"Fuck!" I cussed out. "You're not mad?" I asked him.
"At Ugo? Not anymore. When I met your mother, I faced worse. She's just scared. We meet these powerful women, we fall in love and then we lie to them because we think we're protecting them." My father said. "That wasn't why I lied to her." I sighed, rubbing my forehead. "You fell in love?" "And turned stupid while at it," I replied. My phone beeped and I pulled it out of my pocket. "Fucking assholes!" I shouted. "They're here. We're under attack!" I screamed at my father and the few guards outside the door. "Double the damn security at the Villa, and send some backup. We're under attack." I heard him speaking to someone on phone. I knew he was probably speaking to his wife. She was the only one he trusted enough to get the job done aside from me, Maxine, and Castello. I was already dialing Maxine's number and when h"Give it up already, Old Dominico. Your reign is over." A heavily accented voice called out to us during another lull. I crawled over to the side he was talking from and poked my head to take a look. As expected, I was greeted with heavy gunshots. But I was quick to dodge. "These are fuckin Russians. Santaro prick! He's got so desperate that he'd dine with the devil for power. One that he can't get." Standing up, I went around, and from another angle, I got a clear shot of the fool who was yelling at us. There was another man stupidly showing his head too. "Amateurs," I whispered and loaded their skulls with quick bullets. I had to duck back down as soon as I saw an assault rifle angling over the hood of a car. "There's an assault rifle my way. Do you have a shot?" I yelled at Rocco. He poked through the window and released a couple of shots. "Down!" He yelled back. Coldness or rage seeped into me. We waited for
The tears were threatening to fall, but I was determined to be strong for Hollis and managed to gulp most of the tears back down. But it was becoming more and more difficult as I was forced to sit there with no distraction from my thoughts. Something was haunting about the priest's spoken voice and I was being forced back to hiding behind those walls, watching Castello fall. I could feel an angel or maybe the devil's voice whispering in my ear, blaming me for walking away instead of staying back to fight. Castello's fall to the ground relentlessly replayed in my mind. It all came to me in a rush. Not only was Castello gone, but he wasn’t coming back. His picture at the front of the church had become just another image of a man who never got to achieve his dreams. Brewing inside of me was an intense hatred for the ones who had taken his life. I wanted them dead, but first, I wanted them to pay and suffer for what they h
That was all I remembered until I woke up feeling totally numb and heavy. I struggled to turn my body on its side, everything was numbed. I felt like a sort of puppet, with my brain pulling on strings to make my body move. I rolled to the ground in a thump. There was a carpet, but it was too rough and cheap. It had torn and had very sharp edges that could cause a deep cut on the skin if care is not taken. It was super thin, and I could feel the coldness of the cement seeping through it. I felt suddenly thankful for the numbness because the tumble would have hurt otherwise. I dragged myself across the floor like a rabid dog toward the light. My breaths were shallow. It took a few minutes for my eyes to adjust to the light. My elbows were too weak to hold me up. I had to slump to my side, with my cheek against the rotten carpet. All I could hear was the sound of crickets from somewhere; I had no idea where. Through th
"Did they hurt you?" Fredrick whispered and did a quick glance of the room. "I think I’m okay. They drugged me. You?" "I’m fine," he said distractedly. He looked down at the tray on the floor. "Is this what they brought you to eat?" he asked with disdain. I nodded. He picked up the tray, stuck the straw in the juice box, and handed it over to me. "Here," he said, "you need some liquids." While I sipped the juice, he investigated the bread, smelling it first and pulling it apart. Satisfied, he ripped them into pieces and handed them to me one by one, like I was a child or a bird. "Have you eaten?" I asked. "I’m fine. I don’t need to eat." I glanced over at his face. He did look fine. A lot better than me, I assumed. "Do you know where we are?" He wondered aloud.
"How long have you been trying to get to me?" I asked Fredrick. "A few months now." He replied. "How did you get to Hugh?" He stared at me in confusion. Another hint, he's not even the mastermind behind all of this. Just an opportunist. Someone sets everything up and he jumps in to take the Glory. My dear high-school-prom-date-Fredrick was lying through his teeth. I glared back at him, he had abused our friendship ties, at least what's left of it. Tears were building up in my eyes. I cleared my throat in an effort to keep them at bay and not arouse his suspicion that the game was up. "How are we going to get out of here?" My croaking voice betrayed me. Fredrick's eyes twinkled. His hand had moved to the top of my head and he was petting my hair, lovingly. "Did you know that I never fell out of love with you? I saw you, I discovered your existence, you
"Fred," I pleaded, "I can’t do this." This made him smile. "But we've always been childhood sweethearts. You've always been on my mind and you know how crazy I was about you. So, it's okay, it will be just like old times. Relax." He pressed his lips against mine, but I didn’t respond. His smile was fading. "Kiss me back," he ordered coldly. I started sobbing. "Please don’t. I don’t want to do this. I’ll do whatever you want me to do, but not this." He laughed chillingly and shook his head. "You were only being a tease, weren't you? You think I’m going to let you go back to that prick? That's never going to happen. I own you now and I'm going to take everything he couldn't take from you. What the hell is so special about you anyway?" He paused and thought about it briefly. "You know what, I'll find out for myself." He pushed me up to the wall and held his hand at my throat while trying to push his tongue into my mouth.
I had no idea what or who to believe. But I sure know that I need to get out of here first if I want to live.The question brightened up his mood so much that he smiled broadly. "Always a smart thinker. I’m impressed. I thought you’d gone soft already. Maybe that bastard broke you. But here you are, the one and only Ugo Chike." He smiled happily."You see, people like us have to stick together." The fact that he was putting me in the same basket as him made me want to scream. Fredrick continued, "Once we gain what we're fighting for, we'll get rid of the basic and complex obstacles. Then, you and I can live happily ever after together." The partnership was starting to sound more like a one-sided business deal. I undetectably shuddered and cheerfully responded, "Sounds great." Fred strolled over to me and, pulling me up by the shoulders, he made me stand in front of him. With his hands, he drew my face into his, whispered my name, and forced his leathery l
Monte escorted me back to the men’s washroom. I had noticed him slightly wincing as he peered at my face when I had first walked out of the room. I wondered if I would be able to use his humanity, to my advantage. One of the stalls had been converted into a shower. While Monte stood on the other side of the stall, I got undressed and hung my clothes over the door. I turned on the water, as hot as it would go, and stood under a lukewarm shower. In less than a minute, the water started getting very hot. When I turned around, I saw a gray skimpy dress hanging next to the dirty clothes that I had thrown over the door. I grumbled, grabbed my dirty clothes, and put them back on. Monte chuckled when I walked out. "You like dirty clothes better, huh?" I ignored him and stood by the sink. A knock on the door brought one of the guards into the washroom. He handed a bag of ice to Monte and Monte handed it to me. "It’ll make the swelling go