The Start of an Era

Chapter 13

He let go of me and turned toward the men. They had masks on but you could tell that all of them were men because they had muscles for days. “On the ground now!” they shouted and I saw Christian reach for his gun, but I grabbed his hand and pulled him to the ground. He glared at me but I just gave him a look that said trust me, so he went down on his knees. If these men were in here, that means that they got past all the guards and knew what they were doing or they were just some stupid people because who robs the mafia? “Where is Jay?” they asked Christian directly. Are all the men in this business sexists? I mean I am right here. I gestured for Christian to stay quiet. That made the guys angry and they approached us. As soon as all of them were in front of us, I nodded to Christian. Both of us jumped up and I grabbed the gun from one of them, holding him in front of me to cover me from the other bullets. When they shot my shield and he fell limp, I quickly got rid of two of the others with a shot to the head. Christian took care of the one that was left and turned to me. I just ignored him and bent down lifting up one of the men’s sleeves only to see the burn mark. “Damn Estelle, what were you thinking?” I asked under my breath. “Listen… I am sorry about earlier. I was just so angry and…” I cut him off. “Oh shut up! We do not have time for this and, for the record, chocking was always your go to move.” I said, smiling at him, making him smile back at me. “Yeah you are right.” He said and what I saw in his eyes was adornment? That cannot be right. “We do not have time for this, so now you are going to tell me if I am your prisoner or just some girl who saved your cute ass?” I asked hoping he would say the right thing. “Cute?” he asked. “Well you do have a nice ass but that is not the point… what is it going to be?” I asked him and he smirked at me for my comment. “I guess you are a gorgeous girl who is free.” He said and I could not help the blush creeping up on my cheeks. “Good now this guys are not alone.” I said in a matter of fact way. “How do you know?” he asked. I did not answer him but gestured for him to listen. We could hear footsteps of heavy boots and some talking. “That could be my guys.” He whispered to me. “Then why are you whispering? And your signature is suits and classy shoes, not combat boots,” I whispered back. I walked over to one of the bodies and picked up a gun and gestured for Christian to follow me. I stood behind the door listening and when I could not hear any footsteps in front of the door, I looked at Christian who was standing directly behind me and his breath fanning my cheek. “Call for backup and also do you have ice?” I asked. He looked confused for a moment but then went over to his desk, opening a mini fridge behind it and texting for backup. He handed me the ice and I wrapped it in a cloth and put it on my eye, relieving the thumping and taking the swelling down a bit. I sighed in relief and got back to the task at hand. “I have to check on Jay and Percy. Hopefully they are still alive and you can wait for backup.” I was about to step out of the office when Christian grabbed my elbow. “You are not going alone.” He looked determined. “I am not going to wait for your people to get here I have to get to them.” I reached for the knob once again but again he stopped me. “Well then I am going with you.” Before I could say anything he put me behind him and opened the door. We walked out and there were 10 to 20 people all with guns searching the place. Christian took me to the shelves and right in the middle there was a secret path. I have to admit that it was amazing. When we got to the other side, it was just a few feet away until we reached the prison door. I was about to step out when I was harshly pulled back into a hard chest. I looked behind me only to be face to face with Christian. I looked into his eyes, asking a silent question. He gestured behind me and then I saw that one of the men had walked past. My heart beat rose slightly when he turned around and I hid myself the best I could in the boxes, but this left me in a rather uncomfortable position with Christian. My back against his front and he held me around the waist, pulling me closer to him so that the men would not see us. The heat from his body seeped through his shirt and heated up my whole body. I am sure that I am as red as a tomato.

Once the man passed, we checked to see if the coast was clear. Once no one was in sight, we made a run for it. Of course, as luck would have it, one of the men saw us. I motioned for Christian to open the door and when the guard was right in front of me, I gave him one kick to the face and caught his limp body before it fell to the ground so that it would not attract unwanted attention. As soon as I put him down gently, I felt an excruciating pain in my abdomen. I looked down to see blood dripping from my pants. I must have reopened a wound on my inside. I tried to stand up but was unable to. The pain was extreme and I had to bite my lip to stop myself from screaming. Tears were already running down my face. I had to move because the footsteps were getting closer. I willed myself to stand up and go to the prison where Christian had disappeared to. I took one step forward but my legs could not hold me so I fell to the ground holding onto my abdomen tightly hoping to ease the pain. I crawled towards the open door and, once I was inside, I closed the door and locked it from the inside. “Sky, are you alright?” came Percy’s worried voice and I felt two hands helping me up. Tears were still running down my face. Once I was standing well, more like leaning onto Percy for dear life, I noticed that Christian, Jay and Percy were staring at me shocked and with worry written all over their faces. I turned towards Percy and hugged him tightly. I heard a little bit of a growl from Christian but chose to ignore it. “I am so glad you are alright,” I said, moving to Jay and hugging him to. “Yeah we are perfectly fine now, wanna tell us what is going on?” Jay asked, still holding on to me. “Oh well your mother decided that it was time for her baby to go home.” I smiled at Jay and he just nodded probably because he knew she would do something like this. Christian came up to me, handing me a pair of sweatpants which I had no idea where he had got. “Thank you,” I said, giving him a small smile, which he returned. When I was done changing, I walked slowly back to the boys. “When are your people getting here?” I asked Christian. ”They should be here in about ten. I just hope these nitwits do not get into my supply.” He said angrily and I burst out laughing but, had to stop because it caused too much pain. “What the hell you laughing at?” He asked angrily, making Percy and Jay stand in front of me protectively. Well, I guess they see me as family too. “I am sorry I did not mean to be rude,” I said, meaning it. “I just think that since you know who they are working with and they know that you know, then they would not be stupid enough to steal ‘supply’ from you. And also, the rules state that stealing from a fellow mafia is punishable by death, so I do not think they are going to touch your supply.” Once I finished everyone was staring at me in total shock. They are openly part of the mafia and they did not know this? “How do you know this?” Jay asked. Oh damn, I might have just given myself away. Hopefully no one caught on. I really hope that no one finds out about me. That would leave me in so much trouble. “TV?” I said, trying to save myself. Once I am out of here, I am taking a vacation forever. “Have you ever worked for the…” Percy got cut off by the door splintering to pieces. Four men walked into the prison and the boys froze.

