- ᴀ.s.

Taking a deep breath I enjoyed the warmth of summer sun on my skin and the smell of freshly trimmed grass. Warm weather is exactly what I needed these days especially after being in bed for so long.

My head lulled from side to side letting my hair fly on the soft breeze. It became longer since I cut it when I first woke up in that hospital.

Taking another deep breath I opened my eyes gazing at the garden in front of me. Loud giggles made me snap my head towards the right where running Emiliano was playing with Bellissa.

They all came here last week from Italy to spend some time together. Although the moment they came Giovanni went with guys in Xavier's office and they didn't leave it till late hours last night.

He is acting weird these days. He would zone off most of the time and would spend most of his time in the house office like before...

My eyes on their own lifted from Emiliano to the line of trees behind them. The line next to which we stood the first time we were kidnapped.

In the past couple of weeks, my memory came back almost fully. I remember everything from coming here to leaving for Italy. The stay in Italy is where it all stops, I remember the first couple of days but after that is nothing, zero.

I spoke with my doctor and she said that that's probably caused by my brain trying to push away some kind of trauma. And that trauma must be the miscarriage.

When I would ask Xavier to tell me more about it he would start to act strange. His whole posture would go rigid, he would constantly shift in his seat and generally look uncomfortable and... scared. And if I ask him more questions he would switch theme without me even noticing. It's like he is hiding something, but why? From who? Me?

"Antea.." Bellissa's small voice brought me back to the present causing me to switch my eyes on her seeing her approaching me.

"Hey, are you okay?" I asked upon seeing her nervously twirling her hair with her fingers and look at me with a sad expression. That is the exact expression she would use whenever she looks at me.

"I'm fine. I wanted to ask you how are you? Are you okay? Do you need anything?" "I'm fine. Just feeling tired." Smiling to reassure her I turned my eyes on Emiliano on the floor next to our legs.

"If you want I can watch Emiliano and you go rest. You know what Xavier said, you need all the rest you can get. And beside doctor said same, you shouldn't do much and tired yourself." She insisted with worry in her voice.

"Are you sure? I don't want to-" before I could finish my speech she cut in.

"I'm totally sure. You should go rest and take care of yourself and your baby. We will be fine, right Emi? We will go play on the swing and then go watch some cartoon?"

Emiliano's little head bobbed up and down while his eyes shone with delight. "Okay then. But be careful that he doesn't fall in the pool." Saying that I stood up from my seat and was about to take a step towards the house when I felt Bellissa's hands around me.

"I'm sorry." She whispered leaning her head on my shoulder. My eyebrows pulled together in confusion and I lifted my hand to run it up and down her back in a soothing manner.

"What is wrong? Why are you sorry, Bella?" I asked but she only shook her head while pulling away.

"No-nothing." Her voice shook and her eyes glistened with tears but before I could ask her what was wrong she put a smile on her face taking Emiliano in her arms and started way towards the house leaving me staying confused in the backyard.

Slowly shaking my head I started to walk towards the bedroom still thinking about Bellissa's words. 'She is sorry about what? Why are they all acting so strange this past couple of days?'



- x.ᴅ.ʀ.

I looked from the window in my office at how Antea entered the house after Bellissa and Emiliano. Her memories came back, all except the torture I put on her through.

I'm glad it's that way, this is opening a door for me to tell her the truth myself, other than that she is remembering, and then we have a repeat of last time.

On other hand whenever she would ask about that or told me to talk to her about that I would freeze. My worry and stressing about her reaction would hit its limit and I would simply switch theme.

"Xavier.." my father barked causing my head to snap in his direction instantly. "Stai ascoltando quello che sto dicendo?" ("Are you listening to what I'm saying?")

"Si. Sorry I got zoned out a bit."

"I can see that. Don't worry she is gonna be okay. She is with Bellissa, and your mother is there somewhere. "

"I know." I said dismissively and turned towards the photos on the table.

There stood three different photos of three of my men. On each, they were killed in different ways and left on a gate with a message engraved on their chest.

|I'M CLOSE|

|KEEP HER SAFE|

|SHE IS NEXT|

Those were messages on them. Two more men are missing for three days now and we still didn't find them. And to be honest I think we never will.

"There wasn't a registration plate on the car that dropped the body in front of the gate. I tried to track him over cameras but they didn't end up good. I lost him when he went down the unmarked road." I heard Fabio before I saw him, he entered the office caring his laptop in his hands and shaking his head tiredly.

Sighing I turned towards them "So we got nothing about his next move?" On my question, all I got was series of no.

"No, he is unpredictable." Dad said rubbing a hand over his beard and frowning on pictures.

"This are all newbies. He didn't target our older members, he is planning something." Moreno mumbled looking at me with a serious face.

