Theodore Nott was an evil man. After all, he had committed patricide at sixteen to take control of the family business.
He'd done one good deed his whole life: sending Draco Malfoy away from the violent world they had both been raised in.
When Narcissa's death brings Draco and his girlfriend, Hermione Granger, back to Los Angeles, Theo decides that his good deed deserves a reward. And Theo knows just what his reward is going to be. He won't let what he's always wanted slip through his fingers again.
A Mafia AU - Dark Romance -
Main Pairing: Theo Nott/Draco Malfoy/Hermione Granger
…
Well, here we go gentle readers. You said Theo deserved everything, well let's see if you still think that after you've read this, where I promise he gets everything he wants.
Dead dove*** non-con, patricide, murder, torture, kidnapping, alcohol/drug use, dubcon, psychological manipulation, infidelity, grooming, psychopaths in love, torture as a couples activity.
Prologue - 1992
Theodore Nott was sixteen years old, but no one who knew him would dare call him a child. If they had been in the old country instead of Los Angeles, he would have had a family already as smart and dangerous as the young man was. They would have tried to calm his wildness with the heavy responsibilities of a man. Instead, Theodore was an exceptionally callous killer of men.
After eight years in the local posh private schools, he'd finished high school with a private Armenian tutor, and obtained his GED, instead of spending years around the rich little shits that lived near his father's palatial mansion.
His mahogany curls were short, but still wild, and his eyes a stormy blue. He favored black in all its shades, and didn't mind the sight of blood at all.
By all accounts, his father should have been proud of the brutal son he was raising - and, to the public perception, he was. However, within the palatial Los Angeles mansion that his men jokingly called Nott Castle, Thoros Nott was a violent man to his only son. He kept bruises and scars off his face, but was inclined to quench cigars on his son's back, or lash him with a horsewhip that had belonged to his father.
One had to wonder whether psychopaths are made rather than born, but whichever it was, Theo was a dangerous young man. Although not to the people he cared about, of whom there were five in all . Marcus Flint, Adrian Pucey and Gregory Goyle were the three guys who always had his back when he was working, and the fact that the first two were older than him didn't seem to matter. Theo was the leader of their little pack, and nothing was going to change that hierarchy. The first time he had shot an arguing man between the eyes, rather than deal with his whining any longer, had anointed him as the prince of their inner circle.
The only other people that Theo was loyal to were Narcissa Malfoy and her son, Draco. Narcissa's husband, Lucius, was one of the heads of the organization with Theo's father. Lucius was also a brutal bastard, but Narcissa took on the brunt of his rage so that Draco could be safe in his little lair. Theo spent hours there with the younger boy: Draco was only twelve, but Theo could already saw signs of the pretty young man that Draco would soon become. Theo did his best to be around a lot and make himself available more often than most boys Theo's age would. Theo's presence discouraged Lucius from laying hands on Draco - as more than once Lucius had come up into Draco's sanctuary and started to raise a fuss about some bullshit or another. Theo would flash his gun holster and an evil smirk, and Lucius would quickly find somewhere else to be.
Theo enjoyed his reputation for being unpredictable. In situations like this, it always helped Theo get what he wanted, which in this case was keeping Draco physically safe. He couldn't always be there, but the ferocity with which he let Lucius know to stay away from him worked for the most part. Sometimes, Theo would come to Malfoy Manor and Draco would have a split lip or a facial bruise that he wouldn't explain, and the young Nott would have to count to a hundred to avoid putting a bullet in Lucius Malfoy's gray eyes - eyes so similar to his son's.
Draco would show him all his beakers and bottles and set up for his personal chemistry lab. He would talk for hours about different scientific advancements that had been announced in one of the science journals that Narcissa had subscribed him to for his birthday, and Theo would sit in one of the desk chairs and allow the blond boy's voice to roll over him. He would ask questions when one occurred to him and Draco would be so excited to go into further detail about his interests. Theo laughed when the boy pushed his glasses over his fine aristocratic nose and launched into some very jargon-based explanation of some chemistry or physics discovery.
Theo knew that Draco got very little attention from his parents and, unless he had a job to do or some other family obligation, Theo was sitting in a desk chair, his alligator shoes up on the table, listening to Draco or just watching him fiddle with his experiments. Sometimes, Draco would read to him, and that was Theo's favorite part of his visits. Theo began to resent his pager, especially when it would distract him from Draco's white blonde locks, so like Lucius', falling into his laughing gray eyes. The boy's porcelain skin was so perfect that, sometimes, Theo couldn't stop himself from running a knuckle over the boy's cheek. He never went further than that though, no matter what he might have wanted to do. Theo could wait. After all, he had all the time in the world.
