Chapter 9: It's You Again

Dante grabbed Victoria’s hand and led her to one of the doors not too far from her bedroom. While Victoria stayed there, she did not really tour the house and check each room there, because she was not that curious. Therefore, she had no idea what was behind the door.

“This is my gift to you.” He opened the door and Victoria gasped in surprise. It was an art room. Inside, there was a wooden table and a storage shelf that contained acrylic paints in all sorts of colors.

There was a round holder filled with brushes of different sizes, and an easel with canvas. She walked in and looked around in disbelief. He pulled one of the drawers and there were canvases of all sizes.

“These are the supplies you asked for. Everything has been provided for you.” Victoria could not contain her smile. It was the first time since she arrived there did she smile so brightly.

“Dante… I don’t know what to say. This is beautiful…” She told herself. Dante admired her smile. At that moment he knew he had done something right. Victoria checked every single items in there like it was a dream before approaching Dante again.

“Gosh, thank you.” Suddenly, she hugged him tightly with a huge smile on her face. He was taken aback, before hugging her back. Looked like their relationship would get closer from that point on.

The next day, Victoria went to work again and this time, during lunch hour, she saw the same man as yesterday walking in the restaurant. She looked at Teresa and Alia, both of them were busy with other guests, so she approached the man again.

“Welcome again, can I take your order?” She asked.

“The same as yesterday, please.” He replied with a polite smile.

“Wow, looks like you really love our meals.” She teased him.

“Actually, I came here because I thought I might see you again.” He replied casually. Her finger paused for a moment before responding.

“Ah, I see. Alright, I will get your order processed right away.” She knew he was flirting lightly with her, but she needed to keep everything professional. A few moments later, she came back with his food and like before, he left a twenty-euro tip for her.

“When will your shift end, Victoria?” He asked her. She didn’t know why he wanted to know the end of her shift, but there was no way she would tell him about that.

“I still have a few hours left. Thanks for the tip and excuse me.” She left to attend to the other guests. But even as she was doing so, she could feel Angelo’s eyes watching her every move as he was eating. When she was about to head to the kitchen, Nicolo noticed she was a bit more restless than usual and approached her.

“Is everything okay?” He asked her.

“Yes, everything’s fine. Don’t worry.” She replied. Nicolo turned to see Angelo watching Victoria. At that moment, he decided to approach Angelo.

“Is everything to your liking, sir?” He asked.

“Yes, everything’s to my liking.” He replied briefly.

“Good. By the way, I noticed you have taken an interest in one of our staff. Now as the manager, I need to kindly ask you to be more respectful and maintain the distance. Is that okay with you, sir?” Angelo was a bit taken aback by this statement, but then he chuckled.

“You must have a daughter yourself, huh? Okay, don’t worry. I am not a bad guy, I won’t do anything to her.” He replied. Nicolo was a bit skeptical, but then he gave him a polite smile.

“Enjoy your meal.” Nicolo left and the smile disappeared from Angelo’s face.

On the other side, Dante was dealing with his own business. A man was dragged in front of him by Pietro all bloody and bruised. 

“Dante, this guy is the one who has been stealing our produce.” Pietro provoked before he pulled out a gun and pointed it at the trembling man’s head.

“Do you want me to shoot him right now or do you want to do it yourself?” Pietro asked enthusiastically. Dante rose from the chair, grabbed his own gun and slowly walked toward the trembling man.

“Please forgive me. I swear to God I will never do it again. I’ll work to pay off what I have stolen. Please…” The man pleaded. Dante grabbed his hair and forced him to look at him in the eyes.

“You know what I hate the most in the world?” He asked. The trembling man shook his head.

“Traitors!” With that, Dante pointed his gun at the man. He was ready to pull the trigger before he suddenly retreated again.

“You know what, we almost ten thousand euros because of him. We should get the money back first before getting rid of him.” Dante told Vincenzo and Pietro.

“Oooo, what do you have in mind?” Pietro asked as he licked his lips.

“Harvest his organs and sell them to the black market. Pietro, you can take half the profit and bring the rest to the organization. Then dispose of his body quietly.” He ordered. The man quickly panicked and shook his head.

“No, no, don’t do that! Please, don’t do that!” He pleaded as fear filled his entire body. Pietro smirked and grabbed the man in the back.

“Don’t worry, Dante, I’ll take care of it real good.” He replied before dragging the man out.

“Please don’t! I have kids! Please!” None of them batted an eye. It was the price he needed to pay for betraying the organization who has placed food on his table.

Dante had several businesses to run, both legal and illegal ones and ever since his father passed away several years earlier, he had been quite busy running everything.

There were no more room for mercy in his books. If he was not so ruthless, he would not have the empire he had standing that day.

“That was the last thing you needed to do for the day. Do you want to pick up Victoria and head back home now?” Dante thought about it for a moment.

There was one thing on his mind: he wanted to punish the people who had hurt Victoria.

“Vincenzo, send someone to pick up Victoria from the restaurant today.” Vincenzo raised his brow.

“Sure, I can do that, but why aren’t you picking her up yourself today, Dante?” He asked.

“I have something else I need to do first.” He replied.

***

Liam was done with his work for the day. He greeted a few of his colleagues before leaving the office building. He had no car, so every day he had fifteen fifteen-minute of walk from his office back to the apartment.

That day, he thought of heading home like usual. However, he was only a few steps away from his office when a black car stopped in front of him and several men in black went out of the car and approached him.

“What are you guys doing!?” Liam asked, panicking.