ELENA'S POV “Yes, Lorenzo?” I heard his voice.My eyes fluttered open and I rolled over to the side, groaning.Uh, why couldn't he go make the call outside the room or something?“Send it” his voice sounded hard and that was what snapped me out of my daze.I blinked awake and sat up.He was sitting by the edge of the bed, shirtless and backing me.When had he taken off the shirt?Wow, I never had time to appreciate the beauty of the tattoos that littered his back, a dragon that spanned from his lower neck to his back, and a few other writings at strategic places.But what caught my eyes were the faint wounds. Scars.My eyes widened and I sat up, he was still talking on the phone but he suddenly tensed as if realizing I was already awake.“Fast,” he said simply, then hung up the phone.Turning around to look at me while I groaned having lost sight of the tattoos and scars, he smiled at me.“Morning..” he said huskily as he leaned down to press a kiss to my forehead.I could get used t
ELENA'S POV A day passed in a blur after that and now, we were standing at the airport, coming out of Luca's private plane, his guards at the airport hurriedly coming to take our luggage.“Kings Hotel,” Luca said simply as one of them with a black suit unlike the rest approached us.The man looked over me and bowed before nodding and leaving.“Kings Hotel?” I asked, looking up at him through my dark shades.It was impromptu so I had only packed light clothes and a few other necessities. Now I regretted it, my choice of clothes was terrible. This place was freezing.“Yeah, that's where we'd be lodged,” he said, his suit creasing slightly as he adjusted his cuffs, his hard eyes staring at the black car approaching us.“I would have thought you owned a mansion here” I muttered.He looked down at me amused just as the car pulled up beside us. “I do but there's no need for people I'm here, is there?” He asked, opening the car door for me.“Oh right, as guessed. Anyways…”, I muttered, clim
ELENA'S POV “When are we going to start what we came here for?”, I asked, putting on a fresh layer of red savvy lipstick in front of the mirror.“When am I…” he corrected.I rolled my eyes, releasing my hair from the tight bun I had tied it into so that it could fall freely.“Oh please” I muttered. “you don't think that I would stay in the hotel room alone, did you?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest while looking at him through the mirror.He was checking out a blue shirt with dark eyes and clearly avoiding my gaze.“Elena, you're not coming with me for this. I don't want to go meet Kiara with you. No offense…” he muttered.That got my attention immediately. Who was Kiara and why couldn't I follow him? He had simply said he was going to pay a visit to an old friend here and nothing more.“She's just a friend. Was a friend” he muttered, dropping the shirt onto the bed.“Hm. So have you heard any news from the reaper?”, I asked, trying to so desperately change the topic.“No, he
ELENA'S POV “Just get the red sweater” Luca waved toward the row of cozy sweaters while I rolled my eyes at him.“That's not how shopping works,” I said.Sighing, he put his phone to his ear. “Clearly. I don't know how any of this works. I never had to go shopping especially not for women's clothing”“Well now that you're married,” I paused emphasizing on the word but getting no reaction from him. “you might as well know how to do that and rule no 1”He looked up at me and tilted his head. “Seriously? You have rules for shopping?” He asked with wide eyes and an indignant look on his face.“Yes, I do. Care to listen?”“Do I have a choice?” He asked.“No” I snorted.“Then lay it on me”“Firstly, when you're on an outing with your wife, you shouldn't be holding your phone all the time like that,” I said, rolling my eyes as I pulled out a black sweater from the racks.“Oh really? My bad” he said simply as he pocketed his phone back into his pocket.“Also you should help me get some cloth
ELENA'S POV I was transfixed for a second as I stared into those piercing gray eyes that always made my heart skip a beat in the past.“Elena?”, he called again when I didn't answer him.“Peter…” I acknowledged him.He looked shocked then he let out a short chuff of air. “Elena. Where the hell have you been?” He asked with moist eyes.I opened my mouth to talk when he wrapped his hands around me, embracing me as the scent of cinnamon filled my senses.My hands fell limp around me and I didn't know how to react to this.After a while, he pulled back, an excited look in his eyes.“I was so worried when you just left without saying anything. I went over to your house and I heard…” his expression turned apologetic.Right. He heard that my own parents threw me out.“Yeah, it sucked” I confirmed, folding my arms, my eyes scanning the man.He had changed and it was in a good way. I liked it. He was just as handsome and now more manly and well-built. There was still that sparkle in his eyes
LUCA'S POV “Here?” I asked the man who was standing beside meI had left Elena at the hotel after she had slept off that afternoon and went on my way to find Kiara.“Yeah, she is inside there”, the man confirmed.I looked the man over. Typical middlemen look. A tall stout body and lean figure, complete with a pipe in his mouth as he greedily watched me with those hawkish brown eyes.“, here,” I said, handing him money for nob well done.I don't know how to feel about the whole thing. Meeting Kiara after so many years and seeing Elena with her ex.Peter Cavill. She had told me about him and the fact that we had run into him today just made me all the more mad.“Thank you so much” he quickly said before scurrying away.This was a cozy house and I wondered what had made her leave the business. She was a total badass when her father was alive and I knew that she could taken over so what had made her leave and go into photography? I couldn't even picture it.Standing in front of the door,
