Mama's Mafia

Captive

Bryan's lips were bleeding from being punched in the mouth by a prison guard. He suffered damage to his rib cage from being punched in his stomach. The young man tried to fight for his life after two prison guards marched into the cell and grabbed him right while he was talking to his cellmate, Denise.

"Stop!" Bryan remembered hearing Denise screaming at a prison guard before he fell unconscious. Denise's screaming stopped when Bryan heard two gunshots. He also heard a gunshot silence the screaming of Denise's daughter before he blacked out. 

It was a nightmare for Bryan to get beat up by one prison guard and to watch his friend Denise get a bullet in her skull. Bryan even had to watch Denise's daughter get shot. Denise was trying to fight the prison guard who was attacking Bryan, which ended up getting her killed along with her two-year-old daughter.

Seeing an innocent mother and her little daughter getting killed was the last thing that Bryan saw before a prison guard knocked him out with one punch. It was something that would scar his mind for the rest of his life. Bryan tried to stop the prison guard from shooting Denise and her daughter, but he was in too much pain.

Bryan still tried to fight this huge prison guard even after getting punched in his stomach. A right hook to his face was the only thing that shut Bryan down. When Bryan woke up, he found himself strapped to a passenger seat inside a transport space vehicle. The vehicle that Bryan was riding in looked familiar to him. It was the same spherical spacecraft that Bryan remembered being inside of on the night of his a*******n.

Bryan saw that the inside of the small craft had the same oval unibody-shaped chassis. To Bryan, the spacecraft reminded him of his car. It looked like a 2021 Volkswagen ID.4 with a propulsion system instead of tires.

Bryan could see that the inside of the space vehicle wasn't as luxurious as his Volkswagen. There was a large holographic computer screen that took up the entire dashboard. On one side of the screen, Bryan could see a readout of the craft's engine temperature.

On the other side of the computer screen, it displayed the outside temperature, and a map showing the vehicle's location in space and the name of the star system it was traveling through. Bryan knew he was being transported somewhere. The first thing he assumed was that he was being transported to a Boneseeker Man. Bryan remembered what Denise told him about Princess Death Row feeding prisoners to Boneseeker Men who produced her narcotic supply.

Bryan knew a Boneseeker Man would kill him. He didn't want to be food for the off-world predator. When Bryan's vision cleared up, he could see that he not only had a seatbelt harness around his waist, but he had seatbelt straps across his chest and arms.

Bryan felt like someone strapped him down to a mental hospital bed made to look like the passenger seat of a spacecraft. His mind was in so much turmoil that he couldn't enjoy the beauty of the landscape of stars shining through the spacecraft's windshield. Bryan felt like he lost everything. He lost his wife, his son, and now his cellmate and her daughter.

Bryan never thought his life would turn out this way. All he could think about was the night he was abducted. He thought about how he stood on the sidewalk that night waiting for his Lyft driver and seeing a tall man walking across the street toward him wearing a black hoodie and blue jeans.

Bryan put his hands up and begged for his life. When the man came closer, that's when Bryan grabbed the man's g*n. He wrestled with the man for a minute before he saw an enormous white flash of light.

The next thing Bryan remembered was waking up to see that someone strapped him down inside a spacecraft like the one he was in now. Every night Bryan regretted calling for a Lyft. He regretted not asking his wife to pick him up from work that night.

Bryan missed his wife and his son. He would dream about kissing his wife's lips and holding his son in his arms. Sometimes Bryan would have hallucinations of his wife and son. A few nights ago, he saw them standing in his prison cell after he awoke from a restless sleep.

There were many nights where Bryan would see his wife and son standing over him in his prison cell. He would always hope that the hallucinations of his wife and child were real. Bryan missed Amy's scent, and he missed her beautiful neck.

He missed laying against his wife's breasts and feeling her petite hand massaging his head. Bryan missed his wife's laughter and her brutal honesty. He missed her cooking and how she could cook the best omelets.

The thing that Bryan missed the most about his wife was her loving and forgiving nature. He even missed the arguments he had with his wife. He missed her fiery personality and how her sexy British accent made her curse words sound more colorful. Bryan missed being able to tell his wife he loved her. He missed telling her how beautiful she was.

Bryan thought about his little boy and how he missed holding him and reading bedtime stories to him. He missed playing video games with his son. Bryan loved that his little boy looked more like his mom than him. He missed playing hide and seek with Eric in the backyard of their home. He missed tickling his son every time he'd catch him.

Bryan missed buying his son toys and the latest video game. He missed spoiling Eric, and he loved not being a strong disciplinarian like his wife. Bryan would buy his son anything he wanted. He loved his little boy, and the day he wanted to relive the most, was the day he held his son for the first time as an infant. Bryan remembered the little gurgling sound Eric made while looking up at him. He remembered the divine ecstatic feeling coming over him while holding this little bundle of joy in his arms.

