5

Chapter 5

Guilia

I swallowed, blinking rapidly. How I wanted to merge his lips with mine and remind myself of how sweet his lips tasted like.

“You… you want a kiss?” I stuttered as if I had not heard what he said initially.

A smirk played on his lips as he stroked the corner of my lips faintly with his thumb. I fought hard to suppress a shiver but failed miserably.

“Do I look like I’m kidding around with you?” He asked gently.

“I risked my life to come save you. Do you know how many men are out there waiting to hunt you down and all I’m asking for is just a kiss?” He sounded hurt, disappointed even. And Vladimir was hardly any of these things.

My heart shriveled with guilt, but then Vladimir had always been manipulative and another word from him was all it would take for him to take what he needed.

“I’m to be married soon and not to you. So why do you want to make things more complicated than they already are?”

He was about to reply when an alarm went off, disrupting our conversation and heavy gunshots followed suit.

“What’s going on?” My heart hammered painfully against my chest.

He brushed past me with a note of urgency and poked his head through the window.

“We fooled the outfit and promised them that we would accept another alliance with them, the Famiglia, I mean. But with these rapid-fire gunshots, I’m guessing they have caught up on our tricks.” He explained, bolting the door firmly and placing a large table behind it so that no one could come in.

A pool of fear stirred in my stomach. “How could you let that happen?” I cried in exasperation.

I was sounding like a spoiled brat, but I was too shaken to act accordingly.

He ignored me and took off his leather jacket. My eyes drank in the sight of his deliciously ripped muscles and his broad shoulders that flexed in an unhinged manner as he skillfully tied one of the sleeves of the jacket to one extreme end of the window panes.

I ogled at his inked arm and the urge to trail my fingers over each line nearly swallowed me whole. Only Vladimir could make a tattoo look so titillating and edible at the same time.

“If you keep on ogling at me like that there are two things that are most likely to happen right now. Firstly, I might stop trying so hard to be a gentleman and kiss you without your permission. The other thing is that there’s every probability that we won’t leave here alive if I start kissing you.” He sounded like he was troubled about letting his emotions control the better part of him, and the thought made something loosen up in my insides.

I was too stunned to speak so I gulped like I usually did whenever I was tense, and decided to choose a safer option even though my mind kept screaming that I should allow him to do whatever he wanted with me.

“I prefer we get out of here so that I get to kiss you as much as I want.” What was that? I definitely didn’t plan to say that.

“Alright then,” He stretched forth his hands, grinning mischievously from ear to ear. “I’ll make sure we get out of here safely.”

The way he helped me climb down the window carefully and gently made me forget temporarily that he was a Made man, however, it didn’t take long for me to remember his frightening personality when he pulled out a gun from his holster and put a bullet through the brain of an attacker I hadn't even seen tiptoeing around us.

“What in God’s name was that?” I yelled.

He didn’t have the chance to reply to me as a bullet whizzed past us and shattered the glass window behind us.

“Fucker!” He cursed angrily and crouched to the ground, dragging me alongside him. He took a quick look at my face and when he realised that I was injured, he sucked in a deep breath.

“Now listen to me, Guilia, your father and some other Made men from the Famiglia are here to help get you out, but all our plans will go haywire if you don’t do as I say.”

Even though fear had gripped my heart, it didn’t cloud my sense of reasoning.

“I’m listening,” I told him calmly.

“I studied this place properly before coming in and I know that there is a hidden exit door that can lead us directly outside the building. All we need to do is to distract the guards protecting it and we’ll be safe.” He looked around as if searching the space for any other attacker hoping to use the element of surprise against us.

“How are we going to distract them?”

“That’s where you come in.” He'd thought of this. It was eminent in his composure and countenance.

I caught on, instantly horrified. “You want me to seduce them?”

He nodded without giving me the opportunity to object to his asinine plan and grabbed my hand.

“Let’s get to work.”

We passed through numerous hallways and quietly climbed down the staircases until we reached the last flight of stairs that led to an underground passage.

“Where are we?” My voice echoed.

