CORNELIUS"Italy is the most obvious place", Chance spoke over the phone and I scrubbed a hand over my face.We'd been going over this for an hour now. Italy was the most obvious place but it was at the same time the last place Joaquin would think to look for her.Shit, to look for us.Joaquin had gotten to her because I wasn't there when it happened but now? I was ready for him and I was hellbent on protecting her with my life.I hung up.My eyes glanced at the estate like a horrible enigma that stuck to my heart like a blunt dagger. Of all the places I planned on hiding at, this was the last place I thought I'd end up.Venice. Italy. Where my dead old dad had built a poetic mansion for my mother. The irony being she'd left all this and him.Parking the car infront of the mansion, I took huge gulps of air wondering if this really was the best route to take.I could confront Mafioso head on but God knew too many bloody bodies would be caught in our scuffle and I wouldn't achieve anyth

CORNELIUSThriving in the asshole department was what I did these days.I was beyond mad. Mad at myself. At her. At my fucking life. When I sent her away to Santa Monica, I did so because I loved her, because I was protecting her from me, from Mafioso, from this sort of life but remembering her face back then.Remembering my actions, forcing myself on her, forcing her to accept me, that right there clawed my insides like Lucifer’s hell hounds nipping at my soul.The nastro azzuro swirling in my tongue did nothing to numb my thoughts or the gut-wrenching feeling weighing me down like bricks.I preferred a bottle of Sam Adams any day to whatever shit I was drinking at the moment. The bartender, a pale gringo who’d eyed me cautiously since my ass settled on the damn stool looked a tad bit apprehensive when I asked for another bottle.Was I drinking way too much for one night? Maybe, but I’d prefer knocking myself cold with hard liquor than going back to the mansion. An hour drive back an

CORNELIUSSomething wasn’t right.I had almost gone nuts searching for her. Ready to fucking go back to La and confront Mafioso and yet here she was.Apparently rescued by one of my workers in the estate. I had looked into the man the minute he called saying he had rescued Lydia.A little digging and the slate came back clean. Not a single thing that could have connected said man to Mafioso. Still, there was something wrong with…her.It was in the way she looked at me. The way she’d avoided me for days.I mean sure telling her I loved her in my not so graceful way might have spooked her but I wanted her to at least say something to me.To talk to me damn it.To tell me she hated me and this agony of watching her from afar would end.Jesus Christ even Dog had gotten more words out of her than I had these past few weeks.The mutt went with her everywhere and I was stuck in my office making calls, watching her from my window, lusting over her, getting choked in her presence and God knew,

CORNELIUSI-I shit it was her.I might have forgotten her face but I still could remember those eyes staring down at me encouraging me to take a swing on the ride in the old park in LA that was demolished years ago.“Put your guns down”She bellowed and my finger didn’t stray from the trigger as Lydia held onto my arm urging me to put my Glock back to where I had whipped it from.But I could see it, I could see the fear and surprise in Lydia’s face as we both glared at the man in front of us.My mother.Christ, Sussanne Powers stood between us caught between the spit fire…“What’s he doing here?” I hollered as Joaquin’s eyes strayed to Lydia and the need to blow his brains out screamed in my head with an uproar.Joaquin hand on his damn gun didn’t falter as he looked at the woman who birthed me with the same same questioning eyes.“Please”, Sussanne placed her gun on Joaquin’s lowering it, till the said thing rested on his side.Lydia’s hands hugged my shoulder encouraging me to do th

CORNELIUSCarlos, the love sick pup had tortured the truth out of me and if it wasn’t for me confessing about his woman, he wouldn’t be as mellow as he was now.I dunked another glass of scotch mentally groaning that if they kissed one more fucking time I would barf.“Are you planning on getting drunk?”Lydia asked a furious brow daunting her olive skin. This double date was bad fucking idea.While Carlos and Henley were busy playing lovebirds, Dia and I were…what was the right term for it, fighting? No, in disagreement, that’s right.She was mad at me for telling Carlos about the whole Henley staying at her place situation and well I was mad because…I could still remember her eyes when I said the word baby. What? After all that shit that had escalated between us was trying to start a family with her that bad?Was trying to finally settle down that bad? Or was she just not ready? For us? For me?“I’m trying to survive”, I said with an obvious smirk pointing my glass towards the coupl