Queen Of The Marchetti Daddies

3| LIFE WORTH LIVING

ASIA

“West?” He called out to his brother.

“She’s the woman I told you about on the phone. The woman who was supposed to be Flint’s bride?” West asked more than stated. He had a curious look in his eyes as he glanced between us. “Cazzo, you know her like that?”

Lan scoffed, moving towards me and slamming the door behind him. I couldn’t look away from him as my throat tightened, knowing he was definitely about to mock me if he was still anything like the boy from years ago.

“Flint’s mistaken bride.” He drawled, approaching me cautiously. He gave me a once over, his eyes lingering on my wedding dress. “Then why are you wearing a wedding dress?”

I bit my tongue, telling myself I wasn’t going to respond to him. I turned away too, hating that he had to see me like this. He’d hated Flint. A lot. And now…

“That weak motherfucker stood you up at the altar, didn’t he?” He continued, standing right in front of me now. I still refused to look at him. “Hmm. I used to wonder… he started flaunting another woman on his socials, around the same time you completely disappeared from social media. Suspicious as f**k, but you’ve always asked me to mind my business when it came to you both, so…”

I turned to him so fast, my neck almost snapped.

“W-What? Can you… can you show me his social media?” I hesitated, then threw in a, “Please?”

He studied me for a moment, then shook his head. “No. You’re already pitiable enough.”

“f**k you.”

“Oh that’s exactly what I’ve wanted to do since high school, but you had to keep flaunting that scumbag in my face.”

Goosebumps erupted on my skin from the intensity of his gaze. He leaned down and tipped my chin up, briefly casting a glance at my lips,

“You look like hell.” He whispered, and I immediately spat in his face in retaliation. God, something about this man just made me feral.

He smirked and added, “You know I’m going to kill Flint for hurting you like this, don’t you?”

We stared at each other for what seemed like hours, and then I slapped his hand away.

“I don’t need your help.”

He gripped my chin, and forced me to look up at him again, making me moan from the force. I heard West speak behind a him,

“Let her go, bro, you’re hurting her.”

“She can handle it. Can’t you, bambolina?”

The nickname came with a rush of mostly unpleasant memories, and I glared. “Stop calling me that.”

“I’ll call you whatever I like.”

“Okay, that’s enough lovers.” West’s voice was razor sharp. “I texted Jagger. He can’t make it here today. But he directed that we keep her here, and wait until he comes around tomorrow to make any further decisions.”

Lan leaned off me, and after brief eye contact, he turned to face his brother. “We cannot let her go. Especially now that she’s seen our faces.”

West stared at me pointedly, “I don’t think she’d say anything.”

Lan scoffed. “You’re already such a puppy for her, brother. This woman is nothing like she seems.”

West gritted his teeth, then tore his gaze away from me. “Let’s talk outside.” He said, patting his brother’s arm.

I watched them leave, watched the door slam shut, and I rested my head against the headboard. I shut my eyes and tears rolled down my cheeks seconds later, my chest heavy with an overwhelming sadness. Memories slammed into me, so visceral that I had to clutch the sheets and bite the inside of my cheeks until I drew blood.

After a moment of slight hesitation, I snuck my fingers into my bra and took out the pack of pills I carried around incase of an anxiety attack which was more common with me these days. They doubled as really strong knockout sleeping pills, and I needed to turn my brain off, so I opened the pack and threw two into my mouth, swallowing them dry.

Then I shut my eyes again. Minutes later, my head started to grow quiet, and a sad smile grew on my lips as I surrendered myself to sleep.

I woke up to voices speaking above me.

“… f**k… saying bro, we can’t let her go. She’s seen all of our faces, thanks to dumb West.” I heard Lan say.

“It’s not my fault. I thought we were taking her out after the whole thing with Flint.” West spoke next.

“How could you make such a costly mistake, West?” The voice of this next speaker sent cold chills down my spine. In a really bad way. He spoke slow, but still with every ounce of authority. I could tell without looking, that this was Jagger Marchetti, aka the eldest Marchetti.

He continued to speak, “We f*****g trusted you with this. You’re the goddamn mayor for f**k’s sake… you’re supposed to be running the city.. getting the best people to carry out operations like these. The family would not take this well. Everybody has been waiting to get their hands on that motherfucker. And you ruined it.”

“I didn’t…” West started, then paused before saying, “I’m sorry. Whatever I’m going to say now probably wouldn’t mean s**t to you. I did a bad job, and I’m sorry. I’ll take it upon myself to track Flint down. My men are already on it.”

“We can’t keep her.” Jagger spoke again, after a brief moment of silence.

Lan responded at once, “We can. Come on brother. I know this girl. I told you two… she’s been obsessed with Flint ever since I knew her, literally Flint’s f*****g puppet. Never could see him for the fraud he always was. What are the odds that she won’t go back to that motherfucker the moment he hoots at her, and do something stupid. She’s lost and sad right now. We can’t let her go… at least, not now.”

“Then we can kill her.” Jagger said matter-of-factly, and at this point, the sound of my heartbeat was probably loud enough for everyone in this goddamn room to hear. He went on, “if she’d pose a threat to us like you’re implying… here, have my gun and put a bullet in her head. We’re in the middle of nowhere. No one would hear anything. Take it.”

“Jagger…”

“Do it or I will. And you know I don’t stop at the gun. I wanted to just let her go… but you just said she can’t be trusted. And you know I don’t like loose ends. Go ahead.”

There was silence for a long period of time. I’d fainted two times in my head already.

Right there, I decided that I didn’t really want to die. I’d thought I wanted to. But now, hearing all the things that were said about me… I didn't want to die being known as a sad, lost girl. I didn’t want to die as Flint’s puppet. I deserved better than that.

The unmistakable c*****g of a gun had my eyes snapping open.

“Stop! Please stop!” I screamed, scrambling to a sitting position, with my back against the headboard.

Of course, Lan was the one with the gun. Standing on either side of him were his two brothers… Jagger and West.

Jagger was as intimidating as he sounded, and he simply stared at me with an bored look, as if he knew I’d been awake all this while.

“Hear me out.” I continued, slowly dropping my hands. “We can work together. I could be an asset. I just need you all to trust me.”

Lan continued to point the gun at me while West pulled Jagger for a chat. I sat there on the bed, trembling whilst staring at Lan with hate in my eyes.

“Ninety days.” Jagger spoke when he returned to me, after nearly thirty minutes of speaking with West. “I’ll let you live for ninety days, and if we still don’t have Flint by then, I’ll kill you myself.”

My chest expanded with relief. “T-Thank you—”

“I’m not doing you a favor.” He countered me. “We’re helping each other. I would suggest you keep to your end of the deal and spill all the information we need to catch Flint.”

Then he turned to Lan. “I have a patient to work on. Get all the information we need out of her, and get to work.”

Patient? He was a… doctor?

“Surgeon.” West sighed as the door slammed shut after Jagger.

Shit. I’d said that out loud.

Lan lowered his gun and I glared at him. “I bet you were so happy to pull that trigger. You really hate me that much.”

He just stared at me with an unreadable expression, then turned to West.

“I’m out of here.” He said. “Say your goodbyes too. We have a lot to handle today.”

“Coward.” I muttered under my breath, watching him walk away.

West chuckled under his breath. I glared at him too.

“I don’t like you either.” I informed him. He shrugged, still smiling softly. “But thank you.” I muttered.

“Sure.” He responded.

Pulling out a phone from his pocket, he tossed it to me. “Here. Record all you know in there. I’ll take it tomorrow. And don’t stress yourself. That phone has no network at all.”