The sun was already wide awake with a clear blue sky behind it. A low and cool breeze pushed over the land, but it wasn't enough to fight off the heat even though it was the early hours of the morning.

Knock

Knock

The sound of someone knocking on the window woke them up. Bruno stood outside waving his hand at Mirabella and Daniel with a mischievous smile on his face. "Wake up love birds," he said as he walked away from the car.

Daniel got out of the car to help with the tire, while Mirabella sat in the car quietly and waited.

"How did you like your five start hotel, cousin?" Bruno laughed, as they took off the flat tire and replaced it with a new one.

Daniel rolled his eyes. "I don't even know how we ended up here," he said.

"Maybe you got distracted," Bruno said slyly as he took the old tire to the back of the car.

"Maybe you need to shut up," Daniel said, checking the new tire and that it was placed on properly.

Bruno laughed as he walked to his cousin. "By the way," he began. "Your mother was asking for you." Daniel wanted the ground to swallow him whole. He threw his head back and sighed while Bruno laughed again.

••••

"Grazie, a Dio" Maria said, as she hugged her son.

(Thank, God)

They were standing in the courtyard of the villa, and Maria was giving both Mirabella and Daniel an earful. "You couldn't have called?" She asked them. "We didn't know if you were dead, or if something happened to you." She turned to Mirabella and shot her a cold glance. "You couldn't have waited one more hour?" She said. "What would you have done if something happened? It wouldn't have killed you to wait-"

"Okay," Daniel stepped in. "It happened. Let it pass now, Madre."

(Mother)

Maria opened her mouth to speak, but a maid came to the courtyard saying that Maria had someone on the phone who wanted to speak with her. Maria took one last look at Mirabella before she followed the maid to the phone.

Daniel watched as his mother disappeared around the corner. He shook his head and sighed before he turned to Mirabella to say something, but she beat him to it. "She hates me," she said. "I don't know why though. I haven't done anything, but she hates me."

"No," said Daniel. "She was just worried. She doesn't hate you."

Mirabella wanted to disagree and say that she was right and he was wrong. She shook her head and looked down at her hands before she turned around and walked away while Daniel stood still watching her as she walked out of the courtyard and to the staircase.

••••

It's a been a while, and Mirabella had just gotten out of the shower. She reached for the doorknob of the bathroom door. The steam from the hot water filled the bathroom like a cloud of smoke. She twisted the doorknob and pulled the door open inwards and bumped into something, or more like someone's chest. They held her close to their body, their arms were wrapped around her waist firmly.

"For the love of God, don't you knock?" she yelled.

Daniel didn't respond. He was lost for words. It was like he had forgotten how to speak, think and move. His arms were still on Mirabella's waist, holding her close to his chest. She was wearing nothing, but a white towel that was wrapped around her body and reached her mid-thigh. Her hair looked darker and shinny and even though her hair was wet, curls were beginning to form. Her blue eyes looked like they were the eyes of a porcelain doll, just sparkling as the light hit them. Her cheeks were tinted with a light shade of red, her sun-kissed skin looked almost fair and her lips were parted and looked soft.

His green eyes dropped down to where her breasts were hidden beneath the white towel and then moved back up until he was staring at her lips. Mirabella's blood rushed to her cheeks and her heart thudded in her chest as she looked up at him. She saw this slight flicker in his eyes and it was hunger. The way he looked at her was as though he was drinking the sight of her. His gaze was so intense that she found herself shivering, not out of fear, no. But she was nervous. Uncertain. Shy. The way he peered at her body, the way he seemed to peer into her soul unsettled her.

Their faces were inches apart, and she could feel his hot breath on her face. His lips were only a couple centimetres from hers. All she had to do was move forward. All he had to do was move forward.

Would he? Did she want him to? Yes? No? Maybe? She didn't know. All she knew was that everything was happening in slow motion and it was driving her insane. She wanted to run away. And yet she wanted to close the distance between them. She wanted to tell him to stop. And yet she wanted to hand him all the control. She wanted to disappear. And yet she wanted to be here.

