Gods and Monsters (Mafia Romance)

S I X

Alicia's P.O.V.

It's not that I don't believe in luck. I do, I really do, I mean, I believe in true love, and if this doesn't need some luck then I don't know what does. 

I just think that my luck was always the worst. Okay, maybe not the worst; I have Cindy, Jason, Cheryl, Kylie, I have a house to live in –even if it's never gonna be a home to me- and I have food, and objectively good looks and a part-time functioning brain, and I'm getting a great education, and I actually have hopes that I will follow my dreams one day. Oh yeah, and I have dreams too. 

I know that all those things are not easily found in the same person and I'm truly grateful for them. 

But sometimes...Luck just hates me! 

I'm still deciding if this was one of those times or not.

I was so convinced that it would happen. I had lost hope, tried not to feel anything, but I failed. I felt everything. I felt his nasty hands touching me, I felt him ripping my clothes off me, I felt the rough asphalt of the road scratching my bare skin. I felt pain from his men's tight grip on my hands, my legs felt almost numb, because of his knees pinning them, breathing felt harder every second the other guy spent gagging me. I felt dirty, hurt, desperate, disgusted, stupid and completely defeated and unprotected. I felt doomed... 

And then, all of a sudden, I felt that hot liquid all over me, and the body of the man who was about to rape me, falling limp over my own. 

His men's tight grip on my arms loosened and the hand was removed from my mouth. 

It was chaos... 

Men were yelling and running all around, the sound of shooting burned my ears, even though I'm pretty sure it wasn't actually that loud. 

I did my best to push the dead body off of me, without looking. Only when I finally succeeded, I dared to open my eyes. I didn't let the whole scene faze me, even though I really felt like screaming, crying, laughing, running away and shooting my almost-rapist's dead body a couple of times, just to feel a little better. Especially when I took a hold of his gun that had fallen from his hand right next to me, that last option seemed very tempting... 

But I compromised with a single, hard kick on his balls, before frantically running towards a parked car nearby, and hiding behind it. Wearing nothing but my shoes, with blood all over my face, my body and my hair, holding a gun and hiding behind of a car, unable to do anything else...

My anxiety however was now a little better than before, when I thought that I was about to get raped. It was still here, off course, and combined to the adrenaline, it was making me hyperventilate again, but the thought that he was now dead, was soothing to me. 

Is it bad to think like that? 

The quiet street that had returned to his normal, scary silence, gave me hope this time. Hope that maybe I could now make it at home... 

I hesitantly stood up and whipped some of the blood off my face. Shaking, I made some slow steps out of my hiding spot, behind the car, and back to the open road. The gun still in a tight grip on my trembling hand. 

"Don't come near me!" My voice broke, as I pointed the gun to the man standing a few feet away from me. 

His height and built-up body intimidated me, but he didn't make the slightest move towards me, giving me a little hope that maybe, just maybe, he wouldn't hurt me. His gaze slowly raised from his suit's sleeves that he had been trying to fix and my honey-green eyes locked with his light ones. With the distance between us, and in the darkness of the almost empty street, I couldn't quite tell the color. They just looked... very light. 

My chest was rising and falling, my breathing still in a bad state. Covering my nakedness, was the last thing that crossed my mind me at that moment, and so I just remained still. But he didn't look at my naked body at all. He only looked me in the eyes.

"I called- Woah!" The man, whom I just noticed, quickly turned around, so that he wouldn't look at my uncovered body. 

Taken aback by his presence, I quickly turned the gun, pointing it on him, and my shaking finger almost pulled the trigger.

"Don't come near me!" I shouted again, in the same broken voice. My eyes moved to the first man, when I sensed him moving. His eyes were still on mine, as he was taking off his suit's jacket. "What are you doing?" My voice trembled, as I started backing off.

He held his suit jacket out, and made a few slow steps towards me. He didn't speak. 

"No!" I yelled, taking another step back. "Stop!" I looked away as tears started running down my cheeks again. He stopped, just when my trembling hand, couldn't hold the gun anymore, and let it fall. I was shaking vigorously and I started sobbing again. 

