RUN |on hold|

Runner

chapter Nine

Lorenzo POV

I wiggled my legs impatiently and kept looking at my watch. I didn't know why I was nervous. My eyes darted to the door when I heard voices and the clatter of high heels. Chiara had certainly put the poor girl in those things that would easily break your feet with a single wrong step.

Goosebumps covered my body as the door opened and my sister came waltzing into the room with Asterin. My sister looked enchanting. Her black hair lay in long waves down her back and the dress highlighted the colour of her eyes, which she had inherited from our mother.

My eyes darted over to Asterin.

Her eyes darted back and forth and I wasn't sure if she was admiring the room or planning to break out of here. To my surprise, her eyes darted over to me. The two different eye colours were fascinating.

The dark green velvet dress clung to her body, accentuating her curvy figure.

Not that I was paying attention to her figure, no she had just caught my eye in passing....

God, why did this girl, this woman have such an effect on me?

I didn't even really know her yet...

"Cominciamo?", I asked, seeing Asterin flinch slightly at the tone of my voice.

-->Shall we start?

As soon as we sat down at the table, Matteo and Ryan started updating me.

The latest deliveries had arrived without any further problems and without the Russians getting in our way. One of the few times they didn't.

Maybe they were planning something?

My paranoia was getting the best of me....

I hadn't realised my sister was talking to me until a knife plunged into the wood an inch from my hand.

With a snort, I turned to my sister and out of the corner of my eye caught Asterin looking at us, distraught.

My sister throwing a knife at me was nothing new, but to outsiders it was probably something.... unusual.

But what did I care?

Chiara said something about wanting to do something with me again, but I didn't really listen to her.

She was talking like a waterfall and my brain automatically switched off.

"Lorenzo! Cazzo, ascoltami quando ti parlo!" she hissed and slammed her hand on the table.

'-->Fucking listen to me when I'm talking to you!

Bossy like our father.

Annoyed, I turned away from her and saw Asterin bending under the table.

With a roll of my eyes, I listened to my friends about the various deliveries and 'projects'.

                                                         *--------------------------------------------------*

Chiaras POV

Sometimes I hated my brother.

Not this typical hateful behaviour towards his siblings, but real hate. Since our father died, he had taken over the "business" and literally threw himself into the work. And I missed him. In the past we had always done something together. Whether it was just a simple film evening or raiding the ice-cream compartment that our mamma had prepared for us.

But lately he became more and more cold, more and more dismissive.

And it hurt me that he couldn't even listen to me anymore.

A single tear ran down my cheek as I turned to Asterin who was visibly overwhelmed by the situation.

Her eyes kept darting to the windows and doors or to my brother and his friends. She probably didn't understand why she was sitting at the table with us.

Her two different coloured eyes looked at me and I was fascinated.

They looked beautiful, especially as the sun hit her face and dipped her curls in autumn colours. She was a natural beauty.

And if I'm honest, if I didn't have the hots for Ryan, I would so hook her though....

A nervous smile crept onto her lips and a deep crease stretched across her forehead and only then did I realise I was staring at her.

"Scusa," I apologised and continued eating my food.

Asterin just nodded her head and turned to her food. So far she had eaten relatively little, so half her plate was still full.

After we had finished eating, my brother and his friends got up.

With a wave of my dearest brother's hand, we also got up and walked towards the door. Asterin was still silent. Only her twitching hands betrayed that she was uncomfortable.

With an apologetic smile, she squatted down and my brother gave her a puzzled look. But Asterin didn't respond, just took off her high heels. My eyebrows went up when I heard her sigh softly.

The shoes hadn't been that high now, I thought to myself as she took the seven inches of shoes in her hands.

"That's better," I heard her mutter.

Pf!

A quick glance at her red feet, however, made me swallow my comment again. Apparently she wasn't used to wearing shoes that high.

When we reached the hallway outside, we stopped again because my brother still wanted to talk to me.

So we didn't notice that Asterin stood a little apart from us and looked at her surroundings carefully.

And as soon as my brother had finished talking to me, something happened that no one had ever dared to do before...

Not that it could have happened, but the surprise was written all over our faces, I was one hundred percent sure of that!

Asterin turned around in a flash and started sprinting away.