Ruined

Chapter 14

Aria…

“Hey, Ari” I heard Joaquin’s soft voice. “Joaquin?” I asked and turned over on Dante’s bed. “Yeah, it’s me. Are you ok now?” He asked and held me tight in his arms. “Yeah, I’m fine. I was going to come to your room, but I heard that you were…uh…busy, so I came here instead” I said awkwardly. “Oh. Right, sorry about that. If you aren’t up to going back to your room tonight, you can sleep in mine” He said without any double meaning and I smiled faintly. Joaquin really was good at heart. “I even told Damien to back off for a couple of days”. “Really? You did that for me?” I asked a little bit surprised. “It’s nothing” he shrugged. But it meant something for me. I mean there was no guarantee that Damien would leave me alone, but just the fact that Joaquin asked him to do that, it meant a lot. “I’ll be fine in my own room” I said after taking a deep breath. “Do you want to talk about what happened?” Joaquin asked after a few minutes had passed. “No. And not because I want to bottle everything up, but because I don’t need to. I’m fine”. “Ok. But if you aren’t feeling fine, you know where my room is. And if I happen to be with a chick, you can always join” He said with naughty grin on his face. I slapped his arm playfully and laughed.

Dante…

I was watching Damien from the kitchen, as he drowned himself in liquor at the bar. “How long has he been at it?” Lars entered the room and asked. “He’s a couple of glasses in” I answered with folded arms. “We’re supposed to go and inspect the drugs and check if everything is in order for shipment, but I’m afraid if I remind him he’ll bite my head off” Lars said. “Why doesn’t Tony go?” I asked with knitted eyebrows. “He’s already gone with Maddox to meet the local distributors” He sighed heavily. “Then the two of us can go”. “Without Damien? Man, he’s gonna be so pissed if something goes wrong” Lars said while running a hand through his hair. “Nothing will go wrong. We can take Sergio and Emilio with as well”.

“Lars, how did Damien meet Aria?” The thought occurred to me as the four of us drove on a dirt road. “Oh, she actually worked at this diner and the owner of this diner owes Damien a shit load of dough. So we all went there at like two in the morning, threatened the owner; Rousseau, killed a few customers and injured one waitress. Aria was the other waitress, but when Damien saw her, he didn’t hurt her, being the pretty little thing, she is. Instead he gave Rousseau an ultimatum. Give the entire amount of money he owed or say goodbye to Aria. Obviously, the guy didn’t have much on the property, so we took Aria with us”. “So, Damien brought her here as his fuck toy” I thought out loud. “I guess, but obviously nothing like that happened”.

When Aria started to break down and cry in front of me, I didn’t exactly know what to do. My encounters with women were solely for pleasure. But when I hesitantly hugged her, that seemed to calm her down a bit. When I saw her yesterday for the first time, standing at the pool side, I was immediately taken with her and I hadn’t even seen her face. It was her legs that caught my attention. They weren’t thick, but weren’t too thin either. They were slender and you could see that she did her squats. I remember going over to her because she was the only woman that was actually dressed up and I found that interesting. And when I saw her face…I was blown away. She was indescribably beautiful. Beautiful and alone. If Joaquin hadn’t entered the scene at that moment, I would’ve probably fucked her senseless right there. He might have stopped me yesterday, but she’ll be sleeping in my room tonight and there’s no questioning what will happen.

Aria...

The rest of the day was spent with Joaquin. And he did his best to keep me entertained. After he sent his guest home, we spent an hour in his room talking and laughing about the most random things possible. And when lunch was being served, we ate at the dining table, since Damien was busy in his room, sobering up.  After lunch, I was a bit bored so Joaquin suggested that we sneak into Lars’s room and play call of duty. Obviously, I agreed. Which girl would pass up on an opportunity to beat a guy at games they thought they were unbeatable at? We played until Lars came back. “Hey! What’s going on in here?” he asked and pretended to be upset. “Joaquin’s getting his ass whipped, that’s what!” I joked and had to throw down the control when Joaquin got up to chase me around Lars’s room. “Lars, block on the right” He said and Lars did as he was told. “This isn’t fair!” I complained and laughed at the same time, but then stumbled over a black chord and fell to the ground with a thump. “Ow”. “Ok, fun time is over” Joaquin said and lent a hand so that I could get back up.

When Dante came through the front door he looked really happy to see me. “Hey” He said and came to join me on the couch. “Hi” I greeted and gave him a wide smile. “You’re looking all cheered up” He commented. “I am” I answered with a slight chuckle. “That’s good. Did you put your things in my room already, or do you need help with that?” He asked and I frowned for a bit until I realised what he meant. “Oh. I won’t be staying in your room tonight. I’ll be fine in my own” I said adjusted the cushion that my head was resting on. “Oh” Was all he said looking taken aback. “Yeah. Joaquin offered his room as well, but I’m ok now” I answered. Dante nodded his head as if he understood me, but the look in his eyes said otherwise. He looked disappointed.

Apart from hearing food being chewed and the sounds of metal forks against a ceramic bowl, dinner was pretty quiet. Everyone was sitting at the table, including the two friends of Dante’s. I was sitting in between my two unofficial bodyguards; Tony and Joaquin. “Maddox and I met with the distributors around town and mostly everything is sorted out. The amounts for distribution were checked off and they paid up as well” Tony spoke. “That’s good” Damien replied after a short sigh. Lars cleared his throat. “Uhm…Dante wants to say something…”. Dante looked back at Lars with a confused expression on his face. Lars widened his eyes and nudged his head towards Damien, mouthing the words ‘Tell him’. Dante rolled his eyes dramatically before speaking. “Lars and I sorted out things at the factory earlier”. Damien looked up at Dante with creased eyebrows. “Lars informed me that that was your plans for the day, but when I saw that you were…busy, I offered to go” Dante explained. “I see. And I assume everything went well?” Damien was now in all business mode. Whatever mood he was in earlier was washed off his face and he looked completely sober. “Yes, the trucks will be taking the same route as they did last month and our cops at the border have already been informed” Lars said confidently. “We still have to keep an eye on the officials we don’t have control over. We don’t want any problems”. Damien said. “I will keep in touch with the informants” Joaquin said nodding slowly. “You’re just trying to get into that lady’s pants” Lars said and rolled his eyes. “Like you weren’t softening her up first” Joaquin scoffed. “I’ll see to Jennifer” Maddox said sternly. “I already fucked her once to get the deal straight with Emmanuel”. Damien sighed. “Maddox should handle her. You two just keep tabs on the cops”