1. Prologue
Readers, Please Note:
This book will be available in paperback by the end of December 2022!
This book contains two books combined into one.
Book 1: Sold To The Dominant Mafia (completed and currently under editing )
Book 2: Claimed By The Dominant Mafia is continued right after the Epilogue of book 1. Please don't be confused.
Please unlock book 1 first and then decide whether you will continue onto book 2. The first 3 chapters will be free for that book to help you decide.
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Amara couldn’t figure out what was creating more chaos. The thunder bellowing outside, added with the splashing rain, both joining together to create a frantic, almost terrifying tempo or her older brother and sister fighting over the last piece of imported chocolate that their father brought for them two days ago. She was silently watching them while lounging on her mother's lap, her green-eyes amused. And that's when it started.
Terrifying noise echoed through the house, followed by a bellowing shriek that most definitely came from her father who was somewhere around. The sound was so horrifying that Amara sunk into her mother’s chest, chills running down her spine. Even Sienna and Lucio ran to their mother, both looking just as terrified as she felt.
“Lucio…Sienna…hide. Now,” her mother whispered. The twins turned to their mother, tears of fear pooling down their eyes.
“Mama,” they both bellowed, holding onto her mother’s dress.
“No, no sweetheart, now’s not the time,” Her mother’s voice was urgent, her eyes wide and big like peanuts. “Go. Lucio…take your sister with you. Hide. You know where, right?”
“Yes, Mama,” Lucio sobbed and, grabbing Sienna’s hands, disappeared down the corridor.
“Mama,” Amara was so scared that tears automatically streamed down her green eyes. “I am scared,” Matching green eyes stared back at her as her mother shook her head.
“Amara is a brave brave girl, aren’t you, darling?” She whispered and although she sounded strong and fearless, her face betrayed her. The noises echoed and intensified around them. Men shouting, guns going off…more shouting. “Come on, darling…”
Grabbing her small finger, she dragged her to the far corner of the room and pinched something behind the fireplace after fumbling around frantically. Amara almost jumped out of her skin as a small door opened up from the wall, revealing an even smaller, tiny place that was just big enough to fit her.
“In you go, sweetheart,” She whispered, eyes brimming with tears. “Come on,”
“No…mama.,” She clung to her dress but her mother was determined. She pushed her haphazardly inside and quickly leaned in to kiss her. Her eyes studied her in a way that little Amara couldn’t understand. Like she won’t be seeing her ever again.
“Don’t make a sound, sweetie…not a single sound,” She spoke, urgently, turning back every two seconds. “No matter what happens, not a sound should come out of your mouth. And do not come out until I say. Do you hear me?”
“Yes, mama,” She sobbed, dry heaving badly.
“Good girl,” Her mother’s smile was watery as she kissed her again. “Mama loves you. Papa loves you too,” She shut the gate but she wasn’t quick enough and before it closed completely, a hoard of people plummeted into the room, dragging her father with them. He was covered in blood, almost limp as a guy carried him over and made him flop down on the chair. The sight made a loud shriek escape her mother’s mouth.
“Wh..” She couldn’t complete as another similar booming noise echoed through the room and, within the blink of an eye, her mother fell down in a heap just in front of her. Fear engulfed Amara with its sinewy arms so hard that her breath hitched in her throat. She felt her voice getting stuck in her throat as she blankly stared out through the small crack.
Tears streamed down her eyes as she gazed at her mother’s lifeless form, blood pooling from everywhere around her, her green eyes lifelessly stuck on the ceiling and the ghastly wound on her forehead oozing more and more blood than her little eyes could tolerate. The same terrifying sound erupted once again from somewhere else around the house and it continued on and on until the point where she couldn’t endure it anymore and placed her hands on her ears to block out the noise.
“Trying to double take us, capo?” A voice sneered and Amara felt like she might have heard that before. She peeked through the small opening in the door and she could see a tall, dangerous looking guy glaring back at the slumped form of her father. He wore a black suit and a huge gold chain on his neck.
