Finding Forgiveness

Even Andrea seemed taken aback for a second. He stared at me dumbstruck for half a second before his face hardened again.

He pulled my wrist down hard so that I slammed forwards into his chest and was firmly in his grasp.

“Speak to me like that one more time, I dare you,” he said, squeezing my hands in an excruciating grip.

I hesitated and he smirked before turning back out to watch the clearing and repositioning his gun.

Distract him.

“Get. The. Hell. Off. Me,” I repeated this time even more intensely deep and clear.

The surprise in Andrea’s eyes satisfied me. I didn’t so much enjoy the slap in the face a few seconds later but at least his hand was now on me not the trigger.

My eyes began to water from the impact but I wasn’t going to cry. I held a straight face and glared up at him as he grabbed my cheeks in his hand and glared at me with his dark eyes.

There was a sheer layer of sweat across his forehead and he squinted his long eyelashes a little as the sun poured through the branches above us but it didn’t make him any more human. He was as cold and psychotic as ever.

“I don’t know what’s given you this sudden burst of confidence but you better get rid of it. I’m not gonna tolerate this,” he replied, every word slashing across his lips.

I slapped his hand off me and pushed his chest as hard as I could, “And I’m not going to tolerate you treating me like shit anymore.”

He raised an eyebrow but I’m wasn’t going to back down.

“You’re challenging me, Blanca?” he asked. “Again? Do you not remember what happened last time you tried this?”

Alessio was murdered. That’s what happened.

“You plan to murder my people anyway,” I hissed. “That’s why we are here. What difference does it make?”

He let out a short frustrated breath, “You’re getting brave, huh?”

I didn’t break the eye contact.

“Is it because you know Mr Alpha is near and you think he might protect you?” he scorned. “Because he won’t. All he’s going to do is fall to the ground with a bullet in his head, leaving you hopelessly with me forever. So unless you want the rest of your life to be hellish, I suggest you shut up and sit down.”

He then began pulling me back to the ground but I launched my knee into his stomach. He didn’t even flinch and bar the slight exhale of air, was entirely unaffected.

He hit me again but I only hit him back across the face. I went to kick him too but this time he caught my leg and pushed me to the ground, straddling me in the process.

He brought his hand to his lip and dabbed it with his fingers. My slap had somehow inflicted a cut across his bottom lip that oozed blood.

He stared down at his now bloody fingers and his eyes snapped down to me. I was trapped underneath his weight, unable to move and my heart beat fast. Not with fear or anticipation anymore though. But instead with the pure fury that had unknowingly been building up in me for weeks to which I had now opened the lid to and was now all pouring out.

“You are so done for,” he growled.

I didn’t care. His hands were no longer on the gun and his eyes well distracted from the clearing.

“What are you going to do?” I hissed, trying my best to provoke him more. “What if I’m not scared of you anymore?”

“Then I’d be concerned that you’ve finally lost your mind,” he replied. “You should be scared because you know what I’m capable of.”

“You certainly have a lot of confidence,” I stated. “You think that you and your army of rogues can beat Alpha Loren? You’ve already lost to him in a challenge once, what makes you think you stand a chance, you arrogant twat!”

He suddenly grabbed hold of his gun again and held it straight to my head, “Don’t say another word,” he snarled.

“Or what?” I spat in response.

His finger snapped onto the trigger. I don’t know if he would have pulled it. His anger was certainly high enough for murder and I wasn’t taking any chances so I reached my hand up and shoved the barrel off my head, causing his finger to slip on the trigger in the process and to shoot the ground. The shot sound alone was tremendous even without the squawks of a million birds as they fled the forest.

A few seconds later, Luciano’s voice came through on the walky talky, “Andrea, they heard that shot. Looks like they’re coming in prepared.

“You’ve blown our cover,” he hissed getting immediately to his feet and hauling me with him.

He then shouted something out in Spanish and all the men fled their stations and into the forest.

“Abort!” he shouted into his walky talky and a few minutes later the trucks were back.

“Congratulations,” Andrea said shoving me into one of the trucks. “You won this time. But your Leonardo’s time will come.”

The next week was hellish. Andrea remained furious for days and of course, didn’t hesitate to take it out on me. But no matter how much he hurt me, it didn’t make me regret what I did. I’d endure anything for Leo.

Luciano still lurked around too, making snide comments at every opportunity and throwing all of his nasty tactics and resources into provoking me. I had to try my best not to retaliate because Andrea would always take his side but when he mentioned how ‘sexy’ my four-year-old daughter, Lili, would be when she grew up, I couldn’t resist any more and much to his amusement, I completely lost it.

After throwing a glass tequila bottle at him and inflicting a minor cut on his forehead, Andrea intervened and beat me so hard I passed out until the next morning when I woke up with a thudding headache and Luciano sat on the armchair opposite the bed grinning from ear to ear.Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

“You are relentless,” I groaned, “Please, can you just leave me alone?”

“It’s good to spend time with family,” he said.

“What did I ever do to you?” I asked. “I got you kicked out the pack… twice, fair enough. But you hated me long before that.”

“I hate pretty much everyone,” he replied with a shrug. “Don’t take it personally.”

“Seriously, Luciano,” I said slowly sitting up. “What did I do?”

He paused for a few seconds furrowing his dark eyebrows as if he was having to try hard to remember.

“Your confidence annoys me,” he said finally. “And it’s entertaining to wind you up because you give a good reaction. Perfectly demonstrated last night.”

“So basically you’re just a sadist?” I clarified.

“We established that years ago,” he replied in a bored tone. “Sadist, psychopath, sociopath, maniac… whatever. I’m not going to deny it.”

Just then the bedroom door opened and Andrea marched in with a scowl on his face.

“She’s awake,” he stated.

“Indeed she is,” Luciano replied a glint in his eye.

“Blanca, get up,” Andrea grunted clapping his hands, “It’s my birthday today.”

“No wonder you’re so happy,” I remarked under my breath.

“It’s my 20th so I’m having a party here tonight. I want the entire house swept and cleaned and you need to cook some food.”

I didn’t reply and instead just buried myself in the duvet.

“Ay!” he shouted. “Guests arrive at 6 pm. If it’s not done by then, there’ll be consequences. And do something about that black eye while you’re at it.”