My Mafia Madness 3

Chapter 39 - Time is Running Out

With the knowledge that Nicholas had in fact been lying to her this entire time, and that he wasn’t the person she thought he was, Alexa found herself more confused now than ever as she headed into the kitchen where both Dexter and Max were currently seated at the island counter.

The moment she stepped inside, both men lifted their eyes to meet hers and immediately sensed that something was wrong.

Both men instantly leapt to their feet as they moved in towards her.

“What is it?” Max demanded.

“What’s wrong?” Dexter added.

Just as Alexa was about to begin explaining what had happened the deafening sound of the door blowing wide open caused all three of them to fall down to their knees, grasping at their ears to try and block out the force of the tremendous sound.

‘KA-BOOM!’

Dust and debris now filled the air as Alexa breathed heavily, reaching for her phone which she had accidentally dropped during the force of the explosion.

Lifting it up to her ear once more, she heard the now extremely frantic voice of Dante shouting out from the other end of the line.

“Alexa! What the f**k was that?” he demanded.

“Tell me you’re alright! Are you there? Talk to me, Alexa!”

Coughing away some of the dust, she spoke.

“Yeah, I’m fine… I’m alright.”

“Oh, thank God. Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

The Don exhaled with obvious relief after hearing her voice and while speeding along down the highway.

“What’s going on, Was that a f*****g explosion I just heard?”

“I can’t be sure but think someone blew up the entrance to the apartment.” Alexa explained fearfully as she darted her head out to take a quick look in that direction.

The place was full of a thick grey cloud as dust began to slowly settle once more.

There were smaller areas where fire had caught due to the explosion, but they didn’t look as if they posed any sort of immediate danger to anyone.

And then she heard them… men’s voices, and her heart plummeted.

So many different voices and each with unique accents to them.

Some sounded Italian, others American and strangely, some sounded unfamiliar.

Maybe Russian or perhaps something similar she thought to herself as she ducked her head back down to hide.

“Oh my god. Dante, I can hear them. There’s so many of them. They’re coming inside-”

“-Alexa, where are your bodyguards?” Dante demanded over her.

“Where are they?”

Just at that moment, Dexter groaned as he cradled his head in his bloodied hands.

A trail of blood ran down the side of his temple from the top of his head and he hissed with terrible pain.

He was sitting less than a metre away from where Alexa was currently crouched down behind a countertop.

“Dexter’s here with me. But he’s hurt.”

Alexa explained, being sure to keep her voice at a dull whisper.

“I think he got hit in the head pretty bad during the explosion. Give me a sec…”

“What? Alexa?” Dante called out but got no response.

Lowering the phone down to the floor for a moment, Alexa went to check the seriousness of Dexter’s head wound.

From what she could see at a quick glance, it would probably need stitches.

The gash was at least two inches long and was seeping blood from it.

At this rate, if she didn’t try to stop the bleeding he would easily bleed out within minutes!

Picking up her phone again, she spoke into the receiver.

“His head’s bleeding really badly. I can’t leave him here like this. I have to help...”

“Alexa, listen to me! You need to get yourself into the safe room, right now! Do you hear me?” the Don commanded her frantically.

“Alexa? Alexa, talk to me!”

But she was far too busy tending to Dexter at that moment, once again leaving the phone on the floor beside her.

And of course, leaving her fiancé to worry helplessly about her in the meantime.

Less than ten seconds later, Alexa had wisely managed to stunt the bleeding with a cloth tea towel and was in the process of assisting him, along with Max who had finally found them amidst all of the dust and debris caused by the explosion.

“What the hell are you doing? You need to get to the safe room, now Alexa!”

Max demanded in frustration.

“Just leave him, it’s not safe for you out here!”

But Alexa wouldn’t hear of such things. Turning to frown at Max, she too spoke with a frustrated tone to her usually sweeter voice.

“Just hurry up and help me get him somewhere safe!” she commanded.

“Come on.”

“God damn it, Alexa!”

Max let out a loud groan as he glanced around for anyone who might have spotted them by now.

He reached down and supported Dexter by his opposite shoulder, as instructed.

“The boss is gonna kill me if anything happens to you.”

Together the two began to work simultaneously, dragging the dead-weighted and now unconscious Dexter along by his shoulders as they headed towards the other end of the kitchen where the stairs were located.

The stairs would lead them up to the master bedroom where the safe room was.

After quickly managing to hide Dexter’s body away in the safety of a storage cupboard, Alexa and Max closed it behind them and peered around for any signs of movement.

Then came a masculine voice with a heavy and unmistakable Russian accent to it.

“Search the entire apartment. She’s in here somewhere. Find her!”

“Is it just me or does that voice sound Russian to you?” Max whispered to Alexa as they remained crouched down behind a counter together.

She nodded to show her agreement, though chose to remain silent to prevent them from getting caught by whoever had broken in.

Pulling his phone out for a moment, Max quickly typed a single word before hitting ‘send’.

