Mafia Love (Faithfully Yours)

Chapter 4-1

Caleb watched Reese navigate his car through the affluent streets of Manhattan and smiled to himself, he could not believe that ten years had gone by since he and Derek had brought her home.

He had just picked her up from the airport, she was finally finished with college and was home for the summer. She didn’t look anything like the frightened little girl they had dropped off at boarding school to start of her eighth grade. She had grown into a striking beautiful young woman who was starting to slightly resemble her mother Leona. She had become very bold, responsible and assertive and you could see it in the way she carried herself and handled life and what it threw at her.

“So how does it feel to be a graduate of the University of Southern California?” He asked her.

“Do people generally know what it is they are supposed to be doing with their lives at the age of twenty two?” Reese joked making Caleb laugh out loud.

“I don’t think anyone out there knows what they are doing.” He chuckled. “You’re a smart one kiddo, you just graduated with an honours, you will figure it out.” He chuckled.

“Dad said the same thing over the phone.” She sighed. “But he wants me to wait till summer is over before I start looking for an architectural job.”

“I agree with him, you need to have a little fun. You have been an exemplary student.”

“Fun is spending summer by the beach in Cali, not being back in a house where I have to dodge Amanda’s mood swings.” She rolled her eyes. “It’s not like Amanda is still happy with me, we’re not going to be eating crumpets and sipping on tea or champagne at some fancy high tea party.”

It bugged Caleb that Reese had never been able to completely be free at home, most of the time when she was in boarding school and had to come home for summer she would opt to stay at his loft just so she didn’t have to deal with Amanda’s temper tantrums.

“Your stepmother surprisingly has toned down a lot when it comes to her attitude. I think it has something to do with not having any allies in the house including her own son.” Caleb said thoughtfully. As Kayden became older he started to realise that his mother was unreasonable and always looking for an argument.

Reese looked at him doubtfully, she really wished her dad hadn’t insisted she come home for summer this time.

“Well whatever you are going to be busy with, save me a little time will you so that we can hang out like old times.” She smiled at her uncle.

“Anything for you Reesey bear.” She blushed at his term of endearment for her that he still insisted on using even though she felt like she had grown out of it. “Take a left here, I have to do something quickly before I can take you to the house.” He instructed her.

They drove into the Salvatore estate, Reese was taken back to when she had been twelve years old and her father had dropped her and Kayden of at the same place for a party. It was still as beautiful and well kept as it had been all those years ago, Reese couldn’t help but look at the mansion with new found appreciation now that she had so much knowledge when it came to architecture.

“I’ll try to be quick, do not get out of the car.” Caleb said sternly and quickly took off. She turned on the radio and connected her iPod, John Mayer’s Neon started to fill the car making her smile as she sang along.

Twenty minutes later Reese was still waiting by the car and she needed to use the loo. She thought about her uncle asking her not to leave the car but he was taking too long. She kept contemplating about whether to go and look for him or just wait. She finally decided to get out of the car and slowly start walking in the direction she had seen him go.

The path he had taken seemed to lead her behind and further away from the mansion to a separate building that looked like a storage facility of some sort. There was a stonewall surrounding it and a slightly wide entrance that had a path way, Reese was fascinated by it as she kept walking. When she got there she started to hear loud groaning and yelling like someone was being beaten up.

She frowned, the sounds came again. She walked through the entrance and just outside the building by the yard, her uncle was standing over a bloodied man who seemed to be kneeling on the ground. He yelled something at him then punched him hard on the face. There were men that were standing around doing nothing, they just watched as Caleb continued to pummel into the man’s face. Shock reverberated though Reeses body as she slowly began to back away, she turned around and she began to run.

As she ran she was spotted by a guy who began to chase after her, her heart began to race. For some reason she was terrified and felt like she needed to get away.

“Hey! What are you doing here?! Hey stop!” Reese took off in a different direction to the one she came from, sprinting as this guy chased after her.

Why was Caleb beating up the one guy? Why was everyone standing there just watching? He had asked her to stay in the car, clearly he hadn’t wanted her to know why they had come to the estate. What would happen to her if she actually got caught?

She looked behind her and realised this guy was not going to give up until he caught her, he had a determined look on his face as he chased her and he was gaining on her. It didn’t help that she didn’t know her way around the estate, there seemed to be a stable a few yards away from her. She needed to find somewhere to hide, behind a hedge, a big tree or maybe one of the stable cubicles with the horses…Anything at this point would be welcome.

She had just reached the stable entrance when the guy tackled her and she fell to the ground. She quickly turned around to look at him.

He looked at her and frowned like he was confused. She backed away slowly as he got up too.

“There was no need for you to push me to the ground.” She moved forward and shoved him hard on his chest. She watched him stagger backwards and she got the weirdest feeling of deja vu like this had happened before.

“Excuse me but you are trespassing and snooping around! He looked at her like he was trying to figure something out as well. He didn’t even seem like he was out of breath when she was slowly trying to catch hers.

He watched her as she started to brush off the dirt from her denim dungarees. “You know you look kind of familiar.” He said looking into her piercing green eyes.

“That’s what dodgy people say as an entry to a stupid conversation.” Reese retorted still quite annoyed but still frightened because even though this guy didn’t seem to know what she had witnessed before she started running he could still cause trouble for her.

He chuckled at her response. “Says the girl that was caught snooping around my estate.”

“Your estate? boy please!” She looked at his ripped jeans and dirty sneakers and rolled her eyes at him. “And for your information I wasn’t snooping, I was looking for someone.” She said as a matter of fact.

“Who were you looking for? How did you get in here?” The guy had stormy blue eyes and he was quite cute if she had to admit to herself.

“Excuse me I don’t know you, I don’t need to tell you anything.” She pursed her lips and put her hands on her waist.

He couldn’t help but be amused by her sass even though clearly she was caught in quite a predicament. “If I take you back there to the owner you will be in trouble so you better tell me something, a dangerous man lives in this estate you know.”

She looked at him assessing what he had just said to her, after what she saw she could definitely believe it. What she didn’t understand was her uncle’s involvement in all this.

“I thought it was your estate.” she rolled her eyes at him again. “You don’t look dangerous to me.

He threw his head back and laughed. The light seemed to catch his handsome face, his hair was cut in a low fade cut and the top of his head was full of short curls, the cut accentuated his strong jawline and made his gaze intense as he stared at her.