Théo led me to the bathroom, which was really nice for a warehouse might I add, and grabbed a first aid kit out of the cupboard.
"You might want to hop up on the counter." Théo told me, gesturing behind me to the sink.
I followed his suggestion and jumped up. I adjusted myself on the counter. Théo set the kit down beside me and opened it up. He pulled out some gauze and held it up to my head to stop the bleeding.
He looked so... focused.
His eyes looked down to meet mine for a split second before they went back up to my head wound.
You could cut the tension with a knife.
Does anyone have a knife?
Oh wait. Haha. I do.
"Head wounds tend to bleed a lot more than regular wounds. That's why there is so much blood." He explained to me.
"How do you and your siblings know so much about cleaning wounds. Like I get it if Seraphine would know, but you and Alexandre, it's just unexpected."
He let out a deep breath and grabbed another gauze pad with his other hand. He took the gauze on my head off and quickly replaced it with the new gauze.
"It's a long story and one that should not be told in a bathroom." He said.
I nodded, understanding that he didn't want to talk about it.
The room was silent for a couple more minutes until my head stopped bleading. Théo pulled away the gauze and grabbed a bottle of saline solution and a cloth. He poured some of the solution on the cloth and lifted his hand up to gently dab my cut. He accidentally dabbed it a little too hard and I winced.
Théo stopped immediately and looked down at me. "Sorry." He started to go back to what he was doing but then stopped and looked down at me again. "I never asked you, but why did you take your seatbelt off?"
"When you pulled out of the parking lot, I switched sides so I was behind Xavier. I guess I just wanted to see how fast we were going on the speedometer."
He nodded and went back to dabbing my forehead. "Why didn't you put your seatbelt on when you were behind Xavier? Did you want to die, Angeli?"
Well that was blunt.
I opened my mouth to talk, but closed it again, not sure what to say.
How do I explain that I have never cared whether I lived or died?
When Théo noticed my silence, he stopped cleaning my gash again. He angled his face downwards towards mine and looked me directly in the eyes. "Angeli. Did you want to die?"
Finally, I croaked out an answer. "No." I mentally cursed myself when my words came out sounding like I was unsure whether not I had the intention to die.
Théo kept the eye contact for a little while longer before grabbing another cloth and wetting it with water.
It was clear that he didn't believe me.
He cleaned up the blood with the damp cloth and then set it down. Théo reached for a few butterfly stitches. He gently applied them and then stepped back.
"I'm going to go get Alexandre and see if he can test you for a concussion." He told me.
I sighed. "Really? Alexandre? Why not Seraphine?" I asked him, not wanting to deal with the crankiest Chevalier.
Théo started putting away the medical supplies while he answered me. "Because Seraphine has been busy. She's been dealing with something with the Russian Mafia. Apparently, they have been a lot more active lately. She and Alessio think it has something to do with a new alliance with the Spanish. Somehow Alessio got his hands on some of the Russian warehouse locations and they are going to raid them. I'm pretty sure that they are planning to do the first raid sometime tomorrow. Seraphine, Alexandre, Alessio, Orlando, and Vincenzo are leaving for Odessa tonight."
Shit.
I gave Alessio all of the intel on the Russian mafia that I got from Texas.
What if it's all a trap?
What if I am leading my brothers to their deaths?
I jumped off the counter without saying another word to Théo and running to Seraphine's office. I knocked on the door aggresively.
When she didn't answer, I moved to knock on Alexandre's door. I raised my hand to bang on the wood, but a hand came out of nowhere and grabbed my wrist. The hand spun me around and I was face to face with Théo.
"What the hell is going on, Angeli?" He asked me. "What are you doing?"
I tried to get his hand off of mine, but I couldn't. "Chevalier, let go of me! I need to talk to Seraphine and Mathéo. I can't let them and my brothers leave for Odessa!"
I lifted my other hand to try and pry away from Théo's grip. His other hand grabbed that one, too.
I was trapped.
I felt tears spring to my eyes.
Don't cry. Don't cry. Don't cry.
