𝐑𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐁𝐮𝐫𝐧 ✓

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐲 𝐎𝐧𝐞

RopeBurn

"I knew I loved you then, But you'd never know
'Cause I played it cool when
I was scared of letting go"

Chapter Twenty-one

Dante

Elvira
↽———⋆♥︎⋆———⇁

The door opened a rough three hours later, the sound of a rolling cart waking me from the light sleep I had fallen into. "Elvira, it's good to see you're finally awake. I've been worried sick about you." Auroras voice filled my ears, her large smile and coily hair coming into my view.

Though she wasn't the one rolling the cart. Instead it was the same young man that had been driving my car the day I was shot. "Who's that?" My voice barely sounded real to me. Almost as if I wasn't really the one speaking but someone else was talking over me.

"Dante." She turned and ushered him to come forward to which he did so quickly. "He works for Marco." Her hands came together, that smile of hers never faltering.

How could someone continue to smile through everything? Didn't her jaw hurt? It couldn't be a genuine smile, so why go through all this consistent trouble of faking one?

"We met in the car a week ago, Mrs. Valentina." I found it odd that he addressed me in that manner. No one outside of work or professional meetings ever did. Clearly I was no where near either of those.

"Ah.. so you're another gang member?" My eyes roamed his body. He wasn't nearly as muscular as Marco or Mateo, but he wasn't frail either. I'd say he looked as though he worked out once a week and ate a consistent diet.

"This is the Mafia, Mrs. Valentina." His laugh seemed fake, as did everything about him. Most of the members here were much older, he looked to even be younger than Mateo.

"What's the difference?" There was a huge difference. His smug expression seemed to wither away, and replaced itself with more of a glare. It reminded me of Conti, and how he never saw my humor the way Laurence did.

"Anyways." Aurora dragged out the word to replace the awkward silence, and grabbed the glass of water from the nightstand. "How are you feeling Princess?"

"Like I was humiliated in a public restaurant and then shot." I felt awful. My hair was disgusting, I felt disgusting.

"As expected coming from someone who was shot." She brought the straw to my lips and I greedily sucked from it. The cool water running down my throat and offering some comfort to the dry walls.

"It was careless for him to take her out to begin with. She could have run off." Dante spoke up and crossed his arms over each other.

"She wouldn't have gotten far. Marco is obsessed with you dear, any hope of leaving this place is like wishing for rain on Mars." Her hand smoothed my oily hair back. "I'm going to need to check your bandage pumpkin. Do you mind if Dante stays? I need his help removing your stitches." I only nodded, part of me didn't have the energy to fight and bitch.

Surprisingly

Dante moved to the other side of the bed while Aurora lifted the covers and folded them at my waist. I didn't realize I had been shirtless this entire time. Though a bandage covered above my chest.