My father finally releases me from his protective hold and I whisper to him that everything will be ok. He pats my shoulder before stepping back to give me space to walk around the desk.

I slowly walk over to the three men and Riccardo smiles down at me. Lorenzo only smirks at his brother who isn't even looking at me, he is looking at his phone.

If I stick to my plan then I'll be back to my father in a week, or even less.

I can tell that Vincenzo wants someone who is going to listen to him without question so I'm going to be the exact opposite of that.

He will grow tired of my attitude and eventually decide that I'm not what he's looking for.

"We'll be leaving now," Vincenzo says while turning around. "Let's go bellezza nera," he says while waving his hand in the air.

"Bye dad, I'll come see you at the end of he week," I say while waving to my father with a small smile. He nods and gently smiles at me.

I can see the pain in his eyes. I know it hurts him that I'm gambling with my life like this, but I'm not going to let these men burn everything he worked for just because I was being selfish.

I know he's against this entire idea, I would to if my daughter did something as crazy as this, but he isn't losing his life's work because of me.

"We can use the private elevator," I say while walking to the elevator, not really caring if they heard me or not.

I place my hand on the palm scanner and the silver doors open when the scanner turns green. I step inside and the men look at me for a short moment before gently shaking their heads with smirks.

They walk to the elevator and step inside, the space becoming smaller due to their large bodies. "Don't forget about Cameron," Riccardo laughs while standing behind me.

He knows his name?

Lorenzo also stands behind me while his older brother stands right next to me. I wave at my father for he last time for now and he does the same as the elevator doors close. The elevator shakes a bit as it descends.

I pout and clasp my hands together in front of my body as I wait to get out of this claustrophobic situation. "Do you go to school?" Lorenzo asks from behind me and I shake my head.

The man next to me let's out a heavy groan and my eyes snap up to him. "Use your words when you are with us," Vincenzo says in a low tone without looking at me.

This man is already telling me what to do, I'm beginning to like him less.

"No, I graduated a while ago," I answer verbally with a bit of venom in m tone and Vincenzo nods, ignoring my venomous tone.

"Where did you study?" Riccardo asks from behind me and I try to not roll my eyes.

I don't want them to know anything about me but they clearly want to know the little details of my life.

"Massachusetts Institute Of Technology," I answer and he hums in response.

"She's a nerd," Lorenzo laughs and I stop fighting the urge to roll my eyes and I roll my eyes.

Vincenzo groans again, probably hating the fact that I just did that.

Typical possessive man behaviour.

Might also be because he is Italian.

Are all Italian men like this?

I think so.

Damn.

Damn, indeed.

The elevator dings and the silver doors slide open. I quickly step out of the elevator, taking in as much oxygen as I can in that moment. They follow behind me as I walk away from the elevator.

Vincenzo stays still quite close to my side, his silky suit rubbing against my exposed arm. "You are too close to me," I groan while stepping to the side. He glares down at me but keeps the distance between us.

I walk past Carol without looking up at her because I don't want to talk to her right now. "Black slut," she murmurs when she notices the three men behind me.

I stop walking and turn back tell her off for being racist and disrespectful. As I turn, my eyes widen when I see her jump up from her chair.

She tries to run but Lorenzo grabs the back of her shirt and yanks her closer to his body. He pushes her forward so she falls onto her knees in front of Vincenzo.

Riccardo and Lorenzo stand behind her knelt figure, staring at her with cold looks. Her eyes meet mine for a short moment, fear coating her plain blue eyes, before she looks back up at Vincenzo.

"What was that?" He asks while leaning forward to get closer to her face. He examines her face while she closes her eyes out of fear. He grabs her chin causing her to whimper.

She gives him no answer to his question and this makes him to sigh. He pushes her head to the side and she almost screams but contains it.

His hand goes into his coat and my eyes widen because I know what he is doing. "What did you say?" He grits through clenched teeth. She doesn't say anything and he smirks while pulling his gun out from his side.

