A Dangerous Woman

Chapter 19

Blaise Taylor

My curtains were wide open, allowing the bright Italy sun to beam into my room. The heat sizzled against my pale skin, in a sensation I was not used to, being British.

I had awoken in my bed, despite having fallen asleep on the chair outside, listening to Aidan.

I assumed I hadn't magically floated into bed which meant Aidan must have carried me. The gesture was sweet but I could not comprehend his intentions behind his actions.

However, what I could understand, was the fact that my anger and frustration toward Aidan had annoyingly lessened. I was unable to remain in a constant state of hatred, not only was it exhausting but as I was getting to know Aidan, I was beginning to see him as a person rather than the monster that I built him up to be, in my mind.

I didn't know how to feel, it was all so incredibly confusing.

As I felt myself spiralling into a darker mindset, my stomach loudly grumbled in an invite to eat.

I decided to explore the house on a trek to find the kitchen, after having changed from the clothes I slept in last night. I looked through my small suitcase, compacted with clothes and opted to wear an oversized, irritatingly bright orange jumper paired with black leggings, the clothes were comfortable and that was all I cared for.

My feet were bare and upon touching the frozen wooden flooring made my whole-body shiver, so I ensured the journey in finding the kitchen was short.

The halls echoed with the pattering of my feet as I turned corner after corner until I found myself entering a large room with stretched banquet table in the middle, covered in a large variety of food.

An intimidatingly expensive chandelier that hung from the ceiling came into view as I stepped further into the room that I currently thought to be the dining room.

There was a single door on the opposite side of the room and as I had spotted it, Antonio came gracefully through it. Despite the time reflecting the early hours of the morning, Antonio was already dressed in a smart black suit that had a deep red dress shirt underneath.

I remained silent as I watched him glide through the room and place himself down as the head of the table.

I stayed frozen on the spot while Antonio began to eat, it seemed as though he had not noticed me and I justified stupidly staying still by thinking it meant he would continue not noticing me.

"Are you just going to stand there, watching me eat?"

Antonio voice seemed genuinely puzzled by my actions rather than angered, so I quickly took a seat before his confusion turned to anger.

As I started to spoon the fresh fruit salad onto my plate, Antonio's voice filled the room, "I could never get Aidan to eat his fruit, he always said he was allergic but it doesn't take a genius to know that's a lie."

I choked upon the watermelon I scooped into my mouth as I laughed under my breath. reeling from shock that one of the scariest men in the world was attempting to make me laugh.

He noticed strained laughter that came alongside the shock and spoke once again, "I've been made aware that you are very opposed to the deal that I made with your Father. I know the way of Mafia alliance though marriage is very outdated, but they work and why fix what isn't broken. Plus Aidan isn't completely terrible, once you get to know him."

I gave a straight smile back in response, knowing if I spoke it would get me in trouble.

Antonio went to speak again as he noticed my hesitation, but was interrupted by the entrance of Aidan in the room.

I stopped myself from drooling as I stared at Aidan. His hair was messy from sleeping, he was topless and he had baggy pyjama bottoms, that were barely hanging onto his low waist.

His muscular chest was on full display and I had to force myself to look away. Yet Aidan had not noticed and blissfully sat on a chair, pouring himself a bowl of cereal.

Antonio smile grew as he addressed his son, "Right on time Aidan, I was just about to tell Blaise your plans for the day."

Aidan's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"You are going to take Blaise out onto the streets of Italy to show her around. It will be a little bonding date for the two of you!"

Just as I was about to object, Aidan beat me to it with a simple reply filled with disgust, "I'd rather not."

Antonio's smile was instantly wiped off his face and replaced with an emotionless glare, "Non ti stavo dando un'opzione, ragazzo, lo farai e ti ricorderai con chi sai parlando con un idiota!"

{I was not giving you an option boy, you will do this and you will remember who you are speaking to, idiot.}

I bit my lip to stop a grin from appearing, while Aidan just nodded his head in obedience to his father.

Antonio then stood from his chair while adjusting the cuff of his suit jacket. The room fell silent as he commanded it, without saying another word he then swiftly left.

Aidan turned to me, the instant that Antonio left, "I guess we're sightseeing today."

I got up from the table and walked away, replying as I exited, "I guess so."

I changed into a red sundress and floated down the stairs as Aidan impatiently huffed at the front door, waiting for me.

As I walked up to him, his eyes trailed my body up and down. in an approving manner and I simply stuck my middle finger up in response.

This started out journey off into Italy.

Surprisingly, Aidan growing up in Italy had its perks, as instead of visiting the main tourist attractions, we ended up visiting the hidden gems of the country.

The day had been nice but in a sadistic way, I would have preferred torturing someone more. I was not a sightseeing, be out in the sun, take pictures of everything, type of person.

Our final stop of the day was a cosy restaurant that had a breath-taking view of the rustic streets that were filled with people working and shopping. Aidan was familiar with everyone who worked there and watching him interact with them was a wonder in itself.

After having finished both of our meals, I watched him thank the chef. The action was simple but a quick wave of nausea came over me followed rapidly by a panic.

My feelings of hatred towards Aidan were something I found myself really struggling to maintain, and it felt as if I was betraying my brother.

