Chapter 20
Marco
The rapid sharp bursts of machine guns fill my ears. Keeping my head down, I wait for my life to be taken. But when the sound quietens, and I realise I am still alive, I look up. The scene around me is surprising. Al Martelé lies lifeless on the floor. Lorenzo is slumped over him, the deep, crimson red of blood spreading across his white shirt. Martelé soldiers also cover the floor.
Confused, I look over at Van, who is still tied to his chair. He smirks as he watches me take in the room.
“How the fuck?” I ask, completely astounded by the situation around me.
Van looks at the door as if expecting someone. That’s when I hear the heavy footsteps in the hall. A suited man surrounded by smoke arrives in the doorway. He takes a drag of a cigar and blows it towards me.
“Leo Guerra,” I choke as the smoke clears, and his smug-looking face becomes visible.
“What took you so long?” Van laughs.
What the fuck is going on here? I stare at them both in disbelief, and they roar with laugher.
“Aren’t you supposed to be fucking dead?” I boom.
“Had to come and save your sorry ass, didn’t I,” Leo says as he unties Van from the chair.
“What have you fucking done! You died so you and your wife could live. Now you have just put another bounty on both your heads!” I’m furious. Why would he come back and risk everything we fought so hard to protect?
Leo moves to stand in front of me. His face is stern as he looks fiercely into mine. “Marco. My sole purpose has always been to protect my family. You are my family. I wouldn’t even be alive now if it wasn’t for the many times you have saved my life. Now don’t ever question my judgement again.”
Leo uses his knife to release me from my restraints. I stand up immediately but fall into Leo’s arms.
“Shit, look at the state of you.” Leo sits me back in the chair and assesses my heels. “Van, contact our medics at the hospital. Tell them Marco needs emergency surgery and that it is even more imperative that our presence is keep confidential.”
“On it.”
Van and Leo carry me into the car. At this point my adrenaline has worn off, and the pain is excruciating. My lack of blood has me dozing in and out of consciousness. I’m relieved when we arrive at the hospital and I’m sedated. The pain in my body and heart finally numb, I’m grateful to be at peace from my own deafening thoughts.
When I begin to come round after my operation, I hear Van and Leo talking in the room beside me.
“What’s the plan, then, boss? Surely we can expect a retaliation from the Martelé?” Van asks Leo.
“It won’t be for a while. The next bloodline leader of the Martelé is Al Martelé’s son. But he is only twelve years old. Therefore, the leadership will go to a cousin. There are five cousins who will need to prove themselves as capable. Fortunately, this gives us some time,” Leo explains. “In the meantime, we need to build ourselves back up. Bigger and stronger than ever.”
In my state of slumber, my mind goes to Mia. My anger builds as I remember Lorenzo’s involvement. But there’s something that isn’t feeling right. Lorenzo said they had only planned to kidnap Mia. I didn’t believe him at that moment, but why would he lie? He had no reason to. He was happy to take the credit of the original idea being his own, so why not her death?
I sit bolt upright in bed. Alarms sound as I rip monitors from my chest in the process.
“Hey, relax. You’re in hospital. Your surgery is done, the bullets have been removed, and your tendons are now reattached. Bloody magicians, these doctors,” Leo explains, putting his hand on my shoulder.
A nurse comes to my aid, reconnecting the monitors and turning off the alarms.
“No, I need to get up. I need to see that CCTV footage again.”
“No, you need to rest, and that is an order,” Leo demands. “If you don’t rest, you will ruin any chance you have of walking again, and I need you to help sort out this fucking mess.”
“Van. What Lorenzo said. There is more to it. Something else happened that night. I need to find out what,” I plead to Van.
He nods in a reluctant acceptance. I know watching that video was hard for Van, and I’m sure he never wants to watch it again. But he understands how much guilt I feel.
“Tell me everything from the beginning.” Leo sits back in a chair at my side, while Van and I go over the painful events. Leo assures me we will find out the truth. They leave me to rest while they go and make some calls.
