CHAPTER FOUR: Not For The Faint Of Hearts. 

AURELIA'S POV: 

Aldo glares at me harshly as I walk out of the plane. No matter how hard I try to lose him, his long strides continue to keep him close to me. We are greeted by more men dressed in black from head to toe. 

"Get in." A gruff voice orders as he pulls open the door to a shiny black SUV. 

"Hell no!" I say in an alarmed tone as I take a step backwards. I take a quick look around me and calculate my chances of escaping from here. 

Alessandro and his man Aldo had made the mistake of not tying me up after the little altercation we had. 

The man glares at me as he takes a threatening step towards me and I match it with a backwards step of my own. 

Before I can move back any further, I feel the tip of a blade pressed dangerously close to my back. 

"Do not force me to use this on you." The hard voice belonging to Aldo says in a tone that has my knees going weak in fear. 

I enter the car with slow steps, wishing I wasn't so controlled by my fear, but at this point I don't want to die. 

The men seating beside me converse in a language I do not understand. I would have thought that considering Alessandro was Italian, all his men would be too. 

The car slows down as it turns right and onto a winded trail with a lot of trees at both sides of the road. My heart rate increases and slivers of fear run down my spine as I realize that I don't even know what city I'm in. 

Even if I were to escape from here, I wouldn't know where to go. 

I shake my head harshly to get rid of those thoughts. If an opportunity presented itself, I would run, I will worry about where I'm going once I've gotten far away from here. 

"Where are we?" I ask in a frightened tone, hating the fear evident in it. 

"The Don's house." One of them responds, shocking the hell out of me. I never expected them to respond or to even pay me any mind. 

"Which city is this?" I ask, trying my luck one more time. 

"New York City." The same man responds, ignoring the glares from the other men in the car. 

Now that I peruse their faces clearly, I realize that he is younger than the rest of them. 

"Do you know what he plans on doing with me?" I ask in a scared but urgent tone as I lean forward, twisting my fingers in my lap. 

"I don't know, but going by those luscious curves, I bet sinful things. Wicked, sinful things. I do hope to have a taste of you once he's done." He responds with a sneer on his lips that has me gasping in fear. 

He ignores the harsh look of the others and even the words of warning, telling him to stop interacting with me. 

The mental image of me being held captive by those powerful arms belonging to Alessandro accosts my senses and I find myself unable to breathe. 

Was he lying back in the plane and his real intentions are to make use of my body until I am physically and mentally worn and as good as dead? 

My hand flies to my throat and I scratch desperately, hoping for a slice of air in my lungs. 

"Look what you've done!" Another man says in a harsh tone to the younger guard. "Stop the car!" He says to the driver and as they all jump out of the car, I don't hesitate to follow after them. 

The other cars in front of us pull to a stop, wondering what the commotion is all about and Alessandro steps out of the car in front of us and starts walking towards me. 

"No! No! No! Stay away from me!" I say in a desperate but pleading tone as I scurry backwards on my hands and my butt. 

"What the fuck is going on?" Alessandro asks, sparing his men a glance before turning back to me. 

My heartbeat stops for a moment as I see the undiluted hatred in his eyes as he stares back at me. Oh my God, that guard was right. He was going to kill me. 

I get up hastily and take off running into the woods by my right. I don't stop when I hear the hasty footsteps of Alessandro and his men coming behind me and neither do I stop when I hear the distinct sound of a gun being cooked. 

I hit my leg on a tree stump and I fall on my face. I groan in pain but when I move to nurse the hit toe, I hear the heavy breath of Alessandro's men closing in on me and I take off running again. 

I'm out of breath by the time I hear heavy footfalls coming closer to me. I barely have the time to react before the person is on me and we find ourselves falling to the ground. 

The person turns us around so that his back lands on the ground and he grunts in pain. By the time I come back to earth, I find myself straddling the very enraged Alessandro Santino. 

I make a move to stand up but I'm held down by Alessandro's grip on my thighs. I feel a hard object poking me in my thighs and I go still with fear. 

"Don't. Fucking. Move." Alessandro grounds out in anger as he looks at me like he is seconds away from snapping my neck. 

"Let go of me, you fucking liar!" I chew out at him as I struggle to get away but all I achieve is being pulled closer to him.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Alessandro asks in a growly tone that would have had me shivering in fear if I wasn't as angry as he is. 

"There is no missing wife. You picked me off the streets to use me as your personal whore. You— you fucker!" I say in an indignation tone as I struggle to free my hands from his grasp. 

"Even if I was looking for a personal whore —which I'm not — it wouldn't be you." Alessandro grinds out at me in a harsh tone. 

I relax a bit, the idea that I'm not that appealing to him, calming me more than it should have. 

"Then why did you take me? Even after I told you I had nothing to do with your wife's disappearance? I don't even know who she is!" I bite out in a less harsh tone. 

"The pictures say otherwise and I won't stop until I get the truth." Alessandro says in a deathly calm tone. 

I scoff at him in disbelief. "How exactly do you plan on doing that because my answer will always be the same." 

"Like I said earlier, I don't care the length I have to go. I will truss you up like a goddamned turkey if that will give me the answers I seek." Alessandro says through gritted teeth as he pushes me off him. 

I'm quiet as I don't know how to respond to the threat. 

"You are going to come with me quietly or I will put a goddamned bullet in your skull." Alessandro says in a cold hard tone. 

"What happened to needing me for information huh?" I ask in a sarcastically bitter tone. 

"I will find other ways, trust me." Alessandro says as he pulls me along with him. 

He pays me no heed when I hiss in pain as too much pressure is put on my ankle. 

We soon break through the clearing and I find Alessandro's men standing alert but still relatively close to the car's. 

"Which of you fed her those lies?" Alessandro asks in a deathly calm tone as his eyes rove over the faces of his men. 

The young guard looks as though he is about to throw up as the other men that were in the car with us point at him. 

Alessandro stares at him for a millisecond before shooting him in the head. My jaw goes slack and I fall to the ground as my knees are unable to hold me up again. 

The sight of the blood pouring out of the hole from the guard's head sends me into a state of shock.

The last thing I see before passing out, is the guard's lifeless eyes staring back at me.