Jasmine Anderson
Rafael didn't say much to me after I came back from my room with my shoes on. Just gave me brief words, telling me that we're going to the police station. It clicked that it was about the investigation and maybe they've found the person that did it. Or maybe, a secret that the two of them have and it was possible that it could get out and ruin them forever. I mean, when it comes to big CEO businessmen, they sometimes are one of the most dangerous.
I tried to ask what was wrong and at first he didn't answer me. My curiosity got the best of me and I ended up asking him again and he told me in a calm voice although the narrowed eyes and bouncing leg told me he was far from such. Saying that Alessandro has news-bad news. I left it alone after that. I pitied them for some reason. It was probably because I have such strong feelings for them that I didn't want any bad thing to happen to them. Or it was probably because of this situation and the outcome of finding out whatever news that needs to be brought to the light wasn't going to end well, especially with both of the company owners angry. One was enough on its own but two-fair warning.
The drive to the police station wasn't that long, about twenty minutes or so. When we finally arrived, Rafael got out of the car and started walking towards the building. I hurried and got out, cursing him in my head as I ran to catch up with him. I barely got through the door before it almost closed in my face. I grabbed onto his hand and he didn't even flinch, just dragged me along without a thought. He only started to pay attention when a policeman was rushing by and bumped my shoulder, making me almost fall but Rafael was quick to wrap his arm around me.
"Rafael." I hear Alessandro's voice call from a distance. We both look around until our eyes land on Alessandro on the other side of the room, standing halfway in a doorway. His voice was already deep and it boomed, making almost everyone stop and look between the three of us. We walk through the mist of policemen that are either sitting at their desk typing on their computer, answering the phone, or walking around.
Rafael holds me close to him as we walk towards Alessandro. Some of the policemen watch us as we walk. It's mainly the young ones that look me up and down before their eyes would move to Rafael's arm and they'll look away. The older ones didn't even blink an eye towards us. When we reach the door, I try to follow Rafael through the door but a man with a familiar face steps in front of me, blocking me from entering. "I'm sorry but you can't come in." He says.
"Why not?" I ask without thinking. He rolls his eyes, putting his hands in his pockets.
"Because I'm not about to have some little girl involved in this case in any way." I was close to responding. Ask him how dare he insult me and call me a little girl like I was a ten year old with pigtails. Though, on the other hand, I was a bit shocked.
"Bi-Mitchell, that was not necessary." Alessandro says, sending a glare to the back of Mitchell's head. He ignores him, though, rolling his eyes once again.
"Williams." He shouts. I cross my arms, looking behind me to a man that seems to be in his mid-twenties walking towards us. "Watch her while we discuss this." I narrow my eyes, looking back at Mitchell but looking over at Alessandro with a pout.
"It's okay, bimba (baby girl). We won't be long." I smack my lips before letting out a sigh, mumbling an 'okay' as I turn towards the guy named Williams. He gives me a welcoming smile and I return it by giving him a half-hearted one. He gestures with his head to follow him and I trail behind him to a desk that's in the middle of the room, beside a desk that's on the left.
"You can sit right there." He says, gesturing his hand towards the black cushion chair that's beside his desk. When I sit down, my arm grazes against handcuffs that's hanging from the desk.
"Are you going to handcuff me too?" I ask with a small smile. He looks at me with a frown before looking at the handcuffs, chuckling.
"Are you a criminal?"
"I don't know. Am I?" I cross my leg and tilt my head at him, waiting. He leans back in his chair, crossing his arms, and stares at me.
"Bloody hell." He sighs. "You're trouble, young lady." I let out a giggle and shrug my shoulders. "Was that your boyfriend?" I stop from looking around the room and look back at him, raising my brows. "The guy that you came in with."
"What's it to you?"
"Curious." He chuckles. "You don't have to tell me." I look towards the room that Rafael went into, seeing him yelling at Lorenzo and his face red while Alessandro tries to put his arms around him to calm down. I wanted to get up and go to him. Wrap my arms around and try to make him feel better. Tell him that it's going to be alright even if it's not-he'll at least believe it for at least a second. Though, there's no point in doing so. Micheal or whatever his name is won't even let me past the door.
I look back at Williams, his eyes trained on me - curious, waiting. Could I tell him that he was my boyfriend? I mean, Rafael or Alessandro haven't even called themselves that title. . . yet. Did I have the right to even do such a thing? Guys do it all the time when it comes to a girl they like. Put the title 'my girlfriend' on the girl's back to claim her as fast as they can. Could I do that? Besides that question, could I even risk saying that? No one necessarily knows that they're my dads. No one has given us judgemental or questioning looks like they suspected something wasn't right. Though, when you see a young girl with two grown men, what would be the first thing that would come to mind?
I can't say yes just for people to find out that they're my dads. That would just ruin everything.
