A/N:
It's come to my notice that jnly few (might I say no one) clearly does the job of liking the chapter and commenting. It's only a simple work with free, yet you all find out ways to demotivate me from even uploading the chapters.

...

song:
Ultraviolence by Lana Del Rey

NUMBNESS. That's what I feel. I glare at the back of Xavier and Carlos who stand in front of me like a protective shield to hide from that dickhead.

"Ah. There he is." Alexander waves his hand in the air. "Meet our newest submit contest winner."

"More like virginity winner," Monica grumbles. Alessia chokes out her laugh but quickly turns it into a cough.

"That's all. Thank you." How many times does he need to introduce himself?

"Can we go? We have done our job here." Monica speaks.

Christian nods his head. "Sure," He then turns back to look at me. "Shall we, capo?"

"We shall," I speak after being silent for the entire twenty minutes during his introduction to the portrait and its depiction matching my state.

His eyes swipe to mine and widen. I grin maliciously. " Guess we did have the pleasure of meeting you. Now, excuse us." He stands frozen in his spot as we gather ourselves and walk out with me raising my head high.

Suddenly the countable number didn't sum it up as we proceeded to walk towards the exit. "Wait. Where is Aristide?"

All five of them look at me and then at each other. Then Christian speaks. "He went to the washroom."

I look down at my watch and chuckle humorously. "I guess he is doing his poop too, then."

"Or maybe the hard dick needs to soften a bit." The voice hisses behind us and we turn back to look at Aristide who strides confidently.

"What do you mean?" My brows furrow as I look at him.

"Oh come on. You left me in blue balls and I have to soften it a bit or else maybe it could have been still stiff and torn apart my pant. You don't want that, do you?" He innocently looks at me.

What happened during that gap? Cause when he arrived with us, a cold face was there and a hint of curiosity lies in his eyes but now everything diminished. I walk in front of him and grab his shirt pulling him towards me and sniffing him around.

"You drank." He rolls his eyes and lifts his two fingers. "Only two?"

He raises his brow. "I guess I am not that tipsy to forget my fingers are showing two or is there another one I didn't know?" He bends sideways to look at his fingers and shakes his head lifting his head. "I guess you are drunk to find more than two fingers."

I release a tired sigh, exhausted by a useless night of not finding anything. "Let's go."

Aristide firmly nods his head. "We must." Just when we are about to walk out of the art gallery someone calls me from behind. We all turn back and find Tommasu running toward us. Aristide steps closer to my side. "Who is he?"

"A breeding stalker, I guess." I turn my head to grin at him. "After all your master has huge fans."

He rolls his eyes but keeps static on that approaching figure. "Caterina."

I roll my eyes. "I know my name." Monica giggles pulls out her gun from her hidden slot and sensually glides her finger on the metallic body. Tommasu finds the sight to be slightly depressing but doesn't comment anything to her. He again lands his eyes on me and softly speaks. "How are you, Caterina?"

I shrug. "As fine as I can be."

He nods his head and stutters before asking me. "Are you still-" He doesn't complete his sentence. He fidgets in his spot knowing that he is ashamed of the sentence to complete.

"Am I still single? Am I still killing people? Am I still the capo? Am I still the broken girl you left when she needed the most? There are so many possibilities for your half-left-hanging question, Mr. Cantu. Do enlighten me on which question shall I need to answer?" I fold my arms watching him and his invisible motives.

He sighs, lifting his head and looking at me with sad eyes. "Are you happy?" That kind of shocked me. I never expected him to ask that shit.

"So, you're her ex, am I right?" Aristide asks after keeping his mouth silent for a period.

Tommasu's eyes shift to Aristide who casually looks at him and then turns to me. "Am I?"

"Yes, you're right." I nod my head. I lift slightly and whisper near his ear. "Are you jealous?"

He gazes at me with an amused expression. "Jealous? Well, I guess I'm the holder of the jar, not him."

Before I can retort back, Tommasu asks, "Who is he?"

"Her boyfriend." This time Christian replies.

What's with these people stealing my lines?

"Boyfriend?" He furrows his brows in the inspection as he tries to search for any loving gesture as we had during our time.

