Alessandro's POV:
I sat at the head of the table in a board meeting, bored as ever, as my employees tried to explain how they lost me five fucking million dollars. They were imbeciles if they thought any explanation was going to get them out of this fucking mess.
My patience wore thin, as I clenched my jaw, no longer amused, menacingly staring them down. I was pretty sure they could see my vein across my neck bulging as my anger rose above the safe zone.
My employees visibly gulped as they struggled to continue, avoiding my eye contact at all cost. I had enough. I raised my hand towards the door and that was all the took for them to scurry out with their tails tucked under their asses.
I rolled my eyes. Absolute fucktards.
Just as I stood up, leaving the joke of a meeting behind, I saw Dante, casually leaning against my new secretary's desk, chatting her up. Man Whore. I knocked on the glass panel, catching their attention, gesturing for him to get into my office. Knowing Dante and his moves, he adjusted his armani suit, gave her a charming smile, winked and left her swooning after his presence. Typical.
"Per cosa sei venuto qui a verdermi?" I grunted, still pissed from the previous meeting. (What did you come here to see me for?)
"What crawled up your ass this early in the morning Alessa?" He replied, clearly trying to push my buttons.
I glared at him as he put his hands up in surrender.
"The Kings is having a massive reopening party tonight."
It was our club. Of course, I knew what was happening. I knew everything.
"Il tuo punto?" (Your point?")
"We should go."
"No."
"Come on! Why not," He pleaded, "you need to relax a bit. Let loose."
"No. Fine della storia." (No. End of story.)
"Please, please, please, please." He repeated.
I ignored him, flipping through the stack of paper work on my desk. After five minutes of hearing his annoying voice echoing in my office, I gave in.
"Fratello, sta 'zitto!" I shouted, "I'll make an appearance." (Brother, shut up!)
Satisfied with my answer, he shrugged off his suit jacket, making himself comfortable on my couch.
"Wake me up when you're ready to go."
Sometimes, I wondered how he ran a business since he seemed to be always napping in my office. Disregarding the sleeping figure, I went back into work mood. This company didn't run by itself.
After hours of non-stop work, I slammed my laptop shut, finishing for the day. My action must have been pretty loud since Dante fell off the couch, startled by the ruckus. He groaned, lifting himself off the floor, running his hands through his hair and sneering at me.
I gave him an unimpressed look.
"We're leaving now." I said, walking out of my office.
"Russo." I said as I passed by the front desk, heading towards the elevator.
Knowing exactly what I wanted, he called Benjamin to bring the car around. See these are the types of employees I needed. Intelligent and quick.
The elevator door were shutting as Dante slipped right in.
"You couldn't hold the doors open for me Fratello," He said in disbelief.
I shrugged.
As we entered the car, I greeted Benjamin and told him to head to the club. Once we reached our destination, we stepped out and was immediately swarmed by teenage screaming girls. My ear drums were screaming at me. My security team arrived just in time as they dispersed the group and made a path for Dante and I to walk through.
The bouncers nodded to us in respect, letting us in right way. We made our way to the VIP section on the top floor, eyeing the already packed club. As we made ourselves comfortable, our drinks were served. Scotch neat. As the dark husky liquid flowed down my throat, I relish in the familiar sensation it gave me.
I looked out towards the sea of people with a disinterested look on my face until I saw a woman dancing, dressed in a short little red dress. My tersoro.
I growled lowly, glaring at all the men that were giving her lustful looks. How did she not notice them?! . She looked beyond beautiful. She had curves in all the right places, moving her body to the beat, swaying from side to side. She was mesmerising, I could stare at her all day.
Noticing my fixed gaze, Dante stated, "She's the one you were telling me about."
I nodded, keeping my gaze on her, ensuring that no one touched what was mine.
"Whipped!" Dante hollered, moving his hand, doing the action.
I ignored his childishness as I watched her walk away from her friend, heading towards the bar. Where are you going tersoro?
I watched as a guy came close to her. I stood up immediately heading straight towards her with Dante following closely behind me. I want to rip his head off when she touched her. SHE WAS MINE.
I walked faster, anxiety creep up as a wash of dread ran through my body. That's when I heard, "Get your hands off me! Get away from me!" She screamed, as tears ran down her cheeks.
He hurt her and he was going to pay. I knew she was no damsel in distress as she slammed her knee into his stomach causing him to scream out in pain. That's my girl. I smirked, pleased with her ability to protect herself.
As I reached her, I caught his raised hand, squeezing the life out of it. How dare he raise a hand towards a woman. Let alone my woman. My madre always taught me to respect woman; violence against a woman should never be tolerated. My eyes darkened, my body towering over him, as I looked in disgust at the man.
"Leave the girl alone. Did you not fucking hear what she said?" I growled, trying to control my anger in order not to scare my tersoro.
