My Mafia Madness 2

Chapter 38 - A Costly Mistake

When it had become quite clear to her that Dante wasn’t returning anytime soon, Alexa having still felt an overwhelming sense of exhaustion and pain, decided to retire herself to bed.

She didn’t feel like eating anything, what with the continued sense of nausea surrounding her with each passing hour and the comforting feeling of her soft pillow and warming blanket were far too difficult for her to pass up.

Crawling in under the covers, she lay her head down on the soft, fluffy pillow and rolled onto her side, lifting the blanket up over her shoulders and snuggling in until she was comfortable.

Within minutes, she was fast asleep, deep in a comforting slumber.

-

The sound of the door slowly opening was faint, not loud enough for her to have heard it even if she were awake at that very moment.

The only sign that the door had in fact opened was the dim light reflecting from the hallway outside into the darkened bedroom through the gap left by the open doorway.

A shadowed figure silently made his way inside the bedroom, leaving behind the unconscious man who had been sitting watch by Alexa’s door, now lying on the floor just outside of her doorway with his eyes closed.

The intruder didn’t waste time, closing the door softly behind him before he stalked across the room and located the sleeping woman under her covers on the bed.

A smirk formed at the corner of his lips at just how easy this would be.

Reaching in behind his back, he grabbed at the handle of a hunting knife and pulled it easily out of its custom-made sheath without a sound.

The blade of the sharpened knife glistened in the singular lamp’s light as he moved in to stand over her, right beside the bed.

He took a moment to look down at her, in all her innocence before he would complete his task.

This man had been sent to kill Alexa...

-

Once they had formulated a plan of attack and strategized all possible issues that may arise when they went to pull it off, Nicola, Luca and Dante strode along down one of the hallways, headed back upstairs.

The sound of a voice speaking with concern caused them to stop and listen in.

“What do you mean you can’t get a hold of him?” Lanzo’s voice queried from the room just up ahead.

“I mean, he’s not answering his radio.” Cecilio’s voice explained rather frantically.

“I don’t get it, Joe knows our protocols for check ins… why wouldn’t he answer?”

Frowning, Dante continued along to find out what all the commotion was about, with both Nicola and Luca following along behind him.

They stopped right outside of the surveillance room, then stepping inside to barge in on the discussion and find out what was going on.

“What’s all the fuss about?” Nicola demanded, taking charge of the situation while Dante instead chose to stand back and listen.

“It’s Joe, he’s not responding over the radio.” Cecilio reported to his superior, Nicola.

Frowning, Nicola reached in.

“Give me that.” he commanded, snatching the radio out of Cecilio’s hand and pressing the button on the side of it to speak.

“Joe, this is Nicola, we need an all clear from you, over.” he demanded, pausing to wait for a response from the other end.

But none came… there was nothing but the sound of static on the other end.

A strange, unsettling feeling washed over Dante, and he immediately went along with it, moving in to push Lanzo aside before typing in a series of commands into the security system.

Soon after, the video surveillance of the hallway where the henchman Joe should be sitting guard by Alexa’s room came up onto the big screen and everyone glanced up at it in horror.

Especially Dante, who’s face drained of colour right before he bolted out through the open door.

There on the big screen, laying on the floor beside his chair, was none other than Joe!

From what they could see on the screen, he appeared to be unconscious.

Which meant that Alexa was no longer being watched over or protected!

“Holy s**t!”

Lanzo cursed with wide eyes, quickly typing in commands to view the camera built into the guest room.

As soon as it came up onto the screen, all four remaining men froze in terror at the sight of the shadowed figure standing beside Alexa while she slept unknowingly of the danger lurking close by.

“Get this place into lock down!” Nicola commanded loudly.

“And I want everyone we’ve got in that room! NOW!”

As he gave his commands, both Nicola and Luca had pulled out their guns and run off after their Don towards the guest room to assist.

But would they make it there in time to help Alexa?

-

A set of dark eyes peered down at the sleeping Alexa as she breathed in and out slowly, fast asleep and none the wiser of the dangerous intruder standing over her by the side of the bed.

Unfortunately, she would soon find out just how much danger she was in…

Gripping the handle of his knife firmly, the intruder knelt down on the edge of the mattress to lean in over her.

But the movement of the mattress caused Alexa to awaken, opening her sleepy eyes to come face to face with a stranger leaning in over her.

Her eyes widened but just as she opened her mouth to scream out for help, his large palm slammed down to cover over it, muffling her sounds and preventing her from calling out.

She felt a sudden sting coming from the side of her neck and as her eyes glanced downwards, they noticed the glint of a sharp blade currently being held with the tip pressed against her throat.

He had a knife held at her throat!

Fear began to course throughout her body as she found herself momentarily paralysed from it.

Alexa watched as the man crawled onto the bed, straddling her in order to hold her body down and prevent her from escaping his intended attack on her.

Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes as she felt the blade nipping at her throat each time she moved.

