Crisis Of Desire

< VI >

'You two have no stamina at all, do you?' Brandon sighs, making his way to the register. We pay for all the clothes and walk towards the exit. 

'Uhm Brandon?' We both look at Neveah, who is looking on our right. 'Who are they?' 

A group of men, dressed in all black and wearing sunglasses, look at us. They stick out since everyone in here is wearing colorful clothes. 

'Shit.' He mutters, pulling us into a random store. Wait, what? 

'What's wrong?' He tries to act it off as if we were supposed to go into the store. 'Fake it till you make it.' 

I look out of the store, noticing one of the men smiling at me. They know we know, but who are they? 

'They know.' I state, not breaking eye contact with the one staring at me. 'What now?' 'Can you run?' 

I look at Neveah and Brandon, who are both looking at me. 'Yes?' 

They nod and walk towards the exit on the other side of the store. 'Let's just hope we're faster!' 

I quickly look into the store, noticing the men are trying to follow us. We run towards the exit, back to the car, hoping that the driver is ready to drive away fast. 

'Where are Rio's men!?' Neveah shouts, almost falling because of the heaviness of the five bags she has to carry. 'God knows!' 

The hot sun welcomes us when we run outside. I regret wearing these stupid sweats, but it was the only thing that looked normal at the time. 

'Get in!' Brandon already opened the doors and gets in himself. Neveah and I jump in the car and, since the driver is already ready to leave, we rush away from the place. 

We all try to catch our breaths, as the driver takes a detour back home. I look out the back window, trying to see if someone's following, but nothing. No cars at all. 

'What the fuck was that?' My heart beating like crazy from all the adrenaline. 'Welcome to the Curzio life.' 

I sigh, knowing that Brandon is probably right. This is the life we're going to live since we have to work for them, the life we didn't ask for. 

Neveah looks at me with an apologetic expression in her eyes. 'It's not your fault.' 

She sighs and looks out the other window, avoiding eye contact at all times. 

The rest of the car drive goes silently. We're all in shock because of what happened. My only question is: how did they know? 

This is the first time we leave the house, how did they know that we belong to Rafael Adriano Curzio? 

When the car finally comes to a stop in front of the door, Brandon immediately jumps out of the car. The whole way home he was tapping on his phone aggressively.

'You girls go get changed, I'll meet you at the pool!' The pool!? Brandon walked inside, towards the meeting room, while Neveah and I grabbed all of our stuff and walked back inside, to our room. 

The bed was neatly made and, even though it wasn't a total mess when we left, it was squeaky clean. The smell of the ocean filled the room again and I took a deep breath to let it sink in. 

'They cleaned our room..' She drops all her bags and jumps on the bed, groaning from all the walking we've done today. 

I smile at her and place all my bags on the dresser. While she lays on the bed, I put away all my stuff and look at the swimsuit Brandon bought.