Black Widow | 18+

26 | Escape

Romulo 

I did as I was told when it came to Leandro. 

I may have run the legitimate side of things, but we had received the same training. I could do everything he could do, and in some places I could do it better. 

Like recovery operations. 

I had been thinking about Artemisia since I kissed her goodbye in Sicily. We spoke three times a week, but then she had gone radio silent almost three months ago. 

When I didn't hear from her, I thought it was because she had moved on, maybe she didn't care about me at all. It started to eat away at me, affecting my work and my focus, making me check my phone constantly for a message back. 

But then I saw Carina, and she seemed just as worried when I asked her how Artemisia was doing. Our hushed conversation revealed that neither of us had heard from her in a while, but we both knew better than to do some digging. With the war between Leo and Anton occurring, Carina had told me she most likely had left with her best friends and her mentor. 

The idea calmed me down, but I also knew that there was an element of denial involved. 

And then I got the call about getting Artemisia Pericelo out of Madrid and straight to Sicily. Anton Zhelkin had kidnapped her, and apparently it was of the utmost importance to Leandro. 

My mind immediately got on task, but when I got on the plane I asked myself why Leandro cared so much about an assassin who had no relevance to our family or empire. I wanted to say that it was because she knew too much, that he couldn't risk having her giving information to Anton, but I knew better. 

There was a personal touch to the watch she had chosen for him, she seemed uncomfortable when he came up in conversation before, and she spoke about how business had invaded her personal life with two 'bad' men. On top of that, I noticed how Leandro couldn't take his fucking eyes off her at that dinner, how she said she couldn't spend the night with me out of nowhere, and how she'd left Sicily impulsively on the day that Clementina was arriving. 

I didn't know what to do when I'd figured it all out, but sitting there and being annoyed that she had blatantly lied to me wasn't an option. I was still on a job, and I'd never failed at completing a task. 

So, now I was stood on the street corner, eyeing the black SUV that faced me. I walked past him to the other end of the street, seeing that he was very much engrossed with his phone, laughing at something. Once I got to the other end of the street, where the SUV was now facing away from me, I focused on the glare of the phone through the back windshield, and realised I was in a good position to get started. 

I launched the hook upwards and climbed up the rope of the house two away from where I knew Arté was sleeping, before repeating the action until I got to the third floor. I had to jump across houses from one balcony to the next, now only one jump away from the balcony into Artemisia's room. 

I looked down to see the guard still on his phone, it made me chuckle to myself, Anton had been foolish to hire someone so unaware and unbothered. 

I made the last jump onto the balcony before kneeling down, my eyes on the guard who I now knew was not going to detect anything. I reached for the handle, and seeing that the door was locked I took out the screwdriver and my card, moving them before hearing the lock snap open and the door creek. 

I slowly entered, keeping my eyes on the unaware guard, before standing on the inside of the room and quietly shutting the door. 

The room was dark but still easy to see around. The curtains only provided shelter from harsh light, nothing else, so through the glow of the streets Artemisia's sleeping figure was illuminated.