'It's a good thing you informed me right away Morgan, thank you.' Marcello lowers his phone and looks at me. 'I have bad news.'

The look in his eyes is sending my mind places. Dark, pitch fucking black, places.

'What is it?' Neveah eagerly asks before Celine wraps her arms around her again.

That's what she has been doing ever since she got here. Fucking hugging her.

'A boat left the harbor two nights ago. They think it was Steel.' Are you fucking kidding me?

The glass in my hand almost shatters, so I slam it on the table and look at Marcello. There's more.

'And they have no clue where they went.'

He had all this time, forty-eight fucking hours, to lose us. And he did.

I can't panic. Not yet.

'He's not in Europe.' Marco says, looking at me for a second. He's panicking. Not because we have no clue of where she is, but because of the look on my face.

He knows that he needs to keep his mouth shut. At least to me. He can continue babying Neveah like the others have been doing the entire day, but he needs to shut up about anything else.

'Rafael, it might be a smart idea to gather more-' Marcello's cut off by a beeping sound. Someone's phone is ringing.

North's phone.

I wait for her to pick up, but she's too busy waiting for Marcello to continue to pick up her goddamn phone.

'Take the call.' I sneer, making her look at me for a second.

Her eyes are red and puffy and I remind myself of the talk I had with Celine.

"Chill back on her a bit, she has enough on her plate already."

'I'll be back.' She takes her phone and walks into the hall as quickly as possible.

As if that phone call is her escape from reality.

I can't imagine what she's going through and I don't want to either, but she understands that we have to continue. Now more than ever.

'As I was saying, you need to gather more men.' Marcello continues, turning his gaze back to me, 'Did you ask Camilla?'

'She said that if I wanted to talk to her, I would have to go there in person.' I grunt. It's exactly what Marco told me yesterday.

Not the news I was expecting, but I can't blame him for it.

'So what are you waiting for?' Marcello asks a little disappointed. Yes? What am I waiting for?

I heard about this yesterday, so I should've left yesterday.

But I didn't want to leave France yet. What if she was still here? Then it would've taken me longer to get back and she would've been gone again.

Not that I have her now.

I open my mouth to reply to Marcello's question, but the door slams open and Neveah rushes in. 'Cataleya is home!' What?

'What do you mean?' Marco asks since I'm not. Is she really? 'I have her on the phone, she's at the store in her neighborhood.'

She's on the phone? 'Hand me the phone.' North looks at the phone and sighs deeply, before walking over to me.

I pull the phone out of her hands and put it up to my ear. 'Valentina?'

'She's not-' I raise my hand and get up from my seat, walking to the other side of the room to create some distance. 'Cataleya?'

I know I sound desperate, but I don't care. I just need to hear her voice. I need to know that she's okay.

I mean, I have no clue what Hunter wants from her, despite getting something out of me. For all I know, he's torturing her in the worst ways possible.

'Cataleya!' I hear some voices, but not hers. And then the call stops.

I take a deep breath, keeping myself from throwing the stupid phone against the wall. Not because it's North's phone, I paid for it so I could wreck it if I wanted to, but because she might call again.

'We should go.' Neveah says, keeping her eyes on mine while Brandon and Celine try cuddling her again. 'We have to go.'

I nod and look at Marcello, silently thanking him for his help so far. 'Go pack your stuff, we're going.'

As quickly as she ran out before, she does again, doing as I'm telling her to. 'Brandon, Marco. You two are coming with us,' They both nod and leave the room as well, 'Celine, can you keep things in check around here?'

'I'm not-' 'Celine please.' The second time I ever ask, practically beg her to do anything.

But it's because I'm desperate. Desperate to get her back.

Because of these stupid feelings she put into my head.

She planted them like seeds. And I thought, after all the fighting and distance and hate, that it was over. That I felt nothing for her anymore. But I do.

The roots go deeper. Through my entire body.

Like veins.

'Okay. I'll stay here and take care of some stuff.' She mumbles, looking at Kai.

Kai. That fucking idiot.

I should kill him for what he did. But he might come in handy later.

There's a reason he got Celine out of there. Because he loves her. And just like Hunter is using my feelings for Valentina against me, I am going to use Kai's feelings for Celine against him.

