An Arranged Marriage To The Mafia...?

The faint smell of moth balls, the scent of dust. The lack of fresh breeze and a tiny vent that attemmpted to circulate oxygen around the twenty by twenty cell. The whirr of a distant generator and flicker of the security screen. It had me completely overwhelmed in a fit of short sharp gasps of panic. I was hyperventalating from the lack of space even before Ethan had shut the heavy steel door, only now barracaded in like a prisoner it was worse. I had no escape unless I risked the capture of the enemy. I felt the weight of the world upon my shoulders, my mind racing in delirious predictions of circumstances, my knees gave way and easily I slid down the nearest wall, my legs propped up, knees to chest and arms wrapped tight and securely around myself as I hummed over possibilities.

My eyes strained and focused over the monitor that cast back the dull black and white images from my father's security system hidden aorund his own office. A man of little trust he had secretly placed a multiude of cameras around the small work place, his eye forever watching any man who stepped inside. I crawled forward, sitting up on my knees, my chin the same height as the table, my eyes taking in everything. The way my father's face turned into a light, easy smile, the way my family walked casually around the place as if their most hindered enemy were not on their way, the way my father motioned to something behind my source of sight and watched carefully as Ethan stood upon a chair. I frowned and gasped. It hadn't been something behind the camera my father had referred to, it was in actual fact the camera itself. He knew all too well how I would react, what I would think. Ethan's face fell directly into view, a coy smile spread over his face delicately and suddenly the screen fell blank. They knew I would be watching.

I fumbled with my laces, I picked at my nails, drew patterns in the dust partcles on the floor. I yawned, stretched, sang. I sat in complete silence for what felt like an eternity before I heard it. The first sign of life beyond the thick prison walls. The first crack made me jump, my heart racing. The second made my mouth run dry and entire system on alert. The third had tremors rushing thorugh my veins. Even through my protected walls I could make out the heavy rounds of gun shots and it made me more nervous than anything.

What if we lost? What would happen if my family died? Would somebody think to check the panic room, would I be given the same gruesome death as those before me? Would they simply let me go, a key witness into their horrific slaying of my loved ones..?

I knew the answers already and shook the thoughts from my mind. The Moretti family were not forgivers, they were ruthless, barbaric and heinous killers who would stop at almost nothing given the chance they could redeem a fraction of our power in the criminal cyndicate.

Panic, it embedded in every inch of my bones, it filled my veins and made my mind completely go insane. My faimly were all I had in this entire world, without them I was alone, left with nothing but the heratache of 'what if's and memories of when something in my life actually mattered. Before I could second guess anything, re-think my motives or reasure myself that everything beyond these doors was safe my thumbs had pushed the passcode on the security lock and the heavy door had popped and groaned as locks slid out of place.

The corridor was empty, cold and silent except for the now louder fire blaring from just down a little. Voices called with every step I took, every inch closer I grew, the louder the sounds of chaos errupted from inside the office. My hands fell to my side as I peered slowly around the corner, my heart racing incredibly, my brain sceaming abuse at my sheer stupidity. What had I thought to achieve by simply strutting out of my safe hiding place? I had nothing; no plan, no weapon, nothing.

"Amelia!" Ethan's eyes jutted from his head as a sudden movement caught his attention, instantly he turned furious, he flickered from my startled position to the immediate wall behind me and in a split second he raised his right hand, loaded gun rested in his gentle grip. I froze, from meters away I was starring down the barrel of a gun in the hand of my pronounced to be betrothed. I stammered confused and in a frenzy of hysterical panic, Ethan's face never changing in the few seconds before his finger laced with the trigger, tugged and let the crashing bullet soaring through the air. Blankness blanketed across my eyes and everything fell silent.

A rough hand pulling at my arm dragged me from the blanket of dark, a voice yelling in my ear brought me from the silence, a warm sensation across my face told me everything was fine. I fluttered my eyes open, my gaze meeting the harsh cold stare of Ethan.

"What are you doing?" His voice was a harsh whisper as he pushed me backward a little and around the safety of the corner. "You could have been killed!" It was only as his eyes flickered around that I noticed the body, slumped against the wall, a fresh head wound and bullet hole deep in his caved chest. It had been the reason why Ethan held a gun at point blank range to me, he was aiming for the enemy who waited in the shadows.

I made to rebut, to clarify, to argue, to do anything but feel a twinge of guilt that he'd saved my life, but in the split second it took to part my lips he's face had turned cold, his body spun and trigger-happy finger let a reel of bullets fly out toward the torso of a creepy figure. It was at that moment, I saw the complete truth to the life my father had suddenly ushered me into.

Ethan Radev was suppose to be my saviour, my protector, my accomplice in life and the one person I could completely trust in the affair of my father's business. Ethan Radev had been in my life practically from the first time I ever took a breath, he was the first boy I ever had a crush on, ever had any form of feelings for and yet things changed; now as he took the life of somebody, right there in front of my panic-stricken body. By marrying Ethan I was being dragged further into a world I despised entirely, a world I wanted absolutely nothing to do with. On my father's accord and pre-arranged betrothal I was fast becoming a member of the Nevada underworld.