Help

thirteen

Paralyzed, I don't even flinch when he leans forward and wraps his arms around my shoulders. It isn't a hug, he's grabbing me, making sure I do not move away. He wants me to be scared.

I am.

His touch only makes my mind spin with terrifying, unpleasant memories of Trey, mamas hubby. He was so mean, he hurt me a lot. Made me drink soap. He would hug me just to scare me. Although my body is paralyzed, every inch of my body that is touching his burns like fire.

"You're father killed my family. I will kill yours. You are your brothers weakness Florence. You are their downfall and the reason why I will rise up." He starts to kiss my neck. The fear is replaced with dread. A surge of adrenaline rushes through my whole body. Pushing him away with a strength I didn't know I had, I do the only thing I can do.

I run.

But he doesn't follow. He stays in the same spot watching me run. I can hear is laugh...

I fumble for my phone while I sprint and break my ankles against the cracked road.

I run as if my life depends on it, I use every ounce of energy I can to get as far away from him as possible. It's when the shortness of breath and then the dizziness from not eating this morning take over do I stop. But when I stop I fall onto my knees. Stabbing pains run up through my bones.

And I sob.

Jake is long forgotten, I lost sight of him on my first turn off the street, on my second I checked to make sure he wasn't following, he wasn't. And then on the third turn, here I am now crying on my knees.

Clearly not thinking straight I forget everything I was taught. Pulling out my cracked phone—it must've happened when I fell—my finger hovers over Massimos contact.

Nothing is right, nothing is fine.

My lungs don't work, my dad killed Jakes family, he wants to kill my family, I'm my families weakness, my knees hurt.

My shirts too tight. I can't breathe, no oxygen can enter my lungs. With my panic rising and my mind slipping, I tap the contact.

And it rings, and rings, and rings... there is a beep, and a confused yet concerned Massimo picks up the phone.

"Florence?"

-

M A S S I M O

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I seethe.

"I-I d-don't k-know s-s-sir." Some scrawny little guy stays as he trembles out of his skin.

"You had one job, one fucking job! Yet you miraculously seemed to fuck that up."

"I j-just g-got distracted!" He tries to defend.

I send a bullet through his leg. Blood splatters everywhere but misses my suit. It's almost like it's blood proof.

"Oh, my apologies, I just got distracted as well," I pause watching the way the skinny guy puts pressure on his gunshot wound. His cries are so loud and so full of pain, that he sounds like every other guy whose done me wrong and has paid the price for his mistakes. "Funny how when you get distracted, irreversible damage seems to be done." The sarcasm drips like blood.

"P-please Boss I-I'm sorry!" He cries.

"Can you pay me seventeen million dollars right here, right now?"

He cries, this time louder. "N-no sir."

"Well... I was going to say that maybe if you payed me the amount of money I would've received if you completed the shipment and didn't get distracted, that I could let you leave with one leg," I pause again. "But I am not going to do that."

Not wanting to deal with this imbecile any longer, I turn and the leave the cement walled room in the basement of our base. "Finish him off." I order the guards, receiving a nod, I am satisfied to move on with my day.

I take my work very seriously. My father built a strong, powerful, and more importantly, respectable mafia. He was a good man despite his occupation. He was a good dad too. His honour shall not be disrespected.

That skinny idiot lost a whole shipment ordered by a separate gang. How can we be respected when we can't even deliver our trades? The answer is we can't. So he must die.

Seventeen million is not a lot of money in the mafia world, but it still is money. I have lost seventeen million dollars worth of trade. All because of one idiot.

Speaking of idiots, my phone pings with the ringtone I gave to the one and only Dominic. A photo of him and Lucien pretending to be figure skaters on the ice is what he sent.

I have important business and shit to get done. However, when I get stupid shit like this it makes me pause and smile. My family will always be my number one, they will always be above work, or my nonexistent love life.

Because I have been there for all four of their day ones.

I wonder how Florence's day is going?

"Boss," a woman comes up to me forcing me to drop my smile and look away from the ridiculous photo. "You have your 10:30 meeting."

Groaning on the inside, but keeping my composure on the outside, I nod. My smile is long gone as any thoughts on my idiot brothers and my baby sister vanish and business replaces it.

"Good morning Mr. Young." The man I am meeting with greets me when I see him waiting.

"Good morning, please follow me."

The second my ass hits my office chair, my phone begins to buzz in my pocket. This meetings important, so with a quick look I see Florence calling me.

Alarms bells go off in my head. She never calls, she only texts.

Somethings wrong.

"Excuse me." I clear my throat leaving my office into the thankfully empty hall.

The second I am alone I accept her call.

"Florence?" All I can hear is her laboured breathes on the other end. Like she just ran a marathon. "Florence baby, what's wrong?"

My hearts hammering in my chest. Somethings wrong, she sounds like she can't breathe, she sounds like she's panicking. So I start walking at a faster pace than usual, phone tightly pressed to my ear. It isn't until I have made it to the parking lot do I hear something I never thought I would hear.

"... help, Massy," she pauses with a hiccup. "Help please."

-

Heyyy y'all!

I have a feeling I may have some people questioning why Florence spoke to Massimo in this chapter, so I want to clear things up.

My original intent with Florence's character was to be silent and reserved until she was able to let herself trust one of her brothers enough to speak to them. This book was not intended to have Florence be mute the entire time. However, even with her few words to Massimo she will still be selectively mute. I want to make it so she only speaks to her brothers and only when she wants too.

So to clarify, Florence is not going to be a chat your ear off character. But she's also going to have her voice.

I'm sorry if any of you wanted her to be mute the entire book.

Another thing I wanted to mention was that if you found Florence's pov too all over the place it was because I wanted to show her spiralling. I hope this makes sense.

Anywayyyys, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I will probably update the next one in a couple days or so just depending what my schedule looks like.

Sorry to leave you on a cliff hanger! Love you all ❤️