Call me heartless, I couldn't care less.

'You,' I say while I point at him, 'You're coming with us too, at least that way I can keep my eyes on you.'

'What?' Celine asks. She was about to walk out of here. Well, not anymore.

'You heard me, go pack your shit. We leave in an hour.' I state, not leaving it up for debate as I walk out of the room to pack my clothes myself.

Marcello walks after me and leans on the frame of the door. 'You really think it's a smart idea?'

I look up at him, while I throw a bunch of shirts in a bag. 'What else am I supposed to do?'

'Recruit more men. This could be a trap Rafael, you know that.' Fuck. He's right. This could all be a trap to keep me in the States. In his territory.

But what if it's not? What if she's really there, waiting for us?

Am I willing to risk it all?

Yes.

I owe her that much.

And it bothers me that I'm not even thinking about the consequences right now. All that crosses my mind is her. Thoughts of holding her again, hearing her voice, annoying the fuck out of her.

Even if it has only been two days.

Two fucking days.

It has only been two days and I'm acting like I can't live without her. As if she's my addiction. Because she is...

'I can't risk losing this trail as well.' He sighs deeply and walks over to me as I rush to the dresser in the corner of the room. 'Rafael, calm down. You need to think about this for a second.'

A second.

'I don't have a second. We need to move, now.' He looks at his phone and shakes his head. 'If she's not there, you will go visit your aunt and talk to her. Understood?'

I always looked up to Marcello when I was little. I still do. And I don't want to be rude to him right now, but I really don't have time for this.

'What good will that do?' It will only be a waste of time. 'You need more people if you want to win this, trust me.'

I shove the last things in my bag and throw them over my shoulders. 'I will.'

He nods and steps out of the room, leading the way to the hall. I head into the office and quickly go over a few things, while he silently watches me.

'There's something else.' He says after a while. I continue listing the last things for Celine on a piece of paper. 'Spill it.' Shipments, training recruits, black market.

'You need to make a call to Antonio Leonetti, Manuela is dead.' I drop my pen and look up into Marcello's dark eyes. 'You need to tell him.'

Over the phone? I have to tell Antonio that his mother is dead, over the fucking phone?

'How did that happen?' My heart is racing and I feel like murdering every single one involved. But to do that, without risking my own life, I have to start at the top.

I have to start with The Steels.

'She got stabbed and slowly bled to death in a warehouse near the haven.' Fucking hell... Not only did they kill her. They made her last minutes a living hell. They let her bleed to death.

'Glad you didn't... Say this when North was around.' According to Celine, she wouldn't survive something like that.

Not right now.

But. This hurts me too.

Manuela was like a mother to me, especially after my mother died. She tried to stand up to my father about his way of coping with my mother's death, but her respect for him was too great. He didn't deserve someone like Manuela to work for him.

And neither did I.

Fuck.

'She knows, Rafael.' What? I raise a brow and wait for him to elaborate. 'It happened when she was with Hunter. He killed her.'

She knew. She fucking knew all this time and didn't say a single thing.

God, she's making it harder for me to "keep my cool" by the second.

And Hunter.

He seems to enjoy the growing pile of reasons why I should kill him.

'So call him as soon as possible.' Call... I remember when Leon called me. He called me when he found out that his mother died. Because I was away.

I was at a freaking meeting with the Dutch.

It was the cruelest thing he could do, but the same goes for him.

He found out over a phone call as well.

It killed us.

I can't do that to Antonio, he has a family, a normal life.

A life any of us would kill for.

But the longer I keep this from him, the more it will crush him.

And we don't have time to go to Italy.

We truly don't.

So a phone call it is. As soon as I have time.

Or maybe I'll let Marco do it. Or Brandon. He always has a way with words.

'I will.' I say, looking at the list I made. It's not much, but it's enough.

I get up and head back into the hall. Everyone is there already, and of course, North is being babied again.

I want to shout at her for not telling me, but Celine will kill me if I do that right now.

So I'll remember this for another time. And there will be another time.

We all head out the door, towards the parked cars outside, while Celine talks to Neveah, something about staying strong or something.

'Rafael!' I turn to Marcello and take a deep breath, expecting a long ass speech about my behavior.

I'm going into a dangerous zone, a zone where I have zero control.

