bullets and bouquets

11

"Do we have a location on Bianca Marchesi? Runs a gang out of Palermo?" Sadie asks, going back into the security room.

"Let me check," Weston answers. He changes one of the monitors to look up the name, "We don't."

Sadie slams her hand down on the desk, "Fuck!"

She is stumped for a minute as Denmar joins her.

"Look up Wren Nova," she says, "There's gotta be something in there that tells us where Isla is."

"Wren Nova, 28, lives in Palermo...." Weston reads off, "Owns an office building... which is being renovated."

"Address?"

"Sending it to the cars," he answers

"Good. Denmar, I want everyone with. All cars," she orders. He gets his walkie out, "Vaughn, Cinna stay here, guard the Estate."

"Yes Ma'am," they answer. She leaves the security room, goes to the gun room, and then to the garage.

As she slides her gun into its holster she whispers, "I'm coming for you Isla. I'm coming."

***

"Lef me ouugh!" Isla mumble-shouts through the gag. She still remains tied up, unaware of where she could possibly be. Bianca left her after she woke up, Isla does not know how much time has passed. She starts to worry that Sadie isn't coming, "Lef me ouugh!"

Bianca storms into the room, "Shut up! You're being so annoying."

"Fugh oough," Isla replies. Bianca, tired of the girl's shouting, gets close to her.

"Don't make me shut you up," she threatens. Isla, afraid that she is on her own, head-butts the gang leader, "Jesus, fuck! You fucking bitch!"

Bianca's nose drips blood as she backs away from the brunette. She becomes enraged.

"Bring me a knife!" she shouts. Isla's eyes become panicked as one of Bianca's servants enters, fulfilling the request, "You shouldn't have done that."

She walks closer to Isla, knife in her hand. Isla's heart begins to race, as she tries to back away. But she's tied to a chair. The brunette begins to scoot the chair back, but pushes too far, tipping herself over.

"Ugh!" she groans when she hits the floor. Bianca starts laughing.

"Oh, little one," the gang leader laughs, "that was so pathetic of you."

She tips the chair back up, "I'm not gonna kill you yet, gotta wait for Sadie to get here."

Isla breathes heavily through the spit-soaked cloth.

"I will, however, have some fun..." she smirks. Isla raises her eyebrows, "Bring it in!"

One of her servants brings in a little cart. Isla can't tell what it is. Bianca puts on gloves, making the girl panic again.

She arranges some tools on the cart and Isla's eyes begin to water, thinking she is about to be killed or tortured.

Then Bianca takes the knife and cuts through Isla's pajama pants on her thigh. She starts to cry as the gang leader rips a big hole in her pants.

"Don't worry, this won't hurt... for me," Bianca smirks. Tears roll down the girl's face as the gang leader prepares herself. Isla closes her eyes for a second, expecting some sort of pain, but opens them to find Bianca holding a pen. A tattoo pen, "Now, stay still, or I'll have to hurt you more. I mean, I wouldn't mind, but I'm trying to be 'nicer'."

Isla whimpers as she grabs the girl's thigh, bringing the needle down on her skin. Isla squeezes her eyes shut, feeling fire spread across her thigh. She clenches her teeth down on the gag, her arms pulling on the rope that holds her down. A steady stream of tears continues down her face as Isla thinks this is it for her. Becoming another hostage of a different gang. One that would kill her.

"Come on, let's go!" Sadie yells at the driver.

"We have to drive the limit or we'll get picked up," he answers. It's true. They don't want to get pulled over and risk revealing their identities. Sadie sighs, feeling teary-eyed, unable to imagine what's going on for Isla.

"We can't go a few over?" she asks

"I'm already a few over, Madame. We will be there soon," he replies. Sadie sits back in her seat in defeat. She knows time is going by slowly for Isla, she just hopes she isn't too late.

Bianca finishes tattooing Isla's leg, reading "il mio", Italian for "mine". The tattoo wasn't actually supposed to take all that time, Bianca just enjoys torturing the girl. She also didn't care to make it look nice, blood and ink runs down her thigh with the words spelled out in a crude fashion.

The cars pull up a couple of blocks away from the building. Denmar gets out his walkie.

"Weston, we have arrived, what's the best entry point?" he asks.

"South entrance, but I don't know what floor they're on," Weston answers.

"Don't worry about that, we got it," Denmar answers.

"Copy," three of the six cars exit and begin walking to the building. Sadie is with them, the other cars full of men for backup. Denmar guards Sadie, walking in front of her as others lead.

They go to the south entrance and just like Weston said, it was unguarded. They enter the dark building. It's still dark out in the early morning, so the men use spotlights on their guns.

"Spread out, find the girl," one of the servants says. All of the men begin to search the ground floor, leaving Denmar and Sadie at the entrance.

"Clear, moving up to the second floor," one of the servants says over the walkie.

"Copy, I need one person to stay on the ground floor," Denmar says.

"Copy, I got it down here," someone else answers. Denmar begins to lead Sadie to the second floor. The same search happens, but nothing on the second.

They make their way up through the floors, now on the sixth floor.

"Denmar, light in the stairwell leading upstairs," someone says over the comm.

"Copy, move up, and take them out," he orders.

"Copy," the servants move upstairs and gunfire is automatically heard.

This alerts Bianca who is a floor above her men. She quickly cuts the binds that held Isla to the chair. She pulls the girl up, wrapping her arm around her neck, gun in the other hand on her forehead. Tears stain Isla's face and she can barely hold herself up from the pain.

Sadie and Denmar wait until they hear no more gunfire.

"What's the situation?" he asks into the walkie.

"Clear, no one else is up here. We believe she's upstairs with Bianca," someone says.

"Copy, standby," he says. Denmar begins to walk up the stairs with Sadie. They don't stop on the seventh floor, going all the way up to the eighth. Just before they reach the top, Sadie stops him.

"Let me go alone," she says.

"Madame..."

"When you hear me say 'Isla's not gay', light her up," she informs him. He sighs.

"Yes Ma'am," he answers. He watches as Sadie walks up the stairs alone, with her pistol. She walks down the hall, towards the only light. She takes a deep breath before bursting into the room.

"Isla!"