The Aftermath

Adelaide

—-

I was too distracted, the image of a pair of piercing blue eyes and a silver mask embedded in my mind.

I looked down and realized something a little too late.

I still had his jacket.

---

Everyone scrambled out of the sweltering hot car making their way to the mansion, arguing and huffing.

I hadn't spoken to anyone about what happened, simply listening in.

We all filtered into the living room and I chose to collapse onto a comfy chair, before realizing that I still had a gun strapped to my body.

I unbuttoned the suit jacket and slipped the gun off of my body, throwing it on the coffee table with a loud clatter. Next, I slid the two knives I had concealed out of my dress, throwing them next to the gun.

The loud noise shut everyone up and drew their attention to me.

"Adelaide, how do you have that?" Malcolm asked, his voice shaking slightly.

I dragged my eyes over to him with a cold and uninterested expression.

"I cleaned up."

Malcolm held my gaze for a few short moments before Jaekyung's voice distracted him from me.

"Malcolm, you said the gun wasn't loaded, shall we check?"

I didn't move my gaze from him as I spoke.

"Yes, lets."

I heard the gun being picked up by someone but I didn't look to see who it was. I already knew how this would turn out.

I was the one that emptied the gun.

"No bullets." Romano's voice confirmed what I had already known and I analyzed how Malcolm's face relaxed at his words.

His eyes darted over to me, realization dawning on him.

Without breaking away from our stare off, I spoke.

"It's been a long night, get some rest and we'll talk about our shortcomings in the morning."

I watched Malcolm swallow and nod, standing up and leaving the room followed closely by Jaekyung and Jamie.

My eyes travelled to Romano who was in the seat opposite me and was staring with a dangerous look in his eyes.

It seemed like he was debating if he should ask me something or not.

"What do you want to ask me, Mano?"

His eyes narrowed at my statement but he answered despite it.

"Who's jacket is that?"

My eyebrows raised in surprise at his question. Out of everything he could've asked me, that was what he wanted to know?

I didn't answer his question, letting the silence that flowed between us answer it.

Silver was a secret I didn't want to give up.

"Adelaide, who's jacket is it?" He repeated the question and I could tell that he was frustrated with my silence, but that didn't make me break it.

I kept my mouth shut.

Romano slammed his fist on the coffee table out of frustration, a loud boom following. I didn't flinch.

"Answer me!" He demanded, his voice loud and domineering.

I merely cocked my head to the side at his antics.

If he was trying to scare me, it wasn't working. I had seen and done many more horrific things in my life than a man having a temper tantrum.

"Why should I?"

I knew I was pushing not only his patience but I wanted to see how far I could push until he either gave up or broke.

It was amusing.

He stood up and glared down at my relaxed figure, that was seemingly unbothered by his domineering nature.

"Because I'm your boss, who's jacket is it?"

I looked him up and down with a look of disinterest. I couldn't let him know about Silver.

Letting out a long sigh, I stood up and picked up the jacket.

I was going to have to play this man like a fiddle.

Fully aware that I was still in a form-fitting dress, I continued to inspect the jacket while sashaying towards him.

When I was directly in front of him, I looked up to meet his eyes.

"It's a good make don't you think?"

His jaw clenched but he didn't respond right away, it seemed like he was trying to get his emotions under control.

"Si, carota, it's a good brand." He breathed, his voice terse and strained.

I stepped closer to him and opened the jacket, stepping on my tiptoes to bring it around his shoulders. I took his right arm in my hands and pushed it through the sleeve, copying the same action with his left.

"Are you jealous this is another man's jacket?" I asked him softly, refusing to meet his stare.

I carefully did up the button and smoothed the creases out with my palm before stepping back and admiring my handiwork.

Only then did I look up to meet his eyes.

"How do you want me to reply to that, la mia stella?"

I lightly shrugged, "I would prefer the truth."

He closed the space between us, using one hand to cup the right side of my face and bringing it dangerously close to his.

"Incredibly, carota."

His thumb started to caress my cheek and his gaze lowered from my eyes to my lips.

"You're special to me, cavolo, I want you to be mine, only mine."

I left a beat of silence before deciding that it was time to reveal one of my secrets.

Letting him believe that I had fallen for his sweet words my tilting my head into his hand and wrapping it with my own. I closed my eyes and smiled.

"Is that what you said to the other girls you brought to The Lion's Den?"

I continued to smile sweetly at him but my gaze was deadly and threatening.

My heart sped up as I waited for his response.

His body tensed and he tried to take his hand away from my face but my grip grew tighter, refusing to let it recoil.

"How'd you know?" He asked, shock obvious in his voice.

I left the question hanging in the air for a few moments, letting myself really take it in. He didn't deny it, no, his knee-jerk reaction was to find out who had betrayed him.

The bastard.

I let his hand go from my steely grasp and looked up at him.

"I have my ways."

I pat his cheek three times as a mother would do to a child and swiftly turned to leave the room, or at least I tried to.

A warm hand caught my wrist and I was roughly pulled backwards, my body colliding with his.

He snaked his arm around my waist and I was officially trapped.

I squirmed against him but his grip was tight and unrelenting.

"Stop moving." He commanded which only made me try harder to leave his embrace.

"The last time you did this, it didn't work out well for you."

He snickered at my futile attempt to get him to release me.

"Si, but this time you're unarmed, cavolo."

I stopped trying to break away but only because it had been a hell of a long night and this was only making me even more fatigued.

I relaxed and he let a small sigh out but didn't loosen his arm.

His other hand pushed my head into his chest, soothingly stroking it.

"When was the last time you slept properly, porro?"

Surprise filled me at his question. He knew the trouble I had with sleeping? Was he that observant?

I didn't reply to his question, instead completely relaxing into him.

The vibrations that emanated from his chest as he softly chuckled soothed me further.

"That long?"

I nodded into his chest and moved my head slightly to the side so that my ear rested over his heartbeat.

I was entranced by the steady beat, almost lulled to deep sleep by simply being in his arms, but then I remembered that he was the leader of the largest Italian mafia group there was and my body stiffened again.

"Let me go."

My voice was only a whisper but I knew that he had heard it by our incredibly close proximity. In response, his arm grew tighter around me.

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Why?"

"Si?"

I looked up at him and furrowed my eyebrows.

"Did you say yes to an open-ended question?"

His ears turned slightly red as he fumbled to get an answer out.

"I- you confused me, carota."

I smiled as I watched him floundering for a proper way to justify his actions.

Who knew a mafia boss could look so cute? And who knew he could turn from intimidating to a teddy so fast?

In his brief moment of vulnerability, I unwound myself from his arms and took a step back.

"Let's keep it professional, Mr Acerbi."

In a lapse of my better judgement, I kissed his right cheek before making my way over to his left.

It was something that Italians did platonically, right?

It was merely a greeting.

When I looked back into his eyes, ready to turn away and retire to my chair, his gaze held me captive for a fleeting moment.

His eyes told me something that he didn't need to say aloud for me to understand.

'This isn't over.'

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