Lesson 15: Keeping Calm

"I- what are you doing here?"

He shrugged, tapping the empty spot next to him on the sofa. "Come sit. This game show is so easy that even you'd get the right answers."

I glared, storming over to him and ripping the remote from his grasp.

"What that hell, Blair?" Emilio whined as I switched off the television.

"Emilio, I'm going to ask you once more and once more only. What are you doing here?"

His being here right now could jeopardise the entire mission. If Celine or Rob or Henry or Kole or anyone else for that matter got wind of him being here I was royally screwed.

"Relax, sorella. No one knows who I am," Emilio said as if reading my thoughts. He was always the calmer of us two, too lax in my opinion. "If anyone were to ever find out I was here, they'd just assume you had a guy over for the night. Totally normal for a single twenty-one-year-old."

I sighed through my nose and sat down. He was right but that didn't mean I was just going to sit here and stare into space without a care in the world as to why he was here.

"Fine, I'm calm," I said a bit too quickly.

Emilio gave me a look that said he knew I was certainly not calm which just agitated me further. How had I missed this guy? Right now all I wanted to do was strangle him.

I took three deep breaths and we sat in silence for five painfully long minutes before he decided I was relaxed enough. Relaxed my ass.

"Okay," he said, clasping his hands together. "There is a reason I'm here, Blair. How are you?"

I shot him a deadpan glare. "You did not just fly here from Italy after four years to ask how I am. You do know telephones exist, right?"

He grinned in a way that made me want to punch him even more than before if that was possible. "Exactly, it's been four years. You're family, Blair. I miss you. Is it a crime to want to know how you are?"

I gritted my teeth, counting to ten in my head but he was getting on my last nerve. "I'm fine."

"No. Nope. Not an acceptable answer. After all these years I want a lot more than an 'I'm fine'."

Deep breaths, Jaia. One, two, th- fuck it.

I punched Emilio square in the jaw and he tumbled off the sofa and onto the floor. "There's your 'a lot more'," I smiled sweetly, grabbing his discarded bowl of popcorn.

Emilio pouted, rubbing the left side of his face. "I guess I deserved that but I must say I'm impressed that you held out so long. Four years ago you would've punched me the second I didn't answer your question."

"Who would've thought that by not being stuck around vermin like you I would get a better hold over my anger? Without you rilling me up every two seconds, life has been quite peaceful."

He rolled his eyes with a fond smile, giving his tender coccyx a quick dusting as he got up and sat back down on the sofa. "I'm glad, Blair. You deserved a more stable environment to finish growing up in."

I gave him a weird look at that. MI5 wasn't exactly the nurturing environment a teenager needed but then again neither was the mafia.

"Just don't mention it to Luca," he rushed out. "He'll think you've gone soft."

I scowled. "I've not gone soft."

Emilio put his hands up in surrender when he saw me raising my arms. "I know that but you know what Luca's like. I'm just looking out for you, sorella."

I sighed, softening my stare a touch as I reclined on the sofa. "I know, Em. Thank you. Now, why are you actually here?" I asked, not wasting any more time on this soft moment.

"Urgh. I was hoping you wouldn't ask."

"That makes no sense."

"I know... umm just promise me you won't freak out."

"Emilio, I'm a mafia trained assassin who has to work under high-pressure situations all of the time. I don't freak out."

He shot me a sceptical look but sighed in resignation. "It's Giovanni. He's gone missing."

I stiffened, turning my head to Emilio dangerously slow. The stare I pinned on him was murderous. "What?"

He audibly gulped. "He disappeared."

"What happened?"

"Um, well, Gio hadn't really been acting like himself since you left and... um... around the time you got recruited he got a lot worse. He didn't sleep, eat or talk to anyone. He was sloppy with missions and was an overall mess. He loves you, sorella, too much for his own damn good. Anyway, Luca told him to take a six month leave to just get away from everything in the hopes he'd come back being himself again but he... he never came back."

Emilio didn't meet my eyes, focusing on picking at the dirt between his nails instead.

"How long ago?" My voice was calm, too calm.

"A year and a half ago."

My eye twitched as I stood up to put the now empty popcorn bowl in the sink. I didn't turn to Emilio as I spoke, rinsing the buttery dish in ice-cold water. "So he's been unaccounted for for a year now?"

"Yes."

"And you didn't think to tell me sooner?" I asked in a deadly soft voice as I dried off the glass bowl with a tea towel.

"I- we thought we could handle it."

He thought he could handle it alone?

I dropped the tea towel, throwing the glass bowl at the wall behind me. It shattered into a million pieces. "Well, clearly you fucking couldn't," I snarled.

Emilio stood up, cracking his knuckles in a way that was supposed to be threatening but I knew it was a nervous tick of his. "We didn't want to bother you, sorella. We couldn't jeopardise your mission over this."

"Oh, so this mission is more important than Gio?"

Emilio kept his voice level as he spoke, he was always much better at controlling his temper than I was. "Your mission is fragile and time-sensitive. One wrong move and there's years of work down the drain. We have the time to find Gio. We had to prioritise."

