Ruined

Chapter 15

Aria…

3 days later…

The drug operation was successful. They received the news yesterday that the drugs in shipment that were meant to cross the border was delivered on time at its destination, and soon their truckload of money was delivered at Damien’s home. I didn’t ask where the drugs were going to or even what type of drugs it was, and nor did I want to know. I did, however, know that this whole drug operation made them ten times the amount of money they already have. Which is just…insane. And a massive party was being thrown to celebrate at one of their other properties.

The last three days were spent avoiding Damien as much as possible, even though we bumped face to face into each other often, or rather face to chest. You would think it to be impossible if you were living in a mansion, but luck was never in my favour. I was sitting outside with my feet in the water, watching Emilio and Dante swim laps. Emilio was Dante’s right hand. He told me that when he left to Basiglio, their home town, he needed people around him that he could trust. Emilio was one of them and so was Sergio. Sergio and Emilio were complete opposites in build. Where Emilio was kind of skinny without much muscles and I feared for his soul in a close up fight, Sergio was huge and his body looked like it was trying to escape everything that he wore. Emilio had a tattoo above his left eyebrow that said ‘trash art’ that he got because of some dare he lost against Dante. “That’s mean, Dante and couldn’t you choose a less noticeable place?” I asked, shaking my head. “And where’s the fun in that?” He asked and laughed before swimming towards me. His large hands stroked my legs and then stopped at my feet to give them a massage. I looked at Dante and smiled shyly, and instead focused my eyes on his tattoos. Dante had a lot of tattoos, many more than Maddox. I would know. I bumped into his still wet body from a shower while he was only wearing a towel two days ago, and yes, I too am surprised to still be alive.
“Where do you get all the inspiration for your tattoos?” I asked. “Well, most of them don’t really have any special significance or anything like that. Like this flower here on my throat. I just liked the size of it and thought it would look cool there” He answered. “So you don’t have a tattoo you wished you’d never gotten?”. “Oh, I do” He said with a smile and showed a spot on his arm near his elbow. “Tic-tac-toe? Seriously?” I asked and laughed heartily. “I was always bad at it” He said and rolled his eyes at my response. “At such a simple game” I taunted. “He was horrible at it” Emilio laughed. “He still is” Sergio snickered and I looked over my shoulder to meet his eye and join in on his infectious laughter.

Next, I felt Dante’s wet hands on my waist and the cold water seep into my shorts as he swung me around in the water. I screamed out loud but it soon turned into a laugh. “Ok, ok, enough” I said as firmly as I could between the laughs and ignored the slight burning sensation I was feeling at my legs from being carried off the bricked floor that surrounded the pool. “What the fuck did you do to her?!” Damien suddenly stormed out of the house and worriedly looked me over. Then he saw me in Dante’s arms and his expression drained from being worried to being angry. “Aria, go back in the house” He said breathing heavily. “What? No, why?” I said softly and took Dante’s hands off me. “Aria, just get in the damn house!” He yelled and I shuddered at the tone of his voice. “No” I said firmly after a couple of seconds passed. “What?” he asked. I wasn’t sure if he didn’t hear what I had said at all or if he was shocked that I was speaking up against him. “You can’t seriously get upset at Dante for getting me into the water” I said feeling a bit frustrated. “He forced you!” Damien yelled out. “No, he didn’t” I half lied and looked at Dante hoping he wouldn’t say something that could make matters worse. “I only screamed because the water was cold” I said as I tried to stop my heart from hammering away so wildly. Damien still had an intense scowl on his face, so I decided to slowly walk to where the steps out of the pool were. “I don’t want to see you near her. Do you understand me?” He asked, to which Dante nodded, frowning slightly. I stood at the edge of the pool and watched Damien walk right up to me. “Come” He breathed and picked me up in his arms.

I didn’t even dare to struggle against his strong arms because I knew that it would be useless. The moment I realised that we were headed for my room, I froze and sneaked a glance up at Damien’s face. He didn’t look back at me, instead he had the same scowl on his rugged face as he had earlier. “Damien, why…” “Sshh…” He said and nipped my bottom lip to keep me from asking him questions.