"Do you have someone fücking wired or something because I'm starting to think you do,"
L U C I E N
"Do you really think that she was that close to dad?"
Alex didn't bother looking from the window in my office as he shrugged in response to my question, his lack of focus making me sigh as I put down the papers in my hand and turned in my chair.
"Alex."
"Lucien, why does it matter whether she was close to dad or not?" he asked, finally turning on his feet as he looked at me with an expectant look.
"She's hiding something and I want to know what it is, I hate being blindsided over stupid shít," I grunted, thinking back to the way I watched Aria frown when we'd both taken her to see my father at the hospital.
"Lucien, she was clear about not telling anyone. Just leave it alone."
I stiffened.
His anger wasn't towards me but nevertheless I found it provoking, my instincts making my body tense as my fingers clenched into my palms.
Deciding to drop it before the both of us got agitated I stood, mumbling a few words to him to tell him to loosen the stick up his áss as I walked out of the office and towards the noise in the kitchen.
Vera and Ellie were here, Tevez and Bradley's girlfriends which meant the house was noisier than needed and the constant headboard banging became an overlooked sound. It was annoying and had me wanting to rip my own fücking ears off when it came to five in the morning and the sound was still ringing in my ears, their overactive libido becoming a nuisance in my life. It also meant that I'd only had two hours of sleep and that wasn't good for anyone, especially Aria since she'd made me drive her to church again this morning before the hospital only for her to sit there for two hours and do nothing.
Well...I'm sure it wasn't nothing, but for someone who was a self-acclaimed atheist it sure looked like nothing.
"Why are you scowling?" Jinx asked as I walked into the kitchen, my hands rubbing over my face as I shook my head at him, telling him not to ask as I made a beeline for the patio door that connected to the back yard.
He muttered something under his breath, the only words that I could hear being áss which made me clench my jaw as I pulled my packet of cigarettes out and walked outside, my eyes scanning my watch quickly as the time stared back at me.
4:47pm.
Instantly the cold air slapped me in the face when I closed the patio door behind me, waking me up instantly as I inhaled the fresh air and ran my thumb over the wheel of my lighter. I lit my cigarette, walking across the path and taking in the expanse of the garden, a hobby turned passion my mother had.
The extra space on the one acre land making up the garden had her sunflowers planted across the entire perimeter, the yellow standing out against the bricked walls as other greenery weaved in between other plants. It was a sight to see and oddly seemed to be a calming mechanism, the tightening in my chest happening for a reason other than anger as I blew out smoke and felt the tension in my shoulders slowly disappear.
That was until I spotted a certain someone sitting against a tree with a book in her hand.
Unconsciously I held my breath, my feet stepping slower as I walked towards her with the mind set to scare her until she sighed, turning a page with her finger and speaking.
"Scaring me won't do anything," she said despite not looking back, my eyebrows raising as I inhaled another puff of my cigarette and replied.
"You didn't even look back."
"You're the only one who smokes in the house apart from Tevez who I know is out right now, so..."
I didn't say anything in response as she stood up, her hands brushing dirt from the back of her as she walked up to me. Just like I'd noticed from Giovanni, she seemed to be dressed for a high class event despite sitting in the dirt against a tree.
A short white dress stopped at the top of her thighs, the heels on her feet and her bare legs making me feel cold for her as she touched my arm gaining my attention.
"You know, being blindsided isn't the worst thing," she told me, her fingers distracting as I puffed out smoke from my mouth, purposely in front of her where (to my surprise) she didn't flinch.
"I don't like people who keep secrets," I told her bluntly, her touch ceasing as she raised an eyebrow at me teasingly. The smile that curved her lips pissed me off and I went to say something but was cut off when she opened her mouth.
"Deal with it," she said simply, the mischievous look on her face not going unnoticed as she stepped a few steps away from me, my eyes scanning over her body before they met her face when she turned around, holding the Rolex that was supposed to be on my wrist on the tips of her fingers. "Pay attention next time."
I caught it when she threw it towards me, my offense clearly not registering with my head when a slight laugh that left my lips, surprising me as I shook my head and slipped my watch back on.
Dio, this girl was something else.
~
A R I A
"So, you basically have full control over everybody in this house?"
I looked up from following the Latin words of the book I was reading, my eyes landing on Ellie, Bradley's girlfriend, as she sat across the counter from me in the kitchen.
I slowly nodded, smiling politely as I went back to reading my book whilst popping a grape into my mouth.
