Chapter 15

It could be a coincidence that the tattoo was not for me. The sign and the date could belong to hundreds and thousands of people. However, all my suspicions, those questions that had no answers when his voice appeared in the unknown place, seemed to make sense.

The only real reason I knew of my whereabouts was because someone was watching me. It hadn't been my ideas; someone was following me everywhere because he decided to.

The tattoo on his arm was the symbol that represented infinity for the person who was so important in my life and died of an incurable disease; the sign represented the beginning of an eternal life, of the love that death could not break.

And on the other hand, there was my date of birth; November 24th. There was not so much conicidence in a situation like that.

I approached him, until I reached his side and compared the two tattoos.

"Is it...?" I was speechless, as he looked at me impatiently.

"Yes," he confessed, as if he knew I was going to ask and my heart raced at speeds I never thought it would reach, "I know what it means, and I think by now you know what you mean to me.

I had no words, nor the ability to understand the phrases coming out of Dante's mouth. It was as if new feelings had appeared in me, but they were just as confusing as the situation.

However, it was made worse by his insistent and domineering gaze, as if he was waiting for a reaction from me.

I needed to understand.

How was that possible?

"But how?" was all I could say.

He took my hand with his and placed it in the middle of his chest, letting me feel the warmth of his bare skin and the shapes of his muscles.

Every nerve in my body was activated, to the point that I could feel above the muscles the crazed pounding of his heart, as if an orchestra had just been jammed into his ribcage.

"You are the only woman who with just her presence provokes what no one has ever done and no matter how hard I try to control it, it's impossible," he confessed and couldn't believe the difference of what was going on inside, to what she was expressing on the outside. His face remained impenetrable, as if he had no war going on inside, "Your life is so vital to me, as if you were the oxygen I need to breathe.

"How can you say that, you are?

"Your boyfriend's older brother?" he questioned disinterestedly and I tensed my jaw helplessly, at the mere thought that I was the girlfriend of a wretch who didn't even deserve the pity of death.

I sighed heavily, "Yeah.

"I'm not a teenager, Evie. I know how it works and by the same token, I knew how to control myself, even that night," he objected and my skin bristled as I felt the small touch of his fingers on my arm, "There is one advantage my job and my position has given me, and that is knowing how to read others as if they were open books and you, my little one, to the trust of a man who you know would take care of you like a big brother, you are as transparent as glass.

"I don't know what you're talking about or what you feel, Dante, but it's not reciprocal.

"I understand, and for that reason, I stayed out of it and gave you the big brother you never had," I deadpanned.

"How did you know something like that?

"Mauro. In fact, I knew more about you from him, than from you, and I hate it," he said, as he put his white shirt back on, covering the tattoos I had not yet been able to define.

What if there was another look-alike?

"How could you mark your skin with something that only represents me? We're not even together and I don't love you, Dante," I complained angrily and he sighed slowly, as if he had touched a delicate fiber.

For some reason I felt he hadn't thought about my words, because even though I didn't love him like I once did with Mauro, he could drive every cell in my body crazy with his presence and no one else had ever done that.

"Do you know how much I paid for your freedom?" he questioned out of nowhere and I was surprised.

"Dante, I...

"Fifty million dollars, cash. Bill for bill, in bundles of a million each," he objected, not letting me speak, "I gave a black market trader headquarters, what they needed to expand their business to more corners of the world and I have no idea at this point how to stop it, why I only cared about getting you out of there," I gulped, "I couldn't bear the thought of you running for the same fate that hundreds of young girls like you run, at the hands of others who have no interest in treating them like people.

"You don't know how much I thank you for getting me out of there, Dante, I swear. I went through a nightmare, but that doesn't give you the right to keep me as your prisoner.

"Prisoner? You have everything anyone would want. A luxurious house, maids, a huge space, a new city to get to know and a...," he paused, "Anyway, what matters now is that you're not my prisoner, but there's no way you're going to make a presence anywhere. Which is why I'm very angry about what happened at the hospital; the last thing I want is for them to find my weakest point.

"Who and what weak point are you talking about, I'm not understanding you at all. Explain to me, without creepers.

He rolled his eyes, exhausted.

"Signor Di Marco is the new leader of the Italian Mafia, relieving his father's power as mogul of Venice. Consequence of his rise, is the new girl who has him completely crazy," a voice spoke, suddenly appearing in space. I recognized it at once and saw the older man, approaching us with an impatient look, "We haven't had the time to introduce ourselves, Signorina Lawrens, but my name is Alessandro Carletti, right-hand man of the Di Marco family.

"What are you doing, Alessandro?

"I told you the truth, Mr. Di Marco. In any case, he was going to find out at any moment.

I went blank from the moment I heard the word mafia, as if I had been transported to another place to try to understand what had happened.

"Did he say mafia?

"Was that the only thing he understood?" he raised an amused eyebrow.

I took so little interest in the man's amusement that I focused on Dante, who seemed to evade my gaze like the plague.

Was the upright man I had come to expect a dangerous mercenary?

"Are you a mobster?" I jerked back, releasing myself from his grip, "Like the ones who kidnapped me?

"Not as psychotic, but yes," Alessandro replied again.

"You shut your mouth," I replied angrily and seeing that Dante had no intention of answering my doubts, I turned my back to the two men unable to believe what they were.

"Non è andata così male, poteva andare peggio (It didn't go so bad, it could have been worse)," the older man said and I heard Dante sigh with stress for the last time.

I slammed the glass door shut and locked it, preventing anyone from entering.

An invisible pressure was suddenly suffocating me, as if learning that I was in the middle of an island with dangerous unprotected mercenaries was suffocating me.

Was there no one I could trust?

I felt abandoned, as if I had just lost everything in life; my best friend, my career, my parents, my happiness, my freedom, my whole life.

I sat up with a jolt as I remembered Nina and the card she had given me.

She was the closest person to someone I knew that I could consider trustworthy, even if I didn't know her.

I would have to find a way to communicate with her first.