A warm feeling hugged my body, and I looked up to see him right in front of me, putting his suit jacket over my shoulders. I looked back away and flinched, when I felt his hand very lightly touching my arm. "Please don't touch me!" I muttered in a small voice and he quickly pulled his hand away and made a step back. 

I lifted my head a little, and my eyes met his, once again. From the very close distance between us, I could now see the color of his eyes, my favorite color. Baby-blue! 

I hesitantly took a hold of his suit jacket, laying on my shoulders, and muffled myself in it, my eyes never leaving his.

We just stood there still, staring at each other, until I felt my legs giving up on me and collapsed on the ground, hugging my knees, and laying in a fetal position. The last thing that I remember, from before my vision blurred and my eyes closed, was someone's hands picking me up, bridal style, my arms unconsciously hugging his neck and my head using his shoulder as a pillow. 

❦❦❦

"Do you think she knows?"

"Knows what?"

"Did she see us, Salv?" 

"The girl was obviously shocked, she has probably no idea what happened."

"I guess we're gonna have to wait for her to wake up... Should we take her to a doctor?" 

"We should ask her first, you saw how she freaked out by simply seeing us."

The voices sounded ruffled in my head, and I could hardly understand what they were saying. I slowly opened my eyes, but the feeling that everything around me was spinning, made me close them right after.

It felt like I was waking up in a horrible hungover. Only that I hadn't drank...

I slowly opened my eyes again and jumped up, realizing that I was in a car.

My memories jumped up in the surface, when I looked down at my upper body -only covered by a black suit jacket, which had probably seen better days- and my blood-stained legs. 

Breathing was becoming very hard, my lounges felt dried out and suffocated and my throat totally dehydrated. My eyes were burning, my lips felt chapped and swollen, I couldn't feel my left cheek and my whole body felt a little numb. 

And  I was sitting on the back seats of some stranger's car... 

The driver-seat's door opened and a man popped his head in the car, looking for something, until he finally noticed me. "Oh look, sleeping beauty is up." He grinned at me.

I was left staring at the unfamiliar man, when one of the back doors opened and the man who had given me his suit jacket, bent down, looking at me. I quickly moved to the other end of the back seats and tried to open the door.

"Hey, hey, calm down! We're not gonna hurt you, alright? Everything's going to be okay." His deep, husky voice sounded calm and smooth, and it surprisingly seemed to comfort me, relax me and send goosebumps all over my body at the same time. 

I stopped trying to open the door and turned to look at him. He looked like a god... Dark hair and a stubble, sharp jawline and high cheekbones, a straight nose, full lips, and piercing ice-blue eyes. 

I was breathing heavily, but I was finally almost calm now.

"You are free to leave if you want to, but it looks like you can't. We could drive you somewhere, or take you to a doctor... What do you need?" He asked, seeing me calmer now.

"Water. Can I have some water?" My voice came out wheezy and hoarse, and my throat hurt with every letter I pronounced. 

"Here. It's not used." 

The man in the driver's seat handed me a bottle of water. I opened it, after a bit of an effort, since my strength had abandoned me, and brought it to my lips. My throat felt like it was on fire with every gulp of water, but getting hydrated was making me feel much better at the same time. I put the lid back on the bottle and murmured a 'thank you' to the two men.

"Where do you want us to take you?" The man in the front seat talked again. His voice was soft, like he was talking to a child. 

"Cheryl's." I murmured, playing with the water bottle on my hands, and then gave them the address of Cheryl and Kylie's house.

The man whose suite jacket I was wearing stood up, still outside of the car and attempted to get into the back of the car, next to me, making me jump up and move even further from him. 

He immediately stopped, when he noticed my discomfort. "You don't have to be scared, we don't hurt little girls..." His gaze met mine and I nodded, mesmerized by his gorgeous eyes.

He got back out of the car, closed the door, opened the door to the passenger's seat, and got back in, sitting in the front, next to the other man. 

