Chapter Eighteen

Alessandro kept their fingers laced together as they made their way upstairs to his room. They stopped in front of his door. "Okay." He took a deep breath. "I hope you like this. I had a little bit of help from Aurora but I did most of it myself."

Evangeline smiled brightly. "I'm sure I'll like it simply because it's from you." She said softly.

He nodded as he took another deep breath. "Alright. Close your eyes please." He said as he stood behind her.

She closed her eyes as he put his hands over her eyes. "No peeking." He said playfully.

She laughed and slightly shook her head. "I promise to keep them closed."

He kept one hand over her eyes as he opened the bedroom door with the other hand. He helped her walk inside as he kicked the door closed behind them. Once they were standing in the middle of the room he removed his hand from her eyes. "Okay, you can open your eyes now angel." He said softly.

She opened her eyes and let out a small gasp as she took the room in. The room itself was beautiful but even more so with the candles lit along the walls and the fireplace going. There was a king-sized, four-poster bed in the middle of the room with a sofa at the end of it. The bed had black sheer curtains surrounding it. Two nightstands were on either side of the bed and the sofa. The nightstands matched the bookcase that was against the wall by the huge bay windows. The curtains had been drawn shut for the candlelight and glow from the fireplace. The bookcase was filled with a lot of her favorite books and she was in awe. She looked around and found a huge flatscreen television above the fireplace. "Oh Alessandro, this is beautiful." She said as she set her purse on the couch.

He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Do you like it?" He asked in uncertainty.

She smiled as she looked at him with love and adoration in her eyes. "I absolutely love it, Alessandro." She said softly.

His shoulders sagged in relief. "Oh thank god. I was worried."

She giggled as she wrapped her arms around his waist in a tight hug. "You have nothing to worry about Alessandro. It's gorgeous."

Alessandro grinned as he wrapped his arms around her and held her close. "I'm so glad that you like it."

She looked up at him. "So what's the plan?" She asked with a smile.

He chuckled as he sat down with her on the couch. "Alright, I'll tell you." He held her hands in his. "I was thinking we could watch a movie or two. Then once it gets dark I know this amazing spot in the forest where we can see the stars perfectly without any of the lights from the city. Dinner after that. Then perhaps a nice hot bubble bath for you. Maybe some wine and then perhaps I could give you a relaxing massage. I have all the oils. Maybe a late-night sweet snack. Some more movies. Some games." He shrugged as he rubbed the back of his neck.

She grinned brightly. "Sounds like the perfect night, Alessandro." She said as she leaned closer to him.

"Perfect." He said as he held her close. "So I was thinking you could get comfortable while I pick a movie. I don't think you'd want to stay in your work clothes. So feel free to help yourself to anything in the closet."

She smiled as she stood up. "Thank you, Alessandro. I would love nothing more than to get out of these clothes."

He watched as she went into his closet and closed the door behind her. He flipped the television on and quickly found a movie for them to watch. He got it set up and started taking off his shoes. He took off his suit jacket and was unbuttoning his shirt when he heard the closet door open. He turned around and froze in his tracks. Evangeline had changed into one of his black button-up shirts. The shirt went down to her mid-thigh and her feet were bare. "Oh my." He said as his eyes roamed over her body.

Evangeline bit her lip as she looked at her feet. "I hope you don't mind me borrowing your shirt." She mumbled. "I don't have any clothes here." She said quietly.

He chuckled. "It's alright my angel. You look gorgeous." He walked up to her and gently caressed her face. "Give me a minute to get changed and then we can watch the movie."

She smiled as she turned her head and pressed a kiss to his palm. "Okay love."

Once he was changed they snuggled together on the couch and watched movies until the stars came out. "Alright angel. Let's get going."

She looked down at the shirt that she was wearing. "Is it alright if I go in this?" She asked quietly.

He nodded with a wide grin. "My queen, you look perfect."

She blushed as she looked down. "Just let me grab my shoes." She said as she walked into the closet to grab the heels that she had been wearing earlier.

He was frozen when she came back out of the closet. She was absolute perfection in his eyes in just his shirt and a pair of heels. He had slid on a pair of sneakers while she was in the closet. He grabbed her hand in his and led her out of the house.