"Hold me tight, baby. We are going to ride to the fullest of our dreams."

He had his ride to his maximum limit extension. I just sigh and then Aristide tells with his throaty voice. "Yes," He looks at me and smirks bending down a little to peck my cheek and then standing aloof. "I'm hers."

Tommasu chokes a mocking laugh. "Caterina? I thought you had some upgraded standards." He appears to be disgusted by Aristide's features.

"I didn't have earlier but guess now I do." I lean my head against Aristide's shoulder and pasted a fake smile and look up with adoring eyes to find those dark orbs observing me. "Sometimes fate does a trick to let you meet your one."

My eyes stalk his movements and witness him clenching his fist. I smirk internally. "So, have you both kissed?" My back stiffen at his asked question. Spending my twenty-seven years I did let my one thing remain a virgin and that is my lips from kissing someone. I never do kisses as they are another level of intimacy that allows me to gag during certain moments while recalling those events. I tried twice but none succeeded. So, yeah I guess my lips are virgin. Not even Tommasu's lips touched mine.

When silence is the only answer Tommasu gets, he captures it quickly smirking at us. "Then I guess I still have time to make you mine like how I did in the past."

My fingers fumble with Aristide's revealed pearl necklace trying to think about the right words but Aristide beat me to it. "We are at starting stage, Mr. Cantu. I hope when that stage will arrive you will get the front seat to watch the show, right my dark angel?" I peer my eyes at him and smile, the first ever genuine smile I ever offered to him, and nod my head. He then looks at Tommasu. "Then I guess it's your energy loss to have something waste of time. Let's go, my dark angel."

"When you will get bored with this item. Do know I am always waiting for you." Tommasu yells from behind us.

I flip the bird. "Then I guess it will be the time I must shave my head and accept being a saint."

"Tommasu baby, why are you here?" My eyes immediately snap to look at the female high pitch voice and found an elegant woman coming down the last stairs and joining our concert.

"Baby?" Monica hisses and with a hold, over her, she rushes toward him and kicks his shin. "Take that you baby piece of rotten shit. How dare you to still appear in front of my bestie and spurt nonsense comedy?"

Alessia and Christian run together and each holds one side. Both of them glare at each other and tug Monica behind so that she steps away from Tommasu. The elegant woman gasps and cries. "Why did you do this?"

Monica still struggles from the brutal hold but tells her, "Ask your baby about his past and blow his dick with your heels if you are a feminist."

"Where did the term feminist appears?" Aristide mumbles.

I shrug. "I think she reads a lot about heartbreak kind of love story so that the anger she had over those villains seems to get blown here."

"However, she did the right thing. If she didn't do it then I could have done that." I look at him with raised brows. My inside produces thousands of wild animals dancing and jumping. The ache in my chest intensifies with the intense look he gives me. Suddenly, I am shy too shy and I fucking blush. I turn to look on the other side but he captures the moment and makes me turn to look at him.

"Tu es migonne quand tu rougis, Caterina."

I appear to be offended by his given term. "I don't look cute, Leone. I look sexy."

"No, you look cute."

"Sexy."

"Cute."

"Se-"

"It seems my fight is pretty useless after he looks more wounded by your cute acts." We both snap out of our word zone and look at Monica who gives her secret smile.

"Can we go?" This time Carlos grumbles and angrily hits his shoulder blade against Aristide's as he walks to the car.

"What happened to him?" Aristide mumbles. He is drunk.

"Ask his wife not me. Let's go. Bianca and her child are alone." I state and we all walk to the car and enter.

-

"What kind of drink you had?" I repeatedly ask him. "And give me the description of the person you offered the drink to you. I will personally ask him or her to make one for me." I went to my room and changed but then found out Aristide only removed his blazer and was puking his container out.

His swollen eyes fix a glare at me. "I don't know. It's just that I was angry at you when I had a conversation with someone who told me- wait I am angry at you. Why didn't you tell me that the hospital where my mom resided was under attack?"

I mid-pause cleaning his mouth as we sit on the bathroom floor and his mouth near the wall-hung toilet. "Who told you this?"