Bryan thought about how he would try to feed Eric his vegetable baby food and how Eric would spit the peas and carrots back out of his mouth, causing his father to laugh at the pure disgust on his baby's face.

Bryan knew he would never see his little boy, or his wife again. Since Bryan knew this, it made it a little easier for him to accept the possibility of being killed by a Boneseeker Man. But Bryan didn't want to think about being killed. He broke down in tears while staring out through the spacecraft's windshield. The stars were beautiful and Bryan tried to take in the array of distant stars that covered the deep vastness of space. He knew the stars would be the last sight he would see.

Bryan kept trying to think about his wife and son and not about being killed. He could still taste the blood in his mouth from being punched and then kicked in his face by a prison guard. The blood in Bryan's mouth was now becoming intermingled with his tears.

Headaches would always set in when Bryan would cry. The heavy pounding inside his head that would make him tear up even more. Closing his eyes and praying was the only way Bryan could stop his tears. The last thing Bryan saw before shutting his eyes was a floating city that looked like Chicago surrounded by a nebula.

Bryan couldn't tell for sure if it was a floating city he saw through the spacecraft's windshield, or a massive starship vessel that looked like something he'd seen in Star Wars. Whether it was a floating city or a starship vessel, Bryan didn't care. He just kept his eyes closed and prayed.

***

It was two hours later and Bryan was still praying. His eyes were still closed, and his prayer to God distracted him from noticing he was no longer on the spacecraft. Bryan tried to ignore the sound of men's voices around him. He tried to ignore feeling their hands grabbing his arms and guiding him down what sounded like a colossal hallway. Bryan kept his eyes closed while listening to the foreign language that the men were speaking to each other in.

He could tell that the men who were guiding him were tall men, and it sounded like they were speaking to each other in Russian. Their voices sounded like rumbling thunder even though they were whispering. Bryan could smell the men's breath, which smelled like cigarette smoke and alcohol.

He wanted to keep his eyes closed, but he had to open them when he felt cold steel kissing his forehead. When Bryan opened his eyes, he turned his head to see he was face to face with the nose of an unusual looking semi-automatic firearm. The handgun had a chrome handle with two blinking red lights on the front of its nose.

"Please don't shoot me," Bryan said through a hoarse whisper. The young man his hands up while looking up at a tall albino bearded man. The albino man had long silver white hair and a tattooed symbol of a dragon on his large Neanderthal-like forehead.   

Bryan couldn't only see one of the man's eyes because a black leather eyepatch covered his other eye. A modified handgun was being pressed against Bryan's head.

He couldn't run because there was another huge albino man standing behind him, holding his arms. The other albino had a bald head with a lightning bolt scar spread across his temple. The albino men looked like twins, and their black suits made them look like assassin vampire businessmen who stepped out of the supernatural action film, Blade.

All Bryan could think about was not being shot. He could feel his heart speed up while looking up at this tall, long-haired, white-skinned, bearded man who was playfully sliding his advanced pistol back and forth across Bryan's perspiring forehead. Bryan felt a knot in his stomach when the man let out a rumbling chuckle.

Bryan knew the huge man was toying with him and he tried to keep calm, but he couldn't take it anymore. Bryan went through a year of t*****e and he had enough.

Bryan didn't care that the man holding the g*n against his head was as big as a diesel truck. He took confidence in his own bulky physique and he wasted no time grabbing the g*n while snapping the huge man's wrist. Bryan's wife trained him in martial arts and he used every fighting technique he learned from his wife. The desperate young man elbowed the second albino man in his nose. Moving like lightning, Bryan moved his head to one side to avoid a punch coming in his direction.

He knew he had to avoid getting punched by a fist that was almost the size of his head. It was an all-out war now between Bryan and the two albino men. Bryan used his forearm to block a huge hand that attempted to chop him across his throat. Without thinking about it, Bryan grabbed the albino man's hand and twisted the man's hand until he heard bones snapping.

Adrenaline and the will to survive helped Bryan fight out of his mind. Bryan only had one huge albino man to fight since he used his bare feet to break the other albino man's leg. He had never shattered a man's knee cap before, but there was a first time for everything. Bryan also never dislocated a man's elbow before, and it was terrifying and exhilarating.

Fighting these men scared Bryan, but he wasn't fighting like someone scared. The young man figured that if he died, he might as well go down fighting for his life. Bryan figured that he had nothing to lose since he didn't have his wife and his son in his life anymore. Fist fighting with the albino men was like an emotional release for Bryan. The young man was letting out all of his frustrations on the men, and he could feel himself becoming more inspired with every punch he delivered.

What stopped Bryan from fighting was the echoing sound of a child crying. Bryan had become so focused on fighting for his life he didn't even notice he was standing in the middle of a massive, elegantly designed living room.

