I stare into Matteo's dark, unforgiving eyes as he looks down at me.

His gaze is cold and sends shivers running throughout my body. My eyes flick down to his side where he holds a gun, and I flinch at the sight, taking a small step backwards.

As much as I don't want to be, I'm absolutely terrified. I promised myself that I wouldn't let him control me like this, that I would no longer let him have this power over me... But now that he's here, now that he stands in front of me for real, my lip can't help but quiver.

I take another step back subconsciously, every bone in my body screaming at me to get as far away as possible from this crazed lunatic, but he's quick to grab my arm, yanking me towards him.

He holds me close to his chest, his heat radiating off of him like some sort of heater. I struggle in his grip to get away, but he only holds me tighter. "You weren't in such a rush to get away when you kissed me." He purrs into my ear, his warm breath fanning the back of my neck.

"Get off of me." I spit as I continue attempting to wiggle from his grip, but it's futile.

Every inch of me is repulsed at Matteo's touch. I want to claw at my skin, I want to run back upstairs, back to Scott. I want to scream out for him. I want him to come save me.

But I can't do that. He can't do that.

All I need to do is make sure Matteo leaves so that Scott has a chance of getting away. Otherwise my sacrifice will be worthless.

Finally Matteo breaks me away from his chest so that he can look back down at my face. For a second he looked just like the man I had kissed, the one who had apologised to me multiple times, like the man who asked for my forgiveness and accepted when I told him I would never love him the way he wanted.

But then it's gone in an instant.

"Search upstairs for the Scott boy." He orders.

"No." I whisper.

What seems like a dozen men, brush past us and begin marching upstairs, gun as their side, ready to fire.

I try to turn my body away, to get out of Matteo's hold and run upstairs, but his grip is too tight. "No!" I yell. "Matteo, don't do this, he didn't do anything!"

I can't let him do this. I can't have given myself up for nothing. I thought Scott would be safe. I didn't think he even knew that Scott was with me. How does he know?

I suddenly gain a burst of adrenaline and stupidity, stepping on the end of Matteo's feet with all my weight. It doesn't do much, but it doesn't need to. Matteo's eyes glance down at his foot, distracted for only a milliseconds. And that's all I needed.

I reach towards Matteo's side and rip the gun from his grasp and push myself from his grip.

I stumble backwards, surprised that that actually worked. Matteo seems almost just as surprised, his eyes wide in shock.

Removing the safety I lift it up and point it directly at him. "Call off your men." I order, skilfully hiding the fear in my voice. "Otherwise I will not hesitate to shoot."

His lips pull taut. "No."

"No?" I question, slightly surprised at his answer. "It wasn't a request."

Putting his hands into his pant pockets, he takes a step towards me, causing me to retreat a step. "No." He repeats.

What the hell is he playing at? Does he think I'm bluffing? Am I bluffing? Oh god, I never really thought this through. I can't shoot a person!

"Please." I say. "Please, you can take me, just leave Scott behind... He hasn't done anything." I plead, with the gun still raised. "I don't want to shoot you, but I will."

"Go on then." He encourages. "Shoot me like you shot Dante." My mouth widens at his words. "Did it feel good? Did you enjoy that your freedom cost him his life?"

"I--I..." Tears threaten to slip and I can't seem to hold the gun straight anymore.

"Or did you feel guilty? Is that why you tried to save him? Clearly you didn't feel that bad as you left him anyway." He takes another threatening step towards me.

"Dante was my friend." I say in barely a whisper.

"Dante was my brother." He spits. "I had known him almost my whole life... And then you--you thought you had the right to take his life away just to get away from me. I was going to let you go, you know." He says. "I was going to tell you that night... But you just had to get away from me, didn't you."

"You have done nothing but cause me pain!" I yell.

"Pain?" He cocks his head to the side. "You know nothing of pain."

He takes another step.

"I'm warning you." I cry.

"You killed Dante. You are a murderer. You deserve to die, you deserve to feel pain. No one in this world could ever love you after what you've done. Only I can." He says coolly.

"No! You are lying." My face is a mess of tears and snot.

Scott loves me. He cares for me, even after what I did. He understands why I did it.

"You know I'm not." Another step. "You think Scott can love you? No one can. You are a killer."

"I'm not." I whisper. Yet I find myself bringing the gun down, my eyes burning a hole through the metal.

I never wanted to leave Dante, I never wanted him to die. I never wanted anyone to die. No one was supposed to die.

"I'm sorry. I never wanted Dante to die." I say, squeezing my eyes shut. Putting the safety back on, I throw the gun onto the ground and drop to my knees.

I did this. I did not only kill Dante, but I hurt the people who cared about him most. Even if that was Matteo. I had no right to leave him behind.

