Gunnar -- Mafia Love Story

Chapter 30

TV was boring. Even if she had her phone, she wasn't getting any texts. All her reading is done, and it's too early to go to bed.

She felt like Rapunzel, trapped in a tower, with nothing to keep her occupied but the hope of a prince calling her name from below. This must be what caged birds feel like. She wanted to go to all the pet stores, open the cages, and set the animals free.

No one deserves a life like this.

Up in her room, organizing clothes by colour, she heard a splash downstairs. She ran to the window, putting her hand on the glass as Humza dived into the pool. As usual, he was gone all day, which was frustrating.

She rushed downstairs to the pool. She hates him, but she wanted someone to talk to, even Hadi isn't at home. She was terribly lonely.

It's one thing to lounge around all day in comfortable pants, binging favourite shows and texting friends. It's another when all of that, down to the comfortable pants, has been taken away, replaced by watchful men who are sometimes nice, like Anthony, sometimes a little creepy, like Fat Lip, but mostly silent like the rest of the nameless guards.

Anyway, at least he's nice to look at.

"You should go back to your room," he said as soon as she stepped outside.

The summer air feels nice on her skin after a day stuck in a climate-controlled room with air as artificial as her marriage.

She stretched her legs, enjoying the company and the freedom of disobedience.

Humza got out of the pool with the grace of a caged tiger.

"Are you all right?" she asked.

If this man is in any cage, it's from his own doing and he can deal with it. She thought.

Still, she wanted to know why he looks this way. Why he appeared covered in blood a few days back, why he sticks men in front of her door, why he swims like the world is too small?

"I'm fine." He looked at her and then looked at the door. Pointedly. "I told you..."

"You sent me to my room and leave like you had to stop world war three."

Dripping wet, he plucked a pack of cigarettes from the table.

"What if I did?" He poked out a cigarette and put it between his lips.

"Good job?"

He smiled around his smoke and cupped his beautiful hands around a lighter. With a scrape, his face flickered in the firelight, and with a snap, he was in the darkness again.

"The danger's passed, for now."

"What danger, exactly?"

Smoke piped out his nostrils. He's a dragon looking down at her as if he just roasted an army to protect his treasure, and the treasure is her. It's not just that she was his wife or his property. She has seen that in his face, but this is different. It's more fervent and more still.

He's a particle moving so fast it stays in the same place.

If she finds out what is making him feel this way, maybe she can find a way to use it against him.

A weapon.

Her curiosity is less painful when she can find a use for it.

"You're not going to answer me," she said

"No." He threw himself into the chair on the other side of the patio table.

"Why not?"

"Because I say..." He flicked his cigarette and took a drag. "When I want you to know something, I'll tell you,"