Leonardo Agostini's POV:
Fuck. This girl will definitely be the end of me.
What exactly happened again right now? Ah, yes. I just pulled out a dumb, money and time wasting game on a twenty something girl who behaves as if she is still seventeen.
Oh, and one more thing.
I kissed her again.
I keep staring at my half open door, slight confused about why and how exactly am I standing here, alone and unanswered. That's just sad. I pulled out a hand of mutual acquaintanceship, an opportunity to start anew and this girl leaves me hanging. Who does she think she is? She has to be taught a lesson. Good thing that she had been taught a lesson now. Nobody crosses me. It was necessary. I really should start concentrating on my work again and not indulge in entertaining things which included watching that little girl make vain attempts on getting out of this place through the cameras. At least that won't be happening anymore. Nothing will happen anymore. She saw the truth herself, I got to see the defeat on her face. I won. I always do. Even though I knew I was already going to. I did it.
But somehow, God knows how, there has been an ill feeling inside of me since the moment we all had stepped our foot outside my home. It did not felt right and then that broken look on her face, begging me to kill her was not right too.
I must say, she has a strong mindset with zero physical strength. Determined. Fierce. Too bad it was worth nothing.
One moment I was actually making up to that girl, actually felt pity for her (though she clearly said not to) and made an effort to amend, the next I am standing alone in my bedroom, dumbfounded.
That girl, Amelia, actually left me. Walked away to be exact. Poof. Gone.
Shrugging to myself, I grabbed the glass of water for myself and drank it, whistling out of my bedroom and straight to my private office. Searched my shelves to find a bottle of my latest, oldest scotch I had bought a few days ago and poured myself a drink while gazing out of my glass paned window.
Might as well spend the rest of the night here drinking; a perfect remedy to remove that ill feeling off my chest.
I was about to pour myself another glass when I heard the door close. I looked up and saw my brother smiling at me.
"Celebrating your victory alone, boss?"
I raised a quizzical brow. It is surely suspicious of him to be in a good mood and up so late. I swear I saw him heading straight upstairs when we came back. I thought he went to sleep.
"Drop those useless formalities, brother. We are not at work."
He nodded and sat in front of my desk. "You're drinking?"
"Felt like it." I answered monotonously.
"If that's the case, pour one for me too."
My eyes narrowed. Adrian hasn't had a drink in ages. Not since he... Something is not right. Either he just sits with a glass or prefers the finest non alcoholic drinks available to blend in.
"Stop staring at me and pour one!" He snapped irritatbly.
I showed him the bottle like a seller. "This is scotch. Macallan. 72 year old. You sure you want a taste of this?"
He glared. "Are you questioning my choice, brother? You know I don't tolerate that kind of behavior from you."
"Fine." I raised my arms in surrender and took another glass from my drawer. "Don't get cranky over small things, brother. Because you do, like a lot."
Adrian hummed absentmindedly and watched me pour a drink for him eagerly. He was making me feel uncomfortable which was something to be very suspicious about.
"There you go."
He took the glass from my grasp and frowned. "What nonsense is this, brother? No ice? It's like drinking orange juice without having any orange flavor in it."
"But I like having it without ice."
"I don't." He snapped. "Go fetch me some ice."
"You can go and get some yourself. I'm not your fucking slave." I snapped back.
Adrian closed his eyes and sighed. "Sorry. It's been a long weekend. I shouldn't have..."
"It's okay." I interrupted with an assuring smile. "I'll get some from the kitchen. Just this once."
He nodded. "Thanks."
I had already reached my door when suddenly I felt him tap on my shoulder. He puched me square on my jaw.
"Nappy time, you son of a bitch."
"Wha-" He dodged my punch and hit me again.
And the next moment, I felt him grab my head and smash against the door with a brutal force. I passed out instantly.
*****
I should have seen this coming. Why did I not see this coming? It was stupid of me to think that my own brother, the only person I could ever put my trust on, would not turn into a traitor. Again.
I woke up with a sharp pain on the back of my head. I noticed that I was still in my office. Thank fuck. Except this time, I was sitting on the exact same chair my traitor of a brother was last seen on. My wrists were tied to the arms of the chair with thick rope.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" I snapped breathlessly.
