Leonardo Agostini's POV:

Somebody get me some aspirin and a tape for the girl because this girl really, really talks a lot.

How long has she been rambling? One hour? Two? Ever since she spoke her first word? I'm getting sick of it!

"...your little minions..."

I am tired. I am hurt. I am in pain and I am annoyed.

Weeks after I finally find some time to spare and decide to see what my asshole brother sees in this girl, she falls on top of me again, doesn't get up and listens to my heartbeats. Who the hell does that? Not to forget that she actually kneed me straight to my groins and claims that I am having a heart attack. I am absolutely ignoring the part when her hair was sprawled on my face and how surprisingly her small body moulded against mine.

My padre, on the other hand, is making me eat straight out of his hand. Do this. Do that. Don't do that. Don't do this. Check those shipments personally. Get them to work with us or else destroy them. Don't make me regret it when I give my title to you. No mistakes. No mercy!

I swear, when I will finally get the control of the famiglia, I'm gonna kick my padre out, just like he kicked my mama out of my life.

I massaged my temples and sighed in irritation as I tried to concentrate on the file Adrian had handed me over to crosscheck urgently. That bastardo really loves the efficiency in his work and starts whining like a four year old who didn't get his candy on time if anything gets delayed so I really want to return this file back to him, but this girl's nonstop rambling and pacing is making my head spin in frustration and stress.

"...bark and no bite..."

I gritted my teeth in anger, stood up from my chair, pulled out my gun and pressed the trigger, hoping that she would stop whining about minions and dogs.

The girl finally stopped rambling and pacing. Much to my surprise, instead of screaming in shock, I saw Amelia calmly bending down to her legs and touched it.

My gun fell from my grasp and landed on the floor when I saw the blood on her hand. Her blood.

Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. What have I done?

Our eyes met for a mere second and she screamed in pain then fell on the floor with a loud thud.

"Amelia!"

I jumped over the table, ran to her side and knelt, cradling her face on my lap. She was gaping for air and tears were streaming from her eyes.

"Y-You...you...shoooot...!"

"Shh! Amelia, just–just breathe, okay? Just breath for me, please." I take a look at her leg and my blood drained from my face when I saw the blood spilling out from her leg and pooling at the floor.

Carefully, I lifted her uniform up to her thighs and cursed under my breath. That's too deep and she's losing too much blood. I had to stop the blood flow. Quickly, I took off my shirt and tied it around her wound, her blood smearing on my hands and I stopped breathing when I felt something dreadful at the pit of my stomach as I saw my hand.

Blood of an innocent on my hand.

I remembered what Adrian had said when he explained me about having a blood of an innocent woman on his hand when he woke up and how he felt. Is this how he felt? Something gnawing him out from the inside. Something dire.

Something like fear. Oh shit.

I looked at the woman who was now getting pale and her eyes were slowly drooping down.

"Amelia? Amelia? No, no, no, no. Keep your eyes open!" I patted her cheeks gently. Her breathing was getting lower, but there were signs of life in her. "I'm going to take you to the doctor. How does that sound?"

She didn't respond so I scooped her up in my arms while being careful with her leg and ran out of my office, my heart once again beating wildly as I held her close to my chest.

"Capo!" The doctor exclaimed as I barged into the infirmary and helped me lay the girl down on the bed.

"Capo, please go outside. I'll take care from here." Our family doctor pleaded and tried to pull the curtains in front of my face, blocking my view of Amelia.

"N-No! She—" I pushed the curtains away from my face.

"Capo, capo, you have done enough help. Please step away."

I paused. Help? I did not help her. I was the one who brought her in that position and I regretted it.

I released my frustration on her and now, I am scared for her life which is something I didn't know that I would ever feel again.

*****

I kept staring at the blood on my hands. It had dried up and was sticking on my rough skin. The same hand which had killed countless of my enemies, padre's enemies so that we could keep our family safe.

I heard fast footsteps approaching me. Before I could look up, a fist collided my face.

"Leo, what the fuck?! What did you do? I asked you to try to see something different with her and not to shoot her!"

I rubbed my jaw and looked my brother who was raging in anger.

"It was an accident!"

"Right," He scoffed. "I am supposed to believe that shooting Amy was an accident. Aiming your fucking gun at her was an accident and pressing the trigger was the biggest accident of them all!"

"I didn't meant to shoot her!" I shouted. "I was getting stressed and she was annoying the shit out of me. I wasn't thinking!"

"Well guess what, capo?" He sneered. "She might not be able to annoy you or anybody else anymore and it will be your fucking fault."

"I am sorry, okay?! I am sorry! Sorry for putting your urgent paperwork first and not listening to her useless chattering! I should have scolded her first and then threatened to actually shoot her instead of directly shooting her!"

"You bastardo! You're blaming me?!" He shouted back and threw another punch at me.

I blocked it by grabbing his fist. "Fratello, calm down! We are in the infirmary."

He pulled back immediately, straightened his suit and tie and took deep breaths to calm himself.

"All good?" I asked cautiously. Angry Adrian is a very rare Adrian.

He nodded. "How is she?"

"Don't know. The doctor is still operating on her."

"I swear, if anything happens to Amy..."

"It won't." I assured him. I did not fail to notice that Adrian had really got attached to that girl in only a few meetings. I did know that they had met before I came into the picture, but I didn't understand how he got so attached to her. "But I do hope that I brought her here on time."