"I'm sorry." I whisper, clutching my face in my hands.

I hear Matteo's footsteps approach me. I wipe the tears from my eyes as he drops down to face me. His eyebrows are knitted together in what I think could be confusion... Or anger, it's hard to tell.

"It's alright." He says.

My eyes widen at his words.

It's alright?

My whole body continues to shake. "It's all going to be alright." He coos.

Matteo's sudden change in attitude is unnerving to say the least, and I can't help but freeze when he wraps his arms around me. "Everything is going to be just fine."

I don't high back, but more lean into his arms as I can't seem to support my weight on my knees anymore. "I'm sorry Matteo, I never wanted anyone to die. I never wanted to hurt anyone." I breathe.

His hand runs up and down my back in a soothing manner, and I unwillingly melt into him.

"Sir," A man's voice snaps me out of my strange daze and I quickly stumble back, out of Matteo's arms, landing on the cold concrete floor.

I don't see Matteo's face before he turns, but his posture is tense. "What?" He snaps.

"We couldn't find anyone." I look to the side of Matteo and see Alistair. He looks tired, with dark bags beneath his eyes.

"What are you saying?" Matteo asks, his voice filling with a rising anger.

"There was no one in the apartment." Alistair repeats.

Does that mean Scott got away? Is he safe?

I let out a whimper in relief and a drunken smile seems to fall upon my face.

It wasn't all for nothing. Scott is gone, he's escaped. A heavy weight has left off of my shoulders, and I now feel as light as a feather, as if I could just float away into nothingness.

"Search the whole goddamn building, turn this place upside down! He can't have gone far."

My chest tightens after hearing he's not going to give up. I can only hope that Scott has gotten out of the building, and far away from here.

I hope he'll forgive me for leaving him. I hope he understands why I did it.

"And as for you," I snap my head up to Matteo who has turned back around to me. His face has turned back to an unreadable stone. "It's time to go home."

"My home isn't with you." I mutter so quietly that he doesn't seem to hear me.

"Get up." He orders.

I sniffle and stand on shaky legs. I can still feel the remanence of tears, like honey all over my cheeks. My eyes have some sort of haze coating them, and making everything look much foggier than it is.

Matteo takes my hand in his, as if he's holding the hand of a child. I try to remove my hand but he holds firm.

He leads me to one of the black SUV's and opens the door. I stare inside as if it's some sort of prison lit on fire. I don't want to go in. I don't want to go back with Matteo. There are so many things that I don't want, but as soon as I made the decision to step outside that door, I knew what I was in for.

Gulping down my fears and rising anxiety, I get inside the car. Matteo closes the door behind me, and I hear the familiar click of the lock.

Silent tears begin to fall once again, and burn my eyes.

What have I done?

God, what have I done?

Please tell me what wrong doings have led me to this point.

I have killed a man, all because of my foolish desire to escape. I condemned a man to death, a man who was helping me.

If I could take it back I would. I would've stayed behind and made sure that he wasn't alone.

I stare out the window, watching as the men emerge from the building, and fanning out into the woods surrounding the apartment. Matteo stands outside the doors, talking with Alistair. Thankfully his back is turned and I don't have to look at his face.

Time ticks by slowly and I find myself drifting off into an unwanted sleep.

***

I begin to stir from a dreamless sleep, and stretch my arms above my head before realising I'm no longer in the cramped seat of a car, but however a large king sized bed.

Trapped beneath multiple layers of blankets, I realise just how hot I am, and quickly push them off of me, leaving just one to shield me from the cold.

How long had I slept for?

Clearly long enough for Matteo to drag me back to whatever luxury apartment he is currently living in.

I wonder how long it'll be before he drags me back to Maine.

The room itself isn't comically large like the others I've stayed in. This one is occupied only by a bed, dresser and closet. Besides that, there are two doors, one I suspect leads to a bathroom, while the other is the exit.

I slip from the bed, and realise I'm still in one of my floral dresses. The bottom of it is dirty where I had dropped to the floor and I now notice that my knees are slightly grazed.

Scratching away the dried blood, I further inspect the small cuts only to have my attention divert to the door where Matteo walks in.

"Leave those be, I'll have someone to come in and clean them up." He says as he walks towards me.

I don't move away from him, but as he closes in on me, I can't help but want to shrink away.

"It's fine, I can do it myself." I mumble.

Matteo's soft fingers slip beneath my chin and lift my head up to face him.

"Are you going to kill me?" I ask, my voice calm enough that it even scares myself.

Matteo sighs and drops my chin, turning away. "No." He breathes.

I nod. "I never-"

"Don't." Matteo cuts me off.

I seal my lips.

He paces back and forth through the room. The sound of his footsteps and breathing fill my ears like an alarm.

"We are getting married." Matteo states.

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