Leo and Roberto threw glances towards Alesso to which he nodded at them carefully.

"They have my only daughter—the Sylvester's. And if I don't do what they say, they'll kill her." Marco reasoned for his action.

"They'll have her killed anyway. Do you really trust the Sylvesters?" Roberto spat out.

Marco ignored his words and gestured the strippers to take away their guns. The strippers searched them and took their guns away. They were now unarmed.

"You're going to regret what you're doing right now," Leo warned lowly but calmly.

"I don't care. All that matters is my daughter's life. Forgive me, boys."

"You know it's never too late, we can save your daughter together," Alesso said trying to buy some time before anything worse happens.

"It's already too late," Marco growled. "And if I don't hand you over to them before the time, they'll kill my daughter. All I'm asking is for your little co-operation." Soon Sylvester's men came out from the other side with guns in their hands.

"So this is where you were hiding them." Roberto scowled.

One of the men triggered his gun above, "Everyone, get out of here." All the people including the other strippers rushed down in fear.

"There's no need for making such nuisance," Marco shouted and scolded the man who shot the bullet. The man didn't listen and shot another bullet at the ceiling. Marco clenched his eyes tightly and sighed heavily in aggression. "I did what you asked me to. Now give me my daughter."

"Until these three bastards are handed over to the Don, you won't have your daughter yet." The man sneered near his face.

"I did my work. Handing them to your boss is your duty, I want my daughter." Marco shouted at his face.

"One more word from you and I'll order my men to kill your daughter and you'll be the cause of her death." The man warned him dangerously. Then he turned towards the three brothers and pointed his gun at them. "Target one and get two free but it would have been better if there were four of you. I wonder what kind of hell will go through in De Luca's if they find out that all they're sons have been killed at once." The man mocked as he prodded the gun on Leo's chest and laughed out loud together with his men. Leo was controlling his best not to put the gun into his mouth and pull the trigger right away but he knows it would be a mistake. He's waiting for the right time. Leo simply wore a calm expression and looked straight at the man.

***

Sarah creased her brows in confusion as she stared at the people rushing down the stairs in a hurry. All the people wearing the same fearful expression. Due to loud music, the people downstairs didn't hear the bullet shot. Some people from downstairs took notice of the people rushing out and stared in confusion. Sarah strolled forwards and held on one of the strippers arms who came running down towards her.

"What's going on?" She asked.

"Some mobsters has gone crazy." The stripper answered dramatically in fear before running away. And soon she saw a group of men in black entering the club with guns in their hands. Among the group, she noticed Nicolo. They were marching towards the double standards area.

***

"You know, it's your lucky day, bastard." Alesso jerked an eyebrow and gave him a mocking smirk. "There will be four of us any minute—" Right after the words left his mouth, men in group barged in and surrounded them, guns at the ready.

"But today is not our day to die." Alesso completed his words. Nicolo came forth and point his gun at the man who shots the bullet earlier. "You're late, little brother," Alesso smirked jestly.

"Sorry, got stuck in the traffic," Nicolo said cheekily. Roberto whistled towards the strippers gesturing them to hand their guns. The strippers hesitated and looked at Marco.

"Give back our guns before I make my mind to kill you all," Roberto warned glaring at them and immediately they handed the guns to them. "Now get out of here at once." He growled to which the ladies ran immediately.

"Do you guys need the invitation to put down your guns?" Alesso sarcastically said and glared Sylvester's men to put their guns down. But they didn't. They firmed their gripped on their guns and pointed at them.

"Look around assholes, do you find any escapes? No, right! If you wanna live, surrender now." Alesso offered them to surrender and save their life. "And let this place be no stain of blood." The Sylvesters men glanced among each other for some moments before finally surrendering. And right as their guns were placed at the floor, they were all shot dead. Katie, who was present among them, clutched onto her ears and screamed.

"Sorry, lads, the offer has only limited time and it has expired already," Roberto said as he stared at the bodies on the cold floor. Then he turned towards Katie, "Marco, one more scream from your girl and she's dead." He sneered glaring at Katie.

"Marco, tell your men to put their guns down," Leo said. Marco did as he said and soon his men shoved their guns down. "And you!" he turned to the man, the last of Sylvester's men, "Tell me where you hiding his daughter."

"Over my dead body." The man spat.

"Empty the club right now," Leo ordered some of his men. "Take Marco to the Don. I guess he needs an explanation from you." Leo gestured to some of his men to escort him. "And don't worry about your daughter, we'll save her." He said over his shoulder.

