CHAPTER 8 - A GOOD BYE

Riccardo's POV:

I don't know why I feel like something is off with me as I heard the announcement from the pilot that we will land in Rome within the next two hours. Yeah, I don't know how the last 10 hours went as we both watched that unknown movie series and fell asleep on the couch itself. I just woke up hearing the announcement and my eyes automatically turned to the human sleeping in the cocoon form on the other end of the couch.

Only her palms are visible on her body as she is sleeping while keeping her face on the headrest of the couch. She is sleeping peacefully in the struggling position and my hands itched to pick her up and make her sleep comfortably on the bed. Not able to control myself, I went to pick her up but then I heard a message sound in my mobile. I took my hands from the table and noticed that it was none other than Noah.

He is asking me when we'll reach Rome. I didn't want to reply yet I typed ‘within 2 hours' and he replied with the thank you. What's with him about this girl here? I knew he was not a man who used to say thank you and as well as arrogant as me but he was talking to her like a teenage boy who had no ego at all. I shook my thoughts away and went to pick her up but again, I heard the voice of my head pilot.

"Ishita, we will land…" I watched him walking while doing something on his mobile and at the same time telling her but I guess his voice died in his throat when he saw me close to her and she is sleeping.

Shit…he must have taken me wrong. I immediately straightened up and stood at some distance. And, thanks to my luck, she opened her eyes all of a sudden. If I didn't back up, then I couldn't possibly write down the things that would happen here. I saw her smiling at the pilot and she just ignored me again.

"Hey, Brandon," She said in her sleepy voice and I gulped knowing her effect on me.

"Hi…we will land within two hours," He said to her and suddenly she started to jump up and down like a kid who got her candy.

Why she is so happy to meet Noah? Seeing her happiness, I felt like breaking Noah's neck. I glared at both of them for one last time and went inside the room feeling low. I just sat there looking at the lights on the side table and I don't know how much time I spent like that until I heard a knock on the door and heard her enthusiastic voice ‘we are going to land Mr. Idiotic arrogant'. That's it. I know this is the last she is talking to me.

I opened the door and saw her smiling at me, a true smile not any smirk. I came outside as she went to freshen up. I just paced here and there until she came out. She just went and sat on the chair and fastened her seat belt while I did the same after freshening up a little. It's possibly evening in Italy and I heard the announcement that we are landing. She was fidgeting with her seat belt like she was going to open it the second after the announcement came and yeah that's true. She unbuckled her belt and went near the door analyzing how to open it. As I was picking up my case which I had prepared when I went to freshen up, I saw Marco coming and he opened the door for her but she went inside the pilot's cabin with Marco, to say goodbye to Brandon.

I don't know whether she will say good bye to me but I don't want to hear that. So, I came outside wearing my mask as I knew Noah would be waiting for her. As I came outside, I saw my car waiting for me which must be taken here by securities of my mansion. Yeah, though I don't have a bodyguard, I have security for my mansion as I can't leave a dollar mansion and important files with no security.

I saw one security guard coming out of the car and he bowed in front of me as I went and sat on the driver's seat. I pulled up the tint immediately as I noticed another car coming towards my jet as fast as possible. I know who it is and he stopped his car near my jet and without wasting a second, he came outside and looked around searching for her.

I don't know why I'm waiting here, but I'm waiting. As he was looking around, I heard her voice and saw her coming down, actually running down like a kid. Both of them are smiling widely and I can see Noah's posture is more relaxed than when he came here. She immediately hugged him tightly and he too hugged her like he had missed her so much.

I saw him whispering something to her and then he took her face in his hands. Only then did I notice that she was crying. Did she miss him that much in these 24 hours? My grip on the steering tightened as I saw him wiping her tears and kissing her forehead. Then both talked a little and he gave her some dollars. I also saw my pilot coming out of the jet and she gave the money to Brandon and said goodbye to them with a hug.

I saw Noah asking her something and then she looked around when she saw my car, she pointed my car to Noah and he started to walk towards me. Without wasting a second, I started my car and drove outside the airport runway with the frustration that built in me all of a sudden. I didn't care to stop at the airport check post and they also didn't dare to stop me. Feeling like I lost something, I just drove to my mansion completely ignoring the signals.

Within 20 minutes I reached my mansion where it'll take at least 25 minutes to reach in the traffic I drove in. As my mansion is isolated from the city, the gate security can know the second when I enter the street. They opened the door immediately not wanting to lose their job. Not caring about anything, I just went inside the mansion possibly breaking the huge glass door. Yeah, my mansion is a highly modern one with tinted glasses all around. No one can see what's happening inside even though everything is made up of glass.

The first place where I went inside my mansion was my bar and this was the first time I'm coming here even when this place is stocked up regularly. Taking whatever bottle was near to me, I gulped down half of the content and my mouth and guts started to burn. I realized that I had just drunk the strongest red wine. I sat on the recliner and closed my eyes for a second only to jerk open it as her face came in front of me. Is this the kind of addiction in a short period of time?

The way she gave me new feelings for the first time, the way she made me dominant, the way she smiled at me truly once, and then the way she was with Noah, everything is playing back in the repeating mode inside my head and I emptied other half content from the bottle into my system and threw it across the bar. I couldn't see what happened to it because of the dim light of this place.

No, I can't be like this. If I don't remove all these from my head, I'll possibly kill Noah tomorrow in the meeting. He is my business partner and I can't create ruckus everywhere. And, my behavior itself will create chaos in the mafia world. Everyone's eye is only on my surroundings now and they are waiting for me to get a weak point. If I even spend a minute with anyone, it'll put their life in danger. If they saw me creating problems with Noah they will surely get that girl in their hands and don't want that.

Thinking about all this, I just closed my eyes trying to make my mood normal like before these 24 hours but it seemed impossible as I could see her images again in my mind.

No, Riccardo. She is just a co-passenger not more than that. I told this to my mind, but it's not accepting it, even I can't.