Taming Pierce

29

☆
T A T I A
29 | I left my heart with you

The first person to catch my attention on the heart-wrenching flight back to Chicago is Casteel's flight attendee, Laura D'Amico. The young, blonde woman sees the look on my face and throws herself at me, hugging me to her chest. She had once been my friend during all the dates Casteel forced me to attend throughout the country in his private jet.

She understood me better than anyone did. One reason was that she was the only other woman among the sea of men in Casteel's control. Casteel's mother has been dead since the birth of his youngest brother, Sebastian. The Don isn't married and Casteel's father just died a few years ago. They have no sister. A bunch of hooligans they all are.

"Did he do anything to her?" I ask Laura, referring to my mother who I left so cold-heartedly back home.

Laura squeezes my arm in a comforting gesture. "He has her imprisoned in the mansion. At first, he wanted to use her to blackmail you into coming back but Alexander convinced him not to."

Alexander is the name of the Don. He is the most gentlemanly of all the brothers, which is a given considering he leaves Casteel to do all his dirty work.

Numbness greets my nerves at the idea of the suffering my mother must be enduring in that prison. I stare into the empty floor beneath our seats, my reality slowly fading the closer we get to home.

"Is she okay?" I probe in a feeble voice, ashamed of myself and the fear of being judged hugs me with cold, open arms.

Laura, even if she does judge me, doesn't show it.

"She misses you," she says.

My temple hits the windowpane, eyes staring wide at the bare sky which looks like an ocean of white clouds.

"I must be the worst daughter anyone could ever have," I muse, faintly, seeing Laura's expression crumple with pity on the polished interior of the flight.

"Don't say that. I'm glad you decided to come back."

She tries to smile but we both know how much effort it takes. I swing my head at her, blinking as I meet her gray eyes.

"Is that what he told you?" I inquire. "That I chose to come back?"

Her face pales as realization clouds it. She touches a hand to her heart in despair. "Oh no...Dios! That man—"

The monster chooses to intrude on us at that moment.

"Something you girls wanna share with me?"

His voice bristles my skin, raising my body hair. I scan my eyes up his black outfit, seeing him standing before us with two brimming cups of hot coffee in his hands. He smirks when I reach his eyes and I turn away, my jaw biting at his smug look.

Laura gets up, stunned at the intrusion and the fear of having been caught speaking ill of her master casts across her face.

"Signore Lorenzo, pardon me. I was just—"

"Helping soothe her nerves by roasting me? That's fine." Casteel waves her off with a careless shrug. "My Tesoro needs that kind of attention. Coffee, Tesoro?"

He forwards a cup to me. The steaming smoke from it hits my nostrils but I have lost my appetite completely. I shove the cup off his hand, the piece of utensil shattering on the floor by Laura's feet. She shrieks as the coffee seeps into the white Persian rug, guaranteed to leave a stain behind.