Chapter 57
XANDER POV
Feeling utterly spent, I plopped myself on the lush bed in a hotel room which was rented under the name
of some innocent citizen who had no idea how cruel this world is. Although I was a prick who felt guilty
for not feeling guilty, pointing a gun and threatening the poordy didn’t sit well with me. But I couldn’t
use my own name; else the renowned Cattanio Twins would find me in a split second and eunuchize me
without a second thought.
Toying with them had been the best thing ever. I knew the east was well off gone, and as much as I
hated to admit it, they did a good job at running the underworld shit. I was tired honestly. The blood on
my hands was crying out loud, haunting me every day and night. I knew I couldn’t just leave; I was part
of this world now and there was no going back. It was that kind of a thing that once you are in, there’s no
going back. It was a vicious hole where you just kept falling and falling and falling deeper into the
bottomless abyss.
Having the twins take the east had reduced the burden off my shoulder, now I had a few things to run,
and most importantly, I had time to myself. For the very first time since the beginning of forever, I felt
alive again. And that’s all thanks to the twins. Not that I would go tell them that! Oh hell no! Our feud was
something that wasn’t going to end today or even tomorrow.
One thing I admired about them was their love for their girl. The na?ve little sweetheart was s o alluring
one couldn’t help falling in love with her. And when Lorik came to me telling me that he wants her dead, I
had been so surprised. Leigh-Ari was naively cute and so warm. I didn’t find the reasons why someone
would want to kill her. So with that in mind, I made sure to keep tabs on her. It was the first time I did that
and I couldn’t even give find an answer to why I decided to drag the mission and not just get done with it.
Unbeknownst to me, the little girl grew deep in me. She grew so big I actually got addicted to those little
visits I made into her bedroom when her men were out. Although I let Lorik believe that he had the upper
hand, I concluded that nothing bad was going to happen to her. Leigh-Ari didn’t deserve all of this. She
deserved an uplicated life, somewhere far away from here, where she took care of her patients
without all the care in the world. The mafia vendetta and fiasco were something she was well off without.
A sudden quick beeping of my pager had me tearing off the bed where I wasying on my back. I
reached for the side table and picked up the small device, powered it on, and cursed out loud!
“Shit!”
The fucker decided to take action. I had known long ago that he was going to take matters into his hands
and so I prepared myself in advance. The beep was a signal that the nanochip I had nted on Leigh-
Ari’s vanity was attached to her body. Not only was it an rm, but it
was a tracker.
I ran to the wardrobe and quickly armed myself, put on the bulletproof vest. Once I was well loaded and
steeled, I ran to the window and pushed it open, then jumped out. Had it been anyone, they’d have
shattered their skulls spilling their brains all over the concrete ground. But I smoothly on my feet at the
hard ground behind the hotel. I quickly fished my phone from the pocket and shot a quick text to the
twins. I don’t care whether we were enemies, but Leigh-Ari was in danger.
And I wasn’t going to sit back and watch from the sidewalks! 1
VERNERO POV
My eyesnded on Enzo who was utterly oblivious to my temper tantrum. Although I hated being
pampered by him at times, him being fully unfazed by my outburst kind of stung me a bit. I was expecting
him to sit next to me and calm down like he always did. But instead, he ignored mepletely. I
smashed bottles to gain his attention, cursed out loud, but he didn’t even badge. Just sat there with his
eyes closed and unfinished whiskey in his hand.
That only added up to the riling storm inside me. I grew even angrier. The thought of Xander made me
tremble violently in my seat. I wanted to cry because my brother wasn’t having any pity on me. It was as
if he told himself he wasn’t going to dance to my guitar this time. But deep down I knew I needed him to
calm down. I needed his power, his energy to dilute the tornado in me. 1
After cursing for millennia with no sess, I felt drained and settled in my seat. The limo continued
stretching back to Rome. It had been an angering ride to Mn, and that was highly expected. I cursed
myself for even thinking that Xander aka dickturd would actually help us this once. Well, we didn’te
back empty-handed; we knew that the imposter wanted to trade the east for Ari’s head. And kill me if I
was going to let that happen.
