~Benny~
What is the true definition of a mother? There are over one million definitions online if you look it up. But everything sums up to a woman who gave birth to a child. A female parent who acted on the responsibility of physical and emotional care for a child.
Growing up, I had an excellent example of a loving mother, and I couldn’t ask for another… until today.
“Benny!” she called, trailing behind me as I walked through the familiar hallway of Tony’s Granada mansion.
To prove Rylee wrong, I went into the security room and checked the footage the last time Tony was here. And there, I saw the evidence of her accusations. My temper, boiling and fueled by anger for her allegations, swooped below the freezing point in nanoseconds. I kept staring at the monitor even when chaos occurred outside the security room.
We were under attack. Although the room was sound and bulletproof, the blood bath outside played like a rolling movie on the monitors.
I refused to believe Rylee’s words, but there it was, the evidence of my fiance and mother’s relationship. They didn’t even have the decency to take their sinful affair inside my mother’s bedroom. There in the hallway, where anyone passing by would see them, they kissed like lovers who hadn’t seen each other in years.
I feel like my heart is being stabbed by a serrated knife.
When the chaos mellowed, I went outside with only one goal.
Run.
I don’t know where I was going, but staying here is off the table. I can’t trust anyone, not even my mother.
People from the Italian mafia are here to save Rylee. No wonder she sounded so sure she’d leave this place in her own time.
Lost and confused, I don’t know what to believe anymore. What I’m certain of is that I need to get away from this place, away from the woman who’s still calling me her baby.
I stopped in my tracks, reaching the end of the hallway opening to the great room. Machine guns from the opposite corner suddenly discharged lead. I covered my ears, pressing myself on the wall, when a loud explosion had the windows shattering to pieces. Silence ran for about five seconds, and the rain of bullets continued again.
It’s like an aftershock after the earthquake. A few gun fires and explosions here and there. The mafia people were making sure that all their enemies were dead.
“Benny,” mother caught up with me. She cupped my face. Feeling her familiar warm touch made me ache inside. The floodgates of my eyes disintegrated when I looked into her eyes. They were blue, like the ocean sparkling under the summer heat. They glistened with fear and worry.
“Are you hurt?” she asked, checking my face and body for injury. “I’ve been calling your name! Klaus Martinelli is here. We should get out of this place and go to the safe house. Tony will meet us there-“
My palms collided with her cheeks. She gasped, pressing a hand over her quickly reddening skin. Confusion crosses her pretty face. For a woman who just turned fifty-four, she looked half a decade younger than her actual age. Yet the thought of her sleeping with Tony, his soon-to-be son-in-law, a man eighteen years her junior, made me sick.
“Benny…” she whispered, disbelief traversing in her eyes.
“You and Tony.” My voice shook like the ground beneath my feet. A loud explosion belched from the east side of the mansion, but my resolve to confront her for her betrayal was steady. “How could you do this to me, Ma?”
‘Ma,’ she tainted that endearment. “How did you stomach lying to my face!?”
Her tears spring profoundly, dribbling down her cheeks. “Benny… let me explain.”
“Explain what?” I sobbed. “What possible explanation do you have for fucking my fiance!?” I clutched my chest, clawing at my heart. I want it out. I want this pain out of my chest. It hurt so bad I couldn’t breathe, as though the air suddenly turned solid. “How could you….”
“Baby-“ two of Tony’s men came barrelling through the hallway, halting her words.
She turned. I looked over her shoulder, and two men with guns emerged from the other end of the passage, firing in our direction, aiming for Tony’s people.
The crossfire in the great room died down, clearing my path out of this mansion. Tony’s men reached mom. One grabbed her forearm, dragging her away from the direct line of fire. The other reached for me, but I punched him in the face, taking him by surprise.
I didn’t look back, crossing the massive room littered with bullet casings and shattered pieces of furniture. Dead bodies adorned the pristine floor. I paid the blood-curdling sight no mind. I had one purpose: to get away as far as possible from my mother.
