Unpredictable

Chapter Three

Amelia

Inside the bag was a long black dress, that glimmered in the light and although I love the colour I hate dresses. I can't believe that with in the matter of days my life has turned into that of a woman's. No killing, no fun. I don't want to wear a slinky dress and 6 inch Prada heels, I want my leather pants and my knives back. I want to be spending my evening cleaning blood off myself and crossing another piece of vermin of my list. I want to be tracking the men who haunt my dreams and end them all. But sitting here staring into my vanity mirror applying a staining pathway of colour to my lips, and seeing the maroon cover my voluptuous lips I know that I don't have a choice anymore. I will become a glorified slave to the Abruzzo's and it makes me feel sick to my stomach. I slam my lipstick down and stand walking over to the large mirror that hangs on the far wall and inspect my appearance. The stranger staring back at me looks elegant and beautiful, the dress she wears hangs artfully on her shoulders dipping at the cleavage, exposing her breasts and a long scar from her throat. The back fully covers her scars and the slit up the side is on the right side covering the tattoo present. This stranger isn't me it's a false representation of who I am, but it's the mask I shall wear from now on so I paint a smile on my face and walk out of my bedroom. Looking back one last time at my clothes on the bed i know I can no longer wear them. I slam the door shut and make my descent to meet my father and the others in the foyer. As the large space comes into view I see people gathered in little groups chattering away among themselves, I used to feel sorry for the poor soul who had to arrive late to these stupid functions and now I'm the one walking down into the sea of sharks waiting to pick me off bit by bit. As my shoes hit the marble floor the room falls under a hush of silence and eyes gravitate towards me, watching my every move. I walk up next to my father who hasn't even noticed I've come into the room; he turns his head when I clear my throat to gain his attention. "ah Amelia you look acceptable this evening, you could have done something with your hair but there's no time now. let's go." His look of disappointment makes my blood boil. The bastard has no right to demean me after all, I am doing this for him. I slip my arm into his extended one squeezing hard as I grind out "sorry daddy dearest." he frowns slightly but leaves it alone. He escorts me to the car where we drive over through the district to the Fortitudo region and I realise that the people who were in the foyer where our people, the people who do business with us and keep our stocks selling. It's weird how you don't even know you're own, but with the Abruzzo drivers and guards waiting to bring the representatives of our region over to their side of town. I see how Cappia didn't notice it was our people we were never invited to anything where these people were present. I'm annoyed I have to travel as that means I can't sneak off like I usually do, this means I have to socialise. Boring people, crappy food and my future husband who's stolen my life. Sounds like fun right.

I heave a sigh as I watch the trees pass, if only I could be a bird. I'd sore across the ocean as far away from this place as possible, live free, never having to look over my shoulder at my own family. The drive isn't too long so it leaves me little time to prepare for this evening which highly irritates me. When we pull up outside the extravagant building, I see hordes of people walking in laughing; smiling and I've never envied them so much. They were happy, free to feel such joy and here I stood; hatred seeping through my plastic smile as I climb the steps to the home of the people who broke my family. I sneak a look to my father who seems at peace, I can't help but feel surprised, these people killed his wife, his treasured son and he walks up to the big burly man at the door and hugs him. My own father disgusts me more than anyone I've ever met! He has no loyalty and no morals. He pulls me towards the man who I believe to be Alexander Abruzzo and we stand there studying each other; I see that he was once a handsome man whose deadly life has become of him. His eyes sunken but warm and welcoming, his perfect smile giving you a trustworthy feeling about him but the fact it's fake is evident. He's not what I expected and by his expression neither am I, "Miss Romero, what a fine young woman you are." He says with a hint of awe lingering in his voice. "Surprised you did I?" I ask raising my eyebrow at his tone, "Did you expect me to be some hideous woman?" I bait him and his smile disappears. "Not at all," he replies "your reputation does your beauty no justice is all." He says carefully, as if I'm a wild beast about to pounce. "Oh well then keep up with the fine young woman thing then." I say with a wink and he smiles slightly, for real this time and he's soon fully grinning when I walk past him and whisper in his ear "believe me beauty describes nothing but the bottle of vodka the bartender will be serving me tonight." He laughs slightly and follows me inside along with my father. I walk with my head high heading straight for the bar and I feel a blanket of peace cover me, I stand breaths away from reaching the sweet nectar I will be served. A large hand grips my arm and steers me away from the bar, cutting off