When he got distracted by the sound of a child crying and saw he was standing in the living room of a mansion, that's when he was losing the fight he was still having with the albino man who had the g*n. Bryan screamed out in pain after getting lifted off the floor by his throat and thrown up against a wall.

A punch to his already damaged rib cage caused Bryan to cough while struggling to breathe. Even though he could feel his feet dangling beneath him, Bryan still tried to fight to free his neck from this giant hand that swallowed his throat.

Bryan grabbed onto the giant albino man's wrist with both of hands, using all his strength to free his neck. He knew he would die if he didn't get air back into his lungs. Bryan kicked the albino man in his torso, but with every kick the albino man would squeeze his large hand even tighter around Bryan's throat. He knew he was in deeper trouble when he could see and feel that the huge albino man's hand that was strangling him was cybernetic.

It only took a second for Bryan to realize that the albino man he was trying to fight was a cyborg. It was bad enough that this man was big, but he was part machine. Bryan panicked while trying to gasp for air. While struggling to breathe, he grabbed at the albino man's leather eyepatch and his beard. Bryan ripped off the man's eyepatch to see that a crimson artificial light exited from his concealed eye.

Now Bryan knew why this man was harder to fight than his partner. And he knew that in a matter of seconds his throat would collapse beneath the pressure of the man's Titanic hand. The only thing that saved Bryan from being killed was the booming but gentle voice of a woman yelling the word STOP!

In an instant, Bryan's neck was free and he fell on his hands and knees, heaving and coughing. Bryan didn't know which part of his body hurt the worst, his throat or his rib cage. Every time he coughed he could feel his ribs cracking more. Bryan was tough, but he wanted to cry from the pain. His ribs were hurting so bad that it felt like someone pierced his ribcage with a power drill. The pain made Bryan nauseated and vomited a little on the floor.

"Jesus, asked you boys to bring him to my house. I didn't say kill him!" A woman's soothing voice filled the living room with a strong presence behind it. 

Bryan recognized the woman's voice, and he looked up when he heard it. He also noticed that there was something familiar about her warm English accent. Bryan felt his heart quiver with fear when he saw a brown skinned bald-headed woman wearing a short sleeveless glittery black dress approaching him. He recognized the woman when he saw her bald head. He also recognized the black hard metal mask that covered the bottom of her face.

For a minute, Bryan thought he would get shot in his neck again with a tranquilizer dart. He remembered how this familiar bald woman shot him in his neck the night of his a*******n. He knew it was Princess Death Row approaching him, and he knew that even though he wasn't dead yet, it didn't mean he wouldn't be dead later.

"Liam, you've got to learn how to control your temper, baby. You almost killed him," Irena said to her bodyguard, who was the tall bearded albino cyborg.

"This motherf*cker attacked me and my partner first," Liam said to his boss. His voice shook the floor. He growled while looking down at Bryan, who was still on his hands and knees. "Look at what he did to my partner's arm and his leg," Liam continued to complain while pointing over at his partner, Vladimir, who was struggling to stand up on his injured leg.

"Why don't you boys go get something to drink on me. I'll compensate you boys for your troubles," Irena told her bodyguards while pointing them toward her kitchen. After watching her two big lumbering guards walk away, Irena came and stood over Bryan while folding her arms. "You look so pitiful," Irena told Bryan while unfolding her arms and reaching down to touch his chin.

Bryan moved his face away when he saw Princess Death Row's hand reaching down to touch him. He stood up from the floor while holding his stomach and refusing to make eye contact with Irena. Bryan never said a word as he stood back from Irena, trying not to admire her shapely physique. Bryan knew Irena was evil, and he hated that he strangely felt attracted to her curvaceous body.

It felt weird. Bryan sensed something about Irena that was familiar. She had a sexy body, and it was hard for Bryan not to look at Irena's large breasts, which complimented the strapless feature on her glittery black dress. Even with the bottom part of her face covered by a mask, Bryan knew Irena was a beautiful woman, but her bald head gave her a lethal sultriness.

Bryan was still struggling not to look at Irena, because even though he wasn't looking at her breasts, he stared at her gorgeous legs and hips that showed beneath her sexy, tight-fitting dress.

"You don't want to talk to me?" Irena said while trying to walk up on Bryan. The crime lord reached up to touch Bryan's hand, but Bryan wasn't having it. "I know you remember me, and I know you're mad at me after what I did to you that night," Irena whispered to Bryan, invading his space. Irena thought it was cute how Bryan would back away from her every time she would take a step toward him. She thought it was even more cute when Bryan opened his mouth to give her a piece of his mind.

