CHAPTER 2
1032 Words
Inside the warehouse floor was chaos. A combination of shouts, boots scraping against concrete and the squeal of tires peeling away into the night. What should have been a clean handoff had turned into a mess with money gone and plans destroyed. Riley however, being pulled across by her hair, had a faint smile more like an evil grin on her face, thinking happily to herself, at least they don't have the money.
Her arms struggling, her fingers fighting a useless battle of trying to pull her hair from the grip of a towering man, muscles carved like stone, veins taut with power, his shadow swallowing hers as if the night itself held her captive.
Did I really try to fight him?? She thought to herself, amused by her own reckless bravado, he dragged her across the room pulling her like he was dragging the entire world, he shoved her to her knees beneath the swaying yellow bulbs of the warehouse
"Ouch" she grunted as she landed on the cold warehouse floor, she looked around;
At the extreme corner, the Boss, Enzo Deluca sat on a leather chair, calm, collected, the kind of man who didn’t need to shout to command fear, he sat as if the chaos just now was a minor inconvenience. His black suit was flawless, tailored to perfection, his black eyes, competing with the darkness of the night, sharp and unreadable. He looked like he was in his early thirties, dangerously handsome, but there was no mistaking the weight of authority that clung to him.
Riley’s gaze flicked up, and for a heartbeat, the chaos around her seem to have disappeared. The man in the corner, a devil in a god's body, mysterious beauty in obvious danger. Riley felt a sudden refined, controlled sort of menace that drew her in to him against her better judgment. Even bruised and on her knees, she couldn’t help but think he looked like a man carved from sin and discipline, a portrait of the very world she’d been foolish enough to cross.
He lifted up his head slightly, he looked, he saw, the cause of it all, Riley, a slim figure, blonde hair matted with sweat, bruised, breathing hard.
Riley glanced up, defiant, though her heart pounded. She had expected a gang of street thieves, men she could outwit and outrun. Instead, the name slipped from one of the goons along the hallway and it hit her like a bomb.
'I Senza Volto' she muttered bitterly.
Her eyes widened for half a second, her heart pounding, fear written all over her face, then she smirked, covering the flicker of shock and fear. Mafia. I just tried to rob the mafia.
Enzo noticed. He always notices.
“You didn’t know who we were, did you??” he said softly, almost amused. “You thought you were robbing some gang of common thieves??”
She spat blood onto the floor, meeting his gaze without flinching. “Well, you hide it well. For a man of such…calibre, your boys out there weren’t very hard to drop.” her voice, small and defiant, her words sharp as a knife, The room went dead silent, then, it was filled with murmurs from the goons all over, one of the goons moved to strike her, but Enzo raised his hand, and silence fell again instantly. His control over them was absolute.
He stood, walked towards her, each movement slow and deliberate. He circled her, studying her like a predator circling prey that had the audacity to bare its teeth. He glanced at the gorilla figure who had just tossed Riley across the room,
"Vito.... He said softly asif to report the situation "she's a feisty one". He returned his glance to her.
Vito chuckled filling the room like the sounds of distant thunder
Then walking back to her, he said “You tried to steal from the mafia.....from my gang, from 'I Senza Volto'” he murmured, calm as ever. “You fight my men and humiliate them on my street. And even now, knowing who I am, you don’t tremble. Why?”
Riley smirked, her voice raw but steady. “fear..... won’t save me. And begging? That’s not in my blood.”
"Most people would beg for their life, they'd promise anything if they were caught and brought before me, he paused, taking a moment to measure her, but You… you insult me.” his lips curved into a faint smile, calm, measured hit with an edge of intrigue.
She turned her head slightly, her smile sharp despite the blood on her teeth. “Maybe you don’t deserve fear." She dropped the words and it was like a missile sting, hitting it's target.
He continued walking, then stood in front of her, his expression quite inhuman, the type that made people confess to things they didn't even do “I should have you buried under this floor,” he said evenly. “But you’ve impressed me."
Riley felt the word hit her, she had expected to be long dead, but he was saying something she couldn't have imagined in a million years.
Her mind discussing with itself "impressed? What does he mean by I've impressed him, What's going on, What's he talking about????? More and more questions rushed on in her mind, her brain simply unable to provide answers
"Fire like yours doesn’t break easily. It can be dangerous. Or… useful." He paused again "You are reckless, but......reckless people change the game. I like you"
"I like you" the words ringed in Riley ears, like one had placed a bucket over her head and was banging hard on it with a stick, her mind activated again, what does he mean he likes me? Does it mean he's not gonna kill me??
He leaned forward slightly, although slightly the scent of his cologne kept fighting with the air Riley was already struggling to breathe in, his tone was calm, like a man negotiating business, and not someone's life or death, he looked at Riley dead in the eye, and then proceeded to utter the most unthinkable words.
He smiled again; then released the words
"Work for me"
- Writer
