GIO’S POVI was sitting across from Rose in the private jet, and my eyes trailed her delicate features. Her eyes were closed so I took my time looking at her unmarred skin, in another life she would have made a good model, a great one with her strong jaw and- very blue eyes.“Should I be worried?” Rose’s voice was rough but her eyes were sharp. “If you’re wondering I don’t swing that way.”Nadine snorted from somewhere in the plane, and I hid a smile behind my palm. “I wasn’t thinking about you that way either. I was just staring because you don’t look like someone who should be doing what you’re doing.”“Don’t judge a book by its cover.”“You have a very fine cover.” Nadine said, winking at Rose as she walked past to the open bar.I didn’t comment on the redness that appeared on her face, or the way her eyes lowered. “It’s a miracle you’re here with us today, I thought Zaverio had killed you in his office the last time we were here.”Rose rubbed her chest. “Those rounds hurt like a m
GIO’S POVAlma’s little store was in a cute little spot, and I watched her stand at the counter packing up orders from the shop across the street.Their treats were amazing, Nadine and Rose obviously agreed because they were scarfing down everything they could put their hands on. I washed down the sweet taste in my mouth with black coffee, smiling when Nadine looked appalled. “I don’t ha2ve a sweet tooth.” I lifted my shoulders. “I had to wash all that sweetness down with something bitter.”“That sounds like something a witch would say.” Nadine shook her head. “How old are you that you crave bitterness?”“Let’s not get started on the way she likes her coffee.” Rose crossed her hands. “I thought being in the army would ruin my taste buds, but living with Gio is proving to be worse than that.”“I can’t imagine.” Nadine shuddered, looking over my shoulder. “Are we going to sit here all day or…?”We weren’t going to sit in this nice pastry shop all day, but I knew the prime minister had
ALMA’S POV“Nadine?” I repeated her name like a prayer. “There’s no way, I saw Damien shoot you, I saw you on the floor, it’s not possible.”“It’s very possible my darling.” Nadine sniffed, and as she walked closer, my vision got blurrier until I could no longer see her clearly. “Your daughter looks exactly like me.”I laughed and my tears fell, it was Nadine, it truly was her. I touched her face and everywhere I could. She was alive and she was here in front of me; was this what a miracle looked like?“I wouldn’t have left if I knew you were alive.” I choked on a sob, “I thought you were dead, it killed me when I left, I even buried you in my backyard.”Nadine snorted, wiping her runny nose. “You dug a six feet hole in your backyard to honor me, now I want to die.”I didn’t fight her when she took Zara, and my heart melted when Zara didn’t pull away from her. She wasn’t a difficult baby, but she didn’t allow just anyone hold her.“Hey baby, I am your godmother. Your mommy and I grew
ALMA’S POVNadine and I were cuddled up in my bed. I wrapped my whole body around her like a koala and listened to her soft snores while she slept. It felt like the first week after I had given birth; how alert I was with every breath change or slight movement.After the fourth time I jerked awake, I gave up on sleep and just watched her. Her hair was shorter, which gave me a perfect view of the scars on her neck left behind by Damien.Doctor Hassan had done his best with the stitching, but it was always going to be a statement of what she had almost lost. When Damien had shot her multiple times, and all I could do was watch, I thought I was dying slowly; I had never felt so helpless in my lifeI blinked away the tears that flooded my eyes, keeping my sniffles light. My head felt heavy and my eyes were scratchy, but my fear was falling asleep and waking up to find out it was all a dream.Gio and her friend didn’t walk into my shop with Nadine, and I would wake up to the terrible reali
ALMA’S POVI watched Gio walk through my house with Rose, looking away from the gun in Rose’s hands. The men who had invaded my house were long gone, but I felt safe with more people in the house.Martha was getting attended to in the living room by a doctor, and I was scared to check in on her. I wasn’t used to death and I was used to it- which was crazy and I didn’t want to analyze that.“Tell me what you know about these men” Gio asked, taking in the state of the nursery. To the normal human eye it didn’t look out of place, but Martha’s blood changed the scenery from calm to suspicious.“I don’t know anything about them, what I saw when we ran in was Martha on the floor with my baby in her arms.” I shook my head, “The baby cam got footage of them, but it’s useless to me.”Gio nodded, “I’ll take a look at the video soon, I want Rose to sweep the rest of the house before we sit down to track the guys who were dumb enough to break into your house.”I nodded, kissing Zara’s head. My ha
ZAVERIO’S POVMy eyes stayed on the man holding the mother of my child. If I looked into Alma’s eyes, I knew I would crumble and botch this situation. I didn’t think I was going to walking back into violence when I landed in Spain, yet here I was itching to beat this bastard to bloody pulp.“I don’t know who the fuck you are, but I don’t think you want to have the blood of this woman on your hands.” Was this man an amateur? Did he think his words were going to make me back down? “I should be telling you to jump out of that open window; I’ll even give you a head start before I come after you. What do you say?”“Do you think this is a joke?” His hands tightened around the knife, drawing my attention to Alma’s neck. She was losing blood but not enough to cause a state of alarm.“It’s not. What do you want? There must be a reason you’re so adamant about kidnapping Alma, so why don’t we talk about what I can do for you. I will give you whatever you want.”He frowned, flexing the hand arou
