"How was she?" Adriano asked impatiently, Mike had just come through his front door and was taking off his coat. He threw it lazily over his couch and then sat down on the end of the red leather sofa. Mike looked up at Adriano, his brows furrowed. He had no clue what was going on or why Adriano had even asked him to go check up on Angela but he done so anyway.

"Angela's fine, she was asleep when I got in."

"She must have been tired, yes." Adriano mumbled, more so to himself than Mike. He was remembering back to the previous night and how they had got little sleep. Angela finally went to sleep in the early hours of the morning, leaving Adriano to unleash his menacing thoughts. "Did she seem alright?" Adriano asked worriedly, shooting his head to Mike.

"Well she was just... Sleepy, Angela didn't say much between the walk from the kitchen to her bedroom funnily enough Adriano." Mike stated sarcastically. "What the hell is going on between you two anyway? Why are you here and not at home with her where you can check up on her all you want?" He added, all of this was confusing. Adriano had turned up in the early hours of the morning at Mike's doorstep and stayed at his apartment since then and had yet to explain what was going on.

"Nothing, everything's fine." Adriano looked down again and then back up quickly. "Why could you have to walk her from the kitchen to her bedroom?" he inquired.

"Oh. That..." Mike snorted. "I found her asleep alright. She was face down in a plate of lasagne. That girls crazy I tell you." He laughed but Adriano's expression had sunk lower than it was before, which was hard to believe. He covered his face with one hand and pinched the bridge of his nose, his eyes closed shut.

"What am I going to do?" he asked himself lowly.

"Tell me what's wrong-"

"I fucked her okay? And now I don't know what to do because I can't go back after I left her." There was a dead silence which hit the room as soon as Adriano had spoken. He looked straight at his brother, his frustration was evident in his voice and he was now brushing his fingers through his hair.

"So what's the big deal? Why would you leave? It's not like you don't like her, or that you two don't get along. It's not the end of the world bro."

"But I shouldn't have done it."

"What? Walked out once you were done?"

"No, I shouldn't have done it with her." Adriano explained, like it should be obvious to Mike what he meant.

"I never thought I'd see the day when my big bro Adriano regretted getting laid. Mom was right, you really are changing." Mike sniggered and patted Adriano's tense back.

"What am I going to do?" he repeated again to himself.

"Stop fussing over something that's not worth fussing about. Go back to Angela and tell her you're sorry you had to leave early this morning and everything will be okay." Mike said, oblivious to Adriano's wandering thoughts.

"No. I can't. I can't let it happen again."

"Why the hell not? All those other women you've been with are nothing compared to Angela, you two were bound to do it some time."

"You don't understand." Adriano grumbled and got up from the sofa. Not only was he frustrated by this whole situation, but now by his younger brother too. Adriano had been trying to keep Angela away from anything to do with his life but was now bringing her deeper into it as he went. He wished he had resisted temptation. He wished he had stopped before it even started because then he wouldn't know what it felt like to be with her, and it would make his choices easier. He wished it never happened but was so glad at the same time and it confused him.

"Tell me then?" Mike didn't seem too fussed about the whole situation, and why would he be? He thought it was perfectly fine for Adriano to be with Angela, but Adriano knew it would ruin the comfortableness between the pair after it happened.

"I'm going to bed." Adriano ignored his brother and walked out of the room to make his way to the spare bedroom.

"Whatever." Mike called back and got comfortable on the couch, turning on the TV and flicking through the stations to find something to watch.

Adriano had woken up the next day and gone to work, it was after that when he had finally returned home. He let out a quiet sigh as he turned his key in the door and stepped inside his apartment. He heard the soft and gentle sound of the piano playing as soon as he walked in and closed the door. He was surprised she was still up, Adriano had stayed in work a lot later than usual was assuming she would be in bed by the time she got back but he was mistaken.

"Angela." He finally had to interrupt her and as soon as she heard his voice she stiffened. Angela sat up straight on the piano stool, looking ahead of her for a moment and then turning slightly to look at him. Her eyes didn't meet his. She immediately got up and walked slowly into the kitchen with long strides. Adriano just followed her, not knowing what to say yet.

"You weren't home so I didn't know whether you wanted dinner or not." Angela said once she had filled a glass full of water from the tap in the kitchen, with her back to him. Her voice was quiet, it didn't hold bitterness or annoyance like he had expected. She was making it hard already for him to keep his cool exterior and she had only said one sentence to him.

"We need to talk Angela." Adriano finally spoke, his icy cold stare made her shiver a little at the sight.

"O-okay." She looked down at her fidgeting hands, anticipating what this conversation would hold for her. Angela didn't know what to expect but from the way he was going on, she knew not to hope for the best. She remembered how he had been so different the other night; she liked him better like that. Adriano pulled out a chair at the dining table and Angela soon followed, sitting across from him. The two sat in silence and it wasn't until then, that she had finally looked him in the eye, waiting for him to talk first. Her gaze was too intense for him, he quickly looked away and focused on something else in the room.

"What happened the other night can't happen again." Adriano finally said, his words breaking the cool tension between the two.

"I understand." Was all she could say, truly crushed by his words. "I'm sorry. We both drank a little, I know we-"

"I didn't sleep with you because I had some drink Angela. Don't ever think lowly of yourself like that. I done it because I wanted to." He bluntly stated. The more this went on, the calmer she was getting. It made him want to break out of this character he was trying to play right now but he continued to build his walls up.

"Oh I see..." she trailed off again, staring deeply at the table but her eyes were empty. "But you don't want it to happen again I just assumed that- Nothing, never mind." Angela shook her head, trying to rid it of the thought that were crawling back to her. She didn't know what that night meant for the two of them, but she knew for sure she had wanted it to happen again. Angela had seen a different side to him then, she wanted him more than ever know.

