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I pulled yasmine into a hug. What was she doing here?

"I've missed you." She said while we were still hugging.

"I've missed you too and zen, what are you doing here?" I asked.

"I came here with dad." She said.

"You knew about this place?" I asked.

"Yeah my dad owns it, well atleast for now." She spoke.

"what is this place? and what do you mean by for now?"

"To be honest, it's practically a place for prostitutes." She said honestly.

I almost choked on my saliva. "A place for prostitiutes?"

"Yeah, these girls you see around the place get paid to give the men who work here pleasure, mostly because the men don't want a serious relationship. They just want to f*ck around with girls without commitment."

Is that what mariano does here? Does he f*ck around with all the whores while he's here? Just thinking about it make me furious.

Then, a thought came to me. "Wait, so you knew mariano before?" I asked.

She looked down at her feet, I could see that she was hiding something.

"Yes." She said.

"So, why did you pretend like you didn't?" I asked her.

She looked everywhere but at me and I could see that she was hesitant about telling me.

"My father had me sworn to secrecy." She said. "It's against the rules to tell people about any of the members. I agreed to the omerta, so I couldn't speak of anything with you, and I knew that if I told you that I knew him, you would've asked me from where and I didn't want to lie to you."

I let out a frustrated sigh. "What is omerta?"

"It's a code of silence, when you swear to not tell anyone especially the police about the activity that goes on with these people."

These are the girls who aren't safe. This is the club. That answeres two of my questions. But what is the mess and who are the people causing it.

I know what this is but I'm hoping I'm wrong.

"Where is mariano?" I asked.

"Him, my father and niccoli are in a meeting with the men." She said.

As I stood there I was trying to figure out if I had anymore questions to ask.

"Let's go to the lounge." She said holding my hand and leading me to the lounge. We walked through and open passage and into a room with red and black couches and a big flat screen TV. There is a door in the far right corner that is opened and reveals a bathroom. There is a big glass centre table in the middle of the couches and a table with food on it.

We sat in one of the black couches. "Do you know anything about the people who escaped in italy?" I asked.

"I can't tell you any information until you agree to the omerta." She said looking a bit disappointed.

"Who do I go to, to agree to this 'omerta' thing?" I asked.

"Either my dad or mariano."

"So, if I agree then will you tell me?"

She nodded. I felt my stomach beginning to churn, the familiar taste- which I knew all to well- of bile filled my mouth and I quickly ran to the bathroom. I bent over the toilet and let out the strawberry banana smoothie that I had earlier.

I felt my hair being pulled out of my face as I continued to spew. After some minutes when everything came out I flushed the toilet and rinsed my mouth.

Yasmine gave me a mint bubble gum. She said my breathe smelled like barf.

"Thanks." I said and she smiled at me.

"It also settles your stomach." She said.

We once again sat on the black couch and talked while we waited for the meeting to be over.

****************

A bunch of men came walking into the lounge and I saw mariano emerge from the crowd. I got up and went to him as fast as I could.

When he saw me his face was unreadable.

"what are you doing here?" He asked a soon as I reached him.

"No, I'm the one with the questions." I said putting my hands on my hips. "I wanted to talk to you, but you weren't home, then I found molly and she told me where I could find you and I came here with the driver, who by the way is waiting for me outside. I need answers mariano."

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. The sleeve of his suit rolled up to his forearm, revealing tattoos. When did he get tattoos? I'll ask him later.

"Answers for what?" He asked.

"Firstly, you didn't tell me anything, if it wasn't for yasmine," I poined to her "I would still be oblivious to the whole situation." I said.

"Let's talk in another room." He said walking off, leaving me to follow behind him.

We went into the elevator. The doors opened soon after and we stepped out to a different floor. There were barely any people on this floor. We entered a room with all black furniture and mariano sat on the desk top while I sat in a chair infront of him.

"What's going on?" I asked folding my arms.

"I don't know what to tell you." He said.

"Tell me everything."

He let out a frustrated sigh before he began. "You need to agree to the omerta before I can tell you anything."

What is with these people and this f*cking omerta. Do they think I'm that stupid to go to the cops with anything. Especially when I'm having a baby for one of the main men involved, I don't think so.

"Do I need to agree before you can tell me about you?" I asked. He nodded. He took up a bible from the desk and stood up.

"Stand." He said. I did as I was told and he took my hand and placed it on the bible; He stared at me dead in the eyes as he began to speak.

************************

I sat back down while mariano put the bible on the desk.

"Can you talk now." I said.

He nodded and gestured for me to ask him questions.

"What mess were you talking about the other day?" I asked.

"Some of rivero's men killed one of our girls some time ago, the men who work for us in italy caught the two men who did it and was holding them to kill them, When I went up there, Damon told me that some other men attacked them and allowed rivero's men to escape while they were busy fighting them off. Rivero's men went back to him and told him that we held them and he attacked the club in italy and now he is in america. We decided that it would be best if we all stayed together in one of our houses." He said.

"Who were the men who attacked?" I asked.

He shrugged."We don't know, none of us have ever seen them before. Some persons think they are the new members of rivero's gang." He continued, "I couldn't let you stay with zen and yas because I knew that rivero would come after you, and brown moved yasmine too, because rivero might come after her also."

"He knows me?"I asked incredulously. "Wait, what about zen?"

"Yes, he knows you. And she is staying in one of our homes with her parents, They said they didn't want to stay with everyone." He spoke.

"Oh." I said. I looked up at mariano, What did I get myself into? What did I get my baby into?

I couldn't think of anymore questions at the moment, and to be honest I couldn't deal with anymore of this. I held my head down in my hands as I felt tears welling up in my eyes. What if I get hurt or worse what if my baby gets hurt? The tears spilled and a sob left my mouth.

"Come here." Mariano said. I looked up at him still crying and walked over to him.

I buried my head in his chest and wept. He stroked my hair.

"Look at me." He said. It took me sometime to hold my head up and look at him. He held my face in his hands and used the pad of his thumb to wipe away my tears.

"I will never let anything happen to you or the baby. I will protect you no matter what." He said looking into my eyes.

"But what if you can't protect me, what if he gets me?" I asked as more tears fell, he wiped those away too.

"We'll all protect you, He won't get you, and even if he does, I'll get you back before he does anything to you."He said and pulled me into his warm embrace. I feel so safe and secure in his arms. I wish he would hold me like this forever.

This man who I met not long ago, this man I still know barely anything about, this man who gives me a feeling of security, this man who makes me happy and I don't know why, this man whose baby I'm having. This man is the man I'm in love with. I don't know how he got me to fall for him so fast, or maybe it's just the hormones.

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