My Mafia Madness

Chapter 3 - The Stand-Off

Struggle as she may, there was no way that poor Alexa could overpower three grown men as they held her above the ground, quickly dragging her from the curb-side towards the darker and more isolated alleyway nearby.

“No, get off!”

Her heels flung around wildly in the air as she arched her back and lifted herself up, helplessly using her legs and aiming for either of her attacker’s heads.

If she managed to land a hit to one of their heads it may be hard enough to draw blood or perhaps knock one out cold.

Then maybe they would disappear?

“Get your f*****g hands off-”

Her angered comment was immediately silenced as one thought to slam his hand over the top of her mouth, silencing her.

Together, they pulled her along unwillingly into the shadows of the darkened alley. Her angered grunts were all you could hear as they forced her down to the ground.

By now the tears had come rolling down her cheeks as she continued to fight for her life against these would-be rapists.

Who knows, they may even decide to murder her right here in the darkness of a secluded alleyway where no one would ever see her or hear her screams for help.

Realising the imminent danger she was now in, she knew calling out for help would be her best chance for survival. Using her teeth, she bit into the hand covering her mouth, causing him to cry out in agony and retract it away from her.

“Ah, s**t!” he cursed, glaring down at her.

“f*****g b***h!”

At the moment it happened, Alexa hadn’t seen his fist coming for her face. But she certainly felt the brunt of its impact as it connected with a ‘thud’ against the left side of her cheek. The brute force of it caused her head to turn off to the side as her vision blurred and darkened momentarily. She felt as if she may pass out as her head began flopping about. Her eyes opened and closed slowly.

She was quickly losing control of the situation. She could feel it.

“Please…” she whispered softly as they continued their assault.

“No…”

The other two began busily pulling at her top in an effort to remove it when the entire alleyway was suddenly luminated with the brightened headlights of a dark sedan.

The shiny car promptly rolled in from out of nowhere, blocking off their view of the neighbouring street and parking right in front of them with a sudden ‘screech’!

As if the light would burn them all three attackers suddenly stood, backing away from the clearly dazed Alexa who remained lying on the floor.

The attackers watched with fear as each of the sedan doors opened and several figures dressed in what appeared to be dark suits exited the car.

They looked rather out of place in such nice suits, each swiftly moving around to the front of the car as the high beams suddenly switched off.

Still lying on the floor in amongst several boxes and bags and feeling somewhat lightheaded, Alexa trembled in terror as she watched the scene play out before her, just like it would in an action movie.

“I think you stronzo’s (arseholes) must be lost.” came a deep, Italian accented voice as he clamped both of his hands together in front of him.

Black gloves covered both of his hands as he tilted his head to the left, ever so slightly.

“You see, this is the Reaper’s territory. Nothing goes down here without our boss’ say so.”

The attackers looked to one another, seemingly more worried now that they had heard the name ‘Reaper’ being mentioned. They looked terrified.

“You work for the Reaper?” one of the thugs questioned.

Alexa seemed confused by this also.

Who was this ‘Reaper’ and what was so terrifying about him?

What would make dangerous thugs like these so afraid by the mere mention of his name?

“Hey, hey, come on man. We had no idea this was Reaper’s territory, we swear!” their leader barked with a frown.

“Besides, it’s just one dumb b***h… he’s not gonna miss her-”

‘Pop!’

Alexa’s eyes widened and she sucked in a sharp breath.

Her attacker’s leader appeared to have been silenced for good when the taller, well-built figure wearing a suit moved like lightning.

Lifting a concealed weapon up, taking aim and firing off a single precision shot, all within the matter of a single second, he had shot a man dead.

The shot didn’t make much of a sound, merely a small ‘pop’ and Alexa wondered why as she lay there is a stunned silence.

The singular bullet blasted through the lead thug’s scalp and exploded out the back of it, splattering his crimson blood and brain matter across the alleyway behind him.

She watched with wide-open eyes as his lifeless body collapsed to the floor in a mangled mess less than a metre away from where she was lying beside it.

“What the f**k!” one of the two remaining attackers shouted before looking back across at the suited man, still holding out his gun.

He didn’t get to speak again as a second shot was quickly fired, hitting that man directly in between his widened grey eyes, he too fell to the floor lifelessly.

Then she saw him coming and there was no time to defend herself.

“No, let go!”

Alexa’s scream caught the gunmen’s attention as the last attacker quickly reached down and grabbed the terrified hostage by her lose blonde hair.

