War of the Sun

Five

As I made my way to the passenger seat, I couldn’t help but feel apprehensive at the trouble were going to get into tonight. Out of the two of us, Diego’s spirit had always stayed the same. He wasn’t ruined like me. His carefree attitude. It all remained intact over the years. It might have been because he had been inducted into the gang a lot later than I did. He got to revel in his innocence a little bit longer. It could have also been because he had chosen this life for himself. No one had chosen for him. He had begged and pleaded to join after catching me sneaking back into the academy one night.

We might have been the youngest to ever join, but we were still the toughest out of all of them. Diego and I had made everyone believe that we were two orphans off the street. No place to call home except the gang. The other members had believed we went to go beg for scrap during the day, and we would come back to the gang late at night. None of them had realized we were living a double life.

Because of how unlucky we had made them believe, the older female members had taken pity on us and had decided to take us under their protection, or in their terms ‘take us under their wings’. I had learned the hard way early on that they were just wolves in sheep’s clothing. They had thought I had forgotten what they did, or I was too young to figure out their scheming ways. Except, I didn’t forget, and I had figured out what they had done right before I had to face the consequences for it. Always trying to befriend the most unfortunate or youngest members just in case they needed a scapegoat. Never owning up to their faults because then they would have to come clean about how they were spies set in place by another gang. A lesson I learned when I first got inducted. They had blamed me for a drug bust gone wrong, and I had to suffer the consequences. I got tortured for something I didn’t even do, and it was at that moment I realized what they were.

From that moment on, I had decided to start staying to myself. Slowly observing everything that was happening around me. Never letting anyone but Nathan see the real me. Most of the members didn’t even realize I could speak because of how quiet I was. Nobody realized there was a purpose to it. I got to go anywhere without being seen. Most of the times, I got to listen in on important business meetings or phone calls.

Except one day, I finally got caught. Alfredo, who was the underboss for Ricardo at the time, had been the one to find me that dreadful night that sealed my fate. The night I got caught by Santini’s men on a money heist. He had been the reason I got away scotch free, but it came with a price. I had to be initiated. The day he caught me. He had gone on and on about how I was going to change the world one day. He could see it in my eyes. Whatever that meant.

The empty hole in my chest that had been created by my father had soon been filled by Alfredo. I was in training to become the next underboss in twenty years when he had planned to retire. At that moment, I had to make a choice. Sacrifice my life to be this other person, one that would give me the power to avenge my mother, or I could enjoy the simple liberties of being a teenager. It wasn’t a difficult decision. I chose to sacrifice any freedom I could have had, so I had to always limit myself on how much I went out and how often.

I was busy conducting meetings and running everything at night and being a student during the day that I didn’t have time to be a normal teenager. Everyone was heading back from parties at eleven in the evening. At that time of night, my world is barely waking up.

I had given all my life to the Sicilian mafia. While putting my own life on the line during the countless missions, I had also stopped more atrocities being made at the hands of Ricardo.

I am a killing machine.

To say I had demons was the understatement of the century. The souls of those I had taken were constantly haunting me every second of the day.

I had been so immersed in my memories of the past that I hadn’t realized that Diego had been talking. I turned to see his lips moving, but I wasn’t paying attention to the words that were flowing out of it. It took me a second to finally tune in to what he is saying.

“We’re going to one of your dad’s clubs, Apex. Its packed tight for the general public, but I pulled some strings. I figured you’d want to see the competition even on a special night like tonight. The boss’s job is never done.” He shot me a wink that was accompanied with his signature smirk.

He knew me too well. It was scary. Before I could thank him, he opened his mouth to speak again. “Before you start, I checked the layout and security. There will be a few of our men hidden in the crowd, so we can still have one night to ourselves. Just in case, there’s any funny business, I’ll just stand behind you, and you can protect me with the two Glocks strapped to your thighs.”

My head snapped towards his direction. Of course, this i***t saw that I came strapped. To the regular eye, my dress concealed any trace of the guns strapped to my thighs. I thought I had been sneaky enough. That cocky bastard. I rolled my eyes at his observation, and I turned to continue looking out the window. Of course. that six-foot man was going to hide behind me.

Typical.

The rest of the ride consisted of Diego going on about the mess we were going to get ourselves into tonight. All the people that were going to be there who couldn’t wait to meet me in person. His current flavor of the month would also be attending which I always had to meet. He had been our way into the club with such a short notice.

As he kept going on talking, his voice began to fade into the background. The thoughts that had been swarming my mind in the shower had put a damper on my mood.

I was consumed in my own thoughts again that I hadn’t felt the car stop. Diego’s cough brought me out of my memories that were swarming around my mind.

“Hey, we don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. Just say the word, and I will take us back.” His voice was laced with concern. I knew all I had to say was no, and we would be on our way back. I needed to do this. Not just to have one night of fun, but I needed to see the people behind the black dragon.

“No, let’s have some fun.”

Within seconds, Diego was already at my door opening it for me to step out. I yanked down my dress, so it wouldn’t reveal what laid underneath when I stepped out. Luckily, it didn’t rise up, so we continued walking toward the entrance of the club.

A man stood waiting for us with a bright smile on his face, and I could instantly tell it had to be the new plaything on Diego’s menu. The man yelled at one of the valet employees to take his keys and park Diego’s car. Fear was evident on the employee’s face. I couldn’t tell if it was because he held authority, or the employee wasn’t in the gang business. I turned to look at the man that was racing to be at Diego’s side. His long legs finally stopped moving until he was right before in front of us. His thick arms wrapped around Diego which made Diego untangle his arm from my body. I could immediately tell there was a scowl on Diego’s face at the sudden exchange between the two.

As soon as they let go of each other, Diego moved back beside me. His smile that was constantly on his face was now replaced with a pissed off one. One I knew all too well. If this man wasn’t careful, he was going to face the wrath that was Diego. Something I really wanted to see but on any other night of the week.

Before the man could speak again and make himself more of a fool in front of me, I hooked Diego’s arm and began walking through the doors. The sounds of the man yelling over us at the bouncers to open the doors to his guests were louder than the music blasting in the club.

As we walked through the doors, the flickering lights had temporarily blinded my vision. It took a few seconds for my eyes to readjust to this foreign scene before me. I was in for a long night, but I was coming with a bang.