~ANTONIO~ “I’m sorry, man, I didn’t know that it was your territory! I will never do it again!” Giovanni begged for his life as he was chained to a pole inside my warehouse outside town. This was where I handled all my businesses and brought anyone who disrespected me to teach them a lesson. I have killed people and buried them all around the yard after they thought that they could stab me in the back and get away with it. This was all also where I killed the people who took my parents from me when I was just a boy. “How dare you sell restricted drugs in my area? Do you want the police behind my back, huh, Gio?!” I punched him so hard in the face that he spat out blood. He tried to regain his strength before answering me. “Dante sent me!” I chuckled and leaned back from him. “Dante Conti?” He looked at me with fear in his eyes. “Y-yes. He said that if I didn’t do it, he was going to kill my family. You know Antonio, it is just me, Luca, and my nana. I can’t lose that old
~ISABELLA~ No one said a word in the car to his house. I looked out of the window, feeling sorry for myself and just wishing that I had run away from home before all this happened. It was one thing to be forcefully married to someone and to be auctioned off to a notorious mafia lord like Antonio. He was my nightmare. Though I did not dare to show it. There was a reason why people feared him and never wanted to be close to him. There was a reason why he treated his girls like trash but was still able to get anyone he wanted. I did not want to find out all those reasons myself. I wanted out before I found myself entangled with him. "You won't go anywhere without my saying so, angel. Do you understand?" He hissed as he pinned me against the door after we got inside the house. I wanted to spit on his face and see what he was going to do about it because he did not own me like he thought he did. But no, I decided not to. It was too early for me to dig my own grave when I
~ISABELLA~ After pacing up and down, trying to calm myself down after I just signed my life away to Antonio, I took out my cell phone to call Sarah. I needed to vent, and she was the only person that I could talk to. Antonio had already left for the club or wherever, so he was not going to be around to stop me from doing what I just thought of. Sarah picked up the phone after the fourth ring. “Isabella? Can you hear me?!” She screamed from the noise that was in her background. She was already at the club and it was 8 PM. “Can you go outside? Please, Sarah.” There was a long pause before she came back on the line, and she sounded to be far from the noise. “Hey, where are you?” I went to the door, opened it, and peeked around to see if Melo wasn’t outside my door and it was clear. “I’m at Antonio’s place. Long story, but I’ll explain when I get to you.” “Oh fuck, what’s going on?” I quickly went to my closet and changed into jeans, a sweater, and sneakers. I was not
~ISABELLA~ When we arrived outside the alley behind the club, I got out of Sarah's car and got dressed in the short, black dress that I bought when Antonio took me shopping. I also put on the stilettos that I brought with me, loosened my hair, and allowed it to flow over my shoulders. I took the little make-up mirror that I brought with me and applied lipstick on my lips. I was so proud of myself as I took the face mask that Sarah and I got from a bouncer in the club. He was close to her. "Are you sure that he won't see you, Bella? This is very risky," Sarah raised her concerns as she got dressed into her club clothes. I turned to her after I was done fixing my face mask, "Relax, he won't even smell me anywhere," I smiled at her. "If he sees you, I wasn't involved, okay?" "Sarah!" I placed my hand on my waist and chuckled. "I still need this job, and I don't want to die yet," she locked the car doors, and we headed toward the back door. "He won't do anything to you a
~ANTONIO~ "Giovanni, how did it go?" I finally checked up on him after he revealed to me that Dante was after me. If he had no idea that I knew what he was up to and had hired someone to mess up around my territory, he was going to let his guard down and give me enough time to formulate a plan to strike. One thing about my line of business was that you always had to look after your back. Anyone could be your enemy with their own agendas or just be people working for your enemy who want to take you down. You always had to know the game and the rules. "He did not suspect anything. He gave me another task to be a spy around your area and find any weaknesses that he can use against you." "Oh, I see. It is very brave of him to think that he can take me down. Very well then, I want you to tell him about a fake delivery that I will be doing tomorrow at 2 PM in Columbus." "Cocaine delivery?" Giovanni asked. "Yes, Gio. A cocaine delivery. Call me if you think that he is enthusi
~ISABELLA~ I felt so sick when I realized that Antonio was the same guy that I was happily dancing and chatting with earlier, and the same guy that I had a very steamy encounter with in the restroom. I couldn't believe it. "Antonio... How?" Was all that I could utter. I was so shocked and thought that maybe I was going to wake up from a dream. It couldn't be that I had just had sex with my mortal enemy. The same man that I could never stand and promised that he would never get me. I was shocked. "I'm surprised that you still don't know the sound of my voice. Come on, angel, let's go home," he held out his hand for me to take. I looked at him and knew that I wouldn’t be able to go home with him, let alone sleep under the same roof as him. I wondered why it was so easy for me to like him when I couldn't see his face. For a moment, I missed the guy I bumped into and thought that he could be my escape for the night. I missed something that was never there. "I'm not
~ISABELLA~ When we got home, I ran straight to my room, locked the door behind me, and cried. I wondered if my father even cared about the things that had been happening to me ever since he sold me to Antonio. I wondered if he knew how miserable I was and wanted to escape. At this point, I wasn't even sure that I would be able to get away when I tried to escape from him. I guessed that Sarah was right. I should have never gone to the club. Antonio would have never found me. I would be somewhere far from him. Safe. I jumped when I heard a knock on the door. I got up from the floor, wiped my face, and opened the door. "May I come in?" He asked. He looked at me with an annoyed expression. I wondered what he was annoyed about when I was the one who was supposed to be annoyed at him. I just rolled my eyes, stood aside, and opened the door for him to come inside. I closed it, folded my arms on my chest, and waited for him to say whatever he wanted to say. "Do you real
~TOM~ After knocking off work, I went straight to Nightingale Club in hopes that I was going to see her. I found myself thinking a lot about her in the past few days, and I couldn't get her off my mind. I figured that if I found her in the club and talked her out of what she signed up for with Antonio, I was going to run away with her. It wasn't an option for me to take Antonio on because he had more power than I did. He knew people who could make my life a little difficult, so I was not prepared to risk anything. Isabella and I loved each other and had been through so much together. When her father found her a job at the club, I reacted like any normal boyfriend would. I hated to see my girl working in an environment where every man would glare at her body and fantasize about her. But when I got inside the club around 7 PM, there was no sign of Bella. When I spotted her friend, Sarah, I walked behind her at the bar and tapped her on the shoulder. She was getting drinks