5

The Mafia House

"What is this place?" I asked myself in a whisper as I walked into the foyer. I was in a mansion, so much bigger than any of the one's my dad owned.

"This, amore mia, is the mafia house," Angelo said while walking in front of me to stand in the middle of the room.

"And I'd get used to it if I were you because, you're going to be here for awhile."

"Uh...why?"

"Consider yourself a...prisoner, even though I can assure you this is no prison. Unless of course you decide to break rules. I don't think that should be a problem for you though, it would be totally out of character."

"How many people live here?" I asked after seeing not one, not two, and not even three, but five different guys walk down the stairs in all of their business attire glory.

"A lot."

"What do we have here?" One of the men asked. He looked older than everyone else I've seen so far, maybe in his late thirties, "Another sciattona?" I didn't like the way he circled around me, his eyes scanning every inch of my

body.

Pedo.

I crossed my arms over my chest as he very unsubtly looked at me. Angelo cleared his throat, "This is Chloe-"

Angelo was cut off, "That Cruise girl? The one with millions? Why's she here? I thought we were going to take the money and then," he made a motion to his throat as if cutting it, "Ya know, kill her off."

"We're not killing her-"

"We gonna use her as a ransom?" Another guy asked.

"No, we didn't kidnap he-"

"Well..." Now it was my turn to cut Angelo off, "That's debatable. You did kidnap me."

"None of you are letting me finish!" He

snapped, making us all jump back a little. "We're not killing or using her as a ransom."

"Then what are we doing with her? What's the point? She's not in the Cosa Nostra. What happens when we have to let her go back? There's no way she's going to follow omertà."

"What's omertà?" I asked. It sounded kinda evil.

"It's the code of silence. You already know too much about us though, so we don't have to worry about letting you go. You're staying here, I already told you that. Now..." He paused to pull down his rolled up sleeves. "Francisco is going to show you to your room," he said before leaving the house.

Moody much?

"You heard the man," the guy I'm assuming was Francisco clapped his hands together, a pleased smile on his

face. "Lets get to it," he took off up the stairs, and I followed closely behind.

We walked all the way down the hallway, coming to a sudden stop at the very end in front of a door. Francisco pushed it open and stepped inside, pulling me along with him.

It was huge...but so boring. There was a king sized bed in one of the corners, a walk-in closet at the end of the room and then a bathroom.

"The clothes in the closet should fit you. I'll send someone up in ten minutes to show you around the place. Welcome to the Family, Chloe."

I offered a fake smile, hoping it would make him go away, "Thanks."

And he was gone. Thank Christ.

I made my way into the closet to see what kind of clothes there were. Why did they even have girl clothes? I

haven't seen a single female here yet. Dresses and dresses and even more dresses hung from the wire hangers. There were two dressers, I didn't care to know what was inside though because I already found the dress I was going to change into. It was a crimson red, skater dress with quarter length sleeves.

Man, a shower would be nice too. I haven't taken one in awhile.

I grabbed the dress off the hanger and headed into the bathroom. Jesus Christ, it was...something words couldn't even begin to describe. Beautiful.

It's amazing how the mafia, criminals, could show up a hard working businessman like my dad so easily. My dad was looking like a cheapskate more and more with every room I walked into.

I hopped into the shower, immediately feeling relieved but nowhere near

relaxed. It was hard to relax when I knew there were a hundred murderers walking around freely. My adrenaline was pumping though, I'd never gotten so much action in my normal life.

I was probably in the shower for a good twenty minutes before getting out and changing into the clean dress.

I ran back into the closet, remembering that I had seen shoes in there as well. I slipped on a pair of black flats and headed back to the door. Francisco said there would be someone waiting to give me a tour of the place in ten minutes, it had been somewhere over twenty.

I opened the door and stepped into the hallway to see no one waiting there for me. I didn't know whether I should wait for them to come back or give myself a tour. The second one seemed pretty dangerous, but then I remembered Angelo saying I wasn't

going to get killed.

It could've been an act though, Chloe.

I didn't care at the moment, I headed down the stairs and was outside in no time. Three other houses, not quite mansions surrounded the big one. There was a plain one story pool house right across from where I was standing. I saw Dom go inside so I followed, immediately regretting doing so.

I found all of the females...

And they were in skimpy clothes.

I didn't belong in here. I tried to shield my eyes and make my way back outside, but I felt something press against my back, restricting any further movement. I uncovered my eyes and turned around meeting the scary black eyes of the older guy from earlier. Ya know, the one that looked me up and down like I was a piece of meat.

"And what are you doing in here, dolce cuore?" He further pushed himself into me, his arms wrapping around my waist. "I knew you were a sciattona."

I didn't know what either of the words he used meant, and I definitely didn't want to find out.

I tried to get out of his killer grasp but it didn't work, he only held me tighter.

"I was just looking around," I explained.

"Hey uh..." I looked to my side to see a familiar face. Luca. "I know you're the underboss and all Tony, but...um...I kinda think this one's off limits," he grasped my shoulders and yanked me away effortlessly. "She seems kind of important to Angelo. It's strange..."

"Chloe?" A new voice came in. It was Francisco. "Where's Sally? She was supposed to be showing

you around...inside the house. You shouldn't be in here," he turned to Luca, "Angelo's gonna kill us if he finds out."

"Who's Sally?" I asked just as Luca opened his mouth to speak. "No one was waiting for me outside like you said, so I decided to show myself around. I guess I won't be doing that again."

The front door opened, everyone sighed as they saw who it was.

Angelo locked his eyes onto mine, a guilty smile playing across my lips as he gave me the utmost displeased look. "Who brought her in here?" He asked quietly, a freaking tantrum was brewing though. I could sense it.

Luca and Francisco looked at each other, scared looks on their faces, "Um...well I was in charge of her last, but in my defense...she didn't listen to me. I told Sally to wait for Chloe outside

other, scared looks on their faces, "Um...well I was in charge of her last, but in my defense...she didn't listen to me. I told Sally to wait for Chloe outside and she didn't I guess. I'll have to talk to her."

Angelo's attention flickered from Luca back to me, "Really, amore mia? Of all the places you could've wandered, you come here."

"I had no clue!" I snapped, "Maybe you should have told me the rules before sending me off on my own. And don't even get me started on your freaking minion over here," I pointed at Tony accusingly.

"Come with me," Angelo said right before exiting the house again.

Well, I'm dead.