"And do something about your girl. See that she doesn't say a word." Roberto warned shooting daggers at Katie. His men escorted Marco and Katie away from the place. After some minutes, one of his men came in.

"The club is emptied, Boss." He informed.

Leo then turned towards the man and smirked smugly."You'll tell me everything now—" he pointed the gun at the man's chin. "—within a minute."

"I'll ask you for the last time. Answer me while I'm asking nicely. Where is Marco's daughter?" Leo asked calmly. The man didn't answer and glared at him. "Okay, you brought it upon yourself." He sighed and pulled out a switchblade from his pant pocket. "Tie him down to a chair."

His men brought the chair and ropes and tied the man. Leo came and stood in front of him and rested his one leg on the armrest. "What are you going to do?" the man asked. He was finally starting to panic staring at the blade that was on Leo's hand.

"Now tell me which part of your body do you want me to cut first." The man looked at him in complete horror. "Or should I just curve your name in your chest." Leo gestured one of his men to tear his cloth off. "Tell me what your name is."

"This is going to be painful." Roberto mocked as he comfortably rested on the couch beside the man.

"Why don't you first cut his dick off? I wonder how many women has he rapped already." Alesso suggested and chuckled.

"Piccolo, any suggestion from your side?" Leo looked towards Nicolo.

"Cut his fingers one by one. He dares point his gun at you." Nicolo growled. Leo then turned towards the man.

"What do you say?" he asked.

"I'll tell you everything." The man finally surrender. Leo looked at him expectantly for him to proceed. "There's an old abandoned mansion some miles away. The walker's mansion. She's there. She has been held captive inside the basement."

"How many men?"

"Ten."

"Thank you very much but you have taken your time," Leo said and triggered his gun through his forehead. "I hate people wasting my time." He completed and put his gun on his waistband. "Take care of this mess." He ordered his men and gestured his brothers to follow him.

By the time they retrieved Marco's daughter and head back home, it was nearly midnight. As they entered inside the house, they saw their family along with Marco sitting in the common hall. Roberto put down the little girl on her feet.

"Go to your Papa, Ella." He said softly.

"Pa-pa." Ella voice catches everyone's attention and turned towards her.

"Ella!" Marco quickly runs to her and engulf her into a hug. "Thank you so much for bringing my daughter to me."

"We are family and family don't betray one another," Roberto stated but lowly. "Don't—" he was stopped midway when Leo placed his hand on his shoulder gesturing him not the right time to say anything especially in front of the kid.

"Marco, you and Ella can stay here for the night." Marcus said to him and then turned towards Avery, "Avery, show them their room and take care of little Ella, she must have been gone through a lot."

Avery nod at him and escort them away. Severina stood up from her place and strolled towards her sons. "Thank you for coming back to me." She cracked up with unshed tears as she glances at her sons.

"Momma," Nicolo said and hugged her closely. "You don't need to worry, no matter what happens, just remember that we'll always come back to you."

"I know and this is what keeping me strong." She patted softly on his shoulder. Then she pulled away and cupped his face. "Now go, wash up and take rest. We'll talk tomorrow morning." They nodded at their mother and went to their respective rooms.

Leo got inside his room, fetch his cellphone from his pocket and tossed it on his bed. He went to his closet and took off his three-piece suits and dashed into the bathroom for a shower. After the shower, he came out shirtless with black pyjama and towel hanging over his wet hair. He sat on the bed and reach for his phone. His eyes went wide in shocked looking at his phone screen. He had received thirteen missed calls from Mio coure. A small smile played on his lips as he stared at his phone screen. He calls back and after a ring or two, Anna picked up the call.

"What the hell were you doing? I was worried sick about you. Why didn't you receive my calls? I called you a number of times. Are you okay? Did you get injured anywhere? Did you—Leo, you there?" Anna became a question box for some moments.

"I'm always here." He said softly under his chuckle.

Anna sighed heavily over the phone. "I thought I was talking to myself. Where are you now?"

"Home—in my room." Leo dried his hair and hung the towel on the stand. "You're still awake!" he laid his back on the bed rest.

"I couldn't sleep."

"Because of me."

"Mmmhh..."

"Want me to sing a song to sleep."

"Can you really do that?"

Leo chuckled softly before starting to sing. "There goes my heart beating.... coz you are the reason..." he kept on singing and singing until the line became silent. Anna had already fallen asleep on the other side.

"Goodnight, Mio coure." He said before hanging up the call. He rested his arm on top of his head and couldn't stop smiling to himself.

"Thank you, God, for bringing Anastasia into my life." He sighed heavily in relieved as he drifts into sleep.