They walked to the clearing that he had been talking about and she was in awe. He had set up twinkling lights around the clearing and there was a blanket with a picnic basket waiting in the middle of the clearing. They sat and ate as they gazed at the stars and talked about their lives. As they were talking Evangeline couldn't help but think about the huge part of her life that she still hadn't told Alessandro about.

After taking a few deep breaths she turned her head to look at him. "Alessandro?" She asked quietly.

He turned to look at her with bright eyes. "Yes, my angel."

"Do you think we could head back to the house?" She questioned softly. "There's something that I would like to tell you but there are certain precautions that we need to take." She said in a low voice.

He frowned but nodded. "Of course angel." He stood up and held his hands out to her. "Let's get going."

They went back to his house and up to his room. She bit her lip as she nervously sat on the edge of the bed. "Do you have handcuffs and chains?" She asked as she kept her gaze glued to the floor.

His eyebrows furrowed in confusion but he answered. "Yeah, I can go grab some out of the armory real quick."

She nodded. "You'll need to grab four sets of each." She mumbled as she shoved a hand through her hair.

While he went to get the handcuffs and chains she kicked off her shoes and put her elbows on her knees as she roughly ran her hands through her hair multiple times. She knew that she had to tell him about what had happened to her if they were going to build a loving and trusting relationship. He had told her almost everything about his past yet she was still hiding a huge part of her past.

She was brought out of her thoughts by Alessandro walking back into the room with the handcuffs and chains. "Okay, Evie. What do you want me to do with these?" He asked as he looked at her with saddened eyes.

She blew out a rough breath as she moved to the middle of the bed and got comfortable. "I need you to chain me to the bed. My wrists and ankles." She said quietly.

He started doing as she asked but had a question of his own. "Why am I chaining you to my bed?"

She looked at the ceiling as she quietly spoke. "I know there are still a couple of things that you haven't told me about your past." She shook her head. "Which is okay. I don't expect you to share everything with me right away." She spoke barely above a whisper. "There is something that I've been keeping from you though. It's a pretty big part of my past and it's something that I believe you need to know if we're going to make this relationship work." She said as she finally turned her head to look at him. "Unfortunately bad things tend to happen when I speak about this part of my past so it's safer if I'm chained up. You're also going to have to knock me out with a stun gun or taser. I need to stay asleep for two hours."

He nodded as he made quick work of chaining her to his bed. Once he was sure that she was chained up well enough he sat next to her. She took a deep breath and softly said. "Now I know a lot of this may be hard to hear but I want you to know this so you can understand me better." She explained. She looked into his eyes as she said. "I trust you with my life and I want you to know everything about me."

He swallowed past the thick lump of emotion that had formed in his throat at her admission. "Okay. I'm listening, angel."

She nodded and began softly. "I'm going to start at the beginning just so everything makes sense."

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She was six years old. The people that she was living with weren't very good. They neglected her constantly. It was like she didn't exist. She had started to fend for herself. No one paid attention to her, so if she wanted to survive she had to learn to do everything for herself. She knew that the people she was living with weren't her parents. She remembered her family. Vaguely but the memories were there.

These people were no family to her. Yet they kept her. She never knew why. Since she was so young when she started staying with them, she didn't know how she had gotten there either. So she learned to deal with it. She grew up with no love from the people in what she called home. She did everything alone. She was thankful for the neglect though. Because once she hit the age of ten things got worse.

At the age of ten, the abuse started. It was full of beatings straight from the beginning. From everyone who lived in the house. And there were quite a few of them. They never touched her in any type of sexual way, which she was thankful for, but the physical and mental abuse were terrifying. Not a day went by that she didn't get abused in some way. If they couldn't hit her they mentally abused her. Bringing her down and destroying her confidence. Destroying who she was.

It lasted for a full two years. When she turned twelve the people that she had been staying with sold her off to an assassin's camp. The abuse was heaven compared to what they did to her at that camp. They were training her to become one of the deadliest assassins anyone had ever seen. At first, she was weak and stumbled through the training while failing her studies. Before the torture started she thought that things would get better for her. She would be trained to defend herself and she would be able to find her real family. All of those dreams went down the drain the first time that she had gotten tortured for failing in her studies and stumbling through training. The torture was beyond anything that she had ever felt before. She fainted the first few times. Over time though she had gotten used to the torture and learned to use that pain to help with her training. Soon enough she was the only one who wasn't being tortured. She aced all of her studies. She was the best assassin that the camp had ever had.

