Serena POV

Walking towards the bed, I feel Massimo's eyes trailing me, watching my every move.

Looking over my shoulder I catch his eye.

He was leaning against the wall watching with dark, lust-filled eyes.

"What are you looking at?" I ask with a raised eyebrow teasingly.

"My beautiful wife," He comments in a rough, hoarse voice. Goosebumps flash across my arms at his tone.

"Because in technicalities, this is our first night together as husband and wife," He says slowly stalking towards me.

"A marriage that is for benefits not love," I add in as I sat on the edge of the bed. "One that I did not agree to, might I add."

Silence filled the room as he swiftly moved until he stood in front of me. My head tilted back to look into his eyes.

"But yet you have not fought me on it nor asked for a divorce," He whispers into my ear. His warm breath fanned my neck as he places a light kiss on my jaw.

"Its never too late."

"Mhm," He hums against my throat sending goosebumps down my arms. "Maybe I should show you just what you would be missing if you were to leave me then."

"What if I still choose to leave after all this is done?"

"Then I didn't do a good job at convincing you otherwise," He whispers into my ear.

My hand goes to his chest as I connect my eyes with his.

"Or maybe I'm good at detecting bullshit," I nearly whisper as our faces are inches apart. A smirk appears on his face as he moves the tiniest bit closer.

"No bullshit here baby. Only truth and reality. And the truth is that I am speechless every time my eyes lay on you," He says and puts a hand on my cheek, cupping it as if too much pressure would cause me to break. "And that reality is that I will never lie to you."

I move my eyes over his face as I access him.

His eyes are focused on mine with an unreadable expression.

I smile at him with tired eyes.

"Maybe I'll take you up on that offer another night," I reply and he nods his head.

"Let me get you something to change into."

I watch him turn around and move towards the hidden closet.

Something about the way he spoke seemed to be filled with passion. No, not passion. Lust.

That was all this truly was.

I was here because he needed my help to handle the Spanish.

The only reason we ever got intimate must have been a strategy to earn my trust.

Or maybe he was just horny.

Either way, there was nothing in this faked marriage.

As soon as all this was over, if I was still alive, I would divorce him and go far away where nobody from this life would ever find me again.

No more favors, no more killing. Just me living my normal life.

But what would that life look like?

Where would I even start?

"Penny for your thought?" Massimo asks as he moves to stand in front of me. He held clothing over his forearm but instead of passing them over to me, he sat beside me on the bed.

"Just pointless thoughts," I mutter and he nods as my eyes land on the still open closet door.

"Well, since they are pointless, care to share?" He asks in a soft voice. I glance over at him with an arched eyebrow in question. "I like seeing how your brain works. Plus your voice is soothing."

A smile spreads across my face as I shake my head.

Even though it was pointless, I spoke anyways.

"I was thinking about what would happen if we pulled this off," I say and turn my body to face him as I pulled my legs up to my chest. "I mean, I have been looking over my shoulder for far too long. The thought of returning to normal life is just hard to wrap my mind around."

"It can't be that hard to imagine. You did start a normal life after all with Joyce. It may have only been for a short period but you can have that back."

I nodded my head absentmindedly. The look on his face said he truly believed what he was saying.

"But before we think about what happens afterward, we should start coming up with a plan," he says and I nod my head in agreement. He hands me the clothes in his arm as he stands up.

I follow and set the clothes on the bed.

"We are meeting with Tomas at two, right?" Massimo asks as he walks back into the closet to change.

"Eastern time. So in Mexico, it will be two in the morning. Here it will be nine," I inform him as I start changing into the oversized black button-up shirt.

A confused expression appears on my face as I look down at myself in just a shirt that goes down to my knees and nothing else underneath. Maybe I should ask Joyce for clothes for tonight.

Shaking my head at the ridiculous thought since he has seen me in far less than this, I crawled into bed and got comfortable.

"You know I am fine with sleeping in a different room," I say as he reenters the room. I turn to face him and my eyes lock on his bare chest and low-hanging shorts.

His tattoos are on full display, just the way I liked them.

"Why would I allow that?" He asks with an arched eyebrow as he slid into bed beside me. "This way I can keep an eye on you and be beside you all night."

I let a chuckle slip from my lips as I roll onto my side and turn the bedside light off.

My eyes were already heavy from lack of sleep and too much information for one day.

"Goodnight, mi amore," He whispers into my ear before switching his light off.

"Goodnight, Massimo."

* * *

Nightmares filled my eyes the moment I fell asleep.

Waking up I still recalled them. I always did. It was like the worst things your brain could imagine always followed you into your sleep and haunted you when you woke.

Visions of blood, death, and destruction.

The smell of gunpowder and the metallic scent of blood.

The ringing of screams still rang in my ears.

