Traded In

Chapter 21

"What's what's on your mind?" I jolted as he spoke up. 

"Nothing." I said flatly. "I need to change." He nodded and I went to the bathroom. 

A few moments later, I came out in a long sleeved flared dress. I limped back to the bed, with Christoph helping me. Demetrio walked in as I made myself comfortable. "You okay?" He asked and I nodded with a tender smile. "I'll be leaving for America today. Will you come with me?" Christoph spared Demetrio a calm glance as he focused on me. 

"Yeah, I will." He nodded. 

"I'll have someone pack your bags and whenever you feel better we can leave." I smiled then he left. "Aren't you coming back?" I leaned forward trying to breech the distance between us.

"No." He shook his head. "I still have one more thing to do." Two maids walked in making their way to the closet. 

"Okay." I ended. 

Me being with Christoph wasn't safe. He had so much going on in his life that I was getting caught up in it. I'm suffering the consequences of his deeds and is that fair? 

Would he let me go if I asked? Now that he seems to trust me. 

We were two hours into our flight and Demetrio and Russ really did their best to make me feel better. I always thought Demetrio to be cold and ruthless, which he obviously is, but he was good to me. 

"So what were you up to before you came here?" Demetrio asked. His silver eyes were fixed on me. "I was in school. Well, tryna get back to school." I focused on my hands, trying hard not to think of Dante.

"What were you majoring in?" 

"Physics." I smiled. 

"That's impressive. I'm also kinda into physics, especially Lagrangian and hamiltonian mechanics."

"Wow." I let out in utter disbelief, a wide grin plastered on my face. "I never expected you of all people to be into physics!" I spoke in amusement. 

"Well, I have my secrets." He smirked. 

"I find hamiltonian to be quite difficult. It's very sophisticated but very interesting. You learn new math." I said facetiously as he sipped on his spiked agave seltzer, looking out the window. 

"Would you like to continue with your studies?" 

"Yeah. Although I still need to get my life in check and back into my own hands. I mean I barely even know what my life has in store for me at this point" He said nothing but nodded slowly as he brought the can to his mouth. "And how's that lady, is she dead?" I asked, truly concerned about her. 

"No. She's fine." He stared at me questionably, "she's fine." 

Christoph's POV 

Vincent and I looked at the door as it slowly opened and our mother walked in. She glanced at Vincent, then me before walking towards me. "I wanted to talk to you before you left." I leaned back into my leather chair, running a hand through my hair as she took her seat. I wasn't in the mood for drama but I did what I could to mentally prepare myself. "What you did wasn't right." I sighed, rolling my eyes. "The best you could do is stay until he's put to rest."

"We don't have the time." Vinny let out flatly, Ada looked shocked by his response as he was always closer to her and did whatever made her happy. 

"I'll send someone to pay my respects on my behalf." I looked at my laptop screen as she let out a huff, "there is no need for you to do that. If you really respected Jacopo you wouldn't have...." she looked down at her hands. 

"I only did what I did because I had to. Whether you think it was right or wrong I don't care." I glared at her, keeping myself composed. "And you should be grateful. All because of me, you're finally free." I took my focus back on my laptop. 

"You think killing your father is praise worthy Christoph?"

"I didn't say it was. I said you had to be grateful." I spared her a protruding glance. "It's not everyday you get saved from the devil." 

"And who's going to save us from you?" She frowned her eyebrow, tears filling her eyes. "I don't know." 

I couldn't help but think of Leilani. I feel she brought out the best in me. And sometimes the worst. And my mother, she'd never try to see me in a different way. No matter what good I did. To her, I'm always the man that killed his own father, not the man who got rid of a dangerous ruffian. 

I loved my father, but when an animal gets too big for it's cage, one needs to find a way to deal with it. 

"Dante's in San bartolo, Lima, as we speak." "Do we have a troop after him?" 

"Yeah." I nodded, turning my attention back to Ada. 

"Dante?" She let out.

Our family had a very vast history with Dante. Every family in the Mafia was associated with him, except for my mother. She never liked him. He was closer to my father, probably why he too was an asshole. But it's been years since he absconded. It's surprising that she still remembers him. 

"We have to leave," Vincent said, rising to his feet. 

"When you're done with him. Send me a photo of his dead body." She said, staring down at my desk. She always knew he'd betray us. 

"As you wish." I got up, so did Ada and we left the mafia HQ.

Killing Dante would be a great pleasure, but would Kaele be okay with it? Without her permission, I couldn't do anything to Dante.