...
The late summer night was warm and overly quiet. Theo entered through the back gate of the property, coming from the side that avoided the camera lines. It was easily done since he'd been the one to install all of them.
Theo had just come home after killing a drug dealer who had stolen too much money. Theo had to make an example, even if it was over quicker than he thought. As he stepped into the house, something felt wrong: the energy in the house was just… off. Theo had learned a long time ago to trust his instincts; it had kept him out of Thoros' way when his father was feeling particularly brutal, and from getting killed on more than one occasion when one of his jobs had gone south.
Normally, Theo would drop his keys and gun on the front table, and loudly announce that he was home. For the first time in his life, Theo did none of those things.
As he silently walked down the hall, light spilled into the darkness of the hall from his father's office. Thoros Nott had guests. His father often had men over in the evenings for drinks and sometimes whores too, but the tones in the other room seemed different, more serious than Theo was used to during those occasions .
"What is Lucius going to do about it? With the amount of product he got caught with, that idiot is never getting out, there won't be any repercussions, so Goyle stop worrying so fucking much
Greg's father was there? What were they talking about? What wouldn't Lucius want them to do?
"Cissa is really the only danger - that bitch knows her way around a set of throwing knives and still wears poisoned jewelry. We'll need to take her out from a distance, with a sniper, tampering with the car, so that we are out of that woman's reach."
Theo heard his father snort. "I'm not scared of that cunt, it's been years since she did any jobs. She's sure to be rusty by now . And that boy of theirs, easy pickings. Then I can liquidate the house and the assets. No reason to keep all that real estate."
Rockwood and Avery were there making crass comments about what they would like to do to Narcissa if her death needed to be handled up close and personal - and that was the straw the broke the camel's back.
Theo started to see red - thinking of the hero worship on Draco's face every time Theo saw him and Narcissa's kindness, who has been like a surrogate mother to him since his mother finally left his bastard of a father.
His father was going to kill Draco - his Draco. This couldn't be allowed to happen.
"I want it handled on Tuesday. Narcissa leaves the house every Tuesday at 9 to get her nails and hair done. She's back at 12.30pm. In that time, I want the boy dealt with, then someone takes a roof spot and takes out Narcissa when she gets out of the car."
Tuesday. He had three days to stop this from happening.
"But what about the boys," Goyle's father asked , "Lucius' son may be worthless to us, but I know my son and yours are fond of him, Nott."
Theo heard his father sneer: , "This plan doesn't leave this room and the four of us. Theo doesn't need to know. We'll make it look like an outside hit, a tragic accident. That boy will go out to avenge his friend - never doubt for a second what I said . Now, who do we want eliminated? Nobody's MO is so precise these days that we can't copy it."
Theo slowly backed away down the hallway, he was careful as he crept outside. As he walked silently through the property, again avoiding all the camera angles, Theo allowed himself to think of Draco's sweet innocent face, and the fact that his father wanted to steal the life from his perfect, perfect boy, so pretty, so clever. Theo let the rage grow in him like a fire and, once he was in his car, he headed straight to the bar where he knew the rest of his crew was .
Greg, Blaise, Adrian and Adrian's buddy, Marcus, were all sitting in a corner booth of the sleepy bar owned by Theo's father. Each had a shot of whiskey in front of them although none of them was nearly old enough to drink. Marcus and Adrian were both eighteen, while Blaise and Greg only seventeen.
Blaise stood out as the only black person in the predominantly Armenian bar, but he spoke Armenian (and Italian and Russian) like a native since his mother liked to tour the world through her husbands. A pretty little Armenian blonde was sprawled on Blaise's lap.
"Now go, ," Theo ordered , gesturing for the girl to leave , "Us men have business to discuss."
"I'll come see you later, Anahit," Blaise whispered, kissing her on the cheek.
"You better." The pretty brunette pulled her mini dress down as she stood up, tossed Theo a scowl and stalked off toward the other girls that were sitting at a table across the bar. Pansy was there, and she raised an eyebrow at him. He mouthed "Later" To her and she simply nodded, going back to her drink and listening to the gossip from the daughters and girlfriends of his father's people as instructed.
"Marcus," Theo smiled coldly, "Unless you are planning to come work with us, then you probably should make yourself scarce as well."
"I still think law enforcement is the ticket for me," Marcus said, standing up, "how about I go drink at one of the dark booths in the back for the next few hours, in case you all need an alibi?" The hulking former football player stood up and not for the first time Theo wished that Marcus wasn't so infatuated with his good boy boyfriend, Oliver, who had already started the police academy. Still, it would pay to have a friendly cop in future years. Theo knew how all these things worked.
