MAXIMO Loud sounds filled the room as my fists hit the punching bag before me repeatedly. I’d been here for the past hour, and yet, I still had all the pent-up anger inside me. The look of betrayal in Aria’s eyes kept replaying in my head over and over again. It kept me awake throughout last night and unfocused in my office throughout today. My chest squeezed with a feeling I wasn’t used to. Regret. I hated it. I hated how I wished I could go back to change my actions. I hated how it seemed that I cared. I shouldn’t care. I didn’t earn the nickname Scar because I went around feeling bad for my actions and letting guilt eat me up. I also didn’t become the youngest Don in the Cosa Nostra through that means as well. All these new…emotions and feelings were because of one girl. One girl I should kill but just can’t. One girl who seems to have a strong effect on me. “Fuck!” I growled as my fist came in contact with the punching bag, swinging it in my opposite direction. My limbs felt
ARIA‘I didn’t know you were such a whore.’‘…after all, you fucked a stranger on your first day here.’Maximo’s cruel words continued to ring in my head as I lay in bed. He was right. I was cheap and worthless. How could I even let him touch me after he kidnapped me and had plans to kill me later in the future? How could I let him touch me with the same hand that he has used to kill a countless number of people? How could I even get aroused by a man who had that much blood on his hands?I felt disgusted with myself. My mother would definitely be ashamed of me.My head turned to gaze outside the window. It had gotten dark outside. I could see some stars twinkling in the skyMy thoughts were distracted when the room door was pushed open. My heart skipped a beat. I said a silent prayer, hoping it was not Maximo. I wasn’t sure I could handle seeing him after what happened and the things he’d said yesterday.I released a relieved breath as I saw that it was Maria.“Good morning,” she gree
ARIAMaximo didn’t come to my room in days. Four days to be exact. I tried to pretend like I didn’t care about it. I tried to pretend that his sudden absence, just after I heard him with another woman, didn’t bother me. But it did. Each time I heard someone at my bedroom door, the rate of my heartbeat doubled, hoping he was the one. I was always disappointed when I saw Maria with a tray of food and her usual emotionless face.My heart clenched at the thought of how easy it was for him to replace me with another woman. Did he even have to replace me? Was I ever relevant in his life?Caterina Gallo. She was his lover, his woman. I tried to think of how he acted around her. Does he always threaten to kill her like he does with me? Or does he love her? Did she manage to weave her way into the dark depths of his heart? The more I thought about it, the more my own heart cracked.Why did I care this much? Why did my heart clench painfully whenever I thought of him? Each day, I tried not to
MAXIMOA gruff curse escaped my lips as I stood up from my bed. I've been tossing and turning on my bed, unable to sleep. I need a smoke. Opening my nightstand drawer, I took out a packet of cigarettes and the lighter beside it. I slipped out a stick and lit it, before dropping the lighter back in the nightstand drawer with the rest of the pack. "Cazzo,” I cursed again as I tried to disperse the thick smoke that filled my room from the lit stick. For some odd reason, the smoke felt suffocating.Standing up, I walked to my balcony to get some fresh night air. I stood there and took a deep huff from my cigarettes. If Mama saw me right now, she would lose her mind. She hated that Papa smoked. She would tell him that he would die of cancer or suffer a terrible disease that would leave him frail and weak. The first and only day she saw me smoking a cigar I’d stolen from Papa’s office, she cursed me out loud and told me that I would become one of the sbandato who stood on the road and be
CHAPTER ONEARIA*Flashback*"You bitch!" Jacob yelled as he slammed my head against the wall. I yelped in pain as black dots filled my vision. I could feel the wetness trickling down my face, and I knew that I was bleeding. I tried to get up from my position on the floor, but my body was very weak."You can't run away from me," he growled. "Never!"Tears filled my eyes as I looked at my packed bag that was beside him. I caught sight of his Armani shoes walking towards me, and my heart pounded in my chest."I'll kill you today," he growled.I looked around for any object I could use to defend myself. I screamed when he grabbed my legs, and I immediately grabbed the broken lamp I spotted beside me. I turned over and stabbed his leg with all my might."F*ck!" He screamed in pain and fell to the floor. Adrenaline flowed through my veins as I climbed up and stabbed his head with the sharp edges of the broken glass. He let out a guttural scream as blood rushed from where I'd stabbed him.I
CHAPTER TWOARIAThe hands that were on me suddenly disappeared, and I swiftly crawled away from the man and backed into the nearby wall."Scar," the robber's voice shook in fear as he fell to the ground.My breath hitched in my throat as two men immediately started punching the man that was on me a few minutes ago.I slowly lifted my head to look at the man that had saved me. He stood dangerously tall, with long hair framing his sculptured face. A dangerous scar slashed his eyebrows and ran down to his ear. I was locked in a staring contest with this strange man, and he was winning because I was finding it harder to keep looking into his gray eyes.The groaning sounds beside me intensified, and I turned to see that the creep who attacked me was on the floor, covered in blood."Please stop," I choked out. The two men that were hitting him didn't pay any attention to me.I looked at the man before me. "Please tell them to stop," I gritted with tears in my eyes. I didn't want the man to
CHAPTER THREEMAXIMOMy Red. I haven't been able to stop thinking about her since last night. She seemed so innocent until our lips joined together. With her American accent and her optimism, she didn't know what she'd just gotten herself into by coming here.A nagging feeling I couldn't get out of my head was the fact that she looked strangely familiar. I knew I hadn't seen her before, because I never forget faces. And it's impossible to forget a face as perfect as her's. So why did I feel like I'd seen her before? Why did her face strike up an unpleasant pang at the back of my head? It was almost like my mind was trying to tell me something I needed to know, but my eyes and body weren't paying attention.Guttural screams filled the room as I was brought back to the dark reality. I watched Luca snip off the tip of Marco's fingers. His pathetic pleading filled my ears, and I watched how a former powerful gang lord begged for his life in my custody. That was what happened whenever peo
CHAPTER FOURARIAMy body was lying on something cold and hard. I shivered and tried to wrap my hand around my body. My eyebrows creased as I realized I couldn't move my hands. I pulled, but the sound of heavy metal filled my ears. My eyes opened slowly, and I took in the strange room I was in. I couldn't figure out what the room was. It was a dark room that was empty except for the chair that sat in the center of the room. With so much effort, I got into a sitting position. My head pounded as my stomach churned. I glanced at my hands and feet and saw that they were chained to the floor.My heart beat accelerated as confusion clouded my head. I shivered again as my teeth chattered. That was when my memory started to come back to me. The harsh grip, the handkerchief over my nose, the shoes...I heard a deep moan from beside me. I looked to find another man who was chained to the ground like me. My eyes shot to his hands. They were the same hands that covered my nose. Confusion swirled