"You're like mafia royalty right?"
I licked my lips, sighing and bookmarking my book as I looked up to Vera who was sitting next to Ellie, the both of them looking at me intently.
"Five minutes," I started, warming up slightly to the thought of friends as they looked at each other and back to me. "Ask whatever you want."
"What are you hiding?"
I turned at Lucien's voice, rolling my eyes as he walked over to the fridge and opened a bottle of water.
"I'm not answering that," I told him whilst tilting my book in a defying point to him. "Plus, what I said was only aimed at Vera and Ellie."
He inhaled a deep breath, my head turning back to the girls across from me as they spoke.
"Have you ever killed someone?"
"Yes," I answered simply, popping another grape into my mouth.
"How many people?" Vera asked, both their eyes a little wide which made me laugh.
"Lost count," I said simply, seeing Lucien stop walking in my peripheral vision.
"When was your first kill?"
"Eight years old."
"Eight?!" Ellie blurted out loudly, Vera choking on the sip she was taking.
"What, how, when, what was happening?"
"Suddenly five minutes is up and I'm deaf," I smiled, grabbing my book and bowl of grapes as I turned around only to walk into a hard chest.
I sighed, moving around Lucien and ignoring the calls of my name as I walked up the stairs, the sound of steps behind me making me halt halfway up the stairs as I turned back to see Lucien.
"You just don't stop do you?"
"Don't flatter yourself, I was going to my room."
"So you could eavesdrop on my phone call again?" I asked, raising my brows.
Silence.
"Play your game Lucien, just expect to lose miserably because I can play it so much better," I called out as I resumed walking towards my room, my eyes rolling when Lucien cursed under his breath.
I shook my head, unaffected as I shut my bedroom door behind me and flicked on the light. It was coming up to nine so it was dark outside, the curtains already closed due to the automated control system around the house that shut them when the sun set.
Once the lights flooded the room I felt a little more relaxed, the area of my personal space amplified as I locked the door and then kicked off my heels. I rubbed the soles of my feet when I reached the bed, wiggling my toes as I laid back onto the soft sheets and then rolled over onto my stomach to resume reading my book.
I ate my grapes whilst I read 'mors tua, vita mea', the title literally translated to your death, my life. It was around six hundred pages long, my fingers currently holding back against pages two hundred and fifty six and seven whilst I scanned over the words that I'd already read three times over.
Whilst I did it made me deflate slightly, a memory of Jeremy teaching me Latin with the very same book invading my mind until I had to scan over the paragraph I was reading again four times before it actually registered when I kept thinking about the vision of him on a hospital bed lifeless.
I stayed like that for most of the night, cooped up in my bedroom and reminiscing as I kept on reading until I felt my eyes get heavy when the time reached four in the morning. By then I'd listened to the commotion of an argument between Tevez and Vera, the both of them fighting over who got the last piece of toast which entertained me for a while until they'd worked out their differences with loud make up sex. I'd drowned it out with the assistance of the disagreement that followed between Lucien and Alex, the both of them going out to do something which I assumed was important since Lucien had shouted for Alex to hurry up before he strangled him.
It seemed Lucien had a thing for threatening people and being on time.
By the point they both left it was one in the morning and silence ensued from then, drowning the house in an eerie peace as the clock hit four fifteen when I opened my bedroom door and peaked into the corridor.
I could hear Bradley and Ellie talking faintly, my ears picking up on the sound of a TV which I assumed was coming from Johnson's room when I passed it to walk down the stairs and to the kitchen.
The entire ground floor was blanketed in darkness when I reached the foyer, the lack of light making me uncomfortable as I walked into the kitchen and flicked on the light switch, puffing out a breath.
Without a second thought I walked over to the coffee maker, placing a mug underneath the spout as I chose what I wanted and waited patiently for it as I inspected my nails and made a mental note to get them done. The machine whirred before emptying what I wanted, the fresh smell of grounded coffee wafting into my nose just as there was a loud slam of the front door.
"I told you I fücking had it and you pretend to be a hero, attaching a dámn red bullseye to us both. Look at us, fücking idiot," Lucien snapped.
I didn't say anything when him and Alex walked in, my hands stopping the tilt of my mug to my lips when I widened my eyes at the sight of them.
Lucien had splatters of blood all over his face, his white shirt now a dirty dark red colour, specifically near the bottom of his back whilst Alex just looked like he'd been rolling around in mud whilst murdering someone.