'My plane is ready for you, take my houses, and be careful.' He shakes my hand and practically pushes me towards the car before I can even thank him.

I get into the car and tell Marco to make a phone call before we board the plane. I honestly don't have the energy to call Antonio myself. Even if I had, I can't do it.

'So what's the plan?' I glare at Kai through the rearview mirror and take a deep breath.

I'm the one who took him on this mission, regretting it already would be my own fault. But I wish I could just slit his throat.

'Kai, I know you're with Celine and all. But I suggest you keep your mouth shut for the rest of the trip. Because if Rio snaps, I don't think any of us are going to hold him back.' North says, looking out of the window.

'She's right.' Marco chuckles, 'I wouldn't want to miss it.'

'Make that call.' I sneer, racing towards the airport.

Marco finally makes the call and looks at me. 'What do I have to say?' 'Tell Antonio-' My throat shuts for a second and I tighten my grip around the wheel, 'that his mother is dead.' I mumble, for only us to hear.

And since Brandon is too busy talking to North, the others don't hear a single thing.

Marco's eyes widen and he almost drops his phone. 'Mio Dio, you want me to tell him?'

'I don't have time.' Or courage, 'Just do it.'

He nods and takes a shaking breath, before turning back to his phone.

I hear North and Kai gasp as soon as we get there. 'What. The. Fuck.'

'We can use Marcello's plane?' Brandon asks, pressing his face against the glass. 'Yes.'

'It's huge.' Neveah says, almost climbing over Brandon to see for herself. 'I heard there's a bar and at least five sleeping cabins in there.' Brandon says, impressed by the size of the vehicle.

Six actually. And there's more than just a bar.

There will be enough space to avoid every single one of them for the whole flight.

Alone time.

Finally.

I stop the car and jump out, not waiting for any of the others while I head to the captain waiting for us with my bags.

'Jacksonville, Florida. Correct sir?' I nod and follow him up the stairs.

Brandon is right up my ass, as we step inside. The whole interior is exactly Marcello's style. Mediterranean and flowy.

'Pick a room.' I state once everyone is inside, as I head to the stairs myself. Up. I go up so that I can claim the most secluded room for myself.

I open the door to the bedroom and enter the room. There's a huge bed in the middle of the room, against a wall, with a few windows here and there, and some creme-colored chairs.

Perfect. An entire place, just for me.

I drop my bags on the floor and take a seat on the bed, taking a deep breath as I look around once more.

I should get a plane like this myself...

Someone knocks on the door, and since I didn't close it, I can see Marco peeking around the corner. 'What is it?'

'Antonio wants to talk to you himself, so he expects you to call him as soon as we get to the ground again.' I sigh and want to drop on the bed, and sleep forever.

'Fine, was that it?' He shakes his head and looks at me again. 'The others would like to know what we're going to do exactly.'

The desperation in his voice is barely noticeable, but I know him too well. He wants to know too.

So I get up and head back down the stairs, towards the main area, where North and Brandon are laughing about something.

Kai is sitting on the other side of the main area, looking out the window.

'We're going to take off. Everybody, take a seat.' The captain chimes over the speakers. I drop into a chair across North and look at the bottle of champagne. They drank some of it already.

'She's at Winston's. That's where she called me from. We used to work there when we were teens.' North explains, before taking a sip from her glass. 'There once was a customer that tried to take a dump in the middle of the fucking store!'

Brandon starts laughing and watches as his brother takes a seat next to me.

The plane slowly goes up and angles into the right direction.

'Leya and I started screaming until the guy left, she was so scared to work the next day.' North continues, laughing herself.

Stupid. It's completely stupid.

'I'm just glad she's okay.' Neveah says, emptying her glass. Brandon nods and offers her another glass, but she declines.

'She should've called earlier.' They all look at me as if it's crazy that I'm even saying it. 'She should've called us as soon as she could.' 'Maybe she did.' Marco says, looking at his own glass.

I think he's drinking water.

'You can't seriously be annoyed about that?' Brandon asks, making me look at him. 'I'm not annoyed, it's just a waste of time.'

'What is?' North asks, annoying me again. She's the only thing annoying me right now.

'All of this. She should've stayed in the house and let me handle it.'

