An Arranged Marriage To The Mafia...?

Sick
Exasperation
Panic

It buzzed like an electrical current through every inch of my system as my small Dolce flats glided in rushed speed along the linoleum, the silky smooth satin of my small black dress clung for dear life over my tanned legs and the long white pea-trench wavered in the breeze as I hurried along the disinfectant floors.

My mind swam, swarmed and burned as the elevator loomed slowly to the fifth floor, it paused for the briefest of moments before the heavy steel doors shuddered to an open and I was once again rushing down the worn-out carpeted floors.

"Miss.... miss... miss, can I help you!" The distant rushed voice of a woman adorned in blue scrubs pierced through my ears and had me skidding to a hault as I frantically frolicked around the reception hall of the fifth floor.

"James Radev..." I waited for her to reply and when I recieved nothing but a blank stare in return I raised my voice a little louder, "his room, where is it!?"

"one... one-twe..." Her eyes frowned and scanned over me quickly and I was sure to her I was a complete disaster. My dark hair fell in a mess of loose curls and waves, split frazzeled ends laying in multiple directions around my head and cascading down my shoulders, my make-up stained my pores, masscara running with eyeliner down my foundation as tears of stress leaked their way from my swelling eyes lids, lipsick left a rim around my cracking lips and I was more than aware of the stain it all concealed around my features; but at that very second I didn't care. I didn't care that this nurse most likely recognised me from tabloids and was aready judging me, I didn't care that I was far from glamourous at that second. All I cared for was the health of a best friend; James Radev. "I'm sorry, are you family?"

"I-I"m his..." I bit my tongue for a second before I forced the words to roll from my tongue, "I'm his sister-in-law...kind of...well...- what room?"

"One-twenty-two."

Her voice called once more behind me but I chose to ignore it, the sound fleeting to the distance as I urged myself down the narrow sterile hallways and further toward the awaiting room. Through the blind covered door I could hear faint murmurs, I knew who they belonged to and nothing scared me more. The Radev family stood no more than a few inches on the other side of the door and I could picture them brilliantly; sullen sunken faces, tears streaming, palms resting on the bleeding body before them, hatred dwelling in their broken hearts; hatred not only for the Jakowski enemy but for me. If it wasn't for me James would have never been shot on his way home, a bullet would never have lodged two inches from his excellerating heart and he would have never collided with a cement barrier at full speed. The Radev family hated me, and they had every right.

I hesitated for more than a moment, my mind summing up their hurtful reactions if I happend to open the door, my mind buzzing with images of their burning eyes staring me down. I gulped a lump of air and allowed myself to be clouded in thoughts of revenge and consequences. It drove me to the point where my hand trembled so badly I couldn't take a firm hold of the handle, it drove my knees to weaken to the point where I couldn't quite stand up right and guilt to fly and burn inside. I pushed myself a little further and opened the heavy blind-covered door, the inside room growing to a quick silence.

"Oh Amelia." Maria Radev's unmistakable voice was the first to beckon me deeper into the room as she bustled around and wandered quickly toward me, "I'm so glad you made it safely dear." Her warm embrace lessened the sickening feeling of guilt bubbling inside."

"Is.." I paused for a brief moment catching my breath, "I-is he-"

"He'll be just fine." Maria's palm was placed on her broken son's forehead like only a mother knew how. "The doctors say his critical in these first few hours, wounds this extensive are unpredictable but they're confident he'll recover soon enough and at least be able to be moved to a proper, regular ward." Her voice held a tone of optimism I didn't imagine existed in a mother looking upon her disasterously ruined child, lying lifeless and depending on machines to keep him alive in an Intensive Care Unit.

