I stand there, shell-shocked to see him after so many years. My brother. The man I used to look up to, since he was my older sibling and my only sibling. He used to be my best friend. The person I trusted the most.

Until that night.

I snap out of my own thoughts when I realise that I'm surrounded - but only by 5 people, including my brother and the bartender.

Shit.

"Well. Well. Well. If it isn't my baby sister on her cute little honeymoon. Congrats by the way! Although.. I can't say I wasn't disappointed when I wasn't sent an invite." My brother says sarcastically.

"What are you doing here? It's been 4 years." I say, pissed off.

After my maman died, our family broke apart. None of us were the same anymore. Dad went into 'hardcore abuser' mode and Adrien went into 'I'm-going-to-disappear' mode.

The week following my maman's death was absolutely awful. Not only was I grieving, lonely and lost, but my father had begun abusing me, which was new, because my father never brought such aggression into the household as my maman never allowed it. Adrien was aware of this. Yet, time and time again, he'd sit there and watch me get abused. He'd encourage it and even joined in sometimes.

After that week, something switched inside Adrien's head. Something told him to leave.

So he did.

He left because he claimed that "mafia life was too brutal for him." And that "if they could do that to maman, imagine what they could do to us." Which, surprisingly, dad allowed as an excuse to leave the mafia.

Over-night, dad got Adrien a new identity, passport and occupation. With that opportunity, Adrien packed his things and left without another word to me. He hated me and blamed me for maman's death, which isn't irrational but isn't fair, considering I didn't know the possible outcome of my birthday ball.

"4 years since you've killed mom. Good job by the way!" He says sarcastically, yet again, "Anyways, I'm here to get moms revenge." He says as his lips form a straight line.

"I didn't kill maman, but at least I was there. Where were you again? Oh right! You were off fucking some girl you just met!" I fire back at him sarcastically.

He comes charging towards me and tries to throw a punch at me, but I dodge it and send a right hook to his ribs, which makes him double over, so I grab his shoulders for balance and knee him in the face. I hear a cracking noise when I knee him which means I probably broke his nose, but I don't have time to pay enough attention to it, as 2 of his guys come hurling themselves at me.

One of them tries to hit my head with the butt of his gun, but I see it soon enough to grab his arm and twist it, shifting the gun in his hand to shoot the other guy that ran at me. The gun goes off with a loud BANG! And the guy drops dead, I grab the first guy and hold him in a headlock, long enough to completely choke him and block his airways.

Christos and I finished setting up the net for volleyball as the girls went to go get our drinks. I'm so tired right now, because the sun is beating down on us, which is pissing me off because I hate the heat.

For a couple minutes, Christos and I just talk about random stuff as Matteo tries to join in. At first we act like we didn't hear him, until he apologises "Look guys, I'm sorry okay? I thought I had made it clear to Liyana, that we were nothing more than a one night stand, but I spoke to her earlier and she said she sees it now." He tells us.

He's my best friend. But I don't believe him. It's true, him and Liyana went to talk when we were eating breakfast, but I think I noticed Liyana's eyes were slightly puffy and red - which I assume was from crying - and now she won't even go in a 2 meter radius of Matteo. She won't even do so much as look at him. I've noticed that she's also been very jittery and jumpy around Matteo.

I hope it's not because of what I think it is.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Christos says, and we all continue talking together.

Soon after, the girls come back. Without Amélie.

The last time the girls came back without Amélie, she-

I'm not going to think negatively. She's fine.

"Where's Amélie?" I say, the panic slightly seeping through my voice.

"Oh, she's just getting the drinks for us, she said we should start our game." Liyana says, dismissively.

We decide to make the teams: Christos, Amara and Liyana on one team and then myself, Amélie and Matteo on the other.

We begin playing, Matteo and I trying to play with one player down, and still failing. Why is she taking so long, it's just a couple of drinks?

All of a sudden, I hear a loud gunshot go off, I don't even hesitate to run for the area that Amélie went in.

When I find her, there's 3 bodies on the ground and she's trying to fight off 2 more. Shit! I knew something was wrong.

I go to the palm tree that's nearby and search in the sand for a bit and find what I was looking for. My gun.

I quickly shoot the two guys that were trying to hurt mia belleza, but drastically failing since my wife is the best assassin in the world. They drop to the ground and Amélie just stands there, shocked. However I do notice that she's looking at one specific body that's slightly moving. Who's that?

By this point, the others have made it here too and when Liyana sees the body, she lets out a huge gasp and covers her mouth. She slowly looks up from the body, to Amélie "He's- he's back." She asks sympathetically.

Who is he? And what does she mean 'he's back'?

Amélie nods and goes up to him and crouches in front of him "The moment it deemed to be too much for you, you left. You left everything behind. You left ME behind. You left when I needed my older brother the most! The mafia life was too much for you, so you left for the military, you didn't look back or even think to check up on me. Why now? WHY ARE YOU BACK NOW?!" Amélie seethes out at him, her voice raising towards the end.

He's in and out of consciousness but he replies "Because I intend on killing you with the help of-." He stops his sentence because he fully passes out.

What the fuck is he talking about? I'm about 2 seconds away from killing him.

I call my men to come and take his body onto one of my jets and take him to our torture chambers back home. They do that and go on one of my planes to take him back. They dispose of the other bodies elsewhere.

When all of the bodies are cleaned up, I tell the other lot to go back to the main part of the beach. They do as I say. Once Amélie and I are alone, I walk up behind her and put my hand on her shoulder "Amél-." My words are cut off by mia belleza turning and crashing herself into my arms.