"No." Adrian answered from behind. "Ah! Good morning. Did you enjoy your nap?"
I looked outside and it was still dark as a midnight sky. "It's not morning. How long was I out?"
He walked around and sat on my chair with his feet on my desk. "Barely twenty minutes. Don't worry. I had enough time to get rid of your pocket knife and gun. No offense, Leonardo, but you are a heavy man."
"Get. Your feet. Off. My. Desk."
"No."
I groaned and struggled to get out of my binds in vain. "Will you help in getting me out of this?"
He looked at me as if I had grown two heads. "No. I tied you up. Why the hell would I remove it? I'm not stupid. Wait, no. You are officially being held hostage by me."
I eyed him dryly. "So... I have been kidnapped from my office and held hostage in my office? How sweet of you. Did you call our father to ask ransom? How much did you ask? Twenty cents? I think you should lower it a tiny bit more."
He facepalmed himself. "Do you not know how to behave while you are kept as hostage?"
"Never been one. But the experience I'm having right now is thrilling." I said flatly. "Besides, you are not being a good host."
"That's because I don't know how to be one! We both know that none of us have ever been held hostage or done a petty crime called as keeping a hostage against their will. We hire other people for that. So why don't we try it for ourselves tonight, hmm? I can assure you, brother. The experience will be thrilling."
I yawned like a cat. "If you weren't my brother, I would have considered that you were hitting on me. I can assure you that, brother. I'm straight. And so are you. Hopefully... or did you have a change of mind, Adrian?"
"I'm not having that kind of conversation with you."
"That's a relief to hear."
"You know, I must say..." He finally got his feet off my desk and I made a mental note to spare him his life when I free myself. "I like watching you helpless right now. It's a sight I can never get used to."
"Why the fuck are you pulling this crap? Get me out of this and we'll talk like grown adults. Which we actually are."
He rolled his eyes dramatically. "To be honest, this crap which you pulled all weekend is a clear sign that you are not an adult. So there's no point talking to a puny child. You need to be taught a lesson." He then got up from my chair and stood in front of me, slightly leaning on my desk with arms crossed. "I don't understand why we personally don't go abducting people and set them straight. It's like we're missing out all the fun because we just stop by, ask a few questions, get annoyed by their boring answers and if we are in mood, we'll have a bit of exercise. There's no fun in that. This is fun."
I gave him a bored look. "Why don't you just get to the point and get this over with?"
"No." He declared with a dark chuckle. "You're wrong. You've always been wrong, brother. I don't get it. What is wrong with you?"
"Er, nothing?"
"And that's wrong too!"
I groaned in frustration. He's playing around. He will annoy me till I cannot take it anymore. If that is his master plan, I will kill myself.
"You see, there are over seven trillion nerves in your body right now out of which, there are over eight billion of them right inside that thick skull of yours." He bent down to my height and tapped my forehead twice. "And lately, none of those eight billion nerves have been in use. Like a car engine in dire need of a jumpstart, your brain also needs a jumpstart. So what we are going to do today are some excerises... excerises which will be of a great help in decision making somewhere in future. Especially for you. Clear?"
"Crystal." I faked a grin.
He didn't smile back and grabbed my shoulder to meet his eye. They were void. Blank. Shit. "I need to get rid of that attitude of yours first. So in the meantime, why don't you tell me how long had you known the truth about her family and friends?"
"Just long enough."
"You're wrong again. Since when?" His grip tightened infinetsmally.
"In less than hour after that girl almost broke my back." I answered.
"Where are they now?"
"Not six feet below the earth." I smirked.
Adrian exhaled sharply. He stood up straight and slowly unbuttoned his suit jacket then neatly arranged it by hanging it on the back of my chair. He then rolled his sleeves up to his elbows and surprisingly, pulled a comb from his pant pocket and combed his hair using his faint reflection on the window.
"Let me remind you the first thing about where you went wrong. Actually, it's the part where I actually told you wrong." He revealed, turning around. "Our father did taught me to kill. It's just that I refused to learn. Instead, he taught me one thing I am really, really good at. I'm always the best at what I learn and do, brother. You know it very well but I think you forgot. You forgot so I am forgetting that we are related to each other. Why don't we take a trip down the memory lane?"