ELENA'S POV “Did it work?” I asked him as soon as he came out of the bathroom in a towel, his hand running through his wet hair.He hadn't said a word since he returned and he just seemed to be deep in thoughts.Was he seriously giving me the silent treatment?The idea made me scoff.His phone beeped for the tenth time in a minute and he rolled his eyes, pulling it out just as he sat by the edge of the bed, his towel riding up his legs slightly as he did so.I struggled to keep my gaze on his face, noting how his hair fell around his face as he stared at his phone.With an impassive look on his face, he raised his phone up to me and tilted his head.My eyes widened and I quickly grabbed my phone from the nightstand, my eyes roving over my phone screen as I laughed.“3000 likes? You might as well be famous. It's like you're a celebrity already”, I laughed, going through his Instagram account.He huffed at that and his eyes kept glued to the phone. “I was already one”I looked through
ELENA'S POV “Check over there,” Luca was saying to one of the men as they searched around the house which was supposedly owned by KiaraWe had gotten here this morning and she was missing, there was blood on the carpet but that was it. We weren't even sure if it was hers, we just confirmed that someone had indeed gone after her life.Was it the person? Reaper?I looked over at Luca who looked seriously agitated.Was he that worried about her? Maybe he still had feelings for her and me as the stupid lovesick girl had gone on to confess her love for him the previous night.“Anything new?” I asked, my voice low.He turned to me and shook his head. “not yet. I don't know if it's the same person. I just have a very bad feeling about all this” he muttered.“What about the Sam you said you were going to check?”, I asked reminding him“As much as I want to, I can't right now. I don't have any evidence against him and besides… I have assigned someone to watch him discreetly”One of the men jo
ELENA'S POV“Kill her…”“We should have killed her when we had the chance”“Kill her now”They all advanced towards me with their guns at the ready.No, no. Make it stop.I wanted to scream, to open my mouth but no sound came out, I was all alone.“He's not here to save you now”“You can't even live without him”“Weakling”One of the men with the dark eyes raised his gun, his face quite hazy as he squeezed the trigger.I screamed immediately, thrashing about when someone held me tightly.“Elena?!” The voice sounded distant yet so familiar and the person was holding meNo, they wanted to kill me.I tossed about in the strong person's hold until I was tired.“Calm down. It's just a dream” a voice that was unmistakably Luca's reached my mind that was clouded with fog.I opened my eyes and spent a few seconds trying to adjust to the bright sunlight that was filtering through the blinds before I could focus on Luca who was above me, his arms holding my hands tight.“Luca…” I whispered.He
AUTHOR'S POV“What do you mean you didn't get that done?!” Bianca screamed at the man who had come to give her the reports.The man bowed his head slightly and sighed. “Look, Miss Conti. We did do our best. Things went haywire at the last moment” he explained.“Things went haywire?! Paulo, I paid you three million just to do this one thing. Get rid of the bitch but you're telling me things went haywire?! Do you know how much that cost me?!” She yelled, her eyes wide.The man clothed in black clothes that seemed to buff out his muscular physique snapped back immediately. “And do you know how much it cost me?! 28 men! Dead! Those were the best in my ranks and they're 6 feet deep now! What do you think this is to me?!”Bianca almost flinched when he advanced towards her but he stopped himself in time and looked away, his body brimming with anger.“As I can see, things didn't just go haywire. What happened?” She managed to calm herself down to speak.He sighed. “The don came. Don Luca cam
LUCA'S POV My shoes clacked against the stoned floor as I walked into the small shelter where I had discovered years back and made mine.I probably looked like a murderer or an assassin with the way that my cloak seemed to blend in with the night. Good. I felt like a murderer anyway and I was entering this building with every intention to kill.After I drove Elena home, I helped her to bed, made sure she was fine, and left as soon as she dozed off.Exactly 12:07 am now.“Don Luca…” someone's voice came from the shadows matching my steps as I neared my destination.“Yes, Lorenzo?” I asked, twirling my keys around my index finger while my eyes were fixed straight ahead.“The men are clearing up the scene and they're almost done”“And who's my guest for tonight?” I asked, stopping at the door.“The driver. The last car to tumble over. Thankfully he had only sustained a few hits to the head so he's alive and in the perfect shape to talk. We've…treated him good already” Lorenzo's voice dr
