Filed to story: Submitting to My Bestie’s Daddy Read Online >>???
“It’s not the same,” I sighed, glancing at my cup of vanilla gelato.
She laughed before turning to the behemoth of a man who drove us and said, “Would you mind taking us to a park? There’s one right across the street. I’d say walk, but my side’s already driving me crazy.”
He nodded, and I was beginning to figure out that this was a common occurrence for him. I smiled at the stern-looking man. He reminded me of one of those giant gorilla statues I’d seen, always frowning and staring forward at something no one else could see.
They were about the same height anyway.
It didn’t take long before he drove us to the park we had visited the other day, and Dahia picked out a rather close bench, sighing as she sat down.
“I can’t wait until I get these stitches out,” Dahlia said, annoyed as she shoveled gelato into her mouth. “It’s driving me nuts.”
The park was beautiful. The sun was shining brightly on us, and I breathed in the fresh air as I spotted a few butterflies in the flowers.
“Just be patient,” I told her, finally taking a bite of my gelato. It wasn’t mint chocolate chip, but it was damn good… smooth and creamy and everything I wanted out of a fluffy, airy gelato.
I hummed, enjoying the nice day. Not even two minutes after we’d sat down, I spotted a man in a dark blue parka walking around. I frowned as I bit down on my spoon. He kept sending us quick glances, and I was a little unsure about him. Was he the guy Tallon had seen? We should probably go.
I glanced at our driver, who sat a few benches away at Dahlia’s insistence. I kept my cool until I spotted the man in the parka walking toward us from the corner of my eye. I grabbed Dahlia’s hand, my blood running as cold as the gelato in my hands.
“What’s wrong, Olive?” Dahlia asked, then she followed my gaze to the man. A hint of wariness crossed her features.
Nothing was going to happen, I tried to reassure myself. The guard was watching, and the man could just be wondering where we got this delicious gelato and wanting directions.
“Hello,” the man in the parka said, his voice sounding rather odd. He spoke Italian, but it was clear it was not his first language.
“Hello,” Dahlia started, gripping my hand tightly as she watched the man warily. “Do you need something from us?” She sounded as scared as I felt.
“Yes,” the man laughed.
I wasn’t sure about his accent. He didn’t sound like he was a part of the Russian mafia, but at this point, I didn’t know.
“Would you happen to be Dahlia Valentino?”
I stiffened, as did Dahlia. Every inch of me went cold and I was frozen in place, only able to watch as the next few moments happened very quickly.
“Get away–” Dahlia got to her feet, dropping her gelato cup onto the ground. It splattered onto the man’s shoes and Dahlia’s sandals.
Meanwhile, a nasty smile spread across the man’s face, and he pulled a large, thick knife out of his parka and lunged straight at Dahlia. A scream tore out of my mouth and out of instinct, I pulled Dahlia back, and she fell into the bench, her eyes wide with panic as the gleaming silver knife came closer.
But as soon as it all happened, there was a small bang, and everything fell silent.
There was red everywhere… it burst forth from the assassin’s head like a dam breaking open. Red splashed across us both, sticky and slimy and smelling like rust.
The man crumpled forward, the knife hitting the ground with a clink, and I couldn’t hear anything. I was in utter shock as our driver, the gorilla man, rushed toward us, a gun with a silencer clutched tightly in his hand.
I knew instinctively that he had made the shot.
It was the right call. Dahlia was crying silently, her mouth moving, but there weren’t any words coming out. I kept staring at the dead man, my entire body frozen as if I were standing in a snowstorm.
I knew I should be moving, that I should have moved and made sure Dahlia was okay, but my mind was only blank. I couldn’t move even if I wanted to.
My eyes flickered to the cup of gelato I was still holding. It was dyed red now, and I could only think that I didn’t remember getting the strawberry flavor.
*Olivia*
I stared out the window of the car, not taking in the scenery, not taking in anything. I kept reliving that moment, the moment I had seen a person die right in front of me… his eyes going lifeless, his blood splattering across my face and into my gelato.
One second he had been a living person, just like me, just like Dahlia. The next… he had become a dead body, just something to be disposed of. I couldn’t make sense of it. Who was he? Why had he wanted to hurt us? Did he have a family that was expecting him to come home tonight? He might have tried to do something bad, but that didn’t mean I wanted him dead.
On the other hand, I was so grateful that someone had been there to protect us. If our giant bodyguard hadn’t been there… it could be me and Dahlia being disposed of instead of the stranger. I didn’t even want to think about that possibility, but it kept running through my mind regardless. First I saw what had actually happened, then I imagined what could have happened.
Both scenes were horrific.