Fucking hell. Not again.
He punched me hard on my jaw and yanked my hair painfully. "Where. Are. They?"
I coughed and tasted metallic liquid in my mouth. "Okay. I get it that you're mad at me for pulling you into this little mess of mine but that does not mean that you will torture your little brother like a professional, which you already are."
"Aw. Thank you for your compliments." He cooed. "Sadly, they will not save you tonight. Besides, if I were mad at you, I would opt for acting stupidly childish as always by not talking to you for hours."
Oh fuck. I have officially released Hell on myself.
"You didn't answer me. Where are they?"
"Sydney. Melbourne. The state of California but not in that pesky little neighborhood of hers. I told you the places. You guess the people." I rasped and licked my blood off my lips.
His eyes darkened and he grabbed my collar in his fists. "You made a huge mistake, boss. You messed with me. Nobody. Messes. With. Me." He gritted.
The last thing I want in life is to get on my brother's bad side. It's mostly business but he's the best I've got when it comes to an extreme situation of not getting the desired answers from a usual late debtor or any other person who messed with our family. Give him thirty minutes or less, we'd be getting everything we want to know.
And right now, I was definitely regretting on going behind his back but he went behind my back first.
"You're a traitor. You broke our trust and chose to help that girl."
I groaned in pain when I earned another hard punch from him. I swear I saw my head spin a little. "I don't think it would actually count as breaking trust if your pathetic mightiness knew that I would do anything to remove my guilt. Anything."
"You... You were an idiot who could not control his drinking ways." I coughed and spat out blood. If he keeps on going like this, I might have to take an appointment with my dentist tomorrow.
"I really don't understand what is wrong with you. First you harm an innocent, challenge her in our family name which was a total shit move, never listened to my words, almost killed her, played a nasty game with both of us yet you are still blind about every fucking thing!"
"It's your fault that you chose to help her... Adrian." I grumbled in pain. "If you had chosen to stay out of my way, you wouldn't be here... taking out your frustration on me. You would be sleeping right now in your stupid little pajamas."
"Don't you dare fucking say a word about my pajamas." He threatened by pulling my hair harshly. I hissed. "They are soft."
"You... You think you can loosen up those ropes a bit?" I asked dumbly. "They're itching me."
"No." He deadpanned with an unspoken anger in his eyes. "Enough of playing around, little brother. The truth is... I don't care what you said or did to that girl, I'm here to take my fix from you and I will get my fix from you. No mercy and...?"
No mistakes. Fuck. And I made a mistake.
He sighed loudly when I didn't complete his sentence and pulled out a gun and knife from his trousers then kept it on my lap. Dammit, I cannot even pick that up.
"Now, I've had enough of shit in the past forty eight hours so I need you to spill out everything. If you don't or if you lie, and I will know if you lie, you get a bullet on the exact same spot where you shot Amelia. What was it again...? Ah, yes. Two in her head, one in her leg. I feel like doing the same thing to you now. Except this time, I won't be feeling any guilt but I will make sure that you drown in the pool of guilt till you cannot take it anymore."
"Then what's the knife for?"
"For this."
In a flash, the weapons were off my lap and suddenly, I felt a searing pain on my inner thigh. My senses couldn't comprehend the shock as I looked down and saw the ugly sight of dark red smearing on my pant.
"Y-You... You..." My eyes buldged out of their sockets and I was gasping for air.
Pain. Too much pain. Fuck. I can't...
"Are those eight billion nerves finally get a kickstart?" My fuming elder brother asked. "Or do you want me to twist it?"
He touched the knife and pushed it deeper than it already was.
"FUCK! NO! NO! DON'T DO THAT!"
My maniac brother stopped and grinned in triumph. "I see you are excited to cooperate and not talk shit now."
"YOU STABBED ME!"
"Thank you for noticing."
"AGAIN!"
"Oh. Right. Forgot about that. How's your shoulder?"
"YOU CRAZY MANIAC! WHY THE FUCK DID YOU STAB ME?"
"Shh..." He pressed a finger on my lip and smiled evilly. "Consider this as a heads up if you ever try to double cross me again."
"Adrian... brother... take it out... I'm losing too much blood."
