A Taste of Darkness

Chapter 14: Breathe

Scarlett

I refused to stop looking for her. No matter how much Zina, Antonio and Luca told me that it was pointless, I fought against their judgement for dear life. They eventually gave into my pleas and we ended up searching around the city for hours- with still not one sign of Elena- before they practically had to drag me back to the penthouse by the arms while I protested, kicking, slapping and shouting mercilessly.

I couldn't believe this was happening, I couldn't believe that something bad had happened to Elena and it was all my fault. While I didn't actually have any proof that something bad happened to her, my gut told me that I was right, and I always trusted my gut feeling.

"We're going to find her," Zina assures me, seeing the worried look in my eyes. We were now back in the control room while I watching Zina tapping on random buttons that I didn't know the meaning of, but I also didn't care enough to try to understand it. All I could think about was Elena. If she was okay, what exactly happened to her, who's doing this was, if she was hurt....or worse, dead.

I shook my head, trying to snap myself out of my thoughts. I couldn't think that way.

"What are you doing?" I ask, watching Zina as she makes swift movements across the keyboard. "I'm hacking into the security footage of the café we found her phone outside, maybe we can see what happened," she replies, her gaze remaining concentrated on the buttons on top of the table.

I start to hear footsteps approaching from behind me, a door creak sounding throughout the room as the noise becomes more distinct. "Boss is asking for Scarlett," Luca states, looking at Zina. Does he not realise that I'm also in the room?

"I'm here as well, you can speak to me instead of ignoring my presence and talking to Zina instead," I snap, rolling my eyes. "Tell him I'm busy and can't speak to him right now."

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice," Luca insists, opening the door to show me out of the room.

"And I'm afraid I don't care. Tell him I said no, I have more important things to do right now."

Luca lets out a sigh of frustration, giving up the fight before walking out the door. Now that that's done, I can focus back on the more important issue at hand, finding Elena. Me: 1, Julio: 0.

Before I can relish in my victory any further, I hear a door open and shut with great force before heavy footsteps start to get louder and louder with every second that passes by, indicating that whoever it is, is getting closer to me.

I turn around see a tall, muscular frame, a black suit and a pair of icy blue eyes staring fiercely into mine.

Of fucking course. I should have expected that he- Julio- wouldn't have given up so easily.

"Didn't you get my message Luca told you?" I remind him, displaying a sense of apathy and annoyance to show him that I wasn't interested in and didn't feel like having a conversation with him at this moment in time. Or ever.

. . . I think.

"Loud and clear," he answers through gritted teeth, although I can see that he's trying to bite his tongue for the moment and conceal his rage.

"Then why are you here?" I ask, turning my eyes away from him and pretending to be clueless when in reality, I knew exactly what he was referring to.

"Do you really think I'd let you get away with this just like that?" He clenches his jaw, showing the anger building up inside him to the world all too clearly.

"Get away with what?" I ask, faking my innocence and keeping up my clueless act.

"It's almost 8 pm, you were gone for nearly six hours!" he snaps, displaying the fury he was hiding all this time behind a masked face.