(continue...)

I didn't do what he said, if that was a surprise. "I asked something."

"No, Clarissa. I didn't put any camera in your bathroom. Why would I?" he huffed again, he was irritated, but he responded anyway. His little question was not just a question, it had a few more questions layered in it. He was basically asking why did I think he would and why did I not trust him on that. He was offended.

"You are my kidnapper, Romeo. I should expect anything like this from you. That is what the most kidnappers want. Their victims' body, money, dignity and all the crazy stuff," I sighed.

He looked over his shoulder at me, "Go get dressed! Don't ever try to find any escape from the damn bathroom because there is not. You are too curious and it will put you in danger, not going to be my fault though."

"What do you want from me?" I yelled. I was annoyed by his presence in front of me, it was strange yet it was beautiful, it was dangerous yet it was soothing. He was a mystery which I hated, which was too jumbled.

"Go get dressed!" he yelled in return.

I hissed and then went to bathroom, as I entered there, I looked around for double check, it didn't seem to have any camera there. I could see some outside but there was none in the bathroom. Slipping off from my bathrobe, I slipped in my clothes. Giving myself a final look at the mirror, I checked if I looked too pathetic or not. I did, everything about my face yelled about my defeat but I did not want to show him that. I sighed, closed my eyes for a few seconds and then exhaled a long breath, gaining my composure that could help me stand strong against him.

I walked out of the bathroom, patting my wet hair that were pooled over my back. I looked to my left and found Romeo sitting on the side of the bed, looking down at his cellphone. His muscular back was facing me, but still he was able to sense my presence, "Come here," he said.

"You are here to question me but when I questioned you, you kept quiet. Then give me a good reason which will make me answer you?" I walked up to him, stood in front of him. He looked up, intensity filled in his stare and it made me shudder for a second on my spot.

"Tell me about the person whose thought scared you...three days ago!" he commanded, I rolled my eyes at him, he continued, "You were sick that day, that was why I did not push you to answer me. But right now, you have to tell me. You said that you felt he knew me. So, it is my matter, I need to know about it."

I sighed, I looked away, I did not want him to tell me that it was his matter, I never really cared if he knew him or not. I was scared of him and Romeo did not need to know the name of my weakness.

But a part of me wanted to let him know, a part of me was curious to put all the pieces together, a part of me wanted to see if the Beast and the monster were related or not.

I chose my mind, I turned around thinking that I could get away from answering again but he held my wrist and stood up from the bed, pulling me towards him, he made me struggle against his body. I mumbled, "Leave me, Romeo."

"I asked something!" he shouted. I flinched.

"I do not care!" I shouted back and his jaw clenched at my tone, he looked away from myself, he closed his eyes and breathed heavily.

He tried to control his anger, the beast was vulnerable enough to control himself for an answer.

He cocked his head and glared at me, he asked, that moment it was a polite command, but it was a command, I could definitely feel the power in his voice, "I do not want to know your past but I want to know something that can harm me or my people. What you said, it implied that the person you knew was aware of me, it seems impossible but also possible, so tell me."

"It is cute how you think I care about you and your people's wellbeing." His hold on my wrist tightened as the smirk on my lips grew. The way he struggled with his anger, it made me chuckle and it definitely hurt his oversized ego as in the result he pushed me and I felt the wall behind me. Hard and cruel. I winced as the pain caused by his action lingered for a while.

"Clarissa-" He raised his voice.

"Don't!" I interrupted him and his frown deepened, fire filled in eyes and his mighty speech got cut off.

"What?" he huffed.

"Don't do this, Romeo. You will not be able to get an answer from me. Don't do any effort. Don't try a different approach of politeness because I don't want to tell you!" With my free hand, I pushed him on his chest. Not that it hurt him but I just wanted to get my frustration out. He loosened his grasp on my wrist and I jerked his hand away.

Desperation took over me and I hit him on his chest with my both hands, harder than before, the thought of telling him about the monster, it was driving me crazy. Just like it always did. I felt my eyes burning with tears, I did not know why and how I started wailing. But it heightened my anger and I continued hitting me, he hissed, "Clarissa-"

I again cut him off, "Shut up!"

Continuing to hit him, I looked down as the tears were pouring down on my face, I did not want him to see me like that. I wanted to not cry, but I did. I couldn't be strong for so long. How pathetic! Mentally abusing myself, I continued hitting him until he caught my both wrists and pushed me to the wall more. He lifted up my wrists held by his tight hold, he stuck it to the wall and caged me in his haunting presence.

