Deal • REWRITE • BOOK 1

16; In My Blood

"Go back to Aria and fix shít with her because that's clearly the underlying issue here."

L U C I E N 

"What the fück do you mean he's missing?"

My eyebrows furrowed and my chest heated, the irritation that was a result of Alex's stupidity only leaving me with the need to smash his head through a fücking brick wall.

"He's literally fallen off of the face of the earth, I don't know where he's gone or who he's-"

"I don't care whether he's fücking balls deep in a Russian stripper's áss, Alex!" I snapped, cutting his words off as I heard him sigh sharply through the receiver of my phone that was pressed against my ear. "I want Joe found and if you're going to püssyfoot around the situation, then I can get someone else to do your fücking job because you clearly can't do anything fücking right."

There was a moment of silence the ensued between us after I'd spoken, my heavy breaths echoing in the speaker of my phone as I stared through the window of the moving car I was in.

"...are you okay?" Alex asked wearily, his words making me scrunch my eyes closed as I pinched the bridge of my nose and side glanced Nick who was in the driver's seat.

"Fücking fantastic, Alex," I muttered, breathing out a heavy breath as I leaned my head back into the headrest whilst loosening my tie that felt like it was choking me, the heat of my anger fanning around my face when I pin pointed my stress and huffed.

Five days.

That's how long it had been since I'd last seen Aria.

I would've liked to think that our distance was because of business, however I knew that wasn't true since I was left feeling ill every time I thought about her after what happened back at the Moretti mansion.

Whether it was the way that I pictured the hurt on her fact or the fact that I was beyond livid with the way things had unfolded, I couldn't help but let the anger I had course through me and become one with my blood. It awakened the monster inside of me and only resulted in me being pissed at everything in life the minute I'd been sent to Venice to deal with Giovanni's business, a situation that I was now being driven back from as I ran a hand through my hair and blew out a sharp breath.

"You're clearly pissed at something," Alex said, his tone inquisitive. "Care to fill me in?"

"I'm pissed because a man that was in plain sight is the one behind our father's attack, care to fücking keep up?" I muttered, calling him an idiot in Italian as I opened the window to get some fresh air.

"Are you sure it's not anything else?" Alex asked me, his tone decisive as I ran my tongue over my teeth and inhaled through my nose. "You've known about Joe falling off the face of the earth for nearly a week, but you're having a go at me now."

"Stop dancing around the subject, what are you trying to get at?"

"Today's the day that you go back to see Aria...a little birdy told me you guys had a falling out."

I hummed sharply at his words, the context of them only leaving me to swallow as I remembered back to the last thing that I'd told Aria.

...and to think I even convinced myself that I had feelings for you.

I sighed at the thought, the words that were now a bitter pill to swallow only leaving me with a bad taste in my mouth that seemed to get stronger as the days went by.

It was clear that saying what I had only emphasised and heightened every sense and feeling, my mind making space to accommodate to the flood of thoughts that centered Aria and everything connected to her.