She was sent out on more missions than anyone else at that camp. She always went back, afraid of the consequences if she ran. After seven years, she finally found the courage to leave. At that time she was still scared but she knew that she had to leave. She was tired of killing for people who thought that they could control who lived and who died. She tried three times. The first two times someone came after her because she wasn't careful enough. They dragged her back and tortured her until she was on the brink of death. The last time she got lucky. She was able to cover her tracks long enough for her to bump into a nice man who helped her.

She ran right into him while running through the parking lot of a restaurant that was on the beach. He offered to help her. To take her to his home where his wife was. To get her any help that she would need. She accepted his help and he took her far away from her horrifying past.

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Alessandro sat there in horrified silence. He had known about some of her past but nothing could have prepared him for the rest of what he had learned about her. He frowned when she started trembling and clenching her hands into fists. He pulled out a taser and hit her with it. She moaned softly as she went limp and passed out.

He couldn't believe that there were people out there doing that to young children. Torturing them when they did something wrong and training them to be the world's deadliest assassins. It was something that he knew he needed to put a stop to. He gently tucked Evangeline's hair behind her ear and pressed a kiss to her forehead before unchaining her wrists and ankles. He pulled a blanket over her and watched her sleep for a couple of minutes before walking onto the balcony in his room. He pulled his phone out and called Luca.

"Hey, Alessandro," Luca said a bit breathlessly.

"Hey, Luca. Am I interrupting something?" He asked as he glanced inside at Evangeline.

"Oh no. You're good. I was just moving some old boxes out of the extra bedroom that we have." He explained. "Aurora wants to get started in the nursery."

"Oh okay." He blew out a rough breath. "So Evangeline told me everything." He said quietly.

"She told you absolutely everything?" Luca questioned in astonishment.

Alessandro nodded even though he knew Luca couldn't see him. "Yes. Then she had me hit her with a taser."

Luca sighed heavily through the phone. "I know that what happened to her is terrible but that can't make you look at her any differently. If she told you then it's because she trusts you. It's never easy for her to talk about the things that they did to her. Or the things they made her do."

"I know." He said in a low voice. "It won't change the way I look at her. She's my saving angel. Nothing could change the way I feel about her."

Luca understood exactly what he meant. "Just make sure she stays chained up for the full two hours and you should be good." He said a bit distractedly.

Alessandro frowned. "She has to stay chained up for the entire two hours?" He questioned.

"Yeah," Luca said softly. "No love. It's just Alessandro. Give me just a minute." He said to Aurora. He cleared his throat. "Sorry about that. Anyway, if she doesn't stay chained up there is a chance that she could go into a blackout and go off on a killing spree. That's the last thing that anyone wants."

"Shit," Alessandro swore as he rushed back into his room. He went straight to the bed, only to find it empty. "Damn it. She's not in bed anymore Luca."

Luca groaned. "That's not good Alessandro. You need to put the house on high alert right now. Then I would say check your dungeons first. She'll go after bad people before good people."

"What happens if there aren't any bad people around her?" Alessandro questioned as he rushed out of his room.

"If she believes that there are only good people around her she'll hurt herself before hurting anyone else." He sighed heavily. "It's happened before."

Alessandro swore under his breath in Italian. "Alright. I'll call you once we find her." He hung up the phone and dialed Richard's number. "Richard. I need you to put the house on high alert right now." He said in a harsh tone.

"Um, okay. What are we looking for though?" Richard questioned through the phone.

Alessandro clicked his tongue. "My saving angel. I'll explain later but she's very dangerous. Only use stun guns. No harm is to come to her but make sure everyone is warned not to get too close to her. If she grabs you that's it."

"Okay," Richard said in confusion.

"Do we have anyone in the dungeons right now?" He questioned as he made his way through the house.

"Um." Richard thought for a minute before responding. "Yes actually. There should be three traitors and two guys from Enzo's family."

"Alright. Don't bother with the high alert. Grab some stun guns and meet me at the dungeons." He said as he stopped in front of the dungeon's entrance.

He waited for about five minutes before Richard showed up with two stun guns. "What's the plan, Alessandro?" He asked as he handed him one of the guns.