Lifting Massimo's arm from around my waist, I looked over to see if he was awake but he was fast asleep. Sitting on the edge of the bed, I took a deep breath before jumping back into my clothes from yesterday.

Looking over at the clock to see it was two in the morning I groaned internally.

The thought of going back to sleep sounded wonderful but I knew my brain better. Once I was awake there was no going back to bed.

Seven more hours until the meeting with Tomas.

Standing from the bed, I decided to leave the room and wander the mansion they called home.

Carefully, I shut the bedroom door behind me to not wake Massimo.

"Good morning, Miss," A voice says causing me to jump and spin around with my fist raised. "Whoa!"

Seeing the man standing there with his hands up I shook my head.

"Who the fuck are you?" I whispered with a snarl.

"Cielo," He whispers back as if that answers all my questions. With one sharp look, his cheeks pale. "I am on patrol tonight."

Nodding my head as I ran a hand through my hair, I let out a huff.

"What are you doing up?" He asks and I look at the door before I nudge my head down the hall and he nods.

Once we are a few doors away, I speak.

"I couldn't sleep."

He nods his head in understanding as we continued slowly down the hall.

"When you say you are on patrol, what do you mean?" I ask curiously as we head down the main staircase.

"We all take turns. Sometimes we are outside at the gate, other times we keep watch around the house," He says glancing over at me. His bright green eyes seem to shine, even in the dark lighting. "Since your awake, care for a tour?"

"I'd love that, Cielo."

"Alright, so you have seen upstairs. There are just bedrooms up there," I nod my head as we reach the bottom of the stairs. "So now we are at the front of the house. To your right is the living area with a library attached. To our left is the kitchen, dining hall, and pantry."

We head to the left and through the double wooden doors.

The table was large enough to fit thirty people easily. The windows cast a glow from the moon into the room.

"Damn," I whisper as I look at the large room.

"Quite impeccable, right?" He asks with a happy smile as his own eyes ran over the room.

"That's one word you could use," I say and he smiles down at me.

"So, I heard the boss and you got hitched," He says randomly and I freeze.

"Something like that," I say and walk out of the room. After he closed the doors, he turns and looks at me. "What?"

"Didn't you just meet when Joyce brought you to Italy a few weeks ago?" He asks with an arched eyebrow.

I give him a cold look for snooping before releasing a sigh. He was being kind enough to show me around. The least I could do was answer his question.

"I don't know why he decided it was a good idea. He says for my protection but I think he just wants to control me like everyone else," I say bluntly and he stares at me with wide eyes. "Now, can we continue?"

"Yes, sorry," He says snapping out of his thoughts. "This second door is to the kitchen. The staff doesn't like us barging in there, especially when they are cooking, so we have a second kitchen but we all refer to it as the pantry. There's a drink fridge and snacks in here if you get hungry."

He opens the door and I peer inside as he flips a light switch on.

"Jesus," A voice hisses.

My eyebrows raise as I see someone hunched over the island with what looks like a glass of whiskey in front of him.

"Dude, what are you doing up?" Cielo asks the man as he looks over his shoulder at us. His eyes met mine immediately.

I remember him from the meeting. He kept saying to hand me back over to Ricardo.

"If it isn't the bringer of death herself," He slurs as he looks over me with a dark look.

"Ignore him," Cielo says as we turn to leave but he continues speaking making me freeze.

"You walk in here like you own the fucking place," He slurs and I turn back around to see him standing. "Everyone thinks that having you on our side when we go against the Spanish is an automatic win. But you know what I think?"

"I think you're going to tell me no matter what I say," I say with a slight eye roll as I cross my arms over my chest.

"I think you are still working for them and are going to screw us over. You think just because you spread your legs for the boss that we will all follow you blindly but we won't. One day he will snap out of it and realize what the rest of us know," He takes a few steps closer to me but I stand my ground. "You are just a scared little girl who doesn't belong in the man's world."

He looked down at me as he stood right in front of me. His breath reeked causing my nose to wrinkle as I stared blankly back at him.

"Enzo, back off," Cielo tries but I put a hand up to him.

"I didn't ask to be here. I was ready for Ricardo to find me, torture me, then put my life to an end," He looks shocked for a moment but I continue. "You stand there and talk to me like you know me. You know nothing but what I let you know. So I suggest you go sit down before you start something you can't finish."

He wobbles on his feet for a few seconds before shouldering past us and heading down the hall.

"That got tense quick," Cielo says and I just nod my head as we leave the room. Further down the hall came an intersection. "Down the left is where the infirmary is, offices, and conference rooms. This door goes to the back patio then down the right hall is the training room and computer lab."

I looked down the hall absentmindedly for a moment.

My brain began to have an internal war as I looked down the right hallway.

"Can you show me the training room?"