|Irena|
He retracted from the door and marched over to my side once more. The discomfort on his secretary’s face was so obvious but I couldn’t care less. I just avoid her gazes and bent down to pick the remnants of my bike.
“You, what are you?” I heard him question at my back but I didn’t flinch
I comfortably packed my bike and stood up to face him “It’s not what, it is who. How can one be so full of himself?”
His statement got me hissing as I turned to go on my way. I could feel his eyes on my entire body but I struggled to get out of there as soon as possible without tripping, the fear had gripped me too much.
I could hear the car’s ignition after some minutes but I never dared looked back and just continued on my way before it zoomed past me.
“I hope I am not in trouble” I mumbled to myself and sought cover before my heart almost dropped
“Oh my!” the pajamas man had jumped out of nowhere once again, demanding for his money of course
In anger, I threw three hundred dollar bills at his feet and yelled angrily “That is enough to cover for your fee and the emotional stress. Just don’t come to me if what I told you happens in the future”
I was tired of his childish tantrum. At that point, I didn’t know if I should be happy with the money or expect something else to come out of it. Considering who Rocco Lorenzo was, he was too calm with all the tricks I played back there.
I sighed tiredly “I hope it doesn’t backfire” and went on my way.
***
It felt so refreshing to get the crazy leech off my back and I couldn’t be happier. Throughout the night, I kept waking up in excitement because of the money I received from Rocco even though a side of me was scared that something might come up due to the way I attacked and confronted him.
“Mafias don’t forget things, I hope I am safe”
I found myself whispering as I tossed from one side of the bed to the other. I didn’t even know what came over me and made me behave that way. I was usually a reserved type, well except the time I have to make money. When it comes to making money, to hell with being reserved because I go all out.
“I mean who doesn’t need money?” I blurted out.
I had to comfort myself so I would feel at ease and have some decent sleep since the next day was a busy one for me. I kept sorting my thought one after the other to keep my jumbled up head silent and finally got to the point where I told him not to attend the meeting because he would die.
“I wonder if he’s safe though. What I saw was bloody”
Just like that, I got enveloped in another world of worry and wondered what the end result of the meeting he went for was.
“Did he not go?” I questioned myself but shook my head as soon as I said that
He would probably be crazy to just listen to someone like me just because I said something like that. Mafias live each day with their lives on the line so such thing as death wouldn’t have moved him.
After pondering for over two hours, I finally drifted off to sleep and the loud bang of the spoon against the pot jolted me up from the deep sleep. With half eyes opened, I checked the curtain to see the sun up and high in the sky.
“Gosh! I slept in again”
A loud growl escaped my throat as I rolled to my side but I was not careful enough. My left elbow kissed the floor before I could realize it and the pain made me squirm hard.
“What a wonderful way to start the morning” I groaned as I rubbed it endlessly and struggled to my feet
In less than twenty minutes, I was out of the room completely dressed in a powder blue strip shirt and my baggy jean. I never liked the idea of dressing feminine fatale. It was too much stress for me when I could just throw on something big and free, I also look so good in them between.
“What a weird way of being a human alarm” I sneered with a short yawn as I strolled into the mini restaurant
Auntie was busy sorting out the brunch menu and she was almost done by the time I came out. I didn’t waste any time before I joined her.
“I told you to always sleep early! Why would a young woman wake up by this time?” she yelled and I nodded
It was expected! Auntie would never talk about my late sleep without yelling.
“Well, the young woman had nothing to do so is it a crime for her to sleep?” I responded and that only earned me a spoon chase.
Auntie was old but agile, way more agile than me that was young. I don’t know where her strength comes from but I only escaped her hot chase by luck. She was ready to bang the spoon on my skull for being a spoilt brat.
“Get the apron! People will start trooping in any moment from now” she yelled again and a sigh flew out of my throat.
