"Even if the world was burning, I'd still choose you."

Antonio's words repeated over and over again during the trip to where my mum was known to be last. The girl was dropped safely to the sister, she messaged me and cried for hours on the phone. Something we've managed to change. Aunt Mal said she'd look after them and let them join the Doomsday patrol.

The houses reduced in quantity as we headed further and further into the fields. Antonio's fingers felt like feathers as he traced them up and down my arm.

Every once in a while, he studied my demeanour and would ask a random question, which was probably on his mind for a while. In fact, he would ask question every five minutes. And it is about now, where he would ask again another question.

"Why didn't you tell me Mal was your aunty?" He said.

Somehow, Antonio had managed to figure out who Aunt Mal really was. Either, he suspected it or he managed to find out from his connections.

" I didn't think it was safe to tell you." I said.

Antonio sighed, "when will you feel safe?"

I nudged him as we took the first exit in the roundabout, "When you tell me something about you."

Antonio stiffened up, and then rubbed the back of his neck.

"What do you want to know?" He said.

Asking him questions felt like speaking in a foreign language, even though I brought him into this dilemma, no part of me actually anticipated getting this far into the conversation.

I didn't even think Antonio would agree to being asked questions.

"Why do you trust me?" I asked.

He stared at the snow outside and locked eyes with me, "I respect your actions and reasonings behind them."

We turned into a side road.

"Why do you want to help me?"

"Because you deserve answers, you deserve revenge and if that means destroying everything including me then so be it." He said, "I didn't know your mum was innocent, I was told she killed my friends. Francis told me that, so how do you think I would react when seeing you?"

Even in this situation, he's right. Not to kill anyone but he didn't know my mum was innocent. There could be a chance of that happening to me if he really thought someone was guilty. He could just go ahead without any evidence. Which is very, very bad.

"I need more than that to trust you." I said.

He sighed, "I don't beg for your trust. I just want you to feel like you have someone you can rely on. You don't have to do this alone."

"I need to you to do something for me." I said before I could continue he interrupted me.

He stopped the car and leaned closer to me, "what will I get as a reward?"

I gulped.

"Whatever you want." I said.

He grinned as he crossed his arms and propped his legs up on the dashboard.

"I want you to teach me how to ride a bike. And before you say, why don't you know? Because no one had time to teach me." He muttered.

"I thought you would want something else." I said and he locked eyes with me.

"No, Sophie. I don't take advantage of situations like that." He said.

Antonio turned away to face the windshield, where the sky cleared up and the sun lit up his face as though he were something celestial. Something I could lose. Something I wanted to keep safe.

I stopped the car where there was no sign of anyone. Antonio finally faced me as I locked the doors. He clicked his tounge which made my heart race.

My fingers traced his jaw, then down his neck, and then down to his chest where he shuddered.

"Shall I show you what I want?" I said.

He tried to say something but it wouldn't come out.

I traced my hand lower, "wouldn't you want to know how it feels?"

He pulled me on top of him so I was essentially straddling him. My hair brushed against his face as I leaned closer. Antonio touched my cheek tenderly.

"When you take over, I want you to think about it." He whispered, "For a really long time."

My stomach churned. He's right. Again. By now, I should've known that Antonio is the type of person to make sure you're left waiting.

A part of me doesn't want to wait anymore. In this touch deprived world where the only thing you can do is hurt and kill each other.

"Let's go to where you said my mum was last." I muttered, "Don't make me regret waiting."

He let go of me and took over the steering wheel. He accelerated down the roads as though he were on a cloud nine and stopped at a small urban road.

"She was here." He said.

The road narrowed the further down we looked. A garage opened to fix cars, a set of apartments and a club right next to it.

He opened the door for me, and locked arms with me. From that gesture alone, I knew two of three things.

One, we're not safe here.

Two, Antonio likes me.

People walked around, in all black and saw my tattoos. Some acknowledged me. It made my skin crawl. They know me.

Antonio led us to the bar which almost felt like there were millions of people in this small space. Half of them knew who we are. They stopped in their tracks when they saw Antonio.

He leaned towards my ear, "Do you want to show me what you want now?"

My chest ached when he said those words. It's as though he's ignited an insatiable fire within me where all I can think about is him.

"Yeah." I leaned close to him.

He grabbed my waist and made circles with his thumb.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and noticed his cheeks stained pink.

He pressed my body against the wall, there was no room to hide and no room from trying to avoid it.

He grabbed my neck gently, "do you know how long I've thought about you? You're driving me insane."

My eyes locked with his.

"I want to keep out that way." I whispered as he kissed my forehead.

He grinned, "Let's do what we do best." As he held my hand and ran up the stairs.

My stomach churned as he rubbed my hand.

My mum was last here.