A game of catch

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ISABELLA'S POV.

My throat seems dry, my limbs groggy, a slight migraine cramped my head, my mouth seemed terribly dry, so much so it burnt, my lips were cracked.

I turned; slowly the sound came and. Suddenly I became alarmed; I pushed my eyes open, staring intently at the image before me first. And then slowly around the surroundings.

a private jet… 

I glanced out the window, and I was damn right! I was fucking meters away from the ground,

“Antono,” I called out, and my voice cracked. Broken, causing me to wonder how long I've been out for.

“Don't address me by my name, don't act like you know me; I'll get your drugs for you, ma'am,” he responded, curt and cold in his tone as he stood. I reached for his arm, stopping him by my side.

“Ma'am? What's this about?” I asked, and he ripped his arm away from me, glaring at me with contempt. 

“What is this about? Really, Isa?”He asked, cold chills ran down my spine hearing him call me Is… He often did call me that when I had gone off in a way beyond measure.

‘You claim you hate him, you beg me to take you away, to let you escape, by the minute, but the next minute you are kissing him so hard. Your hands clawed into his hair, Begging for more?” hs asked, gritting his teeth as he spoke.

“I didn't; I swear by my life I didn't beg for more.” I responded only to realise how it sounded. 

“Good. We shared nothing. It is just sex anyways. Your father may have been the one to chase me off at first, but you're no better, Isabella. Lie all you want, but you were practically yearning for him last night… You want him, hw is everything I'm not... He's Ricci…  The Ricci, he's got power, and just like your father, you'll do anything to have it.”

I struck his face, delivering him a resounding yet tingling slap to his cheeks; his jaw tightened at the impact. But he said nothing; the door opened before I got a chance to apologise.

He bowed calmly and collectively and then turned to Ricci, whose gaze moved from mine to Antonio, who walked past him gently and slowly, keeping his act unlike I, who was basically shattered.

“Good morning, sunshine.” Luca mocked,  Smiling wider, smiling hard, enjoying whatever it was he was doing,

He looked better. Happier in fact, why did everything go his way? I watched him place a tablet before me.

“What? I asked, bitter in my words,

“Antsy much? " he asked, pressing the play button. I had seen it as soon as the screen lit  up; it was us... he  and I... the kiss, the hot, demanding, embarrassing kiss we shared moments before he tried to kill me...again.

And then I saw it; I looked like a whore acting like one, pressing his  big body to mine… I'm struck by a pang of shame... Anotio had to be what had I done?.

“See…. You are a natural; it would be more appealing if we were fuck buddies… Something tells me I have lots of talent I'm waiting to explore; too bad you are a damned moretti. Classless, shameless... useless.”

His words were like venom, piercing me in the worst places; my fingers itched to strike Him, to jab the pen into his eye to pluck out an eyeball.

But unlike Antonio, who had done nothing, I couldn't hit this bastard; I dared not, as a matter of fact. The monster had watched me in pain, and had left me… He kissed my temples… He told me goodnight and then he laughed… an agonising laugh  that made me want to die all over from shame.

“Here,” he murmured, taking the tablet from my hardened grip and then tossing a dossier at me, sinking into his seat next to me.

“How long was I out  for? I asked, flipping the dossier  open, trying to act like I was not affected by the fact that every single person in his estate saw us kissing passionately and probably believed we were in love or something.

“Four days.” He whispered, his left hand pushed up to his head, his right finger drawing patterns on his lap.

“Four bloody days!” I asked to see him lifting up his brows, batting  them  at me before smiling with a nod.

“Don't be so dramatic; you only had to go through convulsing for two days, and then I gave you the cure the third, and you had to sleep all day. Be thankful, Isabella; I could have made your pain worse… for eternity maybe, not just four days”  He whispered, gloating with an air of pride. 

I bit against my lips so hard that I'm surprised I hadn't drawn blood.  my eyes through the dossier, and there it was, a wrinkled, disgusted frown formed on my face as I glanced back at him.

“You didn't just make it 4 days…you had no choice”. I barked,  he rolled his eyes before raising his hands slowly.

“Alright, you caught me... I had things for you to do...you'd better get to  it." He murmured, pushing himself up from his seat, leaning in closer to me.

“I won't do this shit.” I tossed the dossier back to him; I knew it was important to him.

It was a party, a meeting perhaps. I wasn't certain, but I knew it was an annual event of mafias. Of course he had drawn me out of my convulsing, pain-filled, four-day holiday because he needed his wife.

“You'll be my dutiful wife tonight,“ he explained, his voice mocking. “You'll smile, nod, and play the part perfectly,” he whispered, his breath fanning against my skin as he spoke.

“No, I won't. You poisoned me. For four bloody days, you left me in pain. You can't make me. What's the worst thing you can do? Push me off the jet?” I rolled my eyes; something flashed through his eyes, darker than anger, I was crossing him. I barely escaped death, and yet I was testing his limits once again. I enjoyed it even if it meant putting my fucking life at risk just to get under his skin.

“Oh, you'll do it, Isabella.” He murmured, trailing his fingers over my earlobes, his blue eyes piercing into mine. “Just because I brought a little incentive to make sure you behave.”

The door flung open, and a surge of shock coursed through me as my eyes met with his… He stood still, pale-faced, his fragile frame trembling.

“Matteo,” I called out beneath shaky breaths, my footsteps guiding towards him.

“I thought you'd like to see him. You must have missed your brother…Of course I'd do anything for my wife's happy family reunion.” He muttered with feigned sweetness, his eyes holding mischief in them. 

“Don't worry, love, Matteo is safe… For now. But if you dare defy me tonight, I'll blow his bloody brains off, right before your very eyes.”