A Dangerous Captive (Completed)

16. Trust

Song: Devil in Paradise - Cruel Youth

(edited)

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Adelaide

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"Goodnight tata."

He smiled.

"Goodnight stella."

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My eyes were closed when he heard him come up behind me.

The wind kissed my legs and tugged at my hair when I heard his light footfalls, obviously trying to conceal that he was standing a just few feet behind me doing nothing but what I assumed was staring.

My head whipped around, my eyes landing straight on his, causing him to take in a sharp breath.

"Good afternoon, ma'am." He spoke, redeeming his wits.

He didn't know that Romano and I knew that he was an CIA agent, and I was too tired to deal with trying to keep it a secret.

Sighing, I turned my head back around, trying to slip back into the peaceful state I had previously settled in.

Unfortunately for my sleep-deprived self, Dante made his way around the rickety bench plopping himself next to me and letting out a long sigh in the process.

"Lovely day isn't it?" He asked, trying to strike up a conversation that I found mundane and often left me more tired than I started.

When I didn't reply, he kept speaking,

"The roses are coming in nicely this year but it's hard to tend to them when I'm the only groundskeeper." He complained, stretching his arms above his head. 

"I can help."

Dante looked at me with horrified wide eyes, as if I had just admitted to manslaughter.

"I-I can't possibly-."

"I will."

I cut him off, abruptly standing up and storming over to the bed of roses for no reason at all. 

Dante rushed to my side, stealing glances to the mansion.

"W-what will Mr Acerbi think of this ma'am?" He stuttered, fear evident in his words.

I chuckled as we reached the roses. 

I fingered the red flower, pinching one of the petals and letting the velvety smoothness of it calm me.

"Don't worry so much Dante. And please, call me Darwin." I smiled at him, fighting the urge to laugh at the name I told him to use. 

Whenever a person wanted to know my name, and I didn't want to give them that information, I gave them the name of an Australian city. 

It's a power rush.

"Darwin is a lovely name." 

He smiles and hands me a secateur.

I felt the weight of the object in my hand, thinking of the many ways I could use this against Dante, causing me to smile from my power.

"I need to deadhead the rose bush. It's quite a large job so I was putting it off until a later date but with you here, we could get this done before the hour is over." He grinned at me and starting humming to a song that I didn't recognise.

I gingerly wrapped my hand around a decaying flower before chopping its head off.

"Like that?"

He looked over to where I had chopped off the flower head.