Strapped: A Second Chance Mafia Romance (25 page)

B
y the time night falls
, everything is set in place. My dad has reluctantly sent over a few of his men – although he refused to attend himself – which means that we finally have the numbers that we need to take Aiden down. Unless the entire Irish mafia is in there, we will be absolutely fine. Even if they are, we might be okay.

In fact… that could even be better. Get rid of them all on one fell swoop.

The guys and I have spent the afternoon and early evening plotting, and I’m confident now that we can do this. Everyone has a job to do, everyone is perfectly aware of what that job is, so I really can’t see anything going wrong. We’re good at being organized, it’s one of the things that makes us really strong and practically undefeated. I have looked at it from every single angle, and I really cannot see any way of us losing this battle.

We can’t – not when Sophia is depending on me.

“Come on,” I hiss eagerly, unable to stand the anticipation for another second longer. “Let’s put an end to this now.”

We move quietly towards the warehouse, all with our weapons out ready. One of dad’s men brought over a load of guns with silencers, which is perfect for a mission such as this one where keeping our presence a secret is key. It means that we can take out the men guarding the door without anyone on the inside knowing. Any advantage that we have over them can be the difference between life and death – a lesson that we’ve all learnt the hard way at one time or another.

The only real problem with this job is the death toll. Everyone in this group has lost someone at one time or another, and looking at it now, it all feels needless. Missions like this, where there is a life at stake, is one thing, but petty fights of territory and money now seem like a waste of time and effort on everyone’s behalf.

As one of my guys shoots the first guard quickly, another puts a knife through someone else’s back. It’s a disgusting bloodbath, that I know for a fact that we’re going to have to clean up afterwards if we don’t want to end up in jail, but unfortunately it’s a necessary one. We cannot allow these men to live if we don’t want to die ourselves.

Unfortunately, the Irish guy who has been stabbed, isn’t instantly killed, and I spot him reaching his hand across his belt to grab his own gun. Acting quickly, trying to protect the people that I’m fighting alongside, I jump on top of him, and stab him a few more times, knowing that he needs to be dead. If he does anything to bring anyone outside, then this whole plan falls apart.

We need to be in there – we don’t need them to come outside.

As blood squirts everywhere and I see his life ebb away, I feel an incredible sense of guilt that I’ve never experienced before – not to that degree anyway. It’s horrible, and it really makes me feel like the worst person in the world, but I push Sophia’s face to the front of my mind. If I focus on her, I can get through this. I can do what needs to be done.

“Is that everyone?” Someone whispers from behind me, and I nod confidently. From what we’ve spotted throughout the afternoon, the Irish are pretty comfortable that we aren’t coming after them, so security really isn’t as tight as it should be.

That will be their first mistake – underestimating us.

But my confidence is tested the second we get inside. It seems that we haven’t been quite as smart as we thought we were, because there are men there seemingly waiting for us.

Everything instantly turns to chaos. Guns start being fired left, right, and center, words are yelled from every single angle and all I can see is blood.

Their blood.

Our blood.

It’s like a nightmare – one that I cannot wake up from. I simply stand there, frozen to the spot, watching the scene unfold in front of me. I have never fallen apart in the line of duty before, and I honestly don’t know what to do with myself. My brain is screaming at me to snap into action, but my body is dreamlike, acting like I’m watching a movie and that I’m not even there.

Sound vanishes, color starts to blur together, I can really feel myself losing it…

“Enzo,” Diego screams into my ear, bringing me back. As everything whooshes back into me, returning to normal, I feel an intense slam of pressure against my chest. “Go and get Sophia – that’s why we’re here after all.”

Sophia.

I have to pull it together, I need to act for her. She’s in this building somewhere, probably hurt and waiting for me. If I don’t go to her, she will never make it out of here alive. None of us will, then everything that has led us to this point will have been pointless.

“Okay,” I tell my friend, feeling my heart pound once more and my breath come out in a more determined and focused way. “Okay, I’ll go and get her now.”

“Look after yourself, brother,” he tells me with emotion shining in his eyes. I start to feel like he’s already accepting that we’re doomed, which is the last thing that any of us need.

“You, too,” I tell him, grabbing on to his arm. “Stay alive, I need you.”