ZAVERIO’S POVThe weather switch was a marvel to watch in this strange land. It was rare for it to be sunny one day and rainy the next. I stood in front of Alma’s fixed window with Zara in my arms.She was babbling on about something, and I nodded along as if I understood. Her tiny fingers framed my face every once in a while like she was trying to familiarize herself with me.It was the most adorable thing to watch, and I watched her a lot. I was the first person she saw when she woke up, I watched her eat, have a bath, play and most often a times she slept in my arms.Martha had whispered to me earlier that it wasn’t healthy, and she needed to know I wouldn’t pick her up at every inconvenience or she wouldn’t want to be let down. I was spoiling her, and I knew it.“What are you thinking so hard about?” Alma tightened the sash of her robe when I turned to her. We hadn’t had much time to talk, but we weren’t awkward around each other.“I think I might be spoiling het.” I kissed the to
ZAVERIO’S POVVon grabbed my shoulder when I made to move towards the door. “Are you insane? We don’t even know who’s standing behind that door. It could be a trap.”“We are trapped in here regardless if it is a trap” I shrugged his hand off. “There’s only one entry and exit, even if we want to fight our way out, we are still on the short end of the stick.”“I’ll open the door.” Von gave me his gun. “If it is a trap, I’ll get shot and you have the chance to see who you’re shooting at.”I hated it every time he tried to put my life before his, I hated the dynamics but I knew it had to be done. I walked beside him to the door, holding the gun out, praying to every being in the universe that this wasn’t going to blow off in our faces.“For a second I thought I had the wrong container.” The women said as she walked passed Von, holding up her phone. “But the tracker is hardly ever wrong.”“Who the fuck are you?” I pointed my gun at her, feeling a jolt of respect when Rose did the same.“Wh
ALMA’S POV“The men I sent to the house didn’t see anything out of the ordinary and the shop is empty and untouched. Martha wasn’t snatched from your home or the shop, so I’ll have to dig deeper and ask some people a few questions.”I nodded, half listening to what my mother was saying. I was riddled with guilt over the fact that Martha was missing, she could be anywhere with anyone who wanted to hurt me or use me to get to my mother.The endless circle of looking over my shoulders even when I hadn’t left the house was exhausting to say the least. If I had somehow dragged Martha into my family’s mess, I would never forgive myself.“You don’t have to get too worried about it, Alma. I can’t promise that nothing will happen to her because we don’t know who has her, but I can promise to bring her back safely when we find out who does.”“What if she’s dead and we’re running in circles chasing our tail.” That question hung heavily in my mind; I lost sleep thinking of Martha drowning or gett
GIO’S POVI watched the way her fingers tightened around the steering wheel and I feared she would rip it off. Her question hung in the air like a harsh noise, and I opened my mouth to answer several times but the words died in my throat.“Is this a new way to throw someone off, you send them to get breakfast and then go on a date with someone else?” Rose flexed her fingers again. “Why didn’t you tell me?”“I was going to tell you and it wasn’t a date.” The words didn’t sound believable to my own ears. “It’s not what you think I promise, I would never try to get rid of you like that.”“You’re saying what you’re saying but I saw something else, I waited outside that fucking restaurant for hours Gio with my phone in my hand, you couldn’t even shoot me a sympathy text?”I closed my eyes, “I was going to text you I swear, I calculated the time it would take you- Look, I didn’t want to you to get home and panic when you couldn’t find me but I didn’t want to be rude.”Rose nodded. “Right, y
GIO’S POVRose and I were passing a bowl of popcorn while we watched a re-run of Grey’s Anatomy in the living room. We had been holed up in this space for almost three days; it would be obvious to anyone who walked in that we were in our honeymoon phase.I smelt like her and she smelt like sin. Rose was right when she said I was the initiator in this relationship. I had never doubted my stamina but with Rose, I knew that was a battle I was never going to win.She was always ready when I reached for her, and she fucked me so good, it made me crave more like a sex junkie. Rose had turned me into a sex addict and it wasn’t even up to a week.“Do you think they are going to wrap up this series one day?” Rose asked around a mouth filled with popcorn.“Do you know when the world is going to end? If you do then maybe when the world is ending, because Grey’s Anatomy is going to be here until all the current actors die and they recruit new ones.”Rose chuckled. “I love popcorn and your legs pi
