Lexi's POV

"Hey Mom, Dad I'm going out for a bit, I see you guys later" I said to them as I entered the living room.

Dad was sitting on the couch with Mom beside him resting her head on his shoulder as his arm was around her. It was incredible to see how much those two love each other.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"No you're not" Mom and Dad said at the same time.

"I'm kinda spending the day with Gio" I told them.

"Not after what happened yesterday you're not" Dad replied sitting up straight as Mom raised her head up from his shoulder.

"Lexi, I don't think you're in any condition to go out after what happened yesterday. You need to rest, your body needs time to recover probably" mom said to me.

"Mom I feel fine, I'm totally fine to go out now" I said stretching out both my arms to show I was fine but held back a wince as my left shoulder ached a bit.

My body was still feeling sore from yesterday and even though my shoulder was slipped back in yesterday it still hurt whenever I moved it too vigorously, but I wasn't gonna let them know that. I just didn't felt like sitting down at home today plus I had promised Gio I'd see him today and he was now waiting for me.

"Whether or not you feel fine, you're not going anywhere today or any other day. Even worst not unless at least one of the guys are driving you" Dad said seriously.

"What? Dad, you can't be serious. Am I supposed to just stay here locked up for the rest of my life?"

"Well if you put it that way" Dad replied.

"Dad you must be joking" I chuckled. "And anyway I promised Gio he'd see me today".

"Even worst why you're not going out. Yesterday you almost got kidnapped and killed and today you want to go out and spend the day with him?" Dad asked.

"He wasn't the one who tried to kidnapped me Dad" I said to him.

He was making it seem as if it was Gio's fault why I was nearly taken or as if Gio was the one who tried kidnapping me and now I was planning on going right to him.

"No, but its probably is damn fault why that bloody Russian sending his guys to kidnapped you" Dad said angrily.

"Rostov? He's Russian? You know him?" I asked suddenly interested.

"I know of him. I've met the guy once or twice but I never have any dealing with him before and neither have Dominic so I find it hard to believed that its because of our side and connections why he wants you" Dad replied.

"So you think this has something to do with Gio?" I asked him.

"I'm almost a 100% sure it has to do with him. The Luciano group and the Rostov's have never been in any sort of conflict before but that changes now that you've gotten involved" Dad replied, "Our guess is that Rostov is using you as leverage to get to Cavelli".

"So you think I'm bait then?" I asked.

"Its a good as possible guess but we're working on it so as long as you stay here, I think you'll be safe" Dad replied.

"So does this Rostov guy live here in New York?" I asked.

"He mostly in Chicago but he's an all rounder, from Chicago to Russia" Dad replied.

"Those guys he sent weren't Russians though, they were Americans" I said to him. "So the guy sits in Chicago and sends his men here to New York to kidnapped a poor unsuspecting innocent girl? Wow. It all make sense".

"But I really do need to go now"

"Didn't you just here anything your father said?" Mom asked in disbelief.

"Mom yeah I do, but I have to go. Gio's kinda waiting on me..."

"Well he's gonna have to stay there and wait a long long while because I'm not letting you go out besides you forgot you don't have a ride" Dad replied.

"Well you see that's the thing Gio's waiting for me...outside" I said to them.

"What!?" Mom replied.

"You have him come here!? Are you crazy!?" Dad asked angrily.

"I know, sorry" I chuckled sheepishly.

"He had insisted on picking me up after he found out it met in an 'accident' I promised that I'll be back later. I love you guys please keep Kathleen entertained, bye" I smiled as I head for the door.

"Hey" I greeted Gio as I entered his car kissing him. "Sorry about being late, my parents were giving me a hard time about leaving home just after yesterday".

"Maybe you shouldn't really be going out so soon for real" Gio replied.

"No I'm fine trust me" I smiled at him. "So where are you taking me?"

"Guess you'll just have to wait on see" Gio replied as he started the car.

*************************************************

"So where are we? Whose house is this?" I asked as Gio parked in front of a huge house.

"You'll see, Someone who don't mind us being here?" Gio chuckled.

"Its really beautiful whoever it belongs to" I said to him.

"Wait until you see the inside" Gio replied.

After Gio had left me inside and started showing me around then offering me something to drink and asking if I was hungry I then realized this was his house.

"You have quite the taste in building designs Mr.Cavelli, I like it" I smiled at him as we were seated on a sofa.

"So are you miss Miller impressed?" Gio smiled back at me.

Yeah I am" I nodded before looking down.

I was never one to feel guilty about certain things but I felt guilty knowing that Gio called me Miller when I had stopped using that name for years now.

