Mafia's Trap- Jaden

Chapter 10

Katherine POV

    I don’t know how much time went by. I felt worn out as if I had undergone some hard core physical exercises. My eyes were all puffy and I developed a headache from crying too much but thankfully at least the shivering stopped. After my legs gave out, Amelia helped me and led me to the couch which was all battered now. She handed me a cup of tea to calm me down. I took a sip from the cup but it felt tasteless. Who would do such a thing to us? And why? We don’t pose a threat to anybody. Is this Jaden Woods’ way of warning us to keep our mouths shut? No, I don’t think he needs to resort to these petty tactics to scare us, I wondered while gulping down the rest of the tea.

      “Kat, I just called Peter to let him know what happened. He was kind enough to offer us to stay at his place. We can go there for a few days for the time being, at least until we figure out what to do next. What do you think about that?”Amelia questioned as she sat beside me, gently stroking my head. I looked at her and saw worry all over her face. She was holding back her tears and trying to be brave for me but I could see she was scared. It was sweet of Peter to offer us his place to stay but I don't think that we should trust a person involved with the Mafia. I was about to answer her when a grating voice cut me off.

    “Oh my! Looks like you’ve suffered a lot of damage Sugar,” Big Bull slurred, putting on a face of fake concern. He seems to be clearly enjoying this. He was standing at the doorway looking just as gross and drunk as always. He stepped inside the house and walked rather unstably towards us with his usual creepy smile on his face. Did he do this?

    ”My poor girls. What will you do? I assume you have nowhere else to go. Don’t worry. My apartment is just across the hall. I will help you, dolls. I have a spare couch in my apartment. We can sleep there or not.” The bastard was smirking. His words made me gag inwardly. What does he even mean by 'We'? He was now towering over us and his close proximity was making me even more uncomfortable.

    “That won’t be necessary. We can manage perfectly fine on our own,” I stood up from the couch with Amelia, dismissing his offer, trying to get away from him.

    “Sugar, you are being too hasty to reject my offer. Where else will you go? My place is extremely comfortable. Ah! come on, think about it,” he smiled, his voice making my skin crawl. He kept coming closer to us.

    “I..umm.no…it’s not a good idea,” I mumbled, scared.

    “Oh honey come on. Just say yes,” he leaned towards me and grabbed my hand which made me yelp. The strong smell of alcohol emanating from him was suffocating. God! How much does he drink in a day?

    “I think you didn’t hear her clearly. She said no. Stop bothering us and leave our house,” Amelia said, stepping in.

    “Aight girls I’ll leave you be,” Big Bull said further looking at me,” My door is always open, in case you change your mind." He winked at me.  He really is out of his mind. 

    We didn't respond to his remark. It was pointless. He gave me one last glance and left slamming the door in his wake.

    "Thank God we got rid of him" Amy sighed in relief. I simply nodded. My head is still pounding. It seems like the tea had no effect. I think I need Aspirin. 

    I went to the kitchen to find the medicine box. I took the box out of the drawer, put the pill in my mouth and gulped it down with some water. 

    Just then, Amy entered "What are we going to do Kat? Where should we spend the night? Should we just go to Peter's house for now?" She asked, looking at me waiting for my response. 

    "As much as I appreciate Peter's offer, it would be better for us to stay at some motel. We should just take the things that are necessary. We'll figure out what to do next tomorrow."

    Amelia opened her mouth to say something but immediately closed it. I think she's not happy with my decision. Call me a bad sister but I don't like Peter being around Amelia. I can see that he likes her. I am not sure about his intentions though. 

     Suddenly, there was a loud noise at the door. It seems like someone is banging his fists at the door. Is Big Bull back again?

    "You stay here Amelia and make no noise. I'll go see who's at the door and handle it."

    "I swear to God if it's Big Bull again I'll smash his head" I heard her loud voice coming from the kitchen as I made my way to the living room, so much for not making a noise, I rolled my eyes at her comment.

    I cautiously went to the door and opened it with shaking hands. As soon as I opened the door, for a second I couldn’t believe my eyes. There he was standing at my doorway, the man I had been trying to get out of my mind since a week.

