• Lilliana •
Stefano smirks.
"It's not funny."
"I'm not laughing."
"You're smiling."
"I'm not." He says, even as he begins to again. "It's just so.. yellow."
I look down at it. I'm trying to pick out a dress for the charity gala thing next week, but from what I already have.
"This is the last one." I frown.
"Kai already said he'd take you to get something." He says as I sit down.
"He's busy all this week."
"How do you know?"
I roll my eyes. "I do his schedule."
"Right." He smirks. "Get someone else to take you. Or just learn to drive."
"I tried ages ago. I crashed the car." I mumble.
He laughs. "Really?"
"Yeah."
"One of our runners did that before." He says absentmindedly.
I smile, but then pause. "Runners?"
"What?"
"Runners? As in, like, drug runners?" I laugh.
"No, of course not." He says quickly. "We'll go tomorrow after work." He stands and walks out, and I furrow my eyebrows as I follow after him.
"What's wrong?" I ask.
He turns back to me. "Nothing. I just have work to do." He presses a short kiss on my lips before walking off. I sigh and go up to my room.
What just happened?
A few hours later, I'm brushing my teeth when Stefano comes up behind me. He smiles as he wraps his arms around my waist, leaning down to kiss my neck. "Come stay with me." He says. He reaches his arm down, pushing it under the hem of my pants. I pull his hand away and he frowns.
"I'm not in the mood."
"What?"
"I'm tired."
"Alright, come sleep in my room then. I like having you there." He turns me around and tilts his head, setting his hand on my cheek.
"Okay." I sigh.
He smiles and wraps an arm around my waist. He takes me into his room and guides me over to the bed. He gets in next to me.
"You sure you're not in the mood?" He asks.
"Mhm."
He sits back and peers his eyes. "What's wrong?"
"Why were you so weird earlier?" I rush out.
"What do you mean?" He asks.
"About that runner thing." I say.
He laughs. "I wasn't weird. Is that why you've been acting so off?"
I shrug.
He smirks and leans down, pressing his lips against mine. He gets on top of me, sliding his hand down to my hip and putting pressure there, making me unable to move. I arch my back as he kisses my neck. He trails his mouth up to my throat, and my eyes roll back as he captures my lips with his own.
He grabs my hand as he continues to kiss me. He leads it beneath my shorts and panties, then presses it harder against my pussy. I moan, and he pulls his hand out. He leans down to my ear and rasps, "touch yourself."
"What?"
"You heard me." He says simply.
My lips part as I look up at him. Slowly, I rub my fingers around my slackened clit, pleasure filling me at the sensation. He continues to kiss me, and after a few minutes his hand joins mine. It pushes my fingers out of the way and roughly grabs my clit, and he starts pushing his knuckles up and down, and I groan into his mouth.
We're cut off by the sound of a phone ringing. I frown and look up at him, my eyes widening when he answers the phone with his fingers still inside of me.
"Stef—" he pulls his fingers out, then pushes them into my open mouth. He winks down at me as he answers the phone. I roll my eyes and sit back.
"Hello?" He says. A few seconds pass before he furrows his eyebrows, pulls his fingers from my mouth and climbs off of me. He sighs. "Yeah, I'll be there soon."
He ends the call and looks down at me, smiling. "I have to go somewhere. I'll be back soon."
"Where?" I ask.
"I'll be late, so go to sleep." He orders. He leans down to kiss me again, then walks out without another word.
I sigh and go to sleep.
• Stefano •
"If Lilliana sees us we're all fucked." Luca says.
I sit back, sighing. Kai grunts in the back seat. I turn to look at him. He's stopped bleeding now. My house is closest, so we have to take him there.
"She'll be sleeping." I say.
"Good." Michael mumbles.
When we pull into my driveway, all the lights in the house are off, which is a good sign. Michael and Luca help Kai out of the car as I unlock the conjoining door to the house, then lead them downstairs into the basement.
I close the door behind us and they help Kai onto a metal table.
"She'll be here soon." I tell him. He groans again, his head falling to the side. "God, I can't believe you got yourself shot. Are you crazy?"
"I didn't do it on purpose, did I?" He grits out.
I sit down, exhaling a tired breath. We talk, and Michael gets things for Kai as we wait for Eloise to come.
When I hear a knock on the door, I stand and tiredly go up the stairs. When I get to the front door, I pause. Lilliana is there, already pulling the door open.