Her eyes widen and tears form in her bland blue eyes. "What did you call her?" He asks while cocking the gun. He looks down at the barrel before grinning at Carol.

The employees around us stop doing whatever they are doing to watch this little show Vincenzo is putting on for them.

Carol tries to speak but the pained sobs escaping her lips choke her. She coughs a few times and shakes her head.

"Don't kill me," she manages to get out while choking on her sobs. "Please," she pleads for her life and I feel bad for some reason. She has crossed the line on multiple occasions but killing her has never been an option.

"You are not answering my question," Vincenzo grumbles while pressing his gun against her temple. "What did you call her?"

She cries harder and louder, and to be honest, I don't want to see her like this. He's being so dramatic about such a small thing.

I sigh as I walk closer to him. I stand behind his large frame and put my hand on his back. He looks down at me from the corner of his eye and I smile up at him. "Vincenzo, calm down," I say while stepping around his frame.

I place my hand on the gun and try to pull it back but his arm doesn't budge. "Calm down," I say more sternly while looking up at him. "It's ok." I pull on his hand instead and he let's me take the gun from his hand.

"Thank you," Carol whispers while getting up. "I'm sorry for saying that." I nod, accepting her apology, and she quickly walks down the hallway towards the bathrooms.

I look at the gun for a second before emptying it. Six bullet casings fall to the floor between our feet, the metal casings clinking against the white tiles.

"That was unnecessary," I say while handing his empty gun back to him.

"You just emptied my gun," he says, sounding completely dumbfounded by this.

I ignore him and turn around, the eyes of the employees on Vincenzo and I. I quikcly walk to the doors with the three men follows mg me. The employees start to whisper about me and what Vincenzo just did and I roll my eyes.

A bunch of gossip mongers.

I push the doors open and step down the few stairs in front of the building. I see the Jeep from last night parked on the side of the sidewalk and smile as I walk closer to it.

The lights of the car blink a few times and I take that as one of them unlocking the car for me. I pull the back door open and hop inside of the car.

Vincenzo slides in next to me a second later and closes the door while his brother and Riccardo climb into the car in the front seats.

"You hungry?" Riccardo asks as he starts the engine and I shake my head.

"What did I say about using your words?" Vincenzo grits.

"Cut her some slack," Lorenzo retorts from the passenger seat. "Do you want to get something to eat?"

"No, I just went out for lunch with Cameron. Thanks for the offer though," I say and the two men in the front nod.

I pull my phone out of my pocket and unlock it. I scroll through random things, not really having anything to do on it. I don't have friends, I was apparently too weird and smart to have friends back in high school.

When I got to MIT I was treated like a child by the older students. I kept to myself most of the time and worked harder to graduate before anyone else in my class could.

"How old are you?" Riccardo asks and Lorenzo smacks his arms. "Why did you do that?" He whines while glaring at the brown eyed man.

"You don't ask a woman her age," he laughs while shaking his head.

I laugh at how stupid they are being and put my phone away. "I'm nineteen." The car suddenly jumps forward and I almost slam into the seat in front of me.

"Sorry," Riccardo quickly apologises. He clears his throat and looks at me through the rearview mirror.

"If you are nineteen then when you did you go to MIT?"

"When I was sixteen," I answer with a shrug.

"That's impressive," Lorenzo praises and I thank him with a shy smile.

"How old are you guys?"

"I'm twenty seven," Lorenzo is first to answer and I nod. I didn't think he would be so much older than me. And if he is twenty seven, then how old is his older brother?

"Twenty eight," Riccardo answers.

"I'm also twenty eight," Vincenzo says without looking at me.

"You are nine years older than me?" I squeak.

"She can also do maths," Riccardo laughs from the driver's seat.

Vincenzo doesn't look like he's twenty eight. He looks like he could be twenty one or a bit older. I don't even know why I'm worried about the age gap between us because I'm not staying with him for a long time.

Yet again, the age gap is concerning.

————

Who doesn't like a good age gap though? Like...