He laughed. That little fucker laughed at me. "That's not gonna happen, buddy. Let me be the bad villian tonight. You've had that role for quite some time now."
"Adrian..." I warned gravely in vain. I have to concentrate on keeping my consciousness alive. I saw my knife deep wound again. Fuck. Another half inch and I would have bid farewell to my ability of making any future Agostini.
"Here's a bonus for you. You're my second victim with that knife and sadly, I don't regret doing this to you at all. Hey, wait. Wouldn't that be a bonus point for me too?" He pondered out loud.
"Adrian..." I struggled to get my hands out of those ropes. I could feel my body grow weaker and colder minute by minute and this man was actually enjoying my misery.
"Man, you gotta change your carpet again. It's soaking red." He whistled lowly, eyeing the floor below me. "That's two times in less than a month."
I watched him open that bottle of scotch and pour it in the glass till it was touching its rim. Then he dipped his hand on it and brought it right beside my open knife deep wound, scotch dripping from his palm.
"Why didn't you tell her that her family was not there anymore? She could have given up long back then and saved you a lot from useless trouble."
"B-Because... Because asking means good manners. She didn't have any."
I let out a gullatral scream when his hand shifted right above my injured thigh.
"Ooh. Burns like a bitch, doesn't it?" He asked, chuckling darkly.
"Adrian, get your hand away from it!"
His hand tilted and I hissed at the dreadful burning sensation of scotch touching my open wound. "First tell me why did you not tell her?"
"She had to be taught a lesson! She didn't ask so I didn't tell her. That's it! Now get it away!"
His lips supressed into a thin line and he picked up his gun from my desk, checked its magazine and pointed it on my head. "You know, I can go on like this for days. After all, it's my job."
"That doesn't scare me."
He rolled his eyes. "Of course. I know it doesn't but that does not mean that I can't use it."
I yelped when he shot on the floor, right in between my feet and hissed in pain. I had moved my injured leg.
"There, there... Nothing to worry about. You should really start talking, Leonardo. If you don't want me to leave here alone and let you rot to death by morning. Hmm, that does sounds nice. Leonardo Agostini died to exsaniguiation. Loss of blood. Or maybe, I could just make sure of it right now by putting two bullets in your empty head. Or maybe not. I can't let that happen to you. Death would be too easy for you. I should just damage the exact nerves to put you in permanent paralysis. In that case, oh boy, nobody would want a paralytic man as their boss, little brother, and I'll take over everything. Bed ridden, crippled, little Leo, who would be wishing for death every second for the rest of his life. That would be quite a low blow to you, wouldn't it? And the only reason for your downfall is that you messed up bad. You messed up with your elder brother. I did taught you to respect your elders when you were a kid, didn't I?"
"You.. Y-You wouldn't... You are a crazy man." My eyelids were getting heavy and I was having a hard time keeping them open. The knife was deep inside, my blood flowing out of my leg like a river with no dam and I was still tied up.
"I see the loss has already started to take a toll on you. Your face is turning pale white. Good." He smiled and sat on my desk, cross legged. "So tell me why you didn't tell her that her family were not living there anymore?"
"Because... I did not wanted to." I breathed heavily. "Brother... Adrian... At least get that knife out."
"I will, if I want to" He said nonchalantly. "Why did you not wanted to tell her?"
"S-She had to be taught a lesson. A big one," I panted. "Lesson well taught. That's it."
He shot near my left foot and I flinched oh so slightly. "Nice one. You should be a professor. Why the fuck are you into this business then? Or did you fucking forget what I said about lying to me? I can see right through you, you idiotic brute. I know that's not it."
"I said that's it."
"And I'm saying that's not it! Don't make me repeat my words like a kindergarten teacher. So chop-chop. Hurry up, if you want me to save your life."
"What I said is true... but..." I heaved a long sigh and shook my head to remove the dizzy spells. I will not pass out again. I will not pass out again. I will not! "I was having fun."
"Fun?" He sneered. "So you ruined an innocent girl's hope for life just to have fun? How cheap of you, you bastard."
"I didn't like it... She wanted me to kill her so I had to shut her up."
I was answered with a pin drop silence from my brother and then... "You sick piece of shit, where the fuck did you hide her body?" He shouted in anger and kicked the chair with his feet.
