"No way!"

My mouth was stretched out into a wide grin as I stared back at Antonio from across the table.

"Yep."

He chuckled and nodded his head, clearly amused by my blatant shock.

Alexander was coming around to the house later on so Antonio was telling me some stories about the two siblings from when they were young children.

I knew that it would be weird to see him again. After all, the last interaction we had was about 5 minutes after I found myself surrounded by the dead bodies of my work colleagues and it ended with me getting drugged and kidnapped by his big brother.

Turns out that Alexander had always been the cheeky one, constantly pranking and annoying his older brother. Sure it usually ended up with pushing Antonio into attacking him before being pulled back by his parents but it was supposedly fun for Alexander, never the less.

I'd also discovered that both of Antonio's parents were dead. He didn't go into detail (not that I wanted him to anyway) but I did find out that it meant their oldest son would take over the business. Hence Antonio's current position.

"Is it what you actually wanted to do with your life?"

I asked, genuinely curious. I'd never experienced what it was like to be pushed into a career by someone but couldn't imagine that it would be an enjoyable process. In fact I probably had a little too much freedom when it came to my study decisions. I'd never really worked hard in school until right before my SATS when I started to panic.

"To be honest with you it never mattered and still doesn't matter what I wanted to do. It was always set in stone that I'd take over the business, it's been that way in my family for decades. Since the day I was born I was always being prepared for it so have never thought about a life outside of the mafia."

"Do you enjoy it?"

My next question didn't seem to shock Antonio either, although I could sense that his willingness to answer my questions was wearing thin. It was a miracle that he was even telling me about his family past and history. I was used to our conversation topics being more limited.

"I don't tend to enjoy many things Alice. But if what your really asking is if I mind killing people than you won't be pleased with my answer. I was brought up well aware of what this job would inevitably entail. I've never had any second thoughts or guilt about what I do. I am a sadist Alice, I know that doesn't sit well with people like you but -"

"What do you mean people like me?"

He let out a slightly irritated breath and put down the cup of hot coffee that he was holding.

"Alice, you worked in a prison. Your job is essentially to analyze people like me. You work for the law and much to your distaste, your more innocent than you think."

I scoffed. I was not innocent. I'd spent my whole career listening to psychopaths who would tell me about all of the brutal things that they'd done to their victims. I'd dealt with my ex boyfriend beating the shit out of me and grew up with a mom who could only ever pretend to care. When your life was like mine you had to grow up. I wasn't some innocent, clueless toy for Antonio to just play with. Who was he to make such assumptions about me?

"What? Can you prove me wrong? Go ahead if you must."

He gave me an amused look and simply sat there, waiting for my answer.

Of course I could prove him wrong. I'd spoken to far worse criminals than him and therefore had heard a lot of vile things, all of which were worse than he'd ever imagine. I'd heard of a child who'd burned down her own home, family still inside. Her name was Brenda Caymen, she was nine years old and was caught standing outside the raging inferno. She never denied being responsible, but then again she never spoke a word to anyone. Not even to me when I assessed her, she just held a sinister, non regretful smile on her seemingly angelic face. That was during my training.

Then there was Will Mormings who was my third patient. He had raped and mutilated the bodies of several young women along with a man. I instantly could tell how insane he was. He couldn't even register how wrong the things he did were. During our few sessions he'd laugh and talk like a maniac, telling me all about what he did without a single ounce of sympathy.

The most chilling case I ever had was Joe Waiten. He was a young man, about 26. He had a perfect upbringing and loving wife but it wasn't enough for him. Joe had several affairs with his wife. One of them claimed that she was pregnant and out of fear for his wife discovering their relationship he killed her. He soon grew so paranoid about the other women that he went after them too. The thing that made him so evil was the way he spoke about the murders. He knew that what he was doing was wrong but just didn't care. He saw his 'work' as some sort of sick art, like he was proud of it.

"I'm not innocent."

"No?"

"No!"

I snapped back and Antonio gestured for me to continue and give some sort of justification towards my reasoning.

"In my line of work I only ever spoke about murder and violence. Trust me I'm used to it."

He shook his head and laughed at me.

"Alice, darling, there are plenty of rebellious teenagers out there who watch films they shouldn't be watching all about gore and demons and then seem completely fine and unfazed but what do you think they'd do if a killer came running towards them with a weapon? They'd take off in the opposite direction, they'd panic and scream, they'd be terrified. Sure you heard about these things, but seeing them... now that's a different matter."

Deep down I knew that he was right. Anyone can listen to a spooky story and tell ourselves that we aren't scared, but when you actually face a bad situation it's completely different to seeing it in a movie. No, in real life you turn into one of the victims that you spent the whole film laughing about. It's out of our instincts to be fearful in those situations, you can convince yourself otherwise but it will never change the truth.

