ONE

"Want to go upstairs?" Jason places his hand on her thighs, gives it a little rub then looks up at her and winks. 

Gianna empties a glass of bourbon into her mouth and swallows its content with one hard gulp, with full knowledge that she needs to be drunk enough to say the following words. "Suree," She drags with a tight smile on her red lips.

Jason gives a victorious smirk thinking his charm did the trick. The truth is charm fell short as soon as the lies kicked in. Gianna knows he's not the owner house in which the party is taking place.  The owner is Clifford Sliver, one of her dad's friends and his son is the one who's throwing the party. She also knows this guy doesn't own a vacation home in Mexico and she is not expecting a ride on his jet any time soon.

The 22-year-old has learned from a young age that girls should be dumb, in her world it never pays to be smart. Her mum, Kaylee, has been playing dumb her entire life and she is still married to her husband of 28 years. She actually has the jet the man here is bragging about. Kaylee Cole Rae knows when to talk when to listen and when to give her husband the ego boost he needs.

Sometimes being dumb is being smart. Gianna is smart enough to play dumb too especially when it comes to men.  Hence the reason why she is making this guy whose worn-out pair of Jordan's have already given him out, think he played her. If she had called him on his bullshit the minute he walked up to her, she won't be getting laid tonight.

Jason takes her hand and leads her towards the stairs, pushing a couple of drunken people out of the way. They make it to the stairs where they stop upon hearing whistling coming from the sitting room. It's a bunch of Jason's loser friends.

"Jackpot!" One of them yells.

"Ignore them," Jason says while trying to hide the smug on his face which is as a result of his equally broke friends hyping him up. 

Maggie, Gianna's best friend, who's also sitting among the guys winks at Gianna. Maggie is actually dumb, it's no surprise she actually believes the "I own the house" lie which one of the guys also told her. Maggie is a sweet soul and Gianna loves her but she can be extremely stupid. Then again, Maggie's parents are so rich that she doesn't have to hold an intellectual conversation her entire life.

When they get upstairs, they hurriedly start searching for an empty room and when they did, they get right to it.

Some nights being dumb pays, the sex ends up mind-blowing but most nights, she has to just lay there and boost the man's ego. She should have known that tonight will be one of those nights when Jason placed his hands on her thigh and she didn't feel a thing.

Jason carefully places her against the wall while she wraps her legs around his hip. Gianna isn't one for kissing, she goes straight to business.

She takes off her shirt and throws it to the ground, Jason who should be doing the same is currently staring at her boobs like it's a treasure. This happens almost all the time, for someone with a small body size, Gianna boobs are quite big. In high school, she hated how her full C-cup boobs were but now it makes her confident that she can render men speechless.

She can feel his little friend hard and pressed against her shorts, at least one of them is aroused at the moment.

Jason starts placing sloppy kisses on her neck down to the top of her boobs. Gianna throws her head back in disappointment, already envisioning how unsatisfied she will be after this. The man carrying her obviously doesn't know what he's doing, so she decides to take control.

"Choke me," She orders looking down at the man who was so smug earlier.

"W-what?" He stutters in excitement.

Jason thinks she is the coolest girl ever and he can't wait to tell his friends. Gianna hopes with his excitement, things will get heated but when he places his hands so softly on her neck, she couldn't help but roll her eyes.

Like she did a mind link to her phone, Gianna's phone starts ringing from her bag which she had thrown on the bed when they entered.

"Ignore it," Jason says out of breath as he tries to unhook her bra.

Gianna pushes him away from her a little, "It might be important, let me down," She whines, shaking her legs. He hesitates before he lets her down. She walks over to get her phone in a hurry to pretend whoever is calling needs her for something important.

Gianna tries not to roll her eyes when she set eyes on the screen of her phone and sees that it's her mum calling.

She has never found anything her mum had to say important but today she finds herself saying, "O my God, this is important," She turns to the horny man feigning a sense of urgency before picking up. "Mum," She answers.

