Sweet Truths & Silent Lies ✔️

CHAPTER 13 - ❝holding hands with the devil himself❞

He sets me down on the ground gently and I use my hand to wipe my tears with the back of my hand. He opens the passenger door for me, but I stay put, shaking my head at him.

The sirens were coming closer and closer, but I didn't care.

"You shot him, Giovanni!"

"I told you that I would explain to you in the car, Scarlett. So get in." He says, jerking his head towards the car. "Please." He adds.

Caving with a shake of my head, I duck when I get into the Maserati. I see him jogging around the car before he gets inside too, putting the keys in the ignition before he started the car without putting his seatbelt on.

He drives an inhuman speed out of the parking lot and once we were on the road, about ten seconds away from the shopping mall, we pass a series of police cars and an ambulance.

He sinks in his seat a little bit only until the cops were behind us and then only sits up straight again. His Adam's apple bobs up and down when he swallows air and he turns off the radio, leaving the car in complete silence.

"You shot him, Giovanni." I lower my voice to a whisper.

His hand clenches around the steering wheel, his ringed finger tapping against the leather covered steering wheel. It's like he composed himself before he decides to speak. "He was part of the Mafia too, Scarlett." Giovanni says like that would make up for shooting him.

I scoff at him, tugging at the roots of my hair. "That doesn't make it okay!"

He continues like I haven't spoken. "Vincent and his brother... they... they're much worse people than we are. Their dad and mine have this rivalry between each other. They despise each other, really."

"That still doesn't mean that you should've shot him, Giovanni."

Silence.

I swallow hard too, looking out of the window and at the cars that were speeding past us. And not long after, we were secluded with trees all around us. The wind rustles the leaves and the trees bend with the force of the wind that started to pick up when we climbed into the Maserati.

"What did Vincent do for you to shoot him?" I speak for the first time in ten minutes. "Surely you don't go shooting every one you see from another gang?"

"They ruined one of our places and in our books that is a big no-no." He explains. "When I shot him-that was a warning."

It didn't make sense. He wasn't arguing with that guy because of a place his gang might've ruined. They were arguing over something else entirely.

But I still scoffed. "A warning?"

"Yes." He replies dryly. "A warning."

I start to laugh hysterically only because I didn't want to burst out crying again. I felt the tears start to collect at the bottom of my eyelids, but I blink them away.

"A warning is where you punch someone in the face and breaking their nose, not shooting them!" I yell, feeling my hands start to shake when the image of Vincent gurgling blood popped up in my mind. "What if he's dead? Oh my - did I just witness a damn murder, Giovanni-"

I try to hold my breath, trying to gulp down the breaths to stay quiet and not to allow myself to freak out over what happened, but I eventually caved and let the breath I was holding explode from my mouth in almost a gasp.

Giovanni was pulling at his collar now, probably used to having a tie wrapped around his neck and when he realised that there was nothing to grab, he finally just let his hand grip the steering wheel again.