"Episode 29 - Cartier and diamonds"    

I felt soft skin under my palm before I opened my eyes. Silky smooth skin that I was obsessed with. I gave the plush mound a squeezed, feeling the pebble against the centre of my palm. I nestled closer, curving around her body.

"Stop." She mumbled, dragging out the 'o' sound.

I hid my smile in her hair, before planting a kiss behind her ear. She groaned before quickly getting out of the bed. I tried to stop her but she said something about period and left, complaining about life and men.

It didn't take me long to fall back asleep, access the mid conscious level where I was still mindful on my surroundings and dreaming at the same time. After she returned, my skin touched hers, the dreams won over my conscious state.

"You slept for 12 hours Gabriel. Are you really okay?" She asked when I entered the room after my shower.

"I don't sleep much." I was late for work. Way late for the tactical review I had yet to present Capone and figure out a line from Drug cartels of NY. Capone wanted to start a high end escort service because he had a couple of hotels around the city. 

It was a good idea but we didn't have the girls. Capone needed to figure that out because Madam La'laurie was queen of that world. No one messed with her and her girls.

"You did last night." She stated before pulling up How to Train Your Dragon on Netflix. This was her life. A life where she locked in a room for life without any hope of freedom in her future. It ate at me to realise that.

"Can I ask you something?" I chose to ignore her statement. "Why do you always have something on. Even if you're not watching the damn movie or show, you still have it on in the background."

She didn't answer me at first. Instead she took her sketch pad out and spread her sketch pencils out on the bed. She flipped it through, without letting me see any of those sketches, she opened up to fresh clean page.

"I hate the silence. It drives me crazy." I hated silence myself. I knew what that did to someone with wounds like mine or hers. The nightmare from last night flashed before my eyes. 

I hated every minute of it. I remember there was a time I'd drown myself in alcohol and remain that way day long, until I nearly hit a kid with me car.

I never touched that stuff after that. She was stronger than I was or I'd ever be. My stomach flipped at the sight of her. She started outlining a dragon, the one from the huge screen. 

We'd watched the movie before and she loved the damn toothless dragon. She had a cute innocent side that brought the protector out of me. 

A seductive side that brought the beast out of me and so many others in between that sometimes I didn't even know which one I'd be left to deal with.

I'd yet to meet her angry side and some part of me couldn't wait for her to come out. I couldn't wait her riled up and have unbelievable, mind-blowing, out of the world sex. I put on some casual clothes to head over to my room to change into a suit.

The Cartier box sat on the bed side table. Taking it out, I placed the box next to her stealing her attention away from the colourful animated figures flying across her screen. Her dark eyes widened in surprise.

"OH MY GOD. It's the Cartier Love Bracelet." She quickly dismantled it to find two gold pieces and a small screwdriver type key. "Diamonds. Oh WOW." Her eyes sparkled just like the diamonds. I couldn't help but smile.

"Here." We held the two ends together while I screwed it in place. There was no fancy engraving, nothing to indicate that it's a special or anything.

 I just wanted her to have something that was given to her from someone who genuinely cared for her. Something that wasn't tainted in blood. 

"It's for you Elena. I want you to know that I'll always be here for you, no matter what I'd always be here for you. I need you believe that." I gulped.

"I know we haven't known each other for long but You can trust me. I'm not some puppet Elena." Her face fell, eyes became beady with unwashed tears while her lips quivered. "You're my priority."

She looked down at the sheets then up at me again trying to compose herself. I tried to calm my hammering heart. I didn't understand why my inside acted like that whenever I was with her. My emotions took over and I could never decipher them.

But one thing was clear, I was madly obsessed with her. I wanted my day to start with her and end with her. A sweet form of heat raced up my back. 

I couldn't help but lean forward to kiss her. Take her plumped lips into mine. It'd been two week since I was buried in her, since I'd found some sort of peace.

Sexual release was one thing but the type of release I found with her was more than physical. I felt it in my soul. Just like when I kissed her. The silence, the world, the void didn't seem so frightening or endurable anymore.

"I'll be back tonight. If you fall asleep, I'll use the window." I explained when I pulled back. She played with the bracelet while I spoke.

"Wait." She turned around, dug around her drawer of the night stand and pulled out a key set. "Here, take them. I won't use the dead bolts."

There. Right there and then, I knew she trusted me. She gave me the key to her security, her sanctuary. My chest burned. I leaned forward to drop a long lingering kiss before I made my way out, pocketing the keys in the process.

The day dragged on without Elena. It felt like I was floating on air without her but somehow, Capone managed to seal the deal with a new upcoming Mexican leader who wanted a line into the city.

 His product was extremely popular in Miami and needed someone to venture into this city. Capone met the young man at his office and I just about managed to get in before he and his "associates" arrived. 

Capone didn't utter a single word about Elena but I knew that everyone in the house had an idea about us.

The guy introduced himself as J.D. He wasn't much older than 30 but life span of a man of his career is usually 25 to 30 years. Either the younger ones made a move to take over or their rivals killed them. He had chocolate skin and cropped coarse hair with a strong Spanish accent.

It made me think of my nightmare from the day before. Did Elena speak Spanish anymore? Did she recall anything from her childhood? I wanted to know. 

Desperately. I knew Spanish, Pashtu, Farsi, Urdu, Russian, Koran and some other languages because of my SEAL days. I wanted to see what it would be like if she heard me speak Spanish. Would she recall anything? Would she hate me for knowing?

When J.D. and his entourage left, Capone let out a long line of curses.

"I can't believe I had had meeting with the likes of them." He grumbled. They were just as well dressed as we were but to Capone they were street rats where as he was saw himself as a top tier business man. 

Of course, he didn't need to do the dirty work himself like these men did to get to where they are. His title was handed down to him.

"Anything else you want?" I asked, unbuttoning my suit jacket. He thought about it for a while, walking over to his glass walls that looked out over the central park.

"No, you're already fucking Elena, what else would you need?"

I grounded my teeth in anger, fists hidden in my pocket, tightly clenched. I wanted to shove through the glass window but I knew the men I assigned to protect him would kill me. Jeremiah and Yashiko were looking anywhere but me but their body language said it all.

Feet apart, arms by their sides that would move to their guns in the second that I moved. Instead, I chuckled, attracting Capone's full attention. He whirled around with an amused smile on his face.

"You know as men, we like things we can't have." I tried to play off as what I felt for her didn't matter no matter how much it killed me.

 I didn't have the right resources and power yet to get her out. If we were to leave, we'd be on the run forever, looking over our shoulders and I couldn't let her live in fear any longer.

Capone gave a hearty laugh before settling back down in his throne against the most expensive skylines in the world.

"Just remember who you work for." His empty threat didn't touch me. Nodding my head with a smirk, I walked out of his office, determined more than ever to take Elena away from this hell hole.