Chapter 250: Let's Take You Home
Chapter 250: Let's Take You Home
Camilla
There was so much fear in the dark gray of Adriano's irises, a sliver of desperation that urged me to listen to at least this. I was listening and for the first time in a long, I think we were talking. Like actually talking. I let my body sag completely in their holds as a feeling of understanding washed over me, not wanting to give myself up to them but just wanting to feel a little bit of normalcy again.
The truth is that I was still angry, I was furious at them for the handcuffs and every single other lie they have told me since knowing them but my emotions weren't all being directed at the right place. I was angry at my father from taking me away all those months ago when I wasn't ready to say goodbye. I was angry at myself for everything I both did and didn't do in my time at The Safe and…oh my goodness, Louise.
They sit all around me and don't know that their mother has been alive all this time, they went another year of grieving and I wasn't by their side like I promise. Between making sure Harper was alive and dealing with my own shit, I completely and selfishly forgot about everything else that I didn't know how to explain. Having Adriano look at me in the way he was now, like he wanted to devour me and never let me go again.
"Adriano, there is something I have to tell you." I said, my voice turning shaky as his dark eyes fell upon my lips again with conflict.
I could tell he didn't sense the severity in my voice just based on the way his gaze flicked back up to mine, looking at me with the intensity I was once so familiar with.
"Let me take you home." He said instead, his grip in my hair slowly loosening as though he knew he had put me in such a powerful daze that I would need it.
"Don't say anything now, just let us drive you back for the night and remember things like this, just for a little while."
It hurts to know the truth of something so powerful and it was obvious Adriano didn't realize just how heavy what I had to tell them was. How could they? This news would change their lives and it was awful because I could tell the weight on his shoulders now was already unbreathable for him. My mind was a mess as I tried to formulate the words on my tongue, angry at him but still feeling for him about this.
When two hands suddenly grabbed my waist, my attention wavered as I was softly brought up to my feet by Adriano, my hands moving to hold onto his large arms for balance. I was frozen as I looked into his eyes, needing to tell him everything and nothing all at once but when he leaned into my face, I couldn't talk as his lips brushed feather light against my flushed cheek.
"Tomorrow," he whispered against my warm skin, the single word echoing as I listened to it again and again.
Tomorrow? I couldn't help but feel like things were about to change and for some reason, I am happy to know that.
*******
Domenico POV.
We had her, it was only for the smallest amount of time but for a few minutes we had gained that sliver of our girl back. Inhaling a deep breath of smoke, I remembered the way her hair felt against the pads of my fingertips, exhaling and remembering the pretty way her blue eyes looked up at me while she was on the floor.
Camilla was everything and while there was a new kind of defiance born within her mind, I watched it, I wanted it all. The truth is that I had misread her when we first saw her again, something that very rarely happens with me and something I won't allow to happen again. Every bit of the fight within her today were merely heightened aspects of who she was before Lucas and his rats stole her away from us.
She has always tried to hide her trauma from the world but the barriers in place now are only thicker because of the heavy denial that has been shoving her down for so many months. The second I found her broken on the cold floor of her childhood home, sobbing because she didn't understand why her mother didn't love her, any bit of goodness she wanted to hold onto about that woman dissolved. I knew that she was covered in the thorns that have accumulated over time but whether she liked it or not, she wasn't alone anymore.
Tonight, we had plucked out a few of them straight from the source because when our beautiful girl spoke to us tonight, it felt like she had the power to make the stars themselves fall from the sky. I don't care how many times it takes to put back together the pieces of her that have fractured because I will give her everything she needs to heal.
This fight between us is part of it, tonight confirmed that. Leaning against the cold railing of my balcony, my breaths fogging up around me in combination with the swirl of smoke curling in the air, I watch the alive city of Kumon before me. It was dark outside but I could see everything clearly.
My girl was out there somewhere in the sea of crowds and there wasn't a single doubt in my mind that I would see her again. For better or for worse, Camilla is mine as I am here. She just didn't know it yet.
*****
Camilla Pov.
I stumbled back into the small studio apartments I have become acquainted with these last few days, clutching onto my stomach where I would no doubt bruise within the hour. My steps dragged along with my body as I slammed the door closed behind me, a scream bubbling in my throat as the lights turned on suddenly, an action not caused by my own hand
"What took you long enough?" Jacob raised an eyebrow at me as he sat there comfortably on my couch, just lounging back as though he were counting the minutes it took for me to screw up.
"Shut the fuck up!" I grumbled, unzipping the heavy coat I was wearing before chucking it at his face, little bits of snow flying off the material and hitting him before he pulled the jacket down. He was smiling, forcing an eye roll from my exhausted body.
Fate seemed to have it that I was no longer unemployed and the work my father had given me at my request was anything but what Adriano, Domenico and Gregorio wanted. It was perfect and even with the ache in my bones rolling and spreading through me, the adrenaline high of the job and the act of defying them was so worth it.
"You try fighting off a professional trained assassin and see how well you manage." I pant, shuffling my feet over to the incredibly small bathroom in this place.
The fact that it even has a shower with a closed wall around it was something to celebrate, though.
"It was a woman too, which means she would probably kick your ass within seconds." I smile as I slide the door closed behind me, hearing a grumble of inaudible words on the other side.
Yes, it turns out what I am doing is a bit more dangerous than cleaning glasses at a nightclub but really, what did they expect me to do? It has only been a handful of hours since I last saw the men that broke my heart over a year ago, however the good note we left on yesterday couldn't last forever. We all knew that so I just figured I had sped up the process a little.
Taking shifts every once and a while being some old man's bodyguard seemed like a pretty good way to do it. I didn't know his real name, he didn't know mine either. All that I knew was that the seventy year old was being targeted by someone higher up either here in the city or from his hometown down east. Whoever it was clearly wasn't that good though considering the people who were sent didn't come close to touching him on my watch.
Sure, I might have a few bruised ribs now because the woman had managed to get a good kick in but I was also five thousand richer after only three hours of work. I would say it is worth it. Humming quietly to myself as I stripped off my clothes and let them fall to the small box of floor space I had, I turned on my shower as I brushed out the knots of my once braided hair. When the steam got hot enough to fog up the air, I pulled back the thin curtain and stepped inside. Instantly sighing at the feeling of the heat against my sore body.
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