*SILIA*“This is Casino Clover!” Alfeo announced our arrival with a happy smile, “This is the place which will determine your fate for tonight.”“You are really enjoying my situation,” I muttered feeling annoyed by his constant teasing throughout the ride.I wish I would have brushed off my ego and asked Diana to scoot over to let me sit beside her in Draven’s car at least that way I wouldn’t have to tolerate this smirking idiot!“Why wouldn’t I? I am this close to achieving my goal,” he said putting out his index finger and thumb, gingerly to show a small gap in between them to signify the distance.“I thought you agreed to it because you trust me,” I mumbled, feeling slightly stupid even as I said it.“Oh no, I do trust you,” he said looking out from his driver’s seat window and at the shabby looking casino that was clearly a base for all illegal activities.“Why do you trust me and if you do then why did you put out that deal?” I asked feeling confused when I could sense the truth
*SILIA* My steps felt weighted, it was almost as if rocks had been tied around my ankle to stop me from going back to my doom. I appreciated the defense work that my body was doing but honestly it was only making me feel more nervous and scared.Why did I agree to that stupid deal?‘That’s what you get for playing around with men from the mafia.’ A small voice inside my head seemed to be saying that to me making me all the more aggravated as the time passed.Whether Alfeo was disappointed, excited or nervous was hard to say because except for the tight grip he had on my hand I couldn’t see a single expression on his beautiful face that would betray his thoughts.“Alfeo…” I tried calling to him but his grip tightening on my hand made me aware that he wouldn’t answer just yet. Looking up at his face I saw his brown eyes fixed on someone and foll
*SILIA*“When you didn’t arrive back in time before I almost thought you ran away to get out of our deal,” he chuckled making me wonder if he was joking about it or not but before I could discern that his laughter was cut short awkwardly.He had only just opened the door of our room to get out and was blocking the view so I couldn’t see what it was that had greeted him but by the way his back had stiffened I was sure that he had been shocked by it.Who could be this scary to have made Alfeo react this way?“Did you really think you would be able to trick your leader?”The voice that said those words was the one that I always yearned to hear and pushing Alfeo aside I looked out the door from under his heavy arm to see Draven and the others standing in the corridor, languidly leaned against the wall opposite us.Removing his heavy arm from the door frame and moving out into the corridor to give me space, Alfeo glanced at me once and then sighed as he said, “I should have known that this
*SILIA* A loud smack jolted me out of my reverie. The stench of blood filled my senses making me gasp as I watched the red fluid splutter out and drip from Leo’s nose. I knew that this was the most minimal punishment that he could have received and yet watching him get punched and slapped repeatedly wasn’t a pleasant sight for me. I wondered why he couldn’t just say the truth. Were all these sufferings worth it? But one thing that I liked about the Mafia was their loyalty to their group. It was almost as if they were a tight knit family that would do anything for each other. In that sentiment I could understand why Leo still persisted even though this slow torture must have been messing with his senses. Although it was unpleasant to watch this scenario I couldn’t sympathize with this man as I believed that whatever had come his way had been a result of his own actions and decisions. It might seem bad timing to bring this up but he did give me one lesson and that was that people can
*SILIA*Why did you have to say that Alfeo?“I don’t know what you are talking about,” I mumbled and tried to back away from them.“No, he has a point. I was going to ask you about this soon but since he has already rolled the ball why don’t you come out with it and say the truth?” Draven asked, fixing me with his terrorizing grey eyes. I was always weak to its shine, and the curiosity that glistened in them wasn’t helping my case.Unable to come up with any reason I decided that running away was my only option and looking back towards the door through which we had arrived I exclaimed, “I think I heard Diana calling for us! We should check on her!”Immediately after as if to display my emergence I ran up the stairs making the other two follow hot on my heels and in an attempt to get away from them I jerked open the door and was about to hide behind Diana when I am frozen still by the scene in front of me.Why the fuck is Diana kissing Gavin!If it would have been a small peck I would
*SILIA*“I hope you are aware that I am a very busy guy,” Nick grumbled as soon as I sat inside the passenger seat of his cab.“Yeah I know and that’s why I am even going to pay you for taking out time for me,” I smiled back through pressed lips, “No, but seriously I am grateful you came to my apartment even though it’s your business hour.”That made him smile in satisfaction and switching off the engine he faced me. I could tell that he was relieved to be getting this free money and leisure time off as well and that did make me feel slightly happy. For all I knew anyone who lived in this wretched city must be have a tough life with their own share of problems, financial being the biggest one.“By the way, where have you been? I have no clue about anything that is going on in your life. At some point I almost thought you might have been dead or something,” Nick said, his lips turning up in a crooked smile. I knew he was joking about this but his eyes were clear and careful. He was wor