"Hi." She says tiredly. "Stefano went somewhere."
"No, I'm right here." I rush over to Lilliana and set my hand on her shoulder, pulling her backwards. "You go back to bed, bella ragazza. I'll be up soon."
(Translation: Pretty girl.)
"What's going on?" She asks, rubbing her eyes with the heels of her hands.
"Nothing." I assure her. I curl an arm around her waist and pull her out the way. "You can go down, Eloise. Thanks for coming."
She walks wordlessly through, and Lilliana turns to me, scowling. "Who's that?"
"Nobody. Go to bed." I say.
"I'm not tired anymore." She challenges, crossing her arms and morphing into a stance that I'm assuming she thinks is intimidating, or something. But with her tired eyes and pyjamas, she looks cute instead.
I smirk.
"What?" She asks.
I tug her closer to me. She yawns, and I tilt my head. "Not tired?"
"Shut up." She shoves my arm. I set my hand on her waist and tug her closer to me, pressing my lips against hers.
"Go." I say.
"Fine." She responds.
She turns and walks toward the stairs. I make sure she's all the way up them before I return to the basement.
Eloise is bandaging Kai up. I sit back down as she explains to him, "you'll need to take it easy for the next few days, so no work. Stay home. And don't drink, because it'll mix badly with the pain killers I'll give you."
"Mhm." Kai mumbles.
"Do you have anyone to take care of you?" She asks him.
"Lilliana can." Luca offers.
"Too many questions." Michael shakes his head. "We'll hire someone to look after you and tell her you went on holiday."
"I'll be fine," Kai says to Eloise.
"Suit yourself." Eloise says. She's a tall girl who blatantly hates us. If it weren't for the fact we were blackmailing the fuck out of her so she does these things for us and ensures nobody finds out, she'd run to the police the first chance she got.
"Just tell her the truth." Luca mumbles.
"Yeah, I wonder how that'll go." I say. "Hi, sweetheart. We're in the mafia. Don't tell anyone, though, or we'd have to kill you."
Swiftly, Eloise packs up her things and walks over to the door before the stairs. She opens it, and Lilliana falls through. Her eyes widen as she stands up straight, and my brows raise in surprise.
"What are you doing?" I ask, standing as Eloise shuffles past her and walks up the stairs.
"Nothing." She whispers. "Just came to say goodnight!"
She turns and rushes out. I follow her quickly, up the stairs and into the hall. She quickens her pace, and I grab her wrist, pulling her back before shoving her against the wall. Her eyes widen, and my heart cracks at the fear there.
"What did you hear?" I ask.
"Not much." She whispers nervously, however I know from the way she won't meet my eyes that she's lying.
"It was a joke." I tell her.
"Okay." She says, her voice shaking.
Slowly, I let go of her and step back. I know she doesn't believe me, but if she's willing to forget what I said then I can make it work.
"Okay." I respond. "Let's—"
She cuts me off with a knee to my crotch before she shoots down the hall. "Fuck!" I scream, leaning against the wall for a second as Michael comes up the stairs too, followed by Luca.
"Get her!" I exclaim.
Michael runs after her, and Luca and I follow once I compose myself. Lilliana opens the front door and slams it shut behind her. Michael pulls it open again. I look down at my car, which Lilliana is getting into.
I furrow my eyebrows. She's not gonna get far. She can't even drive.
She manages to turn the car on and back out of the driveway. My eyes narrow into a glare as I rush down the steps, watching as she attempts a turn.
And crashes right into a brick wall.
I smirk as we make our way over. I knock on the drivers window, looking inside as I do so. Lilliana is typing something frantically into her phone, and when I see the numbers: 999 my jaw hardens and I pull the door open just as she presses the call button. I lean down to yank her out from the drivers seat as smoke comes out from the engine of my car.
Lilliana screams. I slap a hand over her mouth and shove her over toward Luca, who catches her in his arms and covers her mouth again as she tries to shout for help.
I pry her phone from her hands and throw it onto the ground, stepping on it to smash the screen.
Her eyes widen. She writhes in Luca's grip, a sob escaping her.
"She was calling the police." I say.
"Is that right?" Michael asks.
Annoyance fills me when she shakes her head desperately. "Let's take her inside."
She begins to struggle again. Luca pulls her toward my house, and she kicks her legs and flails her arms but he ensures she's unable to run away. As they take her into the house, I call someone to sort the mess she's made of my car out before following them inside.