Altered (An Italian Mafia Story)

Chapter Ten

I woke up to the sound of the shower running the next morning and stretched under the soft sheets. Lazily, I blinked the sleep from my eyes and took in my surroundings before remembering the events that led up to me being here.

I sat up quickly, gathering the sheets in my hands. Yesterday had been a nightmare, but when I thought about the way Stefano had taken care of me, my heart fluttered. I groaned and fell back, my head hitting the pillow.

My breath caught in my throat when the water stopped running in the bathroom. A few moments later, Stefano stepped out with a towel wrapped around his waist. Water droplets rolled down his defined chest and dropped from his hair as he looked up at me.

The surprise was evident on his face. "Good morning..." I breathed out, unsure of what else to say.

He narrowed his eyes at me and I held my breath. "You're still here?" The disgust in his voice was so evident that it cut me like a knife.

"I- What do you mean?" I mumbled.

"What I mean, is that you should've been gone by the time I stepped out of the bathroom." He sneered before going into the closet.

I blinked a few times, shocked by how quickly he'd gone back to hating me. I stood and marched over to the closet. "Now you want me to leave?" I asked, baffled as he rummaged through his closet, grabbing a pair of boxers. "Because I distinctly remember trying to leave last night, but you didn't let me!" I fumed.

Stefano walked up to me. "Because knowing you, you would've gone and gotten into another situation where you needed saving. I didn't want to fucking deal with that last night, so I made you stay." He said coldly before dropping his towel.

My eyes darted down before immediately coming back up to his face. I felt my face flush in embarrassment and I rushed back into the room just as Stefano pulled his underwear on. He followed me out of the closet as I tried to ignore how... well endowed he was. "Change into your uniform and go to work."

I scoffed. "Right, I don't think a tight skirt and low cut blouse qualify as a uniform."

"Excuse me?" Stefano closed the distance between them and grabbed my jaw roughly. "You will not disrespect me, Alaya. Count yourself lucky I don't make you go out there naked."

I pulled my jaw out of his grip in defiance, but said nothing. Angry and confused, I stomped out of the room in the direction of Diana's room. I didn't want to go back to the bloody mess that was my room. Stefano made me so goddamn angry.

I hated how bipolar he acted and the way he kept acting like he cared and then acting like he wanted to kill me. It was driving me insane and it felt like he was doing it on purpose. Couldn't he just keep me prisoner here without getting me all hot and bothered? It was like that man couldn't help but make my life harder than it already was.

"Alaya?" Someone said, breaking me out of my thoughts.

"Diana!" I said in surprise and relief. "Thank god you're here, I'm so done with this fucking place."

Diana smiled. "Yeah, I know. You say that every day."

I nodded. "And I mean it every day!"

"Come on, you can tell me all about what's bothering you in my room."

"Good, because I can't really go back to my room." I grumbled, following Diana down to the second floor, where her room was located.

"What do you mean?"

"Trust me, I'll tell you everything when we get there."

The second her door closed, I collapsed on her bed and told her everything that had happened last night. Diana listened carefully, not interrupting me once. When I finished, she was staring at me as if I'd grown a second head.