    Mr.Woods was well dressed as always. He was in an all dark grey suit with white crisp shirt and a black tie. Why is he here? What does he want now? Was he behind all this? For a second we just stood there staring at each other saying nothing. His face had no expression which made me unable to figure out what he was thinking.

    “You always answer your door dressed like this?” Jaden barked suddenly. I was startled at the tone of his voice. Of all the people who could show up at my door, why does it have to be him? And why is he scolding me! I was about to tear up.

    “You,” was all I could say, wiping away a tear that slipped out. My emotions were going all over the place.

    “Jaden Woods,” he introduced himself smugly. I scoffed inwardly, as if I could forget a murderer.

    “Yeah I know,” I answered, my cheeks feeling hot. God! Why was I blushing? I think I am officially out of my mind.

    I suddenly realised that I was standing too close to him and involuntarily stepped back. I should not be anywhere near him. He is a very dangerous man who could kill me without batting an eyelid.

    “What’s all this?” he asked and took a step towards me and I stepped back again. He seemed pissed for some reason.

    I opened my mouth to answer his question instead a sob escaped and I covered my face with my hands to stop myself from crying.

    “Oh Kitten don’t cry,” he came forward to console me but fortunately Amelia came near me and took me in her arms. I didn't even realise her presence behind me. When did she come out of the kitchen? I told her not to do so. However, I was grateful that she was there because I didn't want to be alone in a room with him after what happened last time in his office.

    “You did all of this didn’t you?” Amelia accused him, pointing her finger at him.

    “I am not the bad guy here. I'm here to help you both, you have to trust me." His voice, unlike his demeanour, was soft. I frowned at him confused. What is he trying to do?

     "We know enough of you already, I know this is all your doing, we don't have anything to give you. And we are definitely not coming with you." Amelia retorted. 

    I looked at Amelia and gestured to her to be quiet. We don’t wanna anger the beast in him. The more angry he is, the more we are in danger.

           "Please leave us alone," I pleaded earnestly. I tried to be as gentle as possible to calm him down so that he doesn't harm us.

            "I've decided that you are a loose end," he said while taking in the condition of our house.

              "I've spent the last five days making arrangements to assure that you pose no threat to the peace I've built," he said, turning back, while keeping his hands in his pockets.

             This was it! How dare he accuse me like this? I promised him that I won't tell a single soul about what I saw that day. How dare he then call me a threat! I was hurt. "I’m not a threat. I haven’t said a word to anyone," I said in my defense, crossing my arms over my body.

He came near me, his designer shoes stopped right in front of my sandals, almost touching it. His eyes bore into me. Not wanting to back up like a little lost puppy, I stood my ground and looked up at him. He then pried my hands away and took my hands in his. 

“By witnessing what you saw that night, you’ve become indebted to me. I spared your life, and you must repay that. I thought by keeping an eye on you it would be enough, but I can see now that this place isn’t safe. And now that you’re in danger, it’s apparent you need a safe place to live." He said it so softly but his voice was hard, only for me to hear.

I opened my mouth to say something but he cut me off,” “I’ve had enough of this,” he said, pressing his finger to my lips. “I’ve decided you owe me and that’s that. Now get dressed, we’re leaving.”

“I am dressed,” I snapped at him and pulled my hand away from him. How dare he come in here and tell me about what to wear. 

“Fine,” he growled, "but pull the sweatshirt down.”

“I’m not going with you,” my voice is weak. I try to protest but even in my heart I know it’s futile.

"Katherine, what choice do you have?” he asked, crossing his arms. “You're getting threats and now your house is ransacked." 

My eyes widen with the realisation that we are utterly and completely at his mercy. We are in such a condition that we can't even go to the cops. This man is not only dangerous but also evil. He already knew what had happened and he played his evil card in blackmailing us.

He shakes his head, "You will lose your life if you don't leave this place. And you owe the biggest debt in Chicago." his voice was so low and dark as his honey eyes gazed at me.

"You both are going to grab your purse and get your pretty ass in my car. Are we clear?” His authoritative voice filled the room leaving no room for argument.

I took a sigh of defeat.

"Katherine, no we can't do this. We can't go with this man. I have already called Peter and told him about this. I'm sure he is on his way to help us. We can stay at his place for a while." Amelia said, she turned her head to face Mr. Woods. 

