Leandro
I was rational
I didn't take any shit
If one of my closest men or even 'partners' ever spoke to me in the same way Artemisia Pericelo spoke to me an hour ago, I would be quick to knock them out and torture them to a very painful death.
But I didn't even flinch.
I'd come so close to her hundreds of times since the day I last saw her. The Black Widow was our most trusted assassin; I'd referred her to my closest men, and she'd always done the job.
I'd given her information that she had to know was coming from me, from the same men who let her go, so it made me wonder why working for us now was such a big problem?
The thing is, my life was totally turned upside down when she disappeared. I knew how vulnerable she was, and every time I looked into her piercing green and blue eyes I saw this look of pure confusion. I knew what it was all about.
She wanted to know why her father hurt her in the ways he did, but the men surrounding him were so happy to have her around, gifting things to her and ensuring that she would have some security in life.
They didn't do it out of sympathy, I knew that better than anyone.
It was because Artemisia Pericelo was the most beautiful child the Cosa Nostra had ever seen, I thought it too. But the difference was that my friends and I weren't grooming her as a result.
Those men had died shortly after my father had died with the exception of Matteo Giordano, my men and I saw to it. Matteo was the only man of my father's inner-circle with true decency and respect. People loved to say that my father was the creator of our success, but really the strategy always came from Matteo.
He was also the only one who put up any sort of fight to get Arté back.
-
"Who the fuck was that? And why are you on a first name fucking basis with her?" Clementina shouted as she walked through the house after me.
My men spilled in behind her, they all knew, but I would be the one to have to tell her.
We'd all grown up with her before her disappearance, and for all that she was much younger than us, we kept an eye on her. However, we were forced into a position of silence by my father and her own when the fateful day came.
"Clementina, just leave it." I said sternly, walking into the kitchen to see Matteo sat smoking a cigar and reading a document. The man lived with my men and I, seeing as he was just as vital to our operation even now at his age of seventy five.
"You would love that, wouldn't you? Get me to shut up when you are so clearly obsessed with her!" She shouted, Matteo raised an eye as if to ask me about a lovers quarrel, but this was far worse.
Obsessed was not the word. Shocked and bewildered were more fitting.
"She called you Leo, and you said her name with so much... meaning!" Clemmie argued "Artemisia," she mocked
I clenched my jaw and watched as Matteo slowly put down his document, a look of rare shock on his face. Domenico and Luiz sat down next to Matteo, the shoulders of my two closest men slumped in defeat. It had been a hard dinner for everyone.
"Artemisia," Matteo murmured, looking over at Clementina who seemed enraged.
I loved my fiancé, or it was the closest thing I had ever felt to love with someone in a Romantic relationship, and for that I was grateful. However, she was raised away from the world I had grown up in, unlike the wives of my best friends. Clementina had been held in a glass box stuffed with silk and cashmere until it cracked and she was getting engaged to me.
In her eyes she'd struck gold, but then it came to the reality of the situation. She wanted control of our relationship and it was something I would never give her, not because I didn't trust her, but it wasn't part of the deal. The marriage was a last minute deal.
When I say last minute, I mean it happened the month after Artemisia was taken. Artemisia was the woman I was supposed to marry.
But, my father didn't see it fitting for me to have a wife so many of his men behaved inappropriately towards already in her youth, and it seemed as if the kidnapping was the perfect excuse to find a replacement.
I doubt Arté knew that it was supposed to happen, and it's probably best that she never will.
"Yes, Artemisia," Clemmie snapped
"Watch your tone." I warned.
"Where is she?" Matteo rasped, Domenico gave me a look, asking if he could proceed and i nodded at the man.
"She's the Black Widow." Domenico muttered, and Matteo's face went totally blank.
"Let's talk," Matteo breathed, nodding to myself, Domenico and Luiz.
-
Matteo sat in silence for a few moments, clenching and relaxing his fist, a trait I only saw him exercise in moments of extreme emotion when he had to handle it.
