Chapter Reveal
I sit outside the fence of the vineyard, watching the woman in the gazebo. Her light purple hair hangs over her face as she reads a book, and her legs are curled up under her dress. I notice the bassinet next to her. She doesn’t know I’m sitting here. I could easily kill her, and she would never know I was there. Her guards walk the perimeter, not seeing me either.
I’m not here on an assignment. I’m not supposed to be here, but I can’t stop myself. Ever since the memories began plaguing my dreams, I’ve been drawn to this property. I remember the garden. I remember sitting in that gazebo and playing with dolls. There is a huge gap in my memories, but lately the space has been growing smaller. With every frequent headache, a flashback is unveiled, showing me bits of a past I can’t fully remember.
Growing up, I was told I wasn’t wanted, that I was left at a church, and then the doctor came for me. But that’s a lie. I had a loving family. I had a brother and a father who cared about me. I know this because today I remembered the moment I was taken to the church. A woman had driven me to a priest and told him to get rid of me. She looked down at me and grabbed my chin so hard she left marks.
“They love you so much they are blinded with it, and he won’t give me a child. I must have an heir if I want to control the family. Therefore, you must go far, far away.” She shoves me away from her. “Father, maybe you should make sure she’s pure.” Her laugh is evil as she walks out. I scream for Dante and Papà, but they don’t come for me.
The memory causes a sharp pain in the side of my skull. I grab my head and close my eyes, hoping the pain subsides along with the nausea. Instead, another memory flashes behind my lids.
I’m giggling and laughing as I run through the maze of the garden. I turn my head back to see a tall, dark-haired man chasing me. “No, caro fratello, no.” I laugh as his long legs eat up the distance. He swings me up in his arms and laughs as I squeal in delight. When he hugs me to his body, I take a big sniff of him, smelling the vineyard on him. He squeezes me tighter to his chest.
“Love you, Luna Lou.” He kisses my forehead before he sets me down.
A stick snaps, and my eyes flash open. I’m dressed in all black with black grease camouflaging my face. I carefully twist around and see the form of someone moving closer to me. It’s not one of their guards.
I look back at the gazebo, and that’s when I see him walk out and take the woman into his arms. He holds her for a moment before kissing her hard on the lips. He then reaches into the bassinet and pulls out the blue bundle of blankets.
Dante.
I have to focus on what I need to do. I must lead the enemy away from them. I silently move along the perimeter of the fence until I’m out of sight of his guards. Once I’m far enough away that they can’t hear me, I take off running.
I need to get away. My punishment is going to be severe for coming here. This is nowhere near the location of my last assignment. I went dark and didn’t check in after my last hit. Something pricks the back of my neck, and I pull it out. It’s a dart, which I toss away from me.
I want to laugh at them. He trained me to be almost immune to most sedatives. I take a deep, calming breath to help slow my blood pressure so the poison doesn’t hit me faster. I turn and face off with the first man, my knife out and the blade arcing in the darkness. I use black tactical knives so they don’t reflect any light.
We are in complete darkness out here so far from Venice, where the Lupo vineyard is. The doctor’s guard falls to the ground, but before I can turn and run again, another is on me. He shoots, and I barely dodge out of the way. The bullet slices through my side, but I don’t care. I come at him with my gun. The silencer muffles the sound as I shoot him up through his chin into his head. Blood and brain matter splatter me, but I don’t react. I’ve been killing for years. I’m desensitized to it.
A second dart hits me in the back, and I can’t reach this one to stop the flow of the sedative into my system. I turn and face the wimp as he steps back as if waiting until I’m incapacitated. I see the fear in his eyes as I advance on him. I drop to my knees and look beyond him to see the doctor making his way toward me.
“Oh, my daughter, you’ve been a very bad little girl. Now, Father will have to punish you.” His voice is full of promise and growls from where his throat was damaged in a previous fight. He has a thick Russian accent that he tries to cover but is unable to, even after all his years working with the KGB before he got his job at the school.
I have the urge to spit at him, but that will only make my pain and punishment worse. He punches me, and I fall to the ground. Just before I lose consciousness, he hovers over my body.
“Father is going to show you what happens when you disobey me.”
I fall into the bliss of whatever sedative concoction he made to bring me down. Good, because I don’t want the memories of what he’s going to do to me. I have too many of them already. At least he’ll be fired if he rapes me again, or so the deputy chief threatened. It gives me some comfort, but not much though.
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