XXXIV

Bella woke up to find herself cuddling a pillow that smelt of Luka, and the man himself nowhere to be seen. A tray of food was on the small desk near the couches and she didn't miss the sunflower in a tiny slim vase along with it. The very image brought a smile to her lips and she found herself stretching out her muscles as a cat would on the vast bed. Letting out a content sigh, she got out of bed, ignoring the slight pinch between her legs as she padded towards the bathroom.

After doing her business, which had stung for a second, she made to wash her face and tied her hair into a messy bun. Not caring to change out of her nightwear just yet, she sat on the couch simply to enjoy her breakfast. When she saw beacon on the plate, she wondered if whether they had forgotten about her abstinence from meat. However, she thought she might as well give it a try, surely she couldn't live the rest of her life without the delicious fatty crunch. Besides, she thought if she turned vegetarian and fully so, then she would be letting them win, and that was a notion she didn't like.

Therefore, she took a strip of beacon and with the salty tease on her tongue, she took a bite. She found that thankfully, no memory assaulted her mind although she still remembered, she could push it aside, for she would never forget, nor forgive. She cleaned out her plate and when she saw the time on the clock, she just about groaned for she had missed her morning workoutroutine, the clock read 9 am. It was official, she had slept in.

Hoping to find the gym empty, she changed into her training gear, the clothing white save for her black trainers. She took the tray and walked towards the kitchen, an aim to not look like a lazy pampered kitten. She found it empty and wondered just where Greta could possibly be, with a shrug, she rinsed the plates off and shoved them into the dishwasher then 

left for the gym.

She was glad to find it empty, taking in the silence, she began with meditation, simply to ground herself. With thirty minutes gone and her focus fully honed in, she began her work out, enjoying the burn unlike the first time she had stepped foot into the gym, her body complied with everything she pushed herself to do.

It was when she was just about to leave the room, hours later that she heard an angry voice booming through the halls. Still not acquainted with the few men that occupied the mansion, she disregarded that, as she walked towards the commotion only to find a crowd of men before the wide stairs. Her gaze landed on Luka's uncle, who simply smirked her way, something she didn't like glittered in his eyes, and her heart just about took a plummet.

She walked toward the crowd only to push through the men, and then there he was, unmoving, on a stretcher, scratches on his face his shirt bloody, his skin a sickening pale shade, she swallowed back a sob as her palm fell above her mouth. She felt frozen as she watched him, her eyes blurred and she tried to walk towards the immobile Luka, only to be startled to a halt

"No! You stay away from him. It was you wasn't it!?" Mark snarled in her face as he stood in front of her cutting her view from her heart. Mark's words registered to her then and her brows furrowed in confusion as she asked

"W-What do you mean?" Mark however, seemed enraged and by reflect back handed her to the ground. Bella felt her cheek sting and she blinked the pain away. A hand on her cheek, she looked at the young man in surprise, who seemed surprised himself. Only for it to morph back to anger.

"You stay the fuck away from my brother. In fact, I want you gone. And thank your stars because the reason I don't have you caged in the basement is only because of my brother's affections for you." He spat the venom in her face "Leave!" he bellowed. She couldn't help but shrink back, for his attitude paired with those haunting eyes sparked a sense of fear inside her. The look on Luka's uncle woke her up then, and she steeled her herself and rose up.

Fine, you win this time. She said in her mind, casting both the uncle and nephew one last glance, with Mark making it impossible for her to look at Luka, she turned and walked upstairs to retrieve her things. She paid little mind to the rage on the other men's faces when she descended, in black skinny jeans, Luka's shirt beneath his yellow sweater, she held nothing but a phone in hand with a few notes of cash in her pockets.

She would leave as they wished. She couldn't help but give Mark one chilling meaningful look before she left, barely glancing at the uncle for he wasn't worth her attention. They all watched her leave and wondered just what wrath they would face for watching her leave rather than stopping her, when Luka woke up.

He had gone mad when she had disappeared the first time after all, they feared they would soon be dead, however, they thought, surely he would understand why they did it, for she was nothing but bad news, at least that was what they were made to believe. By the man that stood and watched on with a satisfied slight smile as he thought, And so it begins.

Bella walked the expanse of the cobalt stone ground until she reached the Genovese estate gates. With one last glance at the beauty that was the structure, she walked out only to walk for miles before she reached a gas station. From there she called for a cab service that only arrived ten minutes later. She bottled up all her emotions in a bottle and shoved a cork in it, she couldn't be at their mercy just yet, for it wasn't the right time to cry her eyes out.

The cab dropped her off in an upstate part of the city and she walked through the bank's doors and headed straight for someone she hadn't seen in a long time. The aged woman simply shot her a smile and a greeting before she motioned for Bella to follow her. They walked down an empty corridor and into a vault that had lines upon lines of small lockers. The woman gave her a key and left her alone.

