Chapter 19: Chapter 19: Business

~Five Years Later~

“When the plane lands, we’ll stop at the hotel, and then you’ll be coming with me to my meeting,” Johnathan said, kissing my knuckles.

“Why did we have to come back?” I asked, keeping my gaze on the clouds.

The same night I went with him, he flew us off to England, and we hadn’t been back since.

“For the business meeting,” he said. I could see him clenching his jaw out of the corner of my eye.

“You always go to business meetings without me. Why did I have to come along this time?” I asked, turning to face him.

“Stop fucking questioning me and sleep or some shit,” he growled, turning his attention away from me.

“I’m sorry,” I said softly.

He turned his attention to me and grabbed my neck in his hands. “Stop fucking talking,” he growled, tightening his grip.

Tears filled my eyes as I gasped, trying to get some air into my lungs.

A flight attendant started to walk down the aisle, and he let go of my neck. I turned my head to look out the window as my tears rolled down my cheeks.

“I’ll be back,” he mumbled before walking off after the flight attendant.

I stood up and walked into the cabin before climbing into the bed. I snuggled into the blanket as I cried softly.

The torture that I had been through for the past five years was probably worse than the other times.

He’d beat me for hours one time, and I’d have to sit in class smiling and pretending everything was okay.

I don’t know when I fell asleep, but I woke up to giggling. I rubbed my eyes tiredly as I turned toward the source of the noise.

My jaw dropped slightly as I took in the scene before me. Johnathan was lying beside me with the flight attendant we’d seen earlier riding him.

“Mr. Petrov,” she breathed out heavily.

He smirked and flipped her over before putting her on all fours. His eyes found mine, and he shrugged.

“You don’t put out. I had to get it from somewhere,” he said before turning his attention back to her.

I climbed out of the bed and slowly left the room, hating how hurt I felt. I sat back in my seat and hugged my knees to my chest as Giovanni came to mind.

I missed all of them, and not a day went by that I didn’t think about them. But I wouldn’t change what I did for anything—they were safe and alive, and that’s all that mattered to me.

The seatbelt light lit up, and I knew I had to buckle up. I put my feet on the ground before buckling up.

The flight attendant and Johnathan came out of the cabin, both smiling brightly. Jonathan smacked her ass, and she giggled giddily before running off.

I kept my eyes on the clouds despite feeling Johnathan’s eyes on me. By the time the plane had landed, I had fallen asleep again. Johnathan was holding me in his arms as he exited the plane.

“I’m awake. You can put me down now,” I mumbled when he got off the steps.

His eyes darkened as he looked at me, but he did as I asked. I started to walk off, and he grabbed my arm, turning me around to face him.

“You’re hurting me,” I whispered as he held tightly onto my arm.

“Shut the fuck up,” he growled slowly.

I opened my mouth to respond and ask what I did, only for him to pop me in my mouth.

When he realized I wasn’t going to try to talk anymore, his grip tightened as he started walking me to the car. He pulled the car door open and shoved me in before climbing in after me.

I shoved myself close to the door and turned my head out the window.

The car ride was silent, and so was the walk up to our room. He opened the door, letting me go in first, and closed the door behind him.

“What do you think?” he asked, smiling and watching me for a reaction.

“It’s nice,” I mumbled, shrugging.

His smile dropped, and his eyes darkened again. He smacked me, making me fall to the ground before he started kicking me in my stomach.

“Why can’t you just be grateful?” he growled, kicking me harder.

I whimpered in pain as tears started to roll down my cheeks. “I’m sorry,” I croaked.

His foot halted, and I could sense his anger growing. “Did I tell you you could talk?” He growled, balling his fist up.

A knock on the door stopped his fist midair, and I couldn’t help but release a breath.

“Go get ready,” he said, fixing his suit and walking to get the door.

I limped into the kitchen first to grab a bag of ice. I turned the water on to the cold side and spilled the ice in before getting undressed and climbing in.

The water was cold as hell, and I was shivering, but my body needed this. I weakly stood up before draining the water and taking a shower.

“Your dress and everything else you’ll need is in the room,” Johnathan said, walking into the bathroom.

“Okay,” I whispered, turning off the water.

He pulled the shower door open and shook his head. “What did I tell you?” he asked, looking me up and down.

“To speak with confidence,” I said, trying to cover up discreetly.

He smiled as he looked back in my eyes. “Good. I’m proud of you,” he said gently, taking my face in his hands.

“Thank you,” I said, forcing a smile.

He leaned in and kissed my lips deeply. “I love you, Luna. I hope you know that. I don’t want to hurt you, but I just get so mad,” he whispered, pulling away from me.