GIO’S POVI uncrossed and crossed my leg for the fifth time, trying to focus on the file I was supposed to be reading. My subordinates were going to dish their case out to me and I needed to be updated, it wouldn’t help me make up my mind, but it would paint a picture for me.I had twenty minutes to drag my brain from the high Rose had kept me in all morning to the present. Like the kiss, we didn’t talk about the fact that we had had sex. When I walked out of my bedroom, dressed for the hour, she was back to being my bodyguard.The heat lingered in her eyes but they didn’t reach mine, not when we were in a space that clearly defined our positions. I was her boss and she was my employee- not directly but if she looked at me the way she did this morning, I wouldn’t mind if she took me on my table.I bit my finger hard, it did the job of centering my focus. Why was I thinking of Rose’s fingers and the way they felt inside me, how they moved and how full I-“Miss Gio.”The file in my hand
GIO’S POVI heard the light footsteps of Rose walking past my door to the kitchen, then the telltale sound of water filling the coffee pot, she never drank coffee the way I do, but she always put a pot on for me to drink away.I hadn’t slept a wink but I didn’t feel tired. I was confused about our current situation. Was the kiss a figment of my imagination? I touched my lips and pulled my hand back when they tingled. Was that normal?What were supposed to do now that it had happened? Maybe it was a spur of the moment thing and she had forgotten about it. Energized by that thought, I jumped out of bed with a light spring in my step.I was going to go out there and behave normally; there was no need to make anything awkward she had probably just kissed me in passing or something, pushing the painful squeeze in my chest away I opened my door and stopped short.Rose was sitting at the dining table, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. Her hair was wet which meant she had taken a shower and
ALMA’S POVMy mother pushed the food in her plate around, more focused on the file she was reading. I didn’t want to interrupt so I kept my movements silent; eyeing her in case she needed space.We hadn’t spoken much since her checkup with the doctor. Big Mac had tried to make me more at home in my mother’s huge house. I used the excess time on my hands to explore the many rooms that were unoccupied.Big Mac kept Zara entertained when I was busy keeping myself from losing my mind. He didn’t communicate much with me about anything, and I didn’t mind much since we didn’t have a lot to talk about.My main worry was with Martha, she hadn’t answered any of my calls since I left with Big Mac after my mother was shot. I was too worried to function properly. What if something had happened to her? I shook my head, printing the details of that day into focus.Martha hadn’t been in the house when my mother arrived, she had convinced me to let her check the store, it had been closed indefinitely
ZAVERIO’S POV“The next shipment is scheduled to fall next week.” Von said, tapping on the screen of the tab in his hands. He wasn’t a man used to advanced gadgets, but he had to get used to them seeing as our whole organization was leaving the paper trail era.“What about Ambrose? Did he like the guns we shipped to him the other day? If he did then he needs to finish paying for them.” I threw the tennis ball in my hand into the air and caught it. “Alvaro said he was going to drop by today, I have no idea what he wants to discuss, do you?”Von shook his head, “Our little bird is also back in her nest.” He was referring to Gio who had been incognito for some days. We tracked her to a rundown bar but kept our distance, leaving the overall surveillance to her bodyguard who acknowledged our presence but didn’t give room for any slip-ins. Rose was impressive, and if she decided to join the dark side, I would hire her.“We will find out what happened when she is ready to come back in, we ca
GIO’S POVMy phone vibrated on the bedside table in the shitty hotel I had found to hole myself into. I ignored it like I had for three days, staring at the ceiling until my eyes felt raw. It was my morning routine before I proceeded to drown myself in alcohol at night.I didn’t know how far I had walked after I left Rose but when I came to my senses, it was raining, I was soaked and as the universe pointed out, in front of a seedy hotel with lights that blinked haphazardly. I didn’t think twice about walking in, the girl manning the register took one look at my suit and sneered.“We don’t give rooms to cops.” She looked like she was ready to spit in my face.I blinked, looked down at my corporate attire. “I am not a cop, I work well with numbers.”She rolled her eyes. “Whatever.” She snatched a key from the few on the rack and threw it at me. “Keep the noise to a minimum, don’t expect any breakfast in bed and be gone in the morning.”Her eyes bore a hole in my back as I walked away.
GIO’S POVI avoided eye contact with everyone I walked past, hiding my shame in my eyes. If they looked hard enough, they would know what I had done, who I had chosen and whose blood was going to be on my hands.The pounding headache was the retribution I needed, it was a result to the restless night I had had. The five files Emily had given to me held information of a few powerful people in the world.Their deaths would shake the core of what they were heading, and that was the reason Emily was asking me to take my pick from the litter. Norma’s face had haunted my dreams, making it extremely hard to sleep.She may not have ratted me out to Emily and Rose had said she would keep my other business in strict confidence but I couldn’t trust her. I couldn’t trust anyone, not even myself.File one, Norma- Prime minister of Spain, married and divorced three times before she was elected, finally, she got married to her childhood sweetheart and they were the couple of the year. She and her on