"So what the hell is happening?" Greg queried , "you look like you are gonna break your jaw. Chill, or you'll attract attention."
Theo took a breath; just like his mother had taught him when he was little, he thought of a void inside himself and willed all his anger into it.
"My father plans to execute Aunt Cissa and Draco on Tuesday because he's tired of paying their upkeep for Lucius even though they are family and our family is doing really well now."
Adrian hissed a breath and opened and closed his matchbook five times.
Blaise exhaled. "Fuck,"
"Draco?" Greg inquired , "He's just a nerdy kid. Why would your dad take him out?"
"Your dad was there helping to plan as well as Avery and Rookwood," Theo stated. "If Narcissa and Draco are dead and they make it look like some rival group did it, then dear old dad gets everything. I can't let this happen. I won't." Theo tapped his fingers against the table in a harsh beat. "We have to take all four of them out tonight. They will all be at my house for at least another hour or two. We go, each of us follows one home, and puts two bullets in every skull."
"That's the Greeks' calling card."
"Exactly" Theo nodded, "Greg, you don't have to do your dad, you can do Avery."
Theo thought it had been Avery that had made fun of Greg's weight when they were kids. What an ass. Giving his friend a chance at revenge was a good deed, right? Not everyone wanted a patricide weighing their soul down.
"My dad was really gonna do it?" Greg murmured , taking a long swallow from his whiskey.
"Yeah… It didn't sound like he was fully in favor at first, but he was convinced and was gonna be involved."
Greg nodded thoughtfully, "Naw, I will handle it. You are gonna be the new head of our house, of our family after this. Let me prove my loyalty, Theo. And if my father would kill the wife and son of a man he was friends with since before I was born, that's a level of disloyalty I could never… couldn't…" Greg took a drink again. "How could I trust him around my own wife and kids someday?"
Blaise nodded, "I'll do Rookwood. My mom's been having an affair with him for years. She sends me to his house all the time. I won't be out of place and I know how to do a clean thing: he likes to sit alone by his pool late at night and I know where the cameras are. "
Theo nodded. He and Blaise had installed the cameras in all the big guys' estates. His father didn't want to explain the disappearance of a surveillance camera installation crew.
"I've got Avery." Adrian stated . "He's only three houses down from my dad, so I can be there and in bed asleep after I take care of it within a few minutes. "
"So we are all in agreement," Theo remarked. "We do this tonight, because Draco and Narcissa Malfoy don't deserve to die just to pad my father's pockets? And I promise I won't forget this." Theo met each of their eyes. "I'll remember who was here for me on this one."
"Theo," Blaise said, "We know that you and Draco are really close. I know you have to be upset, but we are your friends too. We are with you, come death or dishonor."
"My father is planning to make it look like an outside hit and then send me out to avenge Draco's death. It's all a fucking joke to him," Theo cracked his knuckles, "He's going to find out tonight how much it is not one."
The other guys nodded, downing their drinks.
"Let's get this fucking show on the road."
The four of them headed off into the night, car engines revving in the darkness as they set out to both prevent and enact dark deeds.
...
It was easy enough for the four of them to park on the road outside the gates of Nott Castle. As the minutes ticked by, Theo watched one by one as his friends' cars pulled off after their prey.
He waited in his car until he knew his father had to be alone in the house and the light on the second floor winked out. Theo pulled out his favorite gun, the Glock with silencer, from the secret box in the glove compartment . He gave it a kiss for good luck and then headed for the rear gate. He carefully followed the path that avoided the cameras . He went through the unlocked service entrance, where he stopped and listened. He could hear water running. His father must have been in the shower, probably jerking off to the idea of having even more money. The prick.
Theo took just a minute to pause and appreciate that he hadn't gotten around to installing the indoor cameras yet. That just made everything so much easier. The water was still running in the bathroom as Theo slowly opened the door to his father's room. Thoros had closed the shades, as was his habit, and the bed sheets were turned back.
Theo toyed with a couple different options, but in the end decided that killing his father in the bathroom would be easier to clean up. The door was cracked, and the bathroom foggy from the steam of the running water. Theo took the safety off. The tapping of the water on the bath tray marked time in those tense moments; Theo could see his father's shadow on the shower curtain.
He waited for a minute, and then moved so that he was to the side of the shower.
The water switched off. Thoros Nott stepped out of the shower, still as muscular, lean and fit at fifty as when he was much younger. House of Nott was tattooed across his chest, while his arms and hands were covered with tattoos he'd gotten in Russian prison as a young man.