Brandon looks at Marco, who both get up and awkwardly leave. They don't want to be a part of this conversation.

And I will never forgive them for leaving.

'I don't get you.' She mutters, staring at me as if I'm some kind of puzzle she has to fix.

'What?' I ask, filling two glasses with champagne.

One glass won't hurt.

'I remember you, that one night when Cataleya had a nightmare. You called her pathetic.' She states, grabbing her glass to take a sip.

I nod, remembering that night. God that night was terrifying.

Her screams were louder than the fucking thunder. Every scream felt like my heart was going to be ripped out of my chest. And I hated every second of it.

'And all of a sudden, you care.' She smirks, taking another sip, before pointing her finger at me. 'But oh no, you still hate her.'

She furrows her brows and awaits my explanation. An explanation I don't have.

'I mean- Sure, I get it. I have my own mood swings, but what the fuck is this?'

I shrug, bringing my own glass to my lips.

'You have to pick a side because it's getting annoying!' She sighs deeply and places the glass on the table between us.

'Do you want her back or not?'

'Is it not obvious yet?' I ask, not wanting to answer her question with an actual answer.

'Well, not really if you keep changing your fucking mind.' She jokes, making me sigh deeply.

'We need to get her back.'

'So we're on the same line with that.' She smirks as she pours another drink.

I nod and take another sip, before turning my head to the window.

North is smart, smarter than she tends to show. But she wants to know every little tiny detail, and that's something that will get her killed.

I get up and walk towards the stairs, I need to get to my room so that I can try to sleep for a few hours, or maybe get some work done or just to get away from North.

I am not sitting with her for the entire fifteen hours.

And she doesn't say a word as I walk away from her.

When I get to my room, I take off my shoes and jump on the bed. I can finally get some rest.

As soon as my head hits the pillow, I can feel the exhaustion take over.

I can hear the motor buzzing and close my eyes, taking a few deep breaths. And it doesn't take me long to fall asleep.

When I wake up, I look at my watch. I slept for at least eight hours. Seven more to go.

But I can't fall asleep. Not even to catch up on the sleep I've lost in the past few days.

I didn't think love would be this exhausting.

Everyone kept talking about it as if it was something fun, something worth all the pain in the world.

But it's not.

It's exhausting and annoying and absolutely terrifying. But most of all, it makes me feel weak.

I have no control over what's going on. Not with myself, not with anyone around me, not with my enemies lurking around every corner.

I hate it. I absolutely hate every second of it.

And can I even call this love? I mean, I can't stand her sometimes. She's too stubborn. Too determined. Too annoying sometimes.

But I do enjoy her company. Sometimes.

So I'm not sure if it's love or if it's just another obsession.

I mean, there was a time where I was obsessed with painting, so maybe this is just another phase?

The only way to find out is by getting her back.

But it's taking too damn long.

And suddenly I feel it, the urge to get a fucking drink.

Alone though. I want to be alone.

So I have to slip past the others, down the stairs, towards the bar.

When I get to the main floor, I notice that Marco is sleeping in one of the chairs, Kai is reading a book and Brandon and North are nowhere in sight.

I look at the other side of the stairs and try to see if I can hear them, but I don't hear anything.

Maybe they went upstairs to sleep? So I can have the bar for myself.

I take the other set of stairs, to the lower part of the plane and start thinking about what I'm going to drink.

But as soon as I can see what's down there, or more, who's down there, I stop.

'Why are you down here?' I ask as I walk down the last steps and see North at the glowing bar.

Marcello certainly has a nice taste. But so far for having the bar for myself...

'I needed a drink!' She shouts, almost falling off her chair. 'Where is Brandon and why aren't you with him or Marco?'

North rolls her eyes and pours herself another drink. 'I didn't want them around, they're annoying.'

'Annoying?' I bet they say the same thing about you.

'I mean, I love them. But yes. They're annoying. And I didn't want to sit next to Kai the entire flight. So I escaped and ran down here.' She explains as if I asked for an entire story.

'I asked why you were here, not how you got here.' Keep it cool with her... Keep it cool...

'Want a drink?' I sigh and walk over to the bar, pouring myself a drink. She's moving too much.

'So what do you want to talk about?' She asks, turning her chair towards me. 'What do you mean?'