"Do not hit me ever again!" he spoke up while gritting teeth. A moment of silence embraced us as he did not stop glaring at me and I couldn't stop my tears from embarrassing me and weakening me more. He himself broke the silence as he calmed himself down and spoke up again, "Do not cry! I did not threaten or anything like that." Not that his words soothed me but he surely tried to keep his voice low and non-threatening.

I sobbed but responded by nodding at him.

He cursed at himself I guess, "Fuck this shit!"

He left the hold of my wrists and I brought my hands down, his index finger was under my chin and he made me face him. "Tell me the name and you won't have to go through this again and again. It is a torture to yourself. Don't be stubborn. Because I won't stop asking and you will feel whatever you feel by remembering him, again and again."

"Why did not you send any of your minion to interrogate me?" I asked.

"Name?" he responded with a question. Classic Romeo.

"That is your problem!" I yelled and he winced, I jerked his hand away from my chin and continued, "You don't tell me anything! You don't want me for obvious typical reasons of a kidnapper and you don't tell me that what exactly am I for you if not a tool to get money or a toy for nights. You don't answer me! But you shamelessly expect me to tell you my deepest darkest secret. Fuck off, Romeo."

"Stop being so damn hard! It is just a damn name, when you will tell me, you will get over him, you will stop fearing him. So can't you see that you will gain something too!" he started an argument. He underestimated someone's suffering.

But it hurt me, it made me cry even more. It made me feel the cruelty of him even more and that time it was not even the monster's fault. It was Romeo's fault.

I held his collar and he was about to yell again but I did not let him, even though those tears were disabling me from forming any valid argument, though the pain lingering in my heart was asking me to give up and curl on the floor and let the pain consume me. I brought him closer to me, his eyes lost its glimmer of power and shock took over him, in spite of every part of me defeating me, I was able to stand up for myself in front of me.

The intimacy was terrifying, but I let the fear disappear into the tension that filled the air and I mumbled, "It is just a damn name for you! Only you! For me, for me, it is an alarm of danger, It is something that I despise, something that kills me every time. For me it is a name of a monster who makes you look like saint in front of me, that name is the reason why I can't be afraid of you. Because that monster has tormented in every possible way and I can't think that you can make me feel worse than what he made me go through. I have tried getting rid of him, Romeo. And it doesn't help. Telling you about him will not help me either so shut the fuck up! You know nothing about pain, you know nothing about numbness, you know nothing about waking up every morning in fear of losing yourself again and again. You know nothing about me and my life and my matters so shut the fuck up! You do not have right to judge my suffering, you do not have right to underestimate my hell."

I shut up finally, with tears swimming in my eyes, I felt the burn of fire in my heart. I let those tears flow down to my cheeks now that I finally let out all of my desperation in front of him. I felt lighter, I felt much better. I felt that he needed to listen to me, so I felt accomplished.

I hoped he got a lesson.

"Say something!" I exclaimed in annoyance.

"I offended you," he stated, I nodded and frowned at him. He seemed to be fine with my shouting and my behavior. He seemed as if I did not just grab him by his collar and pulled him to me and yelled at his face. He acted like I complied to his demands. He was not shocked anymore, in fact he stared at me blankly. What was with all the mood swings?

"Obviously, you did!" I snapped. I left his collars but still, he did not step back, he was still an inch away from me, leaning down at my face, his eyes analyzing my eyes as if he was trying to find something of his interest.

He did the unexpected, he said the unexpected, leaving me wide eyed and my mouth was opened and I was...speechless hearing his response. "I apologize, Clarissa." And then he left. Just like that. Leaving me horrified by that sudden change of tone and overall aura. He did not shut the door too hard, like a normal human being, he closed the door of my room slowly without a noise. But I noticed how his piercing honey stare fell on me one last time before he completely shut the door. That stare was filled with unanswered question but it had a bit of strange confusion there, not because of his unanswered questions...but because of himself. I noticed the skepticism about his own self in his stare. And that was freaking scary. A beast should never feel skepticism about himself, because the consequences of such kind of insecurities or helplessness don't destroy him but the people around him.

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"What did you get?" Mary yawned and asked. Luciano shook his head and mumbled a grumpy 'nothing'

Luciano's eyes were traveling on the pictures that were scattered in front of him on his glass table, the pictures of Alfred's men who were supposedly abducted by some new threat, the pictures of the people on whom Luciano had doubt and the pictures of Clarissa's house and her neighborhood. He was not getting any clues. He was huffing.