I have to duck under all of the violence above me, sneaking through the crowd to get to the love of my life. It feels weird to be cowering away, hiding from it all when I’ve spent all of my life smack bang in the center, but I know that it’s the right thing to do. Not only does Sophia need me, but I’m also not quite in the frame of mind I thought I was. If I were to fight in this state, I would be a danger to myself and my men.

This is better, for everyone.

Soon I find myself alone and running through the hallways, trying to find out where she’s being stashed in this awful Godforsaken building. There are so many rooms that are shit high, which is making me fear for her life.

If I find her, and she’s already dead, I honestly don’t know what I’ll do.

But then I hear a small whimpering sound, and my heart lifts with excitement. It’s her, it has to be! I finally know where Sophia is, and she’s alive.

I peer through the next door, which is suspiciously locked, to see a shadow cowering in the corner. Nausea runs through me and I realize just how close I am. Even seeing her there, even knowing that she’s okay isn’t enough. She’s still too far away for my liking – I need her in my arms where I know I can protect her.

I hammer on the door and call out her name, but she doesn’t move to look up at me, which has me even more worried. They’ve done something to her, and I’m absolutely petrified that they’ve already broken her and left her irreparable.

I shove my body up against the door, fruitlessly trying to break it down with my weight alone. When it rapidly becomes clear that this isn’t working, I race around the corner until I find a crowbar that might be of some use to me.

Luckily it doesn’t take me too long to get that door down, which is great because I don’t think the chaos will be able to last too much longer, and I rush inside to be by her side once more.

“Sophia?” I cry out, gently moving her body until she’s lying on her back, looking up at me with a hollow emptiness to her expression. “Are you okay?” It only takes one quick flick of my eyes over her body to see that she has cuts and bruises all over her, but in all honestly, what I had conducted in my mind was so much worse.

“Enzo?” She pleads, clinging onto me. “Is that really you?” Her voice is weak and sad, which crushes me a little, but I do my best to remain strong for her.

“It’s me,” I smile weakly through the tears. “Can you stand?”

She nods, but looks unsure, so rather than forcing her far too quickly, I pull her in for a loving hug. As her body molds into mine, I realize just how
right
she makes me feel. I already know that I’ve been on edge since she left, but now I can see that it’s so much more than that. Now I feel whole all over again.

I tug the bottle of water that I have stashed in my pocket out and hand it to her. She glugs the liquid gratefully, as if she’s been forcibly dehydrated while here, which riles up my temper even further. The Italian mafia might have done some terrible things in our time, but we have never pointedly tortured someone through dehydration – that’s inhumane on another level!

Particularly when it’s someone who has never been directly involved in the violence.

“Enzo,” she says, sounding a little stronger now. “Aiden is with my mom. I think they both plotted to kill my dad. They both want me dead too…” My hearts sinks as my worst suspicions are confirmed. “And it’s all for money too. I always knew that my mom valued material things over everything else… but over me too?”

“I know,” I hold her close all over again, wanting her to understand that I’m not going anywhere. “This fucking sucks. But what we need to focus on right now is getting out of here…”

Money? All of this was over money?

I can’t even begin to comprehend that! I’ve grown up around money-grubbing people, but even I’ve never seen anyone do anything this bad. And her mother too!

“
You
aren’t going anywhere,” Aiden’s voice booms out from behind me, and I cannot help but shake my head to myself. Of course, this has ended up this way – how else could it have gone? “Especially not now that all your men are dead.”

Admittedly, this throws me. I’m well aware that he could be lying, but he also might not be. This shitty warehouse could actually be the end for all of us. Except my father, of course, the man who was too cowardly (or maybe too smart) to help.

As I’m stuck in my moment of confusion, Aiden grabs hold of Sophia, and drags her over toward him which instantly gives him the advantage over me.

Idiot!
I scold myself, pulling out my gun and aiming it at him. The only problem is I can’t shoot for fear that he will throw her in the way, causing me to be responsible for her death – a thought that I can’t even begin to imagine!

“Let her go, Aiden,” I tell him wearily. “We both know that this between you and me – Sophia has nothing to do with it.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” he replies angrily. “She is far more important to me than you are – you’re expendable. She has information.”

What?

What information?