"Thank God," Kaylee says in relief which makes Gianna raise her eyebrows in confusion.

"What's going on?" Gianna whispers, turning around.

"Your brother fucked up, we are fucked. I want you to stay among the crowd and send me the address of the party you are at and I will send the bodyguards to come to get you." Kaylee ends the call before Gianna can ask any more questions.

Gianna picks up her bag in haste, puts her phone in the back pocket of her shorts, and walks over to pick up her shirt which she immediately starts putting it on. 

"What are you doing?"

"I got to go," Gianna tries to sound apologetic but she is glad she doesn't have to moan in pretend for the next few minutes if he lasts that long.

"No, I am sure it can wait." The guy whose need for satisfaction is heightened tries to convince her to stay. He blocks her path.

"It can't, I got to go," Gianna says, pushing him a little to get him to pave the way. "You can tell your friends we fucked, I don't care."

She decides to walk around him to get to the door when she does, he pulls her back by her arm.

"You should finish what you started." He spits.

Some girls get scared at this point but Gianna has been in this situation a couple of times and knows the exact threat to get him to back off.

Gianna drags her arm away, "Touch me like that again and I promise you will be sorry." She says slowly so he can hear the words clearly.

It's usually not the words that get the guys to stop harassing her, it's the authority behind the words. That authority can only exist when you know you have the power to follow up with your threats and Gianna does, well actually, her father does.

Gianna walks out of the room, joins the crowd, texts her mum her location, and waits to be picked up. All she could think of is what the hell her idiot brother did this time.

~~~

The ride to the mansion is quiet. Gianna tries to ask questions but her dad's bodyguards dismissed her questions.

Gianna gets a glace of how serious the situation is the second they drive into the mansion. From the gate, the level of security right till they get into the mansion is twice the size in 2010 when they last had an attack. Men in suits with guns in their hands, their face hard and they are prepared for the worse.

This type of thing will scare Gianna if she hasn't seen it before but she as and at that time, she really was scared.

A little introduction into the lives of the Rae's will help one understand why this is part of the norm. Angelo Michel Rae, the name on the world's famous wine bottle. His success story is known to all because he took motivational speaking as one of his hobbies.

According to him, he started working in the vineyard for 25 dollars a week to owning the vineyard and making his wine a success. And he was able to achieve this through hard work, determination, and all other motivational bullshit. But the truth story is that he worked closely with the former owner of the vineyard for 10 years and he expected that the old man will leave him the vineyard. Soon he found out that he wanted to give it to his useless son and his not so smart daughter. Angelo got pissed and killed him. He made a deal with his lawyer and got ownership of the vineyard. And when the old man's son started snooping, he killed him too. As for the daughter, Angelo married her.

The deaths were not enough for Angelo to get to his level success, he soon realized that the wine business was not that lucrative. He had tasted wealth and he wasn't going to go back, so he dabbled into drugs smuggling.

He had intended to shield his children from that life but it's hard to hide all the FBI raids, the wars with other drug lords, and the reason why they need men with guns protecting them. In 2010 after the first war with Mexican Cartel, the Italian man sat his three children down and explained it to them.

Gianna hurries out of the car and rushes into the mansion.

"What's going on?" Gianna asks walking into the huge sitting room where her family is seated in the exception of her older sister, Brianna. 

"Thank God you are here." Kaylee stands up and walks over to where her daughter is standing and she does what she hasn't done in years, she hugs her.

Gianna stands there awkwardly looking at her father and brother over her mother's shoulders as she awkwardly rubs her mum's back, almost letting herself enjoy her mother's embrace. Her brother, Gio is sitting at the edge of the couch with his arms rested on his laps and his palm on his face while Angelo is sitting crossing his legs like he always does.

Kaylee releases herself from Gianna and places her hand on her upper arm, "Do you know where Brianna is? I have sent guards to every possible place but she nowhere to be found." Kaylee's facial features lacing with worry which in turn makes Gianna worry.

Gianna gulps trying to decide if the situation is worth breaking the sister's trust pact, "Have you tried the library?" Gianna starts.

"Yes, she's not there?"

Gianna has not seen her mum this worked up before so she lets the cat out of the bag, "She is with her boyfriend Keller. He works at the McDonalds restaurant after the estate." 

"A waiter? Jesus Christ," Angelo shakes his head in disapproval.

Angelo's condescending tone is one of the reasons why Brianna didn't want them to know about Keller even though she is madly in love with him. Another reason is the arranged marriage her parents have gotten her into since she was 10. Brianna is to marry one of Angelo's business partner's son to solidify the business relationship between the two men.

"Thank you, Gia," Kaylee says tucking Gianna's black hair behind her ear before taking out her phone and walking out of the sitting room to order the security to find her daughter.

"What's going on?" Gianna repeats, her hands on her waist and a frown on her face. "No lies,"

"This bastard right here," Angelo looks over at his son who's head is still on his palms, "He messed around with the daughter of a Texas drug lord, raped her and then killed her."

Gio brings his head up, "I didn't know she was affiliated with cartels. I panicked when she threatened me." Gio says in defense.

He doesn't even sound remorseful.

Gianna feels sick to her stomach and as she hears those words, she becomes repelled by her brother. She has always known her brother is a psychopath but this is just inhuman.

"Screw that she's not an ordinary person, it's brutal and animalistic to do that to anybody!" Gianna yells. Tears dropping from her eyes and dying on her lips.

"You don't know the true definition of brutal trust me, these Texas people are not one to be trifled with. They requested for your brother's head an hour ago and our time is up. War is brewing Gia and we need to stick together." Angelo says sitting upright, bringing his left leg down.

Gianna cleans her tears, "Fuck sticking together, if they requested for his head, we should give it. He's not worth it anyway." Gianna says venomously.

Gio stands up and raises his hands at his sister, "Why don't you say that again?"

Gianna didn't flinch at her brother's threat to slap her. There one man she isn't going to pretend to be dumb to, and that's her brother.

"Hit your sister and I will present your head like your birthday cake to our enemies," Angelo says standing up.

Gio drops his hands as the pair glare at each other with so much hate in their eyes for one another.

"We are family and our inability to stand each other won't change that," Angelo says as he walks out of the sitting room.

"When I take over the family business, I will make sure you will eat up your words."

"Eat my ass," She spits before pushing him out of her way.

"Bitch!" Gio yells as Gianna walks out of the sitting room.