"Prioritise? He's Luca's heir. He's the future head of the mafia. He's my-" I faltered. "He's my- no, no he's not. Never mind."

"I came because I wanted to know if he'd contacted you at all. He trusts you more than anyone, Blair. He always has."

"If I'd spoken to him do you really think I'd be acting like this?" I all but shouted, gesturing to the shattered bowl and dented wall. "I haven't spoken to him in three years."

Emilio kept his distance but his voice was softer as he spoke his next words, "What happened three years ago?"

I was staring at the glass shards, my mind distant. "Gio never told you?"

"No. No, he didn't."

I sighed, still not looking at him as I recounted the excruciating memory for the second time in one day. "Well, around that time, Gio asked me to come home and forget the mission. I almost did but then I got recruited and Luca's plan was working. I needed to protect my family... I needed to protect him so I told him it was over. I said he should move on and... and we haven't spoken since."

"Have... have you moved on, sorella?"

I let my hand trace over the dent in the wall. "I still care a lot about Gio, Em. I'm never going to stop caring but-" I gulped. "But I don't love him anymore. I told him to let me go and he never contacted me again so I assumed he had. It wasn't fair for me to cling to a one-sided relationship so- so I moved on too."

My stomach twisted in guilt. Had I given up too easily? Should I have fought harder for us? I was only eighteen at the time but maybe I could've done more. If I'd carried on trying to hold onto us, would Gio even be missing right now?

I was so caught up in my thoughts that I didn't notice Emilio getting closer to me until he squeezed my shoulder. "Don't feel bad, sorella. You can't force yourself to have feelings for him and you could've never known that this would happen."

I shook off his touch, letting my fingers trace the dent in the wall once more. "He could be in danger because of me."

"Giovanni is a smart man. He can take care of himself."

"But what if something went wrong? It's not like him to go MIA."

"Don't think like that."

"I- it's all my fault, Em."

"No it's-"

I punched the dented wall with brutal force, creating a hole in the plaster. Great, how was I going to explain that to my landlord?

"Blair, calm down."

"How? How do you expect me to be calm when this is all my fault?"

"Because it's not your fault and, besides, I'll find him."

"I'm helping you."

"No." His voice left no room for discussion. "You have your own mission to take care of, sorella. Leave this to me."

"But-"

"No."

I recoiled at the tone he used. Emilio was never an angry or intimidating person. He was the happy-go-lucky jokester who never took anything too seriously. He also had the patience of a saint, something I did not possess. So, when he spoke to me like that I knew it was for good reason and despite my emotional state, I would always use logic for my decision making.

"Fine," I resigned, finally looking into his eyes. "But you have to find him, Emilio. No more faffing about. Promise me."

We stared at each other for a long moment, neither of us backing down.

"Te lo prometto."

~*~*~

I hadn't been able to concentrate in the days that followed Emilio's surprise visit, my mind much too preoccupied with thoughts of Giovanni and my family. Kole waved a hand in front of my face, snapping his fingers together. "Hey, Jaia, what's up with you?"

"Nothing."

"Liar."

"It's nothing, Kole. I'm fine."

"Look, I'm no expert but I have learnt over the years that when a girl says 'I'm fine' she's definitely not fine."

I rolled my eyes, scanning the weapons room for anything that caught my eye. "Do you speak from experience?"

He winced. "Unfortunately, yes. Too much experience."

I laughed softly at that, my hands trailing over a few of the knives. I'd always been partial to a beautiful blade.

"Is this about that pretty boy?" he probed.

"Not everything in my life is about Zack. I have other things going on too. Besides, he's not even my type."

"I'm just teasing, Jay. Why are you so testy today?"

I shot Kole a glare before my eyes landed on the blade I was looking for. Thin, small and lightweight. Nothing intimidating or durable but petite and dainty enough to hide under any item of clothing. I was not going to let myself leave the house unarmed again.

"I'm not testy. You're just extra irritating this morning," I shrugged as I grabbed the knife, twisting it in my palm.

"Isn't that a little small?"

I lunged at him before he could blink and he stumbled back in surprise. His shock lasted long enough for me to land a roundhouse kick to the gut. He fell to the floor with a loud thump and within a second I was straddling him, blade pressed into his neck, my eyes glimmering in amusement.

"Point taken," he wheezed. "Now, get off of me. You're heavy as fuck."

"All muscle," I winked, helping him to his feet. "Not that you'd know anything about that."

"You little shit," he accused, reaching for me once he was up.

I grinned, darting away from him before he could grab me, knife tucked securely into my boot. "You're past your prime, Kole. In your old age, you'll never catch me."

"We'll see about that," he called, sprinting after me and I laughed as I dodged a corner.

Despite everything Emilio had told me, in that moment I felt lighter. No matter how much of a cunt Kole was sometimes, the guy did know how to make me smile and I definitely wasn't complaining.

~*~*~

Sorry it's been a while guys. Uni has started up recently and I've been swamped with work but I'll do my best to get back into the flow!

If you liked the chapter please vote and comment x it really helps me out : )

Until next time, bye xx