I shoot her a glance, but she isn’t giving away anything with her eyes. Does she have some information that she never told me about? Or is the information about the Italian mafia?

“In fact, to prove to you that I don’t need you around…” Before I can even react, he yanks his gun from his belt and fires it in my direction, which somehow causes everything to move in slow motion.

The bullet comes my way.

I become aware that it’s about to smash into my chest, but there’s nothing that I can do about it. My body won’t move or behave however much I want it to.

An ear-piercing scream blasts from Sophia’s mouth and she turns to punch Aiden in the face.

He’s shocked and taken aback, which causes him to stumble.

Then, an agonizing pain bursts across my chest, a sensation that’s so powerful it actually knocks me to the ground.

As my body hits the ground, the pain consumes me, absolutely swallowing me up whole.

“
W
hat the fuck
have you done?” I scream, hitting, punching and scratching as if I’ve become possessed by a demon. My mind just can’t quite fathom that Aiden has shot and killed Enzo, so it’s reacting in the only way that it knows how. By trying to attack the man who has just stripped me of my future. Aiden has taken every single member of my family away from me, and left me with no one. It’s almost as if his vendetta was against me all along, and all he’s ever wanted to do was destroy me.

He barely even flinches as I attack him this time. It’s as if I’m not even there, or like I’m an annoying fly that he cannot wait to get rid of. The first time I struck him, I must have shocked him because now I’m having no effect whatsoever.

In the end, he simply picks me off the ground and throws me away from him, as if I’m as light as a feather. As my body hits the ground, I finally force myself to look toward Enzo, to see what Aiden has done to him, just to get my heart to finally accept the truth, but what I find myself looking at isn’t what I was expecting at all.

Enzo has his gun in his hand and a smirk playing on his lips.

At first I think I’m imagining it, that I’ve actually lost the plot and gone crazy, but then he actually speaks too.

“Thanks, man” he says smugly. “You’ve just made my target a whole lot easier to hit.”

As Aiden turns to see the same thing that I’m looking at, a bang rings out and his head snaps backwards. He tumbles to the ground in such an over-the-top, comical fashion that it actually takes me a while to work out that I’m witnessing his death. Aiden’s brain has burst out the back of his head, and his lifeless body is falling hard.

It’s horrifying, unbelievable, just at the same time I can’t seem to stop myself from staring…

Although there’s only one thing that it can mean… Enzo is okay!

As soon as that thought filters through into my brain, it’s enough to have me up and running toward him, trying to find out the truth. All of a sudden any injuries that I’ve sustained vanish and my entire focus becomes all about him.

“Oh my God, Enzo, are you okay?” I wrap my arms around him, wanting to feel that he’s real. “How are you not hurt? What the hell happened?”

“Well, I am pretty winded,” he admits, moving himself up onto his elbows. “But I’m wearing a bulletproof vest – I kind of had a feeling that would happen.”

“Oh my God,” I gasp, having no idea what to say. I hold his face in my hands, and stare into his eyes for a few seconds. There is a moment where a whole bunch of emotions run between us, but neither of us are able to vocalize them just yet. Not here.

“If you hadn't punched Aiden, he would have shot again for sure, and he would have aimed for my head, so I have to say thank you for saving my life.”

I laugh loudly, with tears streaming down my face too – the conflicting emotions finally coming out. “You have saved my life more than once, including right now, so I need to be thanking you.”

With that, I can’t hold back anymore. I press my lips hard up against his, no longer caring what we
should
be feeling or what the rest of the world knows. This is it – me and Enzo are for real, and
nothing
will get in our way ever again.

“Come on,” he eventually pulls back from me. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

Never have I heard a better idea in my entire life!

I stand up and hold his hand in mine, allowing our fingers to intertwine. He takes me the long way around to the outside of the building, trying to avoid me seeing any of the carnage, but I don’t think he realizes just how much of it I heard. It’ll traumatize me forever anyway, but I am grateful that he’s being so caring about me. I really do appreciate it.

It feels
really
good to be able to leave that nightmare behind, knowing that it’s over now, and for good this time.

As the fresh, cold air hits my face, I shut my eyes for a few seconds, just allowing it to wash over me. I never thought that I would get the chance to be outside again, so I’m really appreciating it, telling myself that I will never take it for granted again. Eventually Enzo pulls me from my moment and he takes me over to his car and sits me in the front seat, placing one light kiss on my lips. “I just need to go and see my guys,” he tells me regretfully. “I need to check that they’re all okay, and I need to ensure that this is all cleaned up.”

