Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The taxi lurched violently, throwing Rosalie against the worn leather seat. 

Rosalie nearly swore out. Moving back into her seat she calmed her nerves. She couldn’t drive. She wanted to drive herself so badly, her parents didn’t think she should be driving herself anywhere. 

She didn’t want Roman to know she couldn’t drive so she ordered a taxi to take her on this particular outing. She didn’t expect Roman to allow her to leave the house without his permission. 

When she walked out of the house no one stopped her they even opened the gates for her without any fuss. 

Everything felt new to her. She was going somewhere she’s never been before. 

The last month she’d been in her own world, nothing has changed, until she overheard her sister and Roman speaking about her, about their marriage. 

Her sister manipulated her once more. She couldn’t stay there, not when she wanted to kill her sister and Roman. 

When she thinks about what she heard yesterday, the ache in her chest returns, tears threaten to spill from her eyes, but she pushes them back in. She didn’t cry; she never showed a weakness. Her sister was a snake, a viper ready to attack the slightest hint of a weakness.

Her sister hasn’t recovered from the light poisoning she had given her yesterday after she overheard them. Elena was currently resting in one of the guestrooms, to stop her from harming her or Roman. Rosalie fled to calm herself down.

The destination was a small, dilapidated building on the outskirts of Palermo, it brought Rosalie a sweet sense of comfort. The building was one big sneeze away from falling apart. It where Air did most of the meets, it provided a neutral ground for meets, away from all the crime families.

It was the first time Rosalie had been here.

As the taxi pulled to a stop, a sense of comfort washed over her, warm and inviting.

The driver, his face etched with a mixture of fear and weariness, once Rosalie was out the cab, he sped off not even waiting for her to close the door.

Finally alone Rosalie hesitated for a moment, her hand instinctively reaching for the small, pearl encrusted locket necklace hidden under her shirt. She clutched it in her hands. The last gift her mentor gave her before he died. 

The locket was more than just a keepsake; it was a symbol of her own inner strength, a silent promise to keep his work alive even when the world might try to stop her.

Taking a deep breath, Rosalie pushed open the heavy, rusty door, the sound echoing in the unsettling stillness. For the first time she felt a chill down her spine. She didn’t like how fearful she felt.

As she walked in, she heard the low hum of a conversation happening deeper in the building. It sounded like an argument. 

She moved cautiously through the dimly lit corridor, her senses heightened, her every step measured and deliberate. 

The wallpaper on the walks were faded and peeling. It seemed like someone had pulled at it to make it even more unsettling. Rosalie’s instincts were screaming at her to turn around. She didn’t like the unsettling feeling. She was unfamiliar with the feeling.

Suddenly, a piercing scream tore through the silence, followed by a loud bang of gunshots... 

Rosalie froze, her body tensing, her instincts screaming at her to flee. But curiosity got the better of her. she moved closer to the where she heard the gun shots.

When she finally stopped, she found herself in a large living room, the walls lined with worn leather couches and scarred tables.  

It seemed more like a club than it did a living room. Her eyes trailed around the room. 

Her eyes stopped at two men laying sprawled on the floor, their bodies riddled with bullets, their blood staining the already grimy carpet. A third man, his face contorted in a mask of rage, stood over them, a smoking pistol clutched in his hand. She immediately recognized him. 

He was her new husband.

Rosalie’s breath hitched in her throat. 

There was a fourth man she didn’t see until he turned her way. He was hidden in the shadows. She recognized him as well. Ari. 

Watching the two of them go head-to-head, both nauseated and strangely fascinated her. 

Roman turned toward her, but Ari shot his way. 

He was leaving her a way to escape. If Roman found her here. Her secret will be exposed.

Rosalie did what Ari intended for her, and she fled. There was a secret bunker underground. It was tricky to get into and only her and Ari knew how to get in. This old, abandoned building, they bought almost three years ago. They added the bunker in case of emergencies. And this was clearly an emergency. 

Rosalie made her way into the bunker and waited.

She waited for what felt like an hour before the bunker door opened. 

“Jesus what were you thinking strolling in here?” Ari berated her.

“I wanted out.” she said, her voice surprisingly steady and calm. When her insides were screaming at her.

“You’re married to the man who’s looking for Nightshade Rosie. You could have gotten yourself killed. If Roman ever finds out you’re who he’s hunting God knows what he’ll do. You need to get the fuck out of her and be home before he gets home…” he warns her.

Rosalie stands. “Elena set everything up. She used my identity to have Roman marry me. She manipulated me into believing Roman was some villain who would kill me if I so much as sneezed in his direction. She…” Ari cuts her off. 

“That doesn’t explain what you’re doing here. If you so much as mess up even a little bit. Not only will you be killed but me and my family would be in danger as well. I know you don’t normally care for others, but my wife and children have nothing to do with this…” 

For the first time Rosalie didn’t have a retort. Everything she’d witnessed, the violence she’d witnessed. The way her identity had brought this forth. 

She had no idea why Roman was hunting her, but she couldn’t let him anywhere near her. Not with what was going on. 

“Get out of here Rosalie. We have no idea with how many men he’ll return. I’ll work on getting a new location in the meantime. Lay low. Don’t accept any new orders until we sort out the new location…” Ari warns. 

Rosalie bites her tongue. “I’ll need to call a cab…” she tells him softly. 

Ari gave Rosalie a hard stare. “You know you’re so fucking dumb for someone so damn smart!” he roars. 

Rosalie flinches at his tone. Ari takes out his phone ignoring his cousin. 

“God Rosalie. There’s a reason you’ve never been here. A reason we kept this part away from you. What if Roman had seen you? It would have been all over. It would have been the fucking end to all of this…” Ari sighs. “If you wanted to get out be like a normal damn person and go to a park. Right now, someone could be looking through your things at home…” Ari warns again.

Rosalie sighs. “Yes, now get me out of here…” she rolls her eyes. She was getting fed up with Ari’s complaints. 

Ari recognized the dull tone. Rosalie was coming back. he didn’t know if he should fear her or not. She didn’t understand what could have happened if Roman had seen her. 

They could play it as she followed him here. But the man was perceptive he didn’t know if it would work against him.

“Come on I’ll drop you off two blocks from here. Kat will pick you up and drive you home. You were spending the day together and you helped her with the kids do you hear me?” Ari warns.

Rosalie steps closer to Ari and narrows her eyes at him. “Just because I let you run your mouth, it doesn’t mean I’ll let it slide another time. Remember that dear cousin. I’ve many ways to remind you…” she warns walking past him. “Come on. You were in a hurry a second ago…” 

Ari gulps, before trailing behind Rosalie.

When they got up and out of the building, Ari made sure they weren’t being followed before getting into his car and driving Rosalie to where his wife was. 

He needed to track down the cab that brought his cousin here, he needed the footage of her in the cab deleted.

Once they were by Kat’s car, Ari dropped Rosalie before rushing off to find the cab. 

The got two blocks away from them before he saw Roman’s men on his tail. 

“Shit.” He swore out loud. 

He was lucky he wasn’t driving his personal car, and that Rosalie and Kat seemed to have gotten away. Or he prayed they did. 

The car behind him rams into him, sending Ari’s head into the steering wheel. 

Ari wiped the blood off his face with his sleeve. He sped up. They had a mole, someone alerted Roman about the location of the drop point.

He would hunt down the traitor even if it was the last thing he did. 

Another car slammed into him from the side sending him off the road.