***

The honeymoon period with Gio was awesome so far. Being out of the States and not being surrounded by the whole mafia world 24/7s, almost made me forget about who Gio was and our lifestyle back home. Giovanni Cavelli was a powerful and successful businessman and Italian mafia boss. However, by just looking at him, it was hard to tell that detail. To everyone else, he would seem like a normal everyday guy. However, being his wife now, and knowing the real guy he was behind his innocent facade, I was well aware of how deadly and dangerous he could be.

It was so surreal how I had gone from being the daughter of Gio’s rival group, to being his lover, to his enemy once again then now his wife. I guess love could be really powerful as well. Months ago, I would not have thought that I’d now be married to Gio more over being on honeymoon together.

I was in bed with my laptop resting on my stomach as I was online ordering things. It was some minutes after eight here in Venice Italy. We had finished having dinner a couple minutes ago and Gio was in the shower. He had of course tried to get me to shower with him but I had already showered before and even though the idea of showering with him sounded so appealing, I know we wouldn't really be doing much showering. After minutes of him trying to persuade me to join him, he finally gave up and went by himself. Hence, here I was shopping online.

I was most definitely be ordering somethings that I may never wear because online shopping had that impact. I had just added a pair of beige open toe wedges to my online shopping cart when I heard Gio's phone that was on the other side of the bed, started ringing.

"Babe your phone!" I called out hoping that he could hear me.

After not hearing him respond, I picked it up and went inside the bathroom with it still ringing in my hand. I know that I could've just answer it but I wanted to let him know it was ringing. Answering someone else's phone just seemed a bit out of place to me— even if that person happens to be my husband. The shower was running and the shower door was closed which explained why he wouldn't hear me.

"Babe," I called knocking on the door, once I was near enough.

"Yes?" Gio asked as he turned off the shower and pulled the door. "Now you want to join when I'm done?"

"No, it’s your phone." I said holding up the device which had just stopped ringing.

"Who is it?" Gio asked as he got a towel.

"Your girlfriend," I said rolling my eyes when it started ringing again. "The side piece who can't get enough of you, even when you're married."

"Amore just answer it. I still soaked with water." Gio chuckled obviously knowing who I was referring to.

"Hi Lucas,” I answered the phone. “Gio said to tell you stop calling him because he's a married man now and have no time for side chicks."

Lucas was Gio’s right hand man. He handled business while Gio was away but he and I didn’t quite see eye to eye most of the time. In addition, Lucas had really bad timing. He was always calling whenever Gio and I were having an intimate moment. Since he tends to call Gio quite often and they’d discuss business, I referred to him as Gio’s girlfriend or side piece.

"Hello to you too Lexi," Lucas replied.

I could tell he was rolling his eyes or something at my pettiness but was still amused at the fact that I just made a joke and was even talking to him.

"How is the honeymoon?" Lucas asked.

"Well, it has been great up until now." I replied. "Did you need something?"

"Where is Gio? I need to speak with him." Lucas replied.

"At the moment unavailable. Gio is currently naked…" I said as I turned to look at Gio who just stepped out the shower with water running down his abs. I adverted my eyes back up before I got further distracted. "I don't really like the idea of my husband talking to another man while he's naked."

"Did I interrupt something or are you just being a pain again?" Lucas asked.

"As a matter of fact you did. Gio and I were making passionate..." My words got cut off as the phone got pulled out of my hand.

"What happened?" Gio asked as he put the phone to his ear.

Rolling my eyes at him, I headed back out to the bedroom leaving him in there with his phone held between his shoulder and ear as he wrapped the towel around his waist. I tried not to eavesdrop as I went back to sit on the bed. I could hear him talking about some drug addict and not his concern. I also heard the mention of some guy named Alfredo. I tuned out the rest of the conversation as I went back to my online shopping quest.

After a couple of minutes, Gio finally came out of the bathroom. After slipping on underpants, he climbed into bed with me. Closing the laptop and putting it aside, I turned to face him.

"Trouble back home?" I asked curiously.

"I swear I never get any break even when I'm on break." he sighed. "I left Lucas in charge to take care of business yet he stumbled upon more trouble... Well not willfully."

"What happened?" I asked him.

