Chapter 28: Chapter 28

We stood in silence for a while in front of the club's entrance and while Nunzio smoked one stressful cigarette after the next, I leaned against the wall and looked up at the sky, which was slowly but surely getting darker and darker.

"It's all my fault," my voice finally penetrated the uncomfortable silence and Nunzio immediately looked at me skeptically, so that I clutched my forehead in desperation. "This man only hassled me because I wanted to help this girl. If his death is the reason for all this. Maybe it's really because of Giovanna, who hates me for some reason."

"Probably because you're fucking with Dario," it suddenly came out of Nunzio's mouth and out of sheer shock, I widened my eyes with red cheeks and froze from the force of this sentence.

"Why do you say that?" I breathed in embarrassment, more than overwhelmed with the realization that he knew.

"Ludovica, I'm very observant and I've known Dario since we were kids. Don't take me for an idiot."

He puffed on his cigarette while I felt nothing but fear.

Afraid that everything would come out after all and that I would finally have earned the hole in my throat.

"Nunzio," I begged, taking the few steps that separated us to stand in front of him, wide-eyed. "Please don't tell Gino. Dario was a one-time thing," I explained, rolling my eyes in frustration. "Well, not just once, but it's over for good. Really!"

"Calm down," Nunzio replied nonchalantly, further increasing my nervousness with his easy-going demeanor. "I would never tell Gino that. Not because of you, or because of Dario, but because of Gino himself. He's acting hard, but he's not."

He flicked his cigarette away, breathed the rest of the smoke over his lips, and gave me another hard look.

"Gino is more brother to me than anyone. I promise Giovanna and that mad cop will be the least of your worries if you break him."

My throat felt so dry I gasped slightly as he stood so close I had to look up at him.

"I hope we understand each other?" he asked with a stern look and after I nodded dazedly, he kissed my cheek before turning to the parking lot.

He kept getting smaller and disappeared down the street, so I only now came back for oxygen. The feeling of choking on everything was driving me insane and I was beginning to believe that everyone except Giovanna and Gino knew about me and Dario. Were we really that reckless?

I ran a few steps forward and back in desperation. Back and forth back and forth as my mind tried to come up with a solution to all of this, but it was impossible.

I couldn't undo the sex with Dario. although I didn't want to and I couldn't prevent the apparently crazy cop using me to challenge Gino.

Basically, once again I couldn't do anything except accept the fate of Enzo and Nunzio.

Staring at the now dark parking lot, I kind of let go of myself. Functioning instead of living, just doing instead of thinking. That was the only way I could survive now.

"Mancini?" a man suddenly spoke to me out of nowhere and although I was never afraid of strangers, he robbed me of my senses with his dark voice after all that had happened. I heard him like I was underwater. Just looked at him through a haze of tears and didn't even notice how violently I began to tremble.

"Mancini?" he repeated, handing me a black box, which I stared at with huge eyes and a racing pulse.

"Bomb," I whispered in panic and gave him a startled look to carefully walk backwards to the entrance. His eyes seemed confused, but I jerked myself away from him, turned around, holding my breath, and ran into the club so fast I almost skidded on the wet floor.

"Gino!" I screamed hysterically, but when I got to the big room there was no sign of him. Of course, these girls all gave me hostile glares again, but I had bigger concerns.

I turned back to the hallway with a jerk and thought my heart would burst out of my chest at any moment, when suddenly the man from outside with his crappy box was in front of me again, making me scream out loud.

"Calm down," he wanted to calm me down and opened the box, which made me cover my ears and narrow my eyes. but there was no bang.

"Mancini has ordered," I heard him through my hands and looked over at him in mortal fear as he took a large pizza out of the box. "Pay?"

"I'll do it," said one of the women behind the counter, and while she came to my side with a wallet, she gave me a quick glance as if I didn't have all the cups in the closet.

It really was like that.

"Thank you!" said the pizza delivery man and he too gave me one last condescending look before disappearing back down the aisle.

"Could it be that you're not up to par mentally?"

I looked over at the woman who was just putting the food on the counter and then back into the hallway, where Kelly came running with Gino.

Still reeling from the previous situation, I watched in a daze as Gino buckled his belt as he ran and also as this Kelly put on new lipstick. She laughed and I felt like I saw her walking towards me in slow motion until Gino stopped in front of me and tried to grab my chin.

I immediately turned around to the counter, took a glass of water that must have belonged to one of the girls and threw the entire contents right in his face, causing all those sluts around me to take a deep breath.

"Don't touch me you-"

I was so angry about everything that I couldn't even think of an insult. Maybe also because I wasn't any better than him and I really didn't have the right to be disappointed or even angry at his betrayal.

But it was me and stormed past him to take the stairs up crying, where I stopped in front of the door, behind which so much good and bad had already happened.

I couldn't take it anymore, neither mentally nor physically. It was too much for a lifetime to go through in one day and I opened the door only to close it crying, wishing the bullet hadn't just grazed me and sobbing the few steps to the bed toddle around me powerless to just let go.

Consequences.

