Lost and Found

IX

Domenico's POV

"The Black Bloods consists of Ryan, Bailey, Stephanie, and me, right?" I nodded my head, not sure where she was getting at. "It wasn't always like that." I looked at her confused. Something flashed in her eyes, but was gone just as fast as it came, and I couldn't quite catch what it was. Then her next words were ones that I was not expecting. "There used to be eight of us."

Eight? There used to be eight of them. What the hell happened to the rest of them? I was so lost in my thoughts I didn't even realize that Alessandra had already got out of the car and was standing with Ryan, Bailey and Stephanie. She looked at me through the glass. I knew she could only see a silhouette of me because of the tinted windows, but she knew exactly where I was. I could see her eyes staring back at me. Much greener than they were earlier. Telling me that hit her harder than she wanted it to.

I unbuckled my seatbelt, and got out of the car, walking over to the group. I stood in between Stephanie and Alessandra, still very curious as to who these others were, and why it hit her so much harder than anything else.

Alessandra's POV

I could feel Bailey staring at me, she knew I was off. Well, yeah! Thanks for the investigation Sherlock! I mentally face-palmed. I couldn't hide my emotions very well. I could do everything else pretty well, but hiding emotions is not one of them. I looked over at me, and she was looking at me like I was a calculus question. Well, that means one good thing; at least she can't figure it out very easily.

I looked over at Domenico. His face was a mix of confusion, and worry. I felt bad that I left him at that, but there was no way that I could tell him what happened to the rest of us. Who the rest of us were. I needed to focus on getting ready for the races. I started walking towards the race booth to let the official know that I was going to be racing, and the type of car I had. He would put my name up 'for grabs', and if someone had the balls to race, they could, and grab my name.

I felt my phone go off in my pocket. I looked at the screen, and saw that it was from dad.

Pops: Hey, I heard that you're going to leave for your vacation in a few days. Just letting you know that I got someone to cover for you, and I will cover for Bailey. See you when you get back.

Me: Thank you so much! Ill tell Bails, she'll b so happy. Ill c u when we get back!

I turned around, ran straight for Bailey, screamed, and jumped in her arms when I got to her.

"Doofus," she replied laughing, "you made me drop my phone."

"We got our shifts covered for the two weeks we are in Italy!" I screamed, excitedly. I turned my head towards Domenico. "Oh yeah, by the way, we will come with you to Italy on Monday." I told him calmly, then turned my head back to Bailey, and we both screamed at each other excitedly.

"Well go get you butt up on that board, and get your races. We are gonna need lots of spending money." Bailey said, making me laugh.

"Girl, I ain't givin' you spending money," I replied, "you best get your butt up on there too." I could hear Ryan and Domenico laugh behind me as Bailey walked on my left, and Stephanie walked on my right as we all went to the booth to race.

Domenico's POV

I still couldn't help but wonder about what Alessandra meant by there used to be eight of them, and why it hit her so hard. I watched as the three of them walked toward a building to sign up for a race. I still had Ryan next to me, since he already signed up, and had two offers already. I could always ask him. Would I make Alessandra upset if I asked him instead of her? I mean, they were all one group.

"Hey," I said to Ryan. I spent a few seconds trying to figure out what words I should use to ask this question. "In the car earlier with Alessandra," he nodded his head to show he was listening, and I paused, looking for more words. "We were talking about the rules that this race has, and I said that the races didn't seem that bad; not dangerous. She said that only if you were a spectator, and I asked what she meant." At this point, he had caught on to where I was going with this. A look of anger, sadness, and... what looked like regret crossed his eyes. "She mentioned that there used to be eight of you. What did she mean by that?" He licked his lips, and looked at the ground in an anxious manner. It took him a couple seconds to look back at me and start talking.

"Yeah," he confirmed, "there used to be eight of us." He cleared his throat, and looked up at the sky, taking a deep breath in, slowly letting it out, and looked back at me. "Aless wasn't always an only child. She had an older brother named Ryder. Ryder and Aless were inseparable. He was one of us. The other three members were our best friends from grade school: Hunter, and Sophia. Hunter and Sophia were dating when we were all eight. The last one was Dante. Dante was Alessandra's boyfriend at the time. So yes, there used to be eight of us. Dante, Hunter, Sophia, Ryder, and Aless were all racing a nearby gang. Ryder went by himself, as always. Hunter was racing with Sophia as his rider, and Dante was racing with Aless as his rider. It was three cars from us, and three cars from them. Six cars going through these streets. The leader, Adam, wanted to win so badly, he shot the passenger front tire of Hunter's car, since he was in the lead. Because he was going so fast, he lost control. Adam, and his team, somehow made it around with the worst damage being a concussion from one of his guys. But our team just kept coming and was too close to Hunter when he lost control. Ryder hit his car, and then Dante. Adam's guy's car, Dante's car, Hunter's car, and Ryder's car all rolled over multiple times. The worst part though..."  he paused, looked over at Alessandra laughing with Stephanie and Bailey, "Aless was the only one from our team that was racing to survive. She ran through all of the cars, seeing every single one of them dead, and seeing Ryder fly through his window. We all walked away with half a group left. Aless walked away with 4 broken ribs, a fractured collarbone, internal bleeding in her stomach, a broken leg, and a fractured knee cap. She also lost two very close friends, a brother, and a boyfriend. But what she hated the most about that day..." I could see him getting frustrated the more he talked. Every word just created more rage inside of him. I could tell them Alessandra and Ryan were close. "She was pregnant." I could feel my eyes get big. "She lost a baby that day as well. She knew, and she was gonna tell him that night." I looked down at the ground, then up at the sky, and back down at the ground, wondering where the hell my words were. I couldn't find any. I looked up when I heard him start to speak again. "We all hate talking about it, especially her. Me and her grew closer as I became her new older brother. Her dad used to abuse her. I always made sure that she could get out of the house when she was in trouble like that. Neither of the girls know about it, just me, Ryder, and Dante."

"Why did she stay if her father is still here? Why didn't she move somewhere else?" It hurt me to say 'father' when I knew that the second I brought her back and told Giovanni all of this, that man who took her would be dead in a second.

"Because of all of us. King Cobra. The longest of all snakes. She's been around the longest." As soon as I heard the girls get closer, we both made a silent agreement to act like nothing happened, when in reality, I feel like I'm about to make and break this girl's heart when I bring her back to Italy. Please make this right. I need this girl in my life.