Fell In A Concrete Jungle (Nicholas Ruffilo/ Bad Omens)

1: The start.

Everyday it was the same thing, over and over. Get up, get dressed—eat a mouthful or two of food before being swept away by my father's team. Ever since my mother died six years ago my father has been having me under his wing, almost making sure nothing happened to me.
To this day, I was to follow him around to all his meetings and the ones I couldn't go in, I was simply to wait outside with the secretary that no doubt was sleeping with him, the thought alone would boil my blood.
One day at a time, hour by hour I was to smile for camera's, stand close to my father and only reply to questions that benefited my father, we lived in a world where money was power and my father wasn't shy to flaunt what he has, he was one of the most wealthiest people in the world, a leader others looked to.

Smoothing out my knee-high skirt—I grumbled as I followed Leanna through the hallway, both of our heels echoing off the floor as we waited for my father to be done at an important meeting before a small press conference. The outfit I was forced into today was a black knee-high skirt with a button up blouse and a black cardigan that hugged my figure. My father told me I always had my mother's figure. I was cursed with hips that had hip-dips; the amount of sexual comment's I had seen online from that alone made me shudder. My chest I felt was average. All the stuff I didn't care about. I was known for my looks though, being one of the wealthiest leaders' daughters, it was hard to stay hidden from the media—almost any other day there was a new photo of me saying how I followed daddy around like the good little girl I was, it was pathetic.
My eyes though, everyone told me I was like my mother, from my fair complexion and black hair that only brought out my green eyes that much more. My father made me wear heels as he said it looked professional but also because I needed to be taller, according to my father being five-foot-five wasn't acceptable enough for his child, his only child.

"I don't understand why I am stuck going to these, I would have much preferred to sleep in my bed" I groaned glancing at the clock we passed. Up and out the door before six in the morning, my father enjoying whatever breakfast was ever brought to him in that meeting while I waited patiently.

Leanna most likely rolled her eyes as I followed behind her—her blonde hair hung just believe her shoulders, what my father saw in her beyond her being younger I had no idea. She wasn't much older than I was, early thirties when I was only twenty-six, a day after my twentieth birthday I had awoken to the news of my mother's passing, a feeling I never truly ever got over. "Your father wanted you close, he said cleaners were going in your room today to tidy what ever you had laying around, since you seem to be so messy" she was referring to my desk where my art would sit, I was interested in drawing comic styles, anything I found throughout the day I would try to take a photo of it and design something later on. I wasn't a messy person; I just wasn't dedicated to the things my father wanted me to be.

"Aren't you tired, following him like a lost puppy?" the halt in her step nearly had me stumbling into her as she turned her brown eyes pinning me down, making me feel smaller than I already was. She was a good three inches in height compared to me.

Her lips curved upwards, going to say something when she stopped herself. Her complexion glowed in the sun on her sun-kissed skin as she shook her head. "You need to learn to behave, no wonder the media calls you the Concrete princess" the sentence alone had me cringing.

She and I finding the room we were supposed to wait in. I took a seat at the table, spinning my chair around once as I scanned the room. A coffee bar on the corner where Leanna was now getting us both a drink of, and some muffins which she skipped out on as she made her way towards us. Door opening, a gentleman from my father's team took a seat as Leanna greeted him. "Morning, Gemma" his rough voice said as he silently thanked Leanna for putting the coffee in front of him.

Thanking Leanna for the coffee, I pushed mine away from me not in the mood, Leanna was picky and didn't get herself one since it wasn't her favorite place her and my father would stop at. "Morning, Jack" I greeted him back as I scrolled through my phone.

Not long after, Jack began coughing, furrowing my brows he stood up excusing himself. "Must have drunk my coffee wrong" he said going for the door but stopping, Leanna and I watched as Jack coughed, and coughed, and coughed as his face turned red and blood began to dribble down his chin as he flew the door open in a panic, unable to breathe. A gun-shot had Leanna at the door, closing it as fast as she could before eyes meeting mine.

"We need to get you out of here!" she said pushing the table from the center of the room towards the door where we could hear footsteps marching this way, standing in the corner of the room—my heart raced as I saw blood on the door where Jack had just been coughing moments ago. "Gemma!" her voice pulled me out of thought as she waved me over, "help me move this and stay low!" she said.

Nodding, I went over to where she stood pushing the table towards the door she had locked a second ago. Standing straight as bangs echoed in the room from the door, I looked around—there was only the one door, and we were so high up in this building that climbing out the window wasn't an option. "We're trapped!" I said looking at the door that continued to bang.

Stepping in front of me, she pulled out her gun she had tucked away as she pointed it at the door, it was clear she was nervous, and I could feel sweat dripping down my back from my own nerves now being heightened. "Don't panic" she hissed as she kept a firm grip on the weapon, both of our eyes locked on the door in front of us threatening to break.

On the other side, a gun-fire had us both stepped back as it was met with silence, my ears ringing from the echo of the weapon on the other side, body trembling as I clung onto Leanna who had her weapon still aimed forward. "Leanna? Are you in there, Miss Saunders?" both of us sighed with relief when we heard one of my fathers' men on the other side.

"What's the status?" Leanna called out; gun still aimed not trusting it until she heard what she wanted to hear.

"One down—Jack is also down, danger is cleared" his voice on the other side of the door.

"Move away from the door, we are going to open it" her voice was firm.

Hearing rushing of footsteps, I helped Leanna move the heavy table away from the door as we swung it open to be greeted by my father and his team. "Gemma!" his voice thick with worry as he pulled me into an embrace, "someone tell me what the hell just happened?" he yelled looking at the member of his team dead on the floor before a younger body was laid a few feet away.

Watching as the blood pooled around the bodies, I could feel it sticking to my heels as I took a step away from the scene seeing my heels leaving prints. "Poison, in the coffee" Leanna spoke finally as she met my father's gaze, his softening when he saw her. "Gemma did not drink any, but Jack did, when he stumbled to the door and out that is when the gunfire went off, sir" her eyes looked back at me.

After that event, my father didn't let me leave his sight as we headed back to our home, I had an apartment that had security stationed on every angle you could think of as we were just off the compound where my father worked. I was able to change into clean heels as I followed security down to my father's office which overlooked the city. "I want them here ASAP, I don't care what anyone says she is to be protected at all times" his voice roared through the hall as he spoke on the phone.

Stepping into the office, he was hanging up his phone before standing to greet me. "Are you okay my little Gem?" I cringed at the nickname, one of him and his friends would call me thanks to my green eyes.

"I'm fine, really. . . You don't need to breathe down my neck so much dad" I said looking around his office that now lacked photos of my mother and myself.

"I know, but after today I am hiring the best—I won't be near you as much as I believe my project is putting you at risk which is why I am taking these measures."

"Measures? What are you talking about, who are your hiring?" it wasn't like my father to be hiring people randomly like this.

Hearing Leanna's voice on the pager for my father, her voice sent chills down my body. "Sir, they are here to see you" her voice filtered through.

"Send them in," replied my father.

"Send who in?"

"Them."