The car started –thankfully to the right direction- and I rested my head on the window, looking outside and making sure that they were indeed taking me to Cheryl's house. I hugged my knees, so that my legs wouldn't feel so exposed, and muffled myself more into the suit jacket –if this was even possible. 

"I'm... Lorenzo by the way..." The driver looked at me through the front mirror. I noticed that his eyes looked the same as the other man's. Ice-blue. "You can call me Enzo, if you want. Oh, and that's my brother, Salvatore." His efforts to make me feel better, were actually working out a bit, since it didn't feel like I was being kidnapped or something. If they had the intention to harm me, they probably would have already, without covering me up or starting a conversation, nothing stopped them. 

"I'm Alicia." I said quietly, and did my best to crack a smile for them. I don't think it worked...

"That's a nice name..." Lorenzo smiled at me again. He seemed nice, but I was in no mood for a conversation in my current state. 

"Thank you." I murmured and looked back outside. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding, when we got into Cheryl's neighborhood. 

"How old are you?" I looked at the front mirror to see Salvatore looking at me. "If you don't mind me asking, of course. I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable." He added quickly. 

"It's okay." This time I think that I actually managed to smile a little. "I'm 17, but I'll turn 18 this year." 

"Fuck... Bastards!" I heard Lorenzo murmuring, and even though I was curious about what he meant, I didn't say anything. 

I looked at both of them through the mirror again, and saw Salvatore clenching his jaw. Looking down I noticed how his hand was tight in a fist. 

Are they mad about the fact that I'm young or are they mad with the rapists? 

I remained silent, until the car reached the mansion before Cheryl and Kylie's. "It's here..." I said and gave the men another weak smile. 

The car came to a stop, just before the house. 

"Could I, uh-" I hesitated to ask, and both men turned back, looking at me. I took in a deep breath. "Could I possibly make a phone call? I must have forgotten my phone at home."

"Off course." Salvatore handed me his cellphone, after unlocking it. 

I gave him another small smile, as I started dialing Cheryl's number. 

"Yeah?" My best friend finally picked up the phone a few beeps later. Her voice sounded sleepy and I'm pretty sure that I heard her yawning.

I immediately breathed in relief. "Cherry it's me, I'm out of your house, can you distract Thomas so that I can come in? I don't want anyone to see me like this." 

(A/N; Thomas ➻ one of Cheryl and Kylie's house's security guards)

"Wha-" Her voice was full of confusion. "Ali? What are you talking about, it's like 3:30 a.m.!" 

"Cheryl, please!" I pleaded in a small voice, hoping that she would just do as I told her. "I'll explain everything later, just... please." 

"I'll be right there." She ended the call and I gave Salvatore his phone back with a small "thank you" to which he nodded.

A couple minutes later Cheryl appeared from the front gate, wearing a white crop top and some lilac pajama-shorts with colorful cupcake prints on it. 

"Thank you so much, I literally owe you my life!" I said with another smile to the two men, who had been waiting for me patiently.

"You owe us nothing." Salvatore said, looking in my eyes again, and Lorenzo nodded in agreement. I bit my bottom lip and looked down, something I always do when I'm nervous.

I opened the door and got out of the car, which I now noticed was a shiny, white Porsche. I murmured another "thank you" with eyes full of gratitude, before closing the door behind me and flashing them one more smile, while limping -because of my twisted ankle- towards a wide-eyed Cheryl. 

"Oh my god, Ali! Wha- What the hell happened? Is that-Is that blood?" My best friend ran to me, letting me lean on her, and helping me walk towards the inside of her mansion's of a house gate, while caressing my hair. 

I turned to look at the car that brought me here one last time, as she pressed the bottom of her remote control, closing the gates behind us. When the gates were closed, I saw the car leaving and broke down in Cheryl's arms.

"Shh... It's alright, you're okay!" She held me, caressing my hair. 