A loud siren went off and Enzo abruptly tore from his seat. I knew that sound so well. It was the secret
device I installed on Leigh’s bedroom ottoman. When pushed against violently, it was triggered sending
the rms to Enzo and me.
We shared a panicked look before focusing on our phones and began sending orders.
Gosh please let her be alright. The was only one way the device could be triggered, and the thought of
what was going on at that very moment chilled me to the core. She was all alone, with the intruder.
“How far are we from home?” Enzo called out yanking his tie off. I know he was trying to stay calm, but I
could feel the fear resonating from him heavily.
“Two hours plus,” I answered cursing, Ciello answered the phone and I barked orders hurriedly into the
receiver. He was calm like always, ready to fuck the world at my order. He had to catch that motherfucker
before he left Dark Woods.
“Got it, boss.”I cut the call and made the next one,
N?velDrama.Org ? 2024.
“I got Raquel, she’s checking on her. Leigh-Ari wasn’t wearing the ‘bracelet’ in the gym today” Enzo
announced still looking down. A cold wave of hopelessness nketed mepletely. For two hours,
anything could happen, and my baby would be alone. And didn’t even wear the tracker.
I didn’t know what to do, but what I felt inside was so much.
“Valerie ising to get us. This shit-ass bucket is slow.” He announced yet again in a hurried voice. For
the umpteenth time, I was thankful to have him by my side. Had I been alone, I was going to lose it!
My phone rang in my hand and I quickly picked it up, it was Ciello.
“Where’s she?”
“She’s gone, boss. The imposter knocked out all the guys guarding her room and silenced all the security
devices.”
“Noooo!”
“And boss?” He called out in a low voice,
“Yes?”
“There’s so much blood here.”
voor
LEIGH-ARI
Minutes ticked by as I sat there with my mouth hanging open from shock. What I just heard numbed all
the pain from my body, leaving my mind reeling with so many questions.
“High school mistake. Was 17 at the time, pretty lousy, and very much drunk. Had a steamy night with
my girl and 9 monthster, she dropped two boys at my doorstep. I had the same reaction as you.” Lorik
pointed the crowbar at me, exining further. My eyes traveled on his face shocking me further when I
saw a bit of resemnce. The eyes were so much like Enzo’s, and the hairline was t out Verzi’s. From
there, they were different people.
“Oh? You must be wondering why we look so much different right? They took after their mother.” He said
stalking towards me.
I was still out of words as I tried to make sense of everything he was saying. I just didn’t believe that he
was the twins’ father. Heck! They had one hell of a rtionship, nothing about them screamed “sons and
dad”. I have heard Verzi cursing and biting Lorik’s head a few times than once, he even instructed him
like one of his men.
“Where is their mother?” I asked after finding my voice.
“Six feet underground. I killed her.” He said with a face so nk, so casual like he was talking about the
weather. I felt a cold sweat drizzle down my spine and settle on my drenched leggings waistline. If this
man had mercilessly killed his wife, the mother of his sons, then I was nothing in his eyes.
“Why? Were you married?”
“Naaaah! Engaged? Yes! But she wanted to teach me how to raise my sons so I couldn’t keep her alive.
You see, everyone who stands between my boys and I has to die Leigh-Ari. And you are no exception.”
He said crouching lower to my level. With each heartbeat and him reciting the story of his life, I felt a
wave after wave of hopelessness settling in.
“See, a very long time ago, I took them to Pnd, I had some business to take care of and I couldn’t risk
their safety. There they lived happily across a little girl with silly piggy tails and her dad. I thought, my
boys, will be safe here. Who knew that as the years went by, they would grow so fond of the girl that they
refused to part with her. One day I told them they had to leave Pnd, they refused. Their condition was
that they take you along, or they aren’t leaving. That’s when I knew that you are an obstacle. So I
brought up an idea for them. Wanna guess what it was?” He grinned joyfully, but I knew what was
coming next was so spiteful and hateful, so I shook my head!
