Chapter 40: Chapter 40

"Please wait!"

Gino tried to get past me to the door, but I desperately grabbed the sleeve of his dark shirt and tried to hold him with all my strength. but he just broke free and slammed the door loudly from the outside, so that I stayed alone and crying in the room while everything inside me seemed to dissolve.

My tears kept falling down my cheeks and I didn't even have the strength to stand up, so I slid down my back against the wall behind me and pulled my knees close to my body to wrap my hands protectively around them lay.

As I sobbed in despair, so many questions ran through my head that I could hardly think straight.

Why only now? Why did he bring up the subject of Dario today, on the day I became clear about my feelings towards him? If he had known it for a long time and also knew that he wouldn't be able to take it, why didn't he end it with me much sooner?

Without being able to give myself an answer, I just sat there and waited. Waited for the music to stop playing downstairs. For my tears to stop and to ask Gino's forgiveness again be able.

It felt like an eternity where my life seemed to stand still, but eventually, after countless tears and feeling like I was going to die from this pain inside, the music turned off downstairs and I quickly found my way to my feet to drag myself exhausted out of the room, where I immediately went to the stairs and took them down as well.

My head hurt, my heart barely beat and my hands were shaking. So I walked down the dark corridor to the big room, but all the lights were off and no one seemed to be there anymore.

I immediately panicked at the sight. Not because of the darkness, which had already taken over me anyway, but because Gino had really left me here. had forgotten me. didn't want me anymore.

Holding my breath and tears returning, I quickly ran back down the aisle and arrived at the entryway, where my heart skipped a painful beat when I spotted Gino in the sparse moonlight outside, leaning against the wall by the entryway, staring at his phone.

"Gino, I-"

Just as his broken gaze met mine, the door next to me swung open and this redhead came out of the dressing room, who only gave me a fleeting grin and then walked past me towards Gino.

"We can," she said, and after Gino didn't even look at me anymore, he put his hand on her back and left the club together with her, while I just stood there and didn't know how to deal with this pain anymore should handle.

I wanted to stop him, yell at him, beg him. but nothing happened.

I was frozen. Unable to stop my own drama. But maybe I just knew that I didn't deserve anything else. I had lost myself in the last few weeks and now everything else was taken from me too.

And again I waited, but this time I didn't even know what to wait for.

The man I had feelings for just made it clear to me that he didn't want me anymore.

The man I was attracted to, despite my best efforts to stop it, was in a situation himself that he couldn't find his way out of.

My uncle. dead.

Where should I even go? I didn't even have a home anymore.

I quickly wiped away the remaining tears, even if new ones kept coming, but what I suddenly realized was that this club was the gate to hell and I didn't care where I was going, I just wanted to get out of here. ..

Outside in the fresh air, the heavy door slammed shut behind me and I looked around the parking lot in despair. Even the policeman would have been fine with me now. A bullet like that in the head would surely get me out of all that shit.

But nobody was there. Not a single car, except for Dario's Maserati, which I had lost the keys to somewhere in the chaos.

Crying bitterly, I remembered that I hadn't locked it, so at least I could sit in there and feel sorry for myself.

I walked purposefully across the parking lot, then yanked open the Maserati's door, dropped into the seat, and closed the door again.

"Shit," I cursed and slammed the steering wheel several times before slumping back in the seat and closing my eyes. Images of Gino and the woman flew through my head and I didn't want to imagine what they were doing, but I couldn't help myself and kept destroying myself with these ideas until I suddenly gasped and my eyes widened when the passenger door of the car was pulled open.

My gaze met Dario's blue eyes, and without saying a word, he got in beside me, closed the door, and leaned back in the seat to just stare out the windshield, lost in thought.

Since I also didn't know what to say or whether I should say anything at all, I closed my eyes again and just tried to calm down somehow. However, one question then burned heavily on my conscience and I hesitantly turned my face to his side to take a deep breath.

"Are you from the villa?" I asked calmly and after he turned his face in my direction and nodded in agreement, I swallowed hard and felt my heart pounding in my throat. "Has Gino been there?"

