Page 46 of Solace

“I’m not a fucking prisoner.”

“No, but you’re his girl,” he told me on approach.

“Well, I need to get the hell out of here so please, open the gates. I can sneak out.”

He stood before me hitching his brows, “And what the boss would never notice? I seriously doubt that. Is something the matter as earlier you were off?”

“I need to get out. Please Carlo, I am begging you to open these gates. I feel suffocated in there and need valuable space,” I begged in hope he would help me somehow.

“You have tonnes of space. The boss never hounds you,” he said as he cocked his head to the side, confused.

This was clearly a battle I was never going to win.

Chapter 24

ANTONIO

“Boss,” I heard in panic, the door opened without a knock on the bedroom door. I had been evoking over Layla and her strange behaviour, she sobbed like a child. I wanted her to tell me what the hell had happened or what troubled her, only with her being as stubborn as she was, I was none the wiser. I saw Cecco. His face looked taunted like he had something to say that wouldn’t keep.

“Don’t you know how to fucking knock?” I growled.

“Boss, Layla is at the front gate trying to get out.”

I shot my eyes wide open to him. “What? Why?” I rushed off the bed grabbing a T-shirt and my shoes, quickly trying to look decent while falling about and Cecco chuckled.

“No idea boss, we just saw her on the CCTV, she looks pissed off. Carlo is out there with her now,” he informed me.

I raced passed Cecco out of the bedroom, down the corridor and like a bullet I shot down the stairs to the main door. Out the door, I saw in the distance Carlo and Layla standing talking at the gate to the property.

Her behaviour was starting to seriously alarm me. This was out of character; okay I had known her a little under a month now and this…this was crazy.

Approaching the gate in a thunderous manner, I had to get to the bottom of this and no way was I going to allow her to get away without one. This was crawling deep under my skin.

“Layla, what are you doing?” I asked gruffly.

She had already seen me coming and turned back to the gate and grabbed it forcefully with her hands, almost like she was petrified of me.

What the fuck’s going on?

She kept a firm hold of the gate, glancing over her shoulder, tugging it more the closer I got. It was almost like I had done something or was it down to the fact I would make her talk.

I saw her fighting hard with the cast iron gate, trying hard to escape. I rubbed my eyebrow, confused about her behaviour, wondering what the hell had spooked her so much unless it was the fact I got shot and feared for the future and decided she doesn’t want to be a part of this life. I turned to Carlo as he gazed back lifting his shoulders.

“Open these gates…open them,” she screamed.

“Layla, what on earth…” I said, lowering my tone not wishing to alarm her and cause her more stress.

Confused, trying to get my head around this situation, only each time, I drew a blank.

I stepped nearer to her, desperate I was to place my hand on her shoulder and calm her down, only the mood she was in, I feared she’d take me down.

Standing beside her glaring at her. “What is this all about?”

“Go away. Let me go. Let me out of this prison,” she sobbed.

Prison, what the hell?

“Prison, are you serious? Maybe, if you try to explain this odd behaviour, I could help you. But you’re acting like someone possessed. Talk to me. Is this about me being shot?” The question had to be asked.