I nod wearily in reply. I don’t want him to go, but of course he has to – I understand that. We can’t vanish and leave everything to them – this mission was for Enzo to get to me after all… the fact that Aiden is dead too is simply another benefit. I just make sure that I lock all of the doors behind him while he races off, so that no one can get to me. I don’t want to
ever
find myself in the arms of the enemy again, and I will do everything to protect myself.

They might not be around anymore, but that unsafe feeling will stick around for a very long time.

I lean my hot forehead on the cool window, just staring off into the distance for a few moments, trying to forget about everything going on around me. My life has always been a bit… different to that of everyone else, but the last few weeks really have been something else! I need to allow some of that to slip away so that I can return back to being
me
. I’ve missed feeling like myself, and I really want that back.

I try to process everything for a few seconds, but then I spot something in the corner of my eye which distracts me from my thoughts. Someone running away! I instantly sit up straighter in my seat, trying to peer through the darkness. It’s a man and a woman for sure, but I’m not quite sure who…

Until
she
spins around to check that no one is following her.

“Mom?” I whisper to myself, and my body goes into some sort of shock. Seeing her there, racing away from the scene really leaves me with only two choices – do I let her go and forget about her forever, or do I chase after her and find out what the fuck is going on with her?

The longer I sit there undecided, the further away she gets.

Don’t bother,
I eventually tell myself, slumping down into my seat.
She’s never cared about you, don’t you care about her.
When I remember that look in her eye as she watched Aiden hurt me – it wasn’t the way that any mother should look at her child.
She’s alive, just be grateful for that. She’s clearly okay and has another man lined up for herself, so it’s time to just let go.

As soon as that thought enters my mind, I can practically feel a weight lifting from my shoulders. It makes me realize just how much of my life has been spent worrying about other people, and not myself. No one else has ever given much thought to me… before Enzo, so now I should stop. I need to concentrate on my own life now, and my own future.

I’m still smiling to myself, embracing my new internal freedom when Enzo returns to the car. But that stops as soon as I realize how unhappy he looks.

“Oh my God, are you okay?” I ask, reaching out and touching his arm. “What happened?”

“It’s okay,” he tells me, nodding a little too frantically. “They’re all gone now – there’s nothing to worry about… but we lost a couple of men too.”

“Oh no,” I gasp, gripping tighter to him. “Who?”

My heart pounds as I wait for him to reply. I know that the guy who was his best man – Diego – is his best friend, and I’m absolutely dreading that name come out of his mouth.

“My dad’s guy Jason… and my friend Liam.”

A tear trickles down his cheek, and I pull him closer to me, allowing him to collapse in the pain that’s within him. This is a horrible end to such a confusing day, and it’s making me feel a little sick.

“I can’t do it anymore,” he tells me, and I can feel my heart shatter under the sheer sadness of his words. “I can’t keep losing my friends.”

I feel horrible because this is all my fault, but I have no idea what I can do to make it right. “Can I do anything?” I ask. “Does anyone need… any help?”

“No, don’t you worry,” he pulls back to look into my eyes. “The guys have this. It’s under control. It’s only me that’s a bit of a mess. To be honest, they’re all glad that we lost so few – they can only see it as a victory.”

I don’t know what to say to that. It seems like Enzo’s mindset has slowly been changing over a last few weeks, and I don’t think that’s something I get to have an opinion on. I wasn’t there before, so it feels weird for me to say anything.

“Shall we… go?” I ask, hoping that isn’t too much of a callous question. I just figure that if we can get out of here then maybe he can get his head sorted.

“Yes.” He nods sharply. Then he starts the car’s engine and we rumble along the road in a loaded silence. I
really
want to ask him what he means by not being able do this anymore just in case it affects my future too, but it doesn’t feel like the right time. His head is obviously a mess at the moment, and that isn’t the time to be making any serious life choices.

But if he is going to change his life, I really hope that he does it in the best way possible.

Before I can make a decision about what is the right thing to say, he pulls the car into a nearby shoulder and turns to face me.