"Yes," Dario answered calmly, not avoiding my gaze for a second. "And since he was alone, I located my Maserati and immediately drove over there."

"He was alone?" I wanted to know with wide eyes and leaned forward a bit to make sure I understood him correctly.

"Yes why?"

I didn't answer him anymore and ran my hands over my face to realize that he only wanted to hurt me, but apparently had no intention of giving up on us completely, otherwise he would have taken this bitch home with him.

"Ludovica?" Dario tore me out of my momentary joy and I looked at him questioningly. "What happened between you two?"

"He knows about us," I admitted and he didn't seem surprised at all. On the contrary. It didn't seem to interest him at all, as if he had known for a long time. "You knew he knew, didn't you?"

Dario nodded, adjusting his shirt to look at me again.

"Giovanna confessed to me a few days ago that she told him because I was planning to break up with her."

It took me a moment to understand what he had just said and I let my eyes wander back and forth between his, irritated, while a thousand thoughts shot through my head.

"You wanted to break up? Why?"

"Oh, Ludovica," he said almost desperately, avoiding my gaze to stare out of the windshield again. "You know best why."

There was a short silence between us and I had the feeling that I couldn't feel anything anymore, because where his words should have made me happy, I only felt darkness. Everything seemed connected and there was no way at all to be happy at all. I no longer knew what was right. I no longer knew who my heart belonged to and also no longer knew how to deal with all the information, until I suddenly felt Dario's hand on mine and, heart racing, looked down at her as it wrapped protectively around mine.

"You should be concerned about one thing, Ludovica. You were shot and yet Gino leaves you here alone at night without any protection, and why? Because he's hurt, of course, but not because he loves you, but because he loves himself and his pride will always get in the way. It's not a healthy relationship. He wants to own, not love."

My eyes searched his and while I had to admit somehow that there was certainly a grain of truth in his words, I also had to admit that it wasn't for me.

"But I fell in love with him," I explained calmly, withdrawing my hand to get out of the car ahead of him. I didn't want any more chaos in my head and even now, when I just wanted to throw myself into Dario's arms, I kept my distance from him. I wanted to prove to myself that it wasn't what Gino said it was. Wanted to prove to myself that there was nothing between me and Dario that should have worried him, but when Dario got out and followed me across the parking lot, the need to punish myself faded more and more.

"Wait," he demanded in a stern voice, but I didn't think of stopping. Was afraid of what would happen if he got too close to me and I didn't want to be tempted. Especially not now that I was certain that Gino had gone home alone.

"Ludo!"

Dario's hand gripped my shoulder and although I tried to free myself, he managed to turn me around so that I looked up at him wide-eyed and holding my breath.

"Don't you understand that what you feel for him isn't real?!"

"Stop it!" I breathed pleadingly, gasping for breath as I felt more than crushed by his nearness.

"No, I won't stop until you finally realize that you are just desperately looking for love and security! You desperately want to belong!? You want to be touched and loved?! Good! Here I am and I'm ready, to take all the consequences! The main thing is not to lose the girl who captivated me from the first moment! Who changed me without even realizing it!"

"Stop it!" I interrupted desperately, pushing him away from me slightly to take several deep breaths. "I beg you, stop! I don't want to hear all this!"

"You have to hear it though! You're making the wrong decisions all the time and suffering all the time, even thinking it's normal!"

He looked at me intently, his body shaking, but I turned away from him and stared lost across the dark parking lot.

"I just want to sleep," it slipped completely weakly from my lips and I already felt Dario's hand on my back as he pushed me in the direction of the street, where I recognized my white BMW in the darkness and immediately had to think of Gino again .

"That's my car," I whispered, throwing a reproachful look at Dario, who suddenly just shrugged his shoulders with a smile.

"You wrecked my Ferrari and lost the key to my Maserati. At some point I'll run out of cars and I'd rather let someone else ride my bike."

Despite all the shit, all the confessions, all the chaos, this man managed to deal with situations just through his calmness that I suddenly had to smile and for a moment of silence I was able to banish everything negative from my mind.

As soon as we sat in the BMW, I buckled my seat belt and gave Dario a quick look, which he returned before he started the engine and we drove silently through the night together.

