Eric Dane as Alezander Giordano

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Fighting Temptation: Capítulo Sedici

I kept having this feeling of absolute doom, I didn't know how or why I was feeling like this, especially when I should be flying to the fucking moon since I just found my feelings for the Adonis are not unrequited.

That's right, bitches. My man loves me back.

"Hehe." I giggled to myself like a maniac. "Why are you laughing in the dark like a psycho?" My dad, Derek, busted into my room, slamming the door against the wall as he turned on the light, Damiana in tow behind him. "Can't I just laugh in peace?" I rolled my eyes as my twin shut the door behind her, immediately running and jumping on my bed. "No, now spill." Derek said with a brow raised as he took me into his arms, running a hand through my hair. See, moments like this, made me really crave the presence of him more. He made me feel wanted, special even. He was nothing like my hard ass father who wanted nothing but for me to serve the purpose of being the next head.

Father of the year, wouldn't ya say?

"Dad, he loves me." I couldn't stop myself from grinning like a fucking idiot as I looked up at my dad. He snorted all knowingly and rolled his eyes. "From the looks of you, I'd say you have nothing to worry about. I knew it from the moment I met this kid," He thought back to the day that Antonio and I were having our little date, you know, the one ruined by the very rage of Raymundo Vega. "The way that he looked at you and the way that he assured me that he was never going to cause you pain, the look in his eyes when he said that," Derek tightened his grip on me.

"You found yourself a keeper, you little shit."

He ruffled my hair and Damiana, my ever so loving twin chuckled. "Ramiro Valentin Vega Jr., master of none and professional job is being a dumb ass on the daily, found him a worthy man?" She cackled and I scowled at her, wondering why she decided to rain on my fucking parade. "Bitch," I started to say but she held her finger up. "Just so you know," She grinned. "He's worthy of you, dear hermano." Damiana finished and I retracted my hand. "Fine." I hid a smile. "I've decided that you can live a little longer." No, my heart was not soaring at her kind words. In fact, I was seething inside.

Fucking lies and slander, pure bullshit.

I was fucking happy and nothing could ruin that feeling, the feeling that I finally can smile and not worry about the background noise. I can focus on what's in front of me and all that is is Antonio Esposito.

"So I know that you're twenty-one years old and can think for yourself," Derek started as he ran a hand through his blond hair. "However, I just want you to stay protected and make sure that he wears a condom whenever ya'll two fuck. Don't think I can't tell who's the one receiving." He raised a brow and my face flushed red for several reasons. One, he was giving me the sex talk. Two, it was like he was speaking from one bottom to another, and that thought sends cold shivers down my spine. "I don't think you need to worry about that, padre," Damiana smirked at me. "It seems our little boy here is done past that stage, si sabes lo que quiero decir." She winked at Derek, went still behind me (If you know what I mean.)

"Shut your trap, you demon spawn!"I reached forward in order to grab her head and squeeze her fucking brains out but the fucking twat moved out of my reach. "Don't worry, Josefina." I smirked at her. "I know where you sleep and I know how to pick a lock." Damiana huffed at me and rolled her eyes.

Me-1.

"I'm not dumb, I know that he's had sex with his little boy but I'm just saying for future reference. Your father and I were not always careful and look what happened." My dad spoke as he pointed to us two and I grimaced at the thought. "I don't want to hear about your sex life. It makes me uncomfortable." I gagged and he shrugged like he didn't give a damn. I looked down at my phone to see that I had a series of texts and my heart fluttered in anticipation, hoping that they were from him.

Ara- when we going to get some food? I'm fucking starving

Who are you telling?

TheDickVince- why is alejandro ignoring me? I didn't do anything in case he says i did

Ooh, what's the tea here?

GayAlejandro- if vincent asks you where i'm at, say you don't know pls.

Interesting.

Kaylani- hey cuz since you don't work tomorrow, let's hang. The mall at 10?

Harrison: Hello, Ramiro. I will be back tomorrow ;)

There were none from Tony, which struck me as odd since he liked to send me texts every hour. I was a little worried but I decided to keep that in the back of my mind for later when I really needed to put together the clues. I decided to reply back to everyone, telling Arabella that I would have some food when I left the library at 6, telling Vincent to spill everything that he did and to fix his bullshit, telling Alejandro that he can come over any time and talk to me, and telling Kaylani that I'll pick her up from her house. I decided to ignore Maximilian's text, seeing as he didn't answer my calls all day yesterday when we were inquiring of his whereabouts. Dude seemed really broken over his two friends.

"It's 5:30, Miro," Derek said. "Doesn't your little boy toy usually text or call you first thing in the morning?" He questioned and I nodded, frowning. It wasn't like Antonio not to text me for almost a whole day and I didn't do anything to piss him off so I doubted he was mad at me. I had this nagging feeling in my gut and I wanted to call Maarika and ask her if she knew of his whereabouts but I didn't want to involve her any further. "Yea, dad," I sighed. "I haven't heard from him all day," I replied and he clicked his tongue. "I would ask Ray if he could track his location but he's been busy, in and out all day, hardly had any time to talk to me." I found that pretty odd, seeing that my father lived under Derek's ass and he always kept his head up there 24/7.

Hehe, dirty mind.

"That's weird, him being all busy." Damiana voiced both of our opinions and Derek just sighed and shrugged but we knew it was bothering him. "Once he finishes and tells me what he was doing, I will be okay."

It was never like that, Derek was always somewhere within any of the operations that Raymundo planned out. He always had a role in something, so for him not to have even the slightest part, it makes me wonder just what in the flying fuck my father is doing? He's been pretty quiet and I haven't heard any yammering about me taking over so I definitely knew.

