INAMORATA: Before Our Heaven Turns To Hell

Chapter Seventeen - The Scarred Predator

My heartbeat increased ten times its normal rate and I felt the sweat trickling down my spine as I stared into the eyes of the enemy. The darkness seemed like it suddenly gained a shape and now its strangling me slowly. This is definitely not Daniele.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" He slurred with an accent like Daniele's. He had long sleek raven hair that was styled back in an elegant way and he was almost good-looking if not for the long pale pink scar across his eye. For a moment, I wondered how he got it and who did it.

"I didn't think it would be that easy." His amber eyes seem to glint in the dim light and everything about him reminded me of a wolf.

He pointed a silver gun at me that flashed in danger as the light from the ceiling's hole hit it. I swallowed the dread that has formed in my throat and I backed up on the wall. We were like the portrayal of predator and prey. I was the lamb trapped in a corner and he was the savage wolf that was about to eat me. I cringed at the idea and the stranger before me took it as a sign of my fear of him.

He relayed his gun inside his suit and smiled a lopsided grin, then he lifted his left arm to lay it on the wall beside my head.

"So you're the bambolina, little doll, the two big boys of the underworld are fighting over." He said casually like we're two old friends having a normal conversation. "Not bad."

"I'm no one's little doll." I stated with a defiant tone as I glared at him. However, I was a bit confused by the phrase two big boys of the underworld in his statement. He chuckled then leaned and grabbed an astray hair from my shoulder. He twirled it around his thumb and index finger playfully. He seemed fascinated by it then his gaze went up to my eyes.

"No one, you say? Then can you be mine?" He suggested engagingly with a seductive voice that might have worked on other women but not on me.

"Never." I replied. Deep inside I had to admit that I was proud of myself because I'm fighting back, but there was still a part of me that kept on insisting that I need to shut up because I might get myself killed.

Why didn't I think about the danger when Isaiah first brought me here in Vegas back at the hotel? I thought fleetingly. Maybe it's because deep inside I knew I was never in any real danger. Maybe it's because my instinct knew that Isaiah or Daniele won't really hurt me even before I met them. But this time, looking into these man's eyes, I could see the danger clearly without any mask and it's terrifying.

"Aren't you a feisty little thing?" He chuckled, clearly amused. "It seems like bambolina doesn't fit you. You're more like a little tiger. Yes, gattina, a kitten, fits you like a glove."

I frowned at the nicknames he's been giving me. First, I was a doll. Now, I'm a kitten? What would it be next time? A lettuce? A meatball? Can't people just call me Rosie or Rosalie? He called my name a while ago, right?

How can you be thinking of things like this when your life's clearly in danger? My subconscious ridiculed.

"Say gattina, did you think I was him that you came out of your little hiding spot?" He said, his words pulling me put of my thoughts.

I eyed him disapprovingly. Now that I had talked to him and heard his voice clearly, I realized that even though they both have accents, Daniele's voice was gentler and more loving and it reminded me of warm cocoa on winter. Meanwhile, this man's voice was more velvety and husky and every note in his tone implied masked hostility. How could I even mistake his voice for Daniele?

"I'll take that as a yes because you're already here." He let go of my hair then trailed enticing lines along my jaw until it reached my lips. "Such a smooth skin. Maybe that's why they want you so much. I think I'll have a taste for myself."