'This is the therapy bar, you must talk about your deepest, darkest secrets.' Oh god. She's drunk already.

'How much did you drink?' I ask, looking at all the bottles in front of her. None of them are empty, but they're not full either. 'Not nearly enough!' She exclaims, throwing her arms in the air.

She bumps into me and starts laughing because of it.

I wish I could shove her the other way and just- Keep it cool... Keep it cool...

'Listen, North. I know I told the others that I would lay low on you for a while, but you're really making it difficult for me to be around you. So let me warn you, you're walking on a very thin line right now.' Her eyes widen and she almost drops her glass.

'What?' She asks, clearly confused by my sudden outburst. I watch as she slowly places her glass onto the bar and starts looking at it as if her life depends on it. 'I'm trying to keep myself from shouting at you because of-'

'Don't.' She says, looking up from her empty glass. 'Don't pity me.' She continues when I stare at her, not knowing what she's talking about.

'Shout at me, make me feel.' She shoves her glass onto the bar and turns back to me.

'Don't baby me, don't hug me, don't tell me that it's going to be okay, that everything is going to get better. Because so far, the only good thing in the past forty-eight hours has been finding out that Cataleya is in Florida.' She's right. That's the only good thing so far.

'And every time I'm trying to focus on that, someone cuddles me and reminds me of what happened. Reminds me of how bad it is, of how badly I need to tell Tiago, of how hard it must be... As if I didn't know that already!' Tears roll down her face and the urge to get the fuck out of here, before she explodes even worse, is huge.

But I stay. Because I have nothing better to do.

'So please, don't hold back. Make me angry so that I have a reason to react. Because I can't be angry at them. They're just try- trying to cheer me up.' Her breath hitches for a second and she takes a deep breath.

So I did see it right. She wanted to get away from them as quickly as possible because she was sick of it.

'Give me all you have to offer, Curse.' She says, laughing at the last word. 'Curse?' 'That's my new nickname for you.' She says, smiling. It's not a genuine smile, but a smile nonetheless.

'No.' I state, pouring something in both our glasses. We could definitely use a drink. 'I think I decide on what nickname I give you, don't you think?' She asks, grabbing her glass and clinging it against mine, before taking a sip.

I roll my eyes and walk to the other side of the bar so that she has to look at me. North wants all I have to offer, all my anger. So she'll get it.

'Manuela.' I start, watching as something dark forms in her eyes. 'She's dead, but you knew that already, didn't you?'

'I did.' She responds, no more laughs or giggles or hard tones. 'Why didn't you tell me?' Now I'm the hard one. I'm the one that's almost shouting at her.

'You didn't involve me in the meetings.' She mumbles, realizing that it's bullshit. 'No, you decided to keep it from me to annoy me. Admit it.' I sneer, watching as she looks at the glass in her hands.

She's avoiding eye contact at all costs. 'You decided to keep this from me. The woman that practically raised me, is dead. She has been for a while and you didn't tell me.'

My trust in her was low already, but it's way lower now. None-existent almost.

The only thing I trust about her is her eagerness to get her friend back. But even that is faint.

'I'm sorry.'

'You're sorry? What the fuck is that supposed to do?!' The glass in my hand breaks, I barely realized I was squeezing it so tightly until it was too late. 'Nothing.'

'Exactly, nothing.' I say, walking towards the couch on the other side of the room.

She turns around and keeps her eyes on the floor, not daring to look at me. As she should.

'I swear to god, as soon as we have her back, I am sending you off to a far island where I never have to see or speak to you again.' I groan, leaning all the way back.

She's just so annoying, without even fucking trying.

I can hear her move around and don't even bother looking up when I hear her open another bottle.

She can drink all she wants, I'm not stopping her.

'So what will happen when we get her back?' She asks, slurring a little. I sit up again and look at her, she poured me a new drink. 'What do you mean?'

'Will you ask her to be your girlfriend and finally admit your feelings, or what?' I roll my eyes and pour myself another drink, not even paying attention to the one she made for me.

I need it if I want to survive this conversation.

I gulp it all down, in one shot, and look back at North. 'It's not that easy.'

'If you want a healthy relationship, you need to communicate.' She mumbles, making me doubt if she's only talking about my relationship with her friend or her own relationship with Leonardo.