Passing the dining room, I slipped into the kitchen, avoiding contact with people as much as possible. Living in this place for eight months familiarized me with every corner. Tony even taught me an escape route leading directly into the city in case something like this occurs, avoiding the main roads and highways.
This is probably the last time I will trust his words. ‘Just to get out of this place,’ I thought, wiping my tears, reaching the back lawn.
The remnants of the fight were much smaller in this part of the estate. I crossed the expanse of the lawn, reaching the Land Rover Tony gifted me on my birthday. But as I opened the door, brawny arms coiled around my stomach from behind, dragging me away from the car.
My self-defense instinct kicked in. I hooked a leg to one of his, delaying his dragging attack, and pushed his joined hands down with mine. My abductor had solid muscles and was much bigger than me.
He set me down to tighten his grip on my body. I took that opportunity to fold my body forward, reached for his leg, and used his own momentum to pull on his foot. He dropped backward with a grunt, his hands still tight around my waist, taking me down with him.
I wiggled from his hold, elbowing his face. I might have hit him in the eyes. He released me, cursing loudly.
“The fuck is wrong with you, woman!?” he grunted as I gathered my footing.
There, laying on the lawn, one hand pressed on half of his face, was the owner of the most beautiful gray eyes I had ever seen in my life. It’s burning with rage and fury. It’s all directed at me.
~Kai~I glared at Hunter. He was trying his best not to roar out laughing but failing fucking miserably.I kept my distance from that annoying brat. Five feet away from her car, I took shelter under the tree’s canopy, nursing my bruised face and ego.She’s lucky she’s a girl, not just any girl but Bossman’s little sister, or else I would’ve recouped what she did to me ten folds. She sits quietly behind the wheels of her Rover, wiping her cheeks harshly every ten seconds. I don’t know why she’s crying. She looked hurt, but I checked out her body and found no injury.Yes, I fucking checked her out because she’s gorgeous. Her make-up-smeared cheeks only made her appear like a damsel in distress. Eyes so green, cute little nose and pouty lips. She kept running her fingers through her dark waves, musing them to perfection.A permanent current seemed to keep sizzling under my skin where we had been in contact earlier. My hands, my chest, and my legs. I had been with many women, but my body
~Kai~ Twenty minutes. That’s how long I’d been confined in this car with Berenice, and I already regret following through with Klaus’ directive. Everything about her is driving my senses crazy. She hasn’t said a thing since we left the mansion. She kept on wiping her cheeks, staring out the window, and sniffing from time to time. She truly looks vulnerable, pained, and broken. But that is not what bothers me. I’ve been with women of all shapes and sizes and attitudes. It’s not my first time dealing with a crying chick. What bothered me was her mere presence, her scent, which filled the car with a sweet and comforting cinnamon scent. It had the opposite effect on me. Like a puppy, I wanted to sniff more of that scent. I want to smell it from the source. I want to grab her and bury my face in the crook of her neck. Better yet, rub her all over me. From my peripheral vision, I got to admire her closely without the danger of adding another purple blotch to my face. She wore a skin-tigh
~Benny~Twilight blanketed the city of Granada when I reached the capital. My feet hurt. Sweat dribbled down my spine, but I still had to find a place to stay for the night.Taking the road and hitching a ride was off the table. That’s where Kai would look for me first, so I endured the five-mile walk from the convenience store to town.It’s an advantage that I know my way around the city. Before the night deepened, I fixed a change of clothing for tomorrow, a place to stay, awaiting dinner while the lavender-scented bubble bath alleviated my aching muscles.White foam oozing surrounded me like clouds above water. I rested my head on the bath pillow and stared at the cream-colored ceiling, warm overhead lights casting an intimate atmosphere in the bathroom.I sighed, concentrating on my next step instead of the pinching sensation in my chest. Dwelling with my pain is on the back end of my priorities. I might not have to deal with it if I end up dead. I have to get off of everyone’s ra