"Hey, everything okay?" Gio asked lifting my chin.

"Yeah, yeah everything's fine. Its just that my hand just throbbed a little" I replied looking back at my bandage hand in my lap.

"May I?" Gio asked taking my hand in his gently.

"Uhm... Gio what are you... What are you doing?" I asked him as he started undoing the bandage around my hand.

The minute the bandage had come undone I could see Gio's jaw clenched visibly. Upon looking at me hand I could see why. My hand was severely bruised and had a few tiny scratches on it. There was a gauze covering just over the cut with the stitches.

"How did your hand get bruised this much?" Gio asked inspecting it closely.

"My window broke and I was trying to protect my face from the flying glasses" I lied.

"No, Lexi this looks as if you were beating your hand on that glass" Gio replied sceptically before proceeding to lift the gauze.

"Gio, no! Oww! Don't do..." I tried stopping him but he had already lift it off revealing the small cut with the stitches.

"Lexi, you got stitches" Gio said suddenly angry.

"Yeah" I nodded.

"You didn't tell me you got stitches! You said you only got a few scratches" Gio said angrily.

"I know, I didn't want you to be too worried that it was serious" I said to him.

"Well this is serious" Gio replied.

"No its not and you don't need to be so angry about it okay" I tried telling him.

"Well I am angry dammit! You could have been seriously hurt more than this yet you kept it from me!" Gio shouted causing me to jumped frightened.

I have never seen Gio angry before but by the looks of things right now I'm sure he would be extremely scary because he wasa bit scary right now.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you. It wasn't your fault you were in the accident, I'm sorry" Gio said to me his voice and face now softened probably seeing that he had frightened me.

"I'm really sorry. Its just that I really care about you and I hate seeing you hurt".

"Its okay, I get it. I care about you too I'd be upset if you somehow got hurt as well" I smiled at him.

Gio smiled at hearing my words before kissing me briefly on the lips "Let's get this cleaned and bandage up again".

"Okay" I nodded at him.

Gio went and got a first aid kit before coming back and cleaning around the wound gently before wrapping it back.

We hang out some more throughout the day until Gio got a phone call. By the change of his mood when he answered that call I knew something was wrong. He had started talking in Italian from start to finished.

I was not fluent in the language but growing up with Dad and Dominic who were Italians I had picked up a few words here and there. Plus I'd often times tried learning Italian from dictionaries or Google translate over the past years.

Therefore, when Dominic started talking in Italian I had manage to pick up a few words and lines that I understood. So far what I heard were words like figlio de puttana, Lei non parks italiono, New York and then I heard the name Rostov. That name caught my attention and the bits and pieces that I've put together were; son of a bitch, she doesn't speak Italian, something about New York and Rostov. My guess was that he was calling Rostov a son of a bitch and then saying I don't speak Italian so I won't understand. As for the part about New York, it's either he heard that Rostov is here in New York or his men, I figured that made sense.

Maybe Dad was indeed right, I was being targeted because of my involvement with Gio.

"Hey Lexi Bella, we have to go. There's an emergency at work, I have to go handle it" Gio said after he had gotten off the phone.

"Work? Now? Its after five" I said to him. "Don't you have someone else that can handle whatever it is?

"No sorry baby, this requires my personal and immediate attention" Gio replied.

"Oh alright then, well I guess you can drop me off at the restaurant then..." I started saying.

"No!" Gio cut me off before softening his voice, "No, you should go home and rest. Maybe you should just stay home a few days and rest ".

"I can't do that I have a restaurant that needs my attention and I need to hire persons for the store" I told him.

All in all I was just trying to see if I could get anything out of him as to what had changed his mood so suddenly.

"Lexi, you just met in an accident yesterday, your body needs time to recover and you need as much rest in order for that to happened. Please promised me, you'll stay home and rest for the remainder of the week. Don't worry about the restaurant I'll give an eye on it and as for the store I'll get someone hired you'll run it as well as get other attendants, I just need you to stay home and rest after I take you home okay" Gio said to me.

"I actually had someone in mind to run the store already, I just need a few attendants" I said to him.

"I can take care of that, let me just help you with that and you try to get some rest okay?"

"Okay" I nodded.

"Promised?" Gio asked.

"Yeah I promise" I smiled at him.

"Good" Gio replied kissing me on the lips. " Let's get you home".

Sure Giovanni Cavelli, I promised. I promised to find out exactly what had you so riled up today and I promised to get this issue solved once and for all. I was innocent to whatever conflict you and Rostov were in and I really don't take it well being bait.