That's easier said than done.

'No, it's easy.' I frown at her, not understanding how she knew what I was thinking about.

Unless... Maybe I should stop drinking.

'Go get some sleep, we have a few more hours.' At first, she wants to say something about it. But for some reason, she decides not to. She's probably exhausted.

I need her to get away from me. So that I can finally be alone again.

And if I wasn't this exhausted, I would've gotten up myself. But I don't want to get up. Not yet.

So she leaves, finally leaving me to myself. All alone.

Silence. Some buzzing, but silence.

Finally.

Antonio. I have to talk to him when I have time. I owe him that much.

He had a normal life, a wife, two kids, and a mother who worked for a monster like me.

That's what got her killed, her connection to my family. To me.

And I have to ruin it for him. I have to tell him the details about his mother's death. Fucking hell...

I really want to leave that up to Marco, but I can't do that to him. He needs to hear it from me.

So for the rest of the flight, the remaining six hours, I try coming up with the right words, but I have no clue and end up with nothing.

When we finally get back on the ground, I run up the stairs and tell Kai to wake the others up. At least he's good for something.

Marco almost drop-kicks him and rolls his eyes. He seemed to be sleeping pretty deeply.

But we have to go.

We all get out of the plane and are greeted by almost complete darkness. Shit.

I didn't think about that. It's night now, meaning it would be rude to just show up at her mother's house and- 'We should head to the house and go to Leya's place tomorrow.' Marco says when he sees me debating our choices.

'No. We can go now.' North says, peeking through the window of the car. She was the first to get in, eager to go. 'It's the middle of the night.' Kai says.

We all turn to him with looks that could kill.

'I don't remember asking you.' I sneer, making Marco chuckle.

I can already tell that they won't be getting along on our trip.

'But he does have a point, we can't just show up at her front door in the middle of the night.' Brandon says, leaning against the car door.

'Ariana is used to me getting home far later than this time of day, she won't mind. And since she won't answer my texts, we should just go there to see if Leya really is with her mother or not.' North says, looking at me.

And what if she's not? 'It's best if we go tomorrow.' Marco repeats, turning to me as well.

I notice that everyone is looking at me, waiting for me to decide.

'Who says she'll open the door?' I ask, looking at my watch. Six in the morning, minus six, is legit midnight. 'I have a way to get in. She won't mind.'

'You want to break into their home in the middle of the night?' Marco asks.

North's plan sounds insane because it is, but at least we'll know. 'It's not breaking in, I just know a way.'

It's insane, but at least we'll know. The sooner, the better.

'Barsetti's, you two are going to the house. Take Kai with you.' I can already see the shock in Marco's eyes, but he doesn't say a single word, knowing that now is not the time, and turn to North, 'North, if this goes down, I swear to god I will leave you in the middle of the fucking streets. Understood?'

She rolls her eyes and rolls up her window, while everyone starts moving. 'Stai attento.' Brandon says, before getting in their car. 'Sempre.' I say, before getting in my own car.

North stayed in the back and simply glares at me through the rearview mirror.

I want to tell her to stop being such a winey bitch, but that will only be a waste of energy. So instead, I put the address in, and start racing away.

We picked the wrong car. It's way too fancy for the neighborhood Valentina lives in. But as soon as we get to the right house, North jumps out of the car and rushes to the front door.

I turn off the car and get to her just quick enough before she can slip to the door. 'Calm down. We don't want to draw too much attention, do we?'

She pulls her arm out of my grip and rushes to one of the big plants right next to the door, and starts moving it around.

It's making too much sound, especially for this time of day. 'North!' I whisper as loud as I can, but she simply ignores me.

La ucciderò. Un giorno.

She gasps for air when she finds something, the key, and kisses the disgusting, covered in dust and dirt, key, before smiling at me.

I roll my eyes and wait for her to open the front door so that we can get in and look for ourselves if Valentina really is here instead of with Hunter.

She slowly opens the door and steps into the tiny house. I silently follow her and try not to bump into anything.

It's dark, but not dark enough to see absolutely nothing. I can see a few pictures hanging on the walls. Pictures of Valentina when she was little.

She hasn't changed one bit.