He scoffed again. "You wouldn't need to bring her here if you had control over your fucking emotions."

"I said I'm sorry. It's not an everyday routine for me to go shooting a mere housekeeper and apologize." He glared at me. "Okay, fine. Not a housekeeper."

"You are an ass, you know that?" He spat. "I'm sure that your gun must have been tired now. Did you not say it yourself? One bullet in her leg, two in her head? Congratulations, capo. There is a bullet in her leg."

I groaned mentally. "I didn't exactly expected this! I thought I was aiming the floor."

"Don't lie to me, brother. I know you very well. You are a man of your word and you always do what you speak. I don't think that the day when you actually insert two bullets in her head is far, if she survives the one in her leg."

I remained silent, unable to think of any more excuses to defend myself.

"Oh, and one more thing. Padre found out about your little exercise of your gun on an innocent." My head shot in his direction. "Don't look at me like that. Many people saw you running shirtless and holding a woman in your arms. Word did got spread and reached his ears."

"And?" I asked warily.

He shrugged. "Nothing. He just said that you need to knock some fucking sense in your brains and respect the women who are working for us. They are the ones who are keeping the place up to its remark and stuff while we behave like savages."

I scoffed mentally. Of course, he would say things like that.

I started peeling off the dried blood on my hands and sighed loudly. Adrian sat beside me and patted my shoulders.

"She'll be fine."

"I was not planning this, you know? It just happened and I am really sorry."

"Don't apologise to me. Apologize to her, if she survives."

"She'll survive. I know that."

He chuckled. "How can you be so sure?"

A small smile appeared on my face. "The girl is stubborn. I know that she won't give up on her life so easily."

"Glad to hear that from you, but I do know that too."

"Did you know that she tried to escape through the garbage chute?" I asked incredulously. Adrian burst out laughing. "I'm telling you, something is wrong with her."

"Well, that's Am—"

The door beside us opened and the doctor stepped out. We stood up in unison.

"How is she?" Adrian asked.

"I removed the bullet and stitched up the wound. She did lose a lot of blood so I gave her blood transfusion. Her body lacked a few nutrients and it requires a lot of rest. I would advise not to work for a couple of weeks and be in full bed rest. Avoid activities which will add pressure to her wound. I also gave her a few sedatives which have put her on sleep." The doctor said while he kept his eyes on his notepad and scribbled something on that.

Adrian and I kept staring at him with a blank look on our faces.

"Doctor, how is she?" This time, I asked very slowly and emphasizing every word.

Our family doctor finally looked up and smiled. "She's fine. She's resting."

I released a breath I didn't know I was holding.

"Can we go see her?" Adrian asked.

"Si. I'll take my leave then, capo and signore Adrian." The doctor bowed his head in respect and left.

"Lucky bastard." Adrian muttered under his breath and shot me another glare.

"What?" I snapped. "You wanted her to be dead or something?"

Adrian simply shook his head and we entered the room. Amelia was lying on the bed, her leg bandaged and an IV connected to her arm. The monitor beeping beside her was the only sound in the room.

She looked...peaceful. To hell with that, just because her eyes and mouth are closed, she looked peaceful to me, but when they open, I know that she is anything but peaceful.

"Leo?" I hummed in response, not wanting to disturb the peaceful silence in the room. "Did you inform her roommate and the head housekeeper?" Adrian whispered.

My lips twisted, forming a scowl on my face. "No."

He jabbed my stomach with his elbows. "Bastardo! You are supposed to send a word to the people who actually care for her. What kind of capo will you be in future?"

A better one and more stronger and powerful than my padre, I wanted to say. Instead, I cursed under my breath and hit his head. He winced and hit me back. I hit him again and he hit me back then I punched him square on the jaw.

"Enough!" I whisper yelled. "We have an annoying sleeping beauty here. You go out and send a word to the head of household, informing her about this."

He rubbed his jaw. "But—"

"That's an order." I growled. Adrian stomped his foot in a very childish manner and stormed out of the room.

I took a seat beside the bed and looked at the woman who sleeping soundly. Hmm, she is little to be sure. Small round face, thin pale lips, long eyelashes, her eyelids covering the eyes which always show hatred and loathe for me, chubby cheeks and a button nose.

Button nose. I like buttons. I wear shirts which always have buttons. Suddenly, I had this huge urge to press her button nose.

I looked around the infirmary to check whether anybody and grinned to myself when I saw nobody in the room.

A small poke won't harm her, right? Besides she is under sedatives.

Very carefully, I pressed the tip of my finger on the top of her nose and quickly pulled back then I pressed it again and again and again.

So soft.

I froze, my finger still pressed on her nose, when I heard some incoherent murmurings from her then carefully pulled back for the last time.

My eyes went to her cheeks. They were not exactly chubby because I see some hollowness in them. Does she not have her food properly?

I scoffed to myself for even having that thought. Of course she doesn't. She must have been busy planning her always failing escape plans.

Maybe a break from her plans would actually do her some good for a couple of days and a break from our little chasing game would actually do us some good even though I know that the chaser is going to win this game.

Besides, I do need the time to get over the part where I got scared for a moment or two when I saw her blood on my hands. Really scared that something bad might happen to her.

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