We both knew that everything had been said. He had made it clear to me what he would do for me and I had made it clear that I didn't want to hear it now. No matter how much I felt connected to him since our first night, I also felt something for Gino and I couldn't deny it or suppress it, even if he had hurt me more tonight than anyone had ever done before.

But love hurts, doesn't it?

Lost in my own thoughts, I only casually noticed how Dario reached back and pulled something out. My curious glance fell on his black jacket and only then did I realize that I was basically just sitting here in my bra.

I accepted it with a grateful smile and pulled it over my head, only to look lost out of the window again afterwards. Dario's smell clung to me now and I would have preferred to just close my eyes and snuggle further in the seat, but when I suddenly noticed in the side mirror that a black car was driving behind us that apparently had switched off its headlights, I turned startled to Dario and looked at him with wide eyes.

"Dario, there's-"

"I know," he interrupted me calmly, glancing in the rearview mirror and then giving me an encouraging smile. "I have everything under control. Don't worry."

Why did everyone keep saying not to worry?! I hated it!

Holding my breath, I turned around so I could see through the rear window between the center consoles, but all I could see was the car, no occupants or anything else.

"He's been following you since the wine festival," Dario said suddenly and I immediately dropped back into my seat and looked over at him in irritation.

"How do you know?"

"Because I followed you into the parking lot, but you left too quickly."

"You followed me?"

He smiled fleetingly and only looked into my eyes for a very short time before concentrating on the road again.

"Somebody has to watch out for you," he breathed softly and suddenly turned into a side street so quickly that I almost fell on him. However, I was still able to hold on and this abrupt maneuver caused my heart to race violently, which also gave me a slight nausea in my stomach.

When my frightened eyes fell back to Dario, he looked concentrated in the rear-view mirror and I turned around again to see, slightly panicked, that the car was still following us.

"You danced with someone. Who was that?" Dario asked into the silence and pressed the gas a little harder.

"A cop," I admitted.

"The cop Nunzio was talking about?"

"Yeah," I said softly, realizing that Nunzio was an old gossip. Was there anything he could keep to himself?!

"What did he want from you?"

"The usual," I shrugged, noticing Dario's gaze on me, but continued to focus on the side mirror. "That I break up with Gino, break his heart and get together with you."

"What?!", Dario said immediately, completely confused, who kept driving through narrow streets, while the car continued to follow us. "Why would he have such idiotic demands?"

"I don't know, Dario!", I replied a bit snotty because of my fear and his many questions and I immediately felt his hand on my thigh, which I thought would want to punish me again, but the opposite happened . He stroked the fabric of my jeans soothingly and only pulled his hand away from me again when I looked at him apologetically and wistfully enjoyed the feeling of his closeness, although at the same time I felt bad about it. "He wants Gino to suffer for killing his best friend. He also wants Giovanna."

Instead of continuing to elaborate on what I was calmly explaining to him, he suddenly asked me a thousand more questions. If he was alone. If he had a gun. How tall he was. How he came across to me.

"Dario," I begged, already holding my head from being overwhelmed. Of course Dario was someone who didn't leave anything to chance and wanted to keep everything under control, but I had been drinking and anyway I couldn't remember much about anything other than the video with Gino.

"Drive me home!" I asked and at that moment I didn't care if the guy would continue to follow us. I just wanted to get out of the car and feel safe again.

"As soon as this is settled!"

"Cleared what?!"

Before I could get an answer, Dario slowed down so abruptly that I would have hit my head on the faucet if he hadn't held his arm protectively in front of my upper body and thus prevented worse.

"You stay seated!"

Dario drew his gun and I gaped at him as he just got out of the car. But not with me. With trembling hands, I quickly unbuckled myself and then opened my door to get out as well.

"I really should spank your ass again," I heard Dario say completely unexpectedly and looked at him across the car with red cheeks, stunned, while I was burning hot just from this sentence.

But then, the fire between us quickly went out again as Dario ran towards the black car with his gun drawn and didn't hesitate for a second to shoot both front tires.

"Get out!" he yelled and I ran after him through the darkness despite my fear. But Dario quickly placed himself in front of me in the same way that I could only see his back and only heard tensely as a car door opened in front of us.