"Don't forget Alice, I saw you that day. Don't you remember how you fell to the ground after seeing those bodies? All those dead people, the sight of it made you howl and cry like a baby, Alice. Then, you started begging me....to spare your life. Did you forget sweetheart? Forget how I was the one who picked up your limp body after I drugged you? Come on, your a clever girl. It's okay to admit that you were scared."

My fists were screwed up, nails digging into my palms as I was forced to recall the events. I was trying to keep myself calm but he was making it fucking impossible to do that. I knew that he was trying to prove a point but I couldn't stop picturing all those bodies. The blood and the vacant look in their-

"Shh, shhh, sshh...."

I was so caught up in my thoughts that I hadn't even noticed that I was crying or that Antonio had picked me up so that I was now sat on his lap. He softly whispered in my ear, hushing me, and subtlety rocked us back and fourth. His arm was locked around my chest, right hand clasping my left shoulder while I grasped onto it. I sobbed the whole time, unaware of how traumatic the whole experience had been. I suppose that I'd pushed back all the memories from the day of my abduction until now. At the time I couldn't think about that because there were much more important things to do. Like plan my escape. But now everything was rushing back and I could finally let out everything that I felt on that horrible day.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have bought it up. Shhhhh.....I'm sorry baby. Shhh.... It's okay I'm here....."

Antonio and I stayed like that for how ever long it took me to calm down. Eventually the tears stopped and I just sat still, staring at the wall. For some reason that conversation triggered something in me and I couldn't even move. Everything seemed frozen.

Trust me to do something like this. In less that five minutes we had gone from laughing about my childhood to me holding Alice in my lap while trying to calm her down from a panic attack that I had unintentionally caused.

And on top if it all, Alex was going to be here any minute. It was currently one in the afternoon. I'd told Alex to come at around twelve but knew he'd be late anyway. He was always late when it came to any relaxed function. I only really suggested that he came by so Alice could have a conversation with someone other than me. She hadn't really been able to socialize and I wanted to make her happy. That meant giving her more freedom. Then again, I wasn't going to let her talk with just anybody. I trusted Alex and knew he'd always tell me if anything detrimental or important came up in the conversation.

However judging by the state that she was in now, that wasn't going to happen today.

Suddenly the door bell rang. The maid let in who I instantly knew was Alex.

"Hello brother, Dr. Green, it's nice to see you ag-"

He stopped talking once he round the corner and saw Alice curled up in my lap. He frowned and looked from me to her in confusion.

"What the fuck did you do now?"

I placed a finger against my lip, causing him to be quiet as I scooped her up into my arms and began to carry her up the stairs as smoothly as I could, not wanting to startle her anymore than I had done allready. Alice was clearly in some state of shock as she remained static the whole time.

I slowly dressed her in some more comfortable clothes before tucking her into bed. I closed the blinds so that the room was dark enough for her to sleep in and then sat back down next to her, gently stroking her hair. Her eyes stayed open the whole time, unfocused on anything in particular. I stood to leave but she grabbed my wrist.

"Please stay."

I couldn't resist that. Sure Alex was downstairs waiting for me, no doubt raiding my kitchen, but the more important thing was that my girl needed me. Without any hesitance I climbed into bed, pulling her against me so that her face pressed against my chest. I didn't bother changing because I knew she'd probably fall asleep within a few minutes anyway. And thanks to a steady, continuous rub on her back and a low, comforting string or calming words, she drifted off to sleep.

"Good girl."

I whispered to her sleeping body as I carefully stood and left the room, cautious not to wake her again.

Sure enough Alex was sat on my couch, drinking a glass of my whisky upon my approach.

"You gunna explain now or..."

"I bought up the whole prison break thing. I didn't think and was trying to prove a point, it obviously made the whole kidnapping resurface for her."

He nodded and handed me my own glass, which I was happy to empty of it's contents.

"Other than that, how's it going."

I joined my brother on the opposite couch, lazily crossing one leg over the other.

"She's defiantly getting used to it. I've stopped....hurting her and it's working. We had sex while we went away on holiday together."

Alex shook his head and chuckled in amusement at me.

"See brother, I told you it would get better. So what made you stop wanting to beat the shit out of your wife."

His tone was obviously judgmental, for obvious reasons, but I just brushed it off. I wasn't really in the mood for anymore drama and besides, his judgement wasn't exactly unjustified. I was well aware that how I treated Alice was unforgivable.

"I really like her Alex. Something about seeing her try and kill herself.... I mean fuck man. I can't loose her."

A look of shock crossed Alex's face upon hearing my words.

"Damn, you are really serious about this. Not gunna lie, I just assumed that you'd get bored and ditch her sooner or later."

He was right, my obsession for Alice was even surprising for me now. Never in a million years did I think that I'd fall for a woman this hard. I desperately felt a need for her to feel the same way about me. I wasn't used to having women reject me. Usually I was the one being chased after.

I wasn't going to ever let go of Alice. Ever.