I approached the woman with sweaty hands and trembling legs, there were just so many people behind her. I have never been a part of a crowd. I have never even been in a place with so many people before. My heart pounded against my ribs as if trying to fulfill a thousand beats. I deeply exhaled, releasing some of the tension that had built up in my muscles."Welcome to Columbia University, Ms. Martinez. My name is Tara Wells and I'll be your guide through everything..."I smiled politely at her. "Thank you...""Although your admission was kind of last-minute, you arrived just in time for the orientation week.""Oh..." was all I could say as I didn't even know what orientation week was.I know Alessandro must have something to do with my last-minute admission, and now I really don't know how I will ever repay everything he has done for me."Let's start with the campus tour"With a smile on my face and anxiety shooting through my veins I followed Tara as she showed me around the campus.
I placed both of my arms over the headrest of the couch and placed my chin on them as I watched Alessandro, my back was now facing the TV.I really liked staring at him... does that make me creepy?As if he felt my eyes on him, his gaze flicked directly toward me, making my breath hitch. We just stared at each other in silence. His expressions were nothing but indifferent, and cold, and yet I felt like my whole body was suddenly on fire.He slightly rolled his eyes, just slightly, and god! If it wasn't the hottest eye roll I have ever seen in my life. I smiled in return, I know it was my staring that vexed him.He narrowed his eyes back at me. "How was college?" he asked, his voice rough and demanding.I gave him a wide smile. "Perfect..."Like you-I wanted to add but I didn't.I think I have a huge crush on Alessandro Costello, maybe, it's because he is the first man I have ever known, and maybe I'll grow out of it when I'll meet new people at college. Because being cramped up in a h
"We need her back!" Soldo's son slammed his hand over my desk.I watched silently as the father and son squabbled with one another. Soldo chided his son to give me the respect a don is due but it was too late. The stupid boy had made his bed, his father knew he won't get out of here alive."I have no idea where your daughter is, Soldo."Before Soldo could speak, his son decided to open his mouth again, I was reconsidering my decision of not torturing him before death."Bullshit! One of your men took my sister, Costello!""I can assure you, Soldo, that not me or any of my men have ever forced a woman against her will"Soldo gave me a nervous chuckle. "I know that donAlessandro orgive my son, he doesn't know when to open his mouth""Have you considered the possibility that your daughter might have just run away from home?"Young girls often ran away from the Cosa Nostra, we were protective of our women. They didn't have much freedom or choice for that matter, so they preferred to run aw
IT'S BEEN A WEEK since I had that little episode. I don't really remember anything, only Alessandro telling me to breathe and then put me to bed.I stayed in my room most of the time and didn't see Alessandro much. He was always working, so, we never really saw each other. I hadn't even seen Sabrina in a long time.I attended the whole orientation week, for a beginner at life like myself, it was insanely informative.Today was the first class of my freshmen year. I have chosen psychology as my major and I couldn't contain my excitement about it.I wore a cute outfit, straightened my hair, and applied light makeup. All of the stuff has been bought for me by Alessandro. We haven't even seen each other for the past week but his employees regularly update my closet, makeup, and every single female necessity.After I had told Alessandro that I don't want Scott to be my driver for college, he assigned one of his other men to take me to college, his name was Marco. This one was nice, he does
"Marco told me about the guys you have been warming up with, Sweet cheeks" he chuckled in my ear, sending a shot of anxiety through my veins. "Trust me, when he will know, they won't see the daylight ever again"Swallowing the lump that formed in my throat I asked. "Who?""Alessandro..." he whispered.He let me go with a jerk, I staggered to my side and rubbed the area of my arm from where he had gripped it. I glared at him and turned to run up the stairs.I got to my room, slammed the door shut, and locked it. I picked up the laptop from the study table and searched for the word that was bothering me the most."Mafia"Hesitantly, I clicked on the first search result that pulled up and started to read everything about it.Mafia is an informal term that is used to describe a criminal organization that bears a strong similarity to the Sicilian Mafia...Mafias often engage in secondary activities such as gambling, loan sharking, drug trafficking, prostitution, and fraud...Mafia-terroris
"Can I ask you something?"My heart throbbed with fear. This seemed like a really bad idea, but curiosity overpowered the fear running through my veins.He tilted his head to the side, dark amusement spread over his face. "I'm listening..."I didn't want to believe that Alessandro was that person. That he killed or whatever the mob bosses do but some part of me always got nervous around his dark aura. There was something about his eyes that told me that everything I read on the internet and what my friends told me might be true.I opened my mouth and then contemplated what I should ask first. Are you a mob boss? Is that what I should ask? Or people told me who you are and that you kill people for a living... that sounds wrong and mean, so, I settled for the first question."What is a Mafia?" I asked.He chuckled, darkly and lowly. "Why do you want to know?"Alessandro rarely laughed but whenever he did, it sent chills down my spine."My friends... said something about you... They said
