Bittersweet taste

Lorenzo's POV

When the car drove into the familiar estate, I dragged in a deep breath because eventually, I had to do this, and it was better that I got it over with.

“ Lorenzo” Helena scurried out, her heels clacking as she raced down to me, hooking her arms around mine as we counted the steps down to the huge sitting room, where I knew my father was going to be at.

“ I thought you weren't coming, you made father mad you know, although the interview went well, he is ranting about how you should give him a grandchild pretty soon”

“ What about you?” I threw my head at you. “What happened to getting his favorite and only daughter to get him one?”

I knew the answer to that already, Drago would do everything to keep Helena by his side. He loved her because she was a replica of our mother and since the moment our mother died, he made sure he spoiled her to the tilt, giving her whatever it was she wanted. Only the best for my angel, he would say.

While I went through rigorous training to become the heir of the group and the mafia world, all she had to do was sit pretty and be there for the old man.

“Lorenzo”

“ Drago” I never addressed him as father because that was what I had grown up with.

The silence was nerve-racking and all that I wanted to do was yank this tie off as I listened to Drago, ramble on about how he was going to take the company from me.

Twirling the champagne glass that I had taken from the tray in my hands and watching keenly as it's content danced around the glass , I shrugged.

“Then do it” I dared him, satisfied at how fast the reaction on his face had come up, at how he looked vexed.

I rolled my eyes, fatigued already.

“What did you say?” He grabbed the seat tightly, clenching it so tight while trying to remain calm as I ruffled his nerves. Something I was enjoying.

“ What do you want me to do? Plead for you to hand the company to me, oh, come off it” I waved him off.

“ You brought me up this way, Drago, to be ruthless, cruel and…” I ticked my tongue as Helena kept holding the sleeve of my shirt, pleading with me not to say a word more.

“ Heartless. You know so well that Jaden will ruin the company, he isn't half as good as I am.”

My eyes clashed with his as he stared hard at me, running his tongue over his lips. My eyes deepened when he wrapped a hand around the little wrench sitting beside him.

Gobbling down the champagne, which tasted awful down my throat. I stood up, not wanting to say one more word. The stomping of a staff on the soft carpeted floor rang through the air when I tried to take a step away.

“ Lorenzo, come back here! I am not done talking to you!”

My feet halted on their accord. My eyes dimmed when I flipped my head around, and the wrench was smiling so wide that I couldn't do anything. Tightening my fist into a ball. I stared hard at my father.

“ The next time you want to talk to me, do so without any of your little things by your side. At least respect my mother's image, would you?” I rolled my eyes before stalking off, my heart twisted with so much anger that I thought it was going to burst.

“ Let's go” I gestured at Jack who slid into the car, the image of Helena staring at me as the car drove off greeted me until we were out of the estate.

“Have you gotten any feedback yet? From Daphne?”

I threw a gaze out of the window, staring out. “Nothing boss, nothing at all. Her friend is nowhere to be found also, every trace of them has disappeared, and no single person has a clue where they could do”

“ They disappeared? How exactly is that possible?” They were two little girls, so they couldn't have gone that far.

“ Did they have help? From anyone?” I didn't know how exactly I was going to place it, but she had left an impression on me the last time.

I saw her everywhere, and it was suffocating to me. I had never wanted to possess someone as I wanted to do to her. I wanted to own her, her body, her soul, her smile and etch it inside me. I wanted her to moan just my name like she did the last time, as she dug her fingers into my arms.

Loosening the necktie which was beginning to suffocate me, I threw it to the side, not paying attention to it. She clouded my mind. Much more than she was supposed to.

“ No boss” this was aggravating already.

“ Is there no way that you can get across to them?”

“ No boss”

“ Take me to her apartment.”

“ Boss”

My eyes dimmed as I stared hard at him.

“Take me to Daphne's apartment, you aren't doing a good job, Jack. This is one of the numerous times that you have failed me, and it should be the last. When I want something or someone, you get whatever or whoever it is for me. Okay?”

He hummed, nodding his head, before he eased his way into a neighborhood which was nothing like I had grown up. It looked so cold, and whenever anyone saw the motor drive by, they stopped to take a good look.

“ Why exactly were they staying here? Two little girls, isn't this place out of tune for them?”

Thinking about everything that might have happened here, all I wanted to do was make sure that she was better. Daphne. I flicked the lighter I was holding, not lifting it to the edge of the cigarettes.

“ It wouldn't make sense to smoke here boss, we don't know which gang rules over this district, and although I could barely tell, I know they are not under us”

Dipping the cigarette back into the pocket of my suit, I stepped out of the car, giving the neighborhood a quick glance before walking behind Jack, who stopped in track at a house.

“ This is it” he pushed the door slightly and I blinked.

“ Are you sure they weren't kidnapped or harmed?” The house was in disarray, things were flung all over the sitting room, and it showed signs of no life in it.

I took steps in until my eyes swept through every inch of the house and my eyes stopped just before the bed, and they flared up in anger when I saw something small lying on the bed.

My brows contorted the same time my brows dipped, and something churned in my stomach as the words I had said to her came rushing back in.

“Her friend Irene, was she single?”

“Yes, she has been for years and…”

My hands closed around the test strips. “Was there no record of her having a fling or a sex partner? Any at all?"

Jack shook his head and the bitter taste spread out through my mouth.

“Then this ought to have been hers. Daphne."