LOVE ME (BWWM)

C H A P T E R 8

After deciding that it was better for her not to bring up what Mrs Morte said, she started thinking about what could have possibly happened before they moved, it couldn't have been bullying because he was far to big and intimidating for someone to bully him, she stayed giving herself a headache because of how much she was thinking, she'd have to leave it for now. 

She walked back into the theatre room after getting lost a couple of times, but eventually making it back in one piece. 

"What took you so long, the kitchen isn't that far is it?" Max said with his back facing her. She couldn't see what he was doing but it looked like some sort of bed?

"I just got lost, your mum helped me out though, and we ended up talking for a bit" she said in response, he visibly stiffened when she mentioned that they talked. 

She could tell that he wanted to push and ask more questions about it, but he resisted. Turning back to her, he dragged her into a soft and fluffy fortress he built 

"Welcome to 'casa della Morte'" he said from the other side of the fort, smiling widely, eyes closed with his arms spread wide.

"Um it's beautiful I'm really surprised about how good this is... but", he opened his eyes and she could see a hint of sadness in them.

"But what?" He asked sadly.

"How are we going to watch the movie?" Ebony said while setting the cookies down on the counter; the fort was completely closed off towards the big screen, the only open part of it was the entrance. he had a look of relief when she finished her sentence. He turned to look at the fort and started moving the pillows and taking it all down. 

Ebony stepped in and put the pillows back. "We are not tearing down this masterpiece". After coming up with a quick last minute plan, she found a solution. "We can just use my iPad, sorted" she said with a sense of achievement.

"Good plan, where is it?" Max said while looking around for it.

She remembered that she left her bag and literally everything else in her car; "It's in my car, I'll just go and get it" she said while running out of the theatre and going through fandom halls. Finally escaping the house, she got to the front door, jumping down all of the steps, she ran to her car and got her iPad.

SNAP!

The sound scared her but because there house is the last one down the road and it's near a forest, it could've just been a deer or some kind of animal walking around.

BANG!

This time she knew that she couldn't stay in the same place so she started walking backwards towards the house, all of a sudden, there was a ricochet of bullets that filled the air around her, ducking down, she quickly rolled underneath her car. I thought quickly and rolled under my car. Screaming as loud as she could as a mild reaction, she quickly put her hand over her mouth so they couldn't hear or find her.

She gathered her bearing and assessed the situation, thank god for her anxiety, if she wasn't always in a fight or flight response, she probably would've been dead by now, trying to figure out where her phone was, she realised that her phone was still plugged into her car, so there was no option to call anyone. 

"Ebony?!" Max shouted, all of a sudden, she saw footsteps coming towards her car, at first she thought they could be Max's but her feet were facing the house and he head was facing the direction of the incoming bullets. All of a sudden, she saw a person drop to the floor.

The man had a bullet hole going straight through his head. A dead body, right in front of her, her only reaction was to scream, but then the bullets stopped.

Her eyes were stuck of the dead body, it was staring straight at her, literally a death stare. 

Suddenly, she started getting dragged from underneath her car, thrashing around, she was determined not to be taken from whoever was trying to take her, kicking adn screaming, and not allowing them to get a proper grip on her, she finally got out of their restraint and was about to start running until she heard someone talking.

"Ebony calm down, it's me, calm down, breathe, it's over" Max said while holding her and brushing the curls out of her face, she slowly began too calm down but she was still in fight or flight mode.

"I guess I should start explaining now..." Max said while walking her back to the house. 

"you think!?" Ebony yelled.

After leading her into the living room, they sat quietly until Max's father walked in.

Mr Morte had dark brown hair, almost black, the same as Max's, he had mostly grey hair on the sides and then it faded into black at the top, his hair was in a pompadour style, whereas Max had medium length hair, similar to Jared Padalecki's from Supernatural. Mr Morte also had a conjoined beard that was salt and pepper like. He had grey eyes; it almost looked like there was a storm about to build up behind them, anyone could tell there was a lot of back story in them, he didn't have a lot of crows feet near his eyes, meaning he didn't smile a lot... Ebony suddenly felt very minuscule next to him.

Mr Morte and his wife sat next to each other holding hands, to their right was Alessandro and Lorenzo, all of them were staring at Ebony.

"So you got shot at... we're sorry", Max looked towards his father with a pleading look. 

"No" Mr Morte said, his voice was commanding and deep, there was something in it that made you want to listen, "she's your friend, you brought her here so you explain it all" he said looking back and forth between Max and Ebony.

"That's true Maxi, your father is right you need to tell her yourself" his mother spoke from beside Mr Morte, looking at Ebony apologetically. 

She started to feel uncomfortable under all their stares, she switched to looking at the floor, it suddenly became the most interesting thing in the room.

"Summed up... my family is in the mafia, my father is the Don of the Morte D'oro, we're the biggest, and most powerful Italian-American mafia in the world, Alessandro and Lorenzo are also in it too and me... I'm next in line to take over from my father" Max said quickly, luckily Ebony heard all of what he had to say.

The mafia? Seriously? Ebony thought to herself, this can't be real.

"So the mafia... with drugs and weapons... where they kill people... are you going to kill me? Now that I know about you all" she didn't bother directing the question at one of them, she just looked at all of them. 

"We would only kill you if you told someone, people of the 'outside' world don't know that our family is connected to the mafia, they just think that we own hotels around the world, if they were to find out, it would destroy our entire empire and everything that we've built" Mr Morte spoke sternly while looking directly into her soul.

Ebony knew that they were going to kill her anyway, she didn't know her way around the house that well so she wouldn't be able to escape.

"Ebony I can see the wheels turning in your head, please tell me what you're thinking..." Max pleaded. 

"You lied to me..." She said lowly without looking at him. She started to think about how he'd gotten her to open up to him, making her feel safe with him, trusting him enough to show him all of her insecurities, it was all a lie. 

"I'm sorry" Max said while reaching out to her.    

Before he could touch her she flinched away, "you're sorry, seriously? You're in the mafia, how do you not think to tell someone that!" She yells while standing up, he stood up too and led her to the hallway where his family couldn't hear them.

"Ebony please, jus-" she refused to let him finish, "I trusted you, I let you in! What kind of person just does that! What the hell Max, I can't believ-". Suddenly, Max punched the wall next to her head and shouted "SHUT THE HELL UP AND LET ME SPEAK!".

She took a step to the side, afraid of what he was going to do next, she rushed into the living room with Max hot on her trail, "Mr and Mrs Morte, you have my word that I won't speak a word of this to anyone... about any of you" they both nodded appreciatively, she turned to Max, not being able to look him in the eye, "Max please don't talk to me again, don't come up to me at school and don't come to my special place. Please... for my sake and for yours" she said pleadingly

She ran out of the house with tears in her eyes towards her car, she started to pick up all of the things that she'd dropped on the floor when the shooting had started, she began to notice all of the bullets surrounding her. Thanking god that none of the bullets touched her car, she picked one of the bullets up so she could look at it more when me she got home.

She took a breath and started her car.

Driving down the road, she started to think about everything that had happened within the past few days. Max and his entire family are in the mafia, she trusted him, she had told him the darkest parts of her being. All of a sudden, her car started to drift in and out of the lanes, she started to panic.

Struggling to focus, she started losing the ability to breathe. A panic attack started to manifest. The last time she had one, Max was there to calm her down and to help her, she couldn't control the car and she couldn't control her breathing either. 

What do I do? What do I do?

Her body began to go numb.

Suddenly, black spots invaded her vision.

Then she felt her car shift.

The car started rolling down the tree ridden hill.

And then it was black.