"Si, there must be something that we don't see. He knows the address which meant one of them opened their mouth or he got the address from Pamela. But then again he had time and time to attack if Pamela told him an address. He could do a lot of shit then but he didn't and why is he doing it now?"

"Mhmm," Moreno hummed looked back down on pictures "you are right. One of them must open their mouth, it would be the best if we change location-"

"You mean move away?" Dante's voice cut him off before he could complete the sentence. "Yes, exactly."

"I was thinking the same thing. Maybe it would be best if we move back to Italy. At least till this doesn't pass." Exclaiming I lifted my eyes locking them with a dad who sends me a court nod.

"The doors are always open for you. But this.. this won't pass. Not until he is dead."

"I know. And that's gonna happened sooner or later but at his point, I just want to move Antea and kids away."

"Mhmm, did you think ab-" dad started in some time as Dante. "When are you planning on getting on your knees?"

"What?" I asked looking at him annoyance and confusion get to ver my voice.

"You know... get on your knee? Pop the question? Put the ring on it? Propose?" He questioned with sass in his voice, rolling his eyes.

"What connection that has with this we are speaking now about?" I asked looking at him but he just rolled his eyes while looking at me expectedly "Tonight and I told you that."

"Okay, I just wanted to make sure..." he trailed of turning his head to look out of the window.

"Well, congratulations boss. However, I just found something." Fabio cut us off while pointing towards the big screen on the wall. My blood started to boil from the rage within me when my eyes locked with a picture of Aleksei and a couple of men that I'm gonna guess works for him.

They were all big and buffy, looking like they came straight from a hulk movie. Mostly all his men are ex-military experts who stayed by his side when the Russian mafia fell apart years ago. They are good at what they do and that's the reason for him not to have a lot of them.

When he first went off and start to act crazy he had around fifty members, however, that number now is less than half.

He is a sick bastard who likes control and the feeling of being superior so him getting newbies in his team is most likely never going to happen. The only option for him to get a newbie is so he could use him to be bait.

"Mhmm, what do you have?" I asked walking to stand behind him looking at the screen I front of us.

"This is a picture taken this morning. It seems that this is place under Russian security, Aleksei's men are all around the place. That should be their location."

"Where did you find it?" Dad asked leaning against the table while looking at Fabio not blinking once.

"I hacked the cameras on every exit of the unmarked road and found the same car that left bodies on the gate."

"What is the location?" "Not far from the place where they kept your future wife and Emiliano." Fabio answered switching the screen on the map.

"Can you see how many of them are there?" Moreno's voice came from beside me as he stepped closer to us.

"For now on the picture, it shows that there are around fifteen of them including Aleksei. There could be more but for now, that's all I have."

"Okay. Get the men ready we are going immediately I want to end this once for all." I said stepping back "Call all the men we have, we are going down there."

"On it." Marino was about to make a call when Moreno stopped him.

"If we wait till they come here it will take quite some time. Let's take the men we have here and call the ones from the warehouse to come guard here."

"That's true. They should be here at the same time we get to the highway." Dad said looking between watch and map on the screen.

I could feel anxiousness grip me from inside for leaving Antea alone here but this needs to be done. If this finishes today then we will have a safe future with not as much danger as at this moment.

"Okay. Call the men to get here to guard as soon as they can and tell the rest that is here to load the cars we are going in five." I said and was about to turn away to head out when I got stoped.

"No." Dantes's voice boomed as he shook his head at me. "No."

"What do you mean no?" Questioning him my brows pulled together in confusion.

"I mean no. You are not going anywhere you stay here. I'm gonna go. You stay to keep them safe and the rest of us will go down. Here are at least eighty of our men so it's gonna be fine. You and dad stay here I'm gonna go with Moreno and Marino."

"You sure? No, no, I can't let you go alone." I argued but he didn't back down.

"I'm gonna be fine. Moreno and Marino are going with me. You stay here it's fishy and I can't point on how."

"Okay." I said even if I'm not for the idea of that. I should go there and kill that bastard myself. He is the only one whose blood I would like to have smeared over my hands and clothes.

"Okay." Dante said as he got closer to me and squeezed my shoulder in reassurance. "Don't worry if I can I will bring him alive here for you to kill. However, I'm not gonna let you go follow this lead when you have a wife and child here. Stay here and pop the question, when I return I want to see the diamond on her finger." He said playfully as he exited the office and started to shout orders to the men nearby.

• • •

[A/N] I hate writing filler chapters. They always end up being boring or badly written. However, I wanted to ask something...

Is there any book on wattpad that you read and it just got stuck in your brain?

Or the character got stuck in your brain? So whenever you read some other book and there is character with the same name you constantly remember the one in the back of your mind. Does that make sense?

Anyways if there is feel free to drop the name. ;)