"She'll be 21 now."
That alone was enough to bring all the memories rushing back, ones that I had done such a good job of of blocking out for the past thirteen years. My shoulders tensed and my head fell as I leant on the edge of my desk.
Domenico and Luiz were looking up at the ceiling, clearly going through the same thing as me. It was a rare feeling for us. Helplessness was something that none of us had experienced since that day.
"How was she?" Matteo rasped
"Angry, I may have used the 'family' card, and that was enough for us to know how she felt." I sighed.
Matteo nodded, his face remaining stoic, his only give away was the repeating flex of his fist. "And how does she feel?"
"That none of us are her family, and if we referred to ourselves as such then she would have no problem killing us." Luiz said, he was calm and there was the faintest trace of a smile on his lips. I put it down to bewilderment. "She's...she's beautiful."
I shot him a look, one that said 'shut the fuck up', and for some reason I had no idea why his words irked me so much.
I blamed it on the fact that we hadn't seen her in over ten years, had just found out that our Artemisia was the most infamous assassin in the Western World, and that she had told me she would kill me and make sure that I wouldn't get to put a son on this earth.
I definitely didn't blame it on the fact that the woman I was previously supposed to marry one day was just sat in front of me, so far removed from my life, and played by such different rules that rendered me speechless.
"Is she willing? To take the job?" Matteo asked
"I think she'll need a little more convincing," I muttered, my mind jumping back to how calm yet menacing her tone had been.
"How do we do that?" Domenico spoke, "she clearly wants nothing to do with us."
There was a silence before Matteo opened his mouth, I looked over at him but it seems as if he was stuck in thought. With furrowed brows and an extremely tense body, the man looked on the verge of talking senseless words.
"Say it, Matteo." I walked behind my desk, looking over at the blazing fire on the opposite side of the room that had Luiz's attention. The man was engrossed in thought.
"I want to see her, I want to go to the gym."
My gaze settled on the picture in the far corner of the office, a little girl with her back to the camera in a green pinafore dress, looking out across sea front in Sicily. I looked at that photo everyday, but over the years it had lost its meaning and became more about the sea than anything else. Now however, it was a different story.
I don't know why I was so adamant about making Artemisia do this job, Anton had seemed fine with it being another one of David's protégées, but my mind could only settle for Artemisia.
"I'll call David."
-
"She doesn't know we're going," I said as I relaxed back into my seat, passing through busy streets filled with crowds and street vendors.
"I know Artemisia very well, you can't just show up Leandro, regardless of who you're bringing." Anton said.
Anton and I got on because we had to, because we both knew that if the Mexicans got into New York then both of us would be having problems. I respected him as he did me, he was cold, calculative, obsessive and ruthless.
My style was different, being brought up with an army of my own, but Anton seemed to rely on two men that surrounded him in his operation, and even the word 'rely' was generous.
"You know her?" I asked, trying to hide any source of annoyance in my tone but Anton couldn't be fooled.
"Don't worry, after what happened at dinner I'm not in her good books either." He mused, I could sense the smile on his face causing me to scowl.
"You're fucking her?" I retorted, earning Luiz to look over at me with confusion from the seat next to me, and Domenico to do the same from the passenger seat.
"Was, fucking her, after dinner I'm not sure she'll even consider it. Why? You sad that she's not the good little Italian virgin anymore?" He chuckled
"Watch your mouth," I muttered, my hand was balled into a fist and my knuckles going white. "And no, that's not why I care. I just wondered how she's managed to keep such a low profile."
"Well, I'm sure she'll tell you all about it when you ambush her in her own gym. Speak later."
The line went dead and I let out a low grunt, tossing my phone into the middle seat.
"What was that about?" Luiz murmured as he texted on his phone
"Anton knows her," I said. Both men nodded knowingly, pursing their lips and hiding a smile, which caused me to roll my eyes and just as I was about to give them both a piece of my mind we halted at a set of garage gates that were rising.