"Good evening," I listened to the voice of the man who had come too close to me at the wine festival and leaned a little to the side to be able to look past Dario's body.

"What do you want?!", Dario wanted to know and immediately the guy put on such a disgusting grin that it made me shake.

"She knows what I want."

Dario looked me straight in the eye over his shoulder and I was about to mention that I had actually kept the agreement, so to speak, since I was standing here with Dario and Gino certainly didn't want to have anything more to do with me since I heard I but suddenly steps around us and remained silent. Several armed men stepped out of the darkness and immediately I held my breath in shock and clawed at Dario's shoulder with one hand, but he remained calm and only aimed at the policeman.

"You want Giovanna, right?!" Dario spoke loudly. "You can have her! I'd love to! You leave Ludovica alone for that from now on!"

"But my dear Dario", the policeman smiled and came closer to us, so that Dario immediately put his arm protectively around me and pushed me further behind him, so that I was now standing close to his back and closed my eyes in excitement. I didn't even want to know how many guns were pointed at us. Basically, I just wanted to go home.

"My best friend is dead. Do you understand that? Dead because of that whore there," said the guy and immediately I heard a loud bang that made me scream and take a step away from Dario. Then, with my heart racing and my hands sweating, I was terrified to see one of the men on my right fall to the ground with a hole in his head, making me gasp for breath as I clutched my heart in a panic.

"Don't talk about her like that, or you'll be next," Dario replied calmly and aimed right at his head again, which only made the bastard grin stupidly.

"It's okay," he said, and ordered one of his men to remove the body, the only thought that crossed my mind was that the police here seemed more than just corrupt. No wonder so many girls disappear without a trace every day. "Well, Giovanna's engagement is going to be broken off," the policeman then explained, demanding my attention again. "And Gino will die."

"No!", I suddenly burst out loud and even when Dario wanted to grab my arm, I slapped his hand aside and bravely faced the policeman. "That was never the deal!"

"The deal was that he suffers, but apparently he doesn't care that you fuck his brother. I told you he has no heart, so death is the only option."

Despite the greatest effort, I couldn't hide the pain that he triggered in me with his words and it made me incredibly angry that I suddenly felt tears running down my cheeks at a moment when I should have been strong.

The bitter thought that Gino had left me alone took everything inside me and I felt this all-consuming pain pulsating deep into my heart before my eyes fell on Dario, who just stared intently at the policeman.

Maybe he was right. Maybe everyone was right.

Gino didn't care about me and yet, exactly this pain showed me that he was still close to my heart.

"Gino dying is out of the question," I breathed, breathless but determined, and turned my eyes straight to those of the bastard, who still had a smile on his lips. "Shoot me if you don't mind. An eye for an eye, but not Gino!"

"Ludovica!" Dario admonished me and put down his gun in bewilderment to look at me as if I wasn't quite clear anymore.

Maybe I wasn't either, but who was surprised, after everything that was going on here.

"If I had the slightest idea that Gino cared about you, my dear, you would already be dead," the policeman retorted, enraging me so much that I clenched my teeth and ran towards Dario and took his gun so quickly that he could hardly react.

"He means something to me!" I cried through tears, hands shaking, holding the gun up to aim at the bastard while sobbing.

Just for being a cop and pulling shit like that, I should have pulled the trigger. Only his lackeys, who would surely blow Dario's head off, kept me from moving my finger.

Love, no matter how weak, triggered something in us humans and that's exactly what happened to me. I knew I felt something for both brothers and I wished it was that easy to just sacrifice myself so they could both get on with their lives normally. This thought was the purest form of love, because it was selfless and I didn't ask for anything in return.

"You have a week!", he said amused and while I was still standing there and holding the gun up, the men around us disappeared, one by one. Only the black car remained of them and crying bitterly I left them I just dropped my gun and turned to Dario, who looked at me wistfully.

"I'm so sorry," I breathed, wiping my tears from my face. "I couldn't help it!"

"It's okay, Ludo," he replied and immediately took me tightly in his arms, where I cried into his shirt so painfully that his body started to tremble too.