Without blinking, Theo put a bullet in his father's knee. He wasn't surprised when he collapsed to the ground. People always did when you shot them in the knee and they weren't expecting it. Sometimes even when they were. His father didn't scream and that didn't surprise Theo either.
Thoros looked at him naked on the floor with malice. His destroyed knee caused his leg to twist at an unnatural angle as the blood poured out.
"You little fucking shit, ungrateful bastard, after all I have done for you. Should have fucking known you would betray me. Ought to have strangled you in your crib." Thoros slurred in pain, as Theo leaned over him, far enough away though to keep from Thoros' reach. Theo had no desire to grapple with the dying man. Thoros was a dirty fighter and Theo wasn't going to lose an eye or die here on the floor too.
"Little fucking coward. Shooting me in the fucking bathroom. You are no fucking son of mine." Thoros spat in Theo's face. In retribution for the insult, Theo put a bullet in the other knee. His father's blood was covering the floor now. Theo was enjoying watching it soak the previously white bath mat. That shade of red was his favorite color after all.
Theo smiled maliciously and wiped Thoros' spit off his face. "You were going to kill Draco. And he's fucking mine. I couldn't allow that to happen. So you have no one to blame but yourself."
"Knew you were a fucking gomik," Thoros snarled reverting to Armenian as he got angrier. "Tried to beat it out of you, too bad it didn't work."
"Too bad indeed," Theo whispered and put two bullets between his father's eyes. He admired his handiwork for a minute and then grabbed his father's hand and slid the Nott signet ring off his finger.
Theo slid the bloody ring onto his own hand, whispering to himself, "The king is dead, long live the king." The Nott signet proclaimed the leader of their organization. Theo was young but he wasn't naive, there would probably be some violence as he cemented his control, but he knew what to do and would have everything firmly in his grasp in short order.
But first things first, Theo needed to make sure that he had the cleanup and containment handled. Reaching into his father's drawer, Theo discovered a small biometric safe with a fingerprint scanning screen.
"Well damn," Theo smiled to himself and went back to his father's body. The knife he pulled out and clicked open was long and sharp. Theo had the finger he needed in moments. There was less blood now than he would have liked. He would have liked to bathe in the motherfucker's blood if he had the time. Theo had a thing for Lady Bathory after all.
Once he had access to the small safe, he pulled out all its contents and sat them out on the bed. He did hope that there wasn't another biometric safe. Maybe he should cut off ALL his father's fingers and freeze them just in case.
"Dolohov," Theo called on the huge satellite phone that his father kept in his side table just for this kind of purpose, "I need a clean up in the main office. Yes I'm here, see you in 20." He knew that Anton was unflappable in most situations, but this one might finally be more than he would deal with.
Theo was more than willing to put a bullet in Dolohov if he proved difficult even if he was the best tattoo artist Theo had access to.
...
Elsewhere in the Los Angeles hills, three more gunshots were unheard and unregarded. Greg decided he had nothing to say to his father before the trigger was pulled and waited for his father to put the key in the front door. He stepped forward from the shadows. A shot in the back of the neck was followed by a shot in the skull. "Fucking traitor," Greg whispered into the night and resisted the urge to spit on his father's corpse.
Greg walked quickly away, ready to get rid of his offending garments and hide his gun away for the next rainy day. He was sad that he had gotten blood splatter on his favorite Hawaiian shirt. He'd go down to Venice Beach this week and buy himself a few more to celebrate.
He needed to be asleep in his room before Rosa found his father's body at six when she showed up for work. Their cleaner was good, but he couldn't get all four of the bodies dealt with before dawn. Greg knew his dad owed money to a lot of people, the police wouldn't look too hard. He knew the stoner son in the Hawaiian shirt playing video games was an unlikely suspect. His mom was probably high as shit passed on on Ambien upstairs. Jennifer and Kelly, his sisters, were at a sleepover, so it had been a good night for Theo to decide to break the world.
Greg just hoped the new world that Theo was going to forge would be better for all of them.
...
"Avery," Adrian called out from the shadows near the man as he exited his car.
"Who's there?'' the man yelled back.
"You forgot something at Nott Castle," Adrian said, emerging from the shadows. Avery relaxed immediately, the fool.
"Yeah?" the older man lit a cigarette. For a moment he looked away, Adrian put two bullets in his head.
"Yeah. Your fucking sense of honor. Fucking prick." Adrian wasn't about to use this as an excuse not to light something on fire though. Theo hadn't forbidden it, so Adrian pulled out the cans of exhilarant and dumped them all over the man and the car. Adrian went and poured some into the fake creek that went around Avery's ugly postmodern villa like a pathetic attempt at a moat. Careful with his gloves, Adrian used Avery's own cigarette to light the moat, then dropped it back on the corpse.
