Chapter Seven: Major Concerns

Sierra quickly got up to ensure that the door was locked tight then responded.

“I haven’t been able to gather much. The house is crawling with guards and maids who are purely loyal to Dominic. There are motion and heat detecting cameras and sensors positioned everywhere, and in such inconspicuous places that it is almost impossible to snoop without getting caught. And most days I’m too scared to even step out of my room out of fear of running into him or worse, Marco, who hates us. I feel like my heart might leap out of my chest, and I’ll stop breathing, I’m so sorry, Ryder, I don’t think I’m cut out for this task.”

As she spoke, she began to hyperventilate. It had been a stressful morning and thinking about her experiences over the past few weeks overwhelmed her. She dropped to her knees, her face contorted with distress and tried to focus on regulating her breaths.

“For frack’s sake, quit acting like a freaking baby Schwester.” Ryder cursed quietly.

There was a little bit of a ruckus on the other side of the phone, before Bobby’s calm voice came through.

“Sierra, listen to me. You are not going to get caught, because whether you accept it or not you are a Clayton, and we Claytons are very smart people,” Bobby said and Sierra almost scoffed, as far as pep talks go, That was by far the worst. However, his words managed to calm her nerves until Ryder boomed again.

“There is no time for motivational speeches, Roberto, I am certain dear sister here, values her life too much to do anything stupid. Stick to the plan, and you’ll be fine. And calm the frack down, no one is going to kill you. They have more important things going on, and trust me, right now you are the least of their worries.” Ryder said, leaving Sierra in a state of confusion.

‘What things?’ she thought to herself.

“Now, tell us about the plan you were talking about yesterday.” Bobby urged, chipping in again.

“Wait.” Ryder intercepted. “Is the device on you?” He was referring to the special device hidden within her earrings. It served as a scrambler so that anyone who tried to listen in on their conversation would hear a pre-recorded phone call where Sierra had a regular conversation with her brother.

"Yes it is," Sierra confirmed.

‘But what if I get caught?’ She didn’t say the words to Ryder’s hearing to avoid getting yelled out again. She had asked the question so many times already but she would be lying to herself if she said the numerous assurances from the two step brothers had made her any less scared.

“Okay, so your next task is to find Dominic’s journal. Every mafia Don has one—it's basically a mafia Bible. I am certain there is something in the journal that we can use to our advantage, and yesterday, you said you had a plan, will it work?

“Yes, it will.” Sierra responded in a confident tone. She was anything but confident.

“Okay, good. Do what you must, Schwester, we'll be expecting your feedback,” Ryder expressed and the line went dead.

Thinking about what his words had implied, Sierra knew she had to provide Ryder with something, and soon. She let out a heavy sigh and collapsed face down on the bed. The mission was starting to feel like a death wish.

Sierra understood the difficulty of the task and what she needed to do. She steeled her heart and decided to take action.

Over the last week, Sierra had carefully studied Dominic and had mastered his schedule. He performed his daily operations like clockwork and she knew exactly what time of the day he went into his study. She glanced at the clock and realized she had about forty-five minutes till then, enough time to get in, find his journal and gather any important information she could get from it and get out.

As she stealthily made her way towards his study, she repeated reassuring words to herself, trying to dispel her growing anxiety. She reached the study in no time and surreptitiously walked in.

Just as Ryder had predicted, he had a journal and it was pretty easy to find, it was seated on the desk alongside a bunch of other documents. There were long shelves of books adjacent to the main table. She picked up the journal and rummaged through it carefully making sure to note the details of the leather bound book's content.

Unknown to Sierra, Dominic, who had left for his weekly meeting, grew bored and decided the mystery surrounding her existence was as important an issue as any. He sent his butler to call Sierra from her room to meet him at his study.

Before reaching his study, Dominic was surprised to see his butler approaching from a distance. He had expected to see Sierra to be with him. Was the butler being complacent or did she refuse to honor his summon?

‘Freaking Claytons’ he thought to himself.

"Where is she?" He asked coldly.

"She wasn't in the room, sir," The butler replied courteously.

Alarm bells went off in Dominic’s head, and his throat suddenly felt dry—something he had learnt to take as a warning or a sign that something was wrong.

"Get me Martha." He ordered his butler, who bowed his head then hurried off to do exactly that.

Within a few minutes, he arrived with a worried-looking Martha. They were all situated in front of his study.

"Where the hell is Sierra?" He demanded impatiently.

"Sir, she's in her..."

Martha's words were cut short by the sudden thud of something falling to the ground, catching Dominic’s attention.

SOME MINUTES EARLIER…

Sierra meticulously read every page of the journal. Although she had learnt some interesting facts about her ‘husband’, none of the information was useful to the cause at hand. She frantically tried to check obscure parts of each page hoping that something valuable would be revealed. Eventually, she got to the last page of the journal and she found nothing useful. While she was still unsure of what to feel, she heard Dominic's voice coming from outside the room.

'Oh God, what is he doing here, he should be in the weekly meeting with the underbosses, not here. This isn’t part of his schedule!’ she panicked inwardly.

‘If he catches me, I am so dead!’ She thought, taking quick and deep breaths. She did this for a short while until she was sure she wouldn’t start hyperventilating.

'I need to find a place to hide. Maybe I can squeeze in between one of the shelves.'

Carefully, she moved past the shelves, but sneaking around in her current clothes proved more difficult task than she had anticipated. Inadvertently, she hit the shelf with her right leg and some books rattled to the ground. But that wasn't the worst of it as within seconds, the entire shelf crashed to the ground.

‘God! I have the worst luck. What do I do now?” Sierra Whispered desperately to herself.

Everywhere suddenly got silent, he must have heard the sound. Hiding is no longer an option, I have to think and fast!’ Her time had run out, and Dominic was coming in. Her eyes turned to the pile of books that had fallen and an idea popped into her head.

Dominic burst into the study and saw Sierra. The rowdy state of the room wasn't his major concern but rather, her presence. 'What the hell was she doing here?' he thought to himself but his face was as blank as a board. Looking intently at her, he assessed the situation and his expression turned cold. Promptly, he pulled out a handgun from the holster in his belt and held it up to her head.

“You have exactly sixty seconds to explain what the hell you are doing in here.”

‘I guess I am to get killed at the hands of Dominic after all’…..