"You remember I told you about this guy that owed me and seemed to be taking us for a fool?" Gio asked to which I just nodded. "Well we've been trying to get our money for months now but this guy kept going around us. In addition, he was being disrespectful about it as well. I was going to pay him a visit myself-show him who he was really messing with-but since I had to leave for our honeymoon, Lucas and two of the other guys went to take care of it."

"So did he get seen or something?" I asked wanting him to get to the point.

"Well in some ways. When he went there, Alfredo sent one of his strippers to distract him." Gio replied. "He turned her down and tell her to tell the figlio de puttana that his plan wasn't going to work out. It so happened that he decided to go pay him a visit himself and caught him and his guard beating the hell out of the girl."

"So let me guess, he shoots them and she saw?" I guessed.

"He said she was thrown to the floor and practically passed out when he killed the three of them." Gio responded.

"What? Three? He killed her too?" I asked in disbelief.

"No, not her. After he shot Alfredo and one of his guys, another one ran in to attack him so he killed him too." Gio explained. "He said he couldn't just leave the girl there unconscious with the three bodies, so he took her back home with him and get our doctor to look at her. Long story short, this morning he realized the girl actually heard what happened before she had completely passed out and also she's an unstable drug addict. So he can't let her go and risk her running her mouth especially not in her state."

"So he's going to have to babysit her then? Because with drug addicts you can't tell what they'll do especially when undergoing withdrawal symptoms. If he doesn't get her a fix or get her clean, she is practically an insane person that he's living with. Not that I care about what Lucas has to undergo anyway." I replied. "Come to think about it, him having to do that will probably teach him a little something about humanity."

"You're never going to like Lucas are you?" Gio asked me.

"Most likely not. Or maybe I'll like him when you learn to like my brother. How does that sound?" I said to him.

Gio and my brother Dominic didn’t quite see eye to eye either.

"But on the real, what is his plan towards the girl?"

"He wants to help her get clean before trusting that he can let her go and her not running her mouth." Gio replied. "He'd just have to find her and kill her if he lets her go and she talked.”

" Well, I think it's good he hasn’t just decided to kill her too and be free from the burden." I said to him. "At least it proves that he still has a heart or something similar to it."

"Give him a break Lexi," Gio chuckled pulling me into his arms. "He's definitely going to need one.”

**Amy's POV**

When Lucas had said that I needed to get clean and I wasn't leaving until I was in a better state, the guy wasn't kidding. It was probably my second or third day at his place. I honestly had no idea what date today was or how long I've been here but he had locked me in. Yes, he actually locked me inside the room and came to check on me in the morning before leaving and in the evenings. He had his maid provide food for me which I hardly touched because of my depressed state and lack of appetite. I only took one or two bites of each food and the only thing I had consumed much was water. I couldn't leave and was confined to the room for who knows how long. After spending years being owned by an abusive manipulative monster, I was now a prisoner for another?

I have to get out of here or I was going to die. Another day without the drug in my system to help me function, I felt as if death would be much sweeter right now. I was displaying much more symptoms of withdrawal than before and I just didn't think I could handle it anymore. As usual, I had spent another entire day crying, screaming at the door and trying to break it down with the chair or smash the windows in order to get out. However, all my efforts had proven futile. It only made things worse for me, especially since I had refuse to eat much of what his maid brought to me for the couple of times. I tried escaping twice before when she had come to give me food, so now he had this guy there as some guard or something so I couldn't try that anymore.

After hours of my futile attempts to escape and throwing anything I could find around the room, I just settled for laying on the ground crying in a fetal position. I had finally given up trying to escape for some minute. I was experiencing bad stomach cramps much worse than that of menstrual cramps. All this because I wasn’t getting a fix. In addition to the cramps, the sweating, anxiety, insomnia, difficulty breathing, tremors, muscle tension, heart palpitation, nausea and irritability was amongst the other withdrawal symptoms I was having. Then feeling completely weak and useless, made it a whole lot worst. I just wanted to die.

I couldn't concentrate and it was like I couldn't control my body anymore. I was scared, it felt as if someone would just burst through the doors any minute now and hurt me. I just wanted it to all end. He didn't leave me with anything in the room that I could use to harm myself. It was like he knew he'd have someone like me here and that I'd be having these thoughts. The only thing which was in the room was a single bed, a chair and a small bedside table and if I should include the tray of untouched food which was set upon it. The room had an ensuite bathroom and even then he had the mirror removed. I still hadn't taken a shower since I had gotten there which was unhygienic but right at the moment, I could care less.