He had to fight his own urges to stay and watch it burn. He'd be able to smell the smoke from his dad's place. That was nearly as good.
...
Blaise waited for Rookwood to do some lines off his dash before going into his house. His wife and mother-in-law were inside. Might as well let the man have one last nose candy before he met his maker. Rookwood got out of his car, unsteady on his feet. Blaise walked up behind him, quiet as a cat on the cobblestones. Two bullets and it was done. Blaise never said a word, just walked away as though he had never been there. Rookwood had decided to fuck around and now he had found out. Too bad that he couldn't change his ways in death.
Better luck next life asshole.
Blaise would have to tell his mother when he got home. She'd be annoyed about having to get a new lover and that Blaise hadn't let her kill Rookwood herself. Yasmene Zabini was a scary woman. Blaise just hoped she recognized the urgency of the situation and didn't get upset with him for stealing her favorite activity. He sighed.
It was gonna be a long night.
...
When the sun rose the next morning, the landscape was already different. Rowle and Dolohov had immediately realized Theo was just as ruthless as his father had been at that age and were on board with the leadership change.
Dolohov had prosaically pointed out that they could hardly bring his father back from the dead so they needed to deal with what was on the table. It was easy enough to make it look like his father had returned to Armenia, in fact, his corpse was headed there now in a freezer box on their private jet. He'd be thawed out and dumped in one of the worst neighborhoods in Yerevan in a few days, allowing for Theo to easily take over all the accounts and inherit all the assets uncontested. Thoros' family was long dead.
After handling business for several hours, Theo met with Narcissa the next day, and offered to send Draco to some science boarding school outside Edinburgh, one that Draco had shown him pamphlets for, his voice rising in excitement as he talked about their curriculum.
Narcissa swirled her wine glass around despite the early hour of the day. She sighed, "it's for the best that he goes. He says your name."
Theo was taken aback and bit out, "what?"
"He says your name at night into the darkness. And you are too old for him Theodore. And he's not meant for this life. Just look at him with his chemistry sets and microscopes. With Lucius gone he can go learn about science to his heart's content, read his books and learn about things I barely understand. He doesn't need to be a killer, not like you nor like me nor like Lucius." Narcissa's British accent always came out when she was upset. "I just want him to have a happy safe life away from all this." She waved her hand in the air.
Theo was reeling from learning that Draco's crush was physical, but he schooled his expression, and clipped out, "Definitely for the best that he goes then."
Theo took a deep breath, "All Lucius' money is gone, Thoros was planning the hit for long enough to ruin you first. I'll take care of you, though, you and Draco. For as long as you both live and I swear I wont do anything to shorten either one of your lives and do everything I can to keep you both safe."
"You forget Theodore," Narcissa sighed, sipping her white wine, "I've been married, I know how little vows matter."
"They count to me." Theo growled, "You've been like a mother to me since mine disappeared. Draco is my… friend. I will take care of you both until I am not breathing. I swear it. Everything I've done, I've done for the two of you." Narcissa looked at him shrewdly and nodded in assent.
...
"Hey, Draco," Theo said, softly, as he entered Draco's domain.
"Hey Theo," Draco looked up from the medieval looking distillation set up, "I'm making mom some rose oil using the roses from the garden. What are you up to today? Just gonna hang out with me?" Draco smiled widely at Theo, but when he noticed Theo's somber expression, he looked confused. "Something is wrong, isn't it?"
"Yes," Theo sighed, "Your mom told me she's sending you to that boarding school in Scotland. The experimental school, right? So I'm here to say goodbye." Theo was actually the one sending Draco, and in fact had just gotten off the phone with the school and was paying for an entire library addition, so that they would take Draco in two weeks instead of their usual application window in the spring for next year. They were going to name it after Narcissa, the Narcissa Black Life Sciences Library. The irony was not lost on Theo. He'd also prepaid for the next six years of Draco's education. Luckily Draco had dual British citizenship because of Narcissa so Theo hadn't had to hire an immigration attorney as well.
"Fuck." Draco mumbled, "I wanted to go, but I didn't realize."
"Didn't realize what?"
"That going there would mean saying goodbye," Draco's smile disintegrated and his bottom lip quivered.
"Hey, hey," Theo carefully gave the boy a hug, he's just a kid, Theo, just a kid. "We're friends. Always. This isn't goodbye forever, this is just goodbye for now." But when Theo put his chin on the top of the boy's pale blonde head, he realized that sending Draco away forever would be the best gift he could ever give him.
But why did it feel like something inside him was shattering?