CORNELIUS"Italy is the most obvious place", Chance spoke over the phone and I scrubbed a hand over my face.We'd been going over this for an hour now. Italy was the most obvious place but it was at the same time the last place Joaquin would think to look for her.Shit, to look for us.Joaquin had gotten to her because I wasn't there when it happened but now? I was ready for him and I was hellbent on protecting her with my life.I hung up.My eyes glanced at the estate like a horrible enigma that stuck to my heart like a blunt dagger. Of all the places I planned on hiding at, this was the last place I thought I'd end up.Venice. Italy. Where my dead old dad had built a poetic mansion for my mother. The irony being she'd left all this and him.Parking the car infront of the mansion, I took huge gulps of air wondering if this really was the best route to take.I could confront Mafioso head on but God knew too many bloody bodies would be caught in our scuffle and I wouldn't achieve anyth
LYDIAThis was regaining power. Or at least that’s what I thought.I was done being nice, I was done being a hopeful sucker. A sucker for the dangerous men in my life only to end up sucker punched in the gut.So, with every fiber of my being, my nose augmented high, I stared at his heavy-lidded eyes and told him the one thing I wanted him to believe.“I love him”, I said succinctly tearing the intimate moment to anything but.True he’d changed and I had felt scared at his demeanor, at his words but I had also changed and life had taught me being the desperate woman who clung to men because she feared she’d never experience real love was downright foolish.I could love myself better than they did.And I most importantly would defend myself from the pain that crippled me every time I realized love wasn’t what I thought it was.It wasn’t all rainbows and unicorns. The guy never got the girl and the girl was always the fool believing in fairytales.Connor’s eyes turned a stormy grey and h
CORNELIUSThriving in the asshole department was what I did these days.I was beyond mad. Mad at myself. At her. At my fucking life. When I sent her away to Santa Monica, I did so because I loved her, because I was protecting her from me, from Mafioso, from this sort of life but remembering her face back then.Remembering my actions, forcing myself on her, forcing her to accept me, that right there clawed my insides like Lucifer’s hell hounds nipping at my soul.The nastro azzuro swirling in my tongue did nothing to numb my thoughts or the gut-wrenching feeling weighing me down like bricks.I preferred a bottle of Sam Adams any day to whatever shit I was drinking at the moment. The bartender, a pale gringo who’d eyed me cautiously since my ass settled on the damn stool looked a tad bit apprehensive when I asked for another bottle.Was I drinking way too much for one night? Maybe, but I’d prefer knocking myself cold with hard liquor than going back to the mansion. An hour drive back an
LYDIAKids in high school were mean, I remember the first time I got humiliated. I had been invited to some party Robert was attending and since I was head over heels in love with him, I’d practically jumped at the thought of me spending some quality time with him.I remember I had gone to the extreme of riding a mechanical bull for him just to get him to notice me. Only the ride had been dreadful because the queen bee of my high school had altered the speed of the contraption, I was seating on.I remember the bull moving so fast my dinner threatened to make an appearance from my stomach, I remember all the kids watching me and laughing at me.And most of all I remember being flung from the said bull and hitting the nearby juke box with my head.The pain had been unbearable almost like the pain that was flogging my head right now. I could bravely relate that incident with my current predicament.The smell that came along with my surroundings at least calmed me down. My ears peaked up
CORNELIUSSomething wasn’t right.I had almost gone nuts searching for her. Ready to fucking go back to La and confront Mafioso and yet here she was.Apparently rescued by one of my workers in the estate. I had looked into the man the minute he called saying he had rescued Lydia.A little digging and the slate came back clean. Not a single thing that could have connected said man to Mafioso. Still, there was something wrong with…her.It was in the way she looked at me. The way she’d avoided me for days.I mean sure telling her I loved her in my not so graceful way might have spooked her but I wanted her to at least say something to me.To talk to me damn it.To tell me she hated me and this agony of watching her from afar would end.Jesus Christ even Dog had gotten more words out of her than I had these past few weeks.The mutt went with her everywhere and I was stuck in my office making calls, watching her from my window, lusting over her, getting choked in her presence and God knew,
LYDIADoing this didn’t mean I was accepting him.I could have solaced myself with the fact that he was hurting and that the shock had somehow hit him hard and I was merely trying to ease him of the pain.I could have also have comforted myself with the fact that I was kissing him out of pity. To help him but in all honesty, I wasn’t.I had tried ignoring him for days, tried to keep this big of a secret from him and I failed.He had confessed his love and, my heart burst with the urge of telling him that yes, I somehow had feelings for him. That Jamie was a mistake. And he was, a big fucking one at that.With the said days I pondered over his words, everything becoming crystal clear but at the same time so difficult to swallow.Great he didn’t kill a man but he still pushed me away and yet…I went willingly because I saw him a monster.Because I wanted him to be a swooning billionaire with a good heart and clean untainted hands only life wasn’t unicorns and rainbows, he did what he did
CORNELIUSI-I shit it was her.I might have forgotten her face but I still could remember those eyes staring down at me encouraging me to take a swing on the ride in the old park in LA that was demolished years ago.“Put your guns down”She bellowed and my finger didn’t stray from the trigger as Lydia held onto my arm urging me to put my Glock back to where I had whipped it from.But I could see it, I could see the fear and surprise in Lydia’s face as we both glared at the man in front of us.My mother.Christ, Sussanne Powers stood between us caught between the spit fire…“What’s he doing here?” I hollered as Joaquin’s eyes strayed to Lydia and the need to blow his brains out screamed in my head with an uproar.Joaquin hand on his damn gun didn’t falter as he looked at the woman who birthed me with the same same questioning eyes.“Please”, Sussanne placed her gun on Joaquin’s lowering it, till the said thing rested on his side.Lydia’s hands hugged my shoulder encouraging me to do th
LYDIA“Lydia so sorry to call unannounced but can I say Metro Chronicles hasn’t been the same without you. We all miss you and I was wondering-““I’m not coming back, Jack. We both know what fired means. That I’m to never step foot in your building?”Jack’s breaths sounded uneasy from the end of the line.“Had to be done unfortunately, you know how business is. People talk, if you continued working here it would only end badly for you”So basically, gaslighting me into thinking me getting fired was my fault and necessary. How had I never seen my ex-boss like this, he was an—asshole.“And why do you want me back now? Isn’t that for business?”The old fart chuckled trying to lure me with that sales man voice that once had me eating at the palm of his hands“Come on, Lydia. I’m offering you a nice deal here. Deals like these never come twice you know”Right, deals that were induced with the fact that my name was now respectable in LA after Connor cleared everything up and threatened to s