"I hate that we have to meet him here," I whine as we take the few steps to Franco's mansion.

"I know, and trust me, I hate it too, but he insisted on meeting us at his house," Zach retorts, rolling his eyes, and rings the doorbell. His warm hand is holding mine tightly to give me comfort. With less success. I'm damn nervous and don't even want to know what this asshole has to say.

After we returned from our trip yesterday, Zach contacted Franco to tell him I'm willing to hear him out. Franco pretended to be delighted about my cooperativeness and told Zach to meet him at his place today. I never thought I would set foot on his property again, and I must admit I already regret agreeing to this. This place radiates danger and crime and I feel extremely uneasy being here.

"Relax. I'm with you, Liv. I won't leave your side, I promise!" Zach brushes a kiss on my cheek and the next moment Franco himself opens the door.

"No butler? I'm impressed," Zach huffs and tightens his grip around my hand.

Franco ignores Zach's snidey remark and grabs my free hand to plant a kiss on it. "It's a pleasure to have you here again, my love."

A hint of his heavy perfume invades my nostrils while his cold, green eyes roam over my body. I'm glad I've picked simple skinny jeans with my boots today. Nothing sexy and nothing to ogle at.

"Hello, Francesco," I mutter and pull away my hand which I'd like to wash thoroughly after it just came in contact with his macho mouth.

"Come in!" Franco steps inside and leads us upstairs into a room which looks like an office.

He steps behind his massive mahogany desk and takes a seat in the pompous white leather chair next to it.

"Please, sit down!" He motions us to have a seat opposite of him in two identical chairs.

Zach and I do as he wishes, and I use the time he pours a whiskey for each of us to look around the room.

It's classy with mahogany paneled walls and a golden chandelier dangling from the ceiling. The exact opposite of the rest of the house we've already seen, which is modernly and mainly bright furnished.

"Where are your bodyguards, Franco?" Zach asks sneeringly.

Franco shoots him a despising glance and lightly pushes his suit jacket aside to show the silver gun peeking out of his waistband. "Zachary, I don't need a bodyguard."

I know it shouldn't surprise me at all, but I need to swallow at the sight of his weapon. Zach huffs and rolls his eyes.

"So, Olivia," Franco starts in his thick Italian accent after pushing a tumbler in front of Zach and me. "Let's get right down to business!"

He takes a sip of his drink while leering at me and then clears his throat. "It's come to my attention that you worked for one of my newest business partners, Jack."

Fuck. The cold expression on his face doesn't bode well.

"I did," I simply retort and manage to hold Franco's piercing gaze without even blinking. I won't let on my nervousness towards him. No way in hell I'm giving him the satisfaction.

"Well, you didn't tell me at our cozy little dinner," Franco remarks with narrowed eyes and leans back in his stool.

The intimidation this man is radiating, wearing his pitch-black suit paired with his half-unbuttoned dress shirt and his black slicked-back hair, nearly crushes me, but I keep my cool and shrug my shoulders.

"I didn't know this information had any importance for you." Without breaking eye contact, I take a generous sip of my whiskey.

Franco flares his nostrils. I can clearly see the anger boiling behind his piercing green eyes, and I have to admit I start enjoying our little power game a bit too much. Maybe I'm just tired of living.

Zach, who has been silent until now, clears his throat. "Franco, spill the beans. What do you want?"

After glaring at him for a moment, Franco directs his gaze to me again. "Well, as you know already, Jack is not the most reliable man. I'd greatly appreciate it if you were willing to start working for him again to find out if he's being loyal to me and my business."

I cross my legs and tilt my head. "What's in it for me?"

Zach faces me and shakes his head hardly noticeably, signaling me to stop playing games with Franco.

"Look at that, Zachary. Your woman has got more balls than you. I like that," Franco remarks with a devilish chuckle, earning a deep growl from Zach.

Franco eyes me for a moment, swirling his glass before leaning forward. "Unfortunately, you, my love, are not in the position to negotiate."

His green eyes are drilling into mine, and finally, I give in and lower my gaze. Maybe it's best if I end this game now and give in. I'm smart enough to realize this is a dead-end.

"Alright," I mutter unwillingly.

"Olivia, don't!" Zach whispers forcefully, but I just shake my head and shrug my shoulders.

"Very wise of you," Franco remarks with a smug smile. I wish I could just grab his disgusting 150$ whiskey bottle and hit him over the head with it.

"Just keep an eye on him and see if he gets any suspicious calls or visitors. I'll contact you on Wednesday to check if you found anything out already. Wait for my call!" Franco gets up and motions us to do the same.