She was consistent with her yelling. Most times she instructed me to do something, it would always come with a yell. Never had she ever lost her voice and she rarely got sick, the only thing that Auntie fought with and lost the battle was her left eyesight.When I knew Auntie, she had trouble with seeing well with her left eye and she did all her best to treat it but nothing worked. Three years ago, she went blind totally in the left eye but trained herself to get used to the right eye only without wallowing much in self-pity. When I asked her how she was able to move on so quickly, she only smiled.“When life throws something bad at you. Catch it and use it well to teach life a lesson that you also have your own power” she finally told me one day after I disturbed the daylight out of her,***I finished helping with the arrangement and decided to go and withdraw the money I deposited at the bank few days ago since I needed to get some things for myself and the house.“Hmmm! The smell
|Rocco|A heavy migraine greeted me as I opened my eyes the following day, Bojana informed me that I have been sleeping for the past twenty hours and my jaw almost dropped. No wonder my body felt sore, yet calm. I haven’t had such sleep in the past fourteen years. The highest I could sleep was three to four hours daily. I trained like my life depended on it while I was growing up and it was paying off even at this point.Everyday seems like trouble in the life of a mafia so I never relent or let my guard down because even my so called team could turn their backs on me anytime. I trust no one, not even Bojana.The drug Matteo fed me was completely out of my system and I could lift whatever part of my body I wanted without trouble but the gunshot wound was still there. I was used to it so it was no big deal and since it had been treated, there was no cause for alarm. I just had to be careful for a few days.“She is on her way. You have to get ready” Bojana barged into the room to inform
Bojana wouldn’t let me rest about how I kept her in the basement when she only helped me out and I was forced to go see her after two days. When I got there, I was shocked by what I saw. I was expecting her to be sober and begging for her life but she was doing a yoga session energetically.I didn’t know when “Who the hell is she?” flew out of my mouthShe turned around to see me standing in awe and just smiled before standing up to my face.“Were you hoping I would have died of hunger? Well, I am fine as you can see. I have gone five days without food and water so this is nothing, you couldn’t even wait a week before coming to see your desired result,” she stated and clacked her tongue continuously before she resumed her yoga positionFor the first time in years, I finally met someone who made me speechless. I didn’t even know what to utter after what she said. I just stood there, looking at her like a fool. Her audacity was alarming.“Wash her up, feed her and bring her to me.” I ins
I moved closer slowly to take a proper look before I realized that it wasn’t his own blood. My mouth dropped in horror. He went out with a white shirt but nowhere was white when he returned. Everything was crimson red and even his black suit was not left out.“Wha…att is this?” my hands flew to my mouth to caution myself but it was too lateBojana was also beside him with the same fate. Her clothes were soaked with blood, even her face. I knew Mafias were not afraid of fights but I had never imagined it would be that terrible.“Get the wounded ones treated. We will have a meeting in the morning” he instructed and Bojana gave a soft bow before walking past me silently“What? You have never seen blood?” he asked nonchalantly as he unloaded his gun“Not this much. Just what exactly did you go out there to do?” I asked with a confidence I didn’t know where it came from“To finish my business. I had to pay back, don’t you think so?” he answered swiftly and I found myself nodding my head in
|Rocco|I was not sure if she was telling the truth about not seeing the vision or not and I honestly didn’t have to see anything regarding the contracts and plans but a side of me just wanted to keep her there with me. It was fun having her in my house and I didn’t want to let her go yet, She has to be my toy for the time being and when I get bored, I'll just let her go.“I can’t read her no matter what,” I thought to myself as the loud music of the club kept cutting through my thoughts.I have a knack for reading people’s minds and thoughts through their eyes but she was just a blank paper. No matter how I tried to pierce through, it was all empty and it was making me anxious. People like them either have lost a lot and have no will to live or don’t know anything about the world’s system but given all the tests she has passed through and how she handled them, even the sudden shooting she witnessed, naivety is out of the question.I was deep in my thought but moving to the music when
Bojana looked for whatever organization the wheel tattoo belonged to for more than two weeks but got nothing. She came into the house that evening completely exhausted and frustrated because her abilities were being subjected to a hide and seek game and her reputation was on the line. The silence from Rocco was because he trusted her to show up soon with the information he needed.She met Irena munching on snacks in the sitting room but just walked straight to have a cup of water in silence since she had no business with her. Their paths rarely crossed, since Irena was always in her room and Bojana had little or no time on her hand to be around the house.“Welcome back. It’s been a while since I saw you though”, Irena blurted out, trying to spark a conversation, but just got ignored by Bojana“When someone is talking, isn’t giving a response the next thing to do?” Irena mumbled under breath before getting closer, giving her the benefit of the doubt that she probably didn’t hear her.S
“What again?”“Did I just hear you say that you had seen that somewhere?” he asked to be sure, and this time, his voice was way calmer.I answered that he heard me right, and he rushed up to me to ask where I saw the tattoo and I realized that it must have been what he and Bojana were talking about the other day. Since I was also petty on my own end, I didn’t want to release the information to him easily.“Apologize for telling them to throw me out first”, I blurted out, and the sounds of guns cocking filled the air.They all aimed their guns at me for my statement, but I wasn’t fazed at all. They should have learned that I wasn’t afraid of guns at that point. I didn’t hesitate to turn back to the door after telling him that he was not ready to hear anything if he couldn't apologize. As I held the door’s handle, the cold mouth of Bojana’s gun kissed my temple and a sigh dropped from me.Before she could blink, the gun was already in my hands. I was tired of her tantrums and rudeness.
