Lucia's POV:

We were in the car for about 2 minutes; Nova being oblivious, scrolling through her phone and me still watching the blue car after taking exactly 9 random turns, nowhere near the diner.

"We are being followed." I spoke out suddenly causing Nova to turn her attention to me.

"Are you sure?" She asked me with wide eyes as I sped up swerving around cars in my way as the other car also began to.

"Yeah I'm pretty sure," I said, "Now get the guns."

"Where!" She screams as bullets are bouncing off the sides of the car.

"Pull the hook underneath the middle seat" I hurriedly said as the glass on the passengers side was shattered by a man on a motorcycle.

She threw multiple guns filled with bullets at me she took the wheel as I shot the tire of the motorbike, causing the asshole to go flying and landing in an awkward position with his limbs twirled around him.

I noticed other men on motorcycles shooting in our direction along with the blue car, and aimed to shoot the drivers in-between the eyes and chest but before I could get a good shot they already dropped off their bikes. Looking towards the direction of the bullet I saw the car the guys must've come in since I was staring directly at Santo who gave me a slight nod before continuing to shoot out the window to the car.

"What the hell is going on?" Yelled Nova.

"We're being shot at" I responded.

"Yeah, no shit Sherlock." She said sarcastically swerving around a fallen motorcycle.

"I don't know! It's not like I called someone to try murder us!" Throwing my hands in the air I said before attempting to break a window of the car following us.

A bullet must've pierced one of the front tires of our stone grey car causing us to swerve dangerously close towards the edge of the bridge we were driving on.

The car was nearing the side when I opened the door closest to us and yelled at Nova to jump out.

By the time she jumped, I barely had enough time to leap out. Rushing to get out the rear of the car began to slide down the edge, leaving me enough time to grab one of the railings that wasn't already torn.

As I began to pull myself over the side, Santo reached down and hauled me towards him.

"Watch out!" I yelled as he ducked away from the knife that was dangerously close to sliting his throat open.

I shot the guy behind him, splashing blood onto the both of us.

"Grazie." He thanked me.

"Prego." I said while looking towards the place where most of the fight was taking place, Nova's left arm was grazed and her lip had a slight cut on it. She had knocked the gun out of the guys hand and then choked him with her legs (Natasha Romanoff style), just knocking him out for a while.

Marco and Luca were having more of a gun fight shooting in everywhich direction they could see but still shooting many. 

I then shot a guy as he aimed his gun towards Nova's head and just then the firing from the other side stopped as they all ran back towards whatever vehicle they could find, most of them entering the car they came in.

We continued shooting towards them all until they were completely out of our sight before heading over towards one of the dead and checking them for any kind of symbol or insignia tattooed onto their skin. 

My hands started to shake and my heart began pounding harshly in my chest when soon enough we found a coiled snake tattooed around his left pec. 

As my skin became clammy and my mouth gaped in astonishment, each of them were looking at me with confusion plastered on their faces.

"Lucy, are you okay?" Asked Nova rubbing my arm soothingly as I turned my face away from the boy's.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I replied. "Let's just go."

As Nova and I walked towards Santo's car, the guys followed us silently not asking what caused my small panic a few seconds before. 

Luca slid into the drivers seat while Santo was making a few phone calls no doubt trying to get someone to clean up the mess we had all made, but I couldn't be certain as I had been daydreaming while staring blindly at the trees we were passing out the window. 

I had zoned out for so long it had felt like a chore when I had to focus my eyes from their blurred state.

"What are we doing here?" I asked, confused when we pulled up to the diners parking lot and parked directly in front.

"None of us could after you basically mutilated that girls face" Santo replied in disdain.

"So you think I should've just let her keep talking to me like that?" I said.

"We were planning to come here anyways." I heard Nova but-in to attempt to control the escalating situation.

"She's a teenage girl, how could she affect you that much." He looked at me as if I was the crazy one.

"Oh okay, so if an asshole started talking shit about your dead parents you would just let them be right. Because I know for a fact you are exactly as hotheaded as me." I shouted at him while slamming the door shut and walking towards the door.

I heard another door open and close just as my wrist was gripped by the second guy in the span of two days. As I jerked my wrist towards myself in an attempt to get it back he held it even tighter, probably leaving a bruise, then threw open the doors of the diner and dragged me towards the back.

