Tied to You - ON HOLD

Chapter Twenty One

It had been a while since Chiara had gone to the bathroom, and just as I was about to excuse myself from the conversation I was in to look for her, I saw her making her way towards me and I breathed out a sigh of relief.

As soon as she was close enough, I grabbed her hand and pulled her close to me, introducing her to the group I was with. Once they were distracted in their business talks again, I turned to her.

"Where the fuck have you been? I've been waiting on you for ages." I rushed out.

"Sorry, I got lost in the crowd and went to get another drink before I came here."

I scanned her face and she looked fine, so I let myself relax a little. God knows what could've happened to her- she went with no security and even I wasn't there. I was fully aware that she was more than capable of looking after herself but still, it was risky.

I put one arm lazily around her waist and brought her slightly closer to me, my mind thinking about twenty other things unrelated to the party. The wedding is soon. We don't hate each other as much as we used to, but she's still a little guarded. What could I do to make her like me a little more, just enough so she can drop her guard?

My thoughts were interrupted by a small tug on my arm. I looked at Chiara and watched as her mouth moved, none of the words registering in my head.

"Alessandro? Are you even listening to me?" She asked, pulling me out of the haze.

"Sorry, darling, I am. You were saying?" I replied, giving her a small smile.

"I was saying that I kinda wanna leave... like now? Is that okay? You can stay if you want and I can get Sergio to come and get me."

"No , Chiara, I'll take you home don't- wait. How do you know Sergio?"

"He was following my family and I around whilst we went shopping, remember? He wasn't right behind us but I spotted him enough to know you sent him to tail us." She stated, as if it was so obvious.

My eyebrows rose in surprise but it was expected. I knew she was just like me, but I underestimated how alike we really were. "Come, let's say goodbye to Mr and Mrs Cordero and get out of here."
We said our goodbyes quickly and headed out, the valet bringing the car back to the front entrance.

"Are you feeling alright, Chiara?" I asked her, sneaking a glance at her in the passenger seat.

She sighed and answered, "I'm okay, just a little tired- what about you?"

I nodded, "All okay here."

Just as we pulled up to a red light, my phone began to ring on the stand, and I asked Chiara to answer it.

"Hello?" she said, putting the phone on speaker.

"Chiara, what are you doing answering my brother's phone?" Said a confused voice on the other end.

"We're in the car Tony, what do you need?" I told him, drumming my fingers on the wheel.

"Get to the warehouse as soon as you can, we have a situation." He replied, muttering the last part.

"Dammit, what about Chiara?"

"Alessandro, I don't give two flying fucks what you do about your girlfriend. Either bring her or don't, your problem- just get here quickly." And with that, he hung up on me.

Chiara put my phone back on the stand and looked at me. As soon as the light turned green, I sped my way out of the area and headed straight for the warehouse.

"There's no time for me to drop you home and back, so when we get there just stay in the car. Don't do anything stupid and sit tight. Hopefully this situation will be resolved fast enough for us to just go home afterwards."