RED 🥀

Stranger

C H A P T E R      T H I R T E E N

"Mommy are we going to die?" She knelt down beside me, her beautiful face covered in so many different colours now. Bruised, cut, broken. Yet she still smiled, she smiled big every time she spoke to me. It was comforting, it made everything seem less bad.

"Of course not Gabriella, your father is our hero. He is out there looking for us right now, I promise you. He will fight all of the bad men and he will save us." I nodded my head and wrapped my small arms around her. Her dress still smelt of freshly washed linen. It was pure white and floaty, she was an angel.

The blue metal door scraped across the floor as it opened and my mother shielded my body with her own, bravely standing in front of me.

The man was tall, he towered over me and my mom. His hair was dark and always combed neatly in place, his blue eyes looked to be kind but that was just a trick because behind his eyes lay the cruelest, scariest monster to ever walk the Earth.

This man was Ace.

"Move bitch." He shouted.

"You're not having her." My mom gripped my arms, moving me further away from Aces hands. Ace grabbed my mom by the throat and threw her down onto the grubby mattress he stomped over to where she lay and threw his foot down across her throat.

"Mommy" I cried out.

She coughed and spluttered, her face turning a funny shade of red. Ace bent down and pulled out a knife, running it down my moms cheek as her frightened eyes followed it.

"Try and stop me." Ace pulled back his hand and pushed the knife through my moms body.

"Mommy!" I screamed.

"Quiet brat, I'll be back for you." Ace warned and then he left.

My mom lay still, she clutched the knife in her stomach and groaned in pain. I pushed away the tears that rolled down my cheeks and knelt beside my mom.

"Gabriella" she whispered with a struggle. "Your father will come and save you, until then you must do everything that man says." I sobbed into her chest. "Gabriella promise me." Her words dipping out as I cried harder. "Promise m-" she lay lifeless, her white dress stained with an ever-growing scarlet mark.

"I promise you Mommy. I promise." I crawled up onto the mattress next to her and cuddled into her body. She no longer felt like my mom.

My eyes pulled open and I wiped warm tears away from my cheeks.

My subconscious has made Ace the villain in my story, or maybe he always was the villain. Now when I think about my mother's murder I see it only at the hands of Ace. I see him when I close my eyes. I fear him when I am awake. There is no Titus anymore, just Ace.

I got up and showered, determined to put on a bright smile. I just simply needed to keep myself busy, a walk around the park and a day spent with my favorite brother would surely do the trick.

That and popping two Xanax.

There was a warm October breeze in the air, the golden hues of Central Park made everything seem magical and cozy. Fall was my favorite season, over-sized sweaters, brown knee highs and pumpkin spice lattes. You couldn't beat it.

"What is his plan then?" I asked Dante as we strolled through the pedestrian paths and blew the steam away from my paper cup.

"He had a GPS tracker shoved up where the sun don't shine so they know his exact location. Now that we know about the heart defect father wants to take Ace captive, kill him slowly because obviously he won't have access to his meds."  I took a sip of the sweet latte and hummed my appreciation.

We stopped by a street singer for a few minutes, it was a darling elderly man playing a violin and singing 'somewhere over the rainbow' with the most beautiful vocals. I dropped fifty dollars into his violin case and he thanked me with a slight tilt of his head.

We continued walking.

"Do you think father would let me take the lead? Be the one to pull the trigger?" Dante burst out laughing and I shoved him playfully on the shoulder.

"Damn Gabs, you really hate him that much?" he teased.

"He put a bomb in my neck." I replied cooly. "And the lies he told Antonio about our family really got to me. I have to believe my father loved my mother. I have to, she believed it."

He must pay for what he did to my mom. There must be vengeance, blood must have blood.

Dante dumped his empty cup in the bin and hooked his hands inside his pockets.

"No I don't. He's the freaking leader of the Blackburn crew. Father will want bragging rights about killing him for sure" I nodded, agreeing to that. Father will want bragging rights there's no doubt about it. But I still wanted to be involved, I couldn't help but smile whenever I imagined the look on Aces face when he finally found out my secret.

"So Dante, you met anyone new lately?" I raised my eyebrows up and down suggestively and he laughed.

"How can I? I mean sure there has been the odd fling but I can't let myself catch feelings. It's not like I can ever introduce him as my boyfriend to the family, father would kill me. I think Antonio would too." I threw away my coffee cup.

Dante always was my fathers biggest disappointment and my best friend. I shared all of my secrets with him and he shared his with me. Growing up I often felt like Dante was the only person in the world who understood me. His weakness has always been caring too much and I think sadly that's what will get him killed one day.

"That's too bad." I glanced down to put on my gloves and thanks to me not watching where I was going I walked right into the shoulder of someone passing me by.

"Sorry." He muttered as he steadied me with the aid of his arm around my back.

In a passing nano second our eyes met, it was like time stood still and we were the only ones left on the planet. My soul was falling and his eyes captured it. They painted a picture, one that I could see in an instant and comprehend the full extent of its depth. It wasn't about colour or shape, it was about the emotion hidden beneath. Through his eyes, I could see him.

The familiar stranger nodded at me and then continued walking, as did I. But I looked back, desperate to understand that connection. He was looking right at me, but walking away. Each one of us taking steps that placed us further apart from one another and the familiarity of his ocean-coloured eyes slowly disappeared.

"Gabriella, hello?" Dante prompted.

"Did you see that guy?" I asked him, he turned back searching the footpaths.

"What guy? The one with the kid?" Dante asked. I looked back but he was gone, the footpath was empty.

"What kid? It doesn't matter, continue whatever you were saying."

Dante talked about how he beat Enzo in the boxing ring and fathers take on boxed wine and how it was only made for the peasants but I honestly stopped listening. My heart was still pounding and my body was shook up.

I think I just caught a glimpse of Ace without the mask and he stole my breath away.