Lifting an eye brow, Nikita looked skeptical, "She actually showed up for work?"

"See that's what's interesting she texted me that she wanted a raise, but rarely shows up for shifts. I'm starting to think she is undecidedly going on strike."

"That's not a bad idea now that I think about it..."

Angelica's face went slack, "I'm going to fire everyone here."

Nikita burst out laughing and raised her hands acting defenseless at Angelica's annoyed expression. "I'm joking! I know very well how good big sugar daddy Angelica treats us."

The joking lightened the mood, but Angelica still observed Nikita doubtfully. Something was off, unfortunately trying to get Nikita to admit anything wrong was like pulling teeth.

She could still remember the day the unknown girl had entered her store. Curly hair, pretty smile, she had initially thought she was just a high schooler looking for a part time job while schooling.

However, as time went on she noticed that despite how highly educated Nikita seemed, she never mentioned any kind of college. In fact, After three years, it seemed like Nikita knew everything about her, but she didn't know much about Nikita at all.

Noticing that Nikita had lost focus again, Angelica sighed, "Nikita if you need a place to stay you should know my house is always open to you. I need a roommate anyway right now."

Nikita's brown eyes flashed to Angelica's for a moment, before a smile blossomed on her face.

"Thank you Angelica... I might take you up on that offer one day, but as of now I won't make you stay any longer because of me."

After a long day of keeping watch, Nikita's bones were getting exhausted. She stretched lazily before getting up from the cushioned chair.

"Alright girl, but really let me know."

Nikita nodded at her friend, who was also the only friend she ever made since escaping her father. She couldn't help but feel content with the life she had built so far while living under the radar.

It wasn't much to others, but this very life used to be nothing but a dream to her four years ago.

She didn't want to lose it. Nikita's mind wondered back to the text message again.

It was impossible for the text message to be a false alarm as Nikita never used her last name on any fake ID's after escaping.

Someone out there definitely knew who she was, but she couldn't think of who.

She was familiar enough with her father to know he would of directly murdered everyone around her and forced her back to spend her life in imprisonment.

This wasn't the case, therefore it wasn't likely that it was him. So who else would want to threaten her?

Nikita went to the back of the cafe kitchen to place her cup in the dishwasher with the rest of the dishes. Checking to make sure all of the dirty dishes were in the washer, she turned it on and walked back to the front to say goodbye to Angelica.

"I loaded the dishwasher so you don't have to worry about it. But with that I-"

Nikita froze.

The quiet scene from moments ago had completely changed with the dimly lit restaurant now filled with men dressed in all black. They clearly weren't here to play around and wore large black hoodies, gloves, and ski masks over their faces. 

'Fuck me.'