VERNERO POV
I woke from a slicing splitting headache. Although my body was still sore, the pain was lulled by the drugs and whatever little fella injected me with. I groaned softly as I tried to get up only to find that I was dressed in nothing but bandages, and my boxers. The soft snores caught my attention and I glanced to my left to find that she had dozed off while watching over me. But what had my eyes widening with shock was the little scar on the left eyebrow of the little stranger. The nose, the way she sucked on her bottom lip while she slept… it could not be! It could not fuckin be!
I got up to my sitting position and actually assessed and studied my savior. With every passing second of me staring at her, my breathing labored. It couldn’t be her. I have searched the entire world for her and I hadn’t found her. For years, I made sure that I left every stone unturned in search of her, but it was if all her entire existence has been a sweet daydream; like she never existed. So this had to be a very big lie. Or a prank. This was definitely not my Leigh in front of me.
I carefully pulled my feet underneath her weight and groaned as pain pierced through my skull. But that was the least of my worries now. I had to see something, anything to confirm that the lady who I was with was indeed Leigh-Ari Montreal. My butterfly.
With that, I got up and decided to take a tour around her apartment in search of anything that can tell me that I was not dreaming, or that I was not being pranked cruelly. The universe wouldn’t just yank me off her and then throw me right back onto her lap after years of yearning for her presence.
I walked into the small kitchen and silently opened and closed the shelves, then moved to the small office where there was nothing except work crap and all the shit you can think of that doctors write. Wait, my girl was a doctor? A surgeon? I glanced back to where she was soundly sleeping and smiled. Fuck me if I wasn’t proud! But one thing I was actually not well with was that she fell asleep with a complete stranger inside her house. But then a memory crossed my mind, this was Leigh-Ari we were talking about. That girl could laugh and slap death in the face or jump off the cliff with a smile on her face. She was reckless, fearless, and fuck! I missed her so much. And she was here, right in front of me.
I closed her small office and walked towards the bedroom, then searched. I knew I was being a prick for invading her privacy, but I needed to confirm if it was really her. The bedroom was rather huge for a single person. But I made sure to explore every single corner and by the time I was finished, I had found all I needed to know.
My butterfly, she had saved me. Not only that, but the universe has reunited us yet again. I tugged a small stand of hair behind her ear and leaned down to kiss her cheek. But one thing that pained me, she didn’t seem to know me, at all. Although pain had clouded my senses while she was tending to my wounds last night, I heard her loud and clear. She would ask me a few questions and curse here and there. But one thing I realized was that she had no idea who I was. She didn’t know me. My butterfly didn’t recognize me.
I got up and glanced at a clock mounted to the wall, it signaled that it was a little after 2am. I spotted her cellphone on the small glass coffee table that was pushed to the side to create room on the rug. With my hacking skills, I was able to unlock it and dialed Ciello- my butler who answered on the third ring. As soon as his panicked voice poured out of the speaker, I instructed him to bring me clean fresh clothes and gave her the location of where I was.
While I waited for Ciello, I made sure to explore every inch of Leigh’s house. It was just surreal, the fact that she was right here in front of me felt like a dream itself. I couldn’t believe that I had just found her, just like that. I mean it felt like a fuckin tale that I met the love of when she was out to dump trash after a decade of searching for her. Classic right?
My thoughts were disturbed by two soft thuds that sounded on the door. That was a signal of Ciello’s arrival. I took hushed steps towards the door and stealthily let him in. I chuckled when I found a dozen of my men heavily armed, ready to butcher someone right on the corridor and commanded to keep it down, that I was okay and I was actually in the house of my savior. I instructed Ciello and all of them to wait outside while I changed quickly; they bowed and left. For the second time, I entered her bedroom and pulled on a neat suit. I was thankful that I had met a doctor who treated my wounds and bandaged me nice and well!
Once I was settled, I walked into her office and took a small notepad and a pen, then scrabbled a small message for her and placed it on the coffee table, then placed a soft kiss on her forehead. She mumbled something and licked her bottom lip before turning to the side. I sighed happily and exited her room.
I found Ciello outside the apartment building with my guys. He handed me a new cell phone with which I sent a quick message:
I found her!
~~~
LEIGH-ARI
The sudden sound of soft music had me jumping from the couch I was cradled on and planted myself face first on the rug. That was followed by a loud groan and a series of curses as I crawled to where the sound came from and absent-mindedly picked up my phone and accepted the call which happened to be from the hospital.
“Dr. Montreal, we have been trying to reach you. We have a patient who needs surgery and Dr. Nickel stood in for you. Your presence is required ASAP.”