ELENA'S POV “Hold on!” Luca yelled from his car before he rolled his window up just as a bullet bounced on it.Fuck, that was close. I had always wondered why he had made all his cars bulletproof and now I was seeing why.Lorenzo who was still returning fire turned to me. “The boss?” He yelled over the sound of tires and guns.I gripped the steering tighter. “Yes!”Looking into the rearview mirror, I spied 5 enemy cars. 5. Okay, that was still a lot.Luca's car sped up, overtaking mine and speeding to the front of the road where the alley ended.What in the fuck was he doing.Lorenzo stopped shooting and looked at what was happening, a look of confusion on his face.“Wait, pull over!” He suddenly yelled at meI didn't turn to look at Lorenzo but my eyes widened. “Are you crazy, they're right behind us!”Luca's car reached the mouth of the alley and with a skilled drift of his car, he swerved his car to the side to block the entrance of the alley.How were we supposed to leave?! What
ELENA'S POV“Get me all the information you can on him, leave no stones unturned” I said to Lorenzo a few days later as I packed up my stuff in the bar where I now worked as a mixologist as planned.Lorenzo had been sent to drive me back home and he was walking me out of the bar already when Bianca came up to me.“Elena, can I talk to you for a second?”I nodded and told Lorenzo that I'd be out in a minute before going to meet her at the door.“What?” I asked, folding my hands across on my chest.It had been a week since Luca had a crash and he was discharged two days after so I had resumed work three days back and so far, I had no problems with Her, she even seemed nice.“Look about that day in the hospital. I'm sorry. I just lost it when I found out you had a connection with the person who tried to kill my boss. Don Luca has helped a lot of people so when I did my research and I found out that you knew him… I just assumed the worst. Was he your friend? I saw a photo of you both year
ELENA'S POVI had been here for about 20 minutes already and the atmosphere was silent as I had placed my head on the bed frame, letting his run his fingers through my hair.After he had told me that, we hadn't spoken about it. I was silent and so was he. We just stayed in the calm environment saying nothing.“You know… I want you to hate me he suddenly spoke up and that made me want to raise my head up but his strong arms pulled me down.Another testament to how weak I was. He was injured and still far stronger than I was.“What the fuck does that mean? Why would you want me to hate you?” I asked confused.“Because then I'd know that what my dad said was true. He used to tell me that I was unlovable and I did believe him so tell me how it's possible that you love me?” His grip on my head loosened.I used the opportunity to release myself from his grip. “You're not. You're the best thing that happened to me. We've both come out from homes that tried to restrict us from growing but th
ELENA'S POV “NO! LET GO OF ME!” I trashed in Gareth's strong arms, tears brimming in my eyes.What had happened?I was at the bar one moment then I saw the news going on about a car crash. Luca's car.I had called and called but he hadn't answered so I quickly left with Gareth only to receive a call from Doctor Giovanni who said that Luca was in an accident and he thought I should know about it.Thankfully Gareth had raced to the hospital but now he didn't want me to enter the room. I couldn't even see the insides of the goddamn room.“Gareth, let me go” I thrashed in his arms, kicking wildly.“Ma'am, I think you need to wait for the doctor to give his permission for you to go in” he said, trying to make me see reason.I heard the sound of rushing feet and I turned around to see Bianca rush in, her hair messy and her eyes wild.“Is it true?” She asked.I turned my face the other way and I heard her gasp. “Oh fuck, is he alright?” She didn't wait for me to answer, she started marching
LUCA'S POV “When you said you were coming over with your wife,I sure as hell wasn't expecting her” Bianca said, pouring me a glass of wine while she gave Elena who was looking around the club excitedly a glare.I took the glass from her and took a sip from it.“Don't say that again firstly and also she's the new mixologist. I'm here to tell you that you're in charge of her and no goddamn thing must happen to her”, I said, my eyes fixed on Elena who was sliding her hand across the counter.Bianca forced a smile and straightened up, the tiny shirt she wore hiking up to show her a bit of her bra.“When did you start dressing like that?”, I frowned at her.She looked down at her body like she hadn't realized what she was wearing. “Well it's a strip club after all”“Don't give me that shit, you're not one of the girls and you weren't wearing that before I came here” I frowned at her.Her smile faltered. “Oh, there's someone watching me?”“My club, remember?”“I also remember you entrusted
LUCA'S POV She was still staring at me with those large does eyes of hers and I was waiting for her response. “So why are you looking at me like I said something that was impossible” She blinked and relaxed her head on my shoulder. “It's a bit surprising that you want to employ me in your club or bar or whatever. Is it safe?” I nodded immediately, stroking her hair. “Completely. The woman in charge, she'll take care of you and you know I won't ever put you in a place where your safety isn't guaranteed” She was clearly thinking about something judging by the little creases on her lips. “I do wanna know though. How are you comfortable trusting me with this, In your space when you know what I am” she raised her eyes to me and I melted at the sight. When did I get this smitten over this woman? “You're not a what, Elena. I don't know what you think you are but I know who you are and do you wanna know who you are?” I kissed her forehead softly. She nodded, her eyes fluttering close f