"Who do you think you are?"
I smirked.
"How about the owner of this fucking club." I whispered lowly, with malice laced in my voice.
With a blink of an eye, his face paled, his lips tremored in fear as he sunk to his knees.
"Mr De Luca, I'm so so sorry. Please forgive me Sir."
I didn't spare a glance at the pathetic excuse of a man as I whispered to Dante to get him the hell out of this club and get the boys to teach him a lesson. Dante obliged smirking in the process as he and the boys dragged her attacker out of the club, leaving me with her shaken form.
"Are you alright, tersoro? Where did he hurt you?"
Her eyes were glassy, staring into space as I gently tapped her shoulder, repeating my question.
"Y-yes, t-thank you very much for saving me Sir. I'm all good." She said, barely above a whisper, still in a state of shock.
Noticing her continual movement, rubbing her wrists, I reached out to her, moving the hand closer towards me. My blood boiled as I saw the ring of bruises start to form on her wrist, cursing under my breath.
She whimpered as my fingers caressed the injured area. I brought her hand up to my lips as I laid a gentle kiss causing her to jump at the unfamiliar sensation.
"I'm so sorry tersoro." I said, genuinely concerned for her well-being. This shouldn't have happened in my club. There is going to be hell to pay.
I couldn't help myself as I peppered kisses on her wrists, savouring the soft and sweet skin against my lips.
She blushed, reluctant to meet my gaze. How adorable.
"There you are Kara." The girl, I assumed was her friend said.
Kara. What a beautiful name. It suited her.
As soon as her friend saw the tears on her face, her head inflated, sizing me up as she yelled, "What did you do to her you bloody bastard?!"
Her words made me furious as I despised not being in control. Usually I was the one to do the yelling. However, I was also relieved at the fact that my tersoro had such a great person in her life who cared about her so much. I chose not to reply as I focused on my angel behind her raging friend.
Realising that my patience was wearing thin, my angel stopped her friend.
"Han, he wasn't the one who hurt me. In fact, he saved me." She whispered as a blush covered her cheeks yet again.
"Ohh...my bad." She replied awkwardly, "I'm sorry this was such a shitty birthday chica."
My angel replied her but all that was running through my head was the fact that that bastard ruined her birthday. Snapping out of my thoughts, I asked, "wait, tersoro, it's your birthday?"
She turned back around and said yes.
"Happy birthday tersoro. Sweet dreams." I said as I watched her leave my presence.
Once she was gone, I turned to Martin and Perez, two of my trusted security.
"Make sure they get home safe. Report back if anything happens."
"Yes sir."
Knowing she was safe, I sauntered back to the VIP section, waiting for Dante to return.
*****
The next day
Kara's POV:
I woke up with a massive hangover and it didn't help that I had a little human bouncing on my back little a trampoline.
"Bro-ooke. Bro-ook," I groaned into my pillow, "off, please. "
My sweet little angel thankfully stopped and slid off my back, laying down next to me as she twirled a strand of my hair around her fingers.
"Did you have a good time mummy?" She asked.
"Yes little one." I reassured, rolling over to give her a kiss on her head.
"Wait, little one, how'd you get in?" I wondered.
"Oh, grandma and grandpa are in the kitchen."
Oh. Okay, that made sense. I did give my parents a key to the house.
"Little one, why don't you go and wake up Aunt Han Han. I'm sure would love to see you." I said sweetly, "and make sure you jump right into bed with her too."
Hannah was going to kill me. Well this was payback for trying to force me to go out and get a social life. I chuckled deeply to myself in glee.
Brooke giggled as she ran to Hannah's room. Less than a minute later, I heard.
"KARA! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" Hannah screamed all the way from her room.
I snickered, getting out of bed and into the bathroom to get ready for the day.
I walked into the kitchen, greeted my parents and grabbed a plate, stacking five fluffy golden-brown chocolate chip pancakes on there. Oh my, it smelt heavenly. Toping the pancakes with fresh strawberries, blueberries and some maple syrup, I looked back at my masterpiece, saliva gathering in my mouth.
I sat on the stool next to the kitchen island, feeding myself and Brooke who had sat right next to me.
"Kara, your godfather has set up a meeting with some potential investors for you today at 3 pm." My father informed me, "but he won't be able to make it so you'll have to vet them yourself."
My Godfather was my father's best friend since their university days. He was always cheeky, constantly making bad dad jokes and pulling pranks since I was a little baby myself. The room always seem to be so much brighter when he was there, he was definitely the life of the party. Although he was firm and strict when it came to business, never messing about. This is why he is one of the richest people in the world.