The first set led to another set of black steel gates, and then we found two armed guards at a barrier. My driver rolled the window down, recited a set of details, and we were let through.
The place was sleek, with resin concrete floors and cream walls, lit by gas-lights. The corridor was dark, and the sound of music only grew louder as we were led to an office where we found Matteo talking with David.
David reached out and shook our hands before nodding at us to take a seat.
"She's not going to be happy." David said, "but when I ask something of her she does it. So, she will take this job, whether she treats you with respect though is an entirely different question."
I nodded and looked around the room, David had photos up with all of them, and there was a large one that consisted of five guys and Artemisia all smiling in the gym I presumed we were about to walk into.
"And, I've got to say that the guys she trains with are like her brothers, she's been with me since she was eleven and got here after them so they are extremely protective over her. They know about the kidnapping and they know about what happened to her."
"What did happen to her?" Matteo pushed suddenly, and David's friendly yet efficient demeanour disintegrated.
"She's always been a pretty girl Matteo." He muttered, standing up. "They had her there for three years before she managed to kill them all with her bare hands. What do you think they did to her?"
My blood ran cold, the mentioning of three years made my heart drop to the pit of my stomach and I, Leandro Torromandi, leader of the Cosa Nostra, felt once more helpless but also pure rage, and that rage didn't stem from anything that had been done to me. So much so that I walked out the room, ignoring the uncomfortable glances being shared between Luiz and Domenico.
I steadied myself against the wall, shutting my eyes and recalibrating as I remembered who I was, how I had been raised, and more importantly why I was here.
The door opened once more and I let David lead the way down the narrow hall way, unlocking the door to the gym with a passcode, and the vast space spilled out in front of us.
In the middle was a boxing ring, pieces of equipment lined three of the walls whilst the one to the right of us was lined with a built in bench that spanned the length of the large room. My eyes were drawn to the figure pushing a rig with two well-built men.
"Cut the shit, and get back to work." One of them shouted as Artemisia pushed them. It shocked me, they must of weighed minimum 160 kilos put together, and there she was pushing them.
I watched as the muscles adorning her back were all contracted as the shouts designed to rile her up continued, her head was dropped down as she pushed all her strength through her calves. I couldn't comprehend how someone with such a slight and slim figure could manage to perform such a task, but then I remembered who I was talking about. Perhaps it was her best asset of all, the fact that she could do everything, even the things that looked impossible when first looking at her.
"That's it! Shut that muscle down!" David called across the gym as he clapped his hands. The music was loud, heavy with bass, and all of the men in there looked riled up and ready to go. To the point that I wished David hadn't drawn so much sudden attention.
Because, suddenly, the riling shouts stopped and the two men looked in our direction as Artemisia reached the end of the room. Three other men stepped forwards from the equipment that lined the back wall. It was the sudden silence that got Artemisia to look up, immediately taken out of her exhaustion.
Time stood still, her face was blank and her eye contact seemed to zero-in on me. Artemisia held a glare so powerful it even tempted me to look away, but I couldn't, not now that we were here. I didn't know what she wanted in order to do this job, but something told me it wasn't about a price.
If it was an apology she wanted, then by all means she could have it.
"What the fuck are they doing here?" She called as she walked down the vast expanse of the gym. "Did you set this up?"
"No, Arté," David sighed, "but I'm not asking anymore, you're doing this job."
There was a sudden hesitation in her movements, and I couldn't help but take in the sight in front of me now. Dressed in tight olive green gym shorts and a black sports bra, her glistening body stood as a centrepiece of beauty in the otherwise dark and soulless gym.
But I can't afford to think like that.
"Why can't Alvaro, or Jacob do this? Why does it have to be me?" She pushed as she walked closer. I watched as David clenched his jaw, before looking over at Matteo and I.
"These people are your fam--"
"You fucking asshole!" She exploded. "Who the fuck are you to tell me that any of these men are my family? They let me go! They didn't even bother trying to find me and I was subjected to three years of torture because of them!"