“What… what are you doing?” I ask, a little stunned. But as I look at him, I can see a twinkle in his eye. He might be a crazy emotional mess, but he still
wants
me, and that has my body lighting up in flames right away. I’ve missed him like crazy and I want him too. I want to lean in and claim him as my own, but I’m not entirely sure if that’s the right thing to do…

So I’m overwhelmed with happiness when he makes the first move and his lips meet mine. Fireworks explode inside of me as we move in closer to one another, molding our bodies into one another. Pricks of desire are racing all over me now, and I don’t care about anything else. It doesn’t bother me that I just went through a life trauma, or that I just said goodbye to the last remaining family member that I had. I’m not even bothered that we’re in public, I’m just so desperate for Enzo that I could scream.

I move myself over him, and climb onto him until I’m straddling his lap. I move carefully because of all the bruises covering my body, but I still manage to bump into Enzo too, causing him to wince.

“Oh God, sorry,” I gasp, rubbing him gently. “Shall we…?” I don’t want to say stop, because I really don’t want to, but I’m very aware that we’re both really injured and it’s probably for the best.

“No, no, don’t be sorry.” He insists quickly. “Don’t go, I need you here. As long as we’re careful, we’ll be fine.”

We look into each other’s eyes for a few seconds, with matching neediness, and then in a flurry of activity we start pawing at one another, tearing at each other’s clothes, needing to be naked. I want to see every single inch of his skin, and I want him to see every scrap if mine too. We’re like desperate, needy animals and I simply give in to that sensation. It’s exactly what I need right now to get everything out of my system.

As soon as there’s no material in our way anymore, Enzo runs his lips over my neck and collarbone, causing my head to loll to one side in ecstasy. I feel hot and dizzy with the thick, heady lust that’s hanging in the atmosphere, until one powerful bolt of desire busts down towards my core.

“Oh fuck, Enzo,” I groan, as he moves his mouth down to claim my breasts. As his tongue flickers over my nipple, I feel animalistic and passionate – more so than I ever have done before. It’s as if everything that I’ve just been put through has sent me wild with desire and I never want this feeling to end. “Oh my God.”

His tugs and teases at me with his teeth, heightening everything even more, which makes me become even more acutely aware of his thick, throbbing erection that’s only millimeters away from teasing me into insanity.

“You’re amazing,” Enzo breaths on my now cold nipples. “I can’t believe that you’re here with me.”

“I need you,” I pant out, unable to keep it inside anymore. “Oh God, Enzo, I need you so bad.” I grind against him, hoping to send him just as crazy as I feel. I need him as wild and free as me to make this the best moment ever.

I take his length in my hand for a second, just stroking it lightly enough to have him trembling, then I angle myself above him and slide down.

“Oh my fucking God,” he yells, closing his eyes as he feels my hot, wet desire. As I begin to thrust and ride him, pleasure swells within me, filling up my entire body. The pressure of a wave of bliss about to burst over me at any second causes me to scream and thrash as if there isn’t anyone else in the entire world. “You’re amazing,” he continues – words that make me feel more special than anything else.

Eventually, the orgasm screams through me, and I float far away, disconnecting from my body and becoming only pleasure. My connection to Enzo and my feelings for him become a little overwhelming, and as the pleasure crashes over me, I actually feel tears prick at my eyes.

This is the perfect ending to a shitty situation. So much awful stuff might have happened, but at least Enzo and I have managed to find our way back to one another.

“Sophia,” Enzo screams against me, burying his head in my chest as the pleasure takes him too. “Oh my God, I…” But it all becomes a bit too much for him, and he cannot seem to find a way to finish that sentence.

It isn’t until we’re sitting back in our own seats, smiling at one another while dressing simultaneously, that I start to wonder where he was going with that sentence. It could have been nothing, but I have the feeling that it was going to be something profound.

Of course, there’s no way that I can ask that question… so I’ll just have to assume that it’s something I’ll never get to know.

“So where now?” I ask, smiling up at him. “Home?”

The thought of being back in our apartment fills me with a joy that I can’t even vocalize. I cannot believe that only a few hours ago I was trying my best to escape that place, now I’m absolutely desperate to go back.

“Not yet,” Enzo tells me with a decisive look on his face. “There’s something that I really need to do first…”