“Shit! I’ll be there.” After cutting the call, I hurriedly washed my face and freshened up and was soon in my car driving towards the hospital. The morning traffic was the pain in the ass and I cursed myself for not being ready for work, but then, I was attending to the patient who…
Speaking of a patient, where the hell did that guy go? I had left my house in haste and didn’t even check if he was still in my house or not. He might have passed out in the bathroom or died in there for all I knew. I sighed as I slammed my foot on the brake and actually stopped the car. I was going to be late for the operation and it wasn’t good at all.
I gave another exasperated sigh and decided to leave the car on the road. Life came first before everything. When the convoy moved a bit, I pulled up to the shoulder and stepped out of the car with all my paraphernalia in hand.
I spotted a cab overtaking the traffic and thanked my lucky stars after hailing it.
“St. Andrews Hospital.” I barked the location as I settled into the seat.
“On it Doc.” The driver replied teasingly and maneuvered his way through the heavy traffic. Within short time, he pulled up right outside the hospital; I paid him and dashed into the building.
As soon as I entered, a group of nurses rushed my way and began filling me with details of the patient I needed to attend to. I paid attention and realized it was the Lumbar Spinal Fusion surgery that was going to take more than six hours, considering the fact that the patient had other health complications. Classic! And all that was going to be dealt with on an empty stomach since I didn’t even have a chance to grab a bite when I left my place.
We rushed to the Class 3 OR where I took a huge swig of protein shake and then was dressed up with the hospital gowns and scrubs, then got to work. I was thankful that Dr. Nickel was already there doing the most, so I just joined and helped. He was a very cool guy who was in his late 50s, and he was very good to get along with; unlike these age-mates who were always competing for credits. Asswipes.
It took full 7 hours and 45 minutes to actually complete mending the sorry guy’s back with screws and bones. What made the surgery longer was that we had to decompress the spinal nerves; that and other things that just made me want to curl up into a ball and die. By the time I left the OR, I felt like a true walking zombie and I was famished.
I was thankful when Laura-my best friend and the hospital gynecologist burst into my office holding a bag of food. She laughed when I attacked the food without paying her any attention.
“You really are a life savior!’ I said through a mouthful as I chowed down a donut and took a whole swig of juice.
“Yah. I saw you when you arrived here. And I was actually worried because last night you went AWOL and didn’t even reply my texts.” She replied taking a small bite on her donut.
“You won’t believe what happened. I had a patient in my house.” With that, I got into full details of how a sinfully hot man manhandled me while I was dumping trash. I made sure to put an emphasis that he was being chased by a group of armed men and that he had his whole body covered in tattoos. She listened carefully and laughed here and there.
By the time I finished laying the whole story to her, she had laughed so much that her eyes were filled with tears,
“But you should have been careful babe. And you don’t know where he is. Who knows, he might come back to you or just… at least report it to the police so that they know you had such a man in your house and you are very suspicious of him.” she said throwing a chip on me.
“Whoever he was, when he comes back, I will be sure to castrate him!”
LORENZO POVThe meeting with our partners was rather annoying, provided the fact that I was having a very rough day already. And what made me want to scream and yank my hair off my scalp was the fact that they thought they could cancel our collaboration with just a word of mouth like what the hell did they take me for?Apparently, they didn’t feel “safe” with CAT Holdings after finding out it was involved with Turantello Familia, and I wanted to laugh in their faces because Turantello Familia controlled 80% of the country GDP. Little fuckers with small brains.I remained quiet at my seat as I listened to them bickering around how it’s not healthy to continue our collaboration. However, my mind was elsewhere as I tried to think of all the possible ways to reach Verzi. Knowing him, he could be trying to escape from captivity and when he did, I knew things weren’t going to be pretty for whoever dared to capture him. And I prayed for th
VERNERO POV I was seated in my office with Marcelo going all over the things that have transpired since I went missing. I was at Black Woods; my home, my castle, my fortress, where no one dared to set a foot at. But I couldn’t shake off the unsettling feeling that was gnawing from deep within. I kept on nipping the tip of my thumb with my teeth while my knee continued to bounce like crazy underneath the table; an old habit I couldn’t just get rid of! I had found her, finally. It still felt so fuckin’ unreal. “It was the Sicilian gang. They have a base in Cyprus and that's where they kept you.” Marcello informed handing me a tablet; I furrowed my brows and scrolled down through the details of the rival gang that just kept poking their noses in my business. “We have an imposter who gave out your location the time they captured you. And… he has been smuggling gold from one of the mines in Piedmont to them.” that somehow managed to irk me even furth
