Chapter 174: As Your Bodyguards
Chapter 174: As Your Bodyguards
Camilla
I don't know how I got to this point but as my feet dragged across the crunch of fallen leaves, I set out to unlock yet another old memory. I have been walking for the last thirty minutes into the forest my mother's house back onto, encased in silence and my own thoughts as I approached an old barn-like structure that was even more damaged than I remember it to be.
The place I trained while growing up had wooden boards coated in peeling green paints, one that hung in awkward angles just like when my father and I found it years ago. Snow made things difficult in the winter but the holes made every other season useful, acting as a light source no matter the time of the day. I was trained in all kinds of different conditions as a child but I remember spending endless hours of the nights with my feet light as they shuffled against the dirt ground of the barn, dodging strikes just to pivot and return them.
I feel as though this is the only part of my life here I would miss but I think getting to see it one last time makes things easier to leave behind. Sometimes you need to say goodbye to an old chapter to begin the sequel and knowing who was waiting for me back home brought excitement over the sadness. Everyday since I came to this place, I have been thinking about date ideas for the four of us and how I should tell them the way I feel.
On multiple occasions, I have caught myself going over the words in my head, planning out the perfect way to string together those four letters that I can only hope they return. I feel like I know them better than I do myself most of the time and it is a little comforting in the sense that it makes me feel safe. I noticed the way Gregorio sometimes holds my hand just so he can run his thumb in small strokes against my skin or how he will play with hair when he is bored. Half of the time, I am sure he doesn't even know that he was doing that.
Then of course, Adriano who shows his emotions so clearly in his eyes. I can feel them holding me even when I am across the room. Though, I am sure he would deny it, I didn't miss the small glance he always steals when I am around, watching me even when I am not doing anything interesting. I used to take his silence for hostility but it turns out it is simply the only way he knows how to portray things. Something I have grown to love about him.
On the other hand, however, Domenico used his words for almost everything. His quiet whispers in my ears were continuous when I was with him, always telling me how beautiful I looked or how good I was doing. Yes, a lot of those were similar to things he said to me in the bedroom, but he praises me for everything else too. His gentle words or encouragement were something I never knew I needed until we became so much more. I planned to tell him, to tell all of them just just how much these little things meant to me, that is when I left this place and went back to them.
Taking my first step into the barn, the first sight I noticed was that most of the space around me was covered in dusty black clothes to conceal whatever objects lined the interior. My father and I used to hide a lot of things out here considering nobody really knows about it. I would take my first partner, Joe while still hidden behind one of the looser wooden slabs of the wall. I had a lot of secrets hidden within the corner of this place and the reason I was here was because I suspected I wasn't the only one. My father can hide better than anyone I know but everyone has a trail no matter how faint it may be.
With my non-existent host still gone, it left a lot of time for me to get in my head and go over every last detail of my father's disappearance, branching all the way back to when I was ten. I had racked my brain over and over again for any clues, anything I might have forgotten or missed that could hint to why he left but every time I thought about my father, I thought of this barn. Being back here may have been yet another attempt at gaining closure for me but that wasn't my only motive for this visit.
Taking a breath, I began scanning the area around me. For what exactly, I wasn't sure but walking around here was better than remaining cooped up for yet another day. I am giving my mother 24 hours and if she is still a no show after that, then I am leaving. I miss my men and Nancy, I miss my life in general.
I kept the thought of them close to me as u began digging through my past, an uneven breath leaving my lips. Starting with the covering over the odd shapes against the wall, I pulled until the dirty sheet came off to expose nothing more than old furniture. I debated the possibility somebody else found this place apart from my father, though crypticity always has been his strong suit.
Moving on from that, I then started looking at the walls, my fingertips dragging across the uneven wood before I stopped and looked behind me. I saw nothing more than forestry but I knew I was no longer alone.
"I get Domenico to like being a mother hen but is this really necessary?" I said, feeling the prickle of eyes at the back of my neck.
I have had two shadows following me around this entire week, ones I only noticed that night at the bar a few nights ago.
"Good eye." The girl I have learned to be as Avan said from behind me, causing me to spin around for a second time today.
I was surprised to find her twin right by her side. Working for what I now known as the Night Reapers, I learned they don't respond to the mafia but rather the three men who are destined to one day run it. They are personal to the triplets and akos known as the Bass's assassins.
"Don't you think your talents are being wasted on babysitting?" I raised an eyebrow, my eyes trailing other their all black clothing along with their long hair pulled into braids.
Even though they were just standing there, I knew they were fast and precise with every movement they took. All it would take is a blink of my eye and they would be able to disappear without a trace.
"We do what we were paid to do, nobody touches you except for them and they aren't here." She grins from my front, almost hoping someone tries to dare so she can lay them on their ass.
Although I like the idea of privacy, I have also liked the twins since I met them drunk when they drove me home from Slash's place. Not my finest moment but an interesting one nonetheless.
"Well, I know you are here, you don't need to hide yourself in the shadows unless you want to." I said and received two grins this time.
"If it helps, can you think of us as your bodyguards instead?" Avan winks, moving to my left.
"The angels will watch over you until it requires us to be otherwise."
They undoubtedly had the beauty and grace of angels but it was the fires of hell that flared within their eyes. I simply nodded in response when I saw they weren't going to slink back into the background, taking a step back to the wall to see if anything could have been hidden behind it. The twins silently moved themselves over to one of the couches, plopping down without me even realizing it.
"You should check these couches at some point." She pointed out as I continued my scan of the wooden boards, not even thinking something could be hidden under or within the seats of the furniture. To say I don't know what I was doing would be an understatement.
"Is that where you would hide something important?" I asked, still working along the walls with their eyes on me in mind.
There wasn't a single breath of mine they weren't aware of and that was both reassuring and unnerving all at once. With no response, my head turned to where they were sitting or rather where I thought they were. They couches now unoccupied, my heart nearly leapt from my chest when I turned back to find Avan leaning at my side and that easy smile of hers still on her face.
"If there is something I didn't want others to find, I would burn it." She said before her hand reaches and yanks on the board right beside my head.
I didn't even get the chance to move before the wood gave under the force, popping loose along with a lot of dust and crawly things that made me jump back in freight. I hate spiders almost as much as I hated this town.
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