Chapter 20
1238 Words
—MICHELE—
It’s Friday night and I have exactly a week to get everything in order. This plan has to be perfectly organised for us to get Amelia back unharmed. I’ve been given a lot of information by people and I’m beginning to get the picture of what the inside of Ezio’s property looks like. Elena has drawn up a floor plan for me to show me where Ezio’s office is. The only problem is that we don’t know where Amelia’s exact location will be at the time of our arrival. If we were to do this discreetly then we need to be in and out as quickly as possible.
“Um, Mr... Rossi?” Danielle called from the doorway. Her delicate persona expressed as she glided slowly over to my desk.
“Call me Michele” I bluntly replied.
“Michele...”. I smiled at her and beckoned her to take a seat. She sat down in front of me, her eyes filled with fear and concern. I already knew what she wanted to talk about without her opening her mouth.
“Your mother and father are going to be fine” I reassured her. Her eyes widened impressively and she relaxed her posture.
“But if I was in danger where I was, then my parents must be too. What if they go to the house and hurt them when they can’t find me?” She asked. I could tell that she has seen one too many movies to be predicting such a thing. I rolled my eyes and held out my hand for her to hold.
“My men have already got everything covered. Your parents have been given a free flight to Australia, their hotel has been pre-booked and paid for and I have a few of my closest allies from there keeping an eye on them” I explained to her. She was silent as she tried to process the fact that all of this has happened in the space of a couple of days.
“Australia?!” She exclaimed.
“It’s far enough away so that they aren’t found” I said.
“But, weren’t they suspicious of the random free holiday they were given?” She asked.
“We made it look like they were picked out in a prize draw from one of the formal events they had been to for your dad’s work”
“What about me?”
“What about you?” I repeated back.
“Aren’t they going to be worried that they’re leaving me all alone? I know for a fact my parents wouldn’t just f**k off to another country without even speaking to me or arranging someone to watch over me whilst they were gone!” She panicked and I squeezed her hand gently.
“They think your on a school trip” I confessed confidently.
“What are you talking about?”
“I know the head master of your school pretty well and he owes me a favour. He has been calling your parents and sending them confirmation letters to do with a ‘trip’ that he had organised a week ago” I explained.
“And they believed it?!” She exclaimed.
I opened up my phone and clicked on a photo that was from my allies in Australia. They sent a photo of her parents arriving at the hotel with their suitcases and their summery clothes on. Her mum looked really excited as she looked at her dad who was rummaging for something in his pocket. Danielle’s face dropped slightly as she realised that this wasn’t happening for her to have fun, it was all for her safety.
“That explains why they’ve been banging on about getting some anti travel sickness tablets” she said to herself.
“Why me?” She asked, changing the subject onto her.
“There is a man called Ezio who is very, very dangerous. He has killed a lot of people who were a part of my life and he has another captive. You are here so that you are not used as a weapon against me or anyone else”. She raised brow and sniggered to herself.
“A weapon? Have you seen the size of me?!” She expressed rolling her eyes.
“Not physically” I avoided.
“What do you mean?” She squared her eyes, demanding I start being more straight forward.
“Your sister was being controlled by Ezio and helped him to get a hold of my Amelia. The way that he has been controlling Alexandra is by threatening to find you and cause you pain in front of her. His threats were slightly more sinister than what I’m making them out to be but you get the idea” I smiled at her.
“So I’m here because of how weak and pathetic my so called sister is then?” She snapped and stood up from the chair. I bit the inside of my lip and she stormed out the room. I couldn’t yell at her or lose control of my anger because she’s only young.
“She seems happy” Nico joked as he entered the room. I huffed and rubbed my head.
“I’ve just told her everything. We’ve spent a week trying to keep her parents away from this, even though her mother doesn’t deserve it” I scoffed.
“You have to remember little brother, she doesn’t know anything of her mother’s past life. It’s not for us to tell or judge her. Danielle is use to an ordinary life; nothing to worry about other than what other kids in school think about her. She has only ever lived with two parents that love her, she’ll calm down. She’s not use to the way we do things” he reassured me, trying to get me to see it from her point of view. I hated what her mother did to Alexandra but she seems to have done a better job with Danielle.
“I suppose so”
“She just needs time, she’ll come round. I mean, look at Amelia... she’s risked her life to keep us safe and you know for a fact she wouldn’t have done that when we first brought her here” he smiled.
“Yeah I know” I replied.
“I’ve got a business meeting with the owner of the ‘il grande leone’ tomorrow. Do you still want me to pay off the final instalment or have you changed your mind?” He asked me. I had almost forgotten about that bar, I’ve been so distracted by all of this Ezio business that it hasn’t even crossed my mind.
“Give him the the full amount he wants for it, we’ve got enough going on at the moment and I want this deal closed” I instructed and Nico smiled.
“Will do”.
- Writer
