Illicit

Twenty-Five, Gabriella

There was another apology thick on my tongue after a much-deserved scolding from a beyond irritated Brooklyn, a genuine place overcome with everything going on and the uncertainty of our lives. Spending what little downtime we do have left before it all picks up speed, fighting, is only going to cause more pain in the long run.

She didn't say it, but the implications were like a stab in my chest, knowing she means that the possibility of losing more people is higher than maybe we had first hoped. There's no world in which things don't take a steep nosedive.

Especially after what Brooklyn remembered, the more time I spend with her the more I realise that finding her was the greatest thing that could have ever happened to us. Largely I believe that most of the awful things we have narrowly avoided and people we managed to dispose of would have hit us, killing us and giving Devil-Trio exactly what they have been plotting for.

Human Trafficking isn't something new to me, anyone with access to the news or the internet has heard about all the horrible things that happen if you are taken. No matter what your fate, escaping is always an impossibility having so many people paid to keep you within your origin.

The Mafia has been a figurehead for those inner circles for longer than I have been alive, mostly because who the hell is going to try and over through them when they are involved in things like that. Coupled with the fact that they are seriously messed up, and probably the scariest group of people that I have ever heard. No matter how power hungry I was, common sense would tell me that nothing and no amount of money would be worth getting involved with them.

I mean, imagine ruffling their feathers or making a bad decision and pissing them off. If we think the trio and Marcus' punishments are harsh then there's no telling just how lethal everyone else's could be, so when we take down the new endeavour. There's a certain amount of faith going into the Mafia, trusting they will destroy and eliminate everyone else involved in the favour.

Perhaps the FBI could be appreciative of all the lengths we have gone too to collect as much information as possible, the club with undoubtedly be seized. Not that that will matter much, there's very little chance of us still being in the country after we get everyone out of the Auction and burn it to the ground.

We just have to hope that Brooklyn is right about the FBI, and their willingness to give us all a pardon and leave the country for all the evidence and help we have been in the recent months. I mean, we have been a target for our own Father's, that doesn't scream murdering, trafficking and overall menacing accomplices to an illegal business. Does it?

Levi hasn't lessened his grip on me since the moment he tugged me onto his lap, all murmurs of his theory smothered under his concern for me. As much as it hurts to know he was thinking about what all this information could have meant for his conception and not sharing it with me, I can't pretend I am not the reason for it.

It's three in the morning by the time everyone has left the club and made their way over to Levi's apartment, he banned me from spending any more time drowning in my own paranoia by staring at the camera's. Letting my fixation on keeping everyone alive turn me into a vile three-headed monster who forgets how to be a fully functioning adult, that knows what is appropriate to say and what isn't.

"Have you never had people over here?" I grin, Levi's jumper swallowing me, my knees tucked up to my chest underneath the soft fabric. The sight of him flying around and preparing snacks makes me feel all fluffy inside, he doesn't even realise how he makes me feel.

It's just second nature, for him to try and keep people comfortable even if that means yelling and being harsh to get his point across. I thought when I first met him that he would fight any changes till he was blue in the face, but it never happened, and I doubt he notices unless dwelling on it.