Luciano's POV
I cracked my knuckles and neck as it was sore from being on guard for so long. Infront of me laid a pool of people, who were bleeding to death, decorating the ship into beautiful scarlet red pool of blood.
I looked around, looking for any survivors on the ship, when I heard a small voice of Jessica. I couldn't make out what she was saying but I figured she was in trouble at her strained voice. After locating her position, I hid myself behind a wooden box of weapons and got ready to shoot everyone who was surrounding her.
After getting every single soul on the ship dead, both of us lowered our weapons and stared at the horizon of the sky where the sun was setting. I was admiring the sky when Jessica turned around and a gunshot was heard.
Out of instinct, I turned around to see Jess frozen on her spot, unmoving despite the bullet which was shot at her. I grabbed her arms and pushed her off the ship, making me fall with her from the impact.
The cold water felt really refreshing and amazing on my skin, after an arduous mission. I swam and surfaced above the water but Jess was nowhere in sight. After taking a deep breath, I dove into the water to check if Jess was still in the water but she was nowhere in sight.
I then swam out of the sea but with every single second passing, my gut instinct told me something was wrong. The unsettling nerve told me to go back and check the sea one more time.
I then took one more breathful of air and swam to the very deep part of the ocean but I still couldn't find any trace of Jess. I then saw a streak of red blood and air bubbles not very far away from me and I pumped my legs to swim deeper into the sea.
Then I saw an unconscious Jess, drowning in an even deeper part of the ocean. She was drowning, with her arms and legs sprawled like a starfish, totally unconscious and out of breath. When I caught her, I didn't even hesitate as I connected my lips with hers and passed her a bit of oxygen that was left in my mouth.
Not wasting a second, I swam with Jess in my arms, desperate to get her out of the water. How could I have been so selfish to swim away without her?
When I surfaced from the water, I didn't even bother to ease my lungs after being underwater for so long. I pumped my legs with all my might to get to the shore and when is saw a pale and lifeless Jess on the ground, I felt a pang in my heart, as if someone tore my heart into pieces.
After taking a position next to hers, I worked CPR on her, begging that she would throw up the damn water and open that beautiful eyes of hers. As minutes passed, she never opened her eyes and I started to panic.
I didn't know I was crying until a tear dropped from my eyes and onto her face. I closer her nose, opened her mouth and blew air inside, once, twice and thrice but she never opened her eyes. Not willing to give up just yet, I kept thrusting her chest with my hands.
People were gathered around me and some fell on their knees, seeing the state their leader was in. I was too occupied with my own feelings to bother about them.
With my tears blurring my eyes, my only wish was to see her stunning eyes. The darkness engulfed me when she didn't open her eyes but when she suddenly started coughing, I couldn't help myself as a huge grin stretched over my face.
After she was done having a coughing fit, I hugged her. I could feel her stiff body in my arms but soon after, she hugged me back, making me hug her tighter.
"You saved me. Thank you." She whispered in my ear and I let go of her.
"Are you stupid? Why are you thanking me? You are injured because of me."
"But you still saved me. I am alive and that's all it matters." She smiled weakly at me and raised her hand to touch my face.
"Hey, can I perhaps get in the van or something? I am wet and it's freezing here." I could see her shiver slightly and didn't even waste a second hoisting her up and getting her to the van.
After putting her on the seat and covering her with a blanket, I walked out and ordered people to unload the boxes from the ship and carry them to the headquarters. The van soon started to move and I took out a first aid kit from a shelf.
"Does it hurt?" I asked her as I sat by her injured and bleeding leg.
"Duh." She rolled her eyes and I clenched my jaw, controlling myself to not smash everything in the car out of anger.
How dare that motherfucker shoot her?
I tore her leggings with the scissors in the kit and her beautiful skin was unrecognizable, with the blood and wound covering her olive skin.
She hissed when I poured alcohol around her wound. I have no choice but to take out the bullet myself and stitch her up. It would take hours to reach the headquarters and she would die by then.
I looked up at her, and she smiled weakly at me and it pained me more than it should have. I wouldn't mind if she just cried her eyes out like any other girl would, but she didn't and she smiled through pain.
I explained the situation to her and she agreed, trusting me with her wound as she just sat on the seat, watching me from afar.
I then started to work on her wound. It took around ten minutes for me to get the bullet out of her and throughout the process, she endured the pain by biting her lips. Every single minute I spent stitching her up, I wished it was me lying there, going through the pain Jessica was going through.
After I was done stitching her up, she soon fell into slumber, barely handling the pain from having to be awake all the while since I had no anesthesia in the kit.
I am supposed to hate her for standing in my way to being the most powerful mafia leader in the world. But I couldn't bring myself to do that, not after whatever I've gone through all these days.
She's lovable and too precious for me to hate her. It's a shame she had to spend the last few months with a monster like me because even though we are people of the same world, she's an angel and I am what people call a devil.
Recently, I've noticed myself opening up and becoming a bit softie whenever she was around. As much as I hated to admit it myself, I knew I was just deceiving myself. She has grown on my more than I would like.
I didn't know I was staring until she stirred in her sleep. I soon got up and walked into the bathroom to wash my hands and the mess I've created. After cleaning up, I sat next to the sleeping beauty who looked so fragile and feisty on the outside but who was a literal kid inside.
Throughout the years of working in the mafia, I've gone through shit. I had an abusive dad who forced me to do things I didn't want to do. I didn't mind him hitting me but when he would lay his filthy fingers on my mom, I blamed myself for being weak and not being able to protect my mom.
He married women after women, repeating the whole cycle of abusing children that were born and his wives. He was too strong for anyone to go against him. That was until he finally went crazy and ran away from the empire he built.
By any means, I wanted to burn down the whole place, the place where hundreds and thousands of innocent people were killed, starved to death, burned to death and all the awful memories it held.
But all the slaves who were abused by him wanted me to avenge them. They pledged their loyalty to me so that I can get revenge on them. All this while, I wasn't sure if I made the right decision by listening to them because I had to go through the same shit my excuse of a father did.
But after meeting the angel sleeping by my side, I think I've made the right decision after all because this decision led me to her.
A/N: The chapter is quite short but I will make it longer if you guys want me to. I initially wanted to write this chapter in Jessica's POV but I thought why don't I give you guys a surprise by inserting a chapter from Luciano's POV. I really hope you guys enjoyed the story and I am really thankful for all the reads and votes!
Hope to see you soon!
Xoxo.