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79

(Arie's POV)

"Ash! Open the damn door and give me my phone." I yelled in frustration and pounded on his door, begging for him to return my property. "I'll tell Aunt Wendy about all the slutty girls you brought home when she wasn't here."

He quickly opened the white door and eyed me. "First, it's Ashton, not Ash. I'm not a damn girl. Second, you wouldn't be that evil. That was during high school days and she won't believe you."

"Is that so?" I challenged him and opened my mouth to yell. "Burger fac-"

Covering my mouth with his dirty hand, he stifled my shout and stuffed my phone into my pocket. "Shut up! I got you this phone for our birthday, so it's basically my property."

"Mermaid?" Aunt Wendy's voice boomed up the stairs.

"Ashton is just being an ass. He said he's going to forget about you when he's in the tabloids."

He gasped and expanded his eyes at me. "She's lying!" He yelled and walked to the top landing to look down at Aunt Wendy. "She's clearly lying. Won't you believe your nephew that came home after a long ass time?"

"You guys are twenty-one for God's sake. Quit acting like five year olds," her laugh echoed from downstairs.

"You're a devil." He paced towards me and crossed his arms across his chest. "I've only been gone for nearly two months and you have perfected your lying game. Who are you taking lessons from besides me, sister?"

"The devil himself," I said with a straight face as our eyes shot fireballs at each for a long minute until he couldn't take it and bursted out laughing. "Hah! I won, loser."

"I don't mind losing," he sauntered over to me and pulled me into a warm embrace. "I've missed you so much."

"Is that why you never returned my calls, dumbass?" I slapped his back, compelling him to pull away instantly.

"Damn, your hand got heavy," he rubbed his back against the wall in efforts to soothe the sting my hand caused. "What have you been eating? Tigers?"

Laughing at him, I pulled him into my room. "Nope, I've just been training myself to fight."

"So that you can wrestle me?" He placed his hand on his chest with a fake hurtful look plastered on his face. "Arie, you'll kill your one and only brother with your lousy, flaccid kicks? What have I done to deserve this punishment? I promise I won't ever eat your egg rolls or even come near your food. Ahh my heart. Ahh!" Faking a heart attack, he crumbled to the floor by my feet. "Arie, help... me," he croaked and stuck his tongue out, pretending to be dead. "You killed me with your stare."

"Ha ha! Still got the shitty jokes up your shitty ass, huh?" I kicked him on the floor and snickered to myself before stepping over his cackling body and heading towards my gym bag.

"Oh God," he sat up against my bed and wiped away fake tears. "I'm hilarious. I should have been a comedian, but being a footballer pays more. You'll miss me when I'm gone for months with the team, signing autographs and playing the best sport in the world. Girls are going to be at my feet. Mark my words, you're going to miss me the most when I'm gone."

"Oh, shut up," I slapped the back of his head and began stuffing my water bottle into the bag along with an extra pair of yoga pants and tank top to change into later. "I won't miss you one bit. I don't know what girls see in you. Once they actually live with you and realize that you're a disgusting pig, they'll show you their ass and run in the opposite direction or they'll just put their head between their legs and kiss their flat asses goodbye before jumping out the window."

"You're ruthless. God damn." He lifted himself off the floor and plopped on my bed. "Girls adore me. Who doesn't love a sexy quarterback?"

"Quit giving yourself the sexy title and hop off your high horse." I purposely hit my bag against his face. "Oops! My bad. That's what you get for flying too high. You're always going to be the immature little brother to me."

"You're just a minute older, so shut up!" He rubbed his forehead and glanced at my bag that I swung around my shoulder. "Where are you going anyways?"

"To train myself in beating your fatass," I smiled smugly and sauntered out my room.

"I'm not fat, you shitstorm!" He yelled as I laughed and skipped down the stairs.

"Bye, burger factory. Save me some pancakes from that gobbler," I pecked her cheek and walked out the door to the Rolls Royce that always waited for me to drive my ass to the place Leo always trained me at.

Ashton finally came home last night, getting a break from press interviews as the Giants' newest quarterback all across the country. He's becoming a big man, signing shirts, hats, footballs, and all. Not even full two months and this boy has gained quite a fan following. Thankfully, they still don't know where he lives. I have to admit, I missed this turd a lot. It's crazy to see him gaining fame and making something of his life. Mama and papa would be so proud to see him in this position today. Me on the hand, I don't know what my life has become.

My entire world and my perspective on it has changed drastically. I've been raped, almost got killed multiples times, killed a man myself, and all the bad things that drove into my life. Through it all, the only good thing that happened was that I fell in love with the man I least expected to, with the man that people fear, a bloody mafia leader. I smiled to myself as I thought about him.

It's been more than two weeks since I last saw Leo at his estate when Evelina got kidnapped. He has been a bit distanced since then along with being vague about what happened to his sister. We barely talked once a day and it killed me inside. Our calls lasted for just a minute or so whenever I called because he never did. From his strained voice, I could tell that he was in pain and he wouldn't let me in on it, so I didn't push him. I've been giving him space, but that space has been clawing my heart and squeezing it extensively. I've longed to see him, writhed to touch him, but he didn't make an appearance at all.

Zaya has been training me for the past two weeks since he's busy hunting down Astor. The day after I last saw Leo, Astor's illegal business and criminal doings were flashing on every news channel. He was being humiliated by news anchors all over the globe and I loved every second of it. The police has a warrant against him now, but that motherfucker is hiding in some corner nobody knows about. Mike updated me and said that he released it all to the press and Leo has seized all of his property in the country. Astor sure as hell learned a good lesson now, but I'll still strangle that asshole when I get my hands on him for all the horrible things he has done.

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