"What the fuck is going on in here?" I demand.

They all look back at me sheepishly, none of them daring to speak.

"Well?" I ask, now making my way over to Darcy who's making me nervous with her swaying. I grab hold of her, affectively stabilising her as the harsh scent of liquor wafts off her and floods my nose.

"She was already drunk when we came in here," Nico justifies. "And what? You thought it would be a good idea to have a little party with my underage kid while you're supposed to be at work," I rant.

I feel the anger that was bubbling dissipate and become replaced with concern as Darcy starts groaning. "I think I'm gonna be sick," She mumbles, clutching her stomach.

I pick her up and swiftly exit the room, death staring the four incompetant imbeciles as I do so.

I place Darcy on her bed and head towards her bathroom, grabbing a damp flannel. I return and begin soothingly patting her face with it while I sit down next to her.

She yawns and looks up at me with those big doe eyes. "I hate you," She mumbles.

"I know," I reply quietly. I know she doesn't want to be anywhere near me but she's letting me take care of her which is progress at least.

"I'll spend everyday of the rest of my life trying to get you to forgive me if that's what it takes," I promise her, brushing a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

Now that I'm getting a closer look at her I can see how utterly exhausted she looks, mentally and physically. I want nothing more than to just understand how she's feeling so I can help her but it's not that simple, she doesn't trust me at all right now.

"Get some sleep," I say when I notice her yawn.

"I can't," She mutters. "Why not?" I question, hoping her drunkenness will cause her to be a little more honest.

"I can't," She repeats. I sigh and tuck her in, just like I did all them years ago. "Try." I order before kissing her forehead. I begin getting up but her small hand grasps mine, "Can you just stay here," She mumbles "Just for a minute."

Desperate to spend as much time around her as possible, I oblige.

I sit with her for twenty minutes, stroking her hair until she eventually closed her eyes. Not only until I was one hundred percent sure she was asleep did I head out, ready to yell at those four idiots.





I wake up feeling surprisingly well rested. I stretch out my arms and glance towards my alarm clock which reads eleven-forty two pm.

I slept for the entire day? I guess the exhaustion finally became too much for my body to handle.

My peace is interrupted by the sound of my phone ringing, I groan before searching under my blanket to find it. The phone ringing ends before I can do so but when I eventually find it under one of my pillows, I see twenty missed calls from Elena.

I instantly call her back, feeling guilty about not immediately updating her on my situation. She picks up the phone after three rings, "Sin! What the fuck." She screams down the phone.

"I know, I know." I reply. "I got a little held up," I say vaguely.

"Held up? I thought that you had been kidnapped, I'm out here looking for you!" She angrily rants. "What? Where are you?" I ask.

"Italy!" She shouts as if she was stating the obvious.

"What? Why!" I ask, exasperated. "I thought the Italian mafia might have gotten ahold of you and cut you up into a million tiny pieces," She explains dramatically. "I flew over as fast as I could to start hanging missing posters."

I don't blame her for being overly worried, it's extremely uncharacteristic of me to just completely go ghost after a mission. I've told Elena numerous times that if I don't reply after one it means I'm dead in a ditch somewhere.

"Where are you now?" I ask, hearing loud thumping in the background.

"Okay, don't be mad," She says hesitantly. "Well I was out looking for you but I came across this line for a club and one thing led to another..." She trailed off.

Any guilt that I had for worrying her completely disappeared when I heard that she had ditched the search efforts to go party. Classic Elena.

The two sides of my brain are fighting right now. The logical side is screaming at me to stay indoors and protect myself from the bounty Ivan has already most likely placed on my head but the other side, the idiotic side is begging me to go join Elena.

"Drop the address, I'm coming," I say as I swing my legs off my bed. Elena squeals into the phone before sending me the address and hanging up.

I didn't pack a dress for a night out in my mission bag so I decide that I need to stop in town before I go to the club. Most, if not all shops in town will be closed so I guess I'll have to add breaking and entering onto the list of illegal things I'll be doing tonight, number one being using my fake Id to get in.

I straighten my hair and do my makeup before heading to my balcony. I use my parkour skills to climb onto a ledge bellow, before jumping to the ground.

I have to practically crawl in order to avoid guards as I sneakily make my way to the garage. After picking out the first car I saw, I sped off down the drive and onto the main road.

I know my brothers will be furious if they find out I'm missing but I have a plan.

It's my birthday tomorrow and I can guarantee that they've all forgotten so if they start piping up I'm just going to shove it in their faces that they forgot my first birthday back.

Hopefully they feel so guilty that they'll forget about the whole sneaking out thing.

I make it into town quickly and park up my brother's black Lamborghini, which causes many people to stare at me as I climb out.

I look up and spot the owner of this cute little expensive boutique closing up. I rush over to her, "Excuse me, I know you're closing up but is there any chance I could-" I say but I'm interrupted by the lady turning around abruptly. "We're closed." She states bluntly.

She begins to walk away but I pull out numerous wads of cash and hand it over to her. "Yeah I guess I can stay open for a couple more minutes," She says, her eyes widening at the large sum of money.

The lady stands in the doorway smoking a cigarette while I skim over the dresses. I end up picking a tiny black dress that doesn't leave much to the imagination as well as a black clutch and black heels.

I slip into the changing rooms and get ready, ignoring the lady's persistent moaning for me to hurry up. I finally finish and push past her, handing her another wad of rolled up money as I do so.

I make it to the club not long after thanks to this extremely fast car. I shove the keys in my clutch and start my pursuit to find Elena who is refusing to answer her phone.

I finally find her, practically dry humping some random guy.

"Heyyyy, there she is!" She screeches in excitement once she spots me.

"Getting wasted without me?" I chuckle as her drunken body slams into me for a hug. "Uh I would never," She clutches her heart, pretending to be offended.

I have to slam shots of vodka for ten minutes to try and match Elena's level of tipsiness. Once she's decided that I've drank an acceptable amount, she pulls me out onto the dance floor.

She places her hands around my shoulders as our hips sway and our bodies rock against each other. The alcohol helps me loosen up as I dance shamelessly with the beat of the music.

I giggle as Elena get's stolen to go dance with a man with a handlebar moustache. She sends me a playful 'help me' look as he begins breaking out the worst dance moves I've ever seen.

I laugh hysterically as another random man approaches me and asks to dance. He's not my type but I agree anyway, backing my hips on him as the music becomes more fast paced.

I'm aware that a lot of people are looking at me with thirst in their eyes and although I try to ignore it, I couldn't shake off the feeling that someone was glaring at me.

I scan the room as I continue to dance, eventually laying eyes on a familiar face.

Santiago.