Sluggishly I waltzed carefully across the linoleum, the floors were glimmering clean, white and polished to a standard above perfection, the sheets were crisp, white and filled with starch, the window over-looking the dark, dank desert outside. My movements slowed and suddenly I grew sluggish. James Radev was fast asleep, unconscious on what I could only presume to be a toxic amount of pain relief, an electrocardiograph bleep at the steady beat of his over-worked heart, wire lead and connected to every part of his entire body and a thick guaze was wound around his upper torso. His once perfectly poised face was writhe with injury, blackened eyes, cut and bleeding lips bruises and contours peering from his smooth skin; these were the fault of his sudden collision, the crash of his car as he turned sharply from the strip and down along a cement barrier. My eyes peered further, down along his harnessed shoulder, his bandaged limbs and the extensive, long white strips of gauze wound around and around his upper chest and right shoulder; these were the result of our world. For whatever reason Jakowski had ordered his men on a death mission, to murder and slay one of our own, and the result was the occupied bed on the fifth floor of Nevada State Hospital.

Blinds flickered on the small square window in the centre of the wooden door, it's hinges groaning with an aching movement as it was forced open from the other side. In the back of my mind I paid sever attention to the sudden intruder, yet my mind stayed focused on James' aided breathing.

"Any change?" Ethan's voice was filled with exhaustion and I paid minimal attention to his, lazy, dragged footsteps.

"Not so much." Antonio barely spoke, instead he watched from a far, his eyes managing to take in every feature, every movement. He was the protector of his family and I could only imagine the thoughts that ran rampid through his mind as his son's life lay in the balance before him. I took a timid step back toward the obviously uncomfortable arm chair behind the door while Antonio's eyes fluttered and burned toward me, his stare was blank and physically said nothing yet I was more than sure it was a look of distaste and loathing. I was the reason his son was in this condition.

Maria's voice whispered from my far right, so low I couldn't quite decipher her secret message. Yet I was more than sure I got the idea once Antonio and her had vanished through the door and out into the waiting passage outside.

"Coffee?" I shook my head slowly as Ethan offered the steamy foam cup my way, intead I focused my attention of the bruised exterior of James. The sight alone had my head swimming with doubt and accusations. Ethan shuffled slowly to the opposite side of the gurney and it was only now that I watched over his disshelved figure. He stood, slumped and visably exhausted, his face sullen with worry, eyes bleeding with tiredness. He was dressed in untidy fashion, his black suit jacket hung loosely over the white bed spread, white collar shirt half untucked from his black slacks and sleeves pushed aboce his forearms. It was more than obvious he was in the middle of some sort or 'business' when the call came through. "They said he hit the off-ramp from the freeway after he was hit..."

I nodded slowly, tears already brimming the bottoms of my shadowed eyes. Ethan's voice continued to mutter sentence after sentence, but it only sounded as if it were a continuing drone, his voice becoming a blur as my own guilt convinced me this was entirely my fault.

"Don't worry," I hadn't noticed Ethan's fluid movement to my side, "We'll find the ones who did this Amelia."

A shrill, cold laugh fell from my lips and caused Ethan's brows to knit together in confusion. "I did this."

"What?"

"I did this to him. If he hadn't of been the one to take me home, -"

"It would have been someone else." the way he spoke was as if he too had already contemplated this idea.

"If I had of stayed and not gone home-"

"He would probably be dead rather than just hurt."

I frowned in utter confusion.

"Amelia, one way or another this was most likely to happen. We were already suppose to meet Jakowski tonight, they were simply just one step ahead. This isn't anyone's fault but theirs." his eyes grew dark for a moment.

"But, I-"

"But nothing." He frowned at my reaction, a small sob hit my lips and I bit the plump tenderness of my bottom lip as the tears built quickly in the corners of my eyes. In a heat of compassion that I had never seen before Ethan's arms found their way quickly around my shoulders and he brought my tear-stained figure crushed against his brooding chest. Momentarily I froze, completely taken back and with no idea of an appropriate reaction, yet something somewhere felt safe as if here, wound up in the arms of the one man I never anticipated was the only sanctuary left in the entire world.