chapter 21| ice cold fury

"Your heart knows the way. Run in that direction."

-unknown



Aria POV

After procuring a box of tissues out of thin air and wiping his nose he brings a chair and puts it in front of me but doesn't sit down.

"So that's how you want to play" he slowly starts making his way around the table. I don't follow him with my eyes. I just stare at myself in the mirror. I can see him move in the reflection.

My nose still hurts a bit and I have dried blood on the lower part of my face. And Blake's shirt is also full of blood. I look like shit. And I feel like shit. Nothing new.

"Okay Aria, we'll do it your way.'' At this point he's fully behind me. Looking at me through the mirror. He leans in close to my ear.

This man truly never learns.

Just when he's about to enter my range of action and I'm about to hit him again with the back of my head, he grips my neck, hard.

I gasp. I didn't even see his hand move. My head starts to spin from the lack of oxygen.

"Good thing I also like it rough," he whispers in my ear.

I freeze. He lets go of my neck, comes back in front of me and smirks down at me. And not a 'hey I find you hot' smirk, a 'I have all the power here sweetheart and I'm not afraid to use it' smirk. And for the first time since I woke up in this room I truly realized my situation. I can't move, I can't defend myself, he has the upper hand in this situation. He can do anything he wants and just proved that.

Blake POV

Getting out of that room was pretty easy, what came afterwards was hard. Dean gave me keys to a car, I don't know what car but have my suspicions to it's whereabouts. After he left. I was kept in that room for almost a whole hour before Monique came in, told me to go home for the day and that I will be announced the next day how things ended. And if I'm still on the case or not. I have one more hour to get Aria.

Paul was charged to escort me to my car. I internally smile. Monique knew I would be tempted to not go directly home, but she apparently underestimated me because she only sent a guard.

When we're both in the elevator I ask Paul "Is it okay if we swing by my office for a second? I need to go get some things."

Paul sighs. "We can't do that Blake, Moniques orders, I'm supposed to get you straight to your car."

"I understand but I just need the two binders from my desk. It will take exactly 30 seconds to take them. I can ask Lidia to get them, we just have to stop for a minute on my floor. I promise I won't leave the elevator."

I knew I won him over when he pressed the '3' button on the elevator panel.

Poor Paul. He should know to never disobey orders, but he's still new and I heard he's trying to get into everyone's good graces.

We were at '-4' and the parking lot is at '-1' now we're going higher. Unfortunately, Dean only gave me a key and told me a time range. He never said where Luca will talk to Aria. My best guess is one of the conference rooms but this building has like 10 of those and it would take me a shit ton of time to check all, so I want to get to the server room and check security cameras footage. That room is on 3, pretty close to the elevators. Now all I have to do is ditch Paul.

"Can you please call Lidia for me, I don't have my phone on me."

Nobody bothered taking it from my apartment after I was drugged.

I think again about what I'm going to do. Throwing my job and reputation out the window, I don't even want to think about my parents. Dean's words come back to me 'Are you willing to put your job on the line for her?' Yeah, yeah I am, because she's worth it. Aria's worth it.

Paul exhales loudly, clearly frustrated but pulls out his phone nonetheless, and when he's not giving me his entire attention I angle myself between him and the security camera and press the pain point on the side of his neck. In the blink of an eye he's passed out in my arm and I try to keep him as straight as possible. Hoping that no one is looking to closely at us. Hoping Monique has something else to do than watch me through the security cameras.

The elevator doors open on the 3rd floor and thanks to some supreme forces the hallway is empty. I know all the blind spots in this building by hard and it's easy to maneuver Paul's unconscious body to a janitor's closet and dump him there.

There's no going back now.

I make my way to the control room. Gary, the security guard, was sleeping on his chair. Like I expected. This man works 3 jobs and is always sleeping. You might think that the MI6 has enough budget to pay their employees enough but Gary is making a bit above minimum wage so I don't really blame him. He also has 3 kids that need to be fed and taken to school.

Something catches my eye on the big wall full of monitors. I clench my fists. Monique is a dead woman.

Aria is sitting in a cell.

