XAVIER’S POV When I got inside my car, I quickly slid the key into the ignition and drove away. Luckily, I knew where I was going after I was successfully able to find an apartment before moving out of my father’s house. His mind was made up about getting rid of me, and there was nothing that I could do. And for the first time in years, I felt tears at the corners of my eyes. And as much as I tried to push them away, they just rushed down. “Not this again.” I took out the little gin bottle that I always had in my car and took a sip. What hurt more was the fact that I left without seeing Lana and didn’t know how to tell her that I was already out of the house and never coming back to it again. She hoped that my father and I were going to make up and never come to the conclusion of me moving out, but now things turned out differently, I didn’t know how to tell her. I wanted to get my life straight first before I could be able to tell her. I didn’t want her worrying about me when she w
DAX'S POVI was pacing the clinic corridor up and down, my mind racing and not knowing what to do. It scared me to my core that Lana had to be admitted to the ICU. The very thought of her not making it terrified me. I felt so helpless and didn't know what to do to help her, except to wait for the doctor who was taking care of her. As my mind raced and the walls started to feel thin around me, a call came through in my phone. I quickly reached for it in my pocket and picked it up. "Yes?" "Boss, she's been screaming since morning. What do I do with her?" James asked on the line. I totally forgot that I held Sasha hostage and didn't get back to deal with her after assigning James to keep an eye on her. The situation with Lana couldn't allow me to leave her and take care of business when I didn't even know that she was going to wake up or not. I needed to be here until she woke up. She had to see me when she had gained her consciousness. "Distract her, James, do anything, please. I ca
LANA'S POVI felt a terrible headache as I slowly opened my eyes, groaning with pain as I tried to take in my surroundings. I saw Doctor Miles writing on his pad. He was very oblivious to my sudden gain of consciousness. And when he finally heard me groaning, he turned towards me and tried to help me sit on the bed. "You're finally awake, thank God!" He squealed with joy. "49 hours had been a long time waiting for you to open those eyes.""Doctor Miles, hi," I tried to ignore the fact that I just saw him rejoicing to see me waking up. There was no doubt that he felt like I'd be lost. "You scared us all. How do you feel?" He put down his pad and started to check my vitals. I turned my head to see if Dax or Xavier weren't there. My heart started aching thinking that maybe they didn't even bother to come and were too busy to wait for me to wake up. To make things even worse, Xavier probably wasn't aware of my current situation since his father threw him out of the house. I sighed and
DAX'S POV20 YEARS AGO…Before dawn, Father came into my room and brother's and woke me up. When I flattered my eyes open and saw him, I say up on the bed and looked at him, yawning. “Father, is there anything wrong?” I asked, looking at Carlos sleeping. “You have to listen to me carefully, Miguel,” he pointed a finger at me, whispering. “We are leaving Italy and going to America. And remember, when we get there, don’t ever mention that you are a Russo. That will be as good as asking for death.” I gasped. “Father, why are we leaving?” He sighed. “You’re just a little boy. There are things that you won’t understand.” “Oh,” I said with disappointment. My father didn’t know that I spied on him whenever he was doing businesses with shady people in the living room. I was old enough to realize that he was making money in dangerous ways. I thought that maybe someday he would want my brother and I to follow in his footsteps and do whatever it took to survive, even if it meant illegally m
LANA'S POVAfter Xavier left, I fell asleep again. And when I woke up, Doctor Miles was by my side, taking me off the drip. I looked at the clock on the wall and realized that it was morning. Xavier and Dax did not come back last night or this morning. "Good morning, Lana. How are you feeling?" Doctor Miles looked down at me and smiled. "I feel great, thank you," I smiled back. "Dax is in my office signing your discharge papers," I could have sworn he rolled his eyes at me. I scoffed. "What was that?" "What was what?" He busied himself with his writing pad. "You rolled your eyes at me!" I chuckled."You were so grumpy that neither of the brothers were here and didn't even bother to ask how I was!" He protested. Wait, how did he know I was dating the two of them?"I wasn't grumpy," I defended myself. "Never mind. You're discharged," he declared as he turned off the TV too. I smiled very widely. "Thank God. This place is terrible." Doctor Miles laughed. "I'm glad to see you bac
DAX'S POV"Let me go, Dax!" Sasha shouted as I came inside the room, she was locked in. It was in my old apartment that my father's company was still paying the rent for. And it was the only place where no one was going to suspect she was kept in. But that was no problem because no one reported her as missing. I turned to James and gave him the money that was due to him for staying and watching over Sasha. I imagined how exhausting it must have been for him to tolerate her day and night for 5 days when I could not come. He deserved the bonus I added to the initial money that we agreed on. "I hope she didn't cause you too much distress," I stretched my hand and offered him a handshake. "It was nothing that I can't handle," he sounded confident as he stretched his hand and gave me a handshake."That's perfect. I can't imagine what you could have been through if she complained and shouted at you all day," I tried to lighten up the mood with the James dude."You're a coward, Dax! A Cow
LANA'S I was in one of those dreams again, running to save my life. I didn't know what I was running away from, but I knew that it had to do with saving my life. But the more I ran, the more my feet started to slow me down, and I felt like I was running on the same spot. When I looked down on my feet and saw that I wasn't getting anywhere, I screamed my lungs out and woke up panting on the bed. "Lana, is it another bad dream?" Dax asked next to me. He was so perfect. He'd always reminded that they were all just dreams and then made me lie down on his chest. I nodded. "I don't even know what I'm running away from." Yet, I knew. The thought of being so close to losing my life in less than three months never left my mind. I kept thinking of that day when my heart gave up on me, and death came for me. It was an inevitable fate. "It's just a dream, and you're stressing a lot these days. Are you okay? Is it about Charles Leonard?" He asked. "Maybe. I don't know," a tear slipped from my
XAVIER'S POVAfter Lana left, I paced up and down the room. I had put Lana's and my brother's life in danger. He could have killed all of us today because of me. It was a waking call that I never thought I'd get in front of my family. If it wasn't for the fact that he saw Lana and somehow thought he recognized her as someone else, he would have pressed pulled gun trigger. "We need to do something before Costa comes back for revenge," Dax said behind me. "What are we going to do?" I turned and looked at him. "She could have died because of me." "If only you didn't act so irrational at that bar, nobody could have been in danger to die today!" Dax snapped at me as if I didn't know that. "Don't you think I know that?! This is going to hunt me for as long as I'm with her! I don't want her to not be safe around me..." I exhaled and dragged a chair from the table to sit down. "We agreed that there won't be no more bloodshed, Xavier. I don't want to lose you too," he took a chair and sat