THE MAFIA’S CAPTIVE ANGEL

Mateo reached into his suit and pulled out a handgun, holding it at his side.

“Do not leave the car,” he says sternly to Zoey and me. “Stay right here and put your head down.” He opened the car door, I took heed of his words, and Zoey and I kept our heads down.

I kept hearing the sound of gunshots being fired repeatedly. I slowly turned to the window side to peep at what was going on. There seems to be a set of men shooting at Sins men; there were more than twenty of them.

I find my eyes wandering to where the bullet holes were at the front of the car seat. There were three holes: two at the front and one at the back. My whole body was stiff when I realized the direction of the bullet hole.

This time, I was the target.

I know being shot before should make me less terrified, but it didn’t. I was shaking in fear; they were so close. I could have died if not for the bullet that missed me by an inch. Who were these people?

Could they be Sin’s enemies, and they are trying to get to him by getting to me? Zoey took my hands in hers, trying to steady them as they continued to shake uncontrollably.

I couldn’t control how my heart raced in fear; just the thought of almost dying makes me pale and sickly. I began chanting a series of prayers in my mind, praying that the man above would listen to me.

Mateo opened the door, jolting me from my thoughts. My eyes trailed down to the side of his waist, which he was holding with his right hand, and I saw blood. Panic rose in me. His gun was still secured in his hand.

“We need to get inside. Come on, follow me.” Zoey and I wasted no time and stepped out of the car. Sin’s men covered us while we raced inside the house.

“We are going to your room, Mani.” Mateo said, and we all moved in that direction. When we got in, Mateo slid through the walls of the room to the floor, grunting in pain.

“Lock the door!” Mateo spat the word with so much difficulty as another shot was heard from downstairs, making me tremble in fear as I stood up, dumbfounded.

“Lock the door now, Mani!” Mateo screamed out at me.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

I quickly ran to lock the door while Zoey assisted Mateo in standing up, supporting his weight on Zoey and the wall beside him. His bloody hands were fumbling with his phone before placing it on his ear while he was speaking to someone intensely in Italian.

Bullets started coming through the windows, leaving the glasses lying on the floor in pieces. Mateo took my hand, and I took Zoey’s. We walked straight toward the walk-in closet. I was confused. I didn’t know what he was doing, and I wasn’t the only one; Zoey raised an eyebrow and asked me, but I just nodded my head in response.

Mateo went to the table where Sin keeps his watches in the center of the room and opened the shelf. I didn’t know what he did there, but the table was divided, and an iron door could be seen on the floor.

I helped him pull it open since he was hurt, and we both hurriedly went down the stairs, revealing a passage. Mateo pressed a button by the side, closing everything up like it wasn’t there.

Soon, light will illuminate the way, showing us the way. We walked into what looked like a cave in silence for a minute before I saw another door with a fingerprint scanner at the side.

“Place your hand on it.” Mateo said. His right hand was covered in blood that had been continually dripping on the floor. But he didn’t seem to mind, even when he grunted in pain and applied more pressure to it.

“I don’t think my fingerprints are registered.” I told him, confused, wondering why my print was registered on the door when I didn’t even know until a few minutes ago that this passage existed.

“Just trust me and do it,” he grunts out. I placed my fingers on the pad, not really expecting it to respond when it did. I walked inside with Mateo following behind, shutting the door.

A dim light flickered, illuminating the whole room, and I noticed we were in some kind of cottage. My eyes quickly wandered around the room, taking in the view. Mateo sat on a couch, and Zoey sat on the floor beside him, looking at his wound.

The place was kind of dusty, showing that it hadn’t been used for a while. But the place looked great and marvelous; it had everything, from a kitchen to a bedroom and bathroom.

Mateo grunted in pain, and I was immediately by his side.

“What do you think you are doing?” Zoey asked in horror, watching him press a knife to his side, trying to take out the bullet.

“What do you think, Zoey? I need this bullet out before it moves and goes down to my spine.” He grunts and lets out a strangled growl, his breath deep and slow.

“Let me help you.” I said, reaching for the knife, but he moved it out of my reach.

“No,” he answered firmly.

“You could get infected if I don’t help you.”

“I don’t care. You could hurt yourself with the knife, and I don’t think I can handle Sin’s wrath.”

“Quit being stubborn, Mateo, and let her help.” Zoey tries to reason with him.

I rolled my eyes at this;

he was the one hurt, yet he was worried and scared that I could hurt myself. “Did you know I studied to become a doctor. I might not have started my residency yet, but I think I know how to handle a knife, so quit being stubborn and let me help.”

“Do you plan on bleeding to death here, Mateo, or would you rather let Mani help you?” Zoey asked him, fed up with his stubbornness.

Mateo looked at me and then at Zoey, probably debating with himself if it was the right choice to give me the knife or not. He grunts out in pain again before handing over the knife to me.

I dropped it at the table beside him before running to the kitchen. Since the cottage looked stocked, I thought I could find a bottle of alcohol, and I did find a bottle of whisky, along with a small bowl. I told Zoey the things I needed, and we quickly hurried towards the room looking for them and something like a bandage but didn’t see any; instead, we found a thread and a needle.

Rushing back into the room, I put the knife and needle into the bowl, and Zoey helped pour some whiskey on top to disinfect it.

“Remove your shirt.”

Mateo let out a smug look. “Sin would be jealous if he heard what you just said.”

I am baffled at how he could still manage to crack a joke right now. I stared at him, and he slowly removed his shirt, grunting when the cloth slashed at his wounded flesh. I pulled the alcohol onto his wound, and he groaned, holding tightly to the side of the couch.

I took out the knife from the bowl and made a little cut on the side of his body. I pulled on a finger to see if I could locate the bullet, which thankfully I did.

It’s a good thing it didn’t go in too deep and hit any vital organs. I place another finger; I was successful enough to get hold of the bullet, while Mateo grunts in pain. I slowly pulled it out, not wanting it to slip from my fingers.

I managed to bring it out safely before placing it on the table. I took out the needle and thread and fixed the thread on the needle, sewing him up. I torned his shirt into two, using it as a form of bandage. I wrapped it around his waist, not too tight.

“Does it hurt?” I asked worriedly.

“It’s bearable,” he whispered.

The silence was broken when the sound of Mateo’s phone buzzing was heard. He immediately took it and started speaking in Italian. I stood up, taking the bowl and everything else to the bathroom.

Zoey washed out the blood from the bowl and knife while I washed my hands with water before helping her put them back where we had taken them.

“We are staying here for the night till Sin comes,” Mateo emphasizes. I nodded my head, then walked to the other couch and took a seat.

“Go to sleep, both of you; you don’t need to worry; everything is ok.” Mateo said. “Sin won’t be back till the early hours of the morning.”

I laid on the spare couch and asked Zoey to take the bed in the room. Of course, she refused at first, but I told her not to worry because I was okay on the couch before she finally agreed to go to sleep in the room.

The images of the outside filled with dead corpses struck my head, making me shiver. It was not a sight I ever wanted to see.

“You will be alright, so don’t worry. Sin would have my head if anything happened to you. So just go to sleep.” Mateo mutters.

I let out a yawn, and my eyes shot closed, wanting to end the nightmare of the day.