GIOVANNI'S POV:
I'M TRIPPING. I must be, too little sleep or maybe I'm seeing things. And hearing things.
There is no absolute way in this entire world. I just saw my two siblings; specifically, the two I directly told not to come down under any circumstances unless an extreme emergency, stumble down from eavesdropping.
And the fact I have almost no way of checking how much they heard is.. real bad. I have a strong, strong feeling of indescribable annoyance towards them as of now, and I am having an extremely hard time keeping my temper.
My facial expression keeps the same casual, stone cold look, but inside, I'm boiling, bubbling, steaming with pure anger.
"Who were those?" My business partner, Andreas, asks, a small smirk on his face.
No one knows Azalea is back, and I plan on keeping it that way until we've buffed up our security and weapons. And also until we can ensure she's safe at all times. The protection she has now is good, but barely enough.
So, it leaves me to one option. Lying.
"My youngest brother and his friend from school. He's not in this meeting because he doesn't know about the.. family business yet." I respond, my tone blank and suppressing any emotion. I feel as if I'm about to shoot everyone in here in the head.
Lying to another Mafia leader is extremely risky, and getting caught lying is even worse. You need to become a professional in hiding your emotions because even the slight spark of guilt after lying can get a bullet through your head.
"She looked like your mother," he tilts his head accusingly, smirking. "But, it's not like she can control it anyway." He thankfully drops the case.
Fuck, he's probably caught on.
I nod anyway, avoiding suspicious as I clasp my palms together. I look back down at the small stacks of paper, analyzing them.
All written proof of the Russian and English mafias' plans to take the Greek and Italian mafia down.
Slowly, I inspect all the details, flipping through the pages.
"They say they're going to find the girl, your sister, and torture her," Andreas casually says just as I finish looking through the papers.
"He won't be able to do anything, as of now, we need to focus on them as a mafia, not their threats," Elijah assures.
"And why's that? Have you given up looking for Miss Laurier?"
"No, but we've got that sorted. How're the shipments to French Mafia?" Nicholas asks, changing the subject.
"It's going smoothly, they've received them, the guns," Andreas nods.
Russian and English Mafia must be ready for war. We had been civil, before they stole our drug shipments which escalated to guns, weapons and crates of money.
They could've been the ones that kidnapped Azalea, the ones who operated it all. I doubt it though, they're idiots and more than likely wouldn't have been able to bypass the firewall by themselves. All too stuck up their own ass.
So, that's why we think it's the French or the Spanish Mafia.
The Spanish mafia isn't doing so well. Their Donna died, and without a leader to guide them, they don't exactly have any role in the underworld. I've heard rumors that in a few years they'll get a new Donna or Don, but you can't exactly trust gossip. As of now, they're the worst ranked mafia in the underworld.
About the French Mafia. We don't have anything against them, so it may not be them. But they could have one-sided hatred towards us. Or, a secret alliance with the Russian and English. I doubt that though, they're very secretive and not at all public. Always keeping everything to themselves.
I don't know, but we'll find out.. eventually.
"That's all for today, Andreas," I declare, deciding I desperately need something to get my anger out on.
He nods and gathers his papers, bidding his goodbyes and walks out the room.
He's about 18 years old, heir to the Greek mafia. Black curls, vibrant blue eyes. He's well off, and we've known him since he was a baby since his dad was friends with ours. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't so proud of him.
But right then, I shoot up and bash my fists against the gold lining.
"Fuck," I mutter, pacing up and down.
"What?" Aidan asks, and I have to restrain myself from punching the wall that's very close to his face.
"Fuck you mean 'what', if Andres realizes and tells anyone, and I mean anyone at all, it could be all over the underworld, then suddenly we're cornered, unprepared and unprotected. It's so easy for things to go wrong, and you're here asking stupid fucking questions―" My voice is way louder and less calm than I'd anticipated, and so I have to physically stop and take deep breaths.
"I'm going to kill them," I venomusly state, quickly going over the ways I can torture them without pain and without them... dying.
I can take their phone.
I can make them run around the building..
Make them do chores?
Put them on the naughty step―
"Calm down Gio," Elijah warily says. "We're the strongest most protected mafia. Then, we weren't. You can't be overthinking because of this, Andreas wouldn't steep so low." He calmly reassures, calming me down the tiniest bit.
"Yeah, this is Andreas, A-n-d-r-e-a-s, the one we've known since he was born?" Nicholas reminds me.
"Don't blame Azalea and Elliott, you did lock them in a room and expected them to be obidient little children for two hours. Last time, they got in a police chase. Something was bound to happen, right?" His words are true and I definitely didn't exactly expect them to stay put, but I didn't think they'd spy on us.
"Yes, you might be right about that, but what about how they barged through? We don't know how much they heard or what they heard. We haven't exactly been avoiding the topic of the mafia here, have we?" Shit, this is bad. If they really heard anything to do with the mafia, who knows what they'll do? It's Azalea and Elliott, the iconic duo.
"Well it's about time they know anyway," Aidan shrugs, and I swear I could rip his head off his neck right there. This is not how they'll find out.
"Even though Aidans not completely wrong," Elijah starts, and I glare at him. "they probably would've ran off to Azalea's room and plan some devious plan to run away or something. They most likely heard nothing."
"Right, I'm going to go.. talk to them," I mask calmness, walking towards the door. I am the furthest thing from calm.
AZALEA'S POV:
I pace up and down around the room, frantically pulling at my hair. Elliott sits back, crossing his arms, completely unbothered.