The next day, Leo and Van bring a laptop into the hospital.
“We have the CCTV. I got the IT team to clean it up. It’s much clearer now.” Leo sets the laptop down on my bed without making eye contact. His expression is blank, which means he is hiding his true feelings.
“There’s something on here, isn’t there?”
“Just watch,” Van says as he wakes up the screen and presses play.
The pain I first felt when watching the final moments of my Mia’s life return. I watch as the girls quickly leave the bar, their guards chasing after them. Why were they running from the guards? They’re arguing with them outside, so much so, they don’t notice the car speeding along the road and heading towards them. The car mounts the pavement, and Mia penetrates the windscreen.
But the car doesn’t stop. It continues at speed before it crashes into a similar oncoming car. They collide headfirst at speed. The first car mounts the second, flips backwards, and lands on its roof. Seconds later the car explodes into flames, and the video ends. I have so many questions, but I didn’t see anything new.
I look at Leo and Van.
“It’s okay. She’s my sister and I didn’t notice either,” Van says as he rewinds the video and pauses the picture on Mia and her friends outside the bar.
Leo points at Mia. “That is not Mia.” He then brings up an image of the girls when they entered the bar. They are wearing the same outfits, but there is something different about them. “Mia is taller than Marisa and Lucia.” He then flips back to the image just before the accident and points at Mia again. Mia is noticeably shorter.
“What the....” My mind whirls with the information. What does this mean? Where is Mia?
After going back to the CCTV of the inside of the bar, Leo rewinds thirty minutes before the accident. We watch as Mia, Marisa, and Lucia enter the ladies’ bathroom. A moment later three other women also enter. After a while, Mia exits on her own, then circulates the room before returning to the bathroom.
“What is she up to?” I wonder out loud.
After another twenty-five minutes, the three girls exit the bathroom.
“They switched clothes,” I say in disbelief.
“After watching this video, I checked the surveillance at the side of the building.” Leo then brings up another screen with the image of an alleyway.
It’s dark and very grainy. At first the screen is still, but then movement to the side catches my eye. I can just about make out the outline of three women. The closer they get to the camera, the clearer they become. Marisa, Lucia, and my Mia. The three women continue down the alley away from the bar and dump something in a bin before disappearing from sight.
“That wasn’t Mia we saw getting hit by the car,” Van explains.
“Then where the fuck is she?” Could it be true? Is my Mia still alive? But if she were, why hasn’t she come home or contacted someone? The last location on her phone was in that area. Why didn’t she take her phone with her?
“I just don’t understand what she was doing. Did she know the Martelé were after her? Was this her plan to escape?” Van runs his hands over his face in frustration.
“No,” I disagree. “Mia would never purposely put another person’s life in danger, even to save her own. She used them as a distraction to get away from the guards. It wouldn’t surprise me if those friends of hers had something to do with it either. They probably wanted a night out in London, free to do as they please.”
“Only they didn’t get their night out. Something happened to them when they left the bar. I have my contacts in the UK gathering all the CCTV footage in that area,” Leo explains.
“We did all that. We were there after the accident,” Van states
“Yes, but we are looking for something different now. We are looking for the girls alive, wearing different clothes. I’ve also asked for the police reports for all surrounding areas on that night. We will find out what happened to Mia.”
My heart and my head are playing against each other. My heart says Mia is alive and that I knew it all along, while my head is sure Mia is dead. Okay, she didn’t die the way we originally thought, but there is no way that Mia would not contact me or her family if she was.
“I need to go to London. How am I fixed for traveling?” I ask.
Leo dismisses me. “You are not fixed at all.”
“Get me some crutches. I’ll manage.”
Leo dismisses me again. “No fucking way.”
“If you don’t help me, I will do it on my own. I need to go to London,” I insist, deadly serious.
Leo groans in annoyance. “You’re a fucking pain in my arse!”