Chapter Ten

  "Lia." Marino cooed gesturing towards both his men to set me free. I never thought I'd ever have to see his face one last time but here we are.

"Ouch." he winced palming my swollen cheek.

"He really did a number on you sweetie, but what else would I expect from the only son of Dominick Ciovelli." I recoiled away from his hand glaring up at him. His tone implied that he even had an atom of care and that just pissed me off even more.

  The building looked posh but smelt old. Cream colored walls, some sort of yellow sticky medieval  rug  in the middle of the room and blue drapes cascading down from the ceiling.

A round three layered wine bottle chandelier dangled from the ceiling right above me. He really cheaped out on that one, was it supposed to be exotic?.

The whole room looked to be a mess probably designed by his imaginary girlfriend brittany. She had an eye for all things tacky I'll give her that.

"Freshen up, get some rest we'll discuss things tomorrow" if you get the chance to see tomorrow.

I wanted to tell him that a bath was the least of my problems right now and that his marble floors should also be his. A plastic sheet was rolled out beneath me to keep the mud under control.

No one wanted to search or come within three feet of my filth covered body. If only they knew how important it was to pat my filth covered self down. They led me to a room down the hall keeping their distance.

The room didn't have much, the same cream  colored walls a weirdly shaped magenta sofa and of course a four poster bed. To take a bath or a shower I needed to unstrap the bomb strapped to my waist and that  was just too complicated.

"An hour and twenty minutes" What better way  to spend my last few moments on earth than to fall asleep? That way I don't see it coming and those last few moments stay peaceful.

Was I scared of death? Terrified  but this was just  something I  had to do not just for me but for a lot of other innocent people. Mariano ran his organization the same way any heartless wannabe hero would. He didn't care about the lives of those he ruined just as long as his aim is fulfilled.

  This was really it wasn't it?

"Good night" I whispered out to the darkness shutting my eyes tightly.

The door gently creaked open startling me awake I cocked the gun under my pillow aiming for the door.

Less than ten minutes left on countdown. I flipped the light switch illuminating the room.

"Toni?" I gasped out still aiming for him what was he doing here?

"Don't move, I can't let you jeopardize the mission" My hands were shaking cause I knew that I couldn't pull the trigger no matter how hard I tried but I also knew that I was about to blow up taking this building and everybody in it with me. I couldn't let him be part of the people going down.

"Toni please don't " I pleaded edging backwards.

Only eight minutes left, he backed me up against the wall walking right into the tip of the gun. An impending bullet didn't seem to faze him as of now.

  He caged me in running a bruised knuckle down my cheek. My mind was running a million miles a minute, my heart beating out of my chest fear like never before coursed through my veins. I gazed up at him through teary eyes, he needed to leave. I couldn't do this with him here but there was no way to manually stop the countdown with only six minutes left.

He inched closer, close enough for me to feel his warm breath on my lips. Ragged breaths escaped my quivering form, the gun wavered in my grip.

"Toni--" his lips met mine in a searing kiss. Too stunned to  react the gun slipped from my hand.  I felt it, the sparks through every part of my being down to my toes.

Lost in euphoric moment I matched his pace wanting it to never end. There was pain, longing, anger all wrapped up in this blizzardlike kiss. His arms wandered down snaking around my waist, he pulled me impossibly close dominating every piece of me.

  It was a slow sensual kiss that left me aching for more.

Click!

I felt the straps of the belt loosen before it was completely pulled away from me. He broke the kiss rushing towards the door. his moves calculated and precise.

He got on his knees sliding the belt out the door and down the hallway.

  Tick Tock

Three more minutes till show time. I was still stuck in trance feeling the after effects of a kiss that left my lips tingling. The wind blew against my hair from the open window, he wedged himself between it holding it open.  I wasted no time making my way through with him behind me.

I didn't run off like the last time, this time I waited till he was right beside me. He interlaced our fingers pulling me towards the woods.

"Do you trust me" he panted out of breath. We were running through the mass of silva like our lives depended on it because it did. The mansion was secluded a small distance away from the only cliff in town. A cliff we were running towards.

I was hesitant fear gripping me in its claws once more. Did I trust him enough to plummet into the water without an assurance of my safety?  Well I was strapped to a suicide bomb not long ago so.

"Yes"  Yes  I did

    He pulled me in for a short kiss.

"Then jump" he whispered. The timer beeped. Only five second left till detonation.

We took a few steps backwards.

     5.

4.

      3.

2.

This was it.

         1.

We took the dive the force of the blast launching us into the water.

~End~