chapter 6

ACROSS THE RED ROSE GARDEN

: PANIC ATTACK

He killed the engine, and the sudden quiet in the dark garage was deafening. Alessandro turned around in his seat, his eyes scanning the footwell where I was still curled up, trembling.

"Are you hurt?" he demanded. His voice was rough, still laced with raw anger, but there was a sharp note of urgency in it.

I slowly uncurled myself, brushing stray pieces of shattered glass off my pink dress. My hands were shaking so violently I could barely speak.

I stayed quiet. He let out a sharp breath, his gaze lingering on me for a second longer to make sure I wasn't bleeding anywhere before he reached into his jacket.

He pulled out an encrypted phone, his fingers flying across the screen as he dialed a secure line. whoever that was on the other end answered in the first ring, Alessandro didn't waste a single second.

"Amos. We were ambushed on the highway. The Montañas are dead. A Silver sedan" Alessandro ordered, his voice dropping into that cold, commanding tone that made people tremble on the streets. "The driver is dead. The car is totaled. We are in the sector four underground lot. Bring a clean vehicle and a cleanup crew. Now."

He ended the call without waiting for a reply and tossed the phone onto the dashboard. He turned his torso fully toward me, resting his arm on the back of my seat. The space between us felt impossibly small, and the scent of gunpowder, expensive cologne, and smoke swirled around us.

"Arabella" Alessandro called, his eyes narrowing as he stared at me, his mind clearly working on how to start comforting me.

He sighed deeply when I failed to answer. Pushing his door open, he stepped out of the ruined car, leaving me alone in the suffocating silence of the cabin.

Through the cracked windshield, I watched him pull a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from his jacket. He slipped a cigarette between his pink lips and struck a flame, the small light illuminating his sharp features against the dim garage.

Suddenly, my vision began to blur.

The silence around me vanished, replaced by a deafening ringing in my ears. My heart hammered so violently against my ribs that I could feel the vibrations throughout my entire body. I pressed my palm hard against my chest, gasping for air that would barely come.

"Dad..."

A loud, broken sob ripped out of my throat. The adrenaline from the shootout had cracked open a dam inside my mind, and the suppressed memories came rushing back in a horrific wave. I kept shaking my head then pinched my thighs thinking I would wake up from this horrible nightmare but instead all I felt was pain.

The smell of gunpowder in the car transformed into the metallic scent of fresh blood.In my mind, I wasn't in the garage anymore. I was back there, I was back home staring right at the red pools of blood spreading across my parents bedroom floor.

I saw my mother, my sister, and my father lying completely lifeless on the ground, cold and still. The brutal image scorched my mind. I grabbed chunks of my hair, pulling tightly as if the physical pain could drown out the agonizing screams echoing inside my own head.

Outside the car, Alessandro remained standing by the hood. He took a slow drag from his cigarette, the gray smoke curling around his face as his eyes locked onto me through the window, watching me breakdown with an unreadable, intense gaze.

Two black cars pulled up alongside us, the tyres screeching softly against the concrete. Alessandro’s men poured out of the vehicles, moving with military precision.

Alessandro murmured something low into the ear of the lead guard. The man nodded sharply, rushed over to one of the clean cars, and emerged with a small black suitcase.

Alessandro gripped the case from him, slammed it onto the hood of our ruined car, and popped the latches. A second later, he ripped open the passenger door on my side.

I whipped my head around to look at him, my eyes wide with panic. The moment his large hand grabbed my wrist, I screamed, kicking and fighting him with everything I had left.

“Let me go! Get away from me!”

In his other hand, a syringe gleamed under the dim garage lights. He ruthlessly pinned my arm down, ignoring my frantic thrashing, and slid the needle into my skin.

Rage exploded inside me.

The moment his grip loosened, I brought my hand up and slapped him across the face as hard as I could. The impact was deafening, and a sharp pain shot up my own palm from hitting his stone cold jaw.

“Do you want to kill me too?” I screamed, my voice cracking as tears streamed down my cheeks. “Do you want to kill me just like you killed my family?”

Alessandro’s jaw tightened so hard I thought the bone would snap. A dangerous, lethal darkness flared in his eyes, but he didn't strike back. Instead, he lunged forward, scooped his arms under my knees and back, and hoisted me up into a tight bridal carry.

Suddenly, a heavy, numbing weight pressed down on my brain. The sedative was working very fast. My vision blurred, and my limbs felt like lead. I weakly hit his broad chest one last time, breathing heavily as the darkness began to drag me under.