I stepped outside for a second to reduce the suffocating sensation I felt, but my attempt to catch a moment of peace was shattered, as the monstrous roar of gun fire screeched through the street.

I was thrown to the floor as Aidan pulled me down in time for the bullets to miss me. The adrenaline started rushing through my body as a familiar and welcome feeling started to cloud my brain. The rush of a mission and the thrill of the chase. I began to smile and I noticed Aidan doing the same.

As we both protected ourselves from behind a car, 11 guys poured out of two black vans that had appeared suddenly. The shots that narrowly missed me had come from a sniper, located on the roof of the large building facing the restaurant.

My grin grew as the situation became more dire.

This was what I was missing, this was what I needed.

I turned to Aidan, "£10 pounds says that I kill more people than you."

He smirked, "Make it £100 and you're on."

I nodded but Aidan was already to his feet, he knocked a guy out and I immediately started to help him drag the guy to a lamppost. We both knew we needed at least one guy alive to be able to find out who these men were and why they were trying to kill us.

I hiked up the dress I was wearing, to reveal the thigh holster holding my favourite knife. I slide the knife out and looked up to find Aidan staring at me.

"Well that's one of the hottest things I've ever seen."

I didn't dignify his words with a reply and instead rolled my eyes.

Suddenly, a man started to charge towards me and I quickly threw the knife into his chest, instantly killing him.

I looked to my right to see Aidan stood over a man having snapped his neck. As he looked up to find me, I instinctively stuck my middle finger out at him.

I rushed towards two other guys, meeting them halfway in their sprint towards me. I dodged a punch thrown by the slightly bigger guy and proceeded to throw one at the smaller guy.

I swiftly turned just in time to deliver a kick to the bigger guy's chest, sending him backwards and on to his ass.

The small guy caught me in the face as I turned back to face him, but his punch was incredibly weak causing me to let out an involuntary laugh. This caught him off guard so I threw a few punches at his stomach and spotted the gun in his holster. I yanked the gun out and shot him point blank between the eyes, causing blood the splatter across my face. I smiled.

I ducked the oncoming punch from behind me as the larger guy had finally made it back to his feet but obviously had not seen the gun, now in my hand. I turned around and shot the guy in the leg, hitting an artery and causing him to slowly bleed to death. The method was not efficient but it was cool to watch.

I suddenly get grabbed from behind as another guy appeared in front of me and began punching my stomach.

I headbutted the guy holding me and he let go of me while stepping back slightly, I brought my elbow up into his nose breaking it with a satisfying crunch.

While he recoiled, I kicked the guy that had punched me in the stomach, causing him to fall backwards. I then rapidly threw punches at his face, in a comical style.

The guy that was holding me, had now caught back up so I wrapped one leg around the side of his neck and pulled my leg down causing him to be pulled down along with it. I then kicked his head several time, killing him.

As I saw him take his last breath, I felt a pain spread through my shoulder, followed by the gushing of blood. I turned to see the guy I had been rapidly punching, holding a gun. Motherfucker had shot me in the shoulder.

I sprinted to get to the guy that I had just killed, narrowly avoiding being shot again. I used the guy as a shield and then took the dead man's gun, however by the time I looked up to shoot the man shooting at me, Aidan had killed him.

"Hmm, I was told you were good." He teased.

I raised my stolen gun at him, much to his horror and shot a bullet inches away from his face without blinking. A guy had attempted to surprise Aidan from behind and I had just saved him much to Aidan's shock.

When I had shot the gun, Aidan didn't even flinch I don't think I have ever been more turned on.

I looked around, to see three others dead by Aidan and realised, we were drawing.

I needed to kill the sniper to win the £100.  But Aidan was already rushing towards him, we both sprinted to the building the sniper was on. We clambered up the stairs, once we reached the building. Aidan pushed me into the wall while grinning at me but I grabbed his foot causing him to trip up.

We both reached the roof at the same time to see the sniper ditching his gun and holding handguns, pointed at us. We found cover and while crouched down out of the sniper's view, Aidan aggressively whispered at me, "I think you've been shot."

I smiled, "Yeah but at least I wasn't stabbed, being stabbed is for losers."

He laughed which turned into a slight cough, "This has turned out to be quite a day, I was starting to get pretty bored you know, this is just what I needed."

I laughed back, "Weirdly, I was thinking the same."

He grinned back, "Yanno, the whole blood splatter psycho effect really works for you."

I twirled my hair, "So I've been told, I was thinking of making it a permanent look." My tone was thick with sarcasm.

We both laughed together.

The shooting suddenly stopped causing us both to look at the sniper but what we realised while we were distracted, the sniper was on the run across the roof.

We sprinted after him. The sniper then leaped across the gap to next building over and I flipped over it, following closely behind.

Aidan screamed after me, "Show off!"

I was right behind the sniper and as I was almost touching him but he jumped off the roof and landed on the ground below with a roll. I leaped after him but Aidan had already got to him as he took the ground approach.

I watched as Aidan snapped his neck. My face dropped immediately.

I had lost.

Aidan walked over, taunting his win but the sniper slightly moved his hand. He was still alive, Aidan's eyes widen as he realised, but I was faster. I got to the sniper and used the sniper's own knife to quickly finish him off.

"What's that sorry? I won? Hell yeah I did!"

Aidan smiled back as I sashayed away, back to the guy we tied up.