Pearce Hudson: #1 My Italian Devil

9.The devil wears Armani

I took a seat outside of the cafe. Lively music and warm homey smells from the cafe were pouring outside.
"Good morning miss what can I get you?" The waiter asked handing me a menu. I scanned though it quickly.
"Um...I'll have the pineapple Greek Yogurt."
Max circled around our table for a few seconds before settling down. The waiter brought my yogurt and I dove into. it. Being brought up by a Greek mother I knew a thing or two about Greek cuisine. That yogurt wasn't Greek.
"Hey are we done here? Because I'm going go inside the cafe and complain about this yogurt?" I asked pressing down on my Bluetooth device.
"We you can-" Jones's voice was cut off.
"Hello. Can you hear me?"
"Pearce," it was Jessica's voice.
"I'm here."
"Remember how I told you weren't going to see Dante today?"
"Yeah..."
"I lied."
"What?!"
"Turn around."

Out of the mistakes in my life turning around there was the biggest. Across a street a black SUV pulled up. A door opened and man in an Armani suit and slicked back hair, stepped out. He buttoned his blazer, ran his fingers through his hair and looked across the street. Our eyes met and latched onto each others. Dante. I stopped breathing, time slowed and I was no longer sitting at a cafe on Harvard Street.

7 years ago, Harvard university campus
"Arranged marriage?! Pearce come on!" Zoey Chase groaned. "That's so 50 years ago."
"Why do you even need it? You're 20, your hot and your ganna be a lawyer," Keisha Cummings said, picking off grass from her coco colored legs.
"It's not a big deal," I insisted. "I'm not marrying the guy. Just going to meet him."
"Still just say no," Zoey laid down on the field of grass.
"I'd say yes," Lilly Chowdhury spoke up.
"See," I smirked. "Someone agrees with me."
"We have arranged marriages in my culture all the time. Dating is literally a sin in India," Lilly explained. "And like she said she's just meeting the guy."
"Okay fine," Zoey said. "But what do you know about him? What does he do? Ooh if he's one of those nerdy University dropouts who invented stuff and became billionaires. Then leave those for me. I need to marry a rich guy and drop out of uni. Hey maybe you can give us a quickie divorce?"
"Shut up Zoey that's not how divorces work. Anyways, I heard he went to Yale. Now he's in business with his dad and is looking to settle down."
"Smart, has a job and wants to settle down," Keisha said. "He's either too perfect or a psychopath."
"Maybe he's looking for the right girl," Lilly suggested.
"You guys can question his motives but I have to meet him in a few seconds," I glanced at my watch.
"Like that?" Zoey examined my outfit. I had just come from a Harvard Women's hockey team meet, so I was wearing my hockey jersey, shorts and sneakers.
"Well he needs to get used to this," I pointed to myself.
I got up and brushed the grass and dirt off my jersey as a black SUV pulled up to the front of the university. A man in an Armani suit and slicked back hair hopped out. He buttoned up his blazer, ran his fingers through his hair and turned around.
My heart leaped. He had a dark hair color that looked brown in the sunlight and black when it was shade. His eyes were grey, but as he got closer they turned into a light blue. His jaw looked like it could cut glass. He made his way towards me, one hand in his pant pocket, the other swinging casually.
"Are you Pearce DeNiro?" He asked. His voice was calm and mesmerizing.
"Yeah."
"Wow! You're not what I expected. I mean it in a good way. You're more beautiful than what my father described."
"I'm sure you call every girl beautiful."
"Well right now you're the only girl, now."
"Good save."
A dazzling smile spread across his lips as he said, "I'm Dante."

"Jessica what are you doing?" I hissed throwing a 10 dollar bill onto the table.
"Pearce just wait it through," she replied.
"No!"
I grabbed purse and whipped around crashing into a chest. I knew who's chest. I dared to look up. A pair of light blue eyes hypnotized me and drew me in. The wall I had put up in my mind, crashed and flooded my brain with memories, thoughts and dreams of Dante. It all came back: the good, the bad, the ugly.

"Hello Bella," he smiled.
I didn't reply. My hand came out of nowhere and slapped him straight across the cheek. "Get away from me!"
His two bodyguards that came out of the car had their hands in their coats, drawing their guns.
"It's okay," Dante said.
"Move out of my way!" Beside me, Max extended his paws and growled.
"Is that Max?" Dante asked. "He got so big."
"Get out of my way Dante!"
"Sit down," Dante's eyes turned hard, he was annoyed.
"Do it Hudson," Osbourne said in my ear.
I sat down my hand on my purse ready to pull out my gun. He took a seat across from me.
"How have you been?" He asked placing a hand on my hand.
I yanked my hand back, "Don't. Touch. Me."
"You're hard to find Bella."
"5 years! 5 fucking years! Not a call, text or an email. Then you prance back in and expect me to what? Greet you with open arms."
"But your my wife."
"I haven't been for 5 years. I got a divorce," I leaned back and the bodyguard standing behind Dante caught my eye. He was the man who told me leave, 5 years ago in Washington. The glint in his eyes told me he knew I recognized him.
"Bella," he voice turned soft. His expression was so genuine I almost fell for it. "I love you. Look me in the eye and tell me you don't love."
"Where's Alessandra?"
"Who?"
"What did you do to my niece?"
"I didn't have anything to do with Alessandra's kidnapping."
I got up and grabbed my purse. I brushed past the bodyguard, slipping my business card in his coat pocket.
"Forget about me Dante," I said over my shoulder. "You're a criminal. Don't come after me."
"I won't stop chasing after you Bella! You'll be mine again!" He yelled as I crossed the street.

"You bitch!" I screamed stepping into my apartment. I tossed the purse on the ground and grasped Jessica by neck of her designer dress. "Who gave the right?! You knew I didn't want to see him!"
"I knew you wouldn't see him. This was perfect. You were genuinely surprised!" She protested.
"Is everything a mission to you?!"
"Break it up Hudson!" Jones pulled me back. "And you Osbourne, next time you pull a stunt like that, you're off this op."
"That's not up to you," Jessica fixed her dress.
"No? I can have a conversation with superiors and tell them how your deliberately endangered an agent," Jones threatened.
"She wasn't endangered!" Jessica said. "Pearce you have to understand, you had to meet him. We needed to see he was still in love with you. It was important  for the mission-"
I whipped around and punched her square in the nose. She fell to her knees, clutching her nose as blood seeped through the the gaps between her fingers.
"Take that for importance."
"Bitch!" She said in a muffled voice.
"That's what you get when you mess with me!"