*SILIA*If silence had fingers it was probably choking me with it right now.I could barely breathe in the intense atmosphere that had been created in the living room of my shared apartment with Lisa. She was glaring at me with lips pursed in disappointment. I didn’t have to look at her to know this; the oppressive force of her fury would have been palatable even from miles away.She was waiting for me to explain myself but since I had nothing to formidably say that would help my case I chose to stay quiet.It was around five minutes later when she clicked her tongue and broke her silence first, her impatience seeping through her angry eyes.“Cut off all ties with them at once,” She said slapping a hand on her knees as she got up and collected her coat to get back to her room. From the tone that she had used it was clear that she had already made my decision for me and there was no more room for any further argument.Her actions and lack of interest in trying to understand me hurt and
*SILIA*I think this was the third time I had ran out in the middle of the night and I know like every time there won’t be anyone following after me.The first time was when I had been bullied by the kids in school for being an orphan followed by the warden scolding me for crying too much. I was six then, barely smart enough to understand why I was being discriminated like this and why I didn’t have any parents. My little heart hadn’t been able to take the pain and had therefore sneaked out into the garden where I had sat all night crying in the daisy bushes.The next day I was found by the very same warden, passed out because of the cold and instead of kind words that one should have given to me I had yet again been scolded.The second time was when I was living in with a toxic boyfriend who had tried to force himself on me. Running out then was an act of survival and that was the day I had met Lisa for the first time. She could tell from my tattered clothes that something was wrong
*SILIA*I think I needed to run away.“Silia? What are you doing here? Are you alright? Everyone was looking for you. It's time!” Diana said hastily coming to me when she found me in the washroom of my suite.Her words only made me panic more and shaking my head I said, “No, Diana I don’t think I can do this. I don’t think I can go out there like this.”My words must have not sat well with her because she donned a softer expression and with a hand patting my back gently for me she pulled me into a hug.“Come on, tell me what is it? What is troubling you and I swear that I will make it alright,” she said and although her hug made me feel good it also reminded me of why I wanted to run away from my own wedding.“This! See this is the problem! I can’t even hug you properly without this belly getting in my way,” I said pointing at the small bump that kept us apart from hugging properly.She seemed to realize what I had been going through and smiling at me she asked, “What are you afraid o
*SILIA*“I don’t think that Romani would actually set this grand of an event,” Diana muttered from beside me. It has been a week since we came back home and the cold mafia woman who we thought was injured was stronger than anyone we knew and had been completely fine even after that blast. Apparently she became unconscious because of exhaustion and nothing else.“According to him he is creating history and he wants the whole world to remember him and this day properly for centuries to come,” I murmured, spotting him introducing Draven to everyone around while laughing heartily. No one would say that he was sick seeing how well and about he was moving around.“He certainly chose a very strange reason to be remembered in history, ‘The man who gave away his business empire to a Mafia Don’,” Alfeo laughed, chiming in on our conversation.“Do you even know how terrified the public and media is over this? I heard the president is on his toes with this change,” Nick said, sipping a glass of c
*SILIA*“Yes! Fuck we did it!” Alfeo shouted enveloping Draven in a hug which I joined along with the others.We were probably making a lot of ruckus pulling, pushing and rejoicing, unable to believe what had happened.We won!We actually won!A clearing of a throat grabbed our attention as Samantha said, “Mr. Romani is waiting for you.”Calming down at her words Draven pulled away from us, smiling at the hoots and laughter. Looking at me he kissed me once and said, “Thank you, this wouldn’t have been possible without you.”I simply smiled at him and then turned back to the rest as he said, “Make sure that all the injured get treated and rested well. We are flying back today itself and celebrating this victory!”“Alright we’ll arrange everything you just go and meet him,” Gavin said and nodding along as I turned to leave with the others when suddenly I was stopped.“Miss Morgan, Mr. Romani wants to meet you too,” Samantha said, making everyone stop in their movements as they all looke