I, on the other hand, love these kinds of situations since I get a tiny upper hand with their shocked expressions. I raised my gun and shot two of them. Once the other two were out of their daze, they opened fire, making all of us take cover in the cells. It was flying bullets everywhere you looked. I gave Jay and Percy the guns that I had on me and tried to get these men by surprise. I walked out of the cell slowly while the boys covered me. The men were so caught in shooting at the boys that they did not see me coming. I took one down by snapping his neck from behind and then shot the other one with his partner’s gun. Both of the bodies fell limp on the floor. “Rest in peace,” I said, closing their eyes. They may have been bad people, but everyone deserves to rest in peace. I stood from my kneeling position seeing the boys all stare at me. What the hell are they staring at? “Skyler, are you alright?” What was wrong with them? I am fine. I looked down at my body only to see it drenched in blood. What the hell? I get why the pants were drenched in blood, but the hoodie? I looked through the neck hole only to see nothing. “It is not my blood,” I mumbled. All three boys came running to my side. When the adrenaline started to wear off, I felt it. I was shot in the left shoulder. “That does not look good,” I said. I took my jeans and wrapped them around my shoulder, adding pressure to stop the blood. “I really need to stop this s**t!” I said angrily.

I must have looked crazy to the boys talking to myself but I tend to do that quite often. I was referring to this whole hero thing. It only gets me hurt. I mean two weeks ago I was sitting comfortably in a soft pair of pj’s sipping on warm coco watching Disney channel. Now I look like the walking dead. I was pulled out of my thoughts when we heard shooting from outside. Christian’s men must be here.

“Wait here, I am going to check on what is happening.” He said, storming off. Jay wanted to follow him but I stopped him. “I do not trust these people. I made a deal with Christian for all three of us to go free, but I do not think he is going to stand with that. Jay, I presume you are going back to your mother?” I asked and he nodded. “Ok good, now we have to go now while they are distracted.” I said, walking toward the door and the boys following me. “Sky you are hurt very badly.” Jay says looking at me worriedly. “Look it is now or never besides I give myself about three hours before I drop dead.” I said in a joking manner but was not joking at all. “Do not joke about that. Now let us get you out of here and fixed.” Jay said sternly.

We got out of the warehouse safely. Christian’s men were so focused on the intruders that no one noticed us escape. What I did not expect though was that the warehouse was surrounded by woods. Everywhere you looked there were woods. “What the hell are we going to do now?” I asked, clearly getting a little frustrated. “The cars had to come from somewhere so we find the road and stay in the woods following it.” Wow, Percy is quite smart. We nodded and started walking. We used the dirt road to guide us, but we stayed in the woods so that no one would see us. We walked for what seemed like forever when we heard vehicles approaching. “Get down!” Jay yelled and all three of us got behind some bushes and laid flat on our stomachs. Once the vehicles passed by us, we got up and decided to walk further. It was getting late and the cold did not do any good for the wounds. I shivered and so did the boys. It was freezing but we could not stop because then we would be caught for sure.

“Damn, this is so frustrating! If that stupid i***t never used the stupid drugs I would not be in this situation!” I yelled so frustrated that if I was in a cartoon, then smoke would come out of my ears. “What are you talking about?” Jay asked, trying to start up a conversation that would take our minds off of the cold. “Well you see my smart ass best friend worked for Christian and about two years ago a short while after we met he started using drugs. You know the standard every teenager experiments and all that crap. I joined him but I never got addicted like that i***t who I love so much. What I did not know was that he was using the supply that he was supposed to sell.” I paused for a moment, remembering how many good memories I have with Armand. “I helped him out of the situation and he promised that he would stop and never get into that stuff again. I guess I trust too easily because he started again. I do not know when, but I could not help him because I did not know about his little experiments. When things took a turn for the worse with Estelle, I lived with him about to go on a nice vacation when I came back to his apartment, Christian’s men had hold of him and I guess if only he told me…” I stopped for a moment, not wanting to say the rest because even though I do not want to put Armand in danger by telling them that he was alive I also did not want to lie to them. “Dude you have one messed up life.” Came Percy’s reply. “Yeah… you told me that they shot him and now you tell me that you love him which only means that he is not really dead is he?” Jay looked at me with a smirk. My eyes went wide at his words. I did not know that he caught those little details. “Nope, he is fine… well at least I hope so.” I looked down, not wanting to show any emotion right now. Of course, Armand was fine. “And what is this little thing with my mom?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at me. I started laughing, probably looking crazy, but what could I say to him? I ran because his mother forced me to marry… well him?

“That is not my story to tell. Besides, if I knew you like two weeks ago, I would not have to be on the run from her.” I said smiling. “Oh please tell me I do not want to talk to my mother after what happened at the warehouse.” Jay wined, making me and Percy laugh a little. “No time…” I pointed behind him. He spun around and we saw a little town. The lights lit it up beautifully. I felt dizzy and clung to the boys, who both shot me a worried look. “Guys, this is super beautiful but if you excuse me, I am going to pass out now.” I said just as darkness took over my body.