Was crying for hours and feeling sorry for myself my consequence? Fate's revenge for my missteps? Did Gino perhaps also know what I had done behind his back and deliberately wanted to hurt me?

No, because he wasn't the type of man for such a belated revenge. He would probably put a bullet in me right away without even thinking about it.

I rolled onto my back surrounded by dark thoughts and then stared at the ceiling, where the mirrors were still attached, with my teary eyes. They showed me only too well how helpless and small I felt.

Loud music was blaring from the club downstairs and I kept hearing voices in the hallway. Laughing women, moaning guys and sounds of hard sex that I immediately tried to block out.

It was crazy.

Just as I was about to collect myself and get up, the door slowly opened and, holding my breath, I sat on the edge of the bed and quickly wiped away my tears as Gino entered the room, closing the door quietly behind him.

His eyes sparkled angrily, but I stubbornly avoided his gaze and stood up to not feel so small and inferior to him.

"Why are you always crying?" he asked in a dark voice and I immediately looked at him in bewilderment, which encouraged him to take a step towards me.

"I don't always cry!" I defended myself, but he didn't seem at all interested in my words, instead glancing at my breasts for a moment and biting his lower lip so seductively that I almost forgot what I was about to say .

"Now stop making drama anatra and come here."

He came even closer to me and completely in his way of ignoring me and my feelings, except for me, I slapped his hand aside, which made him look at me in bewilderment.

"I told you before that I'm not one of your whores!" I retorted fiercely and confidently, but he grabbed my chin so suddenly that he probably saw the panic in my eyes immediately while I gasped in shock .

"Then don't act like one," he breathed, turning my face so that our lips were only a few millimeters apart. I could feel my body reacting to him, his pungent scent and his looks, but I ignored it and twisted my chin out of his grasp.

"Go to your Kelly if you want sex!"

I just wanted to get past him, but he grabbed my arm and glared at me.

"What's the whole shit, Ludo?!"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about!"

I felt my tears coming again and I just wanted to get out of this situation as quickly as possible, but he didn't let go of me and suddenly he looked at me with amusement, which only made me angrier.

"You seriously think I fucked her?" he demanded, and just the way he said those words gave me such a sick feeling in my stomach that I could have snapped and screamed.

"And if I did, I wouldn't give a damn anyway!", I said stubbornly and hurt myself and freed myself from his hand with a strong tug to turn towards the door, but before I could even take a step, he grabbed mine hair and pulled me back so that I banged my back against his chest and moaned in pain.

"Amore Mio, are you jealous?" he whispered in a deep voice close to my ear, reluctantly sending goosebumps down my arms, which also caused a slight tingling in my stomach.

"No," I replied, still angry at him and now also angry at my own body, because it seemed to be working against me whenever it could.

"So you allow me to fuck others?" he whispered, running his free hand down my side, stroking my already heated core.

"You already have!"

I slapped his hand away in a flash, then tore myself out of this erotic atmosphere and turned to face him while he just looked at me blankly.

"You want to know what I did to her?"

At his hurtful words, I immediately shook my head and again just wanted to leave, but then he caught up with me again and pressed my back against the door so that he could position himself right behind me.

I could feel his hard arousal even through the dress on my bottom as he put a hand firmly on my shoulder and fixed me with it so that I was stuck between his warm body and the hard door.

"Little duck," he whispered, laying his head on my shoulder to hug me from behind with his other hand. "I agreed to the engagement, so I'm only going to fuck you, too," he whispered, before biting my earlobe lightly, which made me moan softly, even though I didn't want to. "Do you feel that? These whores here can't do that."

He pressed his pelvis against my buttocks and I knew immediately that he meant his hardness, which immediately heated my middle with its push.

"Si," I breathed in a daze and in his embrace carefully turned to him so that I could look into his dark eyes. "But what was there between you?"

He took my chin, this time much more gently, and then shook his head almost imperceptibly.

"You don't need to know that."

"Then I'm assuming the worst," I replied and just couldn't let it go.

"And the worst thing for you would be? That I would have given her my cock?"

Blush smeared my pale cheeks and I swallowed hard, then nodded silently. He raised an eyebrow, grinning slightly, and let go of me to take a few steps away.

"Fine, if you want to know," he began, nervously ruffling his slightly tousled black hair as if wrestling with himself and I didn't understand at all why he was reacting like that.

"Ludo, you look at me differently than other women and I don't want that to change," he turned to me and I returned his gaze, waiting for his next words. "But I also don't want you to think I'm some fuck-anything dog, so I'll tell you the truth. Kelly is a whore who never stops provoking me and she does the same with clients. Me hit her on the back with my belt until she begged for her life feel free to look at her back if you don't believe me and please remember this is my job and I would never do that to you !"

"Oh God, Gino," I blurted out in complete disarray, not knowing what to say anymore. I didn't like that Kelly at all, but knowing that the man in front of me was capable of something like that left me speechless. Although he had tried to force me to do the most disgusting things. How was I supposed to deal with someone like that who had a job like that and treated women like that?

"You see, anatra," he interrupted my confused thoughts and slowly walked towards me to pause next to me and take a deep breath. "Your look says it all."