An Arranged Marriage To The Mafia...?

Yellow heels slid along the plush carpets as my legs pounded down the hallways. My heart raced and beat at alarming levels with every fast-paced step. The second realisation stung through the thin air of Ethan's promising plan, my body had convulsed in immediate reflex and I had flung into a rapid sprint after my enraged finace. Adreneline burned as lactic acid filled my muscles and the chill of cool air suffocated my lungs.

Quickly I rounded the last corner, my destination within my grasp as I fumbled stupidly with the small casino keypass inside my purse. A green light signalled my enterance and I stumbled my way inside my father's illusive and elaborate offices. His attention turned to my frazzled and dazed appearance the second I past through the threshold.

"Amelia?" The chubby face of my father turned and stared quizzically at my exasperated state. "Amelia, what on earth-"

"Ethan." I sucked in a short breath and briskly turned to face the masses of surveillance screens.

"Ethan?" My father moved to the wall of images darting around the casino. "What about Ethan."

"I have to find him!" Panic embedded in my voice as I motion to the wall before me.

"Amelia, please."

"He's going to kill Pennelope!"

For a moment my father was silent, his eyes wide and face growing red with fury. "He wouldn't dare."

It took a split second for my father's body to reach a heightened sense of animation, his filled figure bustling around before the monitors and demanding orders to the survelliance technician to run recognition checks at every enterance until they found Ethan. It took less than three minutes for a monitor to close in quickly on the radiated aggression of Ethan, his eyes burning in a desperate search for his target.

With minimal thought I pushed myself from the presence of my father and his men, my legs once more swiftly moving across the floors.

"Amelia!-"

I ignored the pleas of the aging man at my heels and left him locked beyond the enterance door as I fled down hallways, my knuckled rapped and finger tips twitched in impatiance as I stood isolated within elevator doors. The second the steel doors parted and the flourish of the main gaming floor hit every one of my senses I was at a loss. In the seven minutes it had taken to flee from my father's office to the gaming room where the surveillance had found Ethan he could have escaped to anywhere.

Darting at rapid speeds I scanned the incredibly large room, my eyes focusing over eyes face, every figure, desperately anticipating the flourish of baby blue fabric and designer suits. I tripped slightly as I scanned the lengthy rows of slot machines and card tables, my pulse growing faster and heart beating to the point where I believed it would implode entirely with panic and fear, until it all but haulted pumping blood around my body entirely.

Horrified, violent screams rose from the lungs of women within the direct circle of my surroundings, my head snapping quickly in the direction of the petrified cries. Ethan Radev's eyes were menacing, his figure tall and intimidating as he waltzed down the aisle of slot machines to my left, his suited arm extended and his deathly firm grip wrapped and secured over the handle of a silver hand gun, it's barrel pointed in my direction.

Instinct told me I was not his target and at the very sight I spun to see a confused and fearful Penelope Jakowski, standing isolated and alone by the corner of a now abandoned poker table to my right. Her perfect features illuminated by the rage and warfare surrounding the air, my apparent burning jealousy had me almost wishing that Ethan would pull the trigger already.

The click of the guns hammer had silence echoing across the gaming room floor, the chaos slimming to a delicate slow motion as Ethan's steps increasingly gained on both myself and Penelope, the look of hatred burning deeper and stronger in his eyes.

"Ethan." My voice was meek and barely audiable, yet somewhere in the back of my mind it was seemingly a good idea to throw myself before my brooding betrothed. "Ethan stop."

His vision turned slowly down to my small stature, his eyes glaring curiously before they moved anger filled toward his target, arm still raised and finger still readily on the triggere. "Move Amelia." His words held no meaning as he pushed past me continuing his deathly approach of the youngest Jakowski.

"E-Ethan.." Her voice was pittiful as she shrunk back from his pure rage, her body limp as she collapsed, teary-eyed upon the red floors. "W-what are you doing?"

"What I was meant to do a long time ago." His voice made my skin crawl in fear, his icy tone filled with something I had completely yet to hear, his entire being enough to make my knees tremble in disbelief and dread at just what he was capable of.

"Ethan," My voice cracked and I felt tears of pure fear filled my eyes quickly, his gaze falling once more behind him and landing on me, "Please... stop."

"They killed him!" His voice raised and it was only then I realised the room had emptied entirely of patrons and somewhere in the back of my mind I knew reinforcements of legal and illicit kinds were bound to break through at any moment. "They murdered him! and I want them to feel the hurt they made us feel," He turned back to Penelope, he's gun still raised toward her cowarding figure on the gorund, "I want them to know what it means to take away something they love."

"This is exactly what they want." I swollowed the solid bubble in my throat and took a timid step closer, "This is what they want you to do, they want you to hit back, they want you to fight. Because the second you do something, they get to retalliate. If you do this it never stops until you have nothing left."

I watched his shoulders fall in empty defeat as my words hung in the air, my eyes cast down to Penelope's almost hysterical form, her presence nothing but pathetic as she mummbled and pleaded under her breath, tears streaming down her cheeks as Ethan's finger sat steady on the trigger. My yellow pumps graced the floor with caution until I stood within reaching distance, my right hand trembling as it rested easily on his shoulder and I felt his body physically ease under the weight of my touch.

"You don't need to do this.." I whispered just about the audiable level only loud enough for him to hear as my words hung in the air.

Ethan turned slowly, his face softer, less aggressive but eyes filled with immediate levels of pain and heartache as he lowered the steel hand gun to his side and handed the metallic weapon in my direction. "They killed him."

His weak, broken sentance was enough to shatter any and every heart string that remained within my chest and immediately I felt the necessity to pull him close, my arms quickly winding their way around his shoulders as he collapsed defeated into my frame, his head resting in the crook of my neck as he heaved with heart-break. I placed the gun upon the green felt of the closest table and watched as Penelope scampered to her feet, rushing to her given freedom as my fingers entwined with Ethan's tossled hair and the men of my father burst through the thick and heavy doors moments too late.

Here, in the center of the over-sized gaming room Ethan Radev had melted within my arms, pooling in a mess of tears and curses as his heat beat solely for the memory of his defeated brother and I could think of nothing more or any place I would rather be than the one holding my fiance when he's world fell; and the flutter in my heart told me this was exactly where I belonged.