"I was trying to cover you, it's not a one man show ásshole," Alex retorted, the both of them looking at me when I sipped at my hot coffee and hissed when I burnt myself by accident.
They both stared, chests heaving as Lucien winced and threw his destroyed suit jacket to the bar stool, his hand touching just behind his hip where he grit his teeth together and groaned sharply.
"Fück," he bristled, ripping the buttons of his shirt as he pulled it apart and then tried to figure out his injury just as Alex laughed bluntly when he looked at the back of his younger brother.
"Do that yourself, I'm taking a shower. Ciao."
"Ma che cazzo!" Lucien snapped, watching his older brother walk out the kitchen as I took another sip (this time being careful) whilst watching Lucien glare at everything in his sight when he bent down to retrieve a medical kit from the cupboard.
When I watched him and realised the reason for his pain I cringed, not because the look of a bullet wedged into his skin was gory but because I'd experienced the same injury two years ago and knew how bad the pain was when it had to be taken out. Automatically I pressed my own hand to the spot behind the back of my thigh, my fingers feeling the slight raise of the scar underneath my dress as Lucien muttered words under his breath.
He didn't bother to ask me to help him despite the awkward place of his wound, something that I put down to him not wanting to bruise his ego so I didn't offer either, my eyes watching him intently as he brought out a stitch and attached it to the suture scissors.
Whilst he did I enjoyed the view including the blood, the sight of his bare and tattooed chest making me hum lightly. Lucien's physique wasn't one that I would ever critique, the muscles on his back flexing as I took in the ink he had engraved into his skin, the tattoos I thought stopped at the curve of his neck and just underneath his jaw only fading under his hair where I peeked at the ink against his skull.
Yummy.
The slam of his fist on the counter knocked me out of my thoughts, the taste of coffee strong on my tongue as I licked my lips and placed my mug on the counter when he tried to reach the damage but failed.
"Give it to me," I told him, moving away from the counter and towards him. He didn't say anything as I reached up to grab the bourbon he had stored, our hands swapping as I told him to turn around and inspected the bullet that was wedged into his skin. "Ouch."
"Yes, ouch Aria," he grunted, gritting his teeth when I touched around the skin. He was tense which meant that it would hurt more, my thoughts meshing to create a plan as I told him to sit up on the counter so I could reach better.
He did as he was told, still tense and strung with tension which I assumed was why he was continuously thrumming his fingertips against the marble in a rhythmic pattern. It was annoying but I kept my mouth shut despite it, the blood seeping from the wound now soaking into the gauze I had pressed against him.
I inhaled a breath, flexing my fingers in the open holed tweezer as Lucien swallowed a few mouthfuls of alcohol, his knuckles popping as he cracked his bones and tilted his neck side to side.
"It's gonna hurt," I told him and he gave me a deadpan look, unamused at the obvious I was pointing out to him.
"Just pull it out."
To make even more of a point I pressed the skin next to the wound, his face scrunching in pain as I raised my eyebrow and challenged his stare with my own.
"Che cazzo," Lucien bit out, white knuckling the lip of counter and cursing in Italian once more when I took away the pressure of my finger.
"Hai un grande ego," I told Lucien, letting him know that he had a big ego just as I sighed, positioning the tweezers near the bullet just as I spoke. "Hey, after this do you wanna go and fück?"
"What the – God, I could fücking kill you right now," Lucien groaned loudly, a smile on my face as I dropped the bullet down to a wad of cotton I had whilst pressing my other hand to the open hole in his skin.
"I distracted you though, right?" I hummed happily, earning a grunt as a response as he swallowed another mouthful of bourbon.
He didn't say anything after that, occasionally cringing when I flushed out the wound with sterile water and then proceeded to stitch it.
"What were you even doing?" I asked, opening the suture pack and attaching the grip of the scissors to the end of the curved needle.
"Business," Lucien muttered simply, moving his arm where it rested lightly against mine as I stitched.
I smiled at his response, the oath that he had taken residing deep since he wasn't going to disclose things with me despite me being Salvatore Moretti's daughter.
"Don't trust me?" I asked, my tone teasing which made his body slump as he exhaled a breath.
"I barely know you Aria, I'm just here to babysit."
I pressed my lips together.
"You know you didn't have to take the job yet you did, so I don't understand why keep going on about babysitting as if you were forced to take it."
"Like I can say no to your dad," he muttered dejectedly.
"Hey, if I can speak back to him then you can too."