*SILIA*I couldn’t grasp the sense of reality. I had killed the one person that had previously meant the world to me. I had thought that I hated her a lot but even now when she had said that she hated me I couldn’t help but feel hurt. I didn’t want her to hate me. I had wanted things to have never gone the way that they had.I never wanted to lose her.“Shh, it’s alright you did what you had to,” Draven said and slowly walked towards me. I could see the pity in his eyes and I am sure I looked like a mess but his eyes didn’t stray to anywhere else but my eyes. His gray ones pierced straight into mine, reminding me of the peaceful shine of a breezy moonlit night.Reaching me he first gripped my hand over the fork and prying away my hand carefully from the weapon of murder he took hold of my violently shaking hands that couldn’t control the tension now that they weren’t holding onto the wood for dear life. Throwing away the fork to a safe distance away he immediately pulled me into a hu
*SILIA*“You might have reached till here but I cannot let you go any further than this,” Lisa said, it felt as if it had been days since I had seen her and I wouldn’t have minded it being a little longer or until I died for me to face her again.I still can’t believe she had left me alone there with Luca to suffer, it was worse than simply killing me. She wanted me to ‘suffer’, to prolong my misery.“You really think you can stop us?” I asked, challenging her, feeling my insides burn with hatred.She ignored me and looking at Draven she said, “If you still care about your people’s life then you would back away while I am giving you the chance to. You will lose the game but will return back alive.”Wasn’t she being a little too cocky?If Nick had been enough to take her down alone then the twelve people we had brought with us were definitely a lot stronger.“And lose the opportunity to kill the person who has been the sole reason for all our sufferings? No, thank you,” Draven said wit
*SILIA*“Hey! Hey who are you people! Get off my farm!”A man came shouting at us like a lunatic when we stopped our cars in front of his house.Getting out of the car Alfeo approached the man and introducing himself he said, “We just need a little assistance from you. We need to check something in your barn. Can we please do that?”“No absolutely not!” The old and hot headed man shouted at us, “You think I'll just let you jackasses get into my property just like that. Absolutely not mister.”“We will be happy to pay you a good amount of money for that. If you would just let us in then this briefcase full of money will be yours,” He said, showing him a briefcase that had been brimming full with money. By the way this farm and house looked, he really needed that for repair works and maybe to even live life in general.He stopped and hesitated for a minute when suddenly the door to his house opened and through it came an old lady, probably his wife.“Al? Who are these people?” she aske
*SILIA*“Yes! She was right about it,” Gavin shouted barging in through the door with Nick trailing behind him. The two of them looked really spent and when I was about to ask Nick what happened but he put up a hand before me to stop me from speaking.“My eyes have been fried from staring at a screen for around thirty six hours now and I fear that if I even blink it shut it isn’t going to open anymore,” he said and then mumbled under his breath, “That's why I hate Mafias.”“So what did you find?” Draven asked and the rest of us huddled closer to his laptop that he had brought with him.“So far we have learnt about a small vineyard that is very exclusive and is situated on the island called Martha’s Vineyard. It is registered under another woman’s name so it was hard for us to track it down but we finally did. The label vine that it makes there is called, ‘Dives Uvae’ which also means rich grapes in Latin.”“A silly name if you ask me,” Alfeo muttered in between to which Diana laughed
*SILIA*“Only ten days are left,” Gavin said, making all of us sigh in frustration.“That's too little time and we still don’t have any clue about where Romani might be,” Nick mumbled, having joined the Mafia unable to stay away from this life after getting so deep into it once again.“No we don’t give up hope here, we can still turn the situation around, we just need to think from another perspective,” Diana said, making me nod along but if truth be said even I was losing confidence with how little time we had left.“If it makes anyone feel good then at least the Ravens aren’t in any position to even care about this game when they are already so deep in their own troubles,” Alfeo said, making me nod along.“Not to forget that the Phantoms don’t seem to have any clue about Romani too, although they have become more frantic in their searches,” I said, frowning near the end.No matter what anybody said or did it was clear that we were all on the edge with how close we were to winning an
*SILIA*“What was that just now?” Draven asked, looking slightly dazed as we took the elevator up to his office.“Just a little mental torture,” I said smiling at him. “He hadn’t hurt me physically as much as he did mentally every time that he touched me or tried to brainwash me into loving him.”I didn’t realize but a frown had taken over on its own and seeing that Draven said, “Let me overwrite that memory.”Pushing me against the cold walls of the elevator he kissed me. I fought for control, my body turning hot at his touch. After staying away from him for so long it was as if every time that he touched me he was quenching a thirst in my body.Our tongues slid against each other, gently caressing, massaging and sucking. I wanted to take control again like how I did before but as soon as he realized what I was doing he brought his hand down to my thigh and gripped it, making me gasp at how close he was to my crotch. He then pushed a knee gently against my excited entrance, leaving i