I don't think he caught onto the stares coming from almost everyone in the restaurant, bar the old man in the corner who looked like he was doing some kind of crossword puzzle, when he pushed through the doors to the women restrooms and scared off a few young teenage girls that were applying a touch up.

Locking the door, he turned to me and stalked closer and closer until our noses were practically touching and I could clearly see the gash on his cheekbone I had left there, probably a poor try to intimidate me.

"Look, I get we don't like each other and we've had our differences" He said.

"Yeah try locking me in a cell for a night" I mumbled under my breath as he gave me a warning glare.

"Exactly," I scoffed, "And I hate to say this, but I need you to train my men so for the sake of me not being my entire legacies downfall, can we just cooperate with each other for the rest of the time you're here" He said.

"On one condition" I said for the sake of being difficult.

"Why do you always have to have conditions?"

"It's one of my many charms" I said sarcastically with a straight face.

"Go on"

"You have to say please" I smirked, the entire time we had been living in the mansion I hadn't heard him say please or thank you to anyone, including his staff.

"Why?" He rolled his eyes.

"Because, it's my condition" 

"Fine," he paused. "Lucia, can you please not be a smart ass every time we have a civil conversation" 

"There ya go" I encouraged, deciding to let the whole 'smart ass' comment slide.

"Okay, I'm leaving" He said backing away heading for the door.

'Now I feel bad about hitting him.' My brain thought. 

'Yeah but he kind of deserved it.' I thought again.

'Ugh.' I internally groaned as I said, "Wait."

He stopped as he walked out. "Yes?"

"Can you come here for a second?" I asked as I sat on the edge of the counter and began to wet a few brown paper towels in the sink.

He strided towards me hesitantly as I began to speak. "I apologise for hitting you in the face earlier, not that you didn't deserve it."

"What did I do, I was only trying to help so you didn't get suspended or expelled." He explained.

"It was like you were defending her and now whenever I go into school I just know she's going to keep going on and on about it."

"Whatever" He said rolling his eyes yet again and turning around.

"Wait! I am sorry, and I know Nova will give me a hard time if I don't help you so could you please come here so I can clean it." I asked hesitantly since I knew Nova would do exactly that.

When he neared me, he began slowing down and stood an arms length away from me sitting on the counter top causing it to be hard for me to reach his face since he was still taler than me.

"Could you come just a bit closer, my arm is starting to strain?" I asked.

"You know, if this is just an attempt to get into my pants it's not going to work." He uttered.

"You are so self centred, not everything is about you, you know. Now can you just come here." I began to become impatient and dragged him by his arm towards me causing him to almost trip into my lap.

By then he was close enough for me to clean it properly but kept moving his face around looking in every other direction.

"Stop moving. I'm starting to regret this." I exclaimed as he glanced at me and began to smirk weirdly.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were jealous over how she was all on top of me on the bench." His smirk grew bigger.

"And if I didn't know any better, I'd think you'd have more braincells to not come up with crazy ideas." I rolled my eyes. "Also, didn't I just say not even a minute ago, how everything isn't about you?" 

"Yeah, yeah." He said before becoming deep in thought as I cleaned his gash.

In the position we were in I could very clearly see all the details of his face; how he had a small scar on the left side of his pink lips, how his nose was slightly crooked most likely from being replaced after broken, how his eyes were framed by eyelashes most girls would pay to have and how his sunkissed olive skin was dusted with an array of barely visible freckles on his face. The only thing that truly showed his youthfulness.

Before I knew it the cut stopped bleeding a massive amount and his face was clear of any blood whatsoever. "Okay I'm done," I stated looking down towards where his blood stained hands had rested at the sides of the sink, essentially caging me with his body "But you may want to wash your hands."

As I picked up the paper towels from the side and tossed them into the trash can, he began to wash his hands thoroughly as though he was simply cleaning off paint from underneath his fingernails.

"Lucia?" He questioned.

"Yes?"

"When you froze after seeing the man's tattoo did you recognise it from a family member?" I froze as he said it.

Turning my full attention towards him is asked, "Why?"

"Earlier today a letter was um, delivered to the house and was addressed to you on the inside. From your mother." He paused when saying delivered.

"What do you mean by delivered?"

"The gates were broken into and all they did was leave a letter and I'm assuming a few pictures of you when you were younger inside a box." He explained.

"How do you know the men who came today were associated with mother simply from a letter?" I asked curiously.

"The envelope was sealed with a red wax and the snake insignia was stamped onto it."

oOoOoOo

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