She felt him tightening his grip on her waist and his jaw clenching, but she pushed on his chest slightly and he seemed to have snapped out of his trance. Daniel shook his head quickly, released her and took a step back. Mirabella grabbed the towel in her fist and clenched onto it tightly.

The tension in the room was too thick and strong and neither of them was clearing it. Until Daniel cleared his throat. "Sorry," he whispered under his breath before he turned around and out of the room, leaving her alone and confused.

••••

There was a thin layer of sweat on his forehead and he felt flushed as if he had a fever. But it wasn't a fever that had made him so restless all of a sudden. It was her, Mirabella who was in nothing but a towel with her wide, blue eyes looking up at him.

He walked down the staircase, his frantic heart was hell-bent on pumping all of his blood to the wrong place. He cursed himself for not knocking before entering the chamber.

He couldn't rid himself of that image. Mirabella's wet hair falling down her shoulders, water dripping down onto her almost fair skin and onto the towel. Her legs bare, her cheeks rosy, her lips pink and her chest heaving.

He had never wanted to kiss a woman more than he did now. He wanted to kiss those pretty lips of hers until they were swollen. He wanted to explore every inch of her body...he shook his head. These thoughts were not helping.

"Daniel," he heard Bruno call from down the corridor.

"Si?" He said as he approached his cousin.

(Yes)

"There is someone here to see you," Bruno said, stepping aside. Daniel looked at him with a confused expression on his face before he walked down the staircase and made his way to the garden.

A man stood outside with Diego and Alessio, who was watching the man suspiciously. They had never seen this man before, but he claimed that he knew Daniel. "Are you sure we should have let him in?" Alessio whispered to Diego.

"He says he knows Daniel," Diego said, his eyes not leaving the man for a second. "We'll just have to see if he's lying or not."

Just then, Daniel and Bruno walked out into the garden causing Alessio and Diego to look at them. The man followed their gaze and turned around. He smiled and slightly bowed once he saw Daniel. "Don Daniel," he greeted.

"Alberto, come stai? Come sta tuo padre?" Daniel asked as he shook the man's hand.

(Alberto, how are you? how's your father?)

Alberto was the son of the caretaker who took care of the villa when they were not there. When they were younger, and Daniel had come for the summer to stay at the villa, Alberto got into a fight with someone the boys one night. They beat him up, but before they could do any more damage to him Daniel jumped to his defence.

"Bene, bene," said Alberto. "Sta bene."

(Good, good. He's fine)

"E tua Madre?" asked Daniel.

(What about your mother?)

Suddenly, the smile on Alberto's face slowly disappeared at the mention of his mother. He seemed upset and like something was troubling him. Daniel frowned. "Cosa ti turba, amico mio?"

(What's troubling you, my friend?)

Alberto hesitated to speak, but he had come to see Daniel for a reason. "Mia sorella," he began. "Lei non vive qui con noi, come sai." Daniel nodded his head. "E ' uscita due sere fa con il suo ragazzo e lui voleva approfittarsi di lei. Lei ha resistito e lui l'ha picchiata con i suoi scagnozzi."

(My sister. She doesn't live here with us, as you know. She went out two nights ago with her boyfriend and he wanted to take advantage of her. She resisted so he beat her up with his henchmen.)

Daniel understood what Alberto was asking of him just by the way he spoke. If it was Ariana in the same situation he would have wanted that person's head on a silver platter. "Do you know his name?" Daniel asked.

••••

The pub was dimly lit with candles all over the place. A few were on the windowsills, but mostly they were on the black iron chandeliers which hung down from the ceiling. The smoke twisted in its artistic way, forming curls in the gloom and along the wall were every hue of amber liquids in their inverted bottles.

"And then he went up to him and BANG!"

"No way."

"If I'm lying then I won't make it to home tonight."

Bruno entered the pub and walked towards the bar table. "What are two clowns blabbering about?" He asked the who men; Pauli and Franco. The barista grabbed an empty glass and filled it with scotch before she placed it on the bar table in front of Bruno.

Bruno was sent back to the city to take care of something by Daniel so everything was cleared up come he arrived. He told Bruno to take Pauli and Franco with him on the job so if something went south he'd have a backup.

