mafia king

Chapter 5 - this is not planned

I didn't know when the assignment went apeshit but it definitely had. My hand with the gun was shaking. This was supposed to be over two hours ago but we were all still stuck in the warehouse. The drugs we had to steal were still spread out on the tables. Not even 10 minutes after our arrival we were caught. We knew that there were going to be around 15 guards in the warehouse. We had thought it was 15 in total for all the warehouses. That was a fatal miscalculation. I jumped when a hand landed on my shoulder. "Relax. It's me." Tino whispered and spied down to the ground floor. "I killed two guards already." "What?!" I asked alarmed. "Yeah, what did you think I was going to do when you sent me to the back of the warehouse?" "I wanted you to find the others." I hissed and Tino shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever. I'm evening the odds out." "Forget about the guards, Tino. We are getting the hell out." "No, way! We need the drugs." I pressed my lips together to stop me from yelling at him. "Matteo, the others are already outside the warehouse. If they weren't we would have seen them. Now, let's get the drugs so we can call this a success." "It's too dangerous." I argued and tried to slow down my racing heart. "You are a shitty leader. Scared of a little gunfire. Fine, I will get the drugs and you can run to safety." With wide eyes I watched him crawl out of our hiding spot and sneak down the ladder. With a curse I followed him. No way was I going to let Tino get all the glory AND call me a pussy. He was already at the table stuffing the drugs into his backpack. "Found some balls back there?" I was too on edge to reply. After we had stuffed our bags to the brim with drugs, we were getting the hell out of there. I brushed sweat away from my forehead. I can't believe I had wanted this mission. What the hell was I thinking?

We were at the side of the warehouse. I could heart breathing behind me. Deep and calm breaths. That was wrong. I stopped and Tino walked into me. His chest was heaving like he had ran a marathon. Dread settled in my stomach. I turned around the gun raised. Tino's eyes widened. "What the fuck!" I fired my gun, aiming behind him. A body fell to the ground. My breath hitched in my throat. I ran past Tino to make sure the guard was dead. Headshot. I turned around with a sick feeling of relieve. Tino wasn't rolling his eyes at my shot like I had expected. He was staggering and touching his chest. "Tino?" I whispered and he looked up at me. His eyes were wide open and full of fear. My eyes flew to his chest. Blood was already covering his hands. Before he could fall to the ground I stepped forward and caught him. "No, no, no." I put him on the ground, tearing his jacket off to see the damage. His breathing had gotten shallow. There was a hole in his chest. "But I saved you." I whispered and tried to stop the bleeding. "Don't die." Tino's eyes had a faraway look. "I'll get you out of here. Don't worry." My vision was getting blurry. I was crying. "Tino?" I asked and tried to stop my hands from shaking. I had forgotten every single training session I had done in my life. Only panic was filling me. I knew deep down that the wound Tino had was fatal. Hell, he was already dead. I stopped putting pressure on the wound. I sat back and stared at him. I heard footsteps and shouting. The were coming closer and for the first time since I entered the warehouse, I stopped being scared. I wanted to kill all of them. I stood up and grabbed my gun. I walked towards the voices, hidden behind some cargo, and fired. One shot, two shots... When I stopped silence returned into the warehouse. By now I was in the front of the warehouse. Suddenly the doors opened and I was ready to fire another shot, but I stopped when I recognized Marco. He ran towards me and pulled me out the warehouse. I heard him say something about a fire breaking out.

I was out of the warehouse. Hanging onto Marco. Every one of his movements was hysterical. I groaned. "Where are the others?" He slowly set me down and I was staring at the warehouse going up in flames. "Sandrino is with Mario. On the other side of the warehouse." My gaze flew to my hands. Covered in blood that wasn't mine. "I don't know where Tino is. Fuck - What if he is still inside?" Marco yelled and grabbed his hair. "He is dead." Marco didn't hear me. He was binding his jacket around the wound on my arm. I hadn't even noticed the grazing shot. "I'll go back inside." "Marco." I stopped his hands. "Tino is dead." His face fell. "What?" My throat constricted. I had already said it more times than I ever thought I would.

The next time I opened my eyes I was back in the main villa. I blinked slowly. I heard Sandrino crying beside me. "Tino is dead." Mario stood up and walked over to Sandrino. "I'm so sorry, Sandrino." "I loved him, you know? And I never told him." I closed my eyes again. The anguish in his voice brought tears to my eyes. "I'm sure he knew." Mario said and Sandrino's chair scraped over the floor. "You don't know! No one fucking knows." The slamming of the door was next followed by a deep sigh of Marco. "Poor guy... Do you think Tino knew?" "He was an idiot but not stupid." I fell back into a deep slumber. My energy reserves already used up.

I woke up what felt like seconds later. I felt groggy but stayed awake this time. "Matteo?" Marco and Mario appeared in my vision. "Oh, thank god." They both cried out and hugged me. "We thought we were going to lose you too." What happened at the warehouse hit me with full force. We didn't know what to say, so we all sat in silence. I tracked the up and down of the heart monitor. "Where is Sandrino?" I asked after a while. I had never experienced grieve like this, but I knew we had to be together. "He vanished."

Georgino showed up a few hours later in the hospital room. He was full of panic. "Fuck. I thought it was you." Georgino whispered and pulled me into his arms. Mario observed us from the couch beside my bed. Marco had fallen asleep in his lap hours ago. I put my arms around him too. "You were right." I whispered and he looked at me in confusion. "We weren't ready. I pushed you to give us the mission and you did because you love me, not because you thought we could do it. I wasn't ready to lead and now Tino is dead because of me." Georgino opened his mouth to disagree with me. The shock and disapproval about my words were clear in his eyes but when I looked at Mario, I didn't see the same emotions in his. I pressed my eyes together to stop the tears from falling. "Give my position to someone else." Georgino shook his head. "You are grieving. Let's not talk about these things." He caressed my cheek and pressed a kiss on my temple. "I won't change my mind." Georgino pushed me in a laying position and laid down next to me. His arms went around me and I put my head on his chest. His heart was beating a slow and strong rhythm. It nearly lulled me into sleep but whenever I started to drift off, I saw Tino dying. I didn't sleep for a second this time.