DISCOVERED

I screamed as I felt something wet splash against my face. Blood but it wasn’t mine. Apparently, I wasn’t that ready to die. My shoulders hurt from the force of the body that had hit me.

‘Wait, why wasn’t I dead yet?’ I looked around. The guy who’d held the trigger was on the floor by my side, eyes wide open in fear.

Fibonacci was on his feet barking out orders, trying to figure out where the hit came from.

Bullets began to rain from all sides and I ducked, just as Anselmo had taught me. The side of my head felt slippery to touch but I’d take concussion over splattered brain matter any day.

When no one else dropped dead in the room I was in, I realised most of the gunshots and screams were from outside.

‘Had I been saved? Perhaps by an angel’ Somehow, in the heat of things, I’d found the thought quite amusing.

The door was forced open and two men came in. All that commotion outside because of two men?

“Andrea, drop your weapons on the floor.” A deep voice boomed in the dark. The room had provided poor lighting so, I couldn’t really see the face but the voice had me wincing in pain.

“Come on! Show yourselves, cowards!” My heart pounded heavily in my chest as I was about to be a victim of a shoot out.

“Signor Amato?” I froze in my spot. The Amato? So it was true. They were here, in town. Even if an angel had come to rescue me before, they’d flee at the sight of an Amato. They were brutal killers who laid waste to an entire clan for some petty revenge, so I heard. I didn’t even need to know which. There were only two Amato men that existed on the surface of the earth. One was a little to old to carry out jobs himself. He had hoards of men who were willing to die for him. The other, figlio del diavolo, as they called him. The most dangerous man who lived by no moral code. Whispers of his name caused more death than the ones Fibonacci carried out on his own. Alejandro Amato.

Not a lot of people knew what he looked like, but those that did, never lived to tell the story. Well, except you had business with him. It made me wonder what kind of business he had with him.

“Oh Andy…” He approached but I kept my head down. Could I pretend I was dead? That I’d been hit?

‘You really think they’re that stupid.’ My mind scoffed at me.

Fibonacci moved beside me and I could feel him tremble with fear.

“Alejandro…” The guy he’d entered with spoke but Alejandro paid him no mind

“I was told you disobeyed my orders.”

“That is not true.”

“Ah ah ah.” He waved his gun in the air like it wasn’t loaded.

“One more lie and birds will be feasting on your remains before sundown tomorrow.” Fibonacci swallowed a big gulp of saliva.

“And who’s that?” I felt eyes on me suddenly and my back turned slick with sweat. I could hear my heart pounding loudly in my ears.

“A spy.” Fibonacci said, glad the attention was off him and on to someone else.

My head snapped up to defend myself but the words died in my throat.

This man, this Alejandro was covered in blood. His eyes were pitch black, the color of midnight and his lips were up in a snarl. I averted my eyes immediately. I could feel my blood pressure spiking up. The rumours were right. He was an absolute beast, a savage. He stood menacingly waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

“She was caught eavesdropping on a conversation and she was brought here for questioning.” I didn’t think dead people could be questioned.

“Hmm.” Alejandro let a few beats pass before saying anything. The silence was so deafening and coated the air with palpable tension that I could almost taste on my tongue.

“Yes sir. Our men found her near the bakery. She has to be working for the Comiso. I think…” A metallic tang filled my taste buds as Fibonacci convulsed and writhed in pain. I watched the life drain from his eyes just like I did many others. I’d tasted the blood of a man and I felt revulsed.

The bread I’d eaten at home earlier churned in my stomach dangerously.

“Capello...” The man who’d come in with him moved closer to him and looked at me. His brows arched in question and turned to Alejandro who crouched to be leveled with me.

“Look who we have here.” His gun parted the curtain my hair had framed across my face so my face could show better. The barrel of a gun had never seemed so scary before. He twirled the gun in his hand like he didn’t care if he pulled the trigger by mistake and it ended my life. Did he care if anyone around him died? Did he even care at all? From what I’d heard, he had no one dear to him.

“Arianna Bocelli.” His deep voice rang out, holding my neck in an invisible chokehold. I froze in fear where I knelt. No one knew my actual name at least not around here and certainly not from a man who had much more important things to do or people to kill than a baker with no life

How did he know my name? And what did I have to do with him? How did I even matter? What did he want?

Alejandro’s lips curled up in what was supposed to look like a smile but had me knowing that my world had come crashing down.

“I’ve been looking for you.”