A fucking cell. Handcuffed to the table like a fucking animal. She's looking around, clearly confused. They drugged her again.

Pure frozen fury is flowing through me.

Some people say they don't see clearly when they're angry. Their anger is hot and uncontrollable. Like boiling water. But for me it's the other way. My anger is like ice. I see and think clearer, my senses are sharpened and when I have a goal I achieve it. And right now my goal is Aria.

Aria POV

I'm pretty proud of myself. I survived tough Luca's intimidation techniques and still haven't spoken. Just the occasional middle finger. His 'I like it rough' comment is still at the back of my head and I try not to think about it. I can tell he's starting to get frustrated. He hasn't left the room since bringing in the tissues. and hasn't touched me since he grabbed my neck from behind. And now for the past god knows how many minutes he's just been talking non stop.

I honestly zoned out after the first few minutes and kinda stopped being afraid as well. He's just babbling there. I think his plan is to bore me to death and make me agree to work with him. Because if I understood one thing is that he wants me to agree to put him on the case instead of Blake. That would happen over my dead body. Because as much as I would despise Blake and want to punch him in that perfect face, I hate Luca more and would have no regrets killing him.

And another thing I've been wondering is that the last few things they did to me were clearly without my consent so why do they want me to agree now? They could just forcibly remove Blake from my case and put Luca on it and I couldn't do anything. Except to make Luca's life a living nightmare. Fight back with everything I have and make him regret being born. With Blake, well he did fight back when they put the gun to my head and we had that well... moment in his living room and I don't know. I think my chances of getting my sister back are higher with Blake.

"Come on Aria, we both that know deep down you want to work with me"

Yup, that's the kind of shit that's been coming out from his mouth for the past half hour. God I'm itching to give him a smartass response in return but I promised myself that I won't give him the satisfaction of making me talk.

I look at him with a bored expression and flip him off. That apparently pisses him off and he snaps because he grabs my middle finger and uses it to twist my entire hand.

I let out a yelp. Between his iron grip and the handcuffs I can't feel my hand and everything hurts like hell.

"Listen here you little shit." He leans in, but still too far away. "When the council comes, you will tell them that you want to work with me or I will..."

I don't let him finish the sentence. His face may be far away but his hand isn't. With extreme effort and pain on my part I pull my trapped arm closer to me and then I bite his hand, hard, till I feel the copper taste in my mouth. He immediately let go of my middle finger that was seconds away from snapping. And steps back.

"You crazy bitch" He is holding his injured hand to his chest and I can see red droplets falling to the floor.

Another thing I learned from self defense Youtube videos, use everything you have. Men are bigger and stronger but no one says the fight has to be fair. Bite, scratch, hit his private parts.

I look in his eyes and spit his blood towards him. He's too far away and it doesn't touch him but he takes another step back, I smirk in satisfaction.

He moves and I see my reflection in the mirror.

Well fuck me. I look psichotic as fuck. Fresh blood is around my mouth and I look like I literally murdered someone and ate that person. I don't get to look at myself a lot because Luca moves again and he blocks my view.

Apparently my smirk pisses Luca even more off and I don't get to regret my decision before I feel a sharp pain in my cheek and my head whips to the side.

That motherfucker just punched me.

I hear him take a deep breath in and say in the most put together voice I heard him use, like it takes all his self control to not shoot me.

"I'm done playing Aria, you will do as I say or when we find your sister I will personally make sure that you'll watch as I kill her, slowly"

I whip my head towards him. I'm thinking with half of my brain because my head still hurts from his punch and I spit at him again. This time it hits him square in the face

Jackpot.

Before he gets to punch me again his phone rings.

I can almost puke from relief. Saved by the bell, as some might say. But when I see Luca's face, like he wants to murder the person on the other line. I cringe.

"Blake" Luca grits out. And I can't stop the smile that makes its way to my face.

Without wanting to, I start feeling safer at the thought of Blake.



A/N

Question: what do you think is the relationship between Luca and Blake?

This chapter wasn't one of my best.

We didn't have that much Blake and Aria banter but I promise next chapter is going to be much better. I have so many ideas.

Any suggestions/ ideas?

Love y'all and have a fantastic day.