Kidnapped By The Mafia

Trust

Days seem to get longer when you lose sense of time. My daily routine has become a monotonous cycle, wake up, stay in one corner of the room, refuse to eat, and then fall back to sleep.
Xander's way of showing his concern is him lashing out at me, forcing the food down my throat and making me feel miserable.
Noah comes around only when he's out of sight. It turns out that one of Marcellus's rules is that our relationship should remain strictly professional, which means Noah is forbidden from getting too close or forming a friendship with me.

I've been on my best behaviour so I got rewarded by getting a bedside lamp for some much needed light which I'll forever be grateful for.

These few weeks have been bearable only because of Noah though. Though he took his sweet time to "warm up" to me, he has gone from being the 'idgaf' typa guy to the one who's actually surprisingly calm and understanding. He seems to be the only sane one here, and I can tell he doesn't like the way Alex lives his life either. Alex is always getting into fights and causing problems with his clients. I also came to know from Noah that him and Alex go way back in time and are family friends, that's why he only trusted him to be assigned as my bodyguard.

"So you both were like what, childhood besties?" I asked him one day.

A soft chuckle escaped his lips. "Not exactly, besties," He clarified. "Our parents were very close business partners, so we saw each other a lot. We just happened to get along."

"What was he like as a kid?"

"Marcellus?" He took a minute to think. "Extremely rowdy and a massive troublemaker. Always got in fights as a kid."

I couldn't help but scoff. Of course, that sounded about right. Why was I not surprised? A wannabe thug like him would hurt others to assert his dominance.

"And then you just decided to start working under him?"

"No." He rolled his eyes at me. "I don't work "under him". He's paying me to take care of you."

"He is?" Surprise colored my voice.

"Yep."

"How much?"

He leaned in, "A shit ton." He replied with a grin, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes at his response.

*

*

*

"I got you food." I was surprised to hear Alex's voice instead of the maids.

The food was simple today, a bowl of chicken noodle soup and a basket of warm bread. He placed it down with a heavy thud and stood there, arms crossed, waiting. I met his gaze when he didn't leave.

"What?"

"Eat."

"I will. First, leave."

"Watch that tone with me." He sounded extremely irritated. And it was then when I noticed stains of blood splattered all over his dark shirt.

"What happened to you?"

He shrugged dismissively.  "Just a bad day at work." Rolling up his sleeves to reveal fresh scrapes and a nasty gash on his forearm.

His hair was a mess and parts of his shirt were also torn. I hate to admit it, but his presence still doesn't fail to make my heart skip a beat, when he gets close to me I can't help but panic and get flustered. After all, he's still the same person I fell for in that club. Although, that was a much more faker and nicer version of him.

"Alex?" I called out his name softly.

He turned back, his gaze meeting mine for a moment.  "Yes, love?" he asked, his voice softer than before.