I quickly wrap my arms around her and try to calm down her violent sobs "It's okay mia belleza. He's gone now, he can't hurt you. Calme-toi, amour, s'il te plaît. Pour moi. Calme-toi pour moi. Je suis là, je t'ai. Vous n'avez plus besoin de vous inquiéter [Please calm down, love. For me. Calm down for me. I'm here, I've got you. You don't need to worry anymore]."

"He- he- how dare he-." I whisper sweet nothings into her ear and calm her down by rubbing her back and softly leaving 3 kisses in her hair.

When she's calmed down, she whispers "I needed him after my maman died, and he left me. He blamed me, abused me and then left. Now he's back to get his revenge, which means he's going to kill me, he said he's not working alone. He hates me and he thinks that I killed my maman."

"I know baby, I'm so sorry." I whisper in her ear and kiss it 3 times.

"I just wanted someone to comfort me Rome. I wanted someone to care for me and worry about my well-being, I wanted someone to be on my side. Instead, everyone resented me and left me." She whispers as her voice cracks.

My heart physically hurts at how utterly stupid her family could be. In times like that, when you've lost a loved one, you should become closer and try to help one another recover, but instead, they hurt her in incomprehensible ways. Which I will make them pay for.

"You don't need them mia belleza. You want to know why?" I whisper to her. When she shakes her head against my chest, I move my hand under her chin and lift her face to me with my index and middle finger "You don't need them, because it's you and me now. It's us against everyone else, because we're a team. No one can stop us or come in our way because we're stronger and better than them. So you don't need those disappointments, because I'm here, and you and I, we have become our own family. We don't need anybody else. Understand?" I softly tell her, with a strong sense of determination in my tone, to make her understand that I mean what I'm saying.

She doesn't respond for a while, she only looks into my eyes, but when I shift my hand so that my index finger is under her chin and my thumb is rubbing her chin, this seems to snap her out of her trance. I bring her face closer to mine and she smashes our lips together.

Her body moulds against mine as we kiss and it feels as though there's nothing in this world that could disturb us. The feeling of her lips on mine is euphoric and makes my heart beat faster. I wrap my remaining arm around her waist but keep my other hand supporting her chin. I push past her lips with my tongue and she gladly accepts the intrusion as she sucks and fights with my tongue for dominance. I pull her impossibly closer to me which makes her give up on her fight for dominance and allow me to explore every part of her hot, wet mouth. When she wraps her arms around my shoulders and goes on her tiptoes, I take that as my cue to lift her up so she can wrap her legs around me too. Moving both of my hands, I place them on her ass, to make sure she doesn't fall. When Mél grinds her core against my abs and moans, I pull away from the make out session that we were having, because our friends are still somewhere around here and as much as I'd love to, we can't fuck here.

Our panting, from not having breathed for so long, mingles together as we rest our foreheads against one another "Just you and I, Angelo." She whispers against my lips as she gives me 3 tender kisses on the corner of my lips.

I smile at her and guide us back to where everybody else is "Guys, we should all get packing, we're all going to go home." I say to them as I wrap a protective arm around Mél's torso and another cradles the back of her head, stroking her hair gently as she rests her head on my shoulder.

They all nod and we make our way back to our rooms to pack. I continue carrying Amélie as we make it into our room "what do you want me to pack for you mia belleza?" I ask her softly.

"Whatever you think looks nice." She shrugs.

"I think you look absolutely beautiful in everything baby." I tell her as I leave 3 kisses on the side of her head "but also in nothing." I whisper cheekily.

She lifts her head out of the crook of my neck and shoots me a heart melting smile. Her smile is so beautiful. She gives me a quick peck on the lips and I pepper her face with kisses all over. She giggles at this and squirms in my arms since she's ticklish. We stop all of a sudden and lock eyes, we stay silent but our faces slowly inch towards one another's "Rome, I lo-," Amélie begins, but is cut off as our moment is interrupted by a knock at the door. Was she about to say what I think she was going to say. I swear to God if it's Christos, I'm going to kill him. "Come in!" Mél shouts out.

When the door opens, it reveals Amara "Hey guys, sorry to interrupt, but the planes ready and the car is waiting outside."

Mél smiles at her and sends her an air kiss "Okay Ami, we'll be out in a sec, I love you!" She exclaims happily.

"I love you too Mél!" Amara says back to her with the same energy.

So Amélie can say she loves my sister, but not me.

"I guess we're not bringing any clothes back" Amélie says.

"I'll buy you 50 of everything in that wardrobe." I tell her and I move a piece of her hair out of her face.

I leave 3 kisses on her cheek and set her on the floor. She goes after Amara to tell her something. I shake my head at her behaviour, chuckling and just walk out of the room and to the SUV.

We make our way to the airport and onto my jet. As we all buckle up, Christos pulls out a card game and begins handing out the cards. We play a couple of rounds and soon after, everyone watches a movie on the big tv by the front of the plane. We took turns taking showers since there's only 3 showers in the plane.

When that's done, everyone just decides to do their own thing, so Amélie and I decide to go to sleep. Originally, Amélie wanted to sleep separately, so we could sleep in the main area of the plane where everyone else is, but I disagreed. We went back and forth over whether or not we should sleep here or the private bedroom at the end of the plane. In the end, we came to a compromise. We slept in the main area of the jet, where everyone else is, but I told her that I'd only do that if she lets me hold her whilst we sleep. She agreed and I'm so glad, because I can't seem to sleep unless she's in my arms.

We slept for a couple of hours until we got back home and the plane landed. We got off of the plane and headed to our base for a whole mafia meeting.

Time to see what our mafia has concluded. I wonder if her brother showing up has anything to do with Vincent and his plans. I hope to God it isn't.

I just need to keep her safe. I'd do anything for her safety.

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