“You are…mistaken,” his father groaned. “Somebody gave you the wrong information,” The guy stared at her father long and hard. There was an entire hoard of men dressed similarly standing behind him. She has seen men dressed like that in her home too.
“So, you are saying…I am wrong?” He hissed, c*****g his head to the side. “Me?” He nodded and one of the guys grabbed the end of his gun and smacked her father again with it, making a loud, painful groan escape his mouth.
“We don’t have a place for mistakes in our world, Diego,” The main guy sneered. “You committed a huge sin, trying to go against us. And you know what happens when someone does that, don’t you? Maybe you don’t. So, let me remind you. You pay…with your blood. And of all those who have anything to do with you. Remember? Eye for an eye...blood for blood. Your family is dead…and now, it’s your turn.”
Amara was small. She was just six, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t understand the meaning of death. And as she stared at the lifeless form of her mother, who less than ten minutes ago was doing her hair, the meaning of that word in its most brutal form slowly seeped into her tiny heart.
“Leo,” the guy called, and the crowd shifted to make way for someone. Amara watched, blinking the tears away as a small boy, older than her obviously, even older than Lucio probably, but the youngest of all the men gathered around the room walked ahead. His face was blank. Not a single expression on it. He looked the way her mother did.
“This is your initiation, my boy,” The tall, bad guy thumped his back. “You know what that means, right?”
The boy nodded his head.
“Good,” The guy pulled out a gun from his pants and handed it over to him. “If only you can kill this traitor without blinking an eye, will you be accepted as our future Capo dei tutte capi. And if you can’t…”
“I will,” the boy said, his voice hard. Too manly for his age even.
“Good. Very good,” The tall guy laughed. “Now, take the gun and shove it in the traitor’s mouth. One pull is all it will take,” Amara’s heart stopped. She wanted to go out and protect her father with her small arms, but she also remembered what her mother said to her.
“No matter what happens, not a sound should come out of your mouth. And do not come out until I say,”
She went still, like a dummy, tears rolling down her eyes as he moved closer. The boy grabbed the gun and, snatching a handful of her father’s hair, shoved the gun in his mouth. His eyes showed no emotions. His face was blank as paper as he curled his finger around the trigger. It was a matter of seconds before her life would fall apart into seams. It was a matter of seconds before everything and everyone she loved and held close to her heart would be snatched away ruthlessly from her. By these men.
By this boy.
He pulled the trigger and a comparatively muffled sound echoed around the room. Her father’s body slumped and then toppled over the chair, falling in a heap on the white cashmere rug that was now partially pink and red with the bloodbath that took place here. He stared at his lifeless form and for the briefest second, dark brown eyes met her green ones. It was the briefest contact but Amara knew she was going to remember them for as long as she would live. And that probably won’t be too long. She prepared herself for the same fate that was bestowed upon her family and almost expected the door to be snatched open any moment now. But she was wrong. The boy turned on his heels and walked back out, not even giving a second glance behind him. The tall guy poked at her father’s body with his shoe before something unintelligible left his mouth. They waited for a brief second before turning around and walking out in unison.
Amara’s entire body was frigid. She pulled up her small knees up to her chin and closed her eyes, rocking back and forth to keep the fear and every other emotion that her small mind was still too young to grasp or process, at bay.
Her mother was dead. Her father was dead. And probably, her brother and sister and her grandmother, who was taking her usual strolls in the garden, were too. The entire place buzzed with a silence that screamed louder than a mob of a thousand men combined together. It rang in her ears painfully and she placed her small hands on her ears, rocking faster and faster in that small place. Her mother’s last attempt to save her.
“There you are,” God knows how many hours must have passed away and she probably had fallen asleep, but Amara woke with a start at the cold, heavy masculine voice.
Fear crippling her, she turned her green eyes and froze as dark ones stared back at her. She gulped and closed her eyes.
Silently residing to her fate…