Diavolo

one - welcome to the party

The pub hadn't changed much from the outside, she thought to herself as she approached the dimly lit building. As soon as the door swung open she was instantly hit with the smell of smoke and alcohol, with a hint of pine. Her eyes surveyed the room until it landed on a man in his late 60s with grey almost white hair, in a white cotton shirt and black trousers. He sat with a newspaper in his hands and a bottle of Italian beer in front of him.

"Papa." The red-haired greeted him while sliding into a chair opposite the old man. It took him a minute to register her voice.

"Il mio bambino, how are you?" His smile was brighter than the stars in the sky, showing all the wrinkles on his face. 

"The mission was good Pops, everything went according to plan. I'm just glad to be back." She truly was, a part of her loved the adrenaline and the missions but nothing compared to coming home again. Even when deep down, she knew she wasn't going to be staying long.

"That's good to hear sweetheart." The old man admits, bringing the beer bottle to his lips. Then as he sets it back on the table his eyebrows creased in the centre, "How is he?" He questions warily.

He notices how she avoided eye contact as she replied, her whole body tensed. "He was out of control, credited with two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years. But I have the best scientists and doctors working on it. They're trying to wipe the programming so that he's no longer under their control." She sunk back into her chair as if a weight has been lifted off her shoulders, her eyes were filled with a different type of emptiness.

Papa placed his shaky hand on hers, "He'll be okay. I know he will." Although she nodded to his reassurance, her heart skipped at the thought of him losing control again like he did when she tried to help him. He didn't even recognise her. It was never easy when it came to someone you loved, someone who you shared a past with. 

The two were too engrossed in the conversation that she hadn't noticed the three large male entering the bar, one on the right was covered in tattoos from head to toe, a large visible snake piece crept up his neck. The one on the left was the smallest out of the three, his two firearms were in plain sight, either to provoke people or to intimidate them. Lastly, the one in the centre was evidently the leader of the three, he was bald and covered in face piercings and tattoos. The atmosphere instantly changed, the talking and commotion were toned down, as everyone avoided their eye contact. 

The hairs on her back stood up as if it was her fifth sense to detect when something was about to go wrong, "Hold on for a second pops." She uttered pushing her chair back making sure to scrape the legs along the wooden floor. "Gentlemen, this bar is for members only so I'm gonna have to ask you kindly to leave." She spoke with an authoritative voice.

"And if we don't." The smaller one said, his hand already on the handguns embedded in his waistband, most people would've sat back down and turned a blind eye to the men. But she wasn't like everyone, she was cold and calculated, her face twisted into a menacing smirk. 

"Ok, I'm going to give you one last chance to leave." The three male shared a look between each other before moving towards her. They were now so close that she could reach them by just extending her arms. "Don't say I didn't warn you." Was the last thing that left her mouth. She went straight for their legs, blocking every blow that was thrown her way. Her fighting style was aimed to take down her opponent with maximum damage in minimal time. It took a total of one minute for her to disarm all three men and a minute more for them to be bleeding out on the floor of the old pub. 

She rolled her shoulders back then wiped the specks of crimson blood off her face with her sleeves. Like a switch had been flipped, everything in the pub went back to how it was. The redhead dug into her pockets to fish out her phone, she quickly sent a text message to Toni 

Need your help @ old pub, bring the van.

Toni knew what this meant, he had been working for LeToya long enough to know what 'bring the van' implied.

"Sorry about that Papa." She states placing four handguns on the table, although she could see Pop's mouth moving, she couldn't register what he was saying. Her mind was wandering elsewhere, it was clear that she was the objective of those three men. She just couldn't work out why.

She glanced up at Toni who was now standing next to Papa with a hand on his shoulder, pressing her lips into a fine line she stood back up to greet him. "You see the big guy with the piercings on his face?" She asked pointing at the heap on the floor. 

"This guy?" He asks, lifting one of the men up by the back of their shirts. 

She nodded in response, "Let's put him in the van and leave the other two in the back alley." With that, Toni started dragging the men out of the building. 

She sucked in a deep breath as he phone vibrated on the table, she picked up the device and read a text from Gabriel Santoro. It consisted of four words.

We need to talk.

But deep down she knew what those four words meant. 

Gabriel Santoro wasn't the kind of person who would send casual texts for a catch-up. He was however your typical handsome playboy who was tall, sculpted with freckles and hazel eyes. An Ex-Navy seal, he was more than a partner to her. Their friendship was built on nothing but trust, his awareness and mental toughness were phenomenal, he worked almost like a robot following instructions and orders like algorithms.

But what she liked about him was that he wouldn't think twice about risking his life for her because she would bring hell on earth for him too.