All of a sudden, he pulled away from me like I have burned him. He took a step back, running his thumb across his lips as if he was thinking deeply about something. He shook his head before he walked straight out of the library leaving me alone with my turmoil and the book that had his shoe print over it.Blood rushed to my cheeks as embarrassment crept up. What have I done? I put myself out there, I practically asked him to kiss me and he turned me down. Of course, he turned me down. He doesn't have a stupid crush on me like I have on him. What did I open my mouth? What if he kills for it? No, no, he won't.I slid down against the bookshelf and wrapped my arms around myself. I needed to protect myself from this man. He had some kind of lethal attraction about him that will destroy me if I don't stay away. I need to maintain a distance from him from now on because I can't face him after he had so blatantly rejected me. I could feel my heart hurting, tears pooled in my eyes. I humiliat
I have seen some teen movies since I was allowed to watch whatever I wanted. I actually thought that maybe they exaggerated everything in the movies. The high school parties in movies were wild and I thought how can teenagers be this crazy? I wasn't, I couldn't pull something like that off even if I tried, so, how can people my age do all this?But now as I looked at the frat house before me all the flashbacks of the movie parties flashed across my mind. It looked so out of control, I clutched my bag and took a small step toward the frat house.I still had insecurities, fears, and anxieties and all of them washed over me with full force. People were making out, jumping in the pool from over the roof of the house, and alcohol was everywhere. Beer cans and bottles sprawled across the crowded lawn.I looked around for Liam, Wade, Stacy, and Brittany. Hoping to find even one of them. All the girls were in bikinis and the boys were in shorts. I spotted Liam as he stepped out of the house,
I showered up, getting rid of the soreness of my muscles. I had never worked out in my life before and exerting my body so much in a single day has taken its toll. I had cramps everywhere.I heard some voices coming from downstairs. I couldn't recognize them. I mulled over the fact that I should go and check it out because it could be Nikolai's business partner. His business partners were not the kind of people you want to make a conversation with.But then I heard a shrill female voice.I went out of the door and stood at the top of the stairwell. Still, all I heard were the voices. I went downstairs and saw a tall, lean middle-aged man with a young blonde woman standing beside him. I could only see their side profiles. The woman turned and I sucked in a sharp breath.It was Grace Russell, Nikolai's wife-to-be. I know because I had attended their engagement. Her face was engraved at the back of my mind, the sight when Nikolai had slipped the ring on her finger replayed in my head on
"Have you ever worked out before?" he asked.I looked around with wide eyes. "Does running around in the gardens count?""No,""Then no, I have not""Come on, let's do a little warm-up first then I'll teach you how to box."My mouth hung open. "Box? As in boxing?"He heaved a sigh. "I want you to learn how to defend yourself, Natalya."I thought for a while before I nodded. Turns out, I don't even know what warm-up is, he had to tell me everything. The thing that annoyed me the most was his tone, he was speaking to me like I was a child and repeating his words so, that I'd understand clearly.Another thing that annoyed me was his toned muscles, and his stupid sculpted chest.When it was time to step into the boxing ring, Alessandro handed me a pair of boxing gloves. I was about to put them on but he came to me and put them on me himself as if I don't know how to put the stupid gloves on.I rolled my eyes and out of nowhere Alessandro gently smacked the back of my head. "Roll your eyes
Someone pounded on my bedroom door waking me up from my deep slumber. I groaned and stuffed my face back into the pillow to block out the sound coming from the door. The knocking intensified, whoever it was, didn't really have much patience.I sat up and glanced at the wall clock. It was only six o'clock in the morning. I rubbed my eyes to rid of the grogginess, tossed the duvet aside, got to my feet, and headed for the door. I opened it and was met with an unknown face. She was wearing the uniform the household help used to wear."What?" I asked."Don Alessandro had requested you to freshen up and wear this before you come downstairs."Frowning, I took the clothes from her and noticed that they were gym clothes. I heaved a sigh, I liked it better when I could say no to him but I dug my own grave when I promised him that I'd listen to him and follow his rules but that's all there was to it.I'm not the same girl who had a massive crush on him.I closed the bedroom door and glanced at
