Page 76 of Mafia Love

“You need to wake up,” Mom said. “Wake up and remember always that I love you.”

“I love you,” I told her, speaking from my heart.

She smiled, and darkness filled my surroundings.

“Amelia!” Luc cried out in a frantic voice. So hurried and panic stricken it snapped me out of the dream.

“Luc.” My voice was barely audible, and my throat was dry. Dry like I’d just swallowed a handful of dirt. I tried to swallow, but I couldn’t even do that.

I blinked several times trying to see my surroundings. The gentle breeze caressed my cheek, stinging my skin.

I was looking at a garden ahead of me. A vast expanse of wild flowers that hadn’t been tended to in forever.

“Amelia!” Luc’s voice again.

Now, I looked up and saw him. He was on the roof just ahead of me, standing about fifteen feet away. Claudius was with him.

Before them lay a vast expanse of rigid glass. On the roof. Not the kind you could walk across.

Wait… how did I miss that?

Where am I?

I made the mistake of looking down now and nearly fainted.

I screamed.

I was hanging from the roof of wherever I was, and below me was a drop of what I would say a hundred feet. A hundred feet right into the jagged rock formations that ran into the river.

I looked up to see two ropes were attached to me, wrapped around my arms and waist. They were attached to the bolts on the fixture on the roof. The ropes twined into one, and right there in the middle of the connection was a bomb.

An actual bomb.

“Fantastic,” Tag’s voice boomed just above me. He crouched down and smiled at me. “She’s awake. Had to knock you out to pull off this little stunt of mine. Glad to see your boys are here.”

“Let her go!” Luc cried. He tried to come across the glass, but Claudius held him back.

“The glass, Luc, wait,” Claudius cautioned.

Looking properly now, I could see the glass had missing sections. It was a little different to where I was, although where I was didn’t exactly look stable. I thought that part was intentional.

“Yes, Luc, the glass. I’m going to have to ask you to leave the diamonds over there and leave.” Tag declared.

“Fuck you, asshole. You seriously think I’m just going to hand them over to you? Release Amelia.” Luc stood firm, vicious in his manner and expression.

He and Claudius both had that dark, vengeful look.

I couldn’t believe they’d come for me.

“I’m sorry. This was never negotiable. You must have misunderstood. I wanted Amelia dead and to have possession of the diamonds. Not the diamonds in exchange for her life.” Tag laughed.

“You give her to me, or you get nothing,” Luc barked.

“Thought this might happen. Anyway, the answer’s the same.” Tag straightened and held out a remote control. “See this baby? It’s the detonator for the bomb above your love’s head. You will give the diamonds to me.”

“Do you seriously have no form of dignity? You’re an old fool.”

“You’re just like your father, Luc,awkward. An awkward brownnose who was little more than Raphael’s lapdog.”