VERNEROOnce again, I was 19 years old. I found myself in the glacial, bitter lands of Japan, one of the bases where I was currently under my “remodeling” phase. According to my father, Lorik Cattanio, I was a weakling. I was not even fit to be his son thus needed to be reconstructed, to be remodeled into something perfect, something he would take pride in. So he took me here, to one of the Turantello bases.The mountains and the thick heavy forest created a false scenery to the viewers, feigning the beauty of the lands of green, hiding the cruelty of what was at the feet of the mountains and deep within the thick forests.The whir of the gelid frosty air of winter morning sang along, adding to the fake beauty of white coated lands and swallowing the bitter cries of the distressed, creating a nice but harsh tune that bit the earlobes painfully; also giving a crisp, but cold air to breath. The land under the 4 meter thick snow was inconsolably hard ag
LORENZOIt has been a few days since Verzi’s last seizure attack. And luckily this time, no one was killed because they saw him during his vulnerable time. Seeing him like that, helpless and very vulnerable, that always made my heart clench painfully. But what made me want to yank my hair out of my scalp was the fact that he was steel-headed by keeping everything that has happened to himself.All I wanted to do was share with him his pain. I had no idea of what our father did to him during the time he took him away from me. Before then, my brother and I were inseparables, we were the shadow of the other and shared everything. There were no secrets from us. But after that, Vernero was a whole new person. That was seen through things he did. It was safe to say there was something that happened, something that made him lose his mind.After his last seizure, I had calmed him down by informing him that the Roberts had called. The Roberts turned out to be Leigh&
LEIGH-ARI POVDriving home from the doctor’s appointment felt serene. I was relaxed from head to toe and the usual painful pounding of my head was gone. I was listening to smooth slow music as I swerved and maneuvered through the heavy evening traffic. At long last, I arrived outside my flat and packed the car, then rode the elevator to the first floor where my apartment was.Upon arriving on my floor, I realized a whole new commotion of gazillion boxes stacked and piled outside the flat opposite mine. Curiosity had me walking stealthily and sneaked a peek inside. There were orders barked from the inside as a feminine voice commanded some men to decorate the house however she saw fit. One, I was happy that I had a new neighbor. Two, I was nervous as to what kind of a person she would turn out to be. Right when I was about to leave, a voice called out; telling me I was caught red handed:“You can come in. I might need your help with all these.”
VERNERO POV “Boss, we got him!” Marcelo announced peeking through the slightly opened door. I raised my head and there he was, with that smile that he always wore when we were about to skin someone alive or roast them. The look on his face pulled my own lips in a lopsided smirk, because I knew the shit was about to go down. “Now that's the best news I’ve been waiting for!” I called out getting up from my giant ass chair and rounded the table, exited my office with Marcello by my side. We walked down the stairs with him filling me up with the details of what had transpired during his hunt for the imposter. I was rather disappointed to find out that it was one of my trusted men who just decided to go behind my back. And betrayal was one thing I never knew how to handle or stomach! I never spared anyone who betrayed my trust! If I did, then I would be the weak kid my father despised. I got rid of that child a millennia ago and I wasn’t going to revive him. The o
LEIGH-ARIThree full days passed and my new neighbor and I continued our newly formed routine. I would wake up in the morning and go to work, and then come back at night to have dinner with her. Laura joined us two days back and like I, fell in love with Valerie. She was such an open, easy-going person that made everyone feel comfortable around her. Although she was way too classy and fancier than us, she was really a nice person.Last night we had plans to go out for drinks, only to pull an overnight shift. I had an 8 hour surgery and by the time I left the OR, I was just ready to hit my bed on the bed and get done with the day. I arrived at home to find her preparing to leave.“I am just going to pick my boss from the airport. I will spend the night here and fly over to Italy tomorrow morning.” She explained when I looked at her questionably.“And you dress like that when you go pick your boss? From the airport?” I gestured to he
LORENZO Arriving at O.X Apartments from the airport took approximately 30 minutes. Upon our arrival, we settled the tenant verification process and rode the elevator to where the apartment was. Valerie opened the door for me to enter but I couldn’t help embrace the one across mine and breathe it in: it felt like I was breathing her! Not the door, but her. I closed my eyes and leaned against the door frame with my front, then gently caressed it. Just right beyond this door; she was in there! “Come on in boss. You look like a freak when you do that!” Valerie teased causing me to unglue myself from the door and enter inside my apartment. I was actually gobsmacked and awed by how neat and clean the place looked. The colors were well coordinated, from white, to gray and black! I guess Valerie was highly used to Verzi’s OCDs. I walked around taking in the place, and I was actually in love with it. Compared to the Dark Woods Castle, this seemed rather uncomfortably