"You damn right I'm mad and I don't give a f*ck if you kill me! I'm not afraid of you, b***h!" Bryan's voice trembled a little as he yelled at Irena. All the fury inside Bryan was rising out of him as he placed his tearful eyes on Irena. Bryan didn't want to cry in front of Irena. He didn't want to cry in front of a killer. He tried to hold back his tears while looking at the woman who destroyed his life and imprisoned him. Bryan felt that if he broke down in front of Irena, she would pounce on his weakness and kill him.

"I know you're mad at me for taking you away from your wife and son. I know you miss them," Irena said to Bryan through her gentle voice while still trying to move in closer.

"Don't come near me. You stay the f*ck away from me," Bryan told Irena while lifting his finger at her and balling his other hand into a fist. Bryan thought about Denise telling him all the horror stories about Irena. He couldn't understand it, but there was something familiar about her voice, and her eyes. Something about Irena aroused Bryan and it enraged him.

"I won't hurt you," Irena said to Bryan while disregarding his threatening gestures. "I know you've heard a lot of bad things about me while you were in prison and I know you want to kill me, but there's something I need to show you." Irena put her hand up to Bryan trying to calm him down while raising her other hand up to her mask.

Bryan watched as Princess Death Row removed her mask by detaching two metal clamps that connected to her chained earring. Nothing in the world could prepare Bryan for what he was about to see. After watching Irena remove her mask, Bryan thought for sure he was hallucinating. The young man was seeing Princess Death Row's full face for the first time. Seeing her face chilled him to the bone. He wanted to smile and cry at the same time. Bryan swore he was hallucinating.

He thought he was seeing another hallucination of his wife. He thought his mind was playing tricks on him and had somehow placed the face of his wife on Princess Death Row. Bryan knew that stress can cause an exhausted mind to snap.

"Amy? Baby is that you?" Bryan's voice shuttered as he stared at a beautiful, Asian bald-headed woman who looked identical to his wife. "Amy?" Bryan said his wife's name again while dragging his tired bare feet toward Irena. Bryan kept staring at Irena in astonishment while putting both of his hands up to his head.

"I'm an exact copy of your wife, but I'm an alternate version of her," Irena explained, seeing that what she told Bryan was confusing him.

"You're an alternate version of my wife? What the f*ck?" Bryan asked through shocked breathlessness in his voice. He couldn't believe he was looking at his wife's face. It felt so good to look at this woman who looked and sounded like Amy, but Bryan would soon discover that this woman, who was an exact copy of his wife, did not own his wife's kind nature.  

"Have you ever heard of parallel universes?" Irena asked while easing up to Bryan and touching his arm. Irena smiled when Bryan allowed her to touch him. It made the crime lord feel like she was in control again.

"I've heard about parallel universes," Bryan whispered out while gazing down at Irena's face and finding himself falling in love with the face he had been missing and dreaming about.

"Well, I'm from a parallel universe," Irena told Bryan while pointing at herself and looking up at Bryan with a sly smile on her lips. "They call it the multiverse, where there are multiple universes that contain multiple copies of the planet Earth. In those copies of Earth, there's a copy of each of us. It's like having a twin who lives in another universe on another Earth." Irena hoped that she was explaining things well to Bryan. She could see that Bryan was in a trance while staring down at her face.

"So you're my wife's twin from another Earth? Is that what you're saying?" Bryan asked, still trying to figure out if he was crazy or dreaming. The young man was into science fiction just like his wife. But he never thought he would experience anything like this in real life.

"I'm your wife's twin," Irena said to Bryan while giggling a little. "We both share the same DNA and we both look and sound alike. But the only difference is that we were both born in different universes." Irena was still caressing Bryan's arm while looking at the unmistakable love that was arising in his eyes.

 "Damn, you look just like Amy. You sound like my wife and you got her British accent too. There's a few different things about you, like your bald head," Bryan said while letting out an amazed chuckle. The young man was so happy while touching Irena's face, he forgot that Irena was a cold-blooded killer.

"Do you like your wife with a bald head?" Irena asked while laughing and enjoying Bryan's hand caressing her face.

"Yeah, It looks good on you," Bryan said while moving his hand up to Irena's head and noticing a number tattooed on the back of her head. "What's the number here on the back of your head?" Bryan asked as he ran his finger across the tattoo.

Irena felt a little nervous when Bryan asked about her tattoo. "It's just a tattoo and the numbers mean nothing," Irena lied to Bryan, knowing the numbers tattooed on her head was the month, day, and year she discovered the Boneseeker Men.

"When you were born, was your name always Irena, or did you change your name from Amy to Irena?" Bryan asked, wondering why Irena didn't have the exact name of his wife even though she was an exact copy of her.

"I was born with the name Amy, but I changed my name to Irena after I found out that there were other copies of me living in other universes with the same name, I changed my name to feel more unique," Irena explained.

Bryan was listening to what Irena was telling him. The young man was so close to Irena's face that he could kiss her if he wanted to. Bryan felt reunited with his wife. He couldn't believe Princess Death Row was Amy's clone. He noticed that Irena even smelled like Amy. She had her familiar citrus-like scent.

