Chapter 43: D A R I O

When we got down to the garage Hera started walking to her jeep but I grabbed her hand to stop her. I pulled a set of keys out of my pocket and pushed the lock button twice and a flat black Audi R8 flashed its lights ahead of us. Hera raised her brow at me and I shrugged my shoulders as I smiled ear to ear. I unlocked the car and opened the passenger door for Hera and I climbed in the driver's seat and started it up. She started to get nervous and asked,

“Do you know how to drive this?”

I flashed her a wink and replied,

“How hard could it be?”

Hera’s eyes started to cloud dark blue and I knew I woke her arousal. She was distracted as I quickly figured out how to drive the car. I drove us through the mazes of tall buildings, from one cluster to another. I finally stopped in front of Hera’s favorite hotel and I saw her get really excited when we got on the elevator and headed to the tippy top.

Out of the elevator, we were greeted by a host who knew Hera by name. They chatted with each other like old friends, Hera even asked him how his grandmother was doing. She introduced him to me as Tom. He sat us at a table up against a window, the perfect view of the whole city.

Hera and I relished at the scene before us and she didn't take her eyes off the view when she ordered her drink. This was Hera’s favorite restaurant for big occasions (according to Keegan), and I appreciated that she hadn’t grown tired of the landscape.

I grabbed her hand and she finally tore her eyes away from the window to look at me. She smiled and I felt like the luckiest person alive to be sitting there with her. I wanted to ask her to be mine and started to get nervous when I said,

“Hera, you are absolutely beautiful, and funny. I love how fearless and nice you are. I know we’ve known each other less than 48 hours but I wanted to ask you-”

Hera’s eyes looked past me and turned white. I immediately got upset and asked,

“Why are you thinking of *him*?”

Hera swallowed hard before she said,

“*He’s* here.”

I spun around to see a very tall tanned man with slicked back black hair approaching our table. He took a seat between Hera and me. I looked at Hera, her eyes white and her face stone cold. *He* smiled like he wasn’t imposing and said,

“Sorry I am late, I thought our reservation was for 7.”

I was about to stand up and start pummeling this guy, but I felt the tip of a gun touch my knee under the table. *He* smiled as I heard him pull back the hammer.

Emiliano looked at Hera and touched her face. She didn’t move. He took a sharp breath in and I could see the anger flooding his eyes. He looked at me and said,

“Hera is *mine*.”

I clenched my teeth and I felt the gun dig into my leg and Emiliano explained,

“This is how this is going to go,”

He paused and I saw him look out at the crowd of tables and he nodded his head. Two other tanned men appeared out of the crowd and joined our table and Emiliano continued,

“I’m going to take *my* Hera. While my men here make sure you don’t move from this table until we are gone.”

I asked *Emiliano*,

“How do you expect them to do that?”

He smiled and said,

“They will shoot you in your knee caps.”

He ascended from his chair then motioned for Hera to follow but she stayed in her seat. He clenched his jaw then grabbed Hera by the arm and ripped her out of her chair. I tried to stand out of my seat to stop him from hurting her but Emiliano put up his finger and one of his goons grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back down. Emiliano said,

“They have silencers, I really wouldn’t test them.”

Emiliano pushed Hera in front of him and I watched him escort her out of the restaurant. I sat in my seat having a full blown panic attack. How was I going to get out of this? I reached for my phone and *the italians* jumped and I heard them cock their guns under the shelter of the table. One of the goons shook his head to warn me not to move.

The host, Tom, approached our table and asked,

“Is everything ok here?”

I stared up at him hoping he could read my mind, I slightly shook my head so the Italian goons wouldn’t see. Tom smiled knowingly and asked,

“Should I request the service of our best waiter, Linus?”

I nodded my head and one of the Italians was uncomfortable with my response and he told the host in a thick Sicilian accent,

“We don’t need any service, we’re good.”

Tom shot me a look then excused himself and I saw him disappear into the back of the restaurant.

I sat there shaking with rage and uncertainty for what seemed like hours. Every second that passed, *he* got further and further away with *MY* Hera. Where was *he* going to take her? Was *he* hurting her? At one point, a movement behind one of the goons caught my attention.

It was Linus, he was smiling wide and had a bottle of wine and three glasses. He draped a white bar towel over his shoulder to imply he was part of the staff, but his outfit did not match the other waiters. The smile on his face calmed me down. Linus approached our table, being obnoxiously upbeat,

“Good evening! I will be your waiter, my name is Linus. Thank you for coming to our fine establishment!”

I had to hide my amusement as Linus pretended to be the waiter. He set the glasses down in front of us and poured the wine into each glass. He explained,

“This particular wine is from Napa valley circa 2000. It’s very nice.”

Linus stared at the Italians, making them uncomfortable. Linus opened his eyes wide and made a rolling gesture with his hands towards the glasses of wine. Linus shot me a look and I grabbed the glass in front of me and swallowed the contents. The Italians stared at me and after a few moments they reached for their cups and drank the wine.

Linus kept going off about the wine, speaking absolute gibberish about what exact part of the vineyard the grapes were grown, the process for picking the grapes off of the vine. His speech was so boring I thought he put the Italians to sleep when they started to sway before face planting on the table in front of them. I heard their guns release from their grip and land on the concrete floor.

I looked up at Linus surprised but he was already retrieving the guns from the ground. He discreetly hid them in his pants before standing up. The host was back at our table and saw the sleeping Italians. He gave Linus a disappointed look and Linus replied,

“What? I figured this was cleaner than a shoot out.”

Tom looked annoyed at Linus and I had a feeling this was not their first interaction. The host scattered off and I quickly shot out of my seat. Ready to run in the direction I last saw Hera. Linus grabbed my arm and whispered,

“You need to keep calm.”

Linus and I tranquilly walked to the elevator through the sea of seated patrons. When the elevator doors closed Linus explained,

“We tracked Hera to an airstrip outside the Mexican border. Radamanthos is already almost there with a crew.”

When the elevator doors opened I practically ran to the valet to get my car back. It took an excruciating three minutes for the valet to get the car back to me. Linus hopped in the passenger seat and programmed the dash screen with the address to the airstrip and I reached top speeds to get there in time.