STOLEN || 18+ (Monsters #3)

.70. - Idiots

Leyla

"Nothing," I said. "I just find it a little...weird that we are sitting in a tiny park."

He hummed. I looked into his eyes. They looked wild. As if he was barely in control of his emotions. As if he was about to lose it. I could feel the anger rolling off of him in waves, knowing he was close to snapping. Yet I forced myself to keep sitting there, for some reason. You know happens, Leyla. I could hear the sensible part of me say. You know what happens.

But he was not going to hurt me. That, I was sure of.

He rubbed his forehead. "I...I used to play here with Fabiano. We used to run to that slide." He pointed at a slide. It looked ages old and like it'd fall apart in a heartbeat. "Push each other out of the way and Dante..." He nodded his head towards the mansion. "Used to watch us through the window because he wasn't allowed to play with us."

"Why?"

He chuckled. "My parents were fucked up. They thought if Dante got close to us, he'd care and god forbid their golden child cared for his brothers." He sighed. "Our life has always been fucked up."

I stayed quiet for a while. "You're never happy?"

He frowned down at the ground. "I am...sometimes."

"Sometimes?"

He hummed, looking down at me. "Are you happy?"

My fingers brushed on the grass. "Sometimes, yes."

I felt Fabiano sit on my other side. "Are you two having a heart to heart?"

Giovanni chuckled. "Leyla stirs my feelings, Fabi."

A small smile came on my lips as I looked down on the ground. Fabiano wrapped an arm around me, kissing my forehead. "We need to eat."

But we didn't move.

"What makes you happy, Leyla?" Giovanni asked, his voice soft in the quiet night.

"History," I answered. "Art, Poetry, Gabby, Astrid, my family..." I looked up at the sky, at the familiar moon. "You two, sometimes."

"Sometimes," Fabiano muttered. "Do we make you sad?"

"Sometimes."

"Do we scare you?" Giovanni asked.

"I...not anymore."

Giovanni took my hand in his. "You scare me."

"You are so drunk."

"You do," he insisted. "We can kill everything in the world, Leyla."

"But we can't kill what we feel for you," Fabiano muttered. "You're so fucking powerful, you know that?"

Hearing those words from them, from the two most powerful men I had ever met, was...thrilling. It made me feel...powerful.

"I know," I whispered.

. . .

Fabiano

"What?"

"Yes," I heard Olivia say from Giovanni's phone which was on the table. Giovanni was laying on a couch, his forearm over his eyes, growing because of his hangover. The cigar room was washed in golden darkness. "There is no threat of that kid Testa anymore, is it? So let her come here and celebrate Diwali with their family. I'll organise everything!"

"Olivia..." I muttered. "You do realize that the Camorra is gaining foot in America, don't you?"

"I know," she muttered. Of course, she knew. Creeds couldn't keep shit from her. "But they are headless chickens. Their boss is with you. Their bosses' son is working for you. I fail to see how they still pose that big of a threat."

Giovanni sighed, sitting up. "Your voice is so irritating."

"Of course is irritating when I'm saying something you don't want!" Olivia huffed. "Let her celebrate Diwali with her family. You do realise you can't keep her locked up, right? She's not the kind of woman who'd be fulfilled by that."

"You don't know that."

"She may not be my blood but she is like me, Giovanni. And I certainly know more than you."

"Sure." He rolled his eyes. "You know fucking everything. Tell Xerxes to spank you more, you're not getting enough punishment."

"I will kill you."

"Fucking try me." He leaned back in his seat, a small smirk came on his lips.

Olivia sighed. "I hate you so much. Fabiano, you're the smart one. Keeping someone physically close does not guarantee their love."

"We'll think about it, Olivia."

"It should not even be your decision to make, you know?" She muttered. "She deserves so much. And you both need to realise that. I have to go. I've got a doctor's appointment. Use your brain."

She hung up.

I stared at the phone. "How the fuck is she so brave?" I asked in Italian.

"She's passionate about the people she loves," Giovanni muttered. "You'd know if you liked her."

"It seemed unnecessary for her to be in their lives in the starting," I said. "I didn't hate her. I just didn't like what could happen to her. And it did happen."

Giovanni hummed. "You think it's inevitable? That anyone who involves with us is bound to get hurt?'

"I don't fucking know," I muttered. "Leyla has been through hell." I heard footsteps.

"An angel forced in hell," Giovanni muttered. "We'll keep her safe. As Olivia said, there is no threat now."

"Isn't there always a threat in our life?" Dante leaned against the door frame, folding his arms against his chest.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Giovanni muttered. "I can deal with only one headache at a time."

"Shut the fuck up," Dante said, walking inside. "I'm here to see the woman you announced as your fucking betrothed in the last meeting with the Underbosses. That's the height of stupidity."

I leaned back in my seat. "It was a misunderstanding."

Dante looked at me and then at Giovanni. "Does she have a ring on her finger?"

"No," Giovanni answered.

"What if someone sees she doesn't have a ring on her finger?"

"We'll put a ring on her finger," I said.

"Does she know you intend to do that?"

"No," Giovanni answered.

Dante paused for a moment.

"You both are idiots," he muttered and walked out of the office.

. . .

Okay I'm not entirely sure about this chapter