𝐄𝐳𝐫𝐚 | 18+

41

We drive to the coffee shop and he parks right in front of it. I jump out, a smile beaming on my face as Ezra circles the car to meet me. He links his hand with mine and we walk towards the front of the shop, but a voice stops us.

"Romano." A deep husky voice asks. Damn it, when's is gonna be Bouras?

We turn towards the voice to see a man. He has a shortly trimmed head of blond hair and sharp facial features, hooded light eyes and thin pale lips. He stands at about the same height as Ezra and he's wearing an all black attire, a black leather jacket with white fur on the inside, black jeans and gloves.

"Petrov." Ezra rasps out, his hand subtly dragging me behind him. The unfamiliar man, Petrov, smirks, taking a daring step towards us.

"What you got there?" He asks innocently, leaning to the side to eye me. "Ah, a little vixen, eh?" He snickers.

"Get lost, Petrov." Ezra growls, taking a step back into me.

"Get lost? This is a public coffee shop, you don't own it." He shakes his head slowly, his eyes narrowing on Ezra.

"You'd be surprised." Ezra grumbles. Petrov chuckles.

"The Romano. Pussy whipped, entirely." The man's eyes widen with amusement. "Does she know?" He smirks. A crease forms between my eyebrows.

Know what?

"Know what?" I ask, directed towards Ezra.

"Hm, I guess not." Petrov chuckles.

"Fuck you, Petrov. What do you want?" Ezra asks, taking another step back.

"Well, I came to speak about your new...promotion. But now, I'm interested in her." His eyes look on me, eyeing me up and down. I stand my ground, throwing him thousands of needles with a glare.

I hope his pillow is warm on both sides.

"Absolutely not." Ezra says. "Why don't you leave us alone for a little, okay? I'll be there in a few minutes." Ezra says, his tone sweetening immediately as he speaks to me. He didn't mention my name, but I know he's speaking to me. I nod slowly, rushing into the shop. The warmth of it has a sigh escaping my lips, my shoulders relaxing from their stiff position. I look around and see that it's empty besides a man reading a book in the corner and the woman working behind the register.

I walk up to the woman and her eyes light up, a smile on her lips. "Hi!" She beams.

"Hello...can I get two iced coffees, please?" I ask, still a bit stressed from what happened. I glance outside and see the two men arguing heatedly, yelling at each other things that I can barely hear, the sound muffled from the glass.

"Coming right up." She says, starting to make the coffees. I glance back outside and find pity at seeing the men like this. My only question is why. And what is there for me to know, that I don't know?

I notice the man with the book, close it and glance up at me, standing up. His eyes don't leave mine as he walks past me, a gust of cool air hitting me square in the face as he does so.

I don't pay much attention to him, assuming he's just another creep.

I wait patiently for the coffees, tapping my foot eagerly against the wooden floor, sighing heavily.

Im uncomfortable being in the same room as this man. I took a few self defense classes but, as mentioned previously, I spent most of my time on the mat. I glance at the man through the reflection on the glass window that guards the pastries from being stolen. He's looking up at me, in the reflection, his head kept down but his eyes are on me. I inhale deeply and try to steady my heartbeat. I look outside to Ezra and see they're still arguing.

I might have to karate chop this bitch.

Not Ezra, the creep behind me.

He has a shaved head like the man outside, but he has dark hair. There's a stripe of longer hair down the center of his scalp that continues down the length of his pulled up hood (i'm guessing, it would make sense). He has dark hooded eyes and a rough beard and mustache. Although. he looks less buff than Petrov, he doesn't seem to be an easy to take down. Not that I was considering that anyway.

He's wearing a raincoat, although it's sunny outside, with the hood pulled above his head.

"Sorry dear, I have to run to the back for a second." The worker says, smiling at me sweetly. I go to say something but she's already gone. My breath hitches in my throat when I see the man behind me shifts in his seat, scooting closer to me.

I look outside and my eyes widen as Petrov swings his arm back and lands a punch to Ezra's face. I gasp lightly and start to go outside, but a hand grabs my forearm and tugs me back.

It all happens so quickly.

I swing my elbow back and am able to hit the man, but he manages to get me off of my feet and circles an arm around my neck, dragging me backwards from my neck. I struggle in his grab, screaming incoherent words of plea as my hands reach up to his thick arm, my chin pressing against his arm firmly. I look at Ezra before my vision starts to blur and see his eyes widen as he hurls himself toward the door. He goes to open it but he's yanked back by Petrov who lands another hit to him.

I scream and squirm around in the man's hold, kicking my arms around like it's going to change something. I grasp the skin on his arm between my fingertips and squeeze it as hard as I can. I yell ripples from his lips but all he does is grab my hand and crush it with his other hand, a scream of pain shooting out of me.

I faintly hear the sound of him reaching for something over my rapid pulse hammering in my ear, sending adrenaline through all of my veins and leaving a strange feeling in my chest and stomach. I cough as the grip he has on my neck tightens and my eyes widen more at the sight of a white cloth starting to cover my face. I flip and turn, trying to keep the cloth as far away as possible to my airways, knowing it's chloroform.

I manage to get on my feet again, and step to the side, my fist going to meet him solidly in the groin. He screams and goes to hunch over and as soon as he does so, I bring my elbow up to meet his face. He groans and staggers backwards, releasing me from his hold. When I turn he's holding his nose, which is violently bleeding, and hunching over a chair. So I take his distraction to my and vantage and go to bolt outside where Ezra and Petrov are handling each other like toddlers fighting over a toy. I'm about to open the door to do some ass-kicking when something grabs a handful of my hair and tugs me back, a yelp sounding through me.

Where the fuck is that damn woman making coffee?! Did she evaporate?!

The white cloth is clamped around my mouth and I wiggle around, trying to escape it. But it's to no avail.

My vision starts to blur and my head drops as darkness takes over.

word count: 1284
☂︎︎☂︎︎☂︎︎☂︎︎☂︎︎☂︎︎☂︎︎☂︎︎☂︎︎☂︎︎

I'm debating whether I should have this end happily or not so happily. Dw we're not close to the end yet, tho, so there's time to decide.