Skates, Trees and Secrecy
Arieon's POV
"Come on, Arieon." Argent tugged in my arms. I had the tip of my skates chucked against the slightly raised edge of the rink and almost face planted.
"Stop!" I scrunched my face up and huffed at her.
I hated the mere thought of slipping and not being able to catch my footing. Falling too and oh getting sliced by one of those show offs doing spins and shît.
"Such a badass." Logan teased me while he skated around.
"You shut the fück up!" I pointed an angry finger at him and locked eyes with a kid that was skating a few feet from me. I gave him the same look I gave Argent a few seconds ago and he glided away.
"Arieon!" Argent whined at me.
"Ging, you're not strong enough to hold my ass up on this ice. I am not getting on it." I broke it to her. She nodded as if she understood and agreed but then tried to pull me again.
"Argent Allison Cooper." I groaned.
"I'll hold you." Logan came up to us, with attitude as his company.
"She wants someone strong, you idiot." Mia shouted at us. She was holding on to Marie, teaching her the basics.
He made a face at Mia and then took my hands. "Ready?" He looked me in the eyes.
"Don't let me fall." I flared my nostrils.
He nodded and pulled me on to the ice. "See it's not bad at all." He chuckled.
Then I almost slipped and I grabbed his upper arms for more balance. I glared at him and he laughed before apologizing. He let go of one of my arms and placed himself beside me before continuing to pull me along.
I imagined that it was Luca who was helping me for a second. Maybe I'd be having more fun if he was here. Okay definitely not, he'd probably be bitching about a million different things.
I lost my balance for a second again and shut my eyes while I groaned. I hated this but I was trying it out for Marie's sake.
"You're doing great." Argent came up next to me and took my free hand. She offered me a bright smile. I exhaled heavily and let them pull me along.
We did that for almost fifteen minutes I think and I did fall. Argent and Logan got into a little disagreement on the ice and started skating wildly in a variety of directions and I fell on my ass when Logan let go of me to talk with his hands.
So I insisted I had enough and they finally let me live. I got off the ice and sat on a bench with Julius to wait for them. They didn't take very long and then we were back in the cars on the task of getting a Christmas tree.
Just over a week to Christmas and we had no tree for either of the houses. Usually I'd be the one to take care of the tree at my brothers' but honestly I'd been a little caught up in the Rivera house with the owner for the past two weeks.
I'd went back the Monday after Black Friday, and didn't tell any of my friends nor my brothers about what was going on between Luca and I. I wasn't particularly ready to let everyone know. Especially Dom and Lorenzo.
It was a nice couple of weeks. It was sweet, despite getting pretty tart at times. We couldn't always agree, we were our own people with our own stubborn attitudes but I liked all of it.
We weren't spending every minute together but it was a start.
All the spaced out, occasional thoughts I had about Luca were a constant thing. He was becoming a constant in my life, well he was. He was my husband, shît like that tends sticks. I laughed to myself.
We got to the Christmas tree farm and we all bailed out of the cars. There was a cute Christmas tree maze, a decorating competition and other little activities everyone wanted to do.
I was so happy, I felt careless. A feeling that was sometimes fleeting to me. So I wanted to soak up every moment.
"Principessa." A known voice called out to me and my heart did a flip. Sort of in fright but in excitement as well. I turned to my right and saw him walking towards the group of us.
"What are you doing here." I tried to sound as uninterested as I could.
"I came to make sure you didn't put a tacky tree in my house." He shrugged.
"We'll make sure the only thing tacky is you." I smirked.
"Well I wasn't going to pick out a tree until later but we can go get it now. I'm sure you wouldn't want to run through a maze or decorate trees competitively." I gestured to the area where they had the trees already cut down and categorized. He walked ahead and I followed behind.
"Nothing too big." He started.
I caught up to him and walked with his speed.
"Nothing too small." I countered.
"A Fir." He stopped and reached for a tree. I got nauseous at the mere thought of one of those in the house all the time.
"Those have really strong scents. So no Fir, Pine." I gestured ahead of us.
"No." He shook his head.
"What's your argument?" I threw my hands up.
"I have none. We are not getting a pine." He seemed to state confidently.
"Why are you here?" I asked. He was starting to get on my nerves, and ruining my mood.
"You don't want me here?" He flipped his black trench coat away to stick his hands in his pockets.
"I was having a pretty good day until you showed up barking shît at me." I huffed. He closed the distance between us and threw an arm around me. He chuckled and pulled me closer, resting his chin on my head. I wrapped my arms around him.
He let go and I looked up to him, he was looking at something. I turned my head and I saw Mia. To say she looked mad would be an understatement. We let go of each other and I took a step towards her.
"I'm glad you two shady motherfückers worked it out." Mia spat before leaving.
If you were one of the many people that were looking in our direction right now, you'd probably think that Rivera was Mia's man. I groaned and put my hands on my head. I couldn't deal with her attitude right now.
"That's a nice pine tree." I heard Luca. I put my attention on him and he was pointing to the same area I was trying to lead him to before.
I gave him an exhausted look and he just threw his arm back over my shoulders, "One of them already saw us. I'm sure she'll tattle."