From the painful sting and the sensation of a warm, thickened liquid running down the side of her neck, Alexa knew that he had drawn blood and was too afraid to try and fight him off her.

She didn’t want to do anything that might risk losing her child.

And it was clear to her that this man intended on doing her harm.

Then he spoke in English, with a rich, heavy Italian accent.

“Shhh… don’t fight me.” he whispered with a sinister smirk.

“I promise to make this as quick and as painless as possible for you, senorita…”

As he spoke, he leaned in close enough for her to see his facial features and Alexa furrowed her brows at the sight of someone she had never even seen before in her entire life.

How had this man even managed to get in here? Into a place she thought was completely safe?

And where the hell was Dante?

With a deep and menacing chuckle, the intruder then lifted the large knife up into the air planning on plunging it deep into her chest.

This of course caused Alexa’s chocolate brown eyes to widen with terror as she found herself going straight into fight mode.

Adrenalin fuelled her entire body as she found herself instinctively lifting both hands up defensively in an effort to defend herself just as the blade came down.

The sharpened edge of the blade sliced through the side of her arm, causing her to cry out in pain from beneath his large open palm, but the contact from her arm had caused his weapon to skew off target and instead hit the bed linen right beside her.

“Cazzo!” he cursed to himself in Italian.

Now with her arm sliced open, Alexa knew that this was a fight for her life.

And she planned on winning.

Becoming angry with her attacker, she promptly lifted her knee upwards and slammed it into his groin, causing him to freeze.

Tensing up with a loud groan, the shadowed intruder suddenly released his hold on the knife, and it quickly became lost amongst the mess of sheets and blankets covering the bed.

“Cazzo!” he cursed again.

Snarling, he quickly wrapped his hand around her exposed throat and began to choke her, squeezing with all of his strength as Alexa gasped for air.

She was desperately trying to push him away from her as she slid herself out from beneath him.

But his hold on her throat was far too powerful and soon enough she started to feel herself becoming weaker and weaker with each second that passed by.

The lack of oxygen to her brain was beginning to cause her problems.

Grunting, she tried to pry his fingers away from her neck, even for a moment to give her even a mouthful of air. But they remained fixated, pressing into her delicate skin.

“f*****g b***h!” the attacker snapped, moving his second hand in to overlap the first.

Suddenly, he was using both his large hands to choke her.

Feeling a sudden wave of panic washing over her, Alexa tried to lift her knee again, but he and her pinned down this time.

She couldn’t escape his hold on her!

And time was running out.

The sting of fresh, warm tears pricked at the corners of each of her eyes, one tear managing to escape and roll down her left cheek.

Alexa, now desperate, reached out her arm and began blindly searching for the knife he had lost amongst the bed linen during her attack.

Her vision began to blur slightly just as her fingers felt the cold steel blade of the knife and she grasped at the handle as firmly as she could.

Acting on instinct alone, in desperation for air to fill her lungs, Alexa quickly plunged the knife directly into the side of his throat.

The blade had only gone in half way, but the trauma was enough to catch her attacker off guard.

He seemed stunned as he suddenly released his grip around her neck and reached up to feel the knife, while choking on his own blood as it dribbled out from his open mouth.

Alexa in the meantime had been gasping and coughing uncontrollably as the sting of fresh air filled her lungs, one breath at a time.

She took this as her chance to escape and wriggled herself out from beneath him, one inch at a time until she was crawling across towards the edge of the bed to apparent freedom.

But the feeling of being grabbed by her ankle and pulled backwards caused her to gasp, even with her hoarse voice from being choked.

Alexa quickly realised that she had been pulled in towards him again and she turned over in time to see her bloodied attacker with the knife now held in his hand, after having pulled it out of his own throat!

He intended on using it on her, even while he chocked to death on his own blood!

“No, please.” she begged, her voice faint from the trauma.

Staring at him in complete horror, Alexa watched as he lifted the blade up to deliver a fatal blow and she closed her eyes, turning her head away and instinctively covering her arms over her exposed belly.

A mother’s instinct, perhaps…

The deafening sound of gun shots rang out through the air, breaking through the thickened silence.

‘BANG, BANG, BANG!’

Alexa felt warm blood splattering across her chest and face as the man looming over her suddenly went limp and then collapsed off to one side.

He landed on the mattress lifelessly with the knife still gripped firmly in his hand and his eyes frozen wide open.

Slowly opening her eyes, Alexa noticed that her vision was quite blurry as everything seemed to fade in and out while she looked around in shock.

Figures suddenly emerged surrounding the bed with what appeared to be guns held out in front of them as they came and dragged the lifeless attacker's bloodied body off the bed.

Then she felt the warm hands cupping both sides of her face and immediately recognised his familiar masculine scent as it surrounded her.

It was Dante.

She could hear his voice which sounded strangely echoed as he spoke directly to her.

“Bella… speak to me!”

Alexa noticed his panicked expression once before her eyes rolled into the back of her head and everything faded to black.

The last thing she heard was a panicked Dante calling out for her.

“Stay with me, bella… Alexa!”