With memory of where her number was, it took a second to find it and she unlocked it and pulled the rectangular steel block and placed in on the small table between the four walls. Inside it she found her actual documents, from her real name for she wasn't aiming to hide, not this time and never again. She took her ID, passport and cards. She wished then that she could have kept the picture, letter and necklace in it, for perhaps that way she would still have those precious items she had had taken from her.

With the thought of the necklace, her hand subconsciously fell to her neck, her, the gold sunflower hung as a reminder that not all she cared for was lost. Luka had gotten it for her, having seen her unconscious actions when she would reach for her neck only to find nothing dangling from it, he would see the pained expression she would make then, and he thought perhaps he could remedy that by getting her the neckpiece.

Fiddling with it for but a second, she returned the box back into the wall and made to leave. She didn't have to pick at random this time, just where she would go, for she knew exactly which place she would head to. It may have seemed ironic and a terrible idea to pick Italy, however it made sense to her. She had just walked out of the glass doors of the bank when she felt the eyes on her.

As she turned to walk on the sidewalk, it was obvious who was after her when they didn't bother to veil their pursuit of her. However, she knew it was daylight, surely they wouldn't try anything when people milled about. But, she still clenched the pocket knife she had in the hoodie's pocket as she unfurled it. It was when she blended in the crowd on the crossroad that she felt a hand grab her arm unarmed arm.

She didn't waste a second before she turned around and her knife was shoved deep into his gut and she was quick to pull it out, only to turn and keep walking as if nothing had happened. A task made easy by the large amount of people that were crossing the road, all too occupied with their lives to witness her actions. She aimed to slow him down rather than kill him, for that would have made his death too obvious, a dead lump in the middle of the road, definitely not a good idea.

As she carried on, she felt it then, a hardness on her back, she knew she was being poked with a gun, and she shivered and not in a good way when warm breath caressed her ear and the voice gruffed out

"Keep walking, else you and the people around you will get it" he threatened.

She complied until the man steered her into the darkly lit parking lot of a tall company building. With it unoccupied by security at the entrance, it made it easy for the man to steer her away from the crowd and into isolation. She could tell that it wasn't just the man alone and minute they were alone, she turned too quick for the man and made to grab his arm.

Slamming it over her knee to make him drop the gun, with her elbow, she aimed for his nose, making the man stumble back with a groan of pain from his broken nose, officially letting her go. It was when she aimed the gun at him that another voice said

"Drop it" she turned and three more men aimed their guns at her. Before they could blink, she shot the man she had just attacked, and turned to the other three

"I reckon whoever your boss is, wants me more alive than dead" she said guessing , her head cocked to the side in curiosity. She wondered who they belonged to, the Genovese or the Torres. She found it didn't matter.

"Doesn't mean we can't hurt you" said one of the men and she nodded

"Yea, figures. But once you hurt me, you're dead, and well, should you kill me, you're still dead. Quite the odds you've got there, boys" she said unshaken, and the men found themselves wondering why she wasn't scared first and foremost, and why their boss hadn't told them that it wasn't just a defenceless girl they were after. All their attention shifted then, when a chuckle broke through

"You are just a trouble magnet aren't you? What, Luka tired of you or something?" Deacon questioned then, as he saw the Genovese men pointing guns at her. His own men had their own weapons drawn minute their guns aimed at them. Bella's right eye twitched as merely stared at Deacon then, a certain rage blooming in her heart as she aimed the gun straight at him and the young man all but chuckled raising his hands

"Whoa there, care to point that thing elsewhere? it is a dangerous weapon in your hands after all" shooting a glance to the already dead body behind her.

"Stay out of this Torres, the girl is ours" said one of the Genovese men, and without shifting his gaze from Bella, he said

"Except, she was mine first"

"We had a deal" the man said, and Bella wondered then, just what deal they were talking about, and why would the Genovese be making deals with the Torres to begin with.

"Deals change" Deacon said finally turning his head to look at the man. It was when shots rang out and bodies started falling that Bella snapped into action, and before they could aim for her, she had rolled to the ground and gotten hold of another gun, and so the downpour began. She had been the best in her field for a reason after all, hence she stood, a gun to Torres' temple, dead bodies around them

"For someone who knows who I am, you sure have a knack of 

underestimating me" she said, her tone chilled as ice as she looked into his emeralds. Deacon couldn't deny that he was impressed, but he was also glaringly aware of the gun aimed at him.

She walked backwards her eyes still on the man as she made for the exit. However, before she could escape, hands enclosed around her arms in attempt to disarm her, though the hold was tight, she shoved the heel of her foot against his knee officially dislocating it, causing the man to let her go and fall to the ground with a painful groan.

When Deacon withdrew his own gun, she shot his thigh from the distance she stood and shot the distracted man behind her, along with two more that appeared a second later, and made a run for it before she could be shot as Deacon pulled the trigger, cursing at the pain in his thigh. Minute she touched the sidewalk, guns discarded by the corner of the entrance of the parking lot, she hailed a cab.