CHAPTER 2: DECISIONS DECISIONS

Decisions, decisions, Luisa thought as she brought the stiletto dagger closer to her face to examine it. Perhaps the baselard would be nicer, poetic even. There was no gun in sight, it would have offered a swift and lenient death, she didn't want that for him. He would suffer, to the extent that he would beg her to end him.

A deadly assortment of various torture devices lay before her, she had prepared a mini fireplace just beneath his dangling head. The fire wasn't large enough to burn him, but it was enough to fashion just the right amount of heat to jolt him up from his state of unconsciousness.

"Bene, sei sveglio" (Good, you're awake) she stated. "cominciamo, va bene?" (Let's begin, shall we?)

Helplessly trussed up and inverted, his body dangled from the ceiling of her dungeon like a human pinãta. His lips sealed with a strip of duct tape, but his despairing attempts to speak resulted in muffled, indecipherable murmurs. Eyes frantic and wide pleaded with her, the woman who he thought was the woman of his dreams, the blonde damsel, who was the first woman in 5 years he'd lowered his guard for.

His murmurs had turn into muffled, incomprehensible screams now. She's an assassin, sent by his enemies to kill him. or so he thought.

Luisa moseyed towards him, resolute and elegant in her stride, she ripped the duct tape off, curious to hear what he had to say. He still hadn't recognized her, she smiled.

"Yes?"

"Who the fuck are you!? What the fuck do you want from me you fucking bitch!" He literally screeched.

The once hypnotic blue eyes that had captured his attention now filled with cold calculations, compassion a distant memory. The look in her eyes solidified it for him, he wasn't getting out of this alive.

If by now his men still hadn't found him, then he was just as good as dead, help isn't going to come anytime soon, and the fact that she escaped all his men up to this moment shows she wasn't just some regular killer. She was skilled. Exceptionally trained. Who hired her? If by any chance he comes out of this alive, he would very much love to hire her. She reminds him so much of her.

"Ti paghero, il doppio! Il triplo di quello che ti hanno pagato, per favore" (I'll pay you, double! Triple whatever they paid you please)

He desperately begged, now sweating profusely from the heat generated by the small fireplace positioned just beneath his dangling head, you'd think he just came out from the pool.

"You paid me, Francesco" 

She retorted, taking her seat in the single wooden chair placed in front of the table that housed the range of tools she would be using tonight.

"What? Who the fuck are you! You're crazy!!!" he barked.

Luisa feigned hurt,

"Oh my… you don't remember me anymore? Mio quello"

That nickname. Only one person in the world knew and used it.

He knew she'd be back, the spark he had felt in the club, the way she carried herself and commanded him to come meet her and him yielding to her wish like it was his default setting. It was all clicking now, the effortless seduction and charisma, like she knew the exact words to say to get him to lose all his senses, she knew all the right buttons to press, how she'd insisted they should fuck at her place and he, being wholly under her spell for the second time in his lifetime, had foolishly agreed to her terms. Her body language was hard to resist, Luisa knew she was endowed, and she never failed to play that card to her advantage.

Giorgia Esposito, she had called herself. Although her facial features had been slightly tweaked, even her hair dyed a dirty blonde, and dark eyes now hidden behind blue eye contacts, her devilish body still remained the same.

Francesco couldn't resist, he wanted Giorgia, he craved her, more than he'd ever craved anyone since her, he should have known. Only one person had such sturdy power over him. He should have known. He shouldn't have been so unwise as to go out of his comfort zone with just 2 bodyguards. They were no match for the lethal Luisa.

Even in his position right now, he couldn't help but admire her, he fucking loved her. He never stopped loving her, his feelings for her had clouded his judgement one year ago, he couldn't let her die, knowing fully well it was a bad decision, she'd be back for revenge, yet he could not will himself to do it.

He was stupid, he had always been stupid when it came to her, and even now, that seemed to be his default setting.

Luisa witnessed a kaleidoscope of emotions dance across his face, from shock to happy, then sad, and then to fear but finally settled on regret.

"Why?"

she asked him the same question she had been asking herself for the past one year now. She couldn't fathom it herself. He loved her, she could bet her life on it, so why betray her in such manner?

