Her Five Protectors

THIRTY-EIGHT

Ariana frowns when she finds Athena and Max absent in the next class. They weren't present in the lunch break too. 

"Did you see Max and Athena somewhere?" She asks Sarah who is sitting beside her and admiring her nails.

"Well who cares about them?" Sarah rolls her eyes and pretends to listen whatever the teacher is speaking about. Ariana ignores her statement and looks towards Brittney who is scribbling down notes on her notebook.

"Brittney." She whispers to gain her attention.

"What?" Brittney mouths to her rudely.

"Where is Athena?" 

"Now do you care..." Brittney gives her a snarky response and looks in the front. 

As the class ends, Ariana hurriedly stands up and rushes out of the classroom ignoring Sarah's high pitched calls. She begins searching for Athena like crazy. Sarah confusedly follows behind her.

"Sarah! Call Max and ask him about his whereabouts." Frowning Sarah does what she told too.

"He is in the hospital with his brother."

"And Athena?"

"She isn't with him..." Now Sarah is a bit concerned too.

"I can't understand where is she gone! I think you should tell your brothers." Sarah suggests the valid thing that she could thought of. Ariana nods but suddenly her eyes meets Stephan. He is taking long strides in her direction. His facial expressions gives away nothing.

"He took her!" He states. Ariana's eyes widens in pure horror. Her jaw clenches and she grabs Stephan's collar. 

"Why did he take her? I was doing everything he told me to. He said he won't hurt her...Why didn't you stop him?" She shouts at him. Stephan calmly brings her hands down.

"I had no idea about this! I had fucking warned him to steer clear away from Athena...The next second I am seeing my brother again, I am going to fucking kill him!" With that, he storms out of there. 

Ariana quickly makes her way towards the senior classes. 

"Ariana! Where are you going now?" Sarah asks loudly while running behind her.

*************SIX HOURS LATER

"I am sorry! I am sorry! I am so fucking sorry..." Ariana cries as she clutches to Luciano tightly in a hug.

"I just didn't want him to hurt Athena...I did everything he said but he still took her..."

"You should have told us about this at first. It's always better to share your problem at first with your family." Luciano tells her hinting at her past and today's mistake. If she wasn't being secretive or if she woul tell her brothers so none of this would have happened. She should have ask help from them instead of taking the whole burden on herself. 

"I am sorry Luciano! I promise I understand but please bring Athena back.....Angelo is a monster. He is an fucking psychopath! He will break her..." Ariana literally begs in front of him.

Luciano looks in Vincenzo's direction who is rubbing his temples in frustration. Alexander and Vittorio are gone with search teams. Romeo is looking through the security footages of the entire city to find clue as in Angelo's car in which he took Athena but it looks like his car vanished somewhere in middle. 

*************

"Why do you even care about that girl so much? You are fucking ready to kill your real brother by blood just because for that bitch?" Aurora yelled loudly feeling completely shocked at Stephan's action.

"Shut your fucking mouth and get the fuck out of my sight!" Aurora flinches at his dark and harsh voice. 

She skips towards her room and locks the door. She gets down under the bed and grabs her secret cellphone. She calls his number and patiently waits for him to answer.

"Hello my precious big sister..." 

"Bro! You better protect your a*s because Stephan and Athena's brothers are searching for you like crazy...Stephan is losing his sanity-I am warning you! Don't get caught or even tell him that I was the one who helped you from starting...He will bury us both alive six feet under...The last time I begged him to save you from Cortello brothers but this time it is fucking impossible....." Aurora rambles. Angelo chuckles on the other side.

"Oh don't worry! I am a pro at this..." Aurora heaves a relieved sigh and dramatically drops down on the bed.

"How is that bitch anyway?" She rolls her eyes.

"Her name is Athena!" He corrects her. For the secondth time today, Aurora rolls her eyes again.

"Right! Yeah....I am sorry." 

"The sleeping beauty is finally waking up! I will talk to you later..." Aurora hmms as he hangs up the phone.

"Gosh! Why is no one being crazy for me like that...."

*************

Athena groans and slowly opens her eyes. Her head is hurting badly. She tiredly sits up on the bed and looks around the small room with pure confusion in her eyes.

"Where am I?" She whispers to herself. After applying a lot of pressure on her head, she finally remembers what has happened. Her eyes widens and she looks around with wide eyes.

"Good morning sleeping beauty." Angelo's voice rings in the room. Athena flinches and looks around the empty room and suddenly her eyes falls on small speaker and camera that is attached to one of the wall..

"A-angelo?" 

"Yes sweet girl..." He replies back gently.

"W-what is the meaning of this?" She asks him.

"What do you mean? This is something I wanted to show you." He chuckles.

"W-what?" Tears burn in her eyes as she gets more and more confused at his words.

"This is our new home! Your and mine..." 

"W-what are you talking a-about? I w-want to go to my home.." She tells him in a scared tone. Suddenly the warnings of Ariana, Stephan and others rings in her head and she feels more and more terrified. 

Angelo takes a sharp intake of breath.

"Didn't you hear that this is our home? THIS IS OUR FUCKING HOME!" He yells at her. Athena flinches in fear and lets out a small whimper. He takes deep breaths to calm himself down and says.

"I don't want to punish you so don't make me angry. Be my sweet girl and don't wake my urge to hurt you...." He tells her softly. 

"We are going to celebrate your birthday today....You will come downstairs when I will call you but until then stay here." Athena frowns deeply at his words.

"B-but it's n-not my birthday, Angelo..." She tells him in a small and scared tone. Her birthday, the one and only birthday she ever celebrated with her family, her cousins was months ago.

"When I said it is your birthday then that means it is your birthday!" He tells her and suddenly everything turns quiet.

Angelo is batshit crazy lol

Get early access to the completed book on patreon. Link's in my profile...❤️