  I scrunch my eyebrows and looked at Amelia with a puzzled look. What the hell is she talking about? I know she loves to debate but this is not the time or the place. We should not debate with him. I understand that she is trying to save us from this situation but it’s going to land us in more danger. Amelia is being completely naive at this moment. I should do something to make her shut up.

"You both have sixty seconds to decide. I won't be gentle with my words. Either you both are coming with me peacefully, or else I'll have to use other methods." Jaden announced. His tone seemed calm and collected but it was icy.

I stiffen in response as dread washes over me due to his warning. This is bad. This is really bad. 

I needed to talk to Amelia. I'm too confused about the whole situation.  Luckily Mr. Woods' phone rang. Taking advantage of the situation, I immediately grabbed Amelia’s arm and dragged her into the bedroom.

“Kat. Are you mad? We can’t go with a criminal. What if he does something bad to us?” Amelia spoke in shock as soon as we entered the bedroom. She started pacing around the room, unable to stay still. I closed the door and turned to face Amelia. 

“I know going with him is a suicide mission but what else could we do right now. I wouldn’t put it past him to forcibly take us away from here if we resist. Amy, we need to come up with a plan to escape from there as soon as we get the opportunity but for now we will do as he says,” I tried to explain to her the situation. This is the time to use our brain and not the smart mouth that she's got.

"I know we are in a bad situation, please understand Ames even if we try to do anything, he won't let it go. Why can't you understand, he was the one I saw murdering that man that night. He is extremely dangerous. He gave me a warning to not tell anyone. He made a deal with me that night that he'll provide me protection only if I don't tell anyone about the murder when I went up to take my bracelet in the office. I haven't told anyone though, but do you trust me in this?" I asked Amelia. 

She held my shoulders, shaking me as if I were in a daze. "What the hell Katherine, you knew he was the one and didn't even bother to tell me." She was angry, very angry.

"Amy, let's not argue right now. We should follow his instructions. Let's pack all the things we'll need when we escape. Grab whatever you think is necessary." 

Seeing the uncertain look on her face I tried to coax her ,"Please Amy, please listen to me just this once." I urged her to understand.

She nodded at me hesitantly," I am only doing this for you, Kat. I hope you know what you are doing." I gave her a reassuring smile even though I was anxious. I certainly didn’t know what I was doing but doing as Mr. Woods says or getting a bullet on head were our only options and I chose the former. She shook her head and turned towards her cupboard and started packing her stuff in her bag.

I opened the door to my cupboard and started figuring out what things to carry with me. I grabbed our ID cards, other important documents, money that I had hidden under my clothes, that I had been saving since I got the job at the library, a few pairs of clothes, some toiletries and stuffed all of it in my duffel bag.

"Amy, are you done packing?" I stepped away from the cupboard, closed the door and turned around to look at her.

"Yes I have packed my stuff", she replied in a rather subdued voice.

"Amy, I promise I'll not let anything happen to us. We will escape as soon as we can. Trust me." I held her hand to assure her. "Let's go."

We went back to the living room. Mr. Woods was finishing up his call. I walked towards him. "We have decided to come with you, but we won't stay long." I tried to sound as brave as I could be but inwardly I was freaking out. He stared at me for a few seconds. Luckily he didn’t counter. 

We'll see about that later and about this," he pointed to all the mess in the living room. "I’ll send someone for the rest of this later,” He said as I locked the door, and walked down the stairs. When we get outside, I see two guys talking right before they get in the car. There’s no sign of anyone else. The road was deserted. We walked to his car, and he opened the passenger door for me. I inwardly laughed at his gesture.

        “Are you trying to be a gentleman?” I ask not knowing what came over me. My sassiness surprised me.

        “Are you trying to get spanked for being a brat?” he countered. I was flustered. I didn’t expect his bold statement. Not knowing how to respond I just slid in the car. As if that statement wasn’t enough, he leaned in “I won’t always be gentle, get used to it, Kitten."

       He even buckled me up and closed the door before walking around and getting in. I just crossed my arms and looked out the window not wanting to make eye contact with him. He hit the gas and we headed to God knows where.