Silence.
David didn't say anything, it was clear to me that she had never spoken like that to him in her life, but based on the look of sympathy in his eyes there was more to the story than he was letting on. More that he hadn't revealed to anyone.
"And you!" She commanded, her burning gaze meeting mine. "You fucking watched them and did nothing!"
"Artemisia, there was nothing I could do." I spoke, but my tone was emotionless, as was my expression.
"What a pathetic response," She seethed, "Poor old Leo being kept quiet, precious fucking Leandro with no one to turn to other than the perverts running the Cosa Nostra. Of course you 'thought' there was nothing you could do, you never even tried."
The tension in the room was unpalatable, never in my life had I felt so uncomfortable in a situation, and it was because for the first time in years, I wasn't in control. She was. The Black Widow had caught me in her web of anger, rage and pure hatred, and now I was stuck.
My tall broad stature was clearly dominant compared to hers, but I had to remind myself yet again of who she was.
She took some steps closer, and was about to speak again, until the moment where her name was voice from her right, and her head snapped.
Matteo was a thin man now, but he still commanded a room when he walked into it. Wearing a fedora that he now rested upon his chest, the black suit made him almost look like the Slenderman. His eyes were sunken and his cheeks hollow, but his stature at 6'5 was imposing. Luckily the shortest one in the room seemed to be Artemisia at around 5'10, but my men and I all hit around the same height as Matteo, however this being said, no one could use their height to such an advantage like him.
"Do you remember me?" he asked quietly, and for a second I saw a flash of kindness run through her. But it was gone as quick as it came.
"Yes," she muttered, "you helped Salome."
Salome. She wasn't even calling the woman her mother anymore.
"Arté, I know you think that we failed you." Matteo spoke and he took a step forward, which caused a reaction of the angered men behind her to take a couple steps forward too in order to cut her off from us, but she held her hand out, as if to tell them stop.
They were her own army.
"You may think this is me lying to you, but when I tell you that I have not gone a day without thinking about you I mean it. Leandro, Domenico and Luiz, they didn't have a choice but to comply. So, as they complied, I tried to push to get you back."
Artemisia became rigid, there was a flash of fear in her eyes, one that told me all I needed to know. This anger stemmed from terror and pain, and possibly the fact that she had done her best to avoid the reality of her life for so many years whilst inadvertently working for the people who allowed it to happen.
"But you didn't get me back, you waited for me to die and you thought they would kill me pretty quick when they finally realised you were never going to even entertain their demands, because I was not worth it." She seethed, and I stiffened, looking to Domenico who wasn't even trying to conceit a look of guilt. "They would let me know about every little thing, to make me feel even more worthless. They were sure to make me understand that Carlo Torromandi and my own fucking father didn't want me because I was never enough for them."
She didn't seem upset, she seemed angry, but within a second her anger changed into a smug satisfaction.
"But that's fine. Because my supposed 'family's' lack of interest in me, made me what I am today. The woman you're begging to do your dirty work."
Her eyes met mine, blazing with ferocity and determination. She took a step in my direction and faced me. Yes, I had to look down at her, but she didn't look phased in the slightest. What did I expect? She was an assassin.
"I'll do the job, but not because you want me to, and if you ever try and call me family again I will put an end to any possibility of you continuing yours."
There was no word of a lie in her statement, the distaste of her tone and anger in her eyes told me all that I needed to know. But, I didn't waver.
This woman was already distracting me from who I was and I'd reunited with her less than 24 hours ago. Me, slipping into a submissive role just to get her onside was not going to last long, or so I told myself. When the job started to take place, I knew I had to get back in the lead.
This being said there was something that had been left unsaid. David was hiding something, and Artemisia was planning something, and I was going to figure it out.
-
A/N:
Hello!
I hated this chapter tbh because I needed to use it as a vessel for the real story, but I cannot wait to get into this more!