Alessandro shook his head as he exhaled roughly. "She's in a blackout and won't recognize us. We need to keep our distance as much as possible or else she'll grab onto us and attack. She won't mean it if she does but it could happen. So prepare yourself."

They slowly made their way down the stairs and towards the cells. "You said there are five prisoners in here?" Alessandro asked in a whisper.

Richard nodded. "Yes. There were five down here this morning when I did a headcount."

Alessandro shook his head. "It's too quiet." He whispered.

"I don't like this Alessandro," Richard said quietly.

Alessandro inhaled sharply as they came to a wide-open cell. They both stood in shock at what they found. The prisoner that had been in there was now laying on the ground with his tongue ripped out and a hole in his chest. "Your saving angel did that?" Richard asked in a rough whisper.

Alessandro gave him a single nod. "World's deadliest assassin." He muttered before he turned to face Richard. "She's definitely down here." Movement behind Richard caught his attention. He grimaced as he looked at Richard. "Evangeline and I are both very sorry for this." He said quietly.

Richard looked at him in confusion. "Sorry for what?" He questioned.

Alessandro gestured for Richard to turn around. Evangeline was standing behind him with Alessandro's favorite blade in her bloodied hands. Richard swore under his breath as he prepared himself for the blow that was surely coming his way. Evangeline tilted her head slightly as she studied him for a moment before delivering a roundhouse kick to his side, knocking him into the metal bars of the cell that they were standing in.

He groaned as he held his head in his hands. "Damn she's deadly," Richard said in a breathless voice as he slightly sat up.

Alessandro sighed heavily as he looked at Evangeline with his stun gun raised. "I am so sorry Evie." He whispered before pulling the trigger.

She let out a soft grunt before dropping the knife in her hand and falling forward. Alessandro easily caught her before she could hit the floor. He sat down with her in his lap. "Sorry about that Richard."

Richard shook his head before groaning. "I didn't even hear her come up behind me." He complained as he slowly made his way to his feet.

"I suppose that's one of the reasons that she's the world's deadliest assassin," Alessandro muttered as he got to his feet with Evangeline in his arms. "Go to the infirmary and get that head checked out. I heard that hit from where I was standing so it can't be good."

Richard agreed as he held his ribs and his head. "She knew just the place to hit to knock me off my feet." He cleared his throat. "That's one hell of a woman you have there Alessandro." He said before leaving the dungeon.

Alessandro carried Evangeline up to his room and chained her to his bed once again. He blew out a rough breath as he watched her move around in her sleep. He pulled out his phone as he sat in an armchair that he pulled up to the side of the bed. He dialed his clean-up crew and waited for someone to answer. "Hey, Alessandro. What's up?" One of the men answered.

"I need you and the crew to go down to the dungeons and clean out the cells. There are five dead bodies down there and I'm sure they're all in pretty bad shape so brace yourselves."

"You got it."

He hung up and called Luca as he tried to relax in his seat. "Did you find her?" Luca questioned as soon as he answered.

"Yeah, we found her." He clicked his tongue. "She was in the dungeons."

"Did you have prisoners down there?" Luca questioned.

Alessandro scoffed. "We did, but we don't anymore." He said in a quiet voice.

"At least they were bad men," Luca said roughly.

"Yeah." Alessandro sighed. "She banged up Richard. Most likely bruised ribs and a concussion. I have him in the infirmary now."

Luca exhaled roughly. "Sorry, Alessandro. I know how hard it is." He mumbled something to Aurora before talking with Alessandro again. "To be honest that's better than what could have happened. If there hadn't been anyone in those cells then she most likely would have hurt herself. And that is something that you will never forget seeing." He said in a rough voice.

Alessandro blew out a rough breath as he gazed at Evangeline's sleeping form. "I couldn't imagine going through that." He mumbled into the phone.

Luca sighed. "I have to go help Aurora. We're picking out furniture for the baby." He said softly.

Alessandro nodded even though Luca couldn't see him. "No problem. I just knew you were worried about Evangeline."

"Thank you," Luca said in gratitude.

"Goodnight Luca," Alessandro said as he kept his eyes glued to Evangeline.

"Goodnight Alessandro."

They hung up and Alessandro spent the next couple of hours watching Evangeline and thinking about everything that she had told him.