~Kai~Defiance was written all over her face. Those piercing green eyes burned with rage determined to burn me to the ground, and it’s fucking turning me on. I had to keep my hands busy with the food on the tray. My palms were itching to make her submit to me, to have a taste of the gorgeous brat standing before me in nothing but a bathrobe.Droplets of water dribbled down her exposed skin. My jaw clenches at the thought of her answering the door only wearing that. Her hair was a dark mess in a bun above her head. A few locks, wet from her bath, stick onto her neck. The robe ends in the middle of her thighs. I knew she had a gorgeous body, but her skin… damn, it’s tanned to perfection, and I want my lips to map every inch of her.If only she wasn’t my job. If only she wasn’t the boss’s daughter. I could look past her bratty attitude and make her mine. And fuck, I badly want to make her mine; it’s driving me crazy that she’s off limits.Staring at her right now, really staring at her e
~Benny~ The lights were off. Slivers of moonlight’s silver streak fusing with the lamppost’s orange glow from the street passed through the gaps of the balcony drapes. Apart from utter silence, my uninvited company’s even breathing on the couch had been the only sound drifting inside the room. Eyes glued to the ceiling, I eyed the silhouette of a tree branch in front of the hotel swaying, moving in sluggish motion. The digital clock on the bedside table ticks every second. It was hushed as though a silent count down before I dropped a decision. I’ve been silently pondering on what I should do next. There are a lot of things I should consider. Kai and those three guns were a testament to my vulnerability and the power of the people I am trying to outwit. But my need to be left alone weighed heavier than my want to be safe. Today, the gravity of my choices hit me like a raging wave, a wake-up call. For months, I have depended on people around me. Tony, I let my love for him lead me
~Kai~ Other than me, there is someone else following Berenice. It’s different from those three in Granada; this one is professional. I don’t know when and where he picked up a trail of her scent, but I could feel the danger up close. I’m unsure if he realizes I am following Berenice, but whoever this was, he’s good. No one was following Berenice from the hotel to the cafe, University, and bus. The bus picked up tourists and travelers on the way here. Maybe he was one of the passengers. But I didn’t feel any threat until here. She glanced at her side and over her shoulder. The way her shoulders went rigid was a tell that she could feel eyes watching her as well. If something happens to her, it would be all on me. I shouldn’t have let her walk out of that room; now, I had put her in a dangerous situation. I only wanted to know what she was planning to do. Where she’d go and how she’d proceed after learning that Tony’s people were after her. Do a repeat of what I did in the hotel
~ KAI ~ A pool of steaky crimson liquid on the ground was my indication that a bullet miraculously pierced the gunman. I pulled the trigger blindly, aiming to distract him, but one lucky bullet must’ve struck an artery. I followed the blood trail cautiously. Howls of police and ambulance sirens had already prevailed over the once busy atmosphere of the harbor, blanketing the air with anxiety and fear. Reaching the fifth corner away from Berenice, I still found no trace of the gunman. I need to find him, question him and eliminate him. I have to do it quickly. Keeping Berenice safe is still my top priority. Soon, the police will sweep these parts of the port. And once they discover the woman’s dead body, alarm and panic will soar. For decades, cartel wars cast fear on the people of Spain. Cases like this will likely draw excessive attention from the local and international media. And getting the Martinelli’s tangled in this mess is the last thing the Italian mafia needs. We already
~BENNY~Dread rose from the pit of my belly when I opened my eyes.The bed where I laid on my back sways. No, the entire room rocked in a steady, familiar, and daunting rhythm.I blinked hard, pushing away the pull to go back to sleep, ignoring the stabbing pain all over my body, particularly in my midsection and throat.Four corner lights diffuse a soft, warm glow on the room. The salty tang of the air made me nauseous. Realization dawned on me. I am in a cabin… in a boat. I couldn’t hear any other sound apart from the soft hum of the engine and the continuous crashing of waves. We are far from land; how far is the question and knowing the answer scared the shit out of me.Chills coiled down my spine. Thinking of anything other than how vast the waters were sailing is an impossible feat.I shook my head, clutching the white covers that pooled on my waist as I sat up. I closed my eyes and pinched myself, hoping to wake up from this nightmare, but no. The room was still the same when I