"I was tellin' Pauli 'bout that time in New York," said Franco.

"Out in the open," Bruno said under his breath as he looked around the pub suspiciously. Franco looked down at his hands, avoiding eye contact with Bruno.

Pauli looked at the two men before he rolled his eyes and threw his head back as a sigh escaped his lips. He turned to the barista, placed some money on the bar table and then turned back to Bruno. "Okay, okay! This ain't no tea party," Pauli said, cutting the tension. "We got work to do."

They stood under a bridge. The sound of cars driving was all they could hear. Franco stood outside, his back turned to the hood of the car while Pauli and Bruno sat in the two front seats with the doors wide open. Franco reached inside his blazer pocket and pulled out a cigar, Bruno held his phone in one hand just waiting for a text to let them know that their target was on his way and Pauli was doing tricks with his gun while whistling a tune.

The seconds turned into minutes, and the minutes turned into hours. "Who would've thought that boss would marry Mirabella?" Pauli said, suddenly. Bruno frowned as he turned to look at him. "I mean, no one knew they were dating," Pauli continued. "We all knew he had a thing going with Juliette and a few others, but never Mirabella."

Bruno wanted to grab the back of his neck and slam his head again the dashboard. None of the soldiers knew why Daniel married Mirabella, but only the people who were within Daniel's most trusted circle. Bruno opens his mouth to speak, but his phone went off, letting him know that he had just received a text message.

He's on his way.

The text read. He locked his phone and tucked it away inside his blazer pocket. Pauli stopped with the gun tricks and was alert to what was going on once he saw that Bruno got out of the car.

They stood patiently and waited. "We gotta off this guy?" Franco asked.

"No," Bruno said. "We're under orders, just beat him up real bad."

Pauli and Franco nodded at the plan, and that's when they heard someone talking on the phone in the distance.

They followed the voice to find a man dressed in a blue tracksuit with white straps and his sleeves rolled up talking to someone on the phone.

"Yeah, I just finished...no, I'm off work tomorrow...yeah, my boss gave me the day off..."

The man felt the sudden pressure of being watched. He felt as though he was targeted, so he quickly ended the phone call. "I'll see you tomorrow, James," he said, and then hang up. He tucked his phone in his pocket and hesitated to turn around. He was worried to see what was standing behind him.

And just then, Pauli and Franco grabbed him by the arms. The man gasped and fear danced on his face and in his eyes. "Don't make a sound," warned Bruno, and the man nodded. Bruno watched him for a moment before he looked at Pauli and Franco and motioned with his head for them to follow him.

They entered a graveyard, and the man tried to escape, but Pauli pointed his gun to his face. "Dance along," he said with a smile.

They stopped at a pit that had been dug for a grave and held the man down on his knees while he begged for his life to be spared and tried to wiggle himself out from their iron grips. "Well, well. Looks like there's nobody home in this one" said Franco.

"Nah," Pauli shook his head. "He's down there. Maybe he could use some company." They tossed the man in the pit and he fell on his knees and hands.

Pauli grabbed one of the two shovels and handed one to Franco before took the other one for himself. Bruno stood on the side, puffing his cigar with his bag against the tree.

"No. Please!" The man pleaded in a shaky tone. "I won't do it again."

"Oh, we know you ain't gonna do it again," said Bruno, as Pauli and Franco started to shovel some of the dirt in the pit. He pushed himself away from the tree and approached the man. He kneeled down and took one last puff from his cigar before he blew the smoke in the man's face and then held the cigar to the man's wrist, burning him. The man yelled in pain, his face became red and his eyes shut tightly. Bruno dropped the cigar and stood up straight.

"Jeez, you should have learnt to treat the dames a little nicer, with a little respect," said Pauli. "Now it's too late."

The man opened his eyes. They were glossy and red as tears ran down his face. Pauli held his shovel up and hit the man in the face with it, knocking him out cold. "Goodnight, sweetheart," he said.

"Come on," said Bruno. "That's enough."

Franco and Pauli dropped the shovels, and the three of them walked back to their car.

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