“I know, Johnathan. I love you too,” I said, wrapping my arms around his neck and kissing him back.

He smiled into the kiss and pecked my lips one more time before leaving the bathroom.

I was lying to him and myself, and I knew it. Every time he said he loved me and I said it back, Giovanni’s face would come to mind and I’d feel a stab in my chest.

I dried my body off and walked into the adjoining bedroom before getting ready. I was wearing a sleeveless mid-thigh black dress that hugged my curves tightly.

There was a gun and knife with a knife strap on the bed, and I put the knife strap on before sliding the knife into it. I put the gun in a small purse that matched my dress.

I turned around toward the vanity mirror and walked up to it before sitting down and putting on a light amount of makeup.

I stepped out of the room just as Johnathan was about to knock on the door.

“Wow,” he said under his breath.

“What’s wrong? Do you want me to change?” I asked nervously, running my hands up and down.

“No, you look beautiful,” he said, smiling brightly at me.

“Thank you,” I said, smiling back.

He nodded his head before taking my hand in his and leading me out of the room. The car ride was silent again, but it wasn’t a tense one.

We pulled up in front of an office building, and he took my hand as he pulled me out. He pulled his phone out and showed the screen to the lady at the front desk.

“I’m here for him,” he said, keeping his eyes on me. I blushed under his gaze and turned my head to look around the lobby.

“You can go straight up,” she said softly. She twisted her hair around her finger and bit her lip seductively.

I honestly didn’t blame her—one look in Johnathan’s baby blue eyes and you were sold. You wanted all of him: the good, the bad, and the ugly—at least until you realized just how bad the bad was.

I snapped out of my thoughts when the elevator dinged, signaling that we were on our floor. We walked up to a door, and Johnathan knocked softly.

“I love you,” he said before kissing me passionately.

The door clicked open, but neither of us pulled away. Jonathan dropped his hand from around my neck, and I pulled away from him.

“Lulu?” a voice said softly.

I tensed and looked into the room to see Alessandro, Lorenzo, Dimitri, and Alex in the room. I looked between them and Johnathan cautiously.

“What is this?” I asked, keeping my eyes on Jonathan.

“A business meeting,” he said, smirking. He winked at me before walking into the room, leaving me to follow in after him.

I kept my head down despite the urge to look around for Giovanni.

“I’m here to propose a business proposition,” he said, sitting down in front of the desk.

I looked up to see everybody staring at me, and I looked back down.

“I’ll call Giovanni,” Alessandro said before walking out. I didn’t have to see him to know he was in the room.

Johnathan stood up to shake his hand just as I looked up at him. The world seemed to fade away as I took him in.

He looked more mature if possible, but that was the only thing that had changed about him.

Johnathan cleared his throat and I blinked as I snapped out of it. I looked down in my lap as Giovanni took his seat.

“Why are you here?” Giovanni asked passively.

“You need me,” Johnathan said simply.

“No, we want you dead. There’s a difference,” Alex said harshly.

“I’ve blown up quite a lot of your warehouses,” Johnathan said simply.

“So?” Alessandro asked.

“So pretty soon, you’ll start sinking. All I’m doing is offering you a lifeboat, so like I said, you need me. No, correction: you need us,” Johnathan said, squeezing my thigh.

I bit my lip hard to keep in my scream as I looked up. Jonathan’s grip tightened and I released a shaky breath to prevent myself from crying.

“Are you okay?” Alex asked, looking between me and Johnathan.

My mouth opened and closed as I tried to find a way to respond to my brother.

“She’s fine,” Johnathan said, turning to face him. His eyes were dark and I knew exactly what that meant.

“I’m fine,” I said, repeating after Johnathan.

Alex frowned as he studied me. “You have an accent?” he asked, looking at the boys as if to make sure he didn’t hallucinate it.

“I do,” I said, nodding my head.

“You were in London? Did you finish school?” he asked.

I looked over at Jonathan and he nodded his head.

“Yes, we were. I finished high school over there and then went to Oxford,” I said softly.

Jonathan squeezed my thigh again and I turned my head to the side.

“I need to use the restroom,” I said, standing up quickly. I was going to pay for that, but I needed a break, even if it was just two minutes.

“I’ll take you,” Alessandro, Lorenzo, Dimitri, and Alex said at the same time.

I slowly nodded my head, letting them lead the way and doing my best to hide my limp.

As soon as we were in the hallway and the door closed behind us, they wrapped their arms tightly around me. I cried softly as I hugged them back.

“I missed you guys so much,” I said softly.

