CHAPTER 8

Atlas’ POV.

Blood splatters covered my face as my fist connected with the side of this man’s head. I was angry- fuck, I didn’t even know why I was angry.

My knuckles burned with the pain, this was going to leave quite the bruise, oh well. I swung my hand back again, ready for another collision.

“Fucking twat!” I screamed into the face of the man as teeth flew from his mouth. He spat blood onto the floor, that irked me, I hated messy prisoners.

“Boss-” the man started, tears leaking from his eyes and soaking his already blood covered collared shirt.

Men in my mafia didn’t cry, they didn’t show emotion.

“She’s not even a fucking prostitute!” I screamed; how could my men have gotten it so wrong? This girl was barely an adult, she was so young and yet her she was in my mafia as a prostitute.

I swung another punch, trying my best to cure the rage that was boiling inside of me, but it wasn’t helping.

The door clicked open, and I spun around in a hurry, still holding a bloody fist in the air. This man had been the driver, the operation’s first in charge, he had picked the girl. Bastard.

Jay entered the room, a concerned look plastered across his tattooed and scarred face.

“Atlas,” He addressed me. Jay was my right-hand man, my most trusted of the entire Italian Mafia. He and I had known each other for our entire lives, we were practically brothers.

“where’s the girl?” I questioned, throwing yet another punch. This time, the man went limp, falling slightly forward in the chair. Well, that was my fun over, he was dead.

“Still in the meeting room, did you want me to put her in with the other whores?” Jay asked, it triggered me, making my blood boil further.

“No,” I had said quickly, a little too quickly to avoid suspicion, “Just take care of it,” I spat.

“What happened?” Jay questioned. He was the only member of my mafia that dared to ask me questions. But now wasn’t a good time to ask me a question.

“Fuck, I don’t know! Just fix the problem,” I yelled furiously, my eyes wild and hungry, I was filled with unexplainable rage.

“Yes boss,” Jay nodded and opened the door, giving me a glance back before leaving.

I grabbed out my gun from its holster and pointed it at the already dead man in front of me. Fuck I was mad. I fired six shots into his chest, screaming and cursing as I went before also storming out of the room, following Jay back to where I had left this unnamed and yet strangely fascinating girl to cry.

“Jay!” I called in a cold and restrained voice, he turned to me, nodding.

“Can you hear her?” I demanded as he pressed an ear to the door, silence filled both of our heads, the only noise that could be heard was the broken and stuttering breaths that told each other we were alive.

“No,” Jay backed up from the door and eyed me carefully, suspicion filled both of our minds.

Fuck. If someone had touched or taken her then there was going to be a lot of blood around this place, the walls would practically be painted red.

“She was crying before,” I stated, why would she have stopped crying or at least whimpering, this girl was a mess. A beautiful mess. It had been ten minutes; one doesn’t just stop crying about the death of a friend in ten small minutes. Where head she gone?

“Open the door?” Jay asked in a hushed and yet serious tone, I nodded.

Fuck yes, open the door, what if something had happened to her?

My heart seemed to slow as Jay gave the door a gentle shove, what the hell was happening to me, why did I give a fuck if anything happened to some girl my men had picked up off the side of the street?

She seemed different though, she had the guts to look me in the eyes and tell me that I was wrong. I wasn’t sure if I liked that or if it made me want to kill even more.

“Go find back up, in case things turn ugly,” I told him sternly.

Once the door was open a crack, I forced my way inside, all the lights were off.

There was a faded blood stain on the floor but no one around it.

It was quiet, eerily quiet as I waited for something to happen, anything to ripple the pool of anxiety burning within me.

Suddenly I saw a small and slim figure appear from the darkness and I was attacked, she was sobbing and cursing under her breath. Her face was tilted down, but her dark eyes were fixed on mine, just like mine had been to hers earlier.

Attacked was too much of an understatement.

I was jumped on.

Out of reflex I grabbed my gun from its holster and before I could do anything with it, she had slapped it from my hands and gone sliding across the floor into the darkness.

My reflexes had been too slow before in all of a second I had been shoulder barged and was now lying confused on the ground with the body of Aleara on top of my throwing punches at my face screaming and slurring curses.

“You fucking devil! Why did you bring me here? You could have killed me, you had the gun to me, why didn’t you kill me?” She screeched, loud enough for it to be heard down the halls. this had gone on for long enough.

I grabbed her arm as she went to throw another punch and flipped her over my head, pinning her down underneath me, shoving my fist to her mouth to shut her up. She wriggled around and attempted in my poor efforts to kick me. I let out a small laugh, taking my focus from her for a split second, that was my first mistake.

If I wasn’t so confused, I might have been impressed.

Using her small frame and size, she managed to escape my hold, throwing another punch at me, causing me to duck.

This crazy bitch was getting on my nerves now.

She ran at me again, throwing another punch, screaming slurred words that I couldn’t quite make out at me. I played defense and shielded my face from her tiny fists. I didn’t want to hurt her, she had a pretty face, but I wasn’t going to be punched either.

I threw a punch of my own, hard enough to hurt, but not hard enough to cause any serious damage. Surprisingly though, she ducked it and returned another one of her own. I stumbled back a little, my feet tripping on something on the floor.

My gun scooted across the floor and her eyes were locked on it. She was absolutely psychotic; this girl was insane.

I decided to put an end to this before she shot me, and I ended up being the one dead in this situation. The second she jumped at me again, I launched at her, pinning her hands down and slamming then onto the concrete floor.

I heard her knuckles crack, they were bleeding, she was bleeding. I didn’t want her to be bleeding.

But she didn’t seem to care, her eyes were bleeding tears for fucks sake- it didn’t seem to make any kind of a difference to her.

Her tear-stained face stared up at me as I glared down into her eyes, they were helpless. She was like a lost puppy, she wanted to go home.

I pressed a finger to my lips, keeping my other hand covered over her mouth, telling her to be quiet. Our chests rose heavily up and down in unison, as if they were synced with each other.

“I’m going to let go now and you’re not going to scream, attack me, or run away,” I made myself clear, “I have men out there waiting if anything happens,” No I didn’t, I had one man, Jay. Who would possibly not even be outside right now for the reason of still finding men for back up.

She knew I was dangerous, and she was shit scared of me, I could see it in her eyes, but she wasn’t absolutely terrified still. She still had the courage to stand up to me, to fight me for fucks sake.

She just nodded, but that wasn’t good enough, I wanted her to tell me that she wasn’t going to start any kind of shit.

“Answer in words Aleara,” I growled at her, attempting to present myself in the most threatening and hostile manner possible. I released my hand covering her mouth, still keeping her shoulders pinned.

“How do you know my name?” She stuttered in that scared and uncertain tone; it pained me to hear her talk like that and I couldn’t figure out why. That angered me.

“I know a lot of things,” I hissed at her, my cold eyes fixed on hers as I pocketed my gun and took away my hands from pinning her down, taking a glance at her bloody knuckles.

“You fucking killed her,” She hissed at me, right, her whore friend. That’s what this was all over.

The door opened again, and Jay barged in with at least six men behind him.

“Go. I have this under control,” I told him. He knew better than to hesitate, leaving.

I turned my attention back to the sobbing mess that was Aleara in front of me, it fucking sucked. I didn’t want her to be crying.

“I killed her,” I gripped her hand within my own and examined her bloody knuckles, why did I shove her?

“And it needed to happen,” I scowled, standing up and looming over her, “Get up,” I ordered. In a scurry, she reluctantly did what she was told, standing unsteadily next to me.

I know a lot of things. But I don’t know why you matter to me like you do.

God, I needed a joint after this shit.