Bryan thought maybe he was projecting his wife's scent onto Irena since the woman was a clone. He wanted to kiss Irena just to feel like he was kissing his wife again. Bryan had dreams of kissing his wife and now he could kiss his wife again, or so he thought.

But as Bryan's lips grew closer to Irena's lips, he woke up. All the evil he heard about Irena came back to him, and he regained his sanity. Bryan realized that Irena was trying to manipulate him. He released a frustrated roar, while removing Irena's arms from around his waist. Bryan shoved the evil woman away from him.

"You're not my f*cking wife! Your a*s might look like her, but you're not my wife!" Bryan was yelling again, and it pissed him off that he was being made a fool out of. Bryan wanted to hit Irena for attempting to manipulate him, but the young man restrained himself.

"What are you talking about? I am your wife, I'm just a different version of her." Irena tried to sound innocent while trying to move back closer to Bryan.

"You're evil!" Bryan barked. "You tried to trick me into thinking you're Amy," Bryan said while slapping Irena's hand away, which was trying to reach out to touch him. "You're a killer!"

Irena shook her head while looking at Bryan with pity. "I can be your wife. We can be together. We all have multiple copies of ourselves living in different universes. These multiple copies are like mirror reflections of us." Irena paused for a minute while pointing at herself and still trying to reach out to touch Bryan. "I am just one of the mirror reflections of your wife. There are women out there in space who are exact reflections of your wife and I'm one of those women. I'm the same woman you married, but with subtle differences. We can be together." Irena tried to convince Bryan. She also tried to get Bryan back in her arms.

"You're a murderer and a d**g dealer! I don't want to be with you!" Bryan was almost foaming at the mouth while yelling at Irena. "You've killed babies! I heard you killed a teenage mom and her baby by feeding them to a Boneseeker Man."

Irena was still trying to look innocent while listening to Bryan's ranting. "You can't believe everything you hear about me," Irena told Bryan while putting her hands out toward Bryan like a mother trying to hug a distressed child. "I'm not a monster. I might have my issues, but I'm still a good person. I'm just a businesswoman. My company sells parts for ships and I'm the CEO of my company. " While Irena was talking, she quivered her voice to make herself sound mournful.

"You look like my wife, and that pisses me off!" Bryan closed his eyes and his voice trailed down to a sorrowful whisper. He continued to back away from Irena with his hand up to his head.

"The only reason I abducted you that night was because I was jealous," Irena said through her fake sorrowful voice. "I wanted what your wife had. Me and your wife look like the same person, but we weren't the same, because she had you and I didn't." Irena made a tear drop from her eye. The crime lord felt pleased with herself after feeling the fake tear stream down her cheek. She hoped that her tear technique would disarm Bryan and get him back in her arms again. But Irena had another calculating plan to win back Bryan's heart just in case her crying technique didn't work.

"I miss my wife and my son," Bryan said to Irena through clenched teeth. The young man wanted to break Irena's neck for destroying his life, but he cried, thinking if he killed Irena, it would be like killing his wife.

"I know you're upset, but we can fix this," Irena said, trying to negotiate with Bryan while wiping away her tears. "I'm your wife, I'm just different. I can still be Amy and I'll change my name back to Amy if that's what you want." Irena kept trying to approach Bryan while speaking to him in her softest and warmest tone of voice.

Bryan wept as he continued to back away from Irena. He thought about how he prayed to see his wife again every night while he was in prison. He thought about how he dreamed about kissing his wife and now he was standing in front of a woman who looked like his wife, but she was a psychopath. Bryan felt himself hating God for doing this to him. He asked to be with his wife and instead God gave him an evil version of her.

What brought Bryan to tears was that he wanted to kiss Irena. He wanted to kiss this person who looked like the woman he had fallen in love with and had a child with. But it felt like a cruel joke. Bryan didn't understand why God would do this to him.

He turned his back on Irena and banged his fist on the wall. After releasing a short heartbroken sob, Bryan just laid his forehead against the wall. He thought maybe he was having a nightmare. Bryan hoped that he would wake up from the distasteful situation he was in. He felt that what he was going through was too cruel to be real. This had to be a nightmare. Bryan couldn't believe that his captor looked like his wife. He remembered praying to God to help him save a young woman's baby from choking and he remembered how he heard the baby breathing again. He thanked God for helping him. Bryan thought the reason God helped him save the baby's life was because God loved him.

But now Bryan felt like God didn't love him anymore. He felt like God hated him after praying to him for a year and never seeing a miracle. Bryan prayed to be reunited with his wife and son, just as he prayed to God to help him save the baby's life. Bryan didn't understand why God didn't show up for him this time.