***

Anna was busy reading in the Library, doing her assignments. Her college was going to start soon and she has to complete her studies before that. Her professor will not be happy with her if she didn't complete the assignments on time. She went to the medicine section and took some piles of the book for her research. After spending the whole day researching on different types of medicine, she finally completed her assignments by the late afternoon.

As she stepped out of the Library, she fetched her phone from her bag and stared at her phone screen and wondered what Leo might be doing now. After their phone call in the morning, he didn't call her even once either text.

"He's must be very busy." She sighed and let her mind drifted to thought. She thought about last night, Leo singing a song for her. She couldn't help but smile to herself.

"You okay!" A male voice woke her up from her reverie. "You look like a fool right now smiling at nothingness," Vernon stated, looking at her.

"What are you doing here?" Anna frowned.

"Had some business nearby, then I saw—" Vernon was interrupted.

"You should have just ignored me!" Anna said and started to walk away.

"Well, you're hard to ignored." Vernon teased. Anna made a swift 180' turn and crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes at him. "Don't get me wrong, it's just that you look very familiar to someone I know." He defended quickly when Anna shot him a suspicious glare.

"You're girlfriend—you're ex-girlfriend."

"No—my sister," Vernon said with an unknown emotion.

Anna's glare turned into a frown and gave him a questionable look. "But your sister—" her words died midway as she quickly realises what she was about to spill out. "—must be very beautiful than me, if I'm not wrong." She changed her words.

"I guess so." He simply said and gave her a smile but didn't reach his face. Anna knew the emotion behind those smile but she didn't say anything. "By the way," Vernon voiced making her look at him. "Can you help me with some kinds of stuff?" he asked.

Anna struggled to answer him immediately as she don't actually know him and her boyfriend and he is not in good terms. But her kindness towards people never fails to help them even if the person is a complete stranger to her.

"What can I do for you?" she offered.

"Can you suggest me a good gift store? Need to buy a birthday gift for my sister, her birthday is approaching." He said. There were so many questions running inside her head but she couldn't ask any. "Oh—on second thought, why don't you help me selecting the gifts if you're not busy now?"

"Okay—there's a very good mall just across the street. Come, I'll take you there then." She said with a little bit of hesitancy in her bones.

They made inside the mall.

"This mall is really big," Vernon said as he glanced around. Anna walked in further to the gift section and started looking around and Vernon followed behind.

"How old will be your sister this birthday?" Anna pretended to not know anything about his sister missing at the moment and be normal about it.

"Eighteen."

"What does she like—particularly?"

"I don't know." He answered quietly beside her.

"What about teddy bears?"

"I already bought her dozens of it. I've been collecting teddy bears till her last birthday. This time she's finally going to be an adult so I'm thinking of buying something different." Anna took a deep shaky breath before going to another section. Vernon simply followed her back.

"Collecting!" Anna pretended and pointed out as they walked side by side. "You've been collecting—you said earlier. Or did you use the wrong phrase?"

"You heard me right!" Vernon said quietly. "She's never been at home since the past fourteen years."

"What happened to her?" Anna asked as she thought that he would be expecting some questions from her.

"She went missing on her fourth birthday—" Vernon was actually telling her everything. "My brother and I came here to search for her. We've been searching for her for fourteen years going around the world."

"I'm sorry for your loss and I pray that you find your sister soon," Anna said sincerely looking at him.

"So stupid of me!" Vernon chuckle softly to himself. "Knowing that you have a connection with my enemy but here I am telling you everything."

"I'm not a spy." Anna deadpanned as she started walking. They spent minutes together looking around for gifts. Anna keeps on suggesting him with gifts but he kept on rejecting by saying that his brother had already bought the same items as gifts.

"Okay—enough!" she sighed. "Did your brother ever buy any jewellery kinds of stuff for her?"

"I don't think so."

"Okay good—let's go to the jewellery shop." Anna took him by his hand and dragged him along with her. They got inside the jewellery store. Anna's eyes caught on the platinum necklace with a ring-like structure in its middle that was displayed on the glass counter.

"Excuse me, can I look have a look at that?" she pointed at the necklace.

"Sure, ma'am!" the lady at the counter said and took out the necklace. "Here it is."

"What about this necklace? Do you like it?" Anna asked showing the necklace to Vernon.

"This is very beautiful." Vernon smiled brightly to her. "Wrap it up."

"Okay!" then she turned to the counter-lady and told her to pack it. Vernon took out his card from his wallet and handed it to the counter-lady.

"You have a very beautiful sister, Sir." 

Always Smile, 

Happy Virus,