She wanted to get to know him better, to continue the way they were going where he would arrive home, eat dinner with her and go to sleep each night with Adriano holding her. Angela had gotten so used to their little routine that she only now realised it hadn't been going on for that long. It amazed her how quickly she adapted to it all and now it couldn't be like that again. Now, things were awkward and he was being cold.

Angela couldn't hide the fact that she was disappointed by this conversation, and once Adriano had noticed, it made him feel worse. But it was for the benefit of everyone. If he got too used to her, he would never be able to let her go and sharing his lifestyle with her was too dangerous to do. What was wrong with him? He knew this girl only a couple of months, they both knew very little about each other but he cared too much already. They weren't anything, and the only reason she was here in the first place was because Adriano had gone to kill her, like he did with everyone who knew too much and just couldn't do it.

The realisation hit him, he was a bad man. He was a monster. That was what he would always be, whether anyone as pure and kind-hearted as Angela knew it or not. He needed to do what he had just done: cut the link between them before it got too much, too over-powering for him to the point where any woman swayed his thoughts, his mind-set or his way of thinking. Adriano knew that she may be weak compared to the people he had met in his life, but she could be so powerful at the same time. She would eventually take over his thoughts, without her even knowing she had done it in the first place.

"I- I better get to bed." She mumbled, trying to smile at him to cover up her discontent but it didn't reach her eyes. Angela dragged her feet along the carpet after she got up and began to walk out of the dinning room.

"Wait-" he said once she was at the threshold of the door. Angela turned around, that saddening look on her face. "Oh nothing it doesn't matter. Just go to bed." He grumbled, more annoyed at himself than anyone else.

"Are you dismissing me now? Are you sure it's okay I leave?" she narrowed her eyes at him, there was a spark of anger in her but it was gone as soon as it had gotten there. Adriano didn't know how to reach to her outbreak and sat there looking at her with his mouth agape.

"Don't talk to me like that." Was all he could say. Angela realized how much he seemed to have become the man he was when she first arrived here.

"Why not?" she challenged him.

"It's disrespectful. You need to look at what you're doing, reacting like a child when they don't get their own way." He raised his voice a little, Adriano knew he was being ridiculous but he didn't know how else to take out his anger.

"I waited up all night for you to come home after what happened Adriano. It's not that I haven't got what I wanted, it's just I wished you would've communicated properly to be how you felt about the whole thing so neither of us got confused." It frustrated him even more knowing that she had a valid point, that her argument made more sense than his but he couldn't be honest about how he felt about what happened. Although he wished he could tell her how he was really feeling, it wasn't an option right now, so he said nothing. "Goodnight Adriano." Angela called over her shoulder before she left.

That was the last thing she had said to him that night, she had gone to bed and he followed soon after. The two were both unable to sleep, Adriano wished he could just go into the next room to her and get into bed beside her but he couldn't.

The next morning he got up early for work and left before she was even awake. Adriano got ready as quick as possible and made his way to work as quick as possible but all day, he couldn't get her out of his head. Little did he know, she was feeling the exact same at home.

Angela had tried to busy herself with cleaning the house once she woke up in the late morning. She had cleaned the kitchen, tidied the living room and was planning on vacuuming around once she had a shower.

She got ready and made her way to the bathroom, the hot water and steam collecting around her relaxed her a little but her mood was yet to change since she talked to Adriano last night. Angela closed her eyes and stepped back into the cascading water but her eyes shot open quickly at the sound of a loud bang outside in the living room. She turned off the shower and quietly stepped out to get changed into her clothes again.

There were more loud noises outside that she could hear once she put her ear close to the bathroom door. Then, everything went quiet for what felt like hours. There was danger in the air, she could sense it but knew herself she couldn't just stay there in the bathroom forever. Quietly, Angela opened the door and padded lightly out into the living room. She covered her mouth with her hand at the sight that met her there. The front door had been forced in and was now lying on the ground. The place had been trashed too, the furniture ruined, the glass from the coffee table turned over and smashed.

She removed her hand and walked over closer to the scene set out before her eyes, completely forgetting to think straight, to run and lock herself away somewhere to hide from whoever had done this.

The small shards of glass smashed were sprinkled all around the room and could be seen in small specks as the sun shone in through the floor to ceiling windows. This was much worse than when Adriano had come home that night and ruined the place, she could sense it wasn't him who had done this.

As if answering her thoughts, she heard the glass crunch under someone's foot behind her and a pair of hands wrapped roughly around her waist. She instantly tried to turn around but one hand was forced over her mouth, not allowing her to move around to find who it was. Angela tried to scream but the sound came out strangled and muffled under the strong hand. She started to hyperventilate beneath the strong and clearly able person behind her and struggled to get loose from their grip they had on her.

And in that moment, her stomach sank, her heart had begun racing and she broke out in a cold sweat, wondering, just dying to know who this person was and why they had her pinned to them. All she could hope was that it wasn't him, that he hadn't come to find her, that he couldn't possibly go to all of this trouble just to find her, he would never be capable of getting past all of those men at Adriano's door could he? Please don't be him, please don't be him, please don't be him, she panicked and tried hard to remove the person's hands. She bit the one covering her mouth and scratched eagerly at it to make it go away but with little effort it stayed where it was.

Angela kicked, scratched, smacked, done anything she could to get away from this person as they dragged her towards the door. She put up a fight, her survival instinct had kicked in but nothing helped. And then the person finally spoke.

"Keep your mouth shut and don't even bother trying to struggle Angela, it'll do you no good." The cool voice sent shivers up and down her spine; she instantly froze in a state of shock she'd never experienced before. What was she going to do now?