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~ Daniela's POV ~

Carson didn't say a word.

He just kept his eyes focused on George, even when I spoke, he refused to look at me.

"I don't know what?" When I continued to look between George and Carson, still neither of them answered my question. "Can one of you just tell me what's going on?"

"It's really simple Daniela. Carson here is the leader of-"

"Don't you dare. One more word and I swear I will rip your throat out." When Carson finally spoke, I turned to look at him when his words came out through gritted teeth.

He was angry. But this was an anger I'd never seen from him before.

Quite frankly, I'd never seen anything like this before.

Even George's smirk faltered for that moment before he leaned back in his chair, gesturing for Carson to speak. "You tell her then."

"I'm not telling her jack and neither are you. You're not holding her for ransom either so just get the hell out of here."

"I think you've forgotten who makes the rules around here Agnello, it's not you, it's me. I'll let you break her little heart and then I'm taking her. Maybe I'll even let you watch what I do to her, if you're lucky."

When I heard his words, an involuntary gasp left my mouth at the mere thought of being hurt all over again by him. This finally seemed to catch Carson's attention when he turned to look at me before he looked at George again.

"Get the hell out."

"Tell her, or I will." This time George's tone left no room for arguments as he watched me turn to look at Carson.

"What is he talking about Carson? Whatever it is you can tell me, I'm your friend remember." I tried to give him an encouraging smile but all it did was make things worse when he shook his head at me.

"You won't be when you find this out Dani. We can't go back."

"It's okay, I promise. It's okay, you can tell me." Placing my hand on his that was resting on the bed, I gave him another smile but before he could try to tell me, George spoke.

"Atticus McKnight is the leader of the Irish Mob in New York and his little brother Ayden is his right hand man."

"What?" At the sound of George's words I turned to look at him, my eyes widening at the sudden bomb he'd just dropped. But, before I could even attempt to process it or even ask any questions, he continued.

"Oh that's not even the best part. So, Carson here is the leader of the American Mob or the mafia - whatever he calls it."

"Wait, what? You're in the...mafia?" This time I turned to look at Carson, directing my question to him, saying that word with so much disbelief.

The mafia. The mafia was something you read about in history books, maybe you see it once in a blue moon in the news or you read about it in romance novels.

But that didn't mean it was real, that it still existed. That didn't mean that he was part of it.

It was a myth, something that once existed in America during the prohibition era in the 1920s and 1930s, it had to be a myth.

"Dani, just let me ex-" Once again before Carson could speak, George jumped in again, holding his hand up to stop Carson from talking.

"Before he tries to lie to you even more, let me just add one more thing. You see, Carson and Atticus are what some might call rivals so much so that they know each other very, very well."

This time when I turned to look at Carson, he didn't say anything to me, instead purposely giving me a moment to process what he was saying.

I was grateful for that after all the information that had just been thrown at me. I was still struggling to process the existence of the mafia when he threw in something else that somehow was much worse than Carson being in the mafia.

"You know Atticus?" There were only two emotions evident in my tone - shock and betrayal.

"And Ayden." When George jumped in this time I didn't even bother to look at him, instead just keeping my eyes on Carson.

When he didn't say anything, I took a breath beginning to think out loud as I pieced it all together.

"I don't understand...so he's the leader of the...Irish mob and you're the leader of the American mob? So you're like him? You two are the same? But he..."

Drugged me. Beat me. Raped me.

Carson is just like Atticus. He's like Ayden.

He's the same as them. They both raped me. Ayden completely and utterly broke me and Carson, he's the same as them.

He's one of them.

"Dani I need to tell you one more thing."

This time as he spoke, he turned his hand over that was resting on the bed, holding onto my hand while I just sat there, still unsure of what to say or do.

It was like my whole entire being knew that whatever he said next was going to throw me over the edge. I used those few seconds I had to prepare myself for whatever was about to come.

"I knew who you were." All I could do was give him a confused frown in response to his words, not understand what he meant. "What?"

"I knew you were Ayden's girlfriend. That's why I was so shocked when I saw you that day when we first met, I knew who you were."

It took me a moment to mull over his words, until my brain finally allowed me to understand what he meant.

All this time he knew me, he knew these details about me that he kept secret. He pretended to get to know me when all this time he already knew me. He let me care about him when he knew he was keeping these secrets from me.

Finally slipped my hand out of his ignoring the fact that his touch still somehow brought my traitorous body comfort, shaking my head as I moved away from him on the bed.

"All this time you've known exactly who I was? You've been pretending to get to know me?"

"Dani-" Before he could try to speak, I continued talking, letting my emotions get the best of me.

"You said I could trust you! You said you were my friend!"

"I am."

"No! No you're just like him! You're like them, you're just like them." Tears welled up in my eyes as I stood to my feet, staring at the man who for the past three weeks had completely fooled me.

He pretended he didn't know me, but all that time he was just one of them.

"Let me guess, you're in the mafia too?" When I turned to look at George, he just gave me a an amused smile, shaking his head. "No silly, just a gang. It's less sophisticated than the rich men in suits but it pays the bills."