"Angeli! What the hell is going on? Talk to me!" Théo begged.
I shook my head, starting to feel like I couldn't breathe.
No. Not here. Please not here.
My chest was getting heavy and I stopped breathing. I tried, but I couldn't.
Théo noticed I was in the midst of having a panic attack. He let go of my wrists and put his hands on my shoulders, forcing me to sit down on the ground with my back against the door. He reached for my hand and put it against his heart.
I felt his steady heartbeat. He gently grabbed my chin with his other hand. He made me make eye contact with him. "Marlowe. Breathe. In, 2, 3, 4. Hold, 2, 3, 4. Out, 2, 3, 4."
Théo made me repeat the breathing exercise multiple times before I calmed down. Once Théo was assured that I was fine, he let go of my chin.
After I could breathe normally, I leaned my head back against the door, still taking deep breaths.
I took my hand back from Théo's chest and set it in my lap.
I closed my eyes and tried focusing on my breathing, knowing that Théo was still staring at me.
I was trying to think peaceful thoughts when I remembered what sent me into the panic attack in the first place.
I need to warn them.
I shot up, ignoring the stars that immediately starting floating in my vision. Théo quickly stood up with me.
"What's wrong?" He asked me.
I looked at him dead in the eyes. "We have to stop our siblings from leaving for Russia."
-
Without even having to explain to Théo, we were on our way to my house where our siblings were. We found Xavier in the warehouse's kitchen and made him come with us.
When we got to my house, I jumped out of the car and ran inside, Théo and Xavier on my tail. I searched the whole first floor and they weren't there.
Shit.
I was just about to run upstairs, when I remembered.
The basement.
I turned around and ran down the hallway to the basement door. I quickly ran down the steps and over to the bookshelf. I pulled out the book that opened the secret passageway. I heard Xavier and Théo's thundering footsteps coming down the stairs. I held the door open so that they could come with me.
"Holy fuck." Xavier said in disbelief and we jogged through the hidden part of my basement, which I now called the dungeon.
I heard someone whistling. I ran to where I heard it and stopped when I saw Lorenzo cleaning up blood from the floor.
What the hell happened here?
This is basically a torture chamber and your brothers run the Italian mafia. What the fuck do you think happened?
Okay, inner monologue that was really rude.
"Lorenzo. Where are the others?" I asked him a hurry.
Lorenzo looked up at me and did a double take when he saw the cut on my head. I could tell he was about to say something, so I shook my head. "Don't worry about that. Where are the others?"
Lorenzo sighed. "They just left for the airport. Something big is going down tomorrow in Russia."
"Which airport?" Théo barked from behind me.
"Our private airport. It's in Queens." Lorenzo informed us.
I thanked him and was about to turn around to leave when Lorenzo's voice stopped me.
"Marls. What's going on?" He asked me.
"We can't let them raid that warehouse in Russia." I told him. "Something's not right. I gave him the information a couple nights ago. I got it from the Spanish, but I don't trust it anymore. It was too convienent. We need to stop them before they get killed."
I could see Xavier and Théo's questioning looks in the corner of my eye.
I'm going to have some explaining to do on the car ride to the airport.
"Marlowe, it's just a routine raid. Everything's going to be fine. Are you okay?" Lorenzo asked me with caution, as if I was a wounded animal.
He thinks I'm crazy.
"I'm fine, Lorenzo. I need to go." I turned around, but stopped when I realized I had forgotten something. "I love you."
It was the first time I had told one of my brothers that I loved them, but I wasn't sure how this was going to go down. I needed to make sure that at least one of them knew that I was truly thankful for taking me in.
"I love you too, Marlowe." He responded softly.
After hearing him say it back, I left. Xavier and Théo let me guide the way because I knew the house better than them. Actually, I'm going to take that back. Xavier knew the house better than the three of us. But I had been in this part of the basement before, so they let me take charge for now.
We ran to the door to lead us back to the normal part of the basement.
When we got to the hidden door, I struggled to find the latch to open it back up.
Oh, the struggles of rich mafia people.