I hissed as a slid away a few feet from him, lifting my stabbed leg slightly upwards to avoid getting it dragged on the floor.
"I didn't kill her, you idiot!" I shouted back and gulped. How the hell did I end up in this kind of situation again? "I... I kissed her again."
"How sweet of you." Adrian cooed in fake enthusiasm. "Way to screw up everything all over again. I am so proud of you. I wonder what happened to 'we talked like grown people and I told her to forget about it'. You guys are so damn mature."
"Adrian..."
"I just don't get it. I played my move on her and it went on complete blind eye. How the fuck did you end up on first base with her? You are worse than me, scratch that, you are horrible."
"Thank you." I muttered. It's so nice to hear my brother's honest opinion about me when I am on verge of blacking out with a knife deep inside my leg.
"So what are you going to do now?" He asked curiously then narrowed his eyes. "Don't you dare try to get her in bed or else I'll make you invalid for a good fuck."
"Don't know... the knife... Adrian... take it out... now." I rasped breathlessly and tried to move my wrists under the thick ropes.
"Just one last question and I'll let you live. How do you feel after all this shit you've pulled? I'm sure victory must be dancing in your life." He faked a smile. "Congratulations, boss."
"No. You are wrong," I whispered hoarsely and took a deep breath. "I feel heavy... terribly heavy, like a weight on my chest. I feel..."
"Guilty." He finished and laughed humorlessly. "Good. Then be guilty. At least that will set you straight."
"She is different. Unique." I found myself saying. "Nothing like the women I have met before and nothing like her. You were wrong about that too. It's not fair to compare two different women from two different yet similar situations."
"Awww, my little brother has got a teeny weeny crush on a girl. I feel like a proud elder brother." He wiped a fake tear.
"Shut up!" I snapped furiously.
"You didn't deny. That's so adorable." He got off my desk and pinched my cheek.
"Adrian, pull out that knife this instant!"
I gasped loudly and sighed in relief when he finally pulled that knife and threw it in a corner. More blood flew out of me. My mind spun in circles.
"Adrian, apply pressure... quick!"
He stood up straight. "No."
Fucking hell. How did I end up with him twenty one years ago? Father should put him back in the orphanage or maybe I should drug him and ship him back. No. I should complain to her. After all, it's all her fault. She demanded a brother for me and our father brought this maniac in my life.
"Remove the ties." I said.
He looked at me as if I had grown two heads. "No. I tied you up then why would I remove it? I'm not removing it."
"Adrian..." I whined. "Stop fooling around now. I'm dying. At least support me till we reach the infirmary."
To my shocking surprise, he grabbed his coat from my chair, rolled down his sleeves and buttoned up, all ready to leave. He met my eye. "Why the hell would I do that too? All this time you were asking me to remove the knife, so I did that. My job here is done. It's already late, brother, and it's not healthy to stay up so late. Time for bed."
"Adrian, you cannot do this to me!" I shouted.
"I don't see why you need help anymore. Your legs have always been free and the chair has wheels. Push yourself to the other end of this floor. I'll leave the door open for you. Don't worry. I'll also send you flowers and chocolates everyday along with a 'Get well soon' card personally hand written by me while you recover." He ruffled my hair like he always does since we were kids and headed straight for the door.
I groaned loudly. "Adrian, wait!"
He stopped and looked over his shoulder. "What?"
"What do I do now? I messed up bad."
"For any person who has gone through such trauma, there are only two things left for us to do. Either by tomorrow morning we will hear news of a twenty three year old woman ended her life after learning the truth about her and her family and we will see another grave in her name or she will recover, continue working here and will have nothing to do with any of us ever again. We all move on and forget that the past few months ever happened in our lives. You get over that little crush of yours and concentrate on work. I'll stop searching for ice-cream in the middle of night and as for her..." He trailed off and exhaled sharply. "You just have to wait."
So waiting is exactly what I did.
A few days later, a very upset Amelia Jones barged into my private office and argued about a dead chef and an undercooked chicken.
••••••
... and that's how Leonardo Agostini was left bedridden for three days by his own brother.
Moral: Never mess with Adrian Agostini. He'll go violent if provoked badly.