my path to where I really want to be. I huff loudly, the least he could do is allow me to drink my boredom away as I socialise with these pompous dicks. But alas my father the biggest cock of them all has no such mercy, dragging me into the first life draining conversations of many. As I look to my left I see Alexander walking beside me smiling largely at all his guests and my father on my right making the same extravagant gesture with his more crooked features. Great I'm stuck between these two dumb ass' all night and I thought things couldn't get any worse, looks like l was wrong yet again. I see we are heading towards a group of women and the way they stared hungrily at the men beside me makes me want to vomit in my mouth, as we get closer their gazes waver to me but only for a split second as they immediately dismiss me as unworthy of their attention. "ladies." My father greets bluntly but sweetly like a hammer, forceful yet efficient is how he works. I grunt as the ladies swooned slightly, my father in no way attractive enough for this reaction it's his power they want. "Mr Romero, such a pleasure." A woman I hadn't noticed speaks as she walks out from the back of the group linking arms with a beautiful girl. I stare at the two women as the come closer to us, the older lady heading towards Alexander and kissing his cheek and the younger woman went in for a quick hug then they stood looking towards me and my father. It's a strange contrast; their arms around each other standing strong together whilst me and my father stand a meter apart silently wishing death upon each other. That's when I realise this is the head Abruzzo family, they look so happy and it causes me to raise my head higher and smile wider to act as if I'm not at all phased by their little show of affection. "I disagree Mrs Abruzzo, the pleasure is all mine." My father replies as he takes her hand and kisses her knuckles lightly. "And you are Amelia, I assume?" she looks at me in a curious way, not as if I'm nothing but as if I'm to be watched carefully. Her daughter looks at me with a genuine smile playing on her peach coloured lips. "That's what this old bastard named me." I say in response keeping the fake as shit smile still on my face as I glance at my father. Mrs Abruzzo chuckled along with her husband at my retort, "I told you dear she's a match made in heaven for our son," he says to his wife before turning to me and saying "excuse my manners this is my daughter Aurora and my wife Elinor, this will be your home when you marry my son and we are excited to have you join us." He seems so genuine and it saddens me a little that a family who has no blood relation to me has been nicer to me in 3 minutes then my father has been in the many years since the accident. And the worst thing is I shouldn't feel happy about moving to the home of the enemy, to the home of the people who killed my mother and brother. But I am and I feel like I'm a terrible fuck up for it. "Nice to meet you all, now I know how these things work but I tell you if I don't get myself a drink within the next few minutes I will end up saying some very unpleasant to those women over there. Look at them, they can't stop drooling over you men." I tip my head at the women who are now glaring at me, "or I might just combust from their glares either way the bar is calling me." Aurora smiles at me and takes my arm leading me over to the bar away from our parents as they laugh among themselves; well her parents do my father looks like he's going to give me another black eye when we get home. She still has a hold of my arm once we reach the bar and she leans over and whispers something into the bartenders' ear then stands up straight and smile wickedly at me and I know I'm going to like this girl. "Look I know you don't wanna be here but neither do I, I know you don't want to marry my brother and I'm just as against it as you are, my brother is the biggest arsehole going I wouldn't wish him on my worst enemy. So let's just make the most of it." She says as the bartender places four large shot glasses in front of us, she passes me one and holds one in her own hand lifting it up to me saying "I'm the closest thing you've got to a friend here and I like you so what do you say? Shall we toast to this new found friendship?" I look at her squinting my eyes as I can't tell if she's taking the piss but when she smiles widely at me I know she's deadly serious. I know I can't turn her down I have no one here and without a friend in this hell, I'll be left to wolves with no ladder, besides daddy always said to network. I smirk at the sarcasm in my thoughts and lift my glass to hers and tap my glass against hers "to us." I say looking her dead in the eye as I neck the first glass. She watches me as I drink, the first glass then the second one within seconds and when she laughs under her breath I'm curious as to why she finds me drinking funny. "What's so funny?" I ask her, "Nothing, you've just passed the first test." She said whilst smiling. "What test?" I'm so confused; I haven't even done anything that would seem like a test. "You see that other group of women over in that corner?" she asks interrupting my thought process as she points to another group of people. This time they were a lot younger and look like they could all win the award for bitchiest looking face. One of the women was standing in the middle as all the others were looking very intrigued