I look around the room for anyone acting weird, but let's just say that it's hard to do when everyone just heard gunshots. Everyone was still hiding under the table. My brothers, cousins, and Aiden were holding their weapon of choice. It was most likely a gun since none of them saw the benefits of using a knife like I did.

After a few more seconds, my brothers start to crawl out from underneath the table and take a quick scan around the room for anything abnormal.

The gunshots had disappeared and I slowly pushed Lucien from my lap underneath the table and dragged myself out. I barely give myself a second to stretch my legs before I reached for the spoon that was on Lucien's plate. I dipped the spoon into the soup and brought it to my mouth. Right before it touched my mouth though, a hand whacked the spoon onto the ground.

I look up to see Aiden glaring at me. "What the hell is wrong with you, don't you know that the soup was poisoned?!"

Alexandre walks back into the room after getting his medical bag and put his hand on Aiden's shoulder. "Cameron will be fine. He was taught by our dad to taste different poisons and gain immunity to them so that if he were to ever to fall into a trap and get poisoned, he would be fine."

I look back at the soup and dip a new spoon into it, being careful as to not drip any onto myself. As soon as my tongue touches the soup I am able to pull out the different ingredients used. I list out the different chemicals used to Alexandre so he can make an antidote.

Bang, Bang, Bang. The sound of more gunshots fill the air. I am guessing this time they are from our guards. "Pierce, help me lift Lucien. Mia, Alessia, Mylan follow me. Matheo follows closely behind us. We are going to the safe room. Aunt Elise, Uncle Patrick, follow if you want." Alexandre says immediately, ordering everyone around like he would if he was a head doctor at a hospital.

Alexandre looked over to me and Aiden, who had now walked closer to me. "You two got it?"

I give Alexandre a solid nod, looking over Aiden as he does the same while pulling out his two guns from under his suit coat. I watch as Mylan wastes no time in unlocking one of the hidden doors and dashing through it. He was probably going to go find his computer and track down who broke in. Alexandre follows behind him making sure the two woman are close to him before running faster. Matheo is last, closing the door behind him, but not before mouthing to me a small 'good luck'.

I pull out my throwing knives walking beside Aiden to the main door that would lead us to the commotion. Aiden flashes his eyes towards me for a quick second to make sure I'm prepared before throwing the door open. We both go running out to help the other mafia members.

A pungent odor of decay and demise filled the room. Blood and men dressed the floor together like it was the Battle of Normandy. At least 50 men in all black suits and masks were fighting against our men. Aiden pointed towards one of our men who had just finished off another. "Make sure you keep one of them alive. And tell the others that too." The man nods before disappearing back into the crowd.

Aiden doesn't have time to say anything else before a man wearing the similar garment of his comrades throws a flying punch towards his head. Aiden easily ducks and I see a man coming towards me with a knife.

He stops short in front of me and throws his hand with the knife forward into my stomach. I quickly counterattack with one of my knives blocking his and I use my other to cut along his throat and give him a quick death. The man falls onto the ground along with the others and I don't waste time before I'm in another fight with two others.

This becomes a pattern for the next few minutes before everyone who comes in my direction is dead. I look over to see how Aiden is doing and before I even know what's happening I am throwing one of my knives at a man raising a gun at Aiden's back.

The knife hits the man's gun hard. The gun falls from his hands and disappears somewhere on the bloody floors.

"Shit," I mutter, not loud enough to be heard over the gunshots and yelling. The man now turns towards me and I take my other knife and throw it into his stomach. The man falls back first onto the floor and I run towards him to grab my knives. I first grab the one that hit his gun, cleaning off all the blood from the floor on my pants. Then I walk over to the one still buried in his chest.

I bend down to pluck the knife out, keeping my eyes up to watch for new trouble and that's when I felt I knife dragging down my stomach. I back away completely but the damage was already done and I could feel the warm blood dripping slowly onto my shirt. I rethrow the knife I had just pulled out of the man's chest into his throat not minding how intensely I may had thrown it, even when the blade went out the other side of his body. I watch as every remaining muscle in his anatomy immediately stops and his eyes remain wide open glaring right at me.

I once again pull my knife from his body and look around the room to see who was still fighting. A few men looked like they were still in combat, but to my surprise it looked like it was mostly over. Aiden was talking to a few of the men and was passing them a somewhat alive man from the group that attacked us for them to take to the basement. After scanning the entire room, his gaze lingered on me for a few moments before I gently shook my head to signal that this was not the appropriate setting for him to display more worry. His gaze wanders around the room for a few more seconds before he walks to the center.

"Everyone," Aiden says addressing all the men. "Good work, now I want all these bodies to be taken care of and all the blood to be cleaned up by tomorrow."

I hear the direct reply of the men saying, "Yes sir" before they all get to work. I walk along the back wall, the pain growing a bit more intense as my adrenaline wears off. I meet Aiden's raised eyebrow with a small smile and I push in front of him as I climb up the stairs into one of the empty offices. As soon as I heard the office door close behind Aiden, I lean strongly against one of the walls and wrap my hands around my stab wound.

"Cam," Aiden says with worry in his voice. He circles around my body to face me and I see the realization flash in his face. "Lean on me, I am going to move you to the chair." With utmost care, Aiden gently places his hands on my body, making sure to avoid the injured area. He assists me in walking over to the chair where I can rest. Despite his help, I still feel the throbbing ache as I sit down on the chair. I bite my lip hard to prevent any involuntary whimpers from escaping my lips. The pain is unbearable, but I try to remain strong and composed in front of Aiden.

"What happened," Aiden says, walking over to grab the medical kit.

"Just another day on the job." I let out a light laugh, attempting to unbutton my shirt with my shaky hands, but the pain and weakness in my body due to the blood loss made it impossible for me to do so. Eventually, I gave up and waited till Aiden walked back to me.