"N-No, it's not, they're gonna come after me again, an-and then they will do it!" I was full on Kim-Kardashian-ugly-cry by now, as my best friend continued to rub my hair and my back and trying to calm me down.

"Come on, let's get inside. Thomas will be back here soon and you didn't want him to see you like this." She said softly and I nodded, before we started rushing all the way through the big garden and into the house. 

About an hour later, we were sitting in Cheryl's hot-tub, on her bedroom's balcony, covered in warm water and vanilla-smelling bubble-bath, drinking vanilla milkshakes and eating some leftover pizza that she and Kylie had ordered earlier tonight. 

I had showered in her ensuite's shower the moment I stepped foot in her room, feeling too dirty to even touch anything. I washed myself with her expensive soaps three times, and scrubbed my skin with her body-scrubs so hard that it now looked red, but at least I had managed to stop feeling so damn filthy. 

I didn't even let Cheryl leave me alone in her bathroom as I showered, I had her waiting for me right outside of the shower, while talking to me as well, so that I wouldn't be scared. I was so scared of being alone, so scared that if I was alone, they would come back. She only left when I was finally out of the shower and in the main part of her bedroom, brushing my hair and putting on some creams and other stuff she gave me, wherever I had a bruise. 

In that time, she had gone downstairs in the kitchen, to make the milkshakes -which she didn't really make, she only selected the milkshake flavor and the milkshakes started coming out from the ice-cream machine thing on her refrigerator, just like coffee does, from the coffee machine. So 'making' the milkshakes and re-heating the pizza only took her a couple minutes, and then she was back in her room, with the idea of us relaxing in her hot tub, while enjoying the city-view from her balcony. 

I had explained to her exactly what happened –from the guy blackmailing me with our videos, to the two men saving me and bringing me to her- and we were now sitting in a comfortable silence, enjoying the warm water being pressed all over our bodies, while snacking and staring at the view. 

"You know you're not a w***e, right?" She suddenly turned to me. "Actually, correction; you're my  whore." She smiled weakly at me and I let out a small laugh. 

"And you're not either. For me that word is only suitable for cheaters, or whoever betrays someone they were close with." I thought aloud, resting my head back.

"I agree. Even women, who get paid for s*x, they're not whores, they're prostitutes, or escorts or whatever they're called. I despise this word and how easy it comes out of everyone's mouth..." 

"It's a word made by men, that shames women for doing what men do. But this isn't something bad for me, so I'm never using that word like this."

"Right, like it's funny how there's no male-word for whore... Or is there?" She frowned, trying to think. 

"I can't think of any... Maybe there is, but it's definitely not used as much as its female version, nor in the same way. So I'm using that word for men, who deserve it as well!" I shrugged. 

"Draven is a whore." She decided. "He did what anyone would humiliate a girl for, yet nobody had a problem with it. Quite the opposite actually; all guys think of him as a legend for having two of the most beautiful girls in our school at the same time." She sipped on her milkshake. "It's unfair... You know how I hate Stacy, but everyone's been calling her names about sleeping with Draven, while you two were together, but no one says anything as close to the things they call her, about him..."

"Yeah, I know! If Stacy is a w***e, so is he! And then, you saw how everyone looked at me today, about the nudes thing. Everyone calls me a w***e behind my back for sending nudes to my-then-boyfriend, but nobody talks about the fact that he literally sold me to his friends, who published my pictures for everyone to see. And it's not that he needed the money or whatever..." 

Cheryl nodded in agreement. "And then, that poor excuse of a man, calling us whores while watching and –as he  put it himself- enjoying  our..." She paused, looking at me. "Videos..."

"Yeah, and then he tried to 'test my talents', which wouldn't be bad enough to make him a w***e. Only a rapist, which apparently isn't as bad." I was fuming, and I tried to send the memories from earlier away. 

Cheryl rested her head on my shoulder, and gave me a small hug. "He's where he belongs." She said bitterly. 

I was silent for a few moments thinking. "Do you think Salvatore and Lorenzo killed him?" I asked in a small voice and she raised her head, looking at me.

