I was feeling on the verge of a panic attack, thinking of what exactly could happen if things turned out as Cole’s parents said. A vibrating noise in my pocket brought me back just before my chest got so heavy that I could no longer breathe.
Brax:
Tonight. My place.
That was all. No 9.55 PM timing so he could give me hell when I would be five minutes late. Justtonight. Whatever that meant.
The message managed to calm me down a little, instilling a crazy hope that we could do this.
Sure, it seemed impossible. Mad. Maybe even suicidal, with few chances of a favorable outcome, but I needed to try.
Time flew faster than I expected, and as we were returning home, I realized it would soon be evening. Maybe the stop at the gelateria, combined with the insatiable urge of having one scoop of everything had something to do with it.
The babysitter was already back by the time we arrived and after an early family dinner, I rushed to the bathroom to shower and change. No sweatshirt for the visit to Brax or I might never hear the end of it.
I chose an A-line black dress along with a pair of short heel stiletto boots.
Not entirely sure if I was early or already late, I passed the security guard at his front door and entered the house.
‘Brax!?’ I called with the strength of a whisper, looking around to see where he could be.
The voice of his maid answered back from somewhere in the living room ‘He’s upstairs, Signora.’
‘Thank you,’ I replied, already taking the stairs. I wasn’t sure why I was even in a rush, but it was as if I couldn’t find peace until I heard what he had to say.
The light in his bedroom was on, so I assumed he could only be there. And I was right, but if finding him in the room was predictable, what I found there, wasn’t. The tantalizing view of his back, rippling muscles peeking through his shirt as he was supporting his weight on the dresser,blinded me for a second, numbing all my senses. But as I recovered, I learned there was something else troubling me about him. He seemed to be a little out of balance and if at first I thought he had one extra glass, I realized that was not the case. My king of the underworld was struggling to close his shirt, masking a white bandage that ran from the line of his navel to somewhere on his ribcage where the shirt hid it.
‘Brax, what happened?’ I snuck in front of him to take a better look before he got a chance to cover up the wound.
A snarl roared out of him ‘Nothing, I’m fine.’.
‘You have a bandage over what I believe to be either a gun or a knife wound. You are notfine.’
‘I wasn’t aware you’re also a licensed doctor,’ he pushed me aside to try and set a little distance between us so he could finish closing up his shirt as if didn’t see already what was to be seen.
‘Buttoning the shirt won’t make it go away.Or me. What happened?’
‘You fucking happened. This is on you if you’re so curious as to how I got the wound.’
‘It’s from when you went to get them out, isn’t it?’
‘What do you think?’
‘Tell me what happened... Please.’
‘Holy shit, I’m not in the mood for this!’ he barked, walking towards his balcony.
‘I need to know... Please,’ I pleaded again. I had everything to thank him for as he brought back my family safe, but I also needed to know what happened withmy father.
I could tell he wasn’t in the mood for talking. He never was. But he wasn’t in the mood to listen to my nagging either, so I guess he decided to choose the easy way out. ‘Wanna know what happened? I let my dick think for my brain,’ his eyes rolled with annoyance. ‘I had my men carrying out surveillance on them for a few days, but they couldn’t tell clearly how many were in the building, so things got a little complicated when we entered. We got them in the end. Bunch of drug addicts.’
‘And my father?’
‘He got away. He was the one who put a bullet in my back. Fucking coward.’
‘But I saw you had the bandage on your chest!?’ I was confused.
‘That was the exit wound. At least the bullet got out of me. Anyway, long story short, my men are still looking for him, but there are few chances that he would turn up. Got the rest of his henchmen, though.’
