Sold to Moretti Mafia

Claire

They’re going to kill me and send my body in pieces back to Lucca. When the guards came into my cell and dragged me outside, I didn’t know what to think. I hoped they were releasing me. Squeezing my eyes shut, I pretend my hands aren’t bound, and I’m not in the trunk of a car, being driven god knows where.

Dread trickles in as the time passes. I’ve been trying my best to be brave, but after yesterday, and now, I’m not sure being brave is going to cut it. Lucca never came back like he said, and now it’s over. I’m going to die. I can feel it with every beat of my heart. It clings to my skin, and by the day’s end, that will be my fate.

The car slows, and I slide forward, crashing into the wall of the trunk. Before I can gather my bearings, the driver hooks a right, and I roll the other way, my head slamming into the sidewall of the car. I feel like a basketball being tossed around. The car finally stops, and all I can hear is my heavy breathing and the thundering of my heart.

Doors open and then slam, and I tense, preparing myself for a fight that I know I won’t win. The trunk opens, and the light hits my eyes, temporarily blinding me. I’m grabbed by the arm and dragged out of the trunk. My feet barely touch the ground, and we’re moving. I glance around, trying to put together what is going on and where I am.Text © 2024 NôvelDrama.Org.

“Please, let me go,” I plead, wondering if using my words might make the man dragging me away break down. It does nothing, as he doesn’t even react to what I’ve said.

All hell breaks loose when we reach the steps of the house, and shots ring out through the street. Everything becomes mass hysteria. The guard releases me and reaches for his gun. I drop to the ground and cover my head, too afraid to see what’s going to happen next. The guard fires back and bullets rain down onto the pavement.

Bile rises in my throat, and I breathe through the need to vomit. I don’t know who the person firing back is, and I don’t want to find out. Slowly, I crawl backward, trying to put enough distance between the guard and me so that I can get up and run.

The shooting continues, and then there is silence. The silence terrifies me more than the shooting, and when I peek through my long red strands and toward the guard that was a few feet away, I find him on the ground, blood splattered against the concrete, and a bullet hole in his forehead. Oh god. This time I can’t stop myself.

I look away, and all the contents in my stomach empty. My entire body shudders with the after-effects of vomiting. Will my life ever be the same again?

Footsteps approach quickly, and I shove up onto my knees, getting ready to make a run for it. If Lucca isn’t going to save me, then I’ll save myself.

“Fuck, Claire.” Lucca’s voice penetrates my thoughts, and I pause, turning just in time to see him rushing toward me with fear in his eyes. “Are you okay?”

I nod because, at this moment, I’m afraid to speak. I look away from Lucca and down to the ground where the guard is lying, dead. Blood, there is so much blood. That’s all my life has amounted to, death and chaos, and all because of him.

Lucca interrupts my thoughts, “We need to get out of here.”

He frees my hands, his rough fingertips slide over mine, and he drags me down the street. I’m in such disarray that I don’t even attempt to stop him. By the time we reach the car, I’m still not any better.

Lucca opens the door and shoves me inside, rushing over to the driver’s side. He slides in and shoves the key into the ignition, and the engine roars to life. With his foot to the gas pedal, we rip out onto the road. The only sound inside the car is the quiet hum of the engine and our own breathing, but in my head, I can still hear shots being fired. I can still see the blood, the bullet in the guard’s head.

“Talk to me. Are you okay? Did they hurt you?” Lucca’s voice is feverish.

“No, I think I’m fine.” I make a mental check of my body. Right now, I’m numb, so it’s hard to say if I’m hurt or not. My mind is a mess, like a swarm of bees buzzing inside my head.

Leaning my head back against the headrest, I close my eyes and try to calm the storm. Slowly, my heartbeat returns to normal, and my breathing evens out.

When I open my eyes the next time, the world around me seems a little more normal again. As normal as my world can be.

“Why… why did you kill him?” My voice comes out calmer than I expected.

Lucca looks away from the road and over at me. His eyes are still dark, frenzied. It’s a reminder of the night that forever changed my life.

“It was kill him or let him get away with you.” He looks back at the road, and his grip on the steering wheel tightens. When he speaks again, his voice is deeper, rougher, “Is that what you wanted me to do? Let them take you.”

“N-Nooo,” I stutter and hold my head in my hands with defeat. “I’m just tired of all the death. It seems like I’m trying to outrun my past, but I’m a hamster on a wheel going nowhere. I thought I could finally be normal without all of this violence and death in my life.”

Lucca sighs. “I’m sorry, Claire, and I truly mean it. I’m sorry you got dragged into this mess. It wasn’t my intention. And how they ever found out about you is a mystery. I was always careful and made certain no one else knew anything about you.”

I’m both angry and grateful, and I don’t know which emotion is going to come out first. If Lucca had left me alone, none of this would’ve happened in the first place, but if he wasn’t there today, if he didn’t save me and protect me all those years ago, I might not be here now. It is a fucked up situation.

Ignoring what he said since I do not know how to approach it. I lift my head and ask, “What’s next?”

“I’ll drive for a bit, and then we will stop at a hotel for the night. I have to put as much distance as I can between the city and us.” I nod, and he continues, “To save you, I had to do something, something that will most likely get me killed.”

I shouldn’t ask, it’s none of my business, and the last thing I need is something else to worry about, but regardless of what I say or how I feel sometimes, I don’t want Lucca to die.

“What did you do? Does it have something to do with the Moretti guy they were talking about at dinner?”

“You need to forget that name. Erase it from your memory, and what I did doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you’re okay and safe. I made you a promise, and I keep my promises.”

Anger rips through my veins. He’s talking to me like I’m a kid. Like I have no right to know what he gave up when his choices affect both of us directly. “I’m not a child, Lucca. I’ve seen death. I’ve felt loss, and I deserve to know what you did to save my life.”

“You’re sixteen, Claire, so yeah, you’re a child. And I’m not telling you because it doesn’t affect you. You’re safe, and you will remain so as long as I’m breathing, and you follow my directions.”

“I’m not going to spend my entire life in hiding because of your shitty choices. Last I checked, none of this would be happening if it wasn’t for you.”

I can’t believe the way I’m talking right now, but nothing I’ve said is a lie.

I won’t spend my life running from Lucca’s enemies, and I won’t let him talk down to me when he is the cause for this problem. I was perfectly fine living with my parents and having him watch me from afar, even if it was annoying.

“I take full responsibility for everything that’s happened, but until this point, I’ve always kept you safe and provided you with everything for a good life.”

“I never asked you to do any of those things,” I lash out.

“If it wasn’t for me, you’d be dead.”

Silence settles over the vehicle after that, and I press my lips together and swallow down all the hateful things I want to say. We drive for a long time, neither of us speaking to each other. The tension in the vehicle builds to an almost suffocating atmosphere.

Thankfully, the gas light turns on an hour later, and Lucca takes the next exit and pulls into the first hotel off the interstate, which turns out to be a rundown ma and pop place. There would be no way of knowing the place was open if it wasn’t for the blinking open sign hanging in the office window.

Lucca turns to me. “Stay in the car.”

“I don’t even have shoes. I’m not going anywhere.”

He looks down at my feet and grimaces. When he turns to climb out of the car, I notice the dark spot on the back of his shirt. Is that blood? Was he shot?

“You’re bleeding?” I ask.