Sergio Agosta was a killer who hid behind a charming smile - but a killer nonetheless. He'd learnt the hard way that actions always had consequences. Which was why he was going after the one thing that would be his one and only shot at revenge - the...
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Growing up, I had always been the thin, lanky boy that had been left out of everything. Private school was extremely brutal. I had been teased mercilessly for my height and build. I'd been told that no girl would want me if I looked this way - with braces and glasses. I wasn't tall, blonde or athletic like some of the boys in my grade. I was different - and that's why they couldn't stand me. At least that's what Nonna had told me. Sadly, that kind of shit sticks with you as you grow up. That inferiority complex. No matter who comforts you and tells you that you're perfect just the way that you are, those nasty words keep ringing in your head. That's probably why I was so enamored with Carla when she started giving me so much attention. I was still lean when I met her - not as muscled as I was now. She had been my first girlfriend, at the age of 21. I had quickly learnt my lesson with her, though.
Those same nasty thoughts kept taunting me as I had leaned in to kiss Gianna, a week ago. Thoughts that said that I was bad for her. That I would ruin her. That I was a liar and that she deserved to know that she was being used. But I couldn't say those words out loud. I was too much of a coward. Besides, I had hurt her enough over the past month.
Gianna kept me sane - even if it meant arguing with her. She gave me a sense of normalcy everytime I came back home, knowing that she'd be waiting for me, albeit begrudgingly. But I had ruined it all. I didn't even know what would happen next with us. Precisely the reason why I had travelled all the way to Milan under the guise of another meeting. I had woken up the morning after our almost kiss, neck cramped from sleeping on the couch near my desk. One look at her peaceful sleeping face and I knew that those thoughts were right. What my parents and peers had told me all those years ago - they were right. And so I had left. She would need her space and I wasn't going to inconvenience her more by crowding her in the only place that she was allowed to move in.
The driver stopped the car in front of the luxurious hotel that lay in front of us. The Braterstwo would probably be waiting for me inside. With a sigh, I stepped into the lobby, ready to make another business deal - something that my life had revolved around for the past few years.
***
I clutched my phone tightly in my hands as I stared out of the window. Grinding my teeth together, I urged my driver to drive faster, wanting to get home as soon as possible. I couldn't pinpoint when exactly I had started calling that place home, but it had probably been around the time when I had brought Gianna back to Italy. Up until then, home meant Nonna. In her house where the aroma of a freshly baked pie or some risotto always drifted around. I wanted to stop getting comfortable around Gianna - that was never supposed to happen. But somewhere along the way, I had forgotten. I had almost started to forget the main purpose of why she was with me. That definitely wasn't good. I could feel my brain and my heart constantly at war over the woman who had now made her way into my bed and was slowly chipping away at my now thawing heart - and I didn't have it in me to stop her.
My heart beat erratically as my villa, which was tucked away in a corner, away from the hustle and bustle of the main city came into view. I don't know what prompted me to hurriedly rush inside and check whether Gianna was still inside. We had left things on a bad note the previous night, so I wouldn't be surprised if she did something stupid today after I left.
