Garden of Roses ✔️

Chapter 10

Zara

         "Thank you," I say to Camilla as soon as Dante disappears upstairs to get some sleep. Apparently, he hasn't slept for almost 48 hours.

As I watch her, I notice how beautiful she is. She looked gorgeous at the party, of course. Still, I'm amazed to see that even now, without any makeup, and wearing sweats, she looks just as pretty. Her long wavy red hair falls freely over her shoulders, reaching down to her elbows. Her dark green eyes are the same as Dante's, and her tiny nose is dotted with almost unnoticeable freckles.

"Don't mention it," Camilla responds as her lips stretch into a big smile, showing her perfect white teeth. She ticks on the ceramic cup of coffee in her hand with her perfect crème color nail as we sit in awkward silence for a few moments.

"Umm, not to be ungrateful or anything, but could you maybe untie me now? The ropes are kind of making it hard for me to breathe."

"Oh shit. Yeah, sorry. Forgot about that." She stands up abruptly to untie the rough ropes that hug my body like a python.

"And we should probably do something about that wound on your leg," Camilla says as she gives up on trying to untie the ropes and grabs a knife from her pocket to cut them off of me. I inhale a deep breath as I finally feel the pressure being lifted off my chest and I can breathe properly again.

"Oh, that's much better, thank you."

"Now, you're going to have to take those jeans off so I can clean the wound." Camilla points her index finger at my upper thigh that is now soaked with blood. As she sees the hesitant and uncomfortable expression on my face, she continues. "Don't worry. The boys probably won't be down for hours, they're exhausted."

I nod and start unbuttoning my ripped black jeans as Camilla disappears into another room to find the first aid kit. She returns not a minute later with a big metal box in her hands. I sit back down on the couch and she motions for me to put my leg on a chair that was in front of me while she drags another chair from the kitchen and places it next to my lifted leg. Camilla then sits down and grabs the antiseptic from the box.

I flinch from the pain when she presses it against the open wound on my thigh and continues to clean the blood around it. Once the wound is clean, she furrows her eyebrows, looking at my damaged flesh.

"Damn, you're gonna need stitches. But you're in luck because I'm practically a doctor myself." She sends me a comforting smile. I lift my eyebrow at her statement, encouraging her to explain.

"You have no idea how many times I had to stitch Dante and the boys up during missions. I consider myself a professional by now."

I look into her eyes, wondering how she and Dante can even be related. Camilla was kind and funny and gentle, and he was quite the opposite. Intimidating, rough, angry, and just... deadly.

Camilla notices my silence as we wait for my painkillers to kick in so she can start stitching me up. She looks at me as if she knows exactly what I'm thinking about.

"He's actually not that bad," Camilla states. "I know that he seems like an awful human being, but in reality, he's not. He's just constantly battling within himself. It takes a lot from him. Now our father, as you've noticed, was a truly awful person. And not only that, but he has really done a number on me and my brother." She takes a sip of her coffee as I stay silent, waiting for her to continue.