"We'll see ourselves out!" Zach hisses and grabs my hand.

Just as we head downstairs and cross the giant hall, Franco's voice echoes through the room.

"Olivia!"

I turn around and see him standing leant over the railing on the first floor, smirking down at us.

"Don't get any ideas, little lady! Your every move will be watched."

With that he turns around and vanishes behind one of the many doors again.

I huff and let Zach drag me out of the building.

"What the fuck was that?" he asks as soon as the door is closed behind us.

"I don't know what you mean," I retort and pull out my phone to call an Uber.

"You know exactly what I mean, Olivia!" Zach tears my phone out of my hand and grabs my chin, forcing me to look at him. "Are you tired of living, or are you just plain crazy?"

"Excuse me?" I snarl and shake off his hand. "What the fuck, Zach?! Give me my phone back!"

Zach sighs and hands me back my phone.

"Thank you!" I scoff and call an Uber while walking towards the gateway.

"We will talk about this when we're back at your place!" Zach calls after me, but I simply ignore him.

About half an hour later, we are back at my place and slip out of our jackets.

"Can you please tell me now what's gotten into you?" Zach asks.

"What? I just tried to get out of that shit!" I shoot back and walk into the living room. Closely followed by a foaming Zach.

"By what? Making him angry? Are you joking right now? Because I don't think that's funny at all."

I turn around abruptly, causing Zach to nearly bump into me.

"What do you think I should I've done? Tell me!" I shout and cross my arms.

"Fuck, Liv. Franco is the biggest asshole I know, and he has no qualms to put a fucking bullet in your head!" Zach screams back at the top of his voice. "Just as he did with my stepdad!"

I blink into Zach's desperate face in shock. He breathes heavily and runs both his hands through his hair.

"What?" I whisper barely audible. I'm sure all the color has just left my face and I'm white as the wall.

"You heard me right, Olivia!" Zach spits and plumps down on the sofa. "This fucking bastard killed the last person who meant something to me. And I'm his next target!"

I'm completely dumbfounded. This is too much. I'm feeling dizzy and I can barely breath anymore.

"Liv?" I hear Zach's voice from very far away. "Fuck! Breathe, Olivia!"

Just as my knees are getting weak and everything before my eyes goes black, I feel Zach's strong arms being wrapped around my body.

Something cold and wet touches my forehead as I wake up. I open my eyes and Zach's worried eyes appears in front of my face.

"Hey, baby!" he mutters quietly and places his hand on my cheek while his other hand dabs my forehead with a wet washcloth. "You scared the shit out of me! How are you feeling?"

I blink and sit up. My hand presses against my mouth and I jump up, running towards the bathroom where I start throwing up in an instant.

"Shit!" Zach, who hurried after me, takes hold of my hair and rubs my back until I'm finished with puking.

I stay leant over the toilet for a while before I straighten myself and walk over to the sink to splash some cold water into my face.

"Do you feel better now?" Zach asks me and shoots me a concerned look through the mirror.

"I'm okay," I retort and lean down to drink a few sips of water. "It was probably just because of the whole stress with Franco."

"Mmh, probably," Zach murmurs thoughtfully. He leads me into the bedroom and helps me laying down as I'm still a bit shaky. He sits down on the edge of the bed and eyes me for a moment with a strange expression.

"Liv?"

"Yea?"

"You...uh...you're not pregnant, right?"

I nearly choke on the air I'm breathing and look at him with widened eyes.

"What? No, of course, I'm not pregnant!" I exclaim and shake my head.

"Are you sure?" Zach asks again and raises his eyebrows. "I mean, we have a lot of sex, and even I know these birth control pills don't provide hundred percent protection against pregnancy."

He's right. We do have a lot of sex, and I know about the risks of getting pregnant despite being on birth control, but the thing Zach doesn't know is that I'm not even taking these pills.

"I know for a fact that I'm not pregnant!" I reassure him and give him a soft smile.

"How can you be so sure about that?" Zach looks at me with confusion all over his face. "You were under a lot of pressure lately, and everybody knows that these pills don't work very well when you're suffering from stress."

"Zach!" I take a deep breath and close my eyes for a second. "I can't have kids."

My voice comes out so quiet and weak, I'm not even sure if Zach has heard me.

"What?"

Okay, he did hear me.

"I can't get pregnant," I repeat. Now, Zach is the one who gets pale.

"You mean not ever?" he breathes.

I nod and curse inwardly as tears are welling up in my eyes. No matter how much time passes, this is still a sore spot.

"Hey..." Zach hesitates for a moment before crawling into bed next to me and pulling me into his chest.