'This way.' Neveah whispers, walking down the hall. I follow her across the creaking halls.

Was this their living situation?

Just as Neveah opens a door, on her right, I hear a gun being loaded right behind me. 'Who the fuck are you and what the hell are you doing here?' A man asks, his voice hard and full of anger.

Great.

I take a deep breath, pull my own gun, and turn to face him.

It's an older guy, wearing shorts and a worn-off shirt. He just woke up, meaning he's barely focusing on anything. If I shoot now-

'Wow, who the fuck are you, and where's Ariana?!' Neveah shouts, turning to the man as well. I hear more footsteps coming from behind the man and see a familiar face.

Valentina's face.

It's her mother. She looks just like her. Just older, wiser, and fiercer.

'Neveah?' She mumbles, rubbing her eyes. Her eyes widen when she realizes that there are two men holding guns, pointing them at each other in her house. 'What the fuck is going on!?' She shouts, suddenly completely awake.

'Rio, lower your gun.' Neveah says, slowly stepping closer to me. 'Him first.' I say, keeping my eyes on the man who is still pointing his gun at me. 'I'm not stupid.'

A grin forms on my lips at the stupidity. 'Trust me, you are.'

'Both of you, lower your guns! Right now!' It's her hard tone that makes me look at her. Her fierce tone makes my body move without hesitation.

She would fit in perfectly with my family. Especially the women.

The man lowers his gun as well and turns to Ariana. 'Neveah, what the fuck is going on?'

The closer the woman gets, the more I notice her puffy eyes. She looks like she has been crying.

Oh no... Don't panic. Not yet. Not fucking yet...

'We came to see if Leya was still here.' North says, flat out. Not even coming up with something to say. Some lie to tell.

No. Just hard and honest truth.

Which is fine with me, as long as we don't tell her too much.

It would be a risk and we can't afford those.

'And who is that?' Ariana tilts her head my way, before looking at Neveah again. 'This is... A friend.' The word comes out of her mouth like poison. She can't even fucking lie about being friends with me.

But I don't think I could either.

'I'm Rafael.' Her eyes shoot towards me and she takes me all in. Unashamed of the fact that I can see her. I can see her looking at me, scanning me as if I'm something she wants to buy, checking if I'm good or bad.

'A friend?' I nod and try to smile at North, which is a lot harder than I thought it would be.

She looks back at Neveah and sighs deeply, tears escaping her eyes. She has certainly been crying.

'Ariana?' North wants to step closer, but the mystery man is faster and wraps his arms around her.

'She- wait. If she's not with you, then where is she?' Fuck.

Valentina said that she was with us? With North? Oh god...

I look at North, not knowing what to say. I don't know what lies this woman will believe, because I don't know her. I only know her daughter. That's it.

'I- went clubbing again.' North says, slowly walking closer to the hugging two. 'So I thought she would be here.'

North is good at lying to Ariana. Better than lying to me.

Ariana moves out of the guy's grip and pulls Neveah into her arms. 'Please.' She begs, hugging Neveah so tightly that she winces. 'Talk to her. Tell her we can fix this, please.'

Fix what?

Something happened. Something hurtful towards Ariana. And I feel bad for her. But I know that Valentina wouldn't be rude to her mother. She doesn't have it in her to hurt her mother.

So something happened. Something forced her to hurt her mother like this. Someone did.

'I will. I promise.' North whispers, hugging the lady back.

I can tell they have a bond. It's as if their mother and daughter, but not completely.

'We should go. I'm so sorry if we scared you.' Ariana slowly lets go of North and shakes her head, before looking at me. 'I don't want you in here ever again, but please make sure my daughter is safe.'

What the fuck happened here?

I nod and look at North, who's already at the door. I feel Ariana's eyes on me as I walk past her, bowing my head a little as a greeting, before glaring at the guy and walking after North.

We head back to the car in complete silence.

'We don't even know where she went.' I state, more to myself than to Neveah. 'To my place. Well, my aunt's place.'

I look back at the house and try picturing what might've happened here.

In less than twenty-four hours, all went to shit. And Ariana. Ariana is seriously hurt by something Valentina said.

'We need to get her back.' North nods and sighs deeply. 'We can't go there at this time. We will get shot there.'