He shakes his head. "That's not important, Caterina. The main thing that must be is: you must've told me about it. Thank God, I called Mom and she answered all my firing questions. If I couldn't have heard her voice, oh you've no idea what I would have done to you."

"I am going to ask Alexander to give me the CCTV footage and find the guy who gave you the news."

He stiffens around me and turns to look at me with dead eyes. "No."

"No? You aren't my master, Aristide. I need to find the guy who gets so near to you to get arrested so that he does not hurt you or your mother again."

"No need for that."

I stand up. "I will do it and-"

"I killed him."

I mid-pause and turn to look at him. "What did you say?"

He looks more disturbed. "I killed him. I fucking killed someone just because he seemed threatened to my area. Just because I willingly put him into the position of meeting Hell."His red eyes were swollen and that summed up the whole thing, he didn't drink because he felt like it. He drank to consume those wild thoughts. He looks like a lost child. He lifts his eyes. "Does that make me a bad person?"

I shake my head. "Never. We are wrong and right but all the difference that sums up is the perspective. You killed him, I know that but there must be a reason behind doing it. No one does anything without any call well except psychos." I roll my eyes watching him stand.

He lightly chuckles and rests his head on my shoulder. "You should be happy I didn't call the police department after getting to know that the hospital was blown up and my mother was there."

"That's why I like you. You are patient unlike us."

He hums nuzzling his head to the hollow of my neck. "You're an illegal material yet I'm always attracted to you. Why wasn't my friend?" I stiffen while dragging him to his bed.

"Aurora?" He nods. Painful spikes poke my skin and break apart my chest and approach me near my heart. I rub the area but it doesn't lessen the spikes to bleed my heart.

I cough slightly. Why am I feeling like shit? "Do you like her?"

He shakes his head and then whines when I push him down the bed and lie him down. "The soup you were asking for," Bianca speaks from behind the closed door and I tell her to come inside. She bows slightly and keeps the soup on the bedside table.

"Did you put it?" I ordered her to mix the sleeping pills so that he doesn't fuss when the time comes. She nods her head and walks out not before closing the door.

"Poison?" He asks.

"Viagra," I state instead.

He chokes his laughter and slightly shifts right to give me space to sit. I take my seat and take the soup tray with me. I blow out the spoon that is filled with thick chicken soup and offer it to him. He opens his mouth and has it but the container seems to come out from the corner of his mouth. I again shift my position and sit beside him while leaning against the headrest. Then, I lift the bed table and stretch its legs making it stand, and put the soup on it.

He again rests his head on my shoulder blade. I wipe out the liquid with my thumb and caress him lightly. "Tell me about your parents." I loosely ask.

"My mother is a housewife and my father was a police officer. The end of the story. What's yours?"

"My mother was a prostitute and my father was the mob boss. End of the story."

"You know everything about me. So, what do you want to know?" He looks frustrated as angrily swallows the soup from my given hand.

"The normal childhood that I didn't have." I don't know why I needed to know those crappy memories from him but I am curious, just like him in this certain moment.

He remains silent for a while but then he replies quietly. "It was like a normal one. Dad always tries to be present in my every special moment. The time when I failed in math, mom was very angry at me and didn't talk to me for a long hour but then dad came and asked what happened, and when I told him I expected a big fat lecture and an eye of disappointment but he just sat there and smiled at me. Life will always give you another chance. Maybe this time you failed but next time you will do much better than this. If not, then next time but never lose your hope, my son."

"Your father was a good man," I mumble.

He sleepily nods his head, "He was, by Napoleon."

"My child calls me his Napoleon."

I quickly shake my head. No, they aren't the same person.

"He even tattooed my mother's name on his wrist."

My blurry eyes could only witness my savior who had a name-like tattoo on his wrist.

It can't be. I made Salvatore get inside the FBI department to find out the man who saved from that horror night but we never found out.

"Wh-" The door bursts open and Christian appears.

"The Russians invaded our place."

Xavier too appears with his tablet. He raises his brow and tells, "I found a tracker device here."

"How did you get to know?" Christian asks.

"Our radar provides my built-in firewall and system management. But this one proved to be different. So, I traced it and came here." Xavier replies.