Shaking my head, I ignored the stupid comments he was giving me while I just let out a breath, trying to sort through my jumbled thoughts.

Ayden.
Atticus.
Miles.
George.
Christopher.
Mark.
Carson.

Those were all the names of the men who in one way or another had been part of my life and who were affiliated with some kind of organised crime.

And all this time, he knew it. He knew what Ayden was, he knew what Atticus was and he knew what he was.

And I was just the naive little girl who had no clue.

"Enough of the tears. You're coming with me." As he spoke, George stood to his feet from the chair.

"Where?"

"Well if you must know, me and you are going to go and film a little video that we can send to your boyfriend. I'm sure he'd pay a hell of a lot to have a fine piece like you back in his bed."

"I'm not going back to him." When I stepped away from him, he just let out a chuckle, shaking his head. "You don't have a choice."

The moment he suddenly stepped towards me, Carson stood up, pulling me into him and for those few seconds I was okay with it only because he was taking me away from the man who was trying to send me back to hell.

"You're not going to touch her."

"No? Watch me." He gave Carson a sick smirk before he reached out and suddenly pushed Carson away from me, causing him to fall back on to the bed. Instantly he pulled me towards the door where James was still standing.

Just the thought of what could happen to me if George got his hands on me or worse, if I ever ended up with Ayden again, caused anxiety to take over my body and all I could think about was getting away from him.

And after that everything happened so fast.

I did my best to resist him, trying to pull myself out of his grip. I struggled in his arms for a moment until I felt Carson behind me also trying to get George to release his grip on me.

I was absolutely terrified and it showed in my behaviour as tears fell down my cheeks and I did my best to get away from him.

During the struggle I pushed him away from me as hard as I could causing him to stumble backwards. At first I thought he'd just fall back and onto the floor or maybe catch himself on the wall, but then he fell the other way.

I watched as George lost his balance, falling backwards into the frame of the bathroom door, hitting his head as he fell.

And then he just lay there.

The room fell silent as we watched the blood slowly form a puddle around his head on the floor where he was lying, motionless.

I still thought he would move. I thought he would move again. But he didn't.

He just lay there.

Lifting my hand to my mouth, I let out a sob when it slowly began to dawn on me.

I just killed someone.

"He's dead...he's dead Carson." Tears streamed down my face as I stared at his lifeless body on the floor, the smell of the blood invading my senses.

"Dani."

"I killed him."

"Daniela-"

"He's dead."

"Damn! Daniela look at me, don't look at him." When he finally lost his temper, Carson pulled me by my hand turning me to face him instead of the dead body on the floor.

"I killed someone." My voice broke as I spoke while Carson just placed his hands on my shoulders, forcing me to look him in the eye.

Somehow he seemed so calm and collected, like he was trained for a situation like this.

He was.

"Dani I need you to focus. It wasn't your fault but he's dead now, if we're quick we can..."

Carson's words trailed off as he turned his head to look at James who was still standing by the door to our room, instead with his gaze focused on George's body. It took him a moment before he shifted gaze away from George and towards us, before he reached out his hand and opened the door to our room.

"Go. You won't get another chance."

I should have felt relieved. I should have felt excited. I should have been happy to finally leave that tiny room.

But I wasn't. I couldn't feel anything else except the guilt that was consuming me. I didn't deserve to leave after what I did.

From the corner of my eye I could see Carson looking at me again but my eyes were once again fixed on George's lifeless eyes which were staring back at me.

I wasn't a killer. I wasn't a murderer. I wasn't a criminal.

Everyone else here was, so a dead body wasn't a bother to them in the slightest. But I wasn't like that.

George may have been a disgusting human being and a criminal, but it wasn't my right to take his life from him. What if he had a family? What if he had children?

I knew what it was like to have your parents taken away from you.

"Daniela wait in the hallway." When I still didn't move, Carson grabbed my arm, pushing me towards the door. "Get her out of here."

Moments later I felt James come up beside me, forcibly guiding me out of the room while Carson stayed in there for a moment.

Once I was finally out of the room, I felt like I could breathe just a little bit easier but not by much. It wasn't an out of sight, out of mind situation. Those images would be ingrained in my mind for the rest of my life and I knew in that moment I would have to live with this guilt.

My conscience would never be clean again.

"Daniela." The sound of Carson's voice pulled me out of my thoughts and I turned to face him as he and James came out of the room, closing the door behind themselves. "Dani focus."

Carson gave me a look as he handed me a pair of trainers that they'd given to me when we first got here. As I bent down to put them, I noticed Carson was also wearing some which is probably what he was doing the room just now.

"Go down that hallway, turn right and then go to the end. You'll come to a door at the end of the hallway, that will take you outside. It's the quickest and quietest way out of here."

"Thank you." Carson took my hand as he gave James a grateful look while he just nodded. "You won't have long, as soon as anyone realises George is missing they'll come looking for him."

Just as we started down the hallway, James called my name, causing us to stop again.

"It wasn't your fault, I told you, he had it coming."

"Come on Dani." Giving James one last glance, we finally started running down the hallway. Well, Carson was running and he was dragging me behind him. As soon as we got to the end, Carson stopped behind the wall, pushing me behind him before he slowly peered around the corner.