Aiden kneels in front of me, placing the medical kit beside him on the ground. His face is etched with seriousness and concentration as he quickly unbuttons my blood-soaked shirt. With nimble fingers, he assesses the extent of my stab wound and begins to clean and dress it with the supplies from the kit.

Aiden's fingers slowly pull away from the injury, his eyes scanning over the spot one more time to make sure he got everything. "I'm fine." I say, bringing his eyes to look at mine. "This isn't my first injury on the job." I start to rise from the seat to prove my point, but Aiden's hands land lightly on my shoulders firmly resisting me from standing up more.

"You're not going to injure yourself more while I am standing here," Aiden states clearly, removing his arms from my shoulders and instead crossing them tightly in front of him.

I internally groan and resist the idea of rolling my eyes at him. It's just a little blood loss and I plan on telling him just that. "I'm just going to be walking around. That shouldn't put too much stress on the wound, right dear," I unknowingly add the last part. Aiden's full body spins to look at me. His face is slightly red and his eyes are wide allowing me to see his blue eyes more clearly in the dark. All previous determination in his face to keep me sitting was now gone as he stared at me. "D-did you just say what I think you said?"

"Gosh don't make it weird." I say, turning my face to look over at the desk so I can avoid the expression Aiden is giving me.

"You did." The redness in Aiden's face had
disappeared and a smirk grew. "Repeat what you just said, love." He says, over exaggerating and elongating the last word with his tongue.

I turn my head back around to see Aiden's stupid smirk. Two can play this game, I think, trying to find a way to wash that expression off his face. "Well dear, I believe that I said that I was going to walk around the room." I lean back in my seat as Aiden walks right up to where I am seated and leans in closer like a light drawing in a moth.

"That's what you said." Aiden pretends to ponder at this statement for a few seconds. "Well I can't have that." Before I can even think about what he just said, he grabs the back of my head and catches my lips with his in an electric kiss. His other hand rests firmly on the backrest behind me.

His teeth lightly tug at my bottom lip, before his tongue pushes its way into my mouth. I wrap my arms tightly around his neck hoping that it would never end and that all my problems would just fade away. We separate for a second to catch our breaths, but it doesn't take long before he leans in again.

This time I met him halfway and our lips join again. Now the kiss was slower and more tender. I feel his hand move and his fingers run through each lock of my hair. He gently pulls me closer into his warm body.

"I'm sorry." They were just two simple words, but I still felt the weight of them as they came out of my mouth. I knew they were words that have to be said, but I still felt guilty knowing how this would end. It was just never meant to work. Even if we tried to force it.

"I don't ever want to hear those words come out of your mouth again to me." Aiden mumbles with his fists clenched. "Shouldn't we be able to choose who we want to love. Why do they care so much that others have to live in hiding for their entire lives. People shouldn't be forced to choose between having their family in their lives or being in love?!" Emotions flash across Aiden's face so fast I can barely read what he feels.

During Aiden's rant, he had taken a seat next to me, so with my left hand I placed it onto his thigh and leaned my head onto his shoulder.

"You know, I decided to join this mafia after I had moved back here." Aiden says in a calmer tone.

"Move back here?" I questioned, he had always lived here, he went to school with me all throughout elementary, middle, and some of high school.

"After you left, a few months later my parents died in a house fire and I was placed into foster care and then adopted by a family in England. That's where I met Mia, she's my adopted family's daughter and my sister. But anyways, life got a bit bad in England and I ended up running a few errands for a gang. I guess it was just my way of coping and lashing out for all that it happened to me. I didn't see the point of going to school anymore and decided that I should give up on my dreams of being a doctor. You know, because of how expensive it is. I wouldn't have enough money to get through school much less live on my own. I didn't want to bother my adopted parents with that.

So, after I turned eighteen I decided to move back here hoping that you had returned from boarding school. Clearly you know how that turned out and that's when I met your dad and brothers. I think your dad knew who I was though, as soon as I said my name he offered for me to join his mafia." Aiden laughs a little at the last bit.

I stopped rubbing my hand up and down his leg after a while into the story. "Shit Aiden, I am sor-." A little peck on my mouth shuts me up fast. "It doesn't matter now. Let's go to bed, I'm tired." Aiden scoops me up from the chair and carries me over to the couch. He sets me down on the couch first before leaning down and pulling me into his embrace.

"This couch is too tiny for the both of us."

"Well, then I guess you're gonna have to get closer to me. Good night, mon amour." Aiden smiles before closing his eyes.

————————

I walk around the office for a few minutes. My mind is racing to figure out who tried to break into my family's house and kill my oldest brother. As I am pacing I don't realize that I am close to the desk in the dark and I hit my side against it. "Shit," I mumble, feeling the pain in my injury. I am never going to tell Aiden about that I think as I bend over to lean on the desk for support. Wait what is that? I look down at one of the desk drawers that is slightly cracked open.

I pull open the drawer the rest of the way and reach inside feeling my way around. I stop when my hand feels a piece of paper. I pull the paper out and use my phone flashlight to read what it says. The paper was old and turning a slightly yellow color, but it was still fully legible, well the parts that weren't destroyed from what looks to be water. It was an article from the newspaper talking about a house fire.

"Cam, at least try to get some sleep." Aiden says with a groggily expression. He lifts his arm back up for me to slide back under it.

"Yeah, I will. I was just thinking about something." I tuck the piece of paper into my pants and then walk back over to Aiden, curling myself back under his arm. "Just at least close your eyes." Aiden kisses along my neck as I close my eyes and push myself closer into Aiden's warmth.

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AN: Welcome back everyone to this week's Frankenstein of a chapter. I hope you enjoyed it!