"You're annoying me, three days have passed since we have come back from Alfred's place and yet you're still empty handed." Mary rolled her eyes and folded her arms across her chest. Luciano looked up at her and noticed a pissed expression on her face. Her eyebrows were met and judging him. Not only judging but also accusing him.

"What do you want me to do more? In these three days...all I did was win the trust of Alexander for sometime and get the knowledge of the missing gang members and you also know, it is a hard work. Alexander was so suspicious, he was asking too many questions...I am so fucking mad!" He hissed. He leaned back on the sofa, wiping the sweat off his forehead by tissue, he breathed heavily.

Mary sat beside him, leaving some space between them. "I know it was a hard work, Alex is a pain in our back. But...we have to find a clue, we don't know what is happening with Clarissa. Heck, we don't even know if those people who kidnapped Alfred's men are the same people who took Clarissa. Do you have anything in your mind that confirms this?" she questioned him politely.

"Mary, I am worried about her as well, you won't believe how much!" He exclaimed, sitting straight again and looking into her dark eyes, he confessed. His posture was slumped, he seemed tired, he was shot and he did not even get rest but instead started working on this along with being Alfred's man. Mary noticed how weary he looked, how he did not even smirk which he always did, even in the worst situations. She nodded and there was something that bothered her, the fact that he confessed about his deep worry for Clarissa...it was bothering her.

Not that she was jealous, but there was something else to it, she couldn't point out. Luciano asked, "Earth to, Mary. You fell quiet suddenly," he said. She snapped out of her zone and shook her head, he let go and turned to the pictures.

He knew the men who were abducted, not personally, but he knew enough about them. He picked up a photo of a man, who was in his late twenties...around twenty eight. He was blue eyed, brunette, taller than him a bit, medium shoulders, lean figure. He was Edward Duke. Why would someone abduct him if he wanted to take on Alfred. Edward was new, just some years old in Alfred's gang. Some years were not too much in Luciano's eyes. He picked up another, he recognized him immediately, Harold Maddox. Medium height, bulky body. Brownish skin, dark eyes, floppy hair. He was in his mid thirties. He had been with Alfred for a long time, keeping him could benefit the kidnapper. The next one he picked up was of Selena Marshall...Luciano chuckled, he was surprised that she was actually captured. 

She was so pro in vanishing in thin air that even Alfred was pissed at her sometimes, but she was a woman who knew all his dirty secrets and his dirty ways. Keeping her would be enough to destroy Alfred for the kidnapper or whoever. She was in her mid thirties as well. She was always sinister so it made sense to kidnap her and torture her. Overall, Luciano did not find any loophole, any link but Mary who was sitting beside him...pondering on each and every victim of that supposed new gang. She noticed a small connection. A connection that she was remembering while Luciano and her were talking to Alfred. A connection that she wouldn't dare to mention in front of Luciano. A connection that she knew all too well. So she took matters into her own hands.

She wanted to know if her doubts were real or not. She prepared herself mentally that she'd find the golden cage of a known Beast and she'd step in the den of the Lion. She knew it was like suicide but she would go to any heights to save her.

"...get it?" Luciano's voice disturbed her mental conversation, she looked up from the photos and then found Luciano closer to her, he wiggled his eyebrows and questioned, "Did you listen to me?"

She looked away. He cursed. "Look, if there is something you know or bothering you...tell me, maybe it can help. Because right now we have nothing." He glared at her.

"Nothing. I was just...i mean Clarissa..." she hesitated, and Luciano held her palm and put it on his lap.

He started, "I know that you don't trust me. I don't blame you. But this is about her. And you have to trust me. There is no other choice." Mary huffed, "I know I hurt you. I know I ruined you a lot. I know every of my sin. You were the one who made me conscious enough to know the difference between a sin and a great deed. But she...she is the one who stopped me from committing a sin. You know what kinda sin. Four months, Mary. Four. I've never waited this long. Not even with you. But i don't know why...with her, I just couldn't. I apologize for what I did, darling. But please, don't let another beast ruin Clarissa just because you don't consider me trustworthy."

Mary's insides were shook, the way he spoke, it was so convincing, so smooth...just like how he used to do with her years ago and ruined her with such smooth tones. Mary was reliving the worst phase brought by Luciano in her mind. She shut her eyes, pulled her hand out of his grasp and stood up.

She heaved a sigh, let those tears sink in and turned to him. "Clarissa's dad. We have to find him."

Luciano looked puzzled, his ocean eyes deepened and he was surprised that what kind of father could leave his daughter so alone. Drunk? Careless? Addict? What? He nodded at Mary. And then they began researching with whatever knowledge Mary had about her dad.

——
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I hope you enjoyed.
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