We pulled away from each other and they started to lead me toward the bathroom.

“We’ve missed you too,” Alex said, smiling.

I smiled at them before walking into the bathroom. I pulled my dress up and bit my lip to hold in a sob as I looked at the wound.

I grabbed the first aid kit from the wall in the bathroom before cleaning the wound and bandaging it.

“We’re going to get you out of here,” Alessandro said as soon as I stepped out.

“No, you aren’t,” I said, frowning.

“Yes, we are,” Giovanni said from behind me.

I tensed and slowly turned around to face him. “Why would you want to help me?” I asked, referring to him telling me he loved me and me not responding.

“You’re Alex’s sister, and Alex is family—we look out for our family,” he said, clenching his jaw.

I had no reason to be hurt by his response, but I was. “I’m not leaving him,” I said, shaking my head.

“Luna, what?” he asked, looking at me like I was crazy and running a hand through his hair.

“Don’t look at me like that. I left to save your lives. If I leave, there’s nothing holding him back from killing all of you—from killing you,” I said softly.

“It doesn’t matter if I die or not,” he mumbled.

“Are you crazy? Of course it matters,” I said, taking a step back.

“Why?” he asked, looking up at me and taking a step toward me.

“If you die, you wouldn’t have lived your life, found that one person you want to marry, had kids and two dogs. Aren’t you worried about your future?” I said, quoting myself.

He smiled a little at the memory but it quickly dropped, making me step back.

“I found the one person I wanted for all of that. The feeling wasn’t mutual,” he growled.

“That’s not true,” I whispered, frowning.

“I told you I loved you and you just stood there,” he said, taking a step toward me. I took one back only to bump into a wall.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.

“Sorry?” he asked, laughing humorlessly. “Whatever. Your boyfriend’s waiting for you,” he said before walking away.

I opened my mouth to call out for him but bit my lip instead. I took a deep breath before walking back to the office alone. I hadn’t realized that the boys had left me and Giovanni alone.

I stepped into the office and froze. Everything was the same except for the girl sitting on Giovanni’s lap and trying to suck his face off, and the boys who weren’t in the room.

I took a deep breath before standing next to Johnathan. “Can we go?” I asked softly.

He looked up at me with darkened eyes but nodded his head. He stood up, grabbing my arm tightly and making me wince.

“Let her go,” a voice growled.

I tensed, realizing it was Giovanni. Jonathan stopped walking and chuckled lowly.

“Let’s just go,” I said, trying to get him to leave.

He looked down at me and took a deep breath before wrapping his arm around my shoulder.

“I said let her go,” Giovanni growled.

I slowly looked up at Jonathan to see him smirking. He unwrapped his arm from around me and turned to look at Giovanni.

Before I could say anything else, Jonathan swung on Giovanni. I gasped, shaking my head as they started fighting.

“Stop,” I said, tugging the back of Jonathan’s shirt.

They ignored me and kept hitting each other. Jonathan pushed Giovanni back and pulled out his gun, making me freeze.

“Jonathan,” I said softly.

He ignored me and cocked the gun.

I stood between the two of them and took a deep breath. “Let’s just go,” I pleaded.

“WHY ARE YOU DEFENDING HIM?” he screamed, waving the gun around.

“I’m not. If you kill him, you’ll start a war and people will die. So please, let’s just go,” I said, slowly walking up to him.

He rested his forehead on mine and I uncocked the gun. He pushed me behind his back, making me bump into the door.

I gasped in air and turned to face him just as he cocked the gun and lifted it toward Giovanni.

I pulled the knife out and threw it at Giovanni, hitting him in his arm and making him miss the bullet by an inch.

He and Jonathan turned to face me, and I grabbed Jonathan’s arm before pulling him out of the room.

We left the building without getting stopped, and I released a breath when we were in the car.

“Why would you do that?” Jonathan asked, keeping his eyes outside.

“You wanted him hurt—he’s hurt,” I said simply.

The rest of the car ride was silent, and I hated it. I couldn’t tell if he was mad or not, and that terrified me more than knowing he was mad.

He gently closed the door and walked up to me, making me walk backward. His eyes were blank, and I had no idea what that meant.

He smashed his lips on mine and picked me up, making me wrap my legs around his waist. He pulled away from my lips and started kissing my neck.

I shut my eyes tightly and bit my lip to hold in a moan.

“Giovanni,” I moaned softly.

We both froze, and I held my breath.

He put me down and put his hands on either side of me. He shook his head and chuckled darkly as his eyes met mine.

“What the fuck did you just say?” he growled lowly.