Bryan wept because he didn't understand where God was. He cried harder when he felt Irena's hand caressing his back. The young man tried to ignore Princess Death Row's touch.

Bryan still had the desire to kiss Irena. He felt himself getting desperate, and he thought since he could never kiss his wife again, he might as well seize his opportunity and kiss an evil version of her. A thought arose in Bryan's mind that said kissing an evil version of your wife is better than not kissing your wife at all.

Bryan fought against his temptation so hard that it gave him a headache. He was trying to fight his body's enjoyment of feeling Irena massaging his back.

Bryan couldn't stop himself from turning around to look at Irena. He couldn't stop himself from gazing at Irena's full lips and her glorious crystal hazel, brown eyes.

He couldn't stop himself from looking at Irena's neck and how it was petite and smooth just like his wife's neck. Bryan felt himself falling for his wife's beautiful facial features and her physical traits which Irena possessed. Bryan noticed that Irena even had a tiny mole right above her cleavage just like his wife did.

Bryan knew if he kissed Irena, it would be like kissing the Devil himself.

Bryan was so close to Irena's lips he could feel the warmth of her breath stroking his chin. A kiss was near and at first it seemed like there was nothing Bryan could do to stop Irena from kissing him. Bryan didn't understand what was happening to him. He felt like he had lost all control of his body.

Bryan's mind was telling him not to let Irena kiss him, but his body was saying the opposite. The young man felt like a force had taken him over and was making him kiss Irena against his will.

The only thing that saved Bryan from kissing Princess Death Row was the sound of a child crying. It was the same sound Bryan heard when he was fighting Princess Death Row's bodyguards. There was something familiar about the child's crying. It seemed like the child's crying was something that Bryan had heard all his life.

"I have a surprise for you," Irena said to Bryan while reaching up and touching the side of his face.

Bryan watched as Irena turned away from him while calling a woman's name. When Bryan saw a young Hispanic woman with a cute figure come into the living room holding a little boy, he almost blacked out. The woman was wearing a black pantsuit and her violet hair was in a pixie cut style. The woman looked like a supermodel dressed like a businesswoman, but Bryan wasn't looking at the woman. He looked at the little boy she was holding in her arms.

Bryan recognized the curly brown hair. He recognized the adorable nose and those little pink lips. He recognized those dimples and that familiar caramel skin tone. Bryan couldn't believe he was looking at a child he hadn't seen in over a year.

Bryan couldn't believe he was staring at his little boy. It was another situation where Bryan thought he was hallucinating, but this was no hallucination, and Bryan realized it wasn't, when he reached out to take hold of Eric, who was crying from being blindfolded and carried around.

Stress overwhelmed Eric after being taken from his mother and blindfolded. The last thing Eric remembered seeing was his mother's car crashing on the highway. Eric didn't know if his mother was dead or alive. Now the child was in complete darkness. He didn't know who was holding him and he didn't know their voice. The only voice he wanted to hear was his mother's voice.

"It's okay, man!" Bryan said after he reached for Eric and was getting hit in the face by the little boy's arms swinging at him.

"I want my mommy! Let me go!" Eric screamed while swinging his fist.

"It's daddy!" Bryan tried to calm his son down while struggling to take the blindfold off his face. It shocked Bryan to be holding his son again. "What the f*ck did y'all do to my baby!?" Bryan yelled at the Hispanic woman and at Irena when he saw a nasty little cut on the side of Eric's face.

Irena knew who put the cut there on Eric's face. She knew it was one of her men who struck the child and that pissed her off. The CEO crime lord knew she wouldn't be able to win Bryan's heart again after he saw his son in a poor state.

"One of my men did this, and I punished him for it," Irena told Bryan while reaching out to touch the cut on Eric's face.

"Get your hands off him! Don't touch him!" Bryan cursed at Irena while holding his son away from her caressing hand. The young man took his disgusted eyes off Irena and her assistant and he smiled when he looked into his son's eyes.

"Daddy?" Eric uttered out through his tired and raspy voice. The little boy squinted while looking into his father's eyes. Eric immediately recognized his father's beard, and he recognized the narrow shape of his father's nose. But most of all, Eric recognized his father's warm voice.

"It's me, it's daddy. Oh my God, I can't believe I'm holding you." Bryan covered his son's face with tears while kissing him. The father kissed his son on every area of his face.

"Daddy where did you go?" Eric asked while putting his little palms into his father's beard. "Me and Mommy thought you died. We went to your funeral." After Eric said that, he broke down while wrapping his arms around his father's neck and burying his face into his beard. The child cried after realizing that his father was holding him and that he wasn't dreaming this time.

Bryan never thought he would hold his son again. He was in disbelief while sauntering around the living room releasing his tears and nestling his lips in his child's hair. Bryan felt mad that his son was made to believe his father had died. Bryan cut a disdainful look over at Irena while holding his little boy's head against the side of his face.