at what she was saying. She was beautiful; her hair was dark and cascaded down her back and spilled over her shoulders in a chocolate halo. Her eyes were doe like and deep brown, complimenting her olive complexion. She was a good 5 inches taller than me and had a slimmer tone to her body then I had. She's the type of girl men would chop their legs off just to have one night with her. She's the type of girl that women want to be. She's the type of woman I hate because she knows she's beautiful, you can tell by the way she stands there surrounded by everyone turning her nose up at them all that she takes advantage of her looks. I turn back to the bar and pick up Aurora's abandoned shot and chuck it back before slamming it back down on the table. "Yeah I see them." I say bluntly, "well the brunette in the middle is my brothers' ex Esme, and she is the worst person ever. So every time a new girl comes into Fortitudo I do a bunch of test to see if she's good enough and these tests are based on everything that's opposite to her." As she speaks she spits her words towards the group and instantly I know this Esme must have done something terrible to her. "And hard drinking is something she could never do so you pass as that's the strongest shit we own." She continues as she turns back and looks at me. I see a slight presence of hurt in her eyes when she looks at me and I can't help myself wanting to help the girl. From the moment I came into this room I've felt like an outsider and she's been so nice I can't help but want to protect her. "You say the words and I'll get rid of her for you." I say flippantly as I turn towards the man serving drinks and ask for a vodka straight, on the rocks. Aurora stays quiet until I have my drink in my hand and I peek at her from the corner of my eye. "I can't tell if your serious or not" she whispers as I turn fully towards her and say "I'm deadly so, do you know who I am little lamb?" she shakes her head but smile slightly at the nickname. "Tell me lioness who are you?" she's smiling more now and it makes me happy to see. "Have you heard of the Corvo di Morti?" I ask sipping my drink. "What that psychotic man who goes around collecting owed debts to the Cruor region and kills anything that moves? The man who burns regions to the ground for blood money and chops his victims into tiny pieces and send it to their loved ones? Yeah I know of him why?" I laugh a little at that, I don't hear the rumours that go around about me often but I know they always refer to me as a man, as if a woman couldn't do the unspeakable things men do. It's laughable honestly that no one would even suspect it to be a woman and I suppose it adds to the fun when I kill people, they didn't even know it was me coming for them. "Man? Last time I checked I had a vagina." she looks at me funny before her eyes widen and her mouth falls open, she begins to stutter and I have to help the poor little lamb out of her embarrassing struggle. "Never thought you'd meet someone as famous as me aye?" she closes her mouth and finishes the drink in her hand before she says anything, "dad said you were gonna be a troublesome one but the Corvo di Morti was not what I was expecting to be his definition of troublesome. I'm sorry for calling you psychotic." She smiles as she says the next part "well I'm glad I decided to take you under my wing and as my friend instead of my enemy now." She laughs and I chuckle alongside her, from the moment I met this girl I knew we'd get along just fine and I was right. "So you're not scared I'm gonna burn down your region for blood money?" I ask jokingly. "No you're marrying my brother it'll be your region in a few days." She teases me, and believe me I do not allow anyone but Cap to pull me into these types of conversations but there's something about Aurora that makes me trust her. "I like you little lamb." I state as I chuck back the rest of my drink. Reaching over she pats my back, stands up and quietly says "sorry crow girl but my father's heading this way which means the socialising must resume." She winks as she walks over to her father and they both look at me waiting for me to join them. I stand and bend over the bar looking on the shelves underneath and see my target, I reach forward pulling myself further over the bar and grab the bottle I want before standing back on my feet and walk towards them with a grin on my face. When they both see what I've got Alexander shakes his head whilst chuckling out his words "are we that unbearable?" I look in his eyes and see that he's slightly hurt by my gesture. I've noticed that within the short time I've been here that he is a truly nice man who wishes no discomfort on me in anyway. "You are fine enough company, your guests on the other hand want nothing more than to bore me to death with their uneventful lives." I say with a wink as I lift my bottle of vodka and tip it in his direction. "Oh and if I'm going to be your daughter in law I'd appreciate it if you kept this life saving shit in stock" he leans over to me and places his arm around me, it's a strange sensation to be held in this way. No one's ever been close with me in this way apart from Cappia but I try to keep my body from stiffening so I don't offend him again. "I couldn't imagine a better person to be in this family, and I couldn't think of a worthier person of a well-stocked liquor cabinet." He says as all three of us walk into the crowds of people.