Great. 'Tomorrow morning we'll go there then.' She nods and fastens her seatbelt as I drive towards the house we're staying at.

It's big, but old, and has enough rooms for all of us.

Brandon is already sleeping when we get inside, but Marco isn't. He asks a bunch of questions and I answer as much as I can, before leaning on the kitchen counter. North moves to the other side of the kitchen island and listens to our conversation.

Her mind wanders off from time to time, but she tries to talk as much as possible.

'Who was that man?' I ask her since I still have no clue who he was.

As far as I know, her mother is single. But the last time I checked was nine months ago.

A lot can change in nine months.

'I think that was Theo?' Theo? 'What's his last name?' I ask.

'Theo Hall. Or something like that. Why?' I look at Marco and he understands what he has to do. 'What are you going to do?'

'None of your business.' I sneer as Marco leaves the room to do some research on the guy.

'It is my business if it involves people I care about.' Here we go again...

'You care about?' She nods and looks at me with anger in her eyes, 'You don't care about her.'

'How would you know?'

'You didn't have any trouble lying to her, did you?' Her mood drops and I know I hit a nerve. But she told me to not keep myself contained. So I won't. 'You don't lie to the people you care about, do you?'

'I did that to protect her.' Lies.

'You can lie to her, but you can't lie to me. North.'

'And how would you know? You've never cared for anyone, right?'

'Watch your tone North, I'm warning you.' She rolls her eyes at my threat and leans forward, staring me down. 'Why? You said so yourself, you need me to get her back. You can't kill me.'

I hate myself for telling her that I need her. But it's true.

'Just because I can't kill you, does not mean I won't hesitate to hurt you.'

She scoffs and walks to the other side of the room, knowing that I'll hit her if she continues to talk to me like she's doing right now.

'Just like last time, right?' She smirks, still stepping away though. She knows I will.

I only hit her once. One time.

Back in Barletta. Back when Valentina was around. She was depressed, but at least she was around.

'If you want to hit something, go hit a wall. I'm not going to let you drag me around like a bag. From now on you're going to tell me what the next step will be.'

She deserves that much, I guess.

'Fine, but keep that attitude down. We don't have time for that shit.'

'Who the fuck hurt you?' She asks, not caring about a thing I just said.

'That's none of your business.'

She steps in my way, not allowing me to go anywhere. 'Move.'

'Tell me what happened that made you this messed up.'

I roll my eyes and try walking past her, but it's no use. She's too quick, too eager to know.

'I'm not having this conversation with you since I don't owe you an explanation.'

She stays put and folds her arms, finally allowing me to move past her if I wanted.

But for some reason, I stay.

'I'm not going anywhere with you until you talk to me.'

For someone who's in pain, like Celine says, she is certainly not afraid of my fury.

'Go to bed.' I brush past her and hear her groan behind me, before turning around the corner, to my own room.

Maybe one day I'll tell her why I'm so messed up. But when that day comes, I'll be on my deathbed.

Until then, I'll keep all of it to myself. Just like she does.

We're not friends and I don't think we'll ever be.

'Rio!' She grabs my arm and pulls as hard as she can, making me turn around to face her. 'What?'

'I'm just trying to understand your anger.' She mumbles, a little ashamed that she has to admit it.

'You don't need to understand anything that doesn't concern you, North.' I state, trying not to sound too angry with her.

She always manages to step on my toes. In a way that makes me want to kill her.

And now that Leon isn't around to keep me in check, the thought of killing her becomes more and more tempting.

'But-' 'All you need to know is that we're not friends. We're simply allies. Allies with the same purpose, the same mission.' I groan, stepping away from her again.

'Getting Cataleya back.' She whispers as I reach my bedroom door. I open it and turn around slowly. 'Exactly.'

I kept repeating that I shouldn't panic. But right now, now that we have no clue where she might be, I can't help but panic.

And that's bad. Because it will drive me absolutely insane.

-----

A/N: Another GREAT first meeting... These two need to sort some shit out, otherwise, they won't get any further.

Will they find Leya or will they leave her with Hunter for the rest of her life?

Also, don't forget to comment and vote if you liked this chapter! It keeps me motivated!

Hope you have a nice day and I'll see you guys in the next chapter!