“Bummer! Anyway, I told them they can take something from you, something which is very precious to
little girls. Like the good boys they are, they listened. And they did it very well.” He smirked causing my
blood to run cold. He couldn’t mean what I thought. My eyes snapped open at the sudden realization of
his words. How could someone be so evil?
“I see you finally caught up on it. They took your little virginity. I didn’t think they’d be fazed b y the idea of
taking you, ‘forcefully’, but they enjoyed it. To the maximum. Only after popping your cherry did they
agree to leave Pnd because they had imed you by then. So years went by and they still couldn’t
forget you. Every time they’d fantasize about how grown you must be and how they’d love to relive “that
day”… I knew I had to do something. So I sent my men to take care of you. Who knew that you’de
out unscathed from that ‘ident’, with
only a concussion that led to memory loss? Sad that your dad died though. He was a good man.”
At that moment, I felt like I had been thrown into a very cold sea and I kept on going further down no
matter how hard I tried to surface. I didn’t even believe every word he was saying. How could he be so
cruel?
“You killed my father.” I choked out a sad sob.
“By my mistake. The n was to kill you, not him. But who knew that he’d die. Anyway, you didn’t die,
right? You are still alive. Not for long though.” How could this man even breathe the same air as other
people? He was a total psycho. A real maniac. He was the real devil walking among the living! So all
along he had been manipting my life, taking and taking everything from me. My life, my only parent,
everything was all taken by him. And he showed
zero sign of remorse. Just why did I have to cross paths with such an evil man?
“You know they won’t forgive you if they knew this.” I looked up through teary eyes at his blurred
silhouette. My heart hurt so badly I felt like someone was clenching his fist around it, the rapid pounding
of my head just intensified the whole thing. The pain around my body made everything all worse. God, it
hurts so bad! Not the headache, not the wounds, but my heart. The fact that he killed my father. This
man had long hated me, and I had been an idiot for thinking we bonded because of a little medical
knowledge!
“Oh, that I know very well. But don’t let that fool you, little girl. In Dark Woods, I call the shots. All that
empire, it’s me behind it. The power and glory were all bestowed upon them by me. And I am not going
to sit back and watch as you destroy everything.” He said rocking the crowbar in his hand and stepping
backward. He slowly pulled backward and I knew what wasing next.
I pinched my eyes closed and prepared my shock absorbers, readying my body for the agonizing pain
that wasing next.
“You aren’t nning to hit a chaineddy with a crowbar now are you?” a familiar voice called out from
somewhere above. My eyes tore open to find none but Xander swinging on thentern just right on top of
me. What is the actual hell?
“Xander?” I asked with a very perplexed look. How did he even get here? How did he get on thentern
and manage to swing on it without falling?
“Hey, babe. d to see you alive.” He grinned before applying the force to swing which threw him
towards the far end of the empty warehouse. Hended expertly on his two feet and walked graciously
towards Lorik who was seething, his chest rising and falling rapidly.
“What the hell are you doing here Xander?” He asked through clenched teeth as he watched Xander
sashay on smooth steps. This guy was a true maniac.
“Me? Don’t mind me, I’m just watching as you make a coward out of yourself. Hitting a restrained
woman? Seriously? And I heard you shamelessly admitting that you let your sons rape her.” He said
standing a foot from Lorik. Somehow I felt a rush of relief washing over me. With him here, the chances
of survival were high.
“You failed to do the job. Now I am doing it myself.” Lorik spat crazily and flexed his arms on his sides,
the tight muscles of his back rippling from the movement.
“Hold it up big up. Are you flexing because you want to hit me? I am not your opponent. Your opponent is
thatdy there…” He pointed behind Lorik at me. My anxiety skyrocketed hitting the roof. On whose side
was Xander on?