I cross my arms and give Williams a tight lip smile to which he nods his head. "Fine, you don't have to tell me. Though, may I ask how old you are?"
"Why?" He reaches up and scratches the back of his neck and I raise my brows at his behavior. Now he wants to act hesitant.
"Well, it's just. . ." He looks me in the eyes before his eyes start to trail down. "You look so young and I just feel like, all of that," He moves his hand up and down the entire length of my body before he starts shaking his head. "Is just deceiving me."
"Deceiving you?" I laugh. "That's a first."
"What can I say? It's not everyday you see a, excuse me, short girl with two balls on top of her head while wearing such an outfit. Not unless she's below the age of twelve."
My hand comes up to my space buns and I look down at my outfit. "Are you saying I look like a child?" I know I'm shorter than the average seventeen year old and my cheeks are only a bit chubby. It doesn't help either that my breasts aren't as mature as most girls my age but I don't pay much mind to it. I just didn't think that I looked that young to people. Unless it was just him that seems to see me that way.
"Well, I'm not saying-" He cuts himself off and scratches his head, looking me up and down once again. "-Yes." I huff with a roll of my eyes. Pouting as I cross my arms.
"Well, for your information, mister. I'm seventeen and will be eighteen in two months."
"Could've fooled me." He averted his eyes from me and started typing on his computer. "You know," He says, not moving his eyes from the screen. "You should be careful."
"For what?"
"You're a young little thing. Pretty too. There are predatory men out there that like girls like you." His voice sounded a bit deeper. He looks at me and licks his lips, making me cringe a bit. I gulp and move as far as I can away from him while staying in the chair, meaning I'm now sitting on the edge of it. He chuckles at my action before looking back at the screen. I look back towards the room, everyone just standing around-seeming more calm now. Just then, Alessandro over and connects eyes with me. I take a quick glance towards Williams before looking back at Alessandro and mouthing the words 'help me'. He frowns with a tilt of his head and I widen my eyes, nodding my head.
Alessandro then disappears and seconds later, the door is opening and he's walking out. Without a thought, I jumped out of the chair and ran towards him. Williams yells behind me to come back but I ignore him. I run into Alessandro, him stumbling a bit but he catches himself and wraps his arms around me. "Jasmine, what's wrong?" I squeeze him before pulling back, keeping him within arm length.
"That man is scaring me." I mumble, looking at him.
"Who?" I turn around a bit, Williams standing somewhat in the distance and I point at him.
"Williams." I look back at Alessandro. "He started talking about how I should be careful and how men are predators and he spoke in a deep voice." Alessandro looks towards Williams before looking down at me.
"I'm sure he was just trying to tell you to be safe so-"
"No." I cut him off. "He was being creepy and he kept looking at me." Alessandro's face turns from a frown of concern to a scowl of anger. He unwrapped his arm from around me and started walking towards Williams but I grabbed onto his hand and dropped all of my weight down into my feet. "Wait, what are you doing?"
"I'm about to go talk to the creep."
"No, forget it. Just be here with me." I pout and his face softens. He pulls me close to him and goes towards the door he came out of early. When we walk inside the room, the man from before looks up and looks at me with a frown.
"What is she-"
"Shut it, Mitchell." Alessandro says, walking us over to where Rafael is at. His arms are crossed and eyes narrowed as he taps his foot. Lorenzo leans against a wall, looking down at the ground. There's a blond hair boy that sits at the table, arms crossed while looking around the room with no direction.
"Bloody hell, I don't want a child involved in this." Mitchell barked back, getting up from his chair and placing his hands on the table.
"She's not involved, so shut the fuck us and tell us how are we going to save this problem."
"Fucking please and thank you." Rafael's words come out slow, anger laced in his voice. He sends Lorenzo a glare to which he ignores.
"I swear, Americans." Alessandro's body stiffens next to me and both Rafael and Lorenzo look up at Mitchell. All three of them tilt their heads at him, glaring. I inwardly shake my head at Mitchell, pity thrown upon him.
"How dare you insult us?" Rafael says.
"What?" Mitchell looks around with a frown.
"They are full-blown Italians, you dumbass." A woman I forgot to notice before says, her face familiar as well. "Except for her." She looks over at me.
"Give us a plan before I rip your head off. Tu pezza di merda (You piece of shit)." Lorenzo says for the first time since I came in. Mitchell throws his hands up, rolling his eyes. He runs his hand down his face, sighing as he sits down in one of the black leather chairs. Just then, the door opens and in walks a woman wearing a nude dress that stops below her knee with nude heels. Her blonde hair is pinned up into a neat bun and her steel framed glasses are perched on her slightly pointy nose.
"Okay Mitch, do you have something for me or is this another empty case?" She asks in an already annoyed tone.
"Hello to you too, Serena." Mitchell grumbles.