My mind was a tangled mess, and I could feel myself barely hanging on by a thread. I turned to Dahlia, wondering how she managed to look so normal. I felt like I was breaking apart at the seams. I kept my arms tightly wrapped around my body, just in case I really did start to break. I kept gasping for breath, my mouth opening and shutting involuntarily, like a fish that had been flung onto the shore.
In many ways, I felt like that was exactly what had happened. I had been swimming along happily, knowing vaguely that there was danger out there but not really accepting that anything bad could happen to me. Now I had been brutally brought back to reality. This was a very dangerous game, and I was caught right in the middle of it all.
Dahlia turned to me, and I realized I had been staring at her, or rather, staring right through her. It was strange not to care. I wondered if I would ever care about anything again. She looked me in the eyes, and I thought I saw something like pity on her face.
I realized that this wasn’t a new experience for her. This was nothing compared to what she had gone through when the Russians had taken her. Sure, we might be covered in blood, but at least it wasn’t our own blood. I felt guilty for being so shaken up when we hadn’t even been hurt, but I couldn’t help it. I had seen a man die today. My life would never go back to a time before I had seen someone lose their life, and I had never thought that would be something I would have to deal with.
I looked down at my hands, which were still streaked with dark red stains. The copper-like scent of it filled the car, and I started to hyperventilate. My gasps for breath became more labored and frequent as I looked at Dahlia with panic filling my eyes. How the fuck had she managed to survive being kidnapped? I could barely survive witnessing a man being killed to defend me.
“Shhh, it’s okay, Olivia, it’s okay. Deep breaths. In, and out. In, and out,” she said as I stared into her eyes.
I couldn’t talk, I couldn’t think, I couldn’t do anything other than breathe… in, and out. My breathing became more even, but I could still feel myself teetering on the edge of the abyss. If I wasn’t careful, I would fall in and nobody would be able to get me back out.
When we arrived at the compound, there were staff waiting for us. One of the women wrapped a blanket around my shoulders as I got out of the car. Before I could resist, she began to hustle me to the house.
“Wait… where’s–I want Dahlia…” I mumbled weakly, staggering and looking around, suddenly feeling terrified without Dahlia by my side. She was the only normal thing about this day. I needed her with me so that I could remind myself that I was still a regular person.
“It is okay, signora. We must get you inside quickly. The fewer eyes, the better,” the woman said in soothing tones.
She was strong enough to keep me moving even as my feet felt like they were going to give out right under me. She walked me straight to my room, keeping her arms wrapped around me the entire way. Being back in familiar surroundings helped slightly. I could feel myself regaining just a tiny bit of control, but I still couldn’t stop seeing that knife glinting in the sunlight, followed by the blood… so much blood.
It wasn’t as red as it looked in the movies. It was darker. It wasn’t as runny either. The blood that was on me had already started to coagulate on my skin. I looked down and flexed my fingers, watching little cracks form in the stains.
The woman took me directly to the bathroom. Without a word, she helped me remove my bloodstained clothes. I doubted they would be able to get the stains out. Even if they did, I had a hard time believing I would ever wear that outfit again.
Once she had stripped me down to my underwear, she started the shower for me and left with my clothes and the blanket. I stood alone, shivering and waiting for the water to heat up. Suddenly, I gagged and had to run to the toilet to vomit up what little gelato I had managed to consume.
I shuddered as my stomach convulsed, trying to fully empty itself. I wished my mom was here to hold my hair back. Hell, I wished my mom was here just to give me a hug. Finally, I was done retching. I wiped my mouth and stepped into the warm steam of the shower.
The water needed to be hotter. I turned it so hot that it was painful to stand under. The pain forced tears from my eyes. I was grateful for them. I needed the release.
I still needed to scrub the blood off of my hands and face. The hot water had gotten most of it, but I needed to use soap to ever feel clean. I scrubbed and scrubbed until my skin was pink and felt raw. The metallic smell still lingered. I shoved my face directly under the water, enjoying the burning feeling. I had to be clean. I couldn’t stand one more second of being covered in a stranger’s blood.
I stood under the hot water until I couldn’t take it any longer, then finally turned the shower off. The smell of blood still lingered, but at least I was clean. I went to grab one of the fluffy white towels hanging on the wall, but when I looked at it, it was covered in blood. I screamed, wondering where all that blood had come from, then realized I had been mistaken–it just had a pattern made of red thread sewn into the edges. I took a deep breath.
‘Get it together. You cannot be acting like a basket case right now,’ I scolded myself.
If I was going to have a future with Gio, this was going to be my life. People died in this business. I couldn’t fly off the handle every time it happened.
I looked in the mirror and started working to detangle my hair. The repetitive motion of my comb going through my hair helped to calm me.