I finally found it and yanked on it. The door opened and we were back in business. Xavier, Théo, and I ran up the stairs. On our way back to the front door, I ran into Luciano.
Goodness. Is this dude ever at his own house?
"Woah, Marls. Where are you going in such a hurry?" Luciano asked me.
"Nowhere." I responded shortly.
"Well, it doesn't seem like nowhere to me."
"Look. I don't have time for this. I'm sorry. We can talk when we get back. Okay?" I offered. I needed to hurry if I wanted to get to the airport in time.
"No. I'm going with you." Luciano replied.
Théo scoffed. "The fuck you are."
Luciano looked at Théo. "I'm sorry. Who are you?" He asked him in an angry tone.
Before it could escalate any farther, I broke it up. "Sorry to get in the middle of your toxic masculinity, but we have to go. Now. Let's go, Théo."
Without letting him say anything, I grabbed him by the arm and started dragging him away from Luciano. We raced back outside to the driveway and got in Théo's car. He quickly pulled out of our private drive and began the road trip to Queens. Théo looked at me through the rearview mirror.
"Alright, Angeli. You gotta explain what's going on." He demanded.
I nodded, knowing that they needed to know what was happening so that they understood the severity of the situation.
"Alright. So, the story starts in New York City. Basically I was kidnapped when I was born by my aunt. She took me to Houstin, Texas and told me that my mother was dead and my father wanted nothing to do with me. She raised me with her husband, Sebastián Alvarez. The don of the Spanish Mafia. I was trained as an assassin, but Sebastián only ever gave me a mission to complete when he needed the person to be killed quickly and efficiently. A couple weeks before I left, my aunt died. Sebastián blamed me for her death. I was tired of it. I was tired of being his little pet. So one day, I was in one of the Spanish Mafia warehouses and I saw a folder laying on a table in a conference room.
"It was filled with information on the Russians. I took a pictures of every single paper and distributed the pictures on a couple burner phones. When I got to New York, I used the information as levarge so that Alessio would give me money and protection. Then I found out that I was the missing Angeli. I gave Alessio all of the Russian information last week. A couple nights ago, I realized that the way I got the information was too easy. The information that they are going off of right now to raid the Russian warehouses is based off of the information that I gave Alessio. I think that it's a trap. Something bad is going to happen if we don't stop them."
Once I was finished, Théo looked back at me. "We'll stop them. We won't let them leave. Don't worry."
-
When we finally got to the airport, Théo pulled up to the security check.
"Name, flight destination, and time of flight." The security guard stated, obviously bored with his job.
"Yeah, I don't have any of that. We have to get through. It's an emergency." Théo demanded.
"Sorry, kid. This is a private airport. I can't let you in." The security guard told us, not looking sorry at all.
Tired of having to deal with this bastard and wanting to save my family, I leaned forward across the center console into the gaurd's view.
"What's up, you son of a bitch? My names Marlowe fucking Angeli. And if you don't let this car through right now, we are going to have problems. Do you understand?"
The security guard gulped. "O-oh. Of course, Miss Angeli. Give me one s-second."
The guard went back in his station and pressed the button to let us in. Théo gave him a sickening smile before driving into the airport.
We finally found our siblings' cars. The hangar that they were parked at was empty.
"Shit. They must already be on the runway." Xavier cursed.
Théo didn't seem phased. "Hold onto your hats, lady and not-so-gentleman. This is going to be fun."
Théo started driving towards the runway. From a distance, I could see Alessio boarding a jet. Théo sped up. When we made it to the tarmac, everyone was still getting on the plane. Théo drove the car so that it stopped in front of the plane. I could see Seraphine looking at us. When she realized who it was driving the car, I swear I could see fire coming out of her ears.
"Damnit." Théo spit out. "We were too early. I was trying to be dramatic."
-
aaand that's chapter 25!!!
alright. Question of the chapter: Do you guys have any pets?
I have an English Lab named Zeus. He's five, 109 pounds, and a big baby.
Alright! That's all I have! Byeeee!