"You do your search and Christian, send the people to the hidden underground passage. I'll deal here." He turns back to follow when I again say, "Also tell Carlos and everyone to get ready with their weapons and come back to lift Aristide and go to where I told you." He quickly nods his head and walks out, more like running.

"You find out the tracker device, I'm pulling out the guns." He nods his head eyeing the screen. I quickly bend to find out the hidden guns and strap them behind me.

"Holy shit."

I look up to find him pulling out a small black circular device from the blazer Aristide wore.

"Is he-" I quickly shake my head. "No, he isn't. It's the guy who talked to Aristide, He put the fucking device knowing that either path will be to his advantage. Fucking clever." I spit.

A loud blow has shaken our house. My wide eyes look at Xavier who looks back at me with the same speed. "Fuck." We both curse.

Xavier jumps to lift Aristide. He slaps him to wake up but unfortunately, he cannot. "Why isn't he waking up? How much alcohol did he consume?"

"I gave him sleeping pills."

"Fucking great." He groans lifting the hulk and staggers to walk. He looks at me over his shoulder. "I'm coming." A nod is all he gets before walking out. I take Aristide's phone and mine and then move to the balcony to know about the situation.

"Great." We are covered. I then tear the curtain. With the help of the lighter burn its tail and throw it on top of the guys securely near my sight. Another bomb and I'm afraid the next one will kill me. I rush down and meet Carlos and the others. All take their position waiting for my instruction as the huge door bangs repeatedly.

Like the Avengers we assemble, MCU should hire us next time if and only if we come out alive.

"Are you ready?" I speak out loud watching the hinges getting loosened.

Their bodies get stiff, shoulder blades sharpen, eyes trained on their prey they shout, "Yes."

I roll my shoulder blades. "Let's do it."

At last, the door opens, and all hell breaks.

Are you interested in teen romance?
If so, do look out for my new novella, Handicraft Stitches

Blurb :

"𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶?"
"𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙖𝙙𝙢𝙞𝙧𝙚𝙧."

𝗐𝗁𝖺𝗍 𝗐𝗂𝗅𝗅 𝗒𝗈𝗎 𝖽𝗈 𝗂𝖿 𝗌𝗈𝗆𝖾𝗈𝗇𝖾
𝗌𝗎𝖽𝖽𝖾𝗇𝗅𝗒 𝗐𝗋𝗂𝗍𝖾𝗌 𝗒𝗈𝗎 𝖺 𝗅𝖾𝗍𝗍𝖾𝗋?
𝗍𝗁𝖺𝗍 𝗍𝗈𝗈 𝖺 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳?

𝗄𝖾𝗇𝖽𝖺𝗅𝗅 𝖺𝗅𝗐𝖺𝗒𝗌 𝖺𝖽𝗆𝗂𝗋𝖾𝖽
𝗁𝖾𝗋 𝖼𝗋𝗎𝗌𝗁 𝖿𝖺𝗋 𝖺𝗐𝖺𝗒 𝖿𝗈𝗋 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴
𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝗇𝗈𝗐 𝗌𝗁𝖾 𝗍𝖺𝗄𝖾𝗌 𝗎𝗉 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗋𝗂𝗌𝗄
𝗍𝗈 𝖿𝗂𝗇𝖺𝗅𝗅𝗒 𝗍𝖾𝗅𝗅 𝗁𝗂𝗆 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝗍𝗁𝖾𝗋𝖾 𝗂𝗌
𝖺 𝗐𝖺𝗒 𝗍𝗈 𝗂𝗇𝗍𝖾𝗋𝖺𝖼𝗍 𝗁𝗂𝗆,
𝗍𝗁𝗋𝗈𝗎𝗀𝗁 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗍𝗋𝗂𝗉 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝗉𝖺𝗋𝖾𝗇𝗍𝗌
𝗆𝖺𝖽𝖾 𝖻𝗎𝗍 𝗐𝗂𝗍𝗁 𝗌𝖾𝖼𝗋𝖾𝗍𝗌 𝗍𝗁𝖾𝗂𝗋
𝖼𝗁𝗂𝗅𝖽𝗋𝖾𝗇 𝖺𝗋𝖾𝗇'𝗍 𝖺𝗐𝖺𝗋𝖾 𝗈𝖿.