"How are you so― calm?" I question, not understanding how anybody could be calm in this situaton.
"Because nothing is going to happen," He shrugs, watching me in amusement.
"Something is going to happen, what if he locks us in his secret chamber?"
"What?"
"You heard me! Elliott, we're doomed, dead. He's going to ship us with the Americans, then me, a British person, will be bullied and miserable!"
"Azalea, it's fin―"
"I'm not done you wanker!"
"What's a―"
"We're going to a boarding school. This is it. We need to run away, anywhere, right now," I gasp.
"Calm down. You're like his favourite, everyones actually―"
"Even yours?" I grin at him.
He glares at me, a small smile still lingering. "―you have charms. They won't do anything." He reassures me, calming me down the smallest bit.
"He's going to kill us," I sigh, my voice just above a whisper.
"Well, at least we won't have to go to school," Elliott shrugs unbothered.
I scoff and roll my eyes, laying back on my bed. I won't even get to go to college. Instead, I'll have a funeral; written on my tombstone will be: killed by brother because her and her brother were eavesdropping on a confidential, presidential meeting about the government or something.
Maybe that mysterious leng guy was their drug supplier..
Elliott lays next to me and I scowl at him, shoving him away.
He shoves me back and I sit up, intimidatingly glaring at him
"Aw, you're so cute," He coos, cupping my cheeks.
"Ew, what the fuck?" I grimace, swatting his hands away.
The door knob twists, the door's kicked open.
Then, Giovanni walks in and I suddenly forget how to speak.
My throat closes up and I can't get any words out. I gulp harshly.
Listen, I know I said I trust these guys, but you can't blame me for being a little but scared. They're muscular, big, gym rats, tall, scary and armed. Giovanni's expression isn't giving away anything, nothing at all and I think it's worse than pure anger.
Maybe disappointment, disapproval, anger, guilt? But I don't know, because he's extremely hard to read.
"Charms Azalea, charms," Elliott whispers, jumping off my bed and walking over to Giovanni as a response to his beckoning.
I nod subtly, following Elliott.
Fuck my life.
༄ ✯ ༄
We sit in silence, in Giovanni's office. I'm silent because I'm quite literally shaking in fear and envious of how unbothered Elliott is.
"Do you understand just how risky that was?" Giovanni starts, and I jump slightly at his loud voice.
Shit, he's mad.
He slams his hands on his desk, not exactly directed towards us but I still flinch and jump. Fuck this shit.
I side-eye Elliott, seeing he looks a little more alarmed and scared relieves me a bit.
Giovanni basically starts pulling his hair out, pacing around the room rambling on about things in Italian. Just like how I was with Elliott in my room.
"Anything could happen now, you could die―" My breath hitches. How could this esculate to.. that? "You could be taken away from us again, a lot of things could happen." He turns to face Elliott. "You can be kidnapped too, killed, tortured―"
What the fuck? It's not at all that deep. He doesn't need to try scare us, we both know nothing like that could possibly happen. I've been back for 4+ months now, it doesn't change anything.
"Nothing will happen, Giovanni," Elliott reassures quietly. Why's he overthinking so much? It was only an accident. No one saw us except one person?
"Something must happen, it's bound to," He responds, in his own trance or something.
"Nothing will, I swear," Those 4 words come out of me, as I desperately needed to reassure him we'll be safe. After all, they also must have trauma from when I was kidnapped, taken away.
He finally takes a deep breath. His back facing us, face facing the window covered in trailing rain.
A subtle nod is given to us in response, so subtle I might've missed it.
"Okay," after what feels like a million years, he finally says something. "I'll be back in a few hours to give you both your punishment. Just, be in your rooms. Don't do anything more, please," his voice is calmer, way less angry.
We nod even though he can't see us.
But then, he turns around, kisses us on the head and walks out.
"Okay, what the fuck?" I breath out, relieved. Maybe Elli is right, I have charms.
"I swear you have secret curse on him or something."
"I don't, mums!"
"Our mum is dead―"
GIOVANNI'S POV:
My eyes are closed as I walk down thr stairs. I massage my temples, calming myself down effectively. Nothing will happen, it's all good, everything is all good.
My eyes open, face stone cold, I return to the dining room.
"They're still alive right? Breathing, unharmed?" Nicholas rushes out before smacking a hand over his mouth. "I mean, well done for dealing with it!"
I roll my eyes and take a seat at the hesd of the table, leaning back into the expensive fabric.
Suddenly, a guard comes rushing in.
"Don, c'è un pacchetto per te! Specificamente per te, è sicuro da aprire, è stato ispezionato," They catch their breath, holding a small black box in their hand.
(Translation: Don, there is a package for you! Specifically for you, it is safe to open, been inspected.)
"Place it here," I pat the space in front of me. They trot over, placing it there and stand by my side, hands behind their back, legs slightly parted and back completely straight.
"You may go." My eyes stay trained on the small black box sitting in front of me. A red ribbon is on it, a bow tied with it.
My head tilts up, looking as Aidan, Nichols and Elijah impatiently wait for it to be opened.
If something bad is in here, I might just go shoot something― or someone.
After having a staring competition with the black object, I finally unlace the red ribbon and remove the cover.
A simple peice of paper lays peacefully inside. Black ink forms a simple yet deep messsge.
'I'm watching her.'
༄ ✯ ༄
Kind of a long chapter imo??
School is sooon annoying and irrelevant, but im not letting thst get in the way of my book! Ch43 will be out soon💗💗
Please comment and vote!
Anyway, until next time.
~ Violet