Their Girl: The Hunt

Chapter Thirteen

Alec's (POV)

I froze on the spot so taken back by her reaching out for my hand, it was so tiny in mine and trembled but it felt like she'd just gripped hold of my heart. The truth was she did have my heart in itchy in her hands, I was so lost without her completely shrouded in darkness and even since she'd been back it was still looming over me but right now being here with her it was like them beautiful ice blue eyes of hers were like a beacon of light. "It's just a bowl we have plenty" I chuckled even though deep down I knew that wasn't what she was saying sorry for. She knew full well we didn't care about that I just couldn't for one minute fathom that she thought she had anything else to apologise for.

Her hand tightened around mine and she dipped her head "not for the bowl Alec" she said quietly and took a deep breath "for putting all of this onto you all. For what happened to Brad and Zak, it's all my fault" her voice started to break and i could see the stray tears starting to trickle down her cheeks even though she was trying her hardest to hide her face.

I sat myself back down in the chair and clasped her hand within both of mine. "Alissandra none of this is your fault you can't blame yourself. Antonio will get what's coming to him, he's the only one to blame"

"I miss you all so much" her voice was low and i could hear the heartbreak in it which caused a lump in my throat.

"We haven't gone anywhere" i replied light-heartedly

"No but I miss being able to be close to you" she wasn't the only one, it was painful not being able to touch her and gold her close.

"This is a start Alissandra" i squeezed her hand and she finally looked at me with that heart-breaking look in her eyes. The same one we'd seen for the past 3 weeks. "I want nothing more than to wrap my arms around you and hold you tight but I'll wait until your ready even if that takes years"

"Years?" She replied raising her eyebrow and a slight smile curling at the corner of her lips. It wasn't her beautiful smile but it was a start. "I don't deserve any of you"

"Yes you do you deserve the world and we're going to give it to you" her smile was a little bigger this time round.

It may have seemed like a small feet to anyone else but the fact she was sat here with her hand in mine and a smile on her face was proof that she was getter better. Slowly.

"Can we just stay here for a little while? I can't sleep with the nightmares" she asked quietly and i could tell she seemed anxious about the idea but the fact she wanted to stay meant everything to me.

"What are they about?" I asked but i had a feeling she wouldn't say as she'd told us so little about everything, in fact she wouldn't talk about it at all. None of us knew exactly what Antonio had done and said to her whilst she was there, Luca only knew parts of it but he was never in the room to see the extent of it. He just said he would hear her screams and see to her wounds afterwards. No matter how much Tillie tried to get her to talk about it she hadn't said a word and that was the gruelling part, at least if we could understand we'd be able to comfort her in some way.

"They're about Antonio" she stuttered and shifted uncomfortably. "every night i relive what he did" this was it she was actually going to talk about it. Alissandra then went into detail about what her dreams were about, telling me the things that Antonio had said and done to her whilst she was with him. It was beyond hard to listen to but i could tell it was even harder for her to tell me. The whole time i just listened and let her talk, she needed this. She needed to be able to open about it finally and no matter how difficult it was for me to hear about the things he did to her i managed to keep my cool. I did notice she didn't mention the rape, she just explained about the way he would cut open her skin, burn and hit her. But that was bad enough. The pain he had inflicted on her was so similar to what I'd done to others in the past that i could literally picture each and every slice, the smell of her flesh burning and the feeling of my fists connecting with her skin. It made every hair on my body stand up and it was enough to even give me nightmares. The only thing i could think was when i got my hands on him I'd make sure he experienced every thing she had to but I'd make it ten times worse.

I didn't even realise how long we had been sitting there together until Freddie came in to the kitchen. "Have you two not slept yet?" he asked as he looked us both over. Alissandra flinched slightly when she heard his voice but she didn't completely freak out like i expected her too. He noticed just as i did and stayed on the other side of the kitchen not coming any closer to her.

"We've just been talking" i offered as an explanation so Freddie could get the gist of how well things had gone with Alissandra. His eyes examined mine and i nodded knowing exactly what he was asking. He was asking if she's talk about her time with Antonio.

"That's great. How about some breakfast?" he asked glancing between me and Alissandra. She nodded and gave him a slight smile, a smile that visibly nearly knocked him straight on his ass, and for a moment he seemed to be speechless not quite knowing what to say next until he gathered up his composure quickly and continued.  "Well then what would you like princess? How about Pancakes?"

Alissandra screwed her face up definitely thinking the same as me. If Freddie made pancakes we'd be extinguishing the kitchen in no time "You can only make one thing and that's burnt toast" i chuckled which made Freddie scowl at me.

Before he could even think of a comeback Alissandra butted in. "He's not wrong we know the good cooks here are me and Lorenzo and he makes the best pancakes" she said raising her eyebrows at Freddie. He couldn't deny that she was right, but even if she was wrong i doubt he would of challenged it.

"Good thing I'm right here then" Lorenzo voice said from behind us making me and Alissandra both turn to look at him. He was leant against the door with his arms crossed "you want banana or chocolate chip?" He asked Alissandra and moved to go the long way around the kitchen island so he wasn't too close to us.

"Both?" she replied with an anxious tone to her voice like she wasn't sure if she should ask or not. She still didn't realise she could ask for the world and we'd happily give it to her.

Whilst Lorenzo cooked the pancakes me and Freddie talked over the details of the next shipment coming in letting Alissandra just sit there and take it all in. Whenever i looked over to her she was just sat calmly with a smile on her face watching us. The whole time she didn't say anything but she didn't need to, the fact she seemed somewhat calm and comfortable in our presence without Luca there was more than enough. That wasn't to say she still wasn't a little on edge, whenever one of us moved too quickly or spoke a little louder then we usually would she would flinch but she'd stayed in place not running off.

Once the pancakes were ready we all watched intently as she ate pancake after pancake without one of us having to prompt her and it was the first time she'd properly eaten in weeks. Once she finished she let out a little sigh and slumped back in her chair rubbing her stomach which was an indication that she was full.

"Too much?" i asked with a slight chuckle to my voice.

She gave me a little smile and nodded "Maybe just a little. I'm going to try and get some sleep" she said as she got up and went to leave pausing briefly to turn and look at us. "Thank you" she said softly before heading out.

"Well fuck me that was like a breeze of fresh air" Freddie sighed with a beaming smile.

"Don't get too ahead of yourself she's got a long way to go" Lorenzo replied. Always the pessimistic one of us.

"It's a start though" i grunted in response. We still weren't on the best of terms and had still barely spoke to each other once Alissandra was back from the hospital. Tensions were still high between us and i gathered it was because of Jennie but i couldn't give a shit, the bitch needed to die for her part in Alissandra being taken. He was just more concerned about the repercussions.

"A start would be finding that fucker" Freddie interrupted which was probably an attempt to defuse us before anything kicked off. 

"On that note, Luca's back in an hour. Once he's here we need to head to the warehouse. They got as many of the guards as they could find" Lorenzo said and then looked directly at me "try not to kill them before you get the information we need" That was his way of making sure he could get at least a little dig in a me for the day which was a usual habit of his for the last couple of weeks. This time i decided to ignore him and got up from my seat leaving to go and get ready.