Eric used his father's beard to clean the moisture off his face. He lifted his head up to look into his father's face and to make sure he wasn't dreaming. Eric couldn't believe he was looking at his daddy. The little boy remembered seeing his daddy inside a casket. He watched his mother cry over the casket while holding her hand. Eric remembered his mother telling him that his father was dead.

At first the five-year-old thought he was in heaven, because he remembered his mother saying he would only see his father again in heaven. But Eric knew he wasn't in heaven, and the child didn't care where he was anymore. Eric was in his father's arms, which was all that mattered to the little boy. It was a dream come true for Eric. Seeing his daddy alive was once a distant fantasy, but not anymore.

Even though Eric and Bryan were holding each other they could still feel a darkness surrounding them. The father and son smiled at each other, but they felt uncomfortable with the strange atmosphere in the living room.

"Are you okay?" Bryan asked his son while cascading his hand across the child's face. He smiled while rubbing his forehead against Eric's forehead, feeling the little boy's fingers playing through his beard.

"I'm okay. My face and my wrist hurt a little. I'm hungry too." Eric whispered to his father while rubbing his eyes. The little boy leaned his head against the side of his father's face while thinking about his mom and wondering if she was okay.

"You haven't eaten?" There was over-saturated concern in Bryan's voice. "Where's your mommy? Is she okay?"

Eric slowly shook his head and his eyes teared up again. "These men broke into our house and Mommy had to fight them. One man tried to shoot Mommy in the arm," Eric told his father while taking his hands away from his father's beard. "Mommy was trying to protect me and she killed one man, but the other man grabbed me. He put me in his car and mommy chased him. We were on the expressway and the man shot at Mommy's car and her car went off the road."

The blood drained out of Bryan's face after he heard his son's story. He felt his legs lose their strength. Bryan feared the worst after his little boy told him what happened.

He took his eyes off his son and he put them on Irena. "What the f*ck did you do to my wife!?" Bryan shot his questions at Irena.

"It's okay, your wife is fine, and she's in the hospital," Irena said while feeling a little nervous by the murderous gleam in Bryan's eyes. "I know you're mad." Irena stared at Bryan while reaching for her handgun, which she had tucked away beneath her dress and strapped to the back of her thigh. The crime lord didn't want to shoot Bryan, but she prepared herself just in case.

"You abducted me and then you had my wife and my baby think I was dead?" Bryan spoke with a lethal softness in his voice. "You sent two men to my house to take my son? The man shoots at my wife! What is this?" Bryan was still caressing his son's face while staring at Irena and he wanted to strangle her, but he knew she would kill him first.

Eric couldn't see Irena's face at first because of his father's hand touching his face. The little boy got confused when he saw Irena's face for the first time. Eric thought he was imagining things.

"Mommy!?" Eric blurted out while looking at Irena. The little boy thought he was looking at his mom and he didn't understand why his mother had a bald head.

"She's not your mommy, little man. She's just somebody who looks like her," Bryan told his son, not wanting Irena's appearance to deceive his child.

"But she looks like Mommy," Eric said while staring at Irena in amazement.

"I know she does, but this lady isn't Mommy. She's a bad person who happens to look like Mommy." Bryan continued to tell his son while rolling his eyes at Irena.

"I can be your mommy, baby! I'm a clone of your mom!" Irena spoke to Eric while reaching out to him and watching as Bryan moved away from her trying to shield his little boy.

"You're not his mother! Leave my boy alone!" Bryan yelled. He was prepared to strike Irena if she came any closer.

"I can be his mommy! We're the same woman!" Irena was raising her voice and she felt a little surprised at herself when she showed true emotion. For the first time in Irena's life she felt a true love toward Bryan and Eric, and that scared her a little.

"You stay the f*ck away from us!" Bryan warned Irena. "You're not my wife and you're not my child's mother, so stop the bullsh*t!"

Irena kept walking toward Bryan wanting to hold Eric, who had his little arm outstretched toward her. Irena could see that the child wanted to be with her because she looked identical to his mother.

"Why do you look so much like my mommy?" Eric asked while stretching his arms out to Irena. The child missed his mother, and he wanted Irena to hold him still thinking she was his mom.

"I'm your mom, baby. I'll take good care of you," Irena said to the little boy while feeling herself wanting to cry, which irritated her. Irena felt strange because she never felt love toward someone before. It felt weird going through her body. Irena wanted to have Eric and Bryan all to herself, but she knew getting what you want can sometimes be difficult.

Bryan felt his body heating up. "You're not his mother! Quit saying that to him!" Bryan yelled at Irena so hard that the veins in his wide neck were bulging out.

Irena felt irritated by Bryan constantly telling her she wasn't his wife and that she wasn't Eric's mother. She felt that she had the right to have Bryan as her husband and Eric as her child, and that nothing would impede on what she felt was rightfully hers.