~Flashback~

*Francesco per favore* (Francesco, please) Luisa moaned as she wrapped her legs around his neck, tilting her cunt slightly up towards his mouth, away from the pillow propped under her butt. Francesco was positioned vertically from her cunt, their bodies, taken together formed a straight line as he slid his hands underneath her ass, rocking her to and fro all the while, stimulating her pussy with his skilled tongue. From long vigorous licks to deft persistent flicks, Luisa couldn't hold back the symphony of moans that fell from her lips. Francesco ate her up like a hungry beast who'd been starved for weeks. He knew her body like the back of his hand, he knew what made her tick, knew when and where to apply pressure, and so it didn't take long before Luisa was a moaning mess, utterly under his mercy as she came hard. Francesco gave her a few minutes to come down from her high, whispering sweet nothings to her, before inserting two fingers into her cunt at once. What? She didn't think he was done, did she?

~Flashback Ends~

Luisa's resolve faltered, tempted by the tender recollection.

What the fuck?

She quickly caught herself, returning back to the cold, unfeeling vixen.

"Perche cazzo l'hai fatto Francesco!" '(Why the fuck did you do it Francesco!)

Her voice didn't raise an octave, it remained the breathless whisper, contrasting the brewing storm inside of her, she wasn't' just livid, she was tremendously thirsty, she needed to spill blood, his blood. So, with precision, she took one of the daggers laid on the table, crouched down and stretched her hand, placing the blade in the fire, until it was red hot.

A chill of terror seized Francesco, freezing him in place.

"Luisa please, please my love, I did it for us I swear! He would have never accepted us, accepted me! I swear I didn't know they would kill the entire mafia, it was supposed to be just Alessandro, per favore amore, per favore!"

~Trigger warning~ Gory scene ahead.

Luisa chuckled dryly.

"Devi pensare che sono stupido" (You must think I'm stupid)

She whispered in his ear before plunging the red-hot blade in his left eye, and left it for a brief moment, resulting in the unmistakable sound of a sizzling skin, before slowly removing it.

"Mi prendi per uno stupido eh?" (You take me for a fool huh?)

she amplified her tone, letting her words ring out.

Francesco's voice shattered the silence, his scream was a primal, ear-piercing wail that ripped through the air, leaving a trail of goosebumps. Blood gushed out like a geyser, erupting violently from his now dented eye.

It all came together for Francesco now, his disoriented mind hadn't let him piece the puzzle together, but now, after what she just did, the lightbulb moment arrived.

The way she tied him up to the ceiling, subjecting him to a dangling fate, the writing was on the wall, but what topped it was the blade to his eye, this wasn't just some skilled assassin, this wasn't the darling yet fierce Luisa he once knew, once loved. Now he understood why Alessandro only gave her the top jobs, he had always wondered how Alessandro could be so relaxed after sending his favorite child to battle. While he would get fidgety and anxious, drowning himself in constant worry and fear for the life of his woman, Aless would either be out with his wife, or signing papers in his office, hell he'd sometimes throw a party to celebrate their success even when Luisa was yet to be back to deliver to him the good news. He had always hated Alessandro for carelessly risking the life of his heir.

I mean everyone in the Mafia knew she was going to be his successor. Alessandro jnr, who was the eldest of the Don's children was of no use, he was a pompous brat spoiled to the brim by his mother. He couldn't even handle a gun properly, and would always cry home to his papa every time he got himself into some trouble.

Luisa on the other hand may have gotten her mother's beauty and flair, but she inherited all of her father's ruthlessness, even times ten of it. How could he have been so naïve. How had he not seen it. He was the best in combat in the Mafia and yet, he never bested her once. He used to think she was one of the best exports of the De Rossi mafia, he was wrong. She was the only best export they had, and not just in the family alone.

Luisa wasn't just his Luisa, no… no… she was the Hollow, the best, most callous, most feared and the most hired assassin in the Mafia world. Her style of killing her targets was unique, brutally unique that it earned her, her fame and the name Hollow. The way she kills imitates that of an empty, unfeeling psychopath. Although intentional, it lacked substance, like the ways of an untamed beast.

He knew Alessandro had been grooming her from a young age, he knew Alessandro had created a tour de force, he just didn't know the true extent of that force. If he had, he would have never in his life accepted the judas's coin offered him.

He knows he's going to die by her hands today, he also knows the Hollow doesn't do quick and painless, yet, he begged for it, only to be met with her chuckles, that had gone drier than before.

It sounded…. What best to describe the sound.... Sick.