|Rocco|As usual, I woke up angry that morning and kept staring at the cinnamon tree that was visible through my window. The warm cup of coffee was hitting the right spot and melting my anger as my thoughts drifted unintentionally to her. It took me a while before I could remember her name, we were not that close even when she was right in the same house with me.“Irena”, I sighed as my brain finally clickedHer audacity on our first meeting got me awestruck. It never left my brain for a second. Never has anyone had that boldness towards me, they always cowered in fear. Even till the last second of her leaving, she never wavered for once.I was not sure if it was a good impression at that point but it does left a trace. I couldn’t forget her.My thoughts were cut short when Bojana swung the door open and came in with a familiar figure. She was one of my bedwarmers. Immediately, the memories of me instructing Bojana to send in someone in the morning flooded my head.“I must have been o
The stare of horror on their faces showed how scary my screams and dripping palms were. We all stood there looking at each other, my body trembling with hatred and disbelief. I couldn’t comprehend all that I had just watched. A head banging headache swept me off my feet as my chest rose and fell.Before I knew it, I was on the floor with dim eyes. My body couldn’t bear the weight of oppression from my emotions. I had broken down once again.“Let’s help her up! Irena!” Auntie’s scream barely kept me awake before I passed out finally.I woke up to the fluid being passed in my body and saw the same doctor that treated Rocco during the first gunshot standing close to the door and discussing with the men. I couldn’t hear what they were discussing, and I wasn’t even in the right frame of mind to eavesdrop.“We will talk more about it when she wakes up,” was another line I heard before I slept off again.I woke up to see everyone having dinner, and they all rushed to my side when they saw me
|Irena|I realized they were trying to distract us as I cried in the morgue. My mother’s body was filled with several marks that had come from bullying and torturing. It was then it dawned on me that all those bruises I saw when I last visited her were from the maltreatment she had been facing in the correctional center.“What a foolish daughter I am. I didn’t even think deeply into what the bruises could mean. How did I end up believing that she only tripped and wounded herself?” several thoughts filled my mind as we headed to the center to get the rest of her thingRocco held me in his arms as Paul drove the car silently to the location. His soft but huge arms were rubbing my shoulder to keep me calm, but I had so much going on in my head even though my mouth was not moving.The guards at the center were taking longer than usual to attend to my request until Rocco stepped in. I had previously told him to wait for me in the car while I go alone to get her things but when I saw that t
“We have to move faster than their investigations. We have done a lot to keep this buried for years. They cannot just come to ruin all our hard work at this point,” one of the men sitting at a round table with sushi and several sashimi dishes glaring at them.“That’s why we have been taking them out one after the other. We cannot allow any loophole in this operation. One of our men is on the way to give us the report on the progress of the operation,” another responded, reaching for his cup for a drinkThe other men released a uniform groan as they released their ties, buttering their frustrations. They had all been unsettled ever since Irena found the files they had been searching for all year. They had turned the house upside down over and over but none of them could find where her mother kept it.“We already concluded that she didn’t have the file. I don’t understand how that bitch managed to hide the file till her daughter found it. We even had the inmates bully and beat her just
|Irena|I couldn’t believe all that I had just heard. My head tried to process it over and over but it felt like it would explode if I thought about it too much. What in the world happened to Rocco? How did he manage to stay calm in all of that? What was the reason behind him keeping quiet and holding back for so long? I had millions of questions running through my head but I couldn’t bring myself to ask him any.“You smart fool!” those were the only words that flew out of my mouth softly. I couldn’t begin to imagine the pain he had been enduringThe day I showed him the picture of my father, his father was also there. How did he not react? Why did he not explain to me and bore the hatred from me? I had hurt him with my words and actions but he never for once tried to bail himself out.“Why did you not tell me? Why did you not point it out that your father was also a victim of Bruno? How did you even manage to stay in that hell and pretend as if nothing was happening?” my tears flowed