Tears are streaming down my cheeks for at least ten minutes straight, and I'm sobbing into Zach's t-shirt while he whispers soothing words and repeatedly strokes over my hair. When I calmed down a bit, I tilt my head and look into Zach's warm eyes.

"Sorry I haven't told you yet," I mutter in a breathy voice.

Zach tenderly smiles down at me and wipes away my tears with his thumb.

"It's okay," he softly says. "Do you want to tell my why?"

I swallow hard as pictures of my past rush by me, and eventually I slightly shake my head.

"I can't," I croak out and close my eyes. "Not yet!"

"You don't have to." Zach brushes a kiss on my temple, and I rest my head on his chest again.

"Do you want kids?" I whisper after a while.

"Actually, I haven't really thought about having kids so far, but I think with the right woman, yes," Zach answers after thinking for a moment.

My heart sinks at his words. "Oh."

"You know there are other ways of becoming parents, right?" Zach gently lifts my head with his thumb and forefinger and gives me an encouraging smile. "You can still be a mom."

"I know," I quietly retort. "But it's not exactly the same as carrying a child in your belly for nine months. I was always looking forward to being pregnant one day, but I won't ever experience it."

Zach obviously doesn't know what to return. He just sighs deeply and gives me a faint smile. For a whole while, we stay silent again. Zach holds me tight the entire time and gives me comfort with the warmth of his body and his scent. My thoughts wander back to his stepdad and Franco, who, like I just learned, was the man who shot him.

"Were you there?" I ask softly.

Zach shoots me a confused look.

"When Franco shot your stepdad."

He sadly shakes his head and averts his gaze. "No. Terrence found him dead in his room in our apartment. They'd already brought him away by the time I got home on that day."

"So, Franco killed him in his own home?!" I sit up and face him with a shocked expression.

Again, Zach nods. "I told you, he's a ruthless asshole."

"That's fucked up!" I huff and then add, "And what did you mean by you're his next target?

"My stepdad got killed because of the debts he had," Zach starts with a strained voice. "I'm the one who took over the debts, so I'm the one who gets harassed now, just as Franco used to harass my stepdad. I fear I need to sit this shit out until he finds himself a next victim."

"Why didn't Terrence take over the debts? He's older than you and he is his biological son," I point out.

"Terrence was like a son for Franco, and I have been a thorn in his flesh all along," Zach sighs and presses his lips together.

"But Franco killed his dad?! How could Terrence be on good terms with the murderer of his father?"

This story gets evermore fucked-up, the more I hear, but it also makes more and more sense to me why Zach has tried so desperately to keep me away from those people.

"They grew very close long before this happened. It wouldn't even surprise me if Terrence had helped Franco with killing my stepdad, as pissed as he was about my relationship with his father."

Slowly, the pieces are coming together, and I start to understand everything that happened in the past weeks.

"Franco hates you, right?" I ask quietly even though I think I already know the answer.

"I killed Terrence, so, yes, he hates me." Zach shrugs and shakes his head while running his hands though his hair. "This situation is so fucked-up. I don't know what it is, but I know for a fact that Franco has planned some sort of revenge. We need to be fucking careful!"

I nod and think for a moment.

"Sorry that I acted so stupid today!" I mumble and look down to my lap. "I wasn't thinking."

Zach raises his eyebrows, and the corner of his mouth slightly pulls up.

"I could see that," he states and nudges my nose. "Just promise you won't do it again."

"Promised!" I assure Zach and even earn a small chuckle from him.

"Are you really going to ask Jack to get your job back?" he then questions with a deep frown.

"I don't think I have a choice here, Zach!" I sigh and shrug my shoulders.

If I could, I would try to fight Franco's request, but I don't think this is a good idea. After what Zach just told me, I'm even more intimidated by this macho Italian. And I'm scared as hell of fulfilling this mission.

"I don't like this!" Zach remarks, and then adds raising his voice, "Fuck! I hate this!"

I nod and rub my eyes. Zach notices my stifled yawn and slides off the bed.

"You should get some rest, darling. I get you a glass of water."

"Okay," I give in and faintly smile as Zach pulls the cover over me. I don't really care that I'm still fully dressed since I'm freaking exhausted after this screwed-up day.

When Zach returns into the bedroom, I'm already half asleep and only feel him snuggling up to me before I drift off into another restless sleep. A sleep full of nightmares. A sleep full of guns, blood, and cold, green eyes.

*****

More and more parts of Zach's and Olivia's pasts get revealed, and some dark and hurtful memories mix up their emotions.🌪

Slowly, things are coming together. Any presumptions what will happen next?🤔

Please vote and leave a few comments.✨

Katie❤️