Assassin Thirty Two

Forty Seven: Angel of Sins

It was late at night and while Valentino worked tirelessly away in his office, Ivy found herself in the library, a book in front of her and mindlessly playing with her dagger in her other hand. Her eyes skimmed over the black ink on the pages, absorbing every word that the author had written and all the sentences created a beautiful story. The only light that illuminated the off white pages was the crystal lamp that sat delicately next to the couch. In a world so dark and deathly, Valentino's personal library was like a breath of fresh air. It brought warmth and belonging and Ivy often found herself residing in the room. A room that was built for angels that had a place to escape the devils lurking in the rest of the estate.

Ivy would never admit it, especially to Valentino, but after everything she had been through, she could never get a wink of sleep if she was alone in a dark room. Sleeping with lights on wasn't really her thing, but sleeping without Valentino's arms wrapped possessively around her made her feel unsafe. No protection from the monsters under the bed or in the shadows of the wardrobe. After her encounter with Dante, Ivy preferred to not be left alone especially in unfamiliar spaces and when she would quietly walk the halls of the estate, alone, she would have to pinch herself to remind her that Dante wasn't hiding behind the curtains or watching her from the corner.

The old clock ticked away, as Ivy flipped the page, and the blinds gently danced as the cool, night breeze floated into the room from the open window. Ivy couldn't be bothered to check the time but she knew it was getting late. The maids had switched off most of the lights, only leaving on the lamps scattered throughout the house. No more heavy footsteps could be heard of the men or guards that stomped through the place like a herd of elephants.

While Ivy read peacefully, Valentino locked himself away in his office. He flipped through the pages of evidence in front of him. Garcia had many contracts with many different people and he was somehow stupid enough to leave them all in his office. The office building had burnt down and Valentino made sure to pay the cops and firefighters to not investigate it any further. At the end of the day, the report had said that the building had a faulty electrical system and it had sparked and brought the entire building to flames.

Valentino leaned back in his chair with a groan and he was quickly getting restless. Two days after the fire, Valentino blew up Garcia's warehouse that Valentino had invested in. Personally, he didn't want to destroy it, simply because he had put several million dollars into the construction and security of it, but at the end of the day, the warehouse was being used to produce Valentino's drugs and he knew that with Garcia working with the Italians, the production of the drug would no longer be in his hands. And he wasn't having it.

Yet, with the warehouse and the office building gone, Valentino still hadn't received any leads on where the Italians were keeping their warehouse for the drug. Somehow, he had the contract between Garcia and Matteo, which Dante was now involved in, but there were no blueprints for any secret buildings to be developed. If they didn't find anything in the next week, then Valentino was going to blow up Garcia's beach house.

One thing he was sure about was that if he didn't get what he wanted, then Garcia would be left with nothing.

Picking up the glass, he threw back the remaining whisky and decided to call it another night. The liquor tingled his throat and he slammed the glass back down onto the desk before gathering all the papers and neatly putting them back into the folder. Unlike Garcia, Valentino was smart enough to lock up all his important documents. It was better to be safe than sorry.

Valentino walked out of his office, locking it behind him and made his way to his bedroom through the dark halls. When he walked in, the bedroom was dark and the bed was empty. With a sigh, he closed the bedroom door and decided to go look for her. It didn't take him long and when he entered the library, he leaned against the doorframe, his arms folded over his chest as he watched her peacefully.