Chapter 23 When home awaits

"I need to..." I try to explain, but honestly I just needed to put some space between me and Mia. "I am just going to make a call." I hold up my hand in a manner of keeping her from getting of the bed and nearing me. I remove my phone from my dress shirt's pocket with my other hand keeping my eyes on a pissed and moody Mia who sits glaring at me through her long lashes. God, even in her condition she was beautiful. I scroll through the conatcts on my phone in search for Sofia's number and once her name appears i press down on the call icon and place the phone to my ear. The lines rings to no avail. i needed her to see Mia, why was she not answering the phone? Itold her that she needed to be here when Mia comes. "Fuck." I blurt out a little too hard making Mia's body jerk in reaction. She was so jumpy and it scared me. The mere thought of the trauma she must have adhered to scares me. Was she ever going to be my Mia again?

"She is probably with Angela." Mia frowns moving her eyes from the cellphone's screen once I place it down on the bed taking a seat at the foot and end of the bed. I turn my head towards her not removing my hands from the side of my head or my elboes that was resting on my knees.

"Why would she be with Angela?" I question her, confused by her statement. She must have bumped her head real hard, because there is no reason for Sophia to be with Angela. Maybe she was just confused by who Sophia was.

"I was there, Ben. I saw it all remember?" She roll her eyes at me.. or to stop tears from leaving her eyelids. Saw what? What was she talking about? Sophia better get here sooner rather than later. "Because I remember it as clear as daylight, besides he was gunning for me afterall. If there is one thing that we have been taught is that you and I together puts us in danger and if we are to protect Madelaine we need to split and never see each other again.." What?

"No!" I shake my head, she cannot go from begging me to make love to her to leaving me. It is her head that is not fine. She will be in sane mind soon and then whe can discuss all of this. She is spewing nonsens and this is not how we end, I shake my head from left to right and back again. "We can talk about this later. After you have seen Sophia and she attended to whatever is wrong with you."

"What is wrong with me?" She places her hands across her chest. "They try to kill me and yet here you blame me for it?" She seems disgusted at my words.

"That is not what I meant." I try to calm a raging Mia. The fire just never seem to cease with her even now, while she is drained of everything and almost life she has fire burning hot inside of her.

"Then what exactly do you mean?" She bites back. "I told you she is probably with Angela." Mia repeat herself looking at me dumb found. her eyes staring at me waiting for an answer to her question. A question that I couldnt answer, because I didnt mean to insult her, but I am almost certain that there was medically something wrong with her and the fact that she keeps staring at me in the way she is now she kind of prrofs my point. "My god. You really dont know do you?" The tone of her voice soften, as do her eyes as she moves a little closer to me placing her legs underneath her as she stands slightly on her knees bending forward and placing both her hands on either sides of my face. "They shot Angela." She breathes barely audible, but my ears must be mistaken. That was not possible. My whole body freezes over, unabling me to move or take my eyes from Mia's. "After Angela came to get me we were on our way out of the building, we used the back entrance like all the others to prevent anyone spotting the girls being sold when a man dressed in a black skii mask, tshir and jeans appeared infront of us. He looked straight at Angela and told her that she was a slut and that she messed with the wrong people. He said that she caused his boss alot of money dissapearing the way she did and that she can die for the scumbag Italian bastards. He called her Mia." She states clearly. "She didnt correct him, She knew she was about to get shot and still she pretended to be me." Her words were bleeding into my ears drowning every rational thought from my brain. "After she fell down he told me to tell you that after taking your girlfriend he will be coming for evertyhing and everyone you love. He only kept me alive, because he wanted you to know that." She cries out.

"Fuck, Ben. I just heard." My brother enters the room ripping me from my daze. "Sophia is with her in the OR downstairs. She will come see us and attend to Mia once she is done. The bullet missed her heart by a fucking macromillimeter." He informs us.

"James Smith." I look at Achille.

"How can you be sure?" He questions.

"What?" Mia interrupt insync with my brother.

"The piece of shit that shot Angela told her that he cost his boss alot of money. The only one losing money from Mia that dissapeared was James Smit and his Colombo buddies."

"But he knows what I look like." Mia frowns.

"But the guy he sent obviously didnt." Achille answers her as he walks towards her and gives her a hug and send some air kisses around her face. "Thank god for that." He adds letting go of my girl, but his eyes scroll all over her body and that familier vein in the middle of his forhead that runs down acroos the upper part of his nose pulpates visibly. Seeing her like this made him angry.

"How do you know any of this and what do you know?" She divert her attention towards me again.

"I know everything." I admit.

"For how long?"

"Awhile."I have never lied to her and I wasnt planning on starting now.

"You know?" Her eyes squint at me like she was having a secret conversation with me using her eyes to talk. She was refering to her sexual favors to the men that her boss needed to land.

"I know." I admit.

"My god." She covers her face with her hands.

"Find him and the one responsible for pulling the trigger." I nod at Achille before turning my attention back to Mia. "Mio-Amore." I remove her hands from her face and lift her head up. "I dont care about any of that." I assure her.

"I did it for my family." She sob through tears not even trying to fight them anymore. "The moment I threatened to leave he fired me and it only got worse from there. He threatened my family if I didnt continue." She pant explaining why she didnt stop. The bastard was making money of of her and didnt even compensate her for it at all anymore.

"I got you my love." My thumb cares over her bottom lip.

"I just want to go home." She pleads turning her head away from me.

"I told you we cannot go tonight." I remind her.

"No." She shake her head from side to side. "I mean back to Italy." She meant home, home. My home? Since when did it become her home? I was extatic at the fact that she felt this way, but we couldnt leave now. We needed to stay in New York. There was still alot of things that we needed to do. Things to do and people to kill.

"If we leave now everything would have been for nothing." I try to explain, but as usual she takes evertyhing I say and turn it into something else.

"I am not nothing."

"For who do you think I am doing this? For myself?" My words might have come out to hard, but I needed her to understand what I was saying and not being completely honest with her was the reason she was taken. If she was certain that she wanted to be part of my life then she needed to know exactly what I was doing and why. "If I leave now then we will never be able to return to America not only New York. We will be targetted in Italy at our homes. They will really come after everyone i have ever known or cared about, Madelaine included. I need you to trust me when I say we need to stay and stand our ground. I promise you that I will kill each and everyone that intended to hurt, the ones who did hurt you and even the ones that only looked at you strangely."

"Can I come with you when you when Achille brings you James?" She tilt her head to the side.

"Why?" The images of the guy with the pen sticking out of his eye comes to mind at her words turning me on.

"You know why." She roll her eyes giving me a stupid grin. Did she actually have it in her to do worse that stick someones eye out?

"If you promise to let Sophia check you out first?"

"Deal." She smile placing a swift kiss on my lips.