Try as she may, she was not strong enough to fend him off as the thug violently pulled her up to her feet while she struggled against his firm grip on her loosened locks.

Then she realised his intentions; he planned to use her as a human shield against the gunmen!

“No, please…”

“Shut the f**k up!”

Her merciless attacker held her in place, pulling hard at her hair and peering out from behind her neck as she winced with obvious pain.

Alexa had no choice but to stand there, trembling with fear as her eyes focused on the loaded weapon currently aimed directly at her head!

She couldn’t feel her legs as they began to wobble from beneath her long, torn coat.

Was this how she died?

Shot in a darkened street in the middle of the night, all because she had chosen to work late?

“Now, you’re gonna let me walk, alright? This doesn’t have to get ugly!” the panicked attacker called out from behind his terrified human shield.

Alexa hated that she was being forced to protect him, the snivelling bastard!

The massively built man holding his gun pointed at them didn’t speak a word.

He didn’t even appear to blink as he simply stared his prey down, unmoving with his gloved finger pressed against the trigger; just waiting for his chance to get a single shot off.

One precise shot.

Fearing that this was in fact the end for her, Alexa decided she wasn’t going without a fight.

She would rather go down fighting than die here and now!

Pulling together all her frustration and courage into one movement she quickly lifted her foot up, shoving her massive sharp heel downward right into the top of her attacker’s foot.

It didn’t pierce through his boot but must have hurt like hell!

“AHHHH!” he cried out in pain.

The instant her heel made contact with his foot, he made a fatal mistake…

He released his grip on her waist and Alexa threw her hands over her head and dropped down to the ground of the alleyway.

In her single movement, she had unintentionally given the gunman exactly what he wanted; a clean shot.

‘Pop!’

One shot was all it took and the third and final attacker was instantly dropped to the floor with a meaty ‘thud’ beside where Alexa was now hunched over on the ground in fear.

Her eyes were scrunched closed as she waited for the inevitable ‘pop’ sound to come for her too…

But nothing did.

After a few seconds it had become strangely quiet and she dared to open her eyes, lifting her head up and looking around.

Three bodies lay surrounding her now, each with a single bullet hole in the middle of their forehead as their lifeless eyes peered openly ahead and had already begun to glaze over from the icy grip of death.

“Oh my god…” she began sobbing, as shock finally began to set in.

“Oh my g…god.”

“Come on Nicola, we need to bounce!” one of the suited men reminded.

Nicola, the giant with the gun glanced down at the worried woman kneeling down on the floor as she turned to face them with a concerned expression.

Would they kill her too perhaps, for having seen too much?

Nicola took a moment, as if considering something before he pursed his lips together and holstered his gun.

He then began to stride across towards Alexa, causing her to fall backwards as she stared up at him shaking her head.

Her brows furrowed with an obscene amount of fear as she lifted her arm up in a menial effort to defend herself, her eyes forced closed once again as she turned her head away from him and spoke with horror.

“Please, don’t kill me.” she begged.

“Relax piccolo… (little one)” Nicola spoke with a slight grin; his Italian accent was quite obvious.

“I’m not going to kill you.”

Alexa opened her eyes and turned to face him again as he stopped right in front of her.

What he did next surprised her; he held out his gloved hand for her to take.

Was this a trick?

Did he intend on luring her away to some isolated place to perhaps ‘take care of her’ too?

“Nicola, come on man, hurry the f**k up!” another one of the suited men called out from behind his open car door.

“We don’t have time for this s**t. Just leave the broad and let’s go. The boss is already gonna be pissed with us for being this late!”

Alexa looked up at the giant looming over her with his hand held out for her to take.

Her eyes darted down towards his hand and immediately took notice of an intricate tattoo on his wrist. It seemed to poke out from underneath the end of his black leather glove.

And it was unique, that’s for sure.

She had always shown an interest in tattoos, especially unique designs. Call it a hobby, though she dared never taint her own delicate skin with the permanent stain of one.

His deep voice suddenly caught her attention once more.

“Come on piccolo (little one), I won’t bite. Take my hand.”

Suddenly the world around her began to spin as Alexa’s vision blurred uncontrollably. In reality, she was going into a form of shock.

Before she knew what was happening, her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she suddenly slumped over onto the ground of the alleyway.

She was out cold.

Letting out a short sigh Nicola closed his eyes for a moment before reopening them and placing his hands onto both of his hips.

“Merda.” (s**t)

That hadn’t exactly gone to plan.