It was around the fourth year of my stay in Italy. At that time, I had bonded with everyone in the villa and became a legal member of the family. My father had started taking me to meetings and made me handle some of his tasks because of how good I was.I couldn’t hide my extreme hatred and disgust at first. It was too hard to pretend. The person that killed my mother was the one I had been adoring, worshipping, and calling father all these while. No doubt, he was also the one that killed my father. He ruined me and my family and also had the nerve to play on my memory.“Is something wrong? You haven’t said anything much or even trained for days ever since you woke up. Are you mad at me for hitting your head on the pole?”Bojana couldn’t stop feeling bad because she thought my attitude changed due to the incident but after assuring her that the accident was not the issue and that I just needed some time to myself, she decided to let me be till I would come around by myself.It took me
Of course, he was happy at the proposal but he was also someone else’s slave so the uncertainty of his master releasing him was the biggest obstacle.“Thank you..” His eyes lit up with happiness; everyone could tell that the offer gladdened his heart so there was no way he could even turn down the offer or say he wasn’t pleased with it“Once again, thank you for the offer but.. I don’t know… I am” his stuttering got in the line of his statement as he hesitatedHe didn’t want to upset both his master and his new savior. Thankfully, the person he saved already knew what the problem was so he came to the rescue“What? Are you afraid of your master? Do you think he won’t let you go?” he asked and Kovac nodded immediatelyHe had just said what was bothering him and with the look of things, it seemed like the Savior already thought of it too and how he would handle it.The man’s huge hands brushed his hair slightly in adoration as his lips curled into a smile for the first time he had ever
He woke up to find the ship fighting for balance in the middle of the sea and after a slight interrogation from two people, he found out that the ship had been sailing for almost a full day and he had been out the whole time.Rushing to the other side of the ship, he tried checking everywhere to see if there would be any face he could recognize but no one seemed familiar until he ran into one of the men that came to Mateha’s house. If he had his memories intact, he would have bolted from the scene before the man saw him, but unfortunately, he got captured before he could even say a word and was locked in the storage for the rest of the day without any food or water.The second day, he was dragged out by one of the hefty men, with his face looking like an overgrown garden because of the multitude of beards attached to his chin. His head was long and high in the center, making everything about his visuals traumatizing.“You think you can go anywhere? We own you now! We are your boss!” h
They marched back into the town and were led by the boy in the hood who knew Marko’s house. Unknown to them, Andrej had told his wife that if he doesn’t come back within the hours of one and two in the morning, she should flee with her son, Kovac.“I think something must have happened; we need to escape right now,” she tapped Irena’s mom, who had dozed off while waiting with her.They didn’t waste any time and rushed up to pack after waking the kids. Thanks to Kovac’s mom, they were able to escape before Bruno’s men came to the house.“Find them! Don’t ever let them get away!” His voice trembled with every word that came out of them as he gulped down the alcohol from the bottle in his hand every minute.They searched for them but couldn’t find them until they had to withdraw at daybreak. Unknown to them, they were hiding at the grandma’s house till the coast was clear. Early at dawn, they rushed to the dock, Marko told them, and took the first boat to Kovac’s town, where they settled
“You have to kill Bruno on sight if catching him alive proves difficult,” their boss instructed them before dispersing them.Bruno Lorenzo had been a terror in town ever since he got the backing of the high-ranking people in power. His brutality was concerning, and something had to be done to it before he wiped away the entire city.Every single day, he would kill nothing less than two people in the most terrifying way. He once had someone covered alive with acid and threw the body out in the rain without a proper burial. Everyone knew he was the perpetrator, but nothing anyone could do about it.“Everyone is afraid of Bruno Lorenzo because no one wants to lose their lives,” one of the police officers remarked as they deliberated on what to do about him.“He seems to be on a psychopath level. How can anyone even do this?” Andrej remarked as he went through his profile“He’s got to be kidding me,” Marko exclaimed, flipping through the page ferociously.“Unbelievable right? That’s why w