Shadows of the Vow (You Fuck With Darkness, You See Shadows)

Antonioni's POV

“What's her name?” I had asked, although not like I sincerely wanted to know. I had almost asked subconsciously.

“Annabelle,” Edward had replied.

“Hmm. She got a sexy name,” I admitted.

Edward remained mute, face down.

Being in that house felt hot and boring like hellfire. No power supply throughout our stay.

I don't know how someone could be so broke.

Although he works for some bad boys in the city, as I heard, it could be that they don't pay him half as much as they should.

I prayed Edward didn't make a move to do something silly. Not like I feared their blood, though, but I didn't have enough time to spend there. 

Although the inner guards and the outer ones did a great job as well. My boys are well-trained.

Did I mention I had my fellas out, watching the neighborhood as well? I made sure every corner of their compound and streets was charged with protection. I'm never one to be caught unprepared.

“So you already know why I'm here, to get my promised bride. I have just 20 minutes more to do that, man. I hope it'll be worth it.” The last sentence came out in an undertone.

“At least let’s get you both to familiarize yourself today, and you can come back to take her tomorrow, please, young boss,” My potential bride's father had pleaded.

“I got a lot to do with my time, pappy…ain't no idle man like you. I can't be coming back here and forth to lick over a girl when I should be out there running my businesses.” 

I had asked impatiently: “Where’s she?”

Edward piteously looked down like a caught chicken about to be slaughtered, and stuttered, “Som— som— somewhere around the house.”

I don't care about how bad he felt. He owed me.

“Then she better be pretty and worth it, 'cause I'd kill you.” I had proudly pointed out, leaning forward on him, to address my last clause.

I have always been one to have everything I should have in three years just in one day.

I waited for a while for Edward to do the needful—call her out and quickly hand her over to me so we could be on our way home, but the atmosphere between us remained rather icy.

“Time is a luxury you no longer possess…I have other engagements today. Fuckin’ call this girl out here already!” I barked, cutting him off from whatever the hell he was saying. 

Truly, my gang and I had a major operation to run before the day drew its curtain. It was scheduled for the afternoon slash evening when the chance is high for us to pull through successfully. 

Our goods, which were in transit from China, were hijacked by a rival gang—a deadly guy named Lorenzo, the Viper lord.

I couldn't afford to have my time wasted in the countryside at all.

“You gambled with what wasn’t yours. You lost! Now, it’s time to pay your debt, Edward!” I reminded him.

Just then, out of nowhere, came the damsel I had been waiting for all day.

“What debt?” She asked, looking soft and confused, like a wild cat.

I ignored her question and took in the woman standing in front of me, whom I had come all the way from the coastal town to the countryside to pick up as a wife. 

Facially, she's not worth it, but she's looking very curvy and womanly. My eyes stayed there for a while.

“Is this her? Not very bad looking.” I had said. It was crazy, but I was suddenly getting hard just looking at those hips.

“What’s going on?” Her tiny but firm voice suspended my erotic thoughts, and her sad countenance, too.

I was confused and almost bursting out in laughter, “She doesn’t know?” 

That old fool said he was still going to tell her.

“Tell me what?” That tiny but firm voice had come again, her face almost turning pink

“Belle, sweetheart, I… I had no choice...” The old man had answered her.

Then came the voice that turned me on again, and left off somewhere. There was something that voice was doing to me, honestly. To even think I was just meeting her…

And then came the one like someone who had swallowed a frog. “I…I owe Mr. D’Angélo more than I can ever repay.”

Scrap that. I had no business with their little father-and-daughter moment. I needed to check out my bride and dump her right behind if she didn't look like what I wanted.

I stood up and went around about her in a 360 motion, invading her space until I was satisfied. She looked like she didn't see it coming.

She stood there, mouth agape.

She was truly beautiful, even when she looked obviously like a confused feline, watching me like she honestly wanted to understand what I was doing.

Being satisfied that I liked her a little, I felt it was time to explain to her the situation of things so that we can also quickly be out of that blazing shit hole called a house—no, a hellfire.

“Your father owes me a huge debt he cannot repay, so he is offering you instead.”

She suddenly stumbled back. “No! No! No, No!” 

She continued shouting “No”, unconsciously maybe, and pleading with her father. 

She's really feminine and reminds me of someone, although someone I dread to remember.

Her pleading was just too sexy to watch.

I could already imagine how she'd be pleading and screaming my name later in the night when I'll be fucking away her timidity.

She's just too sweet, innocent but fierce, sexy, alluring, ladylike, and vulnerable in a very delicate and fragile way. 

I was now enjoying this part of the visit. “Hmm... interesting... You are even more fragile than I imagined." 

Her eyes crossed mine. I shook a little, in a way that no woman had ever dared to startle me before.

Again, her rigid and angry tone yanked me out of my sexual thoughts. 

“I am not fragile!” 

She also seemed quite stubborn. 

No need to be there, arguing with some fragile chic when I had some serious business to handle. It was high time I left for the coastal town.

“Well, we will see about that.” 

She seemed not to understand that it was a futile choice to keep flexing her muscles. I shifted on the chair, losing patience.

Adjusting my gaze between the two culprits and on the watch on my wrist, my eyes flashed on the time that it told, and I just knew I couldn't stay any longer. 

Edward and his stubborn daughter aren't enough to waste my time.

“You belong to me now, Annabelle. Guards, take her, let's go!” I commanded, ignoring Edward, since it seemed to me like he was deliberately wasting my time.

The words Annabelle spat made me know she's got quite some nerves. I might be dealing with it for the rest of my life. 

“I’m not something to be owned, Mr D’Angélo! I'm not going anywhere with you!”

Quite unusual for a woman to yell at me; they don't have the guts to do that.

For the first time being there, I got pissed. I had to reply to her guts in a way that she'd be pained too. “You don't have a choice.”

Amidst her begging, I was going to tell Edward it was about time when we heard gunshots from outside. 

Edward must have counter-planned us, I thought. But he must be assured that I didn't come unprepared.

I warned him. 

I needed to because if it turned out to be that I was right, I didn't mind sending a bullet into his gambling brain, burying myself deep and roughly into his fragile daughter until she cried out in pain, before also sending her to meet her father in the land of the dead.

Either way, I must collect what he owes me from him. “You better not be playing a deadly game, Edward.”

I went outside to know the exact situation of things, even though I knew that whatever it was would be taken care of by the guards who were positioned outside. 

One of my boys, who was inside with me, followed me out, and the other kept watch on Annabelle and her father.

Without fear, I rushed out of the room to supervise the environment, knowing my boys were effectively securing the area.

“What is the challenge?”

“Nothing, boss, it's just to scare the dangerous animals away,” replied one of my guards, Danky, who was more like the head of the security team.

I adjusted my tie. “I trust you guys to cover this vicinity, Danky. Make sure everyone's back on their duty post.”

I trust them. They're well-trained.

The Gracias were still in the room when I returned, without any need to share the news of what had just happened in their neighborhood.

My boys had almost killed two cultist boys who came to rob their hood.