Chapter Five

ADRIANA'S POV

I LOOKED like I just won a million dollars in the lottery as I basked all day.

I had that exact amount in the account and the thought that alone made me over zealous.

For one, all the debts I had were cleared and I had been getting ready to get the preparation for my mother's hospital bills in NYC.

There was a saying that money makes the world go round, I had thought it to be a mere figure of speech till this moment, I could literally feel the world spinning while I stood fixed still not knowing what to do with the rest of the money in my account.

"Carolina, if you had a million dollars what would you do?"

Calolina was a stripper as well who danced with me on Wednesdays, the thing about her was she spent her money on drugs but when she was sober and not on anything she made a lot of sense talking.

We closed for the day and as I made my way home I could still hear her voice at the back of my head telling me what she would do if she had that amount right now in her account.

Of course she thought I was speaking to her in literal terms but she had made a lot of sense about starting off a clothing business and quitting stripping.

The bus home was odd and I felt like I was being followed every step of the way as a matter of fact it had looked like I was being followed all day.

I got out of the last bus and made my way into the Estate. There was still the feeling someone was walking behind me so I dipped my hands into my bag and circled it round the pepper spray I always had handy.

When I got to the part with more lighting I looked over my shoulders and saw no one.

I wasn't ready to take more risks so I increased the pace at which I was walking.

When I reached the front of my house I was surprised to see the cars parked out, I thought to myself the possible reason before my mum's name stuck to the back of my mind.

Could it be that she was dead and these were the cars of the sympathizers?  I thought to myself as I dashed into the house as fast as I could.

I bumped into a man, and from how hard I felt I knew definitely it wasn't my step father this time.

My eyes went from his well polished Italian shoes, up his suit or his dark eyes that were piercing down at me as if he could devour me in just one gulp.

I looked around at the room as quickly as I could, there was a lot I could pick out in that one picture and it was the fact that we were all held at gunpoint including myself as the man had a gun pointed at my temple.

I trembled…

"Where is my fucking money?" He demanded.

All through that while I had been wondering who Massimo Grey was and had pictured one of those fat perverts at the club but how wrong I was, he had the most perfect face that I couldn't quite describe– He was evil or at least he was faking the look to get under my skin.

"What money?"

I felt a sharp sting in my face and as my ears rang all I could hear was the sound of Mother's voice calling my name.

"If I get to ask again someone is going to die." As if to show he meant it he walked over to where my mother was and pointed his pistol at her… just her.

"Adriana what money are they talking about?" She tremendously shook as she spoke.

Already I was bleeding on my lips and all it took was a slap, he cocked the gun and I could see he didn't fucking care if she looked sick or not.

"Wait!" I screamed.

"I have your money, I needed it for my mother's hospital bills. That was the only thing I took from it, I sorry. I’m going to return it, I promise." 

He listened as I spoke and walked into the kitchen, punching hard on the wall that I wondered if he bled from how hard it echoed.

He called one of the men over who walked up to him, when he walked back again it was with a bottle of whiskey.

He poured it into an empty cup that looked like he had been the one to use it .

"Come here!"

I needed no one to tell me before I crawled on all fours to where he was.

"Stand." 

I was starting to wonder what was at the back of his mind as he asked that I should stand up but I did it anyway.

"Strip."

My fingers trembled. There was no way in the world I would do that right there, not with everyone present.

I heard the sound of the gun cocking again.

"You know I have been thinking about your fucking body since I saw your pictures, can't seem to get it off my head…so don't keep me waiting."

My mouthed a please but it seemed he had made up his mind, I didn't blame him though, I stole the man's fucking money.

"On a second note, why don't I make you my personal stripper as you seem to be good at doing that …Or what do you think Marcus?" 

The man he had called earlier nodded his head.

"Well we have a deal at hand." He said. "I kill everyone here or you become my stripper… My personal one." 

This time I heard the sounds of guns cocking.

"What is your decision don't keep me waiting, Patience is not one of my virtues."

I knew he lied about that part of being patient, the man could have easily killed everyone of us but he didn't.

I took a deep breath in, here I was in the presence of Massimo Grey, being asked to sign some sort of deal… a deal I know would cost me my freedom.

“F-free my family, I’ll b-be y-your stripper.” I stuttered and in that minute, I knew that my life was taking another drastic turn.