I remembered the time when he barged into our house at 6am in the morning, squirting us all with water guns and eventually a hose. I had never been so rudely awakened in my life. What good times. During the summer, I always ended up following my godfather to his meetings, running about in his office, scaring all the employees. So I knew the gist of how he ran his company. When I came up with the idea for the Bionic arm 2.0, he was the one who funded my invention, giving me his full support. For that, I am forever grateful for him.
"Can I bring Brooke with me?" I asked.
"Yea of course. You're the boss of this meeting." My father replied, knowing that his best friend made sure that no one messed with Kara just because he wasn't around.
Soon after, my parents left, Hannah also had to go to work so it was just Brooke and myself, getting ready to leave for the city.
I wore black dress pants with a flowy white blouse, shrugging on a black blazer to finish off the look. Slick and chic. Perfect. Once I was done getting myself ready, I dressed Brooke in a cute blue frilly dress that brought out her eyes.
Once I heard a honk from the driveway, I knew my Godfather had arranged transportation for us. I held Brooke's hand as we made our way to the vehicle.
"Good afternoon ma'am." The driver greeted politely as he opened the door for us.
I replied in the same manner, hopping into the car. As we drove into the city, Brooke looked out the window in awe. Her innocent gawking eyes made me appreciate all the little moments I had with her. She could turn your horrible day upside down with just the slightest cheeky smile.
As we reached our destination, we hopped out and headed into the building. I used my godfather's private elevator as it brought us up straight to his floor.
"Good afternoon, Maggie." I greeted my Godfather's assistant.
"Afternoon, dear." She smiled, "head right into conference room one, they're waiting for you there."
"Thank you," I replied, "Would you be able to take care of Brooke?"
"Of course dear."
I left Brooke with Maggie, giving her a kiss on her head as I headed into the conference room. Surprisingly, throughout the whole meeting, everyone was focused on the objective and asked a lot of appropriate questions relating to the device. It also helped that my Godfather assigned Marcus and Vince to be in attendance. They were part of his security team, two of the biggest, stone-cold military men I had ever met in my life but that was 2 years ago. Over the past year or so, they've warmed up to me and absolutely loved Brooke, doting on her constantly.
After 2 hours, we were finally done and I think it went very well. Godfather would hear back from them in a week with their decision. Once the potential investors had taken their leave, I slumped into my chair. That was exhausting.
"Why don't you guys go see what Brooke is up to," I suggested to Marcus and Vince.
I didn't have to tell those boys twice as they headed out, searching for my little munchkin. She definitely had them wrapped around her little fingers.
I heard a bunch of giggles and laughter as I cleaned out the conference room, making sure that everything was put back in place. Even though I knew they had cleaners to do this, I wasn't raised to be a slob.
I headed towards the reception, noticing packets and packets of crumpled cookie wrappings, lying on the ground. Oh no, I knew those guys could never say no to her. Especially with that pout of hers.
Looking at Brooke, my suspicions were right. Her face was covered in cookie crumbs.
"Brooke," I said sternly, "you know eating all those cookies would make you sick."
I scolded her, turning to the boys and said, "You can't always give in to whatever she wants guys. It's not good for her."
If anyone had watched the whole ordeal unfold, they would have thought I was the mother to the three guilty faces in front of me.
"Come on Brookie," I said, wiping the crumbs off my daughter's face so I could actually see her, "say goodbye to Marcus, Vince and Maggie."
After she gave each other of them a big hug and kiss, we headed down, back towards our ride.
I felt a tug on my hand as Brooke took off, chasing after a bus that featured an advertisement of her favourite television show, The Wiggles.
"Mummy mummy look!" She pointed excitedly, as she continued dragging me along.
Soon after Brooke stopped running, panting hard.
"Mummy, I don't feel so well." Brooke said, her face looking a little queasy.
I bent down and rubbed her back as a car pulled up behind us. A man walked out of his car at the wrong moment as Brooke let out all the contents in her stomach.
"Shit," he cursed.
"Bad word." Brooke interjected.
"I'm so sorry sir." I said as I lifted my daughter into my arms, her head laying on my shoulder, paying my full attention to her.
"Don't worry about it," he replied in a low husky voice that sent shivers down my spine.
I lifted my head for a split second before taking my leave. I couldn't put my finger on it but he looked very familiar.
I finally got the both of us safely into the car, quickly heading home so I could take care of Brooke. Pondering over my thoughts, I wrecked my brain trying to think of why that man looked so familiar.
Bingo. I could never forget those deep, dark intense eyes, swirling with curiosity. He was the man from last night. Mr De Luca. The one who saved me. How embarrassing. First, he sees me bawling my eyes out in his club and now my daughter has ruined his shoes with her puke. Boy have we caused a lot of trouble for this man.
I hope we never have to see him again. All my dignity has been flushed down the toilet along with my pride but something in my gut told me we weren't done with each other just yet.
*****
Hope you liked this chapter!
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