An Empire of Guns and Lies (18+)

Sixteen (Sedici)

My mother's scent of fresh field flowers and cinnamon engulfed me as my head plunged into her dress, she cooed me to stop crying as her soft hands wiped my tears away. Her umber brown eyes smiled warmly at me as she picked me up in her arms and spun me around, laughter erupted from both of us, when she put me back down I closed my eyes as she kissed the bruise that now formed on my knee. The strange feeling of a sticky warmth made me reopen back my eyes to which I found my mother's lifeless body laying at my feet her blood splattered over my face and overalls from the bullets that had pierced her.

My body jerked up from sleep, my clothes clung to my skin from the sickly cold sweat that now drenched my body. Panicked, I looked around wiping my face, my hands came back clean, in relief and realization I dropped my head back down onto my pillow and put my arms over my eyes I couldn't help but laugh at the harrowing dream I just had. I raised my hands above my head and clenched my fingers into a fist "Mama, I miss you" I say to myself.

After taking a few minutes to recollect myself I took a shower and started getting readying for my meeting with Luis. I was dressed in khaki colored cargo pants and my usual long sleeve black turtle neck, I put my hair up into a low bun and did a light face of makeup, I strapped some weapons on just in case and by the time I was done it was already 1:27pm.

I tugged on some ankle boots grabbed my things and headed down to my car I arrived at the restaurant in no time, a pale short bald man flagged me down, I parked on the curb in front of the restaurant as the table I reserved was also outside, I had no intention on staying here any longer than I already had too. As I approached the table Luis got up his two overly built bodyguards following, he kissed both sides of my cheeks and I internally gagged the strong smell of cigarette smoke coming from him did not help either.

I took my seat and pulled the file out "Look it over and tell me if we have a deal, make it quick I don't have all day." He eagerly grabbed the document and began reading.

" 49% is a lot no?"

The deal I offered him was permission to sell in our territory but we had to collect 49% of all their profits annually "I'm not here to negotiate with you, I'm being generous by even agreeing to allow you to sell your shit products on mafia territory, so do we have a deal or not"

"Si si, we have a deal." he held up his both hands in surrender, he took out a pen and signed the paper

"Pleasure doing business with you" I said sarcastically

While he was handing the paper back to me a waitress from inside of the restaurant came out to take an our order as I raised my face to tell her we were leaving a bullet ripped through her chest her blood splattering on my face.

What kinda of deja vu situation is this?

The guards that stood behind Luis were around him in an instant ushering him back into the vehicle that they quickly drove off in.

"A bunch of fucking pussies" I got up and pushed the waitress of the table where her limp body lay, I knew that shot was meant for me and if she didn't come when she had I would be the one on that table. A glinting light a distance away caught my attention as soon as the realization hit that it was a sniper he let out another shot,this time shattering the glass of the restaurant behind me.

I crouched down seeking shelter from the shrubs that grew on the pavement, following them till I was at the restaurant's door I flipped in as fast as I could to see civilians in a panicked frenzy. Some huddled over on the floor cowering, some stupidly rushing out the restaurant. I had to find a way back to my car that was parked unfortunately at front of the restaurant, I pulled the a gun from band of my pants and ran into the kitchen area, I let out one shot to get everyone's attention I then shouted that I needed the location of the emergency exit, with shaking hands a young girl around 19 with flour all over her uniform pointed me to a door.

"Grazie." (Thanks)

I kicked it open with urgency and walked with my back against the wall, I peaked out from the side to see if I could see the glimmer of the sniper's gun but I

didn't. Wasting no time and taking the opportunity I ran to my car and quickly pulled open the door but was sent flying back, fire blazed, car alarms went off, disoriented and spinning I blinked a few times trying to regain my composure.

Those fuckers bombed my car, staggering I knew I had to get out of the area, I spotted a teenage couple in a Toyota parked closely to my location. I approached from the drivers side and pointed my gun into the window the couple froze, the girl clinging to her boyfriend.

"Get out" I shouted "hurry up get the fuck out."

I was angry and in pain. Who the hell was trying to kill me? I don't think the couple understood English, but the gun in their face made it very evident what I wanted, with their hands held up in submission they left the car.

I got in and sped toward the hotel definitely causing a few accidents on the way, I actively checked my mirrors to see if I was being followed.

I wasn't.

That made two things very clear to me, one was that the person behind this was also the one leaking secrets from the estate and knew I was here to investigate the other was that it was someone completely new and they wanted to remind unknown. Either way, I was sure they would not be attacking for a while, back at the hotel I left the car outside not caring what happened to it.

I immediately called my driver "Buy me a new car and have it in the hotel parking lot by sunrise tomorrow" I didn't give him time to answer before hanging up the phone.

Back in my room I checked it throughout before locking the door, I pondered about who would wanted to kill me, well a lot of people wanted to kill me but no one of importance came to mind.

I decided I would check the warehouse for clues tomorrow as that seemed to be the only other place that held answers, I had a few cuts that I cleaned up before double checking the locks on my door and getting into bed, my mind couldn't help but wander to August.

Sleep evaded me that night.

                                                               _____________________

If you made it this far in my book I wanna thank you for reading, this is the first book i have ever written and it was super fun to write, so again thank you for reading my work. *Kith kith*