~~~~

The Rae's mansion is ten times hotter than it was last night, the maids hiding in the kitchen as the sitting room is being torn apart by Kaylee.

The sound of glass meeting the marble floor, yelling and shots fired at nothing in particular. In this chaos, Gianna wakes.

The loud gunshot gets her out of her bed and on her bare feet.  Barely dressed, she runs to the staircase. She looks down from the railings, trying to see if it's safe to go down. 

Even though it's not an attack, the scene before her frightens her and gets her feet planted on the same spot. It's an angry woman, full of grief and pain, she looks like her mother.

Gianna can't believe that it's Kaylee, a woman who's known for calmness and class that's destroying the whole place in anger.

She spots Angelo grabbing the gun from Kaylee's hands before bringing her in for a hug as she cried on his shoulders.

Gianna's heartbeats fast not wanting to make of anything from the scene before her. Her hands hold tight on the stairs railings as she continues to watch.

"They hanged her like a fucking criminal," Kaylee cries out, "They killed my daughter."

Gianna's heart drops, her once strong hands holding on the railings become weak, her breathing becomes fast and she becomes dizzy all of a sudden. She slowly drops on the floor and she rests on the stairs. Staring at nothing, in particular, Gianna waits for the tears to come rushing out.

They killed Brianna, they killed her sister.

"I want blood Angelo," Kaylee struggles out of her husband's hold so he can see the face of a grieving mother and how much she means her words. "They started the war, we end it."

~~~

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