Once he was sure it was clear, he took my hand again and we went down that hallway. None of it seemed familiar to me, but I didn't really have much of a chance to look around as we ran.

Every time we passed a doorway Carson slowed down to check that the coast was clear before we continued. It was a good thing he was in his right state of mind because I wasn't thinking about anything else except what I just did.

Finally, when we came to the last door that James told us about, Carson and I stopped and he looked through the window.

Letting out a profanity followed by a sigh, he leaned against the door, turning to face me still trying to catch his breath. "Dani there's a few men out there. I'm going to do my best to hold them off but you need to run, can you do that for me?"

"Carson..."

"I won't freaking tell you again Daniela, focus. We'll only get one chance to get out."

Now it all made sense.

His anger.
His ability to shut of his emotions.
His commanding tone.
The authority he carried.
His ability to scare the crap out of anyone with just one look.
His gravitation towards violence and his violent thoughts.

He was in the mafia. But not just in it, he was the mafia.

From the one news article I'd ever read on the mafia, they were what their leader was. That's why they had the strongest, most ruthless men in charge.

And I was standing in front of one.

Not just that, I'd spent the last three weeks locked in a room with one.

My name leaving his mouth again brought me back to earth once again.

"Okay."

He held my stare for a moment before he eventually nodded, turning to look out the window again. He stared for a moment, clearly trying to think about what he would have to do before he let out a sigh, taking something out from behind him.

At first I didn't quite see what it was, but the moment he was holding it in his hands in front of himself, a gasp left my mouth.

"A gun? Where did you get that?"

"George." He didn't bother to look at me as he continued to stare out the window. It took him another moment before he eventually pulled away and turned to face me.

"Don't wait for me, just run. Okay?" Peeling my eyes away from the black gun in his hand, I nodded my head as I took a deep breath.

"Okay."

Once he was satisfied that I understood what he was saying, he finally opened the door as quietly as he could. As he stepped out, he gestured for me to follow close behind him.

Most of my memory from that day was kind of blurry, but what I could still remember clearly was that feeling of inhaling fresh air again after three weeks of being held in a basement.

For that split second I inhaled the air, I felt the sunlight touch my skin, I felt the wind whip around me and I could hear the nature and birds around me. It was freedom.

But I was only able to enjoy it for a second.

We managed to get quite far out before we were inevitably spotted by the few men Carson had been watching through the window.

"Hey!"

"Go!" Carson didn't turn to look at me when he shouted to me before he aimed the gun at the men who were now running towards us.

At first I ran, but of course I didn't follow through with what he told me to do. The moment I heard the gun shots, I stopped in my tracks, turning around to look at the commotion going on behind me.

Of the five men who were outside, two of them were now lying on the ground while Carson continued to fire at the rest of them. I stood there watching as he killed the last couple of guards before he turned to face me, also stopping dead in his tracks when he saw me watching him.

It seemed to take him a moment before he eventually began running towards me while I just continued to stand there, staring at the five dead bodies on the floor.

"Are you freaking stupid or something? I told you to run!" Of course he was giving me a glare as he finally reached me, grabbing my hand before he continued running, pulling me away from the building.

It took me a second to snap out of my thoughts and to focus again as we ran through what seemed to be a forest. We ran for quite a long while until I began to slow down, struggling to catch my breath.

"Carson stop." My words came out strained as I tugged my hand out of his grip.

"We can't."

"Carson I'm still covered in bruises, just stop." Finally he stopped running letting out a frustrated breath as I leaned against a tree, holding my ribs as I struggled to catch my breath.

A moment of silence passed before he spoke again.

"Are you okay?" When he started acting concerned, coming over to me, I gave him a glare causing him to stop where he was. "Leave me alone."

Thankfully he didn't try to argue with me, instead just shaking his head as paced around, waiting for me to recover.

"We need to go, we don't have forever." Cracking an eye open, I looked at him for a moment before I pushed myself off the tree, walking in the direction we were just running in.

Seconds later Carson was next to me as we walked together now.

"We need to go freaking faster than this."

"Then go. I don't need you Carson, so you go and I'll walk at my own pace."

I was definitely aware of his harsh glare that was burning into the side of my head but I refused to look at him as we walked.

After a while we did eventually pick up the pace but neither of us said another word for quite a long time. We just walked for hours and hours and it was all nothing but forest.

There was nothing else we could do but walk. We didn't know where we were, we didn't know how close they were to finding us. We had no choice but to keep moving no matter how tired we were.

Once it started getting dark, I was finding it harder and harder to walk, especially since I could hardly see where I was going anymore.

And after many, many trips and tumbles I finally let out a sigh.

"I can't walk anymore, my ribs are hurting like hell." As my steps finally came to a stop after, probably, hours of contemplating whether I should stop, Carson just carried on walking.

"I don't give a damn, hurry up." His words just caused me to let out a scoff as I watched him walk away from me.

"Don't speak to me like that. You might be some big mob boss back in New York but here, you're nothing Carson."

As expected, my words were enough to