"I don't know baby, I wasn't there... Do you not remember anything  from the moment you stood up and until you met them?" She asked, giving me a sympathetic look. 

I shook my head no. "I'm surprised I even remember that moment at all... It happened so quick, and I had my eyes closed, almost the entire time, because of how terrified I was; I didn't see anything." 

Cheryl sighed, resting her head on my shoulder again. "It's over now." She caressed my shoulder with her head, making me crack a small smile. "But you were so stupid Ali! You know I've been trying not to lecture you about what you did tonight, all this time, but I can't hold it anymore; you acted so, so stupid and reckless! Never do that again, you hear me?" Her head was back up, and she was looking at me with hurt in her big blue eyes."

"I know, I wasn't thinking, and when I did I regretted it, but it was too late... I'm sorry cherry, I'm so, so sorry!" A tear left my eye as I spoke. 

"Oh come here, i***t!" She pulled me closer to her, in a tight hug. "What would I do without you, you stupid b***h, huh? What would Jason do if you were hurt, or Cindy, or Ky? Never do that again!" 

"Pinky promise, I won't!" I gave her my pinky and hers joined with it. 

"I'll never do anything like that either." She murmurs and we unlink our pinkies. Pinky-promises are very important to us.

"About the video..." I started again, a few moments after. 

"Why did you let him film that Ali? It's not that you don't know the school's jerk, Damian..."

"I know, I was just so, so mad with Draven... I wanted to hurt him the way he hurt me, and going with his best friend was the best revenge I could think of. At that moment I didn't even care if Damian filmed it, I even thought that maybe if Draven watched that video, it would hurt him even more. But I regretted it immediately after, and Damian agreed to keep this a secret. Besides, it would be bad for both of us, if he published it; to me for obvious reasons and to him because Draven would find out eventually. I still don't believe that he's responsible for the blackmailer having it, but I'll find out for sure, on Monday."

"You don't think he sent it to anyone?" She asked in disbelief. 

"As weird as it sounds, no I don't. He might be a huge fucker, but a) he values his friendship with Draven very much, and b) he's not stupid and he knows very well how the thing with nudes and such videos goes; the minute one more person has them, there's no stop. He wouldn't risk sending it it to anyone, he wouldn't risk Draven finding out what he did with me two days after we had broken up. It's more possible that he was hacked or something." 

She was thinking about what I said. "Yeah, you're not wrong..." She finally decided. "I'll help you make sure on Monday. And then I'm gonna have a small chat with Leo, about my own video..." 

"Are you sure it was him, who filmed it?" 

"100%! We caught him Ali. Right then, right there, we saw him filming us. He tried to run away, but Eric is faster, he caught him and we made him delete it. But he obviously managed to save it someplace else before or something..." She rolled her eyes. 

We sat like this for a little while longer.

"I'm sleepy, I'm going to bed. Are you coming?" I said standing up, naked, and getting out of the hot-tub, grabbing a white towel from the balcony's table and wrapping it around my body. My hair was still in the French braids Cheryl had made for me, and therefor it was still damp from my shower earlier. 

"Yeah, my fingers have wrinkled anyways." She said, getting out as well and wrapping her naked body in another white towel, after turning off the hot-tub, or whatever it was that she did with it. 

We got inside, and put on some clothes, Cheryl her pajamas from before, and I a white oversized t-shirt and only a pair of panties underneath. 

We then brushed our teeth and I peed, before tucking ourselves under the soft beddings of her king-sized bed.

"Cheryl?"

"Yeah?"

"You still have my mama's necklace, right?"

"Off course, silly! It's where you hid it. Don't worry, nobody takes what you have left from your mama." 

"Thanks cherry." I murmured, my eyelids were now heavy, and I was drifting into sleep. 

"For what?"

"For being you. And for loving me."

"Thank you too choco..."

I smiled a little at her nickname for me, because of my dark hair. "For what?" I asked her, barely awake anymore.

"For being you. And for loving me." She repeated my previous reply, as we both fell asleep.