"I'll make sure to do everything he did to you... but his torture will be a hundred times worse," he whispered softly.His one hand was in my hair while the other was on my cheek caressing it with his knuckles. I leaned into his touch, feeling the security and comfort I used to feel when I first met him."They all took turns in beating me up, they laughed whenever I screamed in pain," I said as tears rolled down my cheeks and dripped down to the ground.His hand left my hair as he cupped my face with both of his hands. He tugged me closer. "I will make their death an object of ridicule."I looked into his eyes. "Promise?"He let out a deep breath with a hint of a smile."Promise," he declared. "Do you want to see it happen?"I considered it and then shook my head. I don't think I have the stomach for that much violence. "No...""Do you want to go home now?"I looked up at him. It's hard to forget what Alessandro did to me too and the fact that he was engaged was the hardest pill I eve
I had my headphones on as I continuously flipped the pages of the book that was before me. I hadn't read a word, the music blasted in my ears blocking out all the other sounds.I slammed the book shut and got off my bed. Alessandro had called Sabrina earlier, I knew that he did because Sabrina and I hadn't talked after his whole engagement fiasco.I pretended to be asleep while Sabrina waited for me.I didn't wake up until she finally gave up and left the house.I got to my feet, straightened out my dress, and headed downstairs. His house was crawling with his soldiers, they all tried to avoid making eye contact with me.They were moving some stuff into the house, some furniture, suitcases, and whatnot. Was Alessandro redecorating?I hopped onto the couch and put on the TV at full volume. Someone grabbed the remote out of my hand and turned the volume down.I huffed and looked up to see Alessandro looking down at me. He placed both of his hands on the headrest of the couch and dipped
She turned her back towards us and went into the kitchen. Probably to cook breakfast for herself, she didn't know how to cook shit."I'll be right back," I said to Scott, who nodded still clenching his hands like he wanted to punch something or someone. It won't be Natalya, I will fucking break his hand off before he does that.I followed her into the kitchen and saw her using her cell phone while she placed some of the ingredients on the counter. It looked like she wanted to make pancakes. She played a video and placed it before her while she followed whatever the lady in the video was narrating."Do you remember the rules?"She stopped whatever she was doing and glanced at me, her facial expression was bored, uninterested."I remember" she answered and before I could say anything she added. "But I could care less for them"Rage coursed through my veins. She was testing me, trying hard for me to slip up so she could hold it against me."Natalya, don't disrespect my men. I won't toler
I'm weak.Too fucking weak.I let her get too close to me.Until recently, I only ever really loved one woman in my life. My mother, I respected her, loved her.Anastasia Costello.I thought she was the only one who really knew me, the only one that can tear down my walls. I thought my ability to love ended with her, and I was fine with that.I've watched her writhing in pain, struggling to breathe, tears leaking out of her eyes but she couldn't move. My mother fought long and hard with the disease before she lost that battle. I thought that was it. My only weakness, the only woman I ever loved is dead and now I'm fucking invincible.But then she happened.The morning Nikolai Martinez died, I didn't fucking know what I was getting myself into when I brought his daughter into my home. I hadn't given it a second thought, I didn't even know what I was going to do with her.The men in my circle had many ideas about what I should do with her, but I didn't fucking agree with them. I thought
"I'm sorry, Angel, I'm sorry I let them take you, I'm sorry I wasn't there," his voice was so low that I barely heard it even though his mouth was right next to my ear."No! You are not sorry!" I choked out through my sobs. "I know I don't matter to you, I know I don't mean anything to anyone, least of all you!""Shh... I'll make it alright, I promise,"I tried to shake my head. "You can't! You can't""I will, I need you to trust me, okay?" he placed soft kisses on my temple."I hate you!""I know, I'll fix it""Nothing can fix this, nothing can fix me!""I will, Angel, I promise you.""I hate you so much.""I know.""I mean nothing to you.""That's a lie.""I don't want this, Alessandro.""I know.""You scare me too.""I know, Angel, I will make it alright""I don't want this, Alessandro. I don't want to be here.""I'm not letting you leave ever again."I cried harder. "Why?""I just don't want to," he answered softly."I don't want to get abducted again.""I won't let that happen."
Another day...Another morning...Still, it did nothing to calm the turmoil I felt inside of me. Everything around me was just the same but I didn't feel the way I used to. I feel hateful all the time, anger is the only emotion coursing through my veins right now.Ten days, I spent ten days in that cell but it felt like a year. It felt as if that cell didn't belong in this world, time passed by slowly there.I looked out of the window and felt nothing... this view always brought me comfort but now it did nothing to me. Nothing to calm the storm brewing inside of me.I remember looking out of this window and dreaming of a life outside these four walls. I thought it'd be a fairy tale. I thought my parents were wrong and the world out there was anything but evil."The world is a dangerous place and you are easy prey, Natalya. You are innocent and naive and you lack physical strength. This world will chew you alive."My dad wasn't wrong. He wasn't wrong at all but he betrayed me too. He l