Guns and Roses

Seventeen ~ Quinn

We stay in her room until around dinner time. Neither of us mention what happened this morning.

She smiles down at her cards and I know I've lost already. "Come on!" I moan as she beats me yet again. "How are you so good at this?"

She shrugs "I've just been playing a while I guess" She goes quiet and starts to wrap a strand of hair around her fingers. "Quinn... about yesterday"

I nod "I'm sorry for following you" I tell her although I'm no longer afraid of her killing me. "Your name was left in the flower shop and my grandfather was missing. I just assumed that meant that you did it"

She shakes her head "You weren't supposed to get involved. This is why I don't have friends" she runs her hands through her hair and starts to tie it back away from her face. "I don't like having to eat alone at lunch. I don't like the way people look at me when I tell them that I don't want to come to their party. I don't like having to explain why they can't come back to my house to do projects"

I take her hand the way she did when I was in trouble. Her expression is guarded but I can see the little things that most people would miss: the flicker in her eyes, the tension in the muscles of her hand.

"Why?" I ask her "I mean, I thought when your parents were arrested you got out of all of this"

She laughs at this and her hand falls from mine. "This is the fucking mafia Quinn. It's in my blood" I go to stop her as it's distressing her but she doesn't let me "When dad went to prison, his title came to me. I was three years old. The only way for the title to be passed on is blood shared or blood spilled"

I don't understand. How on earth could she run the mafia at three?

She gets to her feet and starts to pace "That means that I will only lose the title by passing it onto my kid or when someone kills me for it"

"The shooting" I mutter. If killing the boss then makes you boss then attacks like last night must be common.

She nods "You might think that I'm evil. That I'm a killer and a sick human being and fine. I am. But someone else in charge would be so much worse. Before my father, the majority of our profits came from human trafficking. We sold people. I'm stopping that from happening"

I put my hands up "I'm not accusing yo-"

"I'm hungry. You want dinner?" She cuts me off, changing the subject and everything about her instantly. She perks up and all distress and upset from a few seconds ago is invisible.

I nod and follow her out of the room. I look around and see the elegance of the building around me. This was all bought with money that people died for.

Rya grabs my arm as we get to the bottom of the stairs. "If you thought my parents were bad then you're going to hate this. These people are exactly the same except they were smart enough to not get caught" she smiles as she says this and then pushes the door to the kitchen open.

Immediately, I am hit with a blur of sounds. About three different conversations are going on all in different languages.

I spot Alexander cleaning a gun at the same time he sees me. Slowly, he starts to hide it under the table and the room goes quiet. "You didn't say you had friends round" he says softly.

Rya laughs at his pathetic attempt "He knows Alex. You can all calm down"

Lisa walks over to us with two massive plates of food. "Eat quickly before everyone else gets their claws stuck in" she laughs and hands us our dinner. It looks like some sort of stew.

A man with shaved white hair walks in and starts speaking in Russian I think. Rya replies in the same language as she eats and then the man groans "I can't believe you make me speak this awful language in this house"

Rya pats the back of a chair "Sit" she says to me and I do so. Rya doesn't scare me anymore but the others do. "Everyone, this is Quinn" she introduces me.

A girl about our age stares at me from across the table. "Mika" she says and nods at me. I nod back and she smiles "Ignore Rafa. He's just hungover"

I look up at the man now pacing the room. He goes for the food but Lisa smacks with with a spatula until he goes away.

The man, now named Rafa, turns and looks at me with a smirk. "Has he seen the torture chamber?"

I smile back. I know this joke, I've fallen for it once and I won't fall for it again. Artie walks in with his hands in his pockets. "You mean the spare bedroom" I say with a laugh.

Rya stops eating and purses her lips together. "Not in this house Quinn"

That's when Artie pulls his hands from his pockets and I see the blood staining his fingers and being washed down the sink.

There's an actual torture chamber. And there's someone inside it.

I don't feel hungry anymore.

Rya jumps to her feet. "Quinn, do you want to come with me? We can set you up with somewhere to sleep"

I nod, my stomach still turning. "Yep. Sounds great"