Fiery Revenge⎪✓

61

☀︎

Aimlessly pacing in the kitchen, I fling myself into a chair by the kitchen island, every thought has rampaged through my mind these past few days. The information we got from Zanto made sense and yet it didn't, Dracona is someone I have crossed at some point during my years here. Otherwise he wouldn't be so adamant on killing me.

"Eloisa," Oriana speaks through the darkness of the room. "Are you still down here? Dinner was hours ago."

"Yeah," I shake my heavy mind. "Why are you still up?"

"Santi couldn't sleep, he wants his uncle to come and say goodnight," She nods her head.

Xavier has been out of town for days by now, he had to leave and travel to the members in Brea. They couldn't control their situation, which left me to deal with a pissed off Xavier. Marc left with him and Joseph has replaced them in the mafia, he tries to keep everyone in line and does an okay job at it.

She opens the fridge and grabs a can of pineapples, "Do you have that smart thigh holster on you? I need a knife to get this open."

"No," I smile, shaking my head at the thought of me not wearing my holster at all times, I've actually gotten too comfortable here. "I'll hand you one from in here though."

"Thanks," She smiles when I offer her one from the kitchen drawer. "I've always wanted to have you hand me something from that holster, you know like a scene from an action movie?"

"To open a can of pineapples?" I raise an eyebrow at her in humor.

"Wouldn't it be awesome?"

"Sure would," I nod my head and lean against the countertop behind me. "Do you need me to say goodnight to Santi, perhaps it could help for him to see someone other than his mom?"

"I didn't want to put pressure on you by asking, but would you really?" The hopeful glint in her eyes has me agreeing instantly. "He adores you, especially after practicing archery all day today as well. He's improving quite a lot."

"And so are you," I tell her.

We've been in the backyard the entire day today, I had to get my mind off the situation and they asked. Santi is improving so much with his skills in archery, the kid truly wants to learn everything about it. All the while, Oriana has thrown me around and vice versa, she's getting more comfortable in the roughness of fighting and I truly believe it will help her to train self defense in that manner.

We walk down the large living room space and into an adjacent hallway to the side, standing in front of Santi's room, Oriana steps into her own room on the other side of the hallway and I step into his. He sits up in bed with widened and excited eyes, "Eloisa?"

"Sì," I smile, walking closer to him after closing the door. "Your mom tells me you refuse to sleep, is that true?"

He nods in slowly, looking quite guilty, "Yeah, because I want to see Uncle Xavi, but he won't be coming home for a few more days."

"Staying awake won't make the time pass any quicker, quite the opposite actually," I tell him with a smile and sit on the side of his bed. "Xavier will come home and see his little nephew walking around with zombie eyes, that would scare him off, don't you think?"

"Non voglio dormire." (I don't want to sleep).

"How about this," I pause for dramatic effect and smile at him. "If you go to sleep right now, I'll teach you archery all day tomorrow. No interruptions, nothing. But then you have to promise me you'll go to sleep when I leave."

"Can I ask you one question before then?" He says, the excitement hiding behind his eyes has me nodding. "Will you ever get married to Uncle Xavi?"

I almost choke on air because of his sudden question, but regain my composure instantly, "Why do you ask that?"

"Because he looks at you as if you're his wife."

"I don't know if that's a good thing really," I tell him with a humored smile.

"But will you?" He continues.

"Listen, Santi. I don't even know if I want to get-"

My sentence is cut short by a sudden and excruciatingly loud bang from the living room area, the multiple and booming sounds that follow are too familiar; gunshots.

No, oh fuck, no.

"What's that, Eloisa?" He asks in alarm, stiffening on top of his bed.

Oriana bursts into Santi's room with fearful and widened eyes, "Someone broke into the house!"

"Is there a lock on the door?" I ask calmly and try to spot it through the darkness.

"No," Santi says in a shaky voice.

"We need to get to the bathroom across the hallway, okay?" I tell them and inch closer to the door, opening it and looking down to the living room I spot a lot of men who are fighting. Deafening gunshots are ringing through the air, forcing a disgusting shudder to crawl up my spine. Oriana and Santi won't suffer because of this.

The intruders will fucking regret doing this to us.

"Follow me," I whisper and the two of them trail right behind me as they enter the bathroom across the hallway. I linger in the doorway and listen in on the commotion, people are screaming and I think I hear Joseph ordering some of the mafia.

A man walks past the opening to the hallway and I hurry into the bathroom, locking the door behind me and trying to think. I need to keep the two of them safe, that's my priority in this. Xavier would want me to ensure their safety, Joseph is with the mafia and I'm sure he'll manage just fine.

He can't call Xavier while fighting out there though, the thought hits me like a train and I know what I have to do.

"Eloisa," Santi whimpers, his voice breaking my heart completely. The fear in his eyes brings me back to that day and I desperately try to ignore it. "I don't want to die. Are we going to die?"

Shaking my head I squat down in front of him, placing my hands on top of his shaky ones, "None of us will die, okay? I need to call your uncle and hear what he thinks we should do, but I'll be here to protect you guys. And your mamma is amazing with her self defense skills, have you seen her kicking ass in the backyard, no?"

Oriana stares at me with fear in her eyes, but hides it once Santi looks up at her in a hopeful manner. Instead she smiles down at him, caressing his cheek softly, "I'm actually pretty great at it, you're safe with the two of us."

These words seem to comfort him enough and he flings his body against his mom's, hugging her for dear life. Seeing my chance I rip the phone from my pocket and dial his number, I'll fucking kill him if he doesn't pick up.