"I am his f*cking mother and I am your wife! Your wife and I are the same b***h!" Irena's voice became jagged. She disturbed Bryan and Eric's moment when she pulled out her g*n and aimed it at them. "Your wife and I are the same! How many times do I have to keep telling you that!?" Irena's seething words caused her sweet voice to tremble. 

Bryan felt his heart elevate toward his throat when Irena pulled her g*n out and pointed it at his head. He swallowed hard while holding his little boy tighter in his arms.

"I want to hold him." Irena ordered Bryan to hand over his son. She c****d her revolver, letting Bryan know if he didn't do what she said, she would blow him away.

"Please, don't shoot us. If you want to be my wife, then you can't shoot us. My wife would never pull a g*n out on her husband and son," Bryan told Irena, hoping that he could talk Princess Death Row out of her murderous instincts. "You're right, you and my wife are the same and you can be my wife and my baby's mom if you want to," Bryan told Irena whatever she wanted to hear to protect him and his son. At the moment, the only thing Bryan could see was the g*n being aimed at him.

Eric became more confused by this woman who looked like his mom, but was now aiming a g*n at him and his father. The little boy knew there was something dark about Irena even though she looked like his mother. Eric could see that his mother's sweet nature was missing in Princess Death Row.

"Please, don't shoot my Daddy!" Eric spoke out while feeling his little heart thump hard against his chest. The child wanted Irena to hold him at first, but now he could see that Irena wasn't his mother.

"Don't worry, baby. I'm gonna shoot your daddy, but I won't kill him!" Irena told Eric while taking her g*n out and aiming it at one of Bryan's knees. "I'll just shoot him in his leg if he keeps f*cking telling me I'm not your mother." Irena went to the dark side and being evil again for her was like being right back at home.

Bryan tried to think of something to say to defuse the situation. "At first I couldn't see you as my wife, but now I can," Bryan said while trying to keep his stunned gaze on Irena's face and not her g*n.

Irena let out a short sinister giggle while looking at Bryan. "You're only saying that because you're afraid I'm gonna kill you," Irena said while tilting her head to the side and giving Bryan a crooked smile. "Don't f*ck with me, because I will shoot you even though I love you."

Bryan felt chills go down his body after listening to Irena's threats. He wanted to run out of the living room with his son, but he knew Irena would shoot him in the back. When Irena pointed her g*n at Bryan, he had flashbacks of when his wife pointed a g*n at him after she suffered a miscarriage and was going through her suicidal period.

For a minute, Bryan saw Irena as his wife. He saw that same fire that his wife possessed, but he could see the fire was more lethal. Looking at Irena was like seeing his wife without a soul.

"I want to hold my son. Let me have him," Irena demanded in a dry tone of voice. She eased up on Bryan, keeping her g*n locked on his forehead.

Bryan didn't know what to do as he clutched his son in his arms. He didn't want to give his son to Irena, but he also didn't want to get shot in his head at point-blank range. Bryan tried to think of something to say that would distract Irena from shooting him.

"Please, let me hold my son a little longer." Bryan tried to think of something calming to say, but the only thing he could think to do was plead. Bryan swallowed hard while staring at the nose of a silver revolver being aimed straight at his head. He lost his ability to say anything else. Bryan felt his voice leave him when Irena pressed her pistol against his forehead while taking Eric out of his arms.

"It's alright baby," Irena said to Eric after taking the little boy into her arms.

"Please don't kill Daddy!" Eric pleaded for his father's life. The child started crying again while staring at Irena's g*n. He struggled to free his tiny body out of Irena's arms. Eric stretched his hand out toward his father and he whimpered when he saw his father fall to the floor.

Bryan fell to his knees while grabbing his throat. At first, he thought it was a bullet that struck his neck. But when he reached to touch his neck, he felt a small slender needle sticking out the side of his throat. When Bryan felt the small needle, he knew it was a tranquilizer dart.

Feeling a tranquilizer dart in his throat made Bryan relive the night of his a*******n. Bryan could do nothing while sitting on his hands and knees feeling himself lose consciousness. Bryan wanted to rescue his son from Irena's arms, but all he could do was listen to his child scream while looking up at Princess Death Row, who was standing over him holding his son.

"You thought this was a real g*n, didn't you, baby?" Irena snickered at Bryan while reaching down and stroking her delicate fingers across his sweaty forehead. "It's just a tranquilizer g*n. I'm not killing you yet, I'm just putting you to sleep for now."

Bryan could hear Irena's soft-spoken voice becoming more distant as he faded away. He was still looking up at Irena and his little boy and could see that their faces were becoming a blur. He tried to reach up to touch his son but his arm felt like it had a fifty pound weight tied to it. After a minute passed, Bryan lost consciousness, and the last thing he heard was Irena telling his little boy to stop crying.