2

The gorgeous man was not alone. Two men in black suits are beside him, the dimmed light of the alley doesn’t give away their faces but from their silhouette, I can tell that they’re well built and have good posture. I can’t win against them in a fair fight for sure. All three of them were holding guns but the gorgeous man had his aim at my head.

"Come down, Alexa" he keeps calling me by that name but now his Italian accent is evident. "Now!"

I raised my hands holding both of my high heels in surrender before jumping off of the garbage bin. They closed in on where I was standing, each step they took made my heart race like a bullet train to hell. The shy light of the building shows their dangerous taunting stance. The gorgeous guy’s eye from the club made my insides shiver in fear. His icy eyes held so much anger in them as if he despises me too much that he’d want to burn me with his gaze. Turn me to ashes if he could.

"I'm not her," I announced calmly.

Gorgeous Italian smirk "that's the best you can say? Your lies are getting crappy, no?"

He motioned the two men in suits to grab me. They both grabbed my arms and dragged me back to the streets. Whoever this Alexa was was less of my concern at the moment. If they are connected to Dante I am doomed.

I’d rather die than go back to that shit hole.

A black SUV was waiting for us in the curve, one man in a suit slid out of the passenger side and opened the backseat. When we stood at the door, I spit on the man holding the door, head butter the man in my left, and stabbed the man in my right with my killer heels in his throat, just enough to choke him.

I heard curses and groans as I kneed the man at the door in his crotch, he crouched and held his pained manhood. I ducked when I felt the gorgeous Italian behind me, funny how I can sense his presence - I just met the guy twenty minutes ago, we don't even like each other - and evaded his arms. Spinning in my ducked stance, I managed to kick his knee and sprinted away as soon as he stumbled back.

Five years, that's how long I've been running for my life. The thought of Dante having a hold on me again scares the shit out of me.

He can't control me again.

I can't. I just can’t go through that again.

I saw a bike parked in front of a building, hotwired it, and accelerated into the streets. The SUV was behind me in seconds. The bike was at 220, the buildings vanished in my sight. Speeding tickets aren't frightening when you're running for the sake of your lonely damned soul. My hair was flowing tangled with the wind as the SUV neared my side.

They’re serious about killing me. They’re surely not regular kidnappers nor gun for hire since they are willing to do things in the open like this.

Bullets were flying everywhere, I leaned my body closer to the bike and headed for the bridge in a plan to lose them in the waters. The bike swerved in my attempt to make them lose their aim on me. The bridge was close but a bullet pierced the front wheel, knocking me off of the bike into the street, my body stumbled over.

I grunted in pain as my body rolled over the concrete ground. This hijo de puta hurts everywhere.

The car stopped in front of me as I tried to stand up. My ankle was sprained and it hurts like hell with every step I take. My chest shoots a searing pain with each intake of air I gasped. I must have a few broken ribs from the feel of it. Blood was dripping from my forehead blinding me but my will to keep moving is stronger than these aches.

A bullet pierced the air close to my ears but that didn't stop me from moving. Italian curses were decorating the silent night, a hand gripped my arms. I tried to fight but my vision was blurry, the earth was spinning, the ground was woozy until I felt a heavy thud in my temple.

° ° °

It was cold, the pain hit all over me as I forced my eyes to open. Everything was pitch black as I tried to hold my pounding head but my hands were restrained beside me.

Panic coursed through my body, flashes of the Italians flooded my brain. They have me, they caught me. Is this the end of Lianna vida de perra Black? I did everything I could to run but it was all in vain.

I'm still alive, I thought silently, concentrating on my surroundings. It was dark but my eyes adjusted and so did my other senses. This was probably a basement cell and the shackles holding my hands were too far for me to reach to unlock them.

My ankles weren't restrained but the pain made my face twitch when I tried to move them.

Suddenly, a bright light blinded me, I closed my eyes to protect my irises but it wasn't helping at all. I was seated on the floor and the rumbling of a chair being dragged against the concrete cold floor traveled through my whole being. Sending fear to sink into my core.

"I'm sorry for running, Dante," I said in a shaky voice. "Please Señor... please... don't..."

I was scared. He is the only man who can hurt me in ways that even hell wasn't a place of solace.

"Who the fuck is Dante?" that voice. It wasn't Dante's. It was the Gorgeous Italian.

The lights were hurting my eyes but I obliged them to open. Blinking my eyes, I saw the sight of the gorgeous Italian. It was really him. He was seated in a metal chair in the middle of the room, his dark icy orbs were studying me with intense anger.

The room was reeking with the metallic scent of blood, urine, pot, and smoke coming from the man in front of me. The walls and floor were old as if they’ve been using this place to hide people like me, people they torture and eventually dies in their hands. There was a table close to the door holding torture items. Some I know the name, knives of different sizes and shapes, guns, sledgehammers, and even chainsaws.

"Who are you?" I inquired intending to find out who my abductor was and to take my mind off of the future that was clear in my mind. Delaying my impending death. This guy sure wasn't working for Dante, he has no cobra ink in his neck. Although some ink on his neck and arms were peeking from his fitted black henley, I’m sure he’s from a different crime family.

I got to scrutinize his features now in the light. He’s the most beautiful man I have ever seen, and also has the most lonely hues. His full lips clamp down the expensive cigarette before he reached for it, taking it between his left index and forefinger, puffing out the smoke in the air we’re breathing.

His eyes weren't black, but a cold shade of gray. They never left my face as I gulped down the fear from his domineering features.

He chuckled evilly while taking a long drag of his Treasurer Luxury Black. The smell was so good that I found myself inhaling it. Such an expensive taste. I could only imagine how good it would taste.

"You're good." The man stated. "What's with this act, Alexa?"

I looked into his eyes and found no humor in them. "I'm not her" repeating my words from the alley.

He stood up from his chair abruptly that it fell behind. It took him three strides until he was holding my neck, lifting me, and pinning me on the wall, choking me in the process. The shackles restraining my hands made a sinister chain dragging sound. He breathed out the smoke in my face, I coughed and gasped, losing air in my lungs from his grip.

"I've searched for you for months and you're giving me this crap?" he hissed in my face. "Try something else, Alexa, or I'll bury you alive." He let go of my neck and unceremoniously dropped me on the ground. I breathed hard, my lungs seized all the air it needed.

It's better if he ends my life anyway.

"Where is it?" he asked as he stood beside the table.

"Where is what?"

He lifts a tattered knife in his hand and walks slowly to where I stood. "I'll carve my name in your chest if you don't stop acting dumb, Alexa."

He traced the neckline of my dress with his knife. The pointed cold blade sent shivers all over my being. "Where did you bury my father?"

° ° °

AN

Hmm, thoughts Babes? Can you shift them together or am I creeping you out?

Much love

Lj