“Close to the door I told you about. This is the time to distract them.”

“And what if they try to have their way with me?” I could still feel the phantom fingers of the man who had tried to have his way with me. I didn't feel so sure about putting myself in such a situation voluntarily.

His eyes darkened. “I won't give them the chance to act on their perverted thoughts,” He replied gruffly, possessiveness resonating behind his words.

Fortunately the bolt of the door was unlocked and I wondered if it was intentional.

The door creaked slightly as I pulled it open and the sound of a rifle being cocked caused me to stagger back in fear. The hallway which was right after the exit was dimly lit, but I could make out the guard’s face.

The moment he sensed my presence, he turned around and fixed me a questioning look and pointed the muzzle at my head. My heart skipped a beat, but I put on a brave façade and drew closer to him seductively, the only way I knew how to.

“How did you get here?” He barked and then his eyes grew wide with realization. “Wait a minute, aren’t you the Famiglia girl?”

There was no time to think about my virtue here so I did the only thing that came to my mind and roughly lowered the neckline of my dress, my boobs on display.

He blinked, lowering the gun with his eyes trained lustily on my breasts. “Ummm…” He drawled and gulped, taking a step forward.

I took a step back and my body hit the wall and that was when all hell broke loose. Vladimir jumped right out of his hiding spot and flung his knife at the bridge of his nose. Blood gushed out of his face as he slumped down on the floor, his body jerking uncontrollably until his body turned limp.

“That’s for lusting after my woman,” Vladimir scowled at him.

The energy to refute his claim on me as his woman was lacking as the constant sight of blood made me dizzy and weary. My stomach was unsettled and once we found a way out of here I was so sure that I’d throw up everything in my system.

“Let’s get out of here,” He dragged me by the arm and we made our way to the back gate.

Vladimir kept shooting as we walked. I couldn’t see much of the action as he tucked my face inside his jacket until he informed me that we had gotten to the Jeep. He opened the passenger door for me and helped me inside it without breathing a word. Strangely, his silence unsettled me.

He wasn’t a quiet person and he had always enjoyed teasing me and even though I had wished for him to stop bugging me earlier, I couldn’t help but feel that something had gone awfully wrong.

“What’s the matter, Vladimir? You’ve been quiet since we left the building, have I done something wrong?”

A scoff cracked from his throat as he drove slowly down the road. “Are you asking because you care?”

My eyes narrowed in confusion as I tried to digest his question. “Of course, you saved my life so I care. I’d be foolish not to.” I said with all the sincerity I could muster.

He took a right turn and we found ourselves in the woods with a thick fog forming a canopy over the trees. Now that we were out in the open I could tell that it was evening. Over thirty hours had passed without me spending any of them with my son.

“I miss Dalian,” I confessed and glanced at his face.

His jaw clenched tightly, a muscle ticking in his jaw before he let the tension roll away as he let out a sigh. “Don’t worry, you’ll be with him soon.”

“Well, since I’ve answered your question I think it’s only fair you answer mine,” I said to lighten the tension in the car.

He sighed again in resignation. “I hated how that man looked at you, and you want to know what’s worse? That I couldn’t carve out his balls and make him die painfully for wanting to have you, for even thinking of it.” The anger in his voice was lethal and I couldn’t even stop my body from trembling.

“So why didn’t you do it?”

“I had a duty to save you first. Allowing my anger to take the lead at that point would have put you in so much danger, and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if anything had happened to you.” His hot gaze settled on my face and I looked away, hiding my face from the intensity of the concern in his eyes, worried that he would be able to see my true feelings.

If he had said all these things to me two years ago, I wouldn’t have considered getting married to Alessio.

Having nothing to say to him, I fiddled with my thumb, hoping that he’d drive faster so I could hop out of his Jeep and away from him as I wasn’t sure I’d be able to handle my emotions if our proximity was prolonged.

And then out of the blues, he said. “I want to see Dalian once we get back to Chicago.”

My lips parted and as if the universe approved of his request, the jeep came to an abrupt halt.