Chapter 3 Bored

It's been a week since Dante was assigned to be my personal bodyguard. So far, his scary look hasn't left his face yet. Well, actually, sometimes I say stupid, random stuff, and I catch a glimpse of his stern look slipping away for a quick second. I guess that's a good thing. He's absolutely warming up to me.

At this moment, we're hanging out at the library in my house. I'm trying to read a book I've been wanting to read, but I can't concentrate with Dante sitting right next to me. I'm afraid he'll catch a glimpse of what I'm reading. The story is nothing crazy. It's only because this book is one of those cliché mafia stories where the girl gets kidnapped and falls in love with her kidnapper, and I'm currently reading their spicy scene.

I flip the book around and turn to Dante, placing it facing down on the table.

"You know, sometimes I wonder if you're actually taking this job seriously, or you're just holding back from shitting yourself," I say jokingly with my face flat. Dante slowly turns to face me, his eyebrows furrowed.

"What does that suppose to mean?" Dante asks.

"Literally what I just said. Are you keeping that same, scary look on your face all the time because you're one fart away from shitting yourself, or is that just how you always look?" I say as I hold myself back from laughing. I don't even know why I'm saying those words. They're so random and cringe.

"The latter, obviously," Dante says with an annoyed look on his face.

"Really, huh? Are you sure about it?" I ask with a teasing grin. Dante is now fully facing me with his arms crossed over his chest. Ooh, now he's mad, mad.

"Why wouldn't I? I know myself better than you," Dante says.

"Oh, really? Then do you know your pants are not zipped up?" I ask. Dante instantly looks down at his pants, and my laugh bursts out of my mouth. Oh my god. I can't with him. For someone who looks scary and serious all the time, he's so gullible.

"I can't believe you fell for that," I say. Dante scowls at me, but not a single word leaves his mouth. I keep looking at him with a smile and prop my arm on the table.

"You know what? Having you around is nice. Even though I can't run away now, at least I have someone I can mess with hehehehe," I say. Why the fuck did I laugh like that? Whatever.

"You'd better stop talking right now, or I'll stuff your mouth with my socks," Dante threatens.

"Ew, what the fuck? I'm just joking," I say as I throw him a disgusted look. "Damn. Why so sensitive?" I mumble. I move away from Dante and continue to read my book, ignoring him again.

I check the time on my phone. It now shows 13,12, which means I've been reading for an hour and it's getting boring. That's new. I usually finish one book a day if I want to, but now I can barely read half of a book. I'm not sure if the book is just that boring or if I'm losing my long attention span.

As I put the book down, a yawn slips out of me. This is it. I'm done reading. I'm just going to go back to my room and take a nap.

"I'm going back to my room," I say. I get on my feet sleepily and head straight towards my bedroom with Dante following close behind me. I close the door behind me and let myself drop onto the bed, feeling myself slip into the realm of unconsciousness.

The sky outside is still shining bright when I open my eyes. As I'm regaining my consciousness, I stare at the ceiling and frown. The thought of my mother being tortured right at this moment makes me frown. I wish I could save her now, but considering how the Romanos are far more ruthless than my family, I know I'm going to fail miserably. I really, really hope my father has a good plan to save her. If not, I'll resent him for the rest of my life for not trying harder to save her.

I decide to check on Dante, wanting to see what he's currently up to. There's no way he's just standing in front of my door like a damn statue, right? I open my door and find one of the house guards, Pietro, instead of Dante. Where is he?

"Where's Dante?" I ask.

"He's taking a quick nap," Pietro says. A nap? It makes sense, considering he barely gets time to rest from guarding me.

"Oh, okay," I say. I go back into my bedroom and sit on my bed, still not sure of what to do. Maybe I can watch a movie? Are there even any interesting ones to watch? Eh, now that I think about it, watching movies feels better at night.

The knocks on my door snap me out of my train of thought. When I open the door, Pietro is already gone, and Dante is back, staring at me with his usual intimidating look.

"Do you need anything?" Dante asks.

"No," I say as I stare at him in confusion.

"Alright," Dante says.

"Okay, I'm going back into my room now," I say.

"Wait."

I stop myself halfway from closing the door and look up at Dante. What does he want now? Despite how hard he tries to keep his facial expression neutral, I can see in his eyes that he wants to say something, but he's hesitating on it. What does he want to say anyway?

"What?" I ask.

"Never mind," Dante says as he shakes his head and returns to his usual position. I furrow my eyebrows, confused at what that was about. Huh, strange.

"Oh. Okay. You know what, come inside. Let the door stay open. We don't want my father to think we're doing something suspicious," I say.

Dante doesn't say anything, but gets inside my room anyway. I go through my drawer and grin at the sight of my UNO card deck. We don't have anything better to do, so we might as well play UNO to pass the time.

"Wanna play UNO?" I ask as I sit on the floor with the cards in my hand.

"Why not?" Dante says. Nice. At least now I have something to do, and I probably save him from boredom as well. I get the cards out of the pack and start shuffling them. After a minute or two, I deal the cards for the two of us.

"Let the game begin."

"UNO," Dante says calmly. I look up at him in surprise. How did he just win another round? Why do I keep losing?

We're now on our fourth round, and Dante keeps winning each of them. It's very strange that he somehow manages to keep getting the 4+ and 2+ cards to himself while I get none. He's got to be cheating.

"You're cheating. Why do you keep getting all the 4+ cards?" I ask with a scowl.

"Your fault. You shuffled the cards, not me," Dante says as he shrugs. He's lying. He's definitely cheating somehow. I've shuffled the cards thoroughly for minutes, so there's no way he keeps getting all the 4+ cards four rounds in a row.

"Ugh. Whatever. I'm done playing," I say as I throw the cards on the floor with a scowl. I can feel Dante still smiling smugly at me as he tidies up the cards.

"Are you sure? You don't want to play another round?" Dante asks teasingly.

"No," I say curtly as I continue to scowl at the floor.

"Alright," Dante says.

"Sandra- What are you doing?"

I look up and see my father in the doorway. He looks down at Dante and me with a puzzled look on his face. I hope he's not mad that I'm getting along with Dante.

"Just playing cards. I got bored, so I told Dante to play UNO with me," I say.

"Okay. I need to talk to you right now," my father says.

"Oh, okay," I say. I push myself to my feet and sit on my bed. My father turns to Dante with a frown.

"Dante, please stay outside," my father says.

"Yes, sir."

After Dante leaves the room and closes the door behind him, my father pulls me to my bed and makes me sit with him. As he lets out a sigh, he turns to me with a frown.

"We just found your mother."