"This one's legit." The woman from before says.
"Well, let's go over what we have." As Serena and the detectives started going over the case, Alessandro whispered in my ear to go sit on the couch that's on the other side of the room. I was hesitant since the blond that was already taking up one of the cushions looked like the definition of dork. It wasn't right to judge him just based on his looks but I had to be cautious. I thought Williams was nice and friendly just because he gave me a welcoming smile and tried talking to me. Look how that turned out.
I didn't put up a fuss though. I was going to do that in front of everyone - strangers. I sat as far away as I could, pulling out my phone to distract myself. He tried to make conversation but all I did was give him hums and nods. He took the hint after a while and stopped talking, everyone else's voice filling the room. I go back and forth between talking with Hailey and scrolling through Instagram, looking up a few times to watch them whenever they mention Leonora's name - sometimes with venom. Curious as to why they kept mentioning her in such a tone but not caring long enough to actually get the answer.
I was on my second ten minute Youtube video when Alessandro called my name and said that we were leaving. I sighed in relief as I stretched my body, getting rid of any tense muscles. I was quick to grab onto Alessandro's hand as we walked out of the station. The air was refreshing as it travelled in light breezes, but it was also chilly. As we settled in the car, I subconsciously cuddled up against Alessandro to warm up with his body heat. He smiled down at me and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me closer to him.
"Were you at the police station this whole time?" I ask after a few moments of us driving. Alessandro is running his fingers through my hair with gentle touches, luring me closer to him. Not to mention, the smell of him was intoxicating. Its musky and dark smell somehow reminded me of this morning and the things Rafael and I did. I debated whether or not we should tell him and if so, when. I mean, it didn't have to be a secret but at the same time, was it really necessary to tell him. Who knows, I might wake up with Alessandro between my legs and Rafael off doing something.
"No." Alessandro says with a sigh. "I went to talk to Lorenzo first." I stopped drawing curly lines on his black sweater, which hugged him perfectly and was doing things to me, and looked up at him. His eyes are trained on Rafael and I follow his gaze to Rafael's attention now on us instead of whatever was happening outside.
"Oh, really?" Rafael asks, crossing his arms and turning his body a bit towards us. "What did you guys talk about?"
"You know exactly what we talked about."
"Okay then. So, it's settled now?"
"Actually," Alessandro lets out a dry chuckle. "We got interrupted. That's how we ended up at the police station." Rafael rolls his eyes while mumbling incoherent words under his breath, going back to looking out of the window. "Rafael." His voice was almost a whine. . . almost.
"Save it."
I look up at Alessandro with a pout, he notices and gives me a twitched smile. It makes my heart clench to see this constant interaction between the two of them whenever Lorenzo is mentioned. It's like a never ending problem that only gets harder the more you try to work it out. It makes me wonder if they've ever actually talked about it or if it was something they just tiptoed over.
"Just give him a moment." I say, placing my hand on Alessandro's thigh. He looks down at my hand then at me with an arched brow. Looking down, my hand is above his mid-thigh. I blush as I start to remove my hand but Alessandro is quick to grab it, placing it back where it was and only half an inch higher. I look at him with wide eyes, mouth slightly open. Being discreet, I look at Taylor in the front and his attention is completely on the road. I look back down at my hand, debating what I should do.
Do I leave it there? Or do I inch it higher? Either way, both are a risk of Taylor seeing.
The car jerks a bit and Taylor curses with a groan. "I apologize, boss." He says, looking through the rearview mirror for the first time.
"It's alright. Just pay attention to the road around here." Alessandro says and Taylor gives him a nod of his head. Looking past Alessandro, there's traffic and cars driving back and forth everywhere. It also wasn't the usual road we took to get to the hotel since that road had less traffic. I almost couldn't believe the audacity of the drivers on tight tight roads like these. My eyes are averted elsewhere when I feel Alessandro hand on my cheek, making me look up at him. He glances away from me for only a second before looking back at me, letting out a low hum.
My breath has already been stolen from me. His gray eyes pierced into mine. The proximity of our faces, only a short breath away. The anticipation of his lips on mine was thrilling. Though, the presence of Taylor only three feet away was scary, adding more to the thrill inside of my chest.
"Ales-" I started to mumble but I'm cut off by his lip connecting to mine. His hand that was on my cheek moves to the back of my neck, pulling me closer than I already was. The low hum of music fades and all that's left is the smell of him, his hand on me, and his lips toying with mine. I hand involuntarily inches up and the tips of my fingers graze against something hard, making me gasp into his mouth and him pulling back with a groan. The music comes back to my ear as my eyes flutter open to Alessandro, his eyes dark. I clear my throat and pull my hand away, shocked with myself.
The kiss was brief but long enough to have me craving more. Also craving Alessandro's smirked lips from someone else rather than just a few centimeters away from my own lips.