Then repocketing his phone, he pulled out his gun instead, gently c*****g it to prepare for a sudden attack.

From what they could tell, the voice appeared to have come from the other side of the kitchen, which meant that whoever this was, was definitely getting close.

Very close!

And Max, noting just how close the intruders now were, knew that Alexa needed to get upstairs unnoticed by them if she had any chance of escaping from this apartment alive.

Who knows that these men wanted with her!

Within the fraction of a second an idea had crossed his mind.

He knew what he needed to do.

Max would need to create a distraction, one that would allow Alexa to make a run for it up the stairs and allow her the time to get to safety.

True, doing something as dangerous as this had its massively high risks, in fact he may not live to see tomorrow as a result.

But what other choice did he have?

Turning to face his Don’s fiancé as she cradled her belly with her hands in fear, Max looked her directly in the eye as he spoke to her, with his hands grasping at either one of her shoulders to reassure her at the same time.

“Listen to me, this is important.” he began.

“I’m going to draw their attention away from the staircase. The moment I do, you need to make a run for it and get yourself up into the safe room. Don’t wait for me, just lock yourself inside, got it?”

But Alexa wasn’t a selfish sort of person at heart, and the thought of just leaving him here all alone to fend for himself wasn’t something that she felt she could do.

Frowning, she shook her head at him as she voiced her opinion.

“No, they’ll kill you! I won’t just leave you here to die.”

“Listen to me!”

He commanded, shaking her gently by her shoulders as his voice this time raised to a higher tone, one of more desperation.

“You and that baby need to get to safety, do you understand? You are that baby’s only hope, Alexa.”

All she could do was breathe heavily as she searched his eyes for a way, any other way than this. She didn’t understand why he wouldn’t come upstairs with her.

Why did Max have to be a hero right now, in such a dangerous situation?

“No matter what happens, I want you to keep moving. Get to the back room and lock yourself inside, got it?” he added, this time a little calmer than before.

Nodding her head and with uncontrollable tears rolling down either of her cheeks, Alexa did as she was told and watched as Max turned and gave her one last nod of his head before he headed around the counters, crouched down and out of immediate sight.

He was positioning himself in a vantage point where it would draw attention away from the stairs, just as he had promised.

At least he had a gun, if that was of any solace to Alexa.

In truth, she felt terrible for leaving him to such a fate.

As soon as Max was in position, he picked up one of the nearest candles and hurtled it in another direction.

The wax object ‘clunked’ heavily against the carpeted floor, drawing the immediate attention of everyone now standing in the large open space room.

Max counted three of them so far, though there could be more.

He still had lack of sight due to the dust which was still settling.

With their guns all aimed in the direction in which the candle had hit the floor, the intruders all began barking commands angrily.

“What was that?” one of them demanded.

“Who’s there?” another queried aloud.

“Go and check who it is?” a third gestured with a wave of his hand in that direction.

Holding his gun in his right hand, Max closed his eyes for a moment as he took a deep breath and prepared himself mentally for what he had planned to do.

Slowly exhaling, he then bolted upright and within the fraction of a second, had fired off three shots.

‘BANG!… BANG!… BANG!’

And with each shot, all three men were hit.

Two in the back of their heads and the third in the left shoulder as he turned around to see who was shooting at them.

“Oh s**t!” Max cursed; his eyes wide with fear.

Having not killed the third, Max quickly ducked back down behind the counter as the third who had only been wounded, began firing wildly in his direction.

And just as she had been told to, Alexa forced herself up the staircase one step at a time as she could only listen to the bullets being pumped into the air and shattering everything within their path.

She could only hope that Max would make it out of this alive.

-

A panicked Don sped through the city streets in a frenzied rage and desperate to finally arrive at his penthouse apartment where his pregnant fiancé was currently in danger.

“f*****g traffic!”

Dante yelled out, slamming his hands down on the steering wheel as the veins in the side of his neck stood out.

They appeared to make his sickle tattoo come to life with minor movement.

“Get out of the way!”

“Capo, we’re almost there.” Nicola pointed out, though from his expression you could clearly see that the underboss was terrified by his Don’s crazed driving.

“I swear to god Nicola, if anything happens to her…” Dante spoke softly now, as if he had only meant for Nicola to hear his heart-felt words.

Nicola could only hang on for dear life and prey that they would arrive in time to help Alexa.

At that moment it occurred to the second-in-command that maybe Dante wasn’t the most suitable person to be driving everyone right now.

“Take a turn down here, it’s a short cut…”

Luca pointed out from the back seat.

“There’s less traffic this time of the day.”

Doing as he had suggested and spinning the steering wheel, Dante flung the car off to the side violently and only just made the turn.

Fiery sparks flew out from where the vehicle made contact with the narrow walls of the alleyway, not that Dante seemed to notice or even care.

There was only one thing on his mind at that moment.

Reaching Alexa in time…

But evidently, time was running out.