Althaia The following day I didn’t have to do my usual training, and I could spend extra quality time with Damiano. We went on a long walk around the vineyards, and I got to meet more people from the village. I had never gotten so many hugs and kisses from people before in my life, and they were all so happy to see me and Damiano together. It gave me another opportunity to see how Damiano interacted with his workers. It was much more different than how he interacted with his men, of course. He was being a bit more gentle with them, and I knew it was because this place was close to his heart. It really was a village for itself with its own charisma and lovely people. And just beyond the vineyards, there was even a market with sales stands to buy vegetables, fruits, bread, and whatnot since it was quite a bit of a distance to the nearest store. A colorful stand caught my eye, and I stepped closer to see what it was. It was a beautiful stand with varieties of dry fruits and nuts. The
Althaia My heart was thumping faster, and my nerves were all over the place. But a soft smile from Damiano made me calm down and take a deep breath. “Come.” He spoke softly to me and led me to a stage that had been set up. We stopped in front of a podium, where a goblet, knife, gun, and card were present. My nerves started to spike once again. I had only heard about an oath one had to take, but I had no idea how it worked. To distract myself, I looked at the vast crowd where I spotted Nonna and his parents, giving me warm smiles as well. I wanted to drop my jaw when it hit me. All these people present worked for Damiano! And I knew this was not even all of them but those who mainly resided in Italy. I knew he was powerful and had many people working for him, but to see a glimpse of it just now was incredible. “Famiglia di Bellavia!” Damiano’s voice boomed out, silencing everyone and giving us their full attention. It took everything in me not to shuffle around on my feet, seeing s
Althaia Before the wedding ceremony, I walked around and made the last round of checks in the massive banquet hall. Everything looked like it belonged in a fairytale, and Cara deserved every single moment of it. The wedding was held in a gorgeous castle and the reception banquet was exquisitely decorated in all white. Even the floor was in a beautiful glossy white design. The ceiling was just as stunningly decorated with flowery chandeliers, and long white vine flowers were hanging down, almost creating a beautiful curtain of white flowers. This was her dream wedding, and I was so happy that she could finally have some happiness in her life with Lorenzo. I glanced around one more time, pleased with the work that had been done, and walked up the stairs and down the long hall in the direction of the master suite. I opened the door to the suite to check on Cara to see how much time she needed to finish getting ready. My eyes met hers in the mirror, and I let out a gasp in astonish
Damiano “He fucking grabbed her ass. There is no way they’re related. What kind of fucking sick pervert would do that to their niece?” Giovanni spat out as we made our way to the altar. It was taking everything to keep myself in check, and not empty my gun on her so-called uncle’s face. “I should have fucking killed him that day.” I said, clenching my jaw. The only reason I didn’t was that I knew their days were numbered in the first place. I needed to have this deal go through because, at the time, I was still working on getting to know the infrastructure of their organization. I needed to know how they were operating and who they were involved with to take them all down. And now, it turned out to be a greater deal than it was ever supposed to be in the first place. “He’s mine. I’ve waited a long time to end his life after everything he did to Cara. The fucking years of abuse.” Lorenzo stated. It had not been easy to keep him at bay but I promised him, once everything was over, h
Damiano “Oh, darling, the ring is just beautiful!” My jaw clenched at the horrendous high-pitched voice. Every single time that woman opened her mouth, it felt like a bunch of knives was stabbing into my ears continuously. I was convinced Gataeno was partially deaf. It was impossible he heard that voice and decided to marry her. “Thank you, Morella.” Althaia gave a tight smile and I knew it was taking everything in her not to grimace. “Wonderful news, figlia! When’s the big day?” Gaetano smiled widely. “Oh, actually…” Althaia started and my hand squeezed her waist a little to warn her not to let it slip out. She quickly glanced at me before facing Gataeno again with a soft smile. “…We haven’t decided yet. Plenty of time to figure it out.” She told him instead. Gaetano nodded a few times. “Good, good. The sooner, the better.” He looked at me when he said that, not being discreet about his underlying message to me. “Congratulations again, darling.” Morella smiled big. “Enjoy the
Althaia “…Althaia…” A small groan escaped my lips. I felt groggy and completely disoriented as I felt my body slightly shake. I felt nauseous and my eyelids were heavy when I tried to open them. “Althaia, please wake up.” Cara’s voice sounded clear and I pushed myself to open my eyes despite their heaviness. “… I don’t feel too good.” I almost whimpered as she helped me to sit up. I rested my head against the wall, slowly blinking, and looked around. It looked like we were in a small basement room with grey walls, a tiny lightbulb that was barely giving any light, and there was a sound of water dripping somewhere in the distance. Where the fuck were we? “Are you okay?” I blinked a couple of times and looked at Cara. Her hair was a complete mess and looked like she had been through hell. “I… What happened -” I stopped breathing as everything rushed back to me. Dario. Blood. Fighting. Damiano. Damiano! No no no no! My eyes widened and I suddenly felt suffocated. The images of
Damiano I slowly started to gain consciousness when I heard faint voices around me. The burning sensation was still present, spreading all over my abdomen. I felt someone tapping my cheek and I opened my eyes. My sight was unfocused and I saw shadows above me, seeing their mouths move as they talked to me, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying. I tried to move but clenched my jaw and grunted out in pain instead. “I got you. You will be fine.” My sight finally focused when Antonio came into view, talking to me. “Althaia… I need to get to Althaia.” I felt hands trying to stop me from moving but I shoved them away, clenching my jaw hard as I pushed through the pain to get up. “We need to get you fixed first. You’ve lost a lot of blood.” Antonio prevented me from moving. “I… don’t care… She needs me.” I growled out and tried to push them away. “You can’t help her if you’re fucking dead!” He shouted in anger. “I have to get the bullet out of you. Bite down on this.” He put a
Damiano“This is what we have found so far.” Ava rolled out a map on the table. Everyone had been gathered to the manor once Ava and Rafaelle had something useful for us to be able to lay out a new plan.“Based on the information given, they can’t be more than two hours away in fly time. We have narrowed it down to this.” She drew a circle around the area and I frowned. It was still a large area and it would take us too much time to pin down exactly where Gaetano was hiding.“But our theory is they have to be closer to this area.” She drew another circle within the circle, but this time it was smaller.“Your reason?” I asked.“The type of helicopter they’re using can’t fly more than five hours at a time, and since this is not a helicopter that can refuel midair, they have to go to the fuel station. Which is two and a half hours away. But we don’t want to rule out the area completely.” Rafaelle explained.“They could already have a truck ready to fill up.” Luca pointed out.“It’s possi