"Not really in the mood to die just yet," he told me sarcastically, my eyes rolling at his words as I cut off the suture once I'd tied it four times over.
"He wouldn't do that unless I was dead first, but I'm sure he told you that."
"How do you even know that? Do you have someone fücking wired or something because I'm starting to think you do," Lucien said as I peeled back the sticky tab on the square band aid before sticking it over the stitches I'd done.
"I don't spill secrets."
"We all know that," he muttered, the slight tapping over his wound making him hiss as I smiled.
"Why are you so invested in knowing?
"Maybe because I'm probably going to be spending the next ten years watching over you and I'd rather not do that with a fücking snake," he muttered sharply, his words taking me off guard as I inhaled a breath through my nose and narrowed my eyes at him as he pushed himself off the counter. "Sooner or later I'll be killed because of you."
I watched as he picked up his things, his words ringing in my ears as I watched him walk away.
"I'm not a snake Lucien," I spoke up as he halted but didn't bother turning around as I walked towards him. "I don't want to be here as much as you do. I'd much rather be in Italy with my grandfather than waste your time since you clearly have better things to do."
Purposefully pushing past him he stifled the groan when my elbow brushed his injury, my head shaking and eyes rolling as I proceeded to walk up the stairs until he replied.
"You've probably gone through shít but it's nothing compared-"
"Okay look, here's what's not going to happen," I interrupted, my tone blunt as I turned to look at him, fed up with his moaning. "I don't want your pity. I don't want your sympathy and I sure as hell don't need your shadow being my security. Don't compare yourself to me, you don't know the hell I have experienced so kindly, fück off with your assumptions because I don't need them or you."
I breathed out a heavy breath, my nails indenting crescent shapes into my palms as Lucien didn't say anything, instead leaning against the door frame and then doing something I hadn't seen him do since I'd met him.
The bastard smiled.
"Like father like daughter would be an understatement," he said, finding amusement when I glared at the comparison he made again. "You both have a split second temper."
"Dio, sei irritante," I snapped, telling him that he was fücking irritating which made him grin.
"You're hot when you are," he licked his lips, the poker face I had unaffected at his flattery. "All flaring hands and narrowed eyes. It suits you."
Instantly I squinted, pressing my tongue to the inside of my cheek as he crossed his arms over his chest, my peripheral vision interpreting the bulge of his biceps when he did.
"Cat got your tongue?" Lucien asked, not hiding the way he scanned my body with his eyes.
"You wish it did," I told him, noticing the hazy look in his eye as he swiped his lower lip with his thumb. I put it down to the alcohol taking affect since his adrenaline wore off, his body languid as he hummed to himself.
He stepped over to me, my body tense as I stood my ground and narrowed my eyes when he was in front of me. Being a step up on the stairs allowed us to be eye to eye, the smell of dry blood, dirt and alcohol flooding my system as Lucien went to touch me but failed when I reacted quicker.
Like I was trained I slapped his hand away, my thumb digging into the muscle in his forearm which made him groan as I used my other hand to push him away from the neck but failed when he predicted my move.
Instantly my wrist was taken into his hand, his arm overpowering mine when he bent my own behind my back into a triangle by the joint of my elbow, his hand jerking my body forward when he pulled until our chests met and I could smell the faint cologne wafting around his neck through the caked blood.
His body heat bounced off of mine, his eyes zoned in on my own as I faltered the pressure of my thumb in his arm to push him back.
I hated to say that I was distracted but the warmth and indents of Lucien's torso did exactly that, my nails scratching by the slightest as he leaned forward, his head tilting at the last minute until his breath hit my ear.
"If I wanted to have you as much as you think I do, you'd be on your back the moment we met."
I tried to stifle the smirk on my face at his challenging words but couldn't when he let my arm go and then mocked my actions of bumping into the side of my body, my fingers pressing against the tension in my wrists as I heard his steps and smiled.
It seemed Lucien knew how to play his game a lot better than I'd anticipated.
*A/N*
*smiles innocently*
So (:
Good evening, how is everyone?
Don't we just love reckless lucien getting injured and having to be tended by his future woman
Issa concept
Js
Anywho, how did we like this chapter cos the next one is written and it's lit cos ya know, sexüal feelings and alladat
🤔
What do we think of Aria and her lil convo in the kitchen with Vera and Ellie?
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Let me know your thoughts! Chapters will be longer so around the 4-5k mark since I want to get this story going without making everything a filler ygm?
So yuh, that's happening!
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