Her brisk steps managed to supply enough distance for her to feel propitious in her endeavor. But with the feeling of the rough stone against her dainty feet, she was pained but still managed to remain unseen by the guards pacing the grounds. After a handful of minutes perspiring from both nervousness and quickening steps, she came to yet another obstacle that stood in front of her as a nine foot gate that surrounded the entire mansion. Taking a final look back into the direction of the home that Maximus intended to keep her concealed within, she used the darkest corner of the gate to attempt to scale it, making it a few feet before hearing rapid Italian being ordered in her direction.
Risking her life at this lone attempt to regain her freedom, Gabriella now balanced upon the top of the fencing, lowering her gaze to verify her footing so she would not fall directly onto her face or her ass. But when her eyes returned to the guards, she saw them now with lowered weapons and their boss’s son now standing in the center of the long row of intimidating figures. He just continued to watch her with an unsettling glare as if he was not worried that she had managed to outsmart him. Gabriella completed her descent upon the gate until she was now separated from him by the metal makeup of the fence. However, before she attempted to place further distance between them, Gabriella lifted the middle finger on her dominant hand before c*****g her head, and racing into the opposite direction of the luxurious home.
With nothing but green landscape in front of her for about half a mile until she would be allowed a brief section of woods before making it into the ‘city’ portion of this desolate island, Gabriella focused on arriving with proper civilization with the hopes of gaining assistance. But she found the woods to be increasingly difficult with her lack of shoes and the levels of the branches changing to different levels and causing thin lacerations onto her skin as she attempted to tear through them. With every dozen steps, she would turn behind her to ensure she kept the lead, all while moving further from the sight of Maximus or any of his men having followed her beyond the hill.
Finally succeeding in enduring the unkind nature that left its mark on her, Gabriella embraced the fifty five degrees that she found herself within while racing down the stone that made up the entire street-screaming for help.
“PLEASE HELP ME! I’VE BEEN KIDNAPPED!” She cried out to the city before finding every one of them looking at her as if she had been certifiably insane. A woman dressed in nothing more than a single black robe and red pajamas all made of silk having now been tattered from the reach of the possessive woods, she understood how she must have appeared to them. But as she found a house at her side to have seemed sympathetic to her as it lit with the promise of a rather comfortable existence as a woman lingered in the window with a sorrow-filled expression, she approached them only to find the doors locked and the windows forced shut.
Many who passed her insulted her in their native tongue as she appeared rather distraught and crazy as although their phrases may have differed, the same words used to describe her had been “Pazza Americana”. Without the need of a translator, she realized how this had not been a term of endearment and she was simply being called crazy. However, she had not given up just yet as she continued to ask for help from those on the street, but found every one of them to pull away from her...almost as if they had been afraid of something-or someone. To test this theory, she refrained from explaining where she had come from and had instead asked for help, whereas she was gifted the kindness of a single local, who when learning she had escaped ‘the house up the hill’ as she simply pointed to it, then slipped onto his bike and sped away as if he was attempting to beat lighting before it touched the ground.
“Please!’ She begged the remaining citizens of this city before she was left entirely abandoned aside from a few set of onlookers that took her mental breakdown as a form of entertainment. Incredibly frustrated with the selfish souls surrounding her, she continued to distance herself from the Arcangeli Estate by moving forward before her eyes came to Luca moving towards her from the other side of the street-scanning the faces of girls similar to her build and long hair pulled upright. He managed to spot her among the lack of a crowd before she raced throughout the terrain and back towards the forest as she believed, if anything, she could use it as a hiding space as it was vast in horizontal length and separated by a small river that seemed to lead to the ocean that surrounded the entire island.
But as her feet met with the familiar ground that brought so many scratches onto her body, she was called after by Luca who was hot on her tail. “It is dangerous, Miss Driscoll!” He yelled to her in English as she ignored his attempt to cease her as she was not a simple girl staring down the sight of danger. She had existed alongside it for the majority of her life, whether it was the risks she had taken as an adolescent to her chosen profession where illness and injury had been possible every second she was on duty. But there was something about being in Maximus’s hold that was a different type of danger as it was entirely unpredictable and ever changing-just like her attraction to him had reflected back to her. Running from this, she continued to tear through the low branches before stilling at the sight of something she could only recognize by its hiss.
Set halfway beneath a portion of low rock where the water from the near lake head dampened the ground, a coiled snake colored within a pattern of gold and black illuminated by a single streak of moonlight acting as a stagelight to the dangerous ophidian. Gabriella slowly inched backwards in place, hoping that she would be able to refrain from receiving the pricks onto her skin caused by an aggravated serpent, but watched as the being slowly lifted its head and leveled it towards her before she was forced against a sudden thick mass. Uncaring who it belonged to, she pressed her body into it before the deafening sound of a gun having been fired had frozen her entirely.
Recognizing the faint smell of cologne that was an unspoken yet apparent trademark to the dangerous man who had her in his clutches once again, Gabriella rose her eyes upwards to view him as she saw kindness in his eyes as he looked to her in temporary relief. It was clear that he was also afraid she would have been bitten by the serpentine beast, and now favored his ability to rescue her. But as quickly as she had fallen into this shared comfort, she pushed her way off of him and now stood beside the deceased snake that laid motionless at her side; a single bullet having obliterated its small skull.
“Do you understand now how you cannot escape me?” He questioned as she looked back towards the direction of the village, also managing to scan her surrounding areas, to learn that she had been alone with Maximus.
“Why did you let me leave? You could have had them shoot me on sight! I told half of this ignorant town that you kidnapped me-”
“Do I appear worried?” He interjected as she narrowed her eyes at him as he now carried the gun back behind him until it rested in his belt. Gabriella loathed how he managed to silence her with his arrogant yet correct words as he seemed able to get under her skin in a way nobody had quite managed to before; not even her wiseacre colleagues. “You are the one who should be trembling...For you are wasting time in these trivial attempts to leave.”
She accepted his words as truth as she was forced to understand for herself how the entire town had feared him-just as she had-if not more. “Now get your ass back to the villa.” He commanded as he began to venture throughout the woods as she paused before looking back towards the water-theorizing if she could make the journey across the sea to the second piece of land in the spacious distance. Realizing she had a better chance to keep those she cared for alive by remaining put and doing what was asked of her, she accepted this fate and followed Maximus back to the house.
But as they now managed to cross the threshold, he now stood behind her before ordering her to return to the study. When the door was closed, he watched her cross the room and move towards the desk before locking the door behind him. The sound of this lock sliding into place had returned her focus to him as he c****d his head momentarily to the side before his eyes descended her entire body, somewhat injured and damp from her escape.
“Take off your clothes.” Her eyes enlarged in fear as this had been what she had come to fear the most. “I will not ask you again.” He explained as he lifted his gun from his back and held it in front of him effortlessly with his secondhand over the other wrist as it hung over his bulge. Just as her mind began to witness him in a humane light from having saved her life, she had returned to her resentment for him as he inched closer to her. “I have to be sure you aren’t hiding anything…” He explained as she breathed a sigh of relief internally to know he would not touch her in a s****l fashion; at least not with his hands-but his eyes had taken their place as her fingers moved to the tie of her robe.