Lucas had even brought me clothes and I had only just folded them and throw them at him and across the room. I had the urge to vomit which caused me to dragged my way to the bathroom. After puking in the bowl, I dragged myself over to the bathtub and plugged it as I waited for it to be filled. I stripped out of my clothes—which wasn't really mine. It was a pair of sweats and T-shirt which Lucas said his maid was the one who changed me in to them, the night he brought me here unconscious. Yes, I had the same clothes on for another day or maybe two now despite them trying to get me to shower. I decided to finally try that shower now. After all, my body felt hot, itchy and gross as a result of the constant sweating. I sure smelled but I didn't care about that until now that I had gotten an idea.

After the bathtub was full, I slowly climbed over and lowered my body into the water. The water felt great on my skin but taking a bath wasn't really what my intention was anymore. After getting in the water, I closed my eyes as I fully submerged my head and entire body under the water. Ever had a near drowning experience where your nose and throat burn from the intake of water? Sometimes your head too would have that burning feeling and your lungs burned and closed off as it filled with water? Well that was the feeling I was having. I was definitely gaping and taking in water, my head was fuzzy and I could slowly feel the consciousness slipping away from me.

This was it. This was the end, everything was finally over, I told myself but just before I could finally let go, I felt my body being pulled from under the water. When I opened my eyes, I was coughing up lots of water and gasping for air. It took me a couple minutes to realize that I wasn't dead but instead laying on the bathroom floor with Lucas over me starting to hold me up. Oh no! Instead of allowing me to end my disastrous life, he had pulled me out of the water and administered CPR.

**Lucas's POV

**

The minute I got home, my help Greta came up to me.

"Sir, she still refused to eat anything." she said to me.

"Did she try to escape again today?" I asked her.

"No sir, she saw Mr. Alvera and didn't try to escape but she spent almost the entire day screaming and trashing the chair into the wall." she responded. "She only quiet down completely a few minutes ago."

"Thank you Greta. You can both take the remainder of the day off. I'll take care from here." I told them as I made my way to the room I had organized for Amy to stay in.

If she had quiet down finally, it meant she probably fell asleep or at least passed out due to her being exhausted and not eating as well. I figured it was best to check up on her now. As I opened the door, I didn't see her in the room. I called her name and still got no reply. I had a bad feeling about this and rushed into the bathroom. At first I didn't see her but her clothes were on the floor. A second after, I recognized her body being fully submerged in the bathtub of water.

"Shit!" I cursed as I rushed to pull her out of the water and placed her on the floor.

She was completely naked but that didn't faze me nor have any effect on me once I realized she wasn't breathing. As I laid her on her back I went on my knees and pinching her nose and placed one hand on her chest. I covered her mouth with mine as I started administering CPR. She must have passed out while trying to take a bath or tried to kill herself. After three tries at CPR, I thought she had indeed died. Then I heard her starting to cough. I quickly dragged a towel from the rack wrapping it around her front as I tried to get her in a sitting position. As her eyes opened, she was coughing up water and gasping for air.

A few minutes after she had the excess water out of her, her eyes got wide with anger and disappointment. Pain, hurt and depression clouded them. I immediately realized now that she was indeed trying to drown herself and I had come a moment too soon- just in time to stop her.

"W-why?" She whispered before she started crying, screaming and fighting me. "Why did you saved me!? I wanted to die! Just let me die! Let go off me! Please, I just want to die!"

"Stop it!" I gritted out as I tried to hold her steady. "Why would I allow that? If I wanted you dead, I'd just let you that night at the club."

"You should've! I just want to die! I am miserable! What do I have nothing to live for? Nothing!" She screamed as she continued trying to fight me while having a full breakdown.

I didn't have any training whatsoever on how to deal with crying emotional women. Even worst, a suicidal, drug addict emotional woman. I did not know what to do about this situation so I did the only thing I thought could calm her down and stop this breakdown. After contemplating my next action, I had her in a comforting hug with her head crushed into my chest.

"You may not feel like it or realized it right now, but trust me you have plenty to live for."