The comforting vibe around the manor with soft brown furniture and white walls was sure welcoming but contradicted the sudden tense air as the man before me and I sat staring at one another, our stares resolute.

We had been at this for a good minute or so before footsteps were heard and he raised his eyebrow - that sat perfectly atop his auburn eyes - when I didn't broke off the stare.

I smirked.

His face turned sour.

My smirk stretched.

"Uh- what are you both doing?"

A deep voice entered the sudden tense surrounding but I once again stood rooted to my spot, taking his stare as a challenge.

It was definitely a challenge.

His' nostrils flared and my lips pursed from trying to stifle a laugh.

Suddenly, a glass fell over and crashed right beside me, the noise making me flinch and look away. Amelia stood there, her hands shaking and eyes wide before a man I had never seen approached her and shook his head at her as if to tell her not to worry.

The man had ice blue eyes, dark hair with a scar running from his forehead till his jaw on the left side of his face. He looked lethal and someone you would steer clear from. But way too hot to be a warning for me.

Amelia ran out the room and the man sighed. I looked back at the man I was previously holding a stare off with, to find him sipping his tea, looking at me, his face explaining my defeat.

I rolled my eyes.

If I didn't know I would have killed Amelia for doing that.

I hated looking weak.

"Who are you?" My attention diverted to the man with the scar, who stood in the kitchen, holding a tea bag now.

"Aldo Vachez." He was definitely Italian.

Confusion declared itself on my face and he explained further, now throwing the teabag away and drinking his tea. His face relaxing like crazy suddenly.

Tea fanatic?

"Capo's head of security." I gave a pensive nod.

I recognized him as one of the guys I saw on the sea docks that day while I hid from them thinking they were some random bandits, guarding the area.

Amelia entered once again, her face extremely red, a broom in her hand and she quickly worked to sweep the glass ruins away.

"Amelia, you can leave."

I traced the gruff Italian voice to find him staring at me as he ordered Amelia who immediately left after picking up the fallen shards.

"Quit staring." I mocked him from earlier but meant what I said. His intense auburn eyes were making my heart race in anxiousness.

I heard his annoyed sigh before he took another sip from his mug. Whatever it was that he sipping.

Alcohol?
Drugs?

Nah. He looked too graceful to sip alcohol in the very early of the morning. And that too so nonchalantly.

"How do you know papa hasn't arrived yet?" I leaned my head on my hand, my elbow on the kitchen counter as I sat. My eyes staring at the man who sat before me. Aldo still inhaling his -probably drugged- tea, from beside us as he stood standing.

"It's my country, I know about the ins and the outs of the people in it."

My hand stopped twirling my hair. "Then you must have known about us, entering too?" He gave a nod.

"Then how didn't you know me?"

"You can't expect me to do a background check on everyone, Italy is a tourist place, thousands and millions of people come each day."

The only man I ever saw hold that much power is my father.

"How long are you going to keep me here?"

"Until I'm sure I can trust you."

I grew annoyed and pushed myself off my position and straightened up.

"Why?"

"I don't know who you'll give our information to once you get out of here."

"What? Do you hear yourself? I'm Hernine Acetta, mind you, nobody I tell about you would be surprised."

"That's where you're wrong."

I looked at Aldo and he cleared his throat, elaborating his interference. "People would be surprised because no one has ever seen him." He emphasized 'would.'

My eyes darted to auburn one's - I need to stop calling him that and find out his name - and they narrowed at him as I grew more confused.

"Aren't you the capo?"

"I am. But nobody knows my face yet. You're the first one I have met since my taking over the mafia."

"And how long is that about?"

"Ten years." My eyes widened and I almost chocked on my saliva.

"You have been a Capo since ten years and nobody has seen the name behind this country?"

"That's what I said, gem."

"Wow" my breathless voice called out and I saw Aldo's lips twitch upward.

"So now that I'm special enough to have seen you, may I know your name?" I rebuked internally.

His eyebrows rose up at my sudden mannerisms and Aldo grew suspiciously quiet.

"It's Amadio Velvet, gem."

Amadio.

Velvet.

"As you would have expected, not nice to meet you, Amadio. Must say though, the name sure doesn't fit you?"

He didn't ask but his eyes gave it away. "Your name sounds posh, while your.... personality is trash, so... That's paradoxical."

Aldo glanced at Amadio who clenched his fist.

"How old are you again, Hernine?" His voice was almost mocking and I mirrored his expression, smiling mockingly.

"A lady never gives her age away."

"You're no lady but an uncultured swine."

My eye twitched. "And you're a bastard who kidnaps people for fun and then makes his debut as a mafia leader suddenly."

He raised an eyebrow, feigning surprise. "Oh, I guess you are interesting as you certainly seem to have hobbies: complaining, eye-rolling, and being insufferable."

I rolled my eyes dramatically. "At least I don't hide behind a facade of charm while being an utter brute."

Aldo was slowly creeping back from where he came in but stopped when I laughed.

"And insufferable? Takes one to know one," I shot back. "Do you have a manual on how to be obnoxious or does it come naturally?"

He leaned back, crossing his arms. "I wouldn't expect you to understand the complexities of my brilliance."

"Brilliance? Ha!" Another laughed. "I've seen brighter things at the bottom of a dumpster."

His smirk widened. "The same dumpsters where you crawled out of one this morning?"

My eyes widened as a disbelieved smile adorned my face. "My life sure smells and feels like trash when I see you. Seeing that I saw you this morning."

He chuckled, shaking his head. "Touché. You sure are one to speak, seeming you broke off the stare earlier."

"Only because it caught me off guard," I said, narrowing my eyes. "And you trying to assert your dominance, feels pretty much like a coward to me. Being someone you aren't."

"Coward?" He leaned in, eyes glinting. "I'd rather be a coward than a perpetual nuisance."

"Well," I replied, smirking, "you've managed to be both. Quite the accomplishment."

As if a shift of mood in the environment surrounding us, his eyes turned darker a notch.

"And I'm definitely dominant. In other spectrums of life including handling my mafioso."

Heat crawled up my neck at his insinuation and he scoffed, smirking.

"As much as I enjoyed this little... Drama? I'd like to talk to you capo." Aldo intervened and although I didn't know this man I was grateful to him.

My eyes rolled and I waved my hand off all when Amadio didn't stop staring at me. He soon got up, buttoning his coat, and taking the last sip of whatever was in the mug. Aldo gave me a last one off before he left.

Uncultured swine?

I scoffed, flipping my hair over my shoulder.

As if.

I kept looking around the kitchen, admiring it nonchalantly before my eyes glanced at the white mug Amadio had left behind.

I looked back to where they had left to and then got up from my seat, across the counter to his mug and peeked in it.

It was vodka.

A one beat laugh rippled through me.

He was truly obnoxious.

Truly.