Damn right she would. I'm sure she's telling Logan and Argent right now. I could only hope she wasn't calling Giovanni.
Luca began leading me to the pine trees, "How about we get a pine for the lounge by our rooms, and a fir for the living room. You're barely in there so the smell shouldn't affect you."
He was trying to get me not to obsess over Mia, and it really wasn't working at all.
Then again he was right, so I hid it from her, I hid it from everyone. It wasn't anyone's business to start with. We're adults and fücking married, I wasn't sixteen anymore.
We picked out our two trees and Luca took them home, while I went to find my friends.
"You could've told us." Argent reassured me as I met them. I stuck my hands into the pockets of my jacket, and took a breath, "I don't even have it figured out, what would I've said."
"Something along the lines of, 'Hey, I'm screwing Luca.' Instead of lying to us." Mia piped in.
I opened my mouth to swear at her but she was holding Marie.
"We aren't screwing." I growled at her.
"Whatever. We can talk about it later." Logan broke our hateful exchange.
"To the maze. Now!" He urged us. We slowly made our way to the start of the Christmas tree maze and Logan was ready to lay down some laws.
"Winner gets to ask for anything they want and the loser has to get it for them." He grinned. Then he just started. Didn't even give us a countdown or anything.
"That was nasty, Fuller!" I laughed as I charged in the maze next. With all the land and trees this place had the maze was huge.
I took a left, a right, hit a dead end went back and took another left. The paths were long. I wondered if I went on maps If I could find my way out.
I heard some guys fighting over which way to go a little distance away. So I followed their voices, maybe we could find our way out together.
The voices were loud, I was about the bend the corner when I heard one of them swear in Italian and it wasn't a voice I knew. I took a second to get my bearings, they had to have come in here after me. Were they following me?
I bent my head around the corner to get a peek and recognized them from the ball the Rivera's threw, they were members of the Colombo. One of them turned in my direction and I turned my head back.
"That was her! She knows, you idiot, you couldn't shut the fück up?" One of them screamed. I started running, not caring which direction.
I pushed past a family of three. I couldn't shoot in here. There were families and stray bullets could hit anyone, but those men were hot on my heels.
"Logan! Argent!" I yelled.
"You sound far, you're gonna lose!" Logan responded.
Fück, fück, fück.
I couldn't exactly shout out that mobsters were chasing me either.
I took my phone out of my pocket and began to dial Luca. He shouldn't have gotten too far. Then I hit a dead end.
I couldn't go back. I heard those buffoons behind me and I dived into a tree and tried to push through.
It really wasn't working.
"Your call has been forwarded to an automated voice message system recording." The automated message played and I groaned in frustration.
I yelped as I got pulled out by my hair and was thrown to the floor. My phone landed next to me.
I grabbed it and got up, it was recording a voicemail now.
One of them tried to grab me and I struck him with my phone like it was a knife over the head. I dropped when he bent in pain and grabbed his head, pulling it down into my knee and hopefully breaking his nose.
The other one grabbed me, and pulled my back against him. He put his hand under my shirt and grabbed my gun. "Stay still. You won't feel this, not until you wake back up."
"Fück off!" I elbowed him in the jaw.
He grabbed me around the torso, with my hands stuck.
"Okay okay. I apologize. I shouldn't have hit your friend." I tried to buy myself some time to get free.
"It was improper of me. We should've talked first." I chuckled lightly.
They took a second to look at each other, I got one arm free so I reached up and tried to disarm the one holding me, it didn't work.
"Ughhhhhh!" I grunted.
"Fücking knock her out!" The other one gestured to me.
I started flailing around, trying to break free. "No! Wait how are you gonna knock someone out with their own gun!" I groaned. I dreaded the pain I knew would come after I woke up more than where the fück I'd wake up.
Talking didn't work. Trying to stomp on his foot didn't work. Before I knew it I was on my knees on the floor with my hands being held above my head and he placed a foot on my calve. I bit back the pain.
I was thrown a fist to the face by the fat ass in front of me and the other one's grip tightened. "I'm going to fücking kill you and your mop head boss." I winced.
I felt him touch my head with the gun, as you would peck a golf ball with the club before sending it off . I just braced myself, scrunching up my face and closed my eyes. I felt the initial impact of the gun a
and let out a small yelp.
******
Sounds came to me gurgled and slow, but pain over washed me. I groaned before I opened my eyes to the image being blurred. I tried blinking a few times to try to get over it.
"She's awake." A voice notified someone else.
I immediately tried moving my hands to defend myself, but they were restricted. "Fuck off!" I grunted and shifted around in place. I was on my back but whatever I was on wasn't an even surface.
"Should I knock her out again?" The voice of that off echoed through my mind.
I wasn't really aware we were moving until the car went into a pothole. I was on the floor of the car.
"It would be easier to move her." The other replied.
There was a long pause as I imagined the buffoons to be swapping glances at each other not knowing that the fück to do.
Then I started thrashing around again as I felt hands on my shoulders, pinning me down.
"Li mortacci tua!" I growled at them before I was gone again.