An Arranged Marriage To The Mafia...?

James Radev's smile didn't faulter, it spread and poured across his plump lips and caused a glint to sparkle in his eye. His laughter whispered around the sweet scented air as the sun set along the Vegas strip. His gentle face illuminated by the last rays of daylight.

I stood completely still, too afraid that if I made even the slightest of movements he would disappear, vanish into the night and comfirm that in reality I had in fact lost my best friend. I watched as the sun fell behind the floors and darkness wrapped itself around everything, James' smile faded within seconds of the haunting dark, his perfectly subtle face shaded in a crimson smear of blood, his eyes lay hollow and the life long gone from his once smiling body.

Screams errupted from inside my chest and my head proded in desperation around his swollen, bloodied body. He was cold, alone and dead.

My best friend had been murdered.

Tears leaked from the edges of my eyes and I sniffed back the hiccuped sob as I came to from the vivid nightmare. My face was soggy with spilt tears, my chest stinging with rising hyetrics and eyes heavy and burning with the previous onslaught of grief. I had fallen asleep almost the moment Ethan had left speeding into Vegas and I had wondered heartbroken back inside and up toward my bedroom. I refused to speak to anyone, instead locking myself away and refusing to allow the door to open even when Maria Radev's small meek voice whispered through the wooden frame. And it was only now as the hinges creeked through the morning light that life had managed its way past my trusted barrier.

At the sound of shuffled, heavy steps, constant panted breath and the weight of a body at the end of the bed I lifted my head slowly and found Ethan's back facing me, his shoulders heavy and head hung low. As I pulled myself to sit comfortable with the covers he turned slowly, his face brimming in the shallow light of a small wall lamp, my heart surged and my breath caught as I scrambled from within the blankets.

"Ethan!" My voice was louder than I had intended, "What happend to you?" I flicked on the light switch by the bathroom door and stepped my way around him so my body was before his and my gaze searching and taking in his horrific features.

Blood.
It soaked through within his clothes, his white shirt stained with crimson and black pants shimmering in their damp state. It dried and pooled around his face, his right hand turning a subtle pink and following cheekbone flaming in a grwing bruise, his bottom lip was split and seeping with blood loss

He said nothing, only shrugged and stared past my hovering form to the far wall behind me, his face was blank, his expression entirely emotionless. I could feel levels of consternation rising with every breath and as anquish quickly rose I had pulled Ethan's stained physique within the white tiled bathroom, pushing him against the rim of the bath and grasping for a small hand towel. Gently I dabbed at the abbrasions with anticeptic ointment appologising each time his breath caught in a spitefully sharp wince, I cleared the flaking blood and did my best to stop the small wounds over his face from bleeding further.

"Ethan, what happend?" My voice was a low under tone and I starred uneasily into his green eyes.

"Nothing," For the first time I caught the stle stench of alcohol over his breath and I could see intoxication lining his vision. "It was just a bar fight..."

I opened my mouth, but courage betrayed me and in a single rapid progression Ethan had exited the small tiled room and disappeared through the heavy wooden door. Timidly I followed only to find him shirtless and lying on the brink of drunken induced unconsciousness over the duvet, I didn't attempt to stay in the large bedroom instead I braced myself by the doorway and felt my feet glide along the plush carpet, the cool stairs and stone cold mrable floors into the kitchen.

Maria Radev wasn't to be found in her secondary position over the heating stove, her round creased face smiling over a fry pan while she served heated love to her waking family, Antonio Radev wasn't to be found at the head of the large breakfast table, his elbows raised over the wooden top and face burried deep inside the newspaper. Instead the kitcehen lay completely bare, isolated and alone.

Nonchalantly my knees shuffled across the small floors, they buckled tiredly into a tall wooden seat and I rested my elbows over the hard top. My hands laced with the folds of the morning's freshly printed paper and my eyes scannedthe first page. My heart fell, smashed and burned in an instant.

Vegas in Uproar Over Underworld Murders
Nevada's most prestigous underworld figures are in turmoil after the shock slaying of one of their very own. James Radev, middle child to Radev patriarch was gunned down last night in a heated brawl outsideMiano Ville De Mi casino in what was seemingly a string of unfortunate revenge tactics. Mr Radev was killed by several gunshot wounds and died from severe blood loss out the front of the publically opened casino by well known underworld figures of the Jakowski and Moretti clans.
Along side the middle Radev when he was killed were his father Antonio, elder brother Marcus and younger sibling Ethan Radev, the latter of the two seen some hours later causing chaos about the Strip and seen encountering with a young Jakowski daiughter...

I placed the paper forward slightly and scanned the article one more, my finger tips flicking to it's continued pages and scrutining the colour imagine in the very centre; Ethan's lips were pryed in a drunken smile, his eyes heavily laced with booze, his hands on the hips of Pennelope Jakowski and body leaning into hers. It was enough to make me physically sick as I read on further...

Youngest son of Nevada State Underworld figure Antonio Radev, Ethanial Damian Antonio Radev was spotted late last night throwing his incredibly powerful weight around a small divided bar just out from the main district of Vegas. Spotted by many patrons as the patriarch's sole heir he was described as 'heavily intoxicated' and 'visably grievous', and it was no wonder. His older brother James having been gunned down in the middle of a casino gun fight no more than three hours before.
Radev was caught and believed to be accompanied by a slim blonde and seen to be behaving in both flirtatious and suggestove ways. his young mistress no other than Pennelope Jakowski; daughter of the very man who shot dead his brother. Guests to the small bar confrimed that they had not seen at any time Mr Radev's fiance Amelia Samuels, who he announced his engagement to only weeks before....

I stopped reading.
My eyes travelled back to the blurred and darkened image. But no matter the quality, the blonde curls were unmissable and undeniably those of Pennelope Jakowski and the look in Ethan's eye as he starred dotingly upon her broke my heart entirely.