Page 99 of Luciano (Belles & Mobsters 1)

I took another gulp. And then another. Finally I sat up, ignoring my pounding headache. Slowly, the events that led us here cleared through my brain. Ella and I in the maze with my grandmother, me shooting her, the guard attacking. There were too many of them.

“Where are we?” I asked again.

“I don’t know.” Ella had an expression of fear. “One of the men put a needle into your neck. You lost consciousness. But we didn’t spend a lot of time in the car. I think we are still close to New York.”

I glanced around me. I had to find a way out of here. We would not spend the rest of our lives under any mobster’s thumb or as his income. We were in a closed room, a metal door locking us in.

One single window.

It was the only weakness in this room. My gaze slowly shifted back to Ella and as we stared at each other, I could onlyseethem in my mind.My husband. My son.

I had to see them again. Life couldn’t be so cruel to end us this way.

“Could we escape through the window?”

Ella’s honey colored eyes lowered, and I followed her gaze. They stripped me down to my underwear and bra. My head snapped to Ella, and I just now noticed she was stripped down to her undergarments too.

“Besides, we are really high up,” she muttered.

All the years and Benito King’s men had finally gotten their dirty paws on us. Benito, just like my uncle, represented all that was evil. To me, he was the face of evil. He’d sell his soul to the devil, as long as he got what he wanted. These men didn’t care who they hurt in the process. How many women had these men hurt? How many daughters had they killed?

The screams and cries echoed through the hollow hallway and both of us instantly tensed. My gaze shot to the locked door, watching it and praying it remained shut.

A shiver ran through me, whether from the cold or the terror I could hear in those high pitched screams, I didn’t know. I pulled Ella up next to me and we both cuddled up, sharing body heat.

“How long was I out for?” I whispered my question.

“A whole day.”

“Have screams-” I couldn’t finish my question.

“Yes, from the moment we arrived.” Ella looked weak and tired. “I didn’t want both of us to sleep, in case-” she swallowed. “In case someone came.”

I nodded. It was what we did those first few months when we roamed Europe all alone. We never slept at the same time, so we wouldn’t make ourselves vulnerable.

“Try to get some sleep now,” I whispered, pulling her arm around my waist and welcoming the extra heat. “You need the rest.”

She laid her head onto my lap and I sat like a statue, staring out the small window, a glimpse of the freedom so close but so far away. I wasn’t beyond crawling through it and running down the street in my underwear. If I had to choose between that or being sold, I’d pick the former.

Ella’s eyes shut and her breathing evened within five minutes. I waited, listening to her breathing while I stared at the dirty concrete walls, then the dirty ground. It was all dirty, like this whole transaction that my family participated in.

My parents were dead because they tried to protect me. They refused to hand over their daughter as some kind of fucked up sacrifice to the mobster gods. I had never been bloodthirsty, but now, I wanted to kill them all.

I killed a human being.How did someone move on from that? It stained your soul, whether you wanted it or not. It was the main reason why I only stuck to laundering money during our time in Europe. That was bad enough, but now I added killing to my repertoire.

It felt like the walls were closing in on me, making it hard to breathe. I didn’t want to die; I knew that for certain. Ella and I were thrown into this whole mess, not of our own choosing. We shouldn’t have to pay the ultimate sacrifice.

We have to survive somehow!

We ran away once, by sheer luck we escaped unscathed. It would be a miracle to get lucky again. My throat choked with the knowledge I wouldn’t see my son grow up. Or Luciano age.

I turned my gaze out the small window, the only illusion of freedom, and stared out at the full moon. The chill in the air made the room smell moldy, but I ignored it. Instead, I focused on the bright moon and the sounds of the night echoing throughout.

I recalled the similar reflection of the moon mere weeks ago while Ella and I sat on the balcony of our little villa. The reflection against the surface of the waves, the constant sound of the waves crashing into the world. It was so peaceful. We ignored all the problems so we could enjoy that little piece of heaven.

“Please keep him safe, Luciano,” I whispered to the moon.

That was the main thing that mattered to me now. My son would live to grow up into a good man. My uncle and grandmother were dead. There were no threats from my family anymore.

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