I knew something was up.

It was never like him to give up something so easily, just look at the many examples of his relationship with my dad. "Well, it's whatever." I freed myself of my dad's grip as I got up, grabbing my phone and keys as well as my pocketknife. "I need to go to the library." I had things to find out and I couldn't do it on my personal computer because I had just the feeling that it was bugged. "Why?" Derek looked at me in confusion as I headed to the door and I knew what he was thinking. "I just need to check out some books is all." I lied straight through my teeth because I didn't want to involve him in anything potentially dangerous.

I exited the room and took the elevator downstairs to the garage and stepped off, walking over and opening the door to my blue Koenigsegg Regera, sliding inside. The engine came to life with a small hum and I quickly left the garage, making sure to scan my face on the garage camera when I left. I had a lot to do in so very short time, but I knew I was going to get it done. It was becoming a bit dark out, some light still in the sky, which is why I took my car, knowing that the library was only a few minutes away.

But there was still this nagging feeling in my gut. I swallowed it down, in hopes that it would disappear and not make me feel slightly anxious about anything.

I finally arrived at the library down the street from my house, so I got out of my car and walked inside, on a mission. I pulled out my card and scanned myself in and headed to the back like normal. It was pretty quiet tonight as it was a Friday evening and people were home with their families, enjoying themselves. I could've used this time for a date, but my boo wasn't replying back to me so I didn't ponder too much on it.

I sat in the back of the library, hidden in one of the corners so that no one knew what I was doing. I logged into the computer with my library information and pulled up ILNO on the web, which was a national database that my father used to find out information on people, whether mafia affiliated or just regular citizens. Lucky for me, this database was private and required some sort of username and password acquired from the federal government and I just so happened to know my father's by heart.

I felt bad because I was trying to find out information, information that I'm sure Antonio didn't want me prying into. I needed to know and figure out the whole puzzle because I knew there was more to this than what meets the eye. This sounded like a personal vendetta from the many lectures of my father and how to distinguish the types of motives.

"0801RVV0801." I murmured to myself, making sure that no one heard me. There was no one even around me to begin with, just some creepy guy at the front desk. "Password is dereksboo2018." I rolled my eyes at the lame password he created. Raymundo obviously created this when he was still in his prime time of love with my dad, as one could tell from the cringeworthiness. The database unlocked and took me to a search bar and I was unsure of where to begin because there weren't that many people to start with. In the end, I decided to go with my gut feeling and search for that name.

I remember Antonio saying he had an uncle. "What was his name?" I racked my brain trying to figure it out. "His father's name was Victorio, his mother Calandra. What was his uncle's?" He only ever mentioned him once but I knew it started with a V. I kept trying to rack my brain, reminiscing through the many conversations I had with Antonio, trying to remember any clues that he may have told me. "Vladimiro!" I yelled to myself and typed it into the database. Vladimiro Esposito. I pressed enter and a lot of background information came up. "He was born April 7th, 2013 in Ponce, Puerto Rico to Alonzo Esposito and Valentina De la Rosa. Had an older brother Victorio, who was murdered in his home on July 10th, 2044, the case is still open to this because the killer has not been found..." I murmured to myself as I continued reading. There was no DOD listed, so he had to still be alive. From the very little information that was presented, this dude didn't seem that much of a threat.

That was until I clicked on more information and my jaw dropped. "In his lifetime, he only had one wife that he married in 2039," My eyes widened. "Calandra Fox," I narrowed my eyes in confusion. "What the fuck?" It made no sense. Why did she marry him after her husband was just killed and she just gave her son up? Then I realized. He was the person that she was protecting Antonio from, I didn't know or why but I felt like that was the most probable conclusion. But why would she marry him?

There was something that just off about this. Why would Vladimiro target Antonio, a mere kid? I opened up a new tab on the same database and typed in, Victorio Esposito. I read through his information and found out that while he was the head of the Puerto Rican mafia for 5 years and was looking to expand, he was suffering from exposure to cyanide poisoning. The website mentioned how he took a drink from someone, he didn't remember, and the next time he woke up, he was throwing up and he couldn't breathe. Unfortunately for him, it would take time for the cyanide to leave his system because of the high amount, so he kept control over his mafia until he was gunned down in his bedroom.

Sounds like this was all intentional and from the things that Antonio told me about him, he seemed like the type of person who would only let the people close to him in his inner circle, so maybe Vladimiro took advantage of that?

I didn't know because what would be the motive? What would be his motive for targeting Antonio, someone half his age? How would he even know where he was?

I decided to ponder these thoughts a bit, having come to the conclusion that it was indeed Vladimiro Esposito who was after my man, but I couldn't decipher the how or why. I went back over to the tab containing his information and just stared. When it was time, I decided to click on the pictures to see what the dude looked like, and I was beyond confused. Words could not describe the betrayal and the shock that I felt when I saw the picture.

"Vladimiro Esposito," I squinted in confusion, the pieces suddenly coming together and clicking. All of the things that he said to me, the snide remarks he made about Antonio, why he was so eager to leave the job, why he said everything depended on Antonio. All of the little small warnings he suggested to me. God fucking dammit! It was clear as day but nothing could stop my blood from boiling as the sharp sting of betrayal and disgust consumed me. I scoffed to myself as I clenched my hands into fists, unsure of where to direct this anger. Makes motherfucking sense why that ring was hidden in that couch. No amount of words could explain the mere deception that crawled through my bones.

"is Maximilian Harrison!?"