Page 31 of A Taste Of Darkness

THE ESCAPE

Milo Marucci

Sterlie was fast asleep in my bedroom while I sat in my living room, scrolling through emails, when my personal bodyguard came walking in.

He must’ve used his emergency key; otherwise, he wouldn’t have made it inside. While his apartment was right underneath my penthouse, that didn’t automatically give him access. Michael had permission to use the second entrance in an emergency, using a key.

But as I said, it was emergency only.

“What’s up?” I asked as I set my laptop aside. Michael might’ve been one of the only people I trusted with knowing bits of me nobody else did.

And Arlo, but he was different anyway. Arlo had been through the same shit as me, only that nobody cared nearly as much about him as they did about me. Being the heir to the mafia throne kind of put one on a pedestal.

Even when we were kids, I was never allowed to simply play with my cousins or siblings because what if something happened to me? While each of my brothers were allowed to walk around Palermo all they wanted, travel alone, I had to at least have five other men with me until I turned eighteen. Even then I wouldn’t have been allowed to go anywhere alone.

I held my first gun at three years old and killed a man at four. I was only six when I got to make decisions for not nearly as important things, but they were there for me to learn. I had to suffer the consequences if I decided wrong.

At fourteen, I made bigger decisions. I called the shots whenever my father wasn’t available to do so or he couldn’t be found.

The only thing I truly enjoyed was parading my family around like animals in a circus. If I wanted something, they ran to get it. If I said no, it meant fucking no. If anyone tried to disagree or disobey me, depending on who they were and what title they held, their punishment ranged from a bit of torture to death.

Michael knew my story. He knew who he was protecting me from and what it meant for him if I got caught. And still, he stayed. He’d been by my side even before I managed to escape the mafia. We made plans together and figured out how to get me from Palermo to Munich without being noticed.

I took a private helicopter from Palermo to Napoli, then a private plane from Napoli to Verona.

From Verona, I took a bus to Munich. No mafia heir would ever take the bus.

It was fourteen hours of fear. Fourteen hours of my life in which I was trapped in planes and buses while I was on the run. Every stop frightened me. If anyone saw me, it would’ve been over for me. They would’ve locked me up and never took their eyes off me again.

In Munich, Michael picked me up and we drove to Berlin just to get on one last flight, this time to Toronto.

“We have a problem, Sir,” Michael said. He almost sounded distressed, which was far from normal. Usually, he was the calmest person I knew. The most careless one as well.

“Do tell.” I gestured for him to sit, but he refused and instead showed me his tablet where we could watch the security cameras.

“We counted ten of those same exact cars circling around the building all day. All of them have different number plates,” he told me. “We couldn’t identify any of them, but I assume they’re here for you.”

I watched as one car stopped in front of the building, and a big guy in black walked up to the entrance. He didn’t walk into the building, wasn’t brave enough to test my patience, or dared to underestimate my powers to secure a building enough to kill intruders on the spot.

It was quite astonishing to realize that even after all those years, my family still feared me and respected me, even if they pretended not to. Though, I couldn’t be sure those guys were, in fact, part of my family. They could’ve been bystanders who were picked up once my cousins got here.

“How did they find you?” Michael asked as he turned off the tablet and finally took a seat on the couch a bit farther away from me. “Milo, what did you do?”

“They found Sterlie,” I said, then slid a hand down my face. As determined as I was to win the fight, I wasn’t sure if I should take it up.

Chances were, they’d capture Sterlie just to get to me. Once they’d have her, it didn’t matter if I turned myself in; they’d still kill her. If only to make sure I didn’t run away again.

“Adams?” he added to make sure we were talking about the same woman.

I nodded.

His eyes rolled as a deep sigh escaped him. “I told you. You would’ve been so much safer far away from her!”

“And even back then I told you that I’d rather have five free years than stay in captivity for all of eternity without having had the chance to be close to her!” I stood up, feeling the urge to walk around before I used my legs for other things. “I got seven years, Michael. That’s far more than I thought I’d get.”

“Yes, but if you had chosen a smaller island like I suggested?—”

“Then Arlo would still try to find ways to distance himself from our family. They didn’t know he was here until they saw him with me yesterday,” I interrupted. “For all they know, Arlo is traveling the world to find me.”

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