Mesmerizing Mr. Mafia

13

It was so f*****g early and I was not a morning person. I kept my eyes glued shut as I buried my face into the pillow, trying to lull myself back into a deep sleep. Whatever Angelo gave me last night really knocked me out.

I heard a voice from outside the bedroom and quickly felt around the bed only to realize that Angelo wasn't there. But that wasn't Angelo's voice. I didn't know who's voice it was and then another one chimed in.

I shot up and threw the covers off of me as one of the bedroom double doors swung open, two men coming in. One was tall and lanky while the other one was of average height with a very very strong build.

I swallowed hard at the sight of them. Where was Angelo? Were these his hit men? Was I having a nightmare?

"Who are you?" The feeble words left my mouth, making me feel very small next to them. "Where's Angelo?"

"I'm Nico," the skinny one took daring steps closer to me as I backed as far up on the bed as I could. His presence didn't feel friendly. "That's Guido," he lunged at me as a loud scream left my mouth and I jumped so hard into the wooden bed frame that my head slammed against it. Nico started laughing at me as he backed away, "Gotcha."

"Leave her alone, Nico," Guido said while looking around the room.

"She's so jumpy."

I got out of bed and walked around the both of them to be closer to the door. "Why are you here?" I demanded.

"Relax," Guido spoke up before Nico had a chance to chime in, "We're putting in security cameras so that we don't have to be here all the time."

"What a shame, right principessa?" He got all in my face, his hot breath hitting my skin.

I pushed him away and he stumbled back a bit. He became enraged in response and once again lunged at me just as the other bedroom door opened.

Angelo walked in, his face buried in his phone as he stopped next to me. He slipped the phone into the front pocket of his black slacks and looked over at me curiously as Nico slowly backed away. "What are you two doing in here? I told you specifically not to go in if I wasn't there."

"You told us to install cameras-" Nico urged.

"What did I say before that? I said don't f*****g go in this room if I'm not here!"

I backed myself into the wall as far as I could possibly get before leaving the room altogether seemed like a better option. I snuck out the door and dipped back into my room, quietly closing the door behind me. I grabbed my duffel bag and emptied the contents of it onto my unmade bed, scrounging around for an outfit. I picked out a floral black pair of shorts and a matching crop top but I wasn't about to change when there were three men right outside my door that was very much incapable of being locked.

I poked my head out of the room and tried to make a run for the bathroom but I came face to face with Angelo. "They're gone for now but they're coming back later to finish putting cameras in," he held a brand new iPhone out to me and I very hesitantly grabbed it. What if it exploded or something? "To keep you entertained," he said as if he could read my mind.

But why the f**k was he giving me a phone? I could do so much with this.

"It's programmed so that you can only contact the people that are already in it and there's no way for you to call the cops. I guess you could read or something?" That stupid ass smirk came back on his lips as he walked away. I should have known.

__________

Angelo was gone but now Luca was here and unfortunately so were Nico and Guido but they weren't anywhere near me.

We sat in the living room, watching tv in silence as they did what they needed to do in the background. I questioned why Angelo would have let Luca come over since Luca was convinced that Angelo hated him and thought he was no good. Maybe he was trying to calm my nerves and he knew that Luca was the only person amongst this group that I could actually tolerate.

"Do you cook, Chloe?" He asked without ever peeling his eyes away from the cooking completion show we were watching.

My family always had a personal chef so the extent of my cooking was warming leftovers up in the microwave. I shook my head, "No. You?"

"I'm Italian. Of course I cook. Is there any food in this place?"

I looked down at the empty plastic bag on the coffee table that had held takeout containers minutes ago, wondering how he could have forgotten such a thing. "No, we literally just ordered Postmates for a reason, Luca."

He threw his head back on the couch and slouched so far I thought he was going to fall off, "I'm still hungry. Let's go to the store."

"You think Angelo would be ok with that?"

"He encouraged it. If there's something you should know about him, it's that he only likes to eat out if it's this one pizza place but he can't eat pizza every day so we should probably get some food up in this piece. Before he gets fat and grumpy. Keep the Boss happy, ya know?"

"I don't have to cook, do I?"

He shook his head and laughed, "You said you couldn't cook. Angelo's standards are high. He'd never let you in the kitchen."

I was about to open my mouth to refute him when there was a knock on the front door. I wasn't worried about it until I saw the look on Luca's face and realized no one else must have been expected today.

He slowly got up and put a finger in my face, "You stay right here."

I would think about it.

He left, the door opening moments later. I turned the tv down so I could hear him talking, it sounded like a man and a woman on the other side, neighbors maybe?

I quietly got up and headed to the door to stand right behind Luca.

He quickly whipped around to face me, a nervous look on his face, "Oh, there she is," he said, uneasy, as I stepped more into view of the pair outside.

They seemed harmless and that was bad for me because how would they get me out of here?

They were young but still older than me. The man had brown hair and he was dressed like he was about to be a stand in for an episode of Mr. Rogers while the girl had black hair and she looked like she was about to go to church. They both smiled at me as the woman opened her mouth to speak, "It's nice to meet you. We live right next door. I'm Eleanor and this is my husband Smith. It's nice to have another married couple in the building," she laughed nervously while nudging Smith's side.

Married couple?

Surely she wasn't referring to me.

I looked to Luca and he seemed just as lost as me. Was he supposed to be my "husband" or...?

"Benny sold us our apartment too. He's such a nice guy. He told us all about you and Angelo last night and we just couldn't wait to come over here and meet you," Smith chimed in.

Oh my God. Just when you think it can't get any worse.

They looked at Luca like they were expecting something from him.

He looked to be at a complete loss for words before pointing to himself and then shaking his head. "Oh, I'm not Angelo. I'm the...the...best friend."

"Gay best friend," I added after seeing their confused faces. If I was going to have to go along with this, I was going to have fun with it.

He shot daggers at me with his eyes before placing his hand on the door, "We actually have a lot to do today to get situated. Maybe we can all chat some other time?"

"We'd love that!" Eleanor exclaimed, "We're free tonight. We can have dinner somewhere or you two could come to our place?"

Those both sounded terrible.

"Um...probably your place. I don't know if tonight will work though-"

"Tonight it is!" She cut Luca off, "We'll see you and the hubs then, Chloe."

Luca pushed the door closed in one Swift motion as they were about to say something else. "Welp," he took a deep breath, crossing his arms over his chest, "We just signed our death warrant."