THE BEAUTIFUL SEA MOUNTAINS

MATEO'S POV~

“JUMP ARIANA! NOW!” I thundered, the terror in her face as she cried made me pissed, it broke my heart but it made me pissed.

If this is how the rest of Don Rinaldi's daughters are then they are all spineless fucks.

I shook her again as she bawled her eyes, “woman this is not my first plane crash and it will most definitely not be my last” I declared as I tried to pull Ariana’s hand where she clenched the side of the door, for dear life.

“I am not jumping out of a fucking plane! I will not! You better throw me out your damn self!” she screamed as she kicked me in the knee repeatedly, I was enraged, “Do you want to die! Jump now!” I kept shaking her but she was surprisingly strong as she held on to the side of the door.

“No!” she cried.

 “Don, the pilot says he is losing altitude and the plane will land badly” Julius whispered in my ear, in that moment I remembered Becky who had accompanied us, “what about Becky,” I asked, “she’s strapped tight to one of the bodyguards who jumped out earlier, we are the last people in this plane, us and the pilot, he is wondering why we haven't jumped,” Julius said looking at Ariana and back to me.

“Don, we need to jump now,” Julius said stiffly, “the pilot will soon abandon the plane, he can only do so much Mateo,” as he said it I saw the pilot run toward us, he was already strapped, he didn't say anything as he whooshed past us and fell right out of the plane, we felt the plane drop faster, I grabbed the wailing Ariana and lunged us into the air out of the burning plane, I saw Julius follow.

Ariana kept screaming in my ear, but thank God for the air and gravity deafening me to it, she clung to me desperately as she screamed, I tried to look down but I was occluded by Ariana’s hair and the burning debris from the plane that had reached the ground and burned up, I was falling fast, this time it's different for me because Ariana was clinging to me.

I re calibrated myself in the air holding my yelling wife tight, I waited for the right moment then I opened the parachutes, it was 50/50, I was unsure if we had crossed the Adriatic sea, Either we were going to land in the middle of the sea or the hard rocks of the Croatian mountains.

I readied myself as I protected my eyes from the burning smoke that filled the air, “Mateo we are going to die!” she screamed, “I'm never going to meet my child oh God! Why did I ever leave Malta!” she kept screaming, “shut up or I'll snap your neck and throw you off” I screamed back.

Silence

Of course, I didn't mean it but it gave me enough time to see we were about to hit the rocky mountain, i steadied myself the way I had been taught and waited for my leg to first touch solid ground.

Finally….. Solid ground!

I rolled and rolled and we finally tumbled protecting my screaming wife clinging to me from the rocky bumps, my back landed at the foot of a tree, and I groaned loudly in pain.

Ariana tumbled gently out of my hand and turned to me, “Mateo! Mateo are you okay!” she asked frantically as she helped me sit up by the side of the tree I landed on.

I groaned loudly again, as I cracked my back in place, “You can't do that Mateo! What if something broke! Wait for help to come!” she exclaimed, “this is not my first rodeo” I mentioned as I gathered myself to get up, “baby girl,” I paused and winced in pain "I've survived worse, I am called the shadow for a reason” I groaned, she quickly supported my arm with her shoulder, I leaned on her as she helped me balance against the tree.

“We jumped out of a fucking plane Mateo! You are crazy!” she exclaimed, “would you prefer to have died?” I asked angrily, there was silence.

She turned away from me, and I looked around for any sign of Julius or others, “do you see anyone or anything?” I asked her pointing at the horizon, she looked and then said, “Yes! I see something hanging from a tree, I think someone is stuck” she replied.

“should I go check?” she asked, turning back to me, “no you are pregnant, ill go” I retorted, I can't have a scared pregnant woman doing all the work, “pregnant?, after what just happened? The baby could thankfully be on its way to heaven” she mentioned sarcastically, 

“I'm glad you can crack a funny joke in this exciting time” I responded looking at her intently, she looked away again, “I'm uninjured ill go” she offered again “ No” I repeated, she didn't move.

“I'm going,” she said, as she started walking forward towards the open trees, “Ariana! I said NO!” I thundered, and she turned to me.

“You are injured Mateo! One of us is going to have to seek help, and it's not looking like it's going to be you” she exclaimed, crossing her arms.

“Stay here, someone will find us, I'm too important,” I said calmly before fully standing straight without the tree’s support and then landing back on it.

“Fine!” she yelled, sitting on a small boulder close to the tree I landed, we waited for a long while and I could see she was visibly irritated.

While I got distracted by a line of ants passing by my foot, she bolted and ran right into the cloudy trees I could barely see, my body was still recovering from the impact of the fall.

“Ariana!” I screamed after her, but she had gone and I couldn't see her, this damned girl would get herself and my child killed.

After Becky lost her baby, I was disappointed, but it seems nature is well in my favour.

Soon I heard footsteps running towards me, Julius and a few men emerged from the trees,

“Don! Mateo! Are you okay” he asked helping me get up again, i held him close to me

  “I want you to find out who has betrayed me, someone doesn't want me present at the auction,” I said, Julius Nodded, I looked at Ariana, a look of relief washed over her face.

“We found some locals,  Becky was rushed to the nearest hospital, we can get some answers when we get to the town,” Julius said, I heaved a sigh of relief, the other guards helped me up and we started heading for the trees when I stopped in my tracks and remembered there was one more passenger we were missing.

“And the nurse what happened to her?” I asked, Julius, he in turn looked at one of the men, and he shrugged

, “I think she’s with Becky, or back in town, it all happened in a split second, we came back searching for you that's when we heard Mrs Donatelli shouting for help,” Julius said.

I looked at him intently, I watched as his eyes changed, and that was when he finally realised.

“ she’s the one who planted the bomb”