Irresistibly Forbidden

Chapter 3: Familiar

I had been driving for a while when, I decided that I needed some coffee after my long day. Spotting a cute little family diner up ahead, I turned into the car park and drove my baby into the nearest spot available. Hopping out of the car I looked up at the sky to see that it was painted in different shades of pink. The sun was setting, meaning I'd need to be back within the next hour, before the guards call my father and he changes his mind on having them leave tomorrow. That would not be good.

After ordering myself  an Iced latte, I took a seat in one of the booths and opened maps on my phone to help navigate me back to the apartment. I seemed to only be a 20 minute drive away, so I had some time to just sit and enjoy my own company, before school takes over in a couple days.

The only upside to starting a new school was that no one knew who I was. This meant that I wouldn't constantly get stared at and the other kids wouldn't be so terrified to do a project with me that they have their parents write a letter to the teacher. That's what it was like in Italy. My name made sure of it. My brothers and cousins enjoyed the power they had over people, I on the other hand hated it. I hated the fear in my class mates eyes whenever I walked past, even though I had never even talked to more than half of them in my life. It made me feel like some kind of monster. This is why I'm taking my mother's maiden name as my surname at this school, Barlow. My mother,  Adaira, is 100% Scottish, that's where I get my red hair and pale complexion from. My brothers on the other hand, got my father's Italian genes, they were lightly tanned and all had dark hair. If it weren't for our last names, you would have no Idea that we were even related.

Looking down at my phone, I realised that I had been daydreaming for 15 minutes already, It was time for me to leave. Standing up, I flashed the cashier a small smile then walked out the door. Just as I was halfway across the car park, I heard raised voices come from the side of the diner. Being the curious girl I am, I decided to investigate. As I got closer, I noticed a group of men in a stand off with guns. How cliché. I usually wouldn't have bothered with it, but by the looks of it, it was 3 against 4, with the group of three backed into a corner. The middle one of the three looked oddly familiar, but I couldn't quite pin point why. Deciding I had already wasted too much time already, I grabbed the gun that's always in my waistband and marched towards the group of 4, pointing it at one of their heads.

Finally grabbing their attention, I decided to open my mouth, "Now now, four against three? That doesn't seem very fair" The three just stared at me as one of the four men turned to point their gun at me.

"Who the fuck are you" he glared at me. I just smirked back, "That's not important at the moment, what is important however is that a bunch of idiots are having a standoff right outside of a family diner, Not the smartest of ideas now is it?" I growled out, suddenly getting angry at their stupidity. At that I only received glares from every single one of them. We stood like that for around 30 seconds before the familiar guy finally broke the silence.

"I hate to say it but the red head's right Mike, Next time you want to try ambush me, maybe don't do it in such a public place, where distractions can easily occur." and with that the four men dropped dead in front of me, a bullet skilfully placed in each of the foreheads. Shocked I took a step back, glaring up at the middle one, "That's not what I meant" I stated angrily.

"Oh yeah, and what did you think was going to happen? Do you think they were just going walk away because they were suddenly informed about their whereabouts by some random nosy bitch?"

He sneered at me, "No, I expected you all to have some basic human decency, but obviously I was wrong!" I raged back at him.

It was just then that I got a look at the other to standing beside the familiar one. The one on the right was slightly shorter than the middle guy, standing at around 6'2, with dark hair. The other one was slightly taller that the right guy but still smaller than the middle one. He had dark hair with a few tattoos on his arms. Just as I was finishing checking them out, the guy on the left spoke up, "Hold on a minute, Why aren't you running screaming in the other direction right now" Shit. I may have just blew my cover and I haven't even been in the country 24 hours yet. Way to go Aleja. I look up to see them all staring at me curiously. Oh God this isn't good.

Slowly starting to back up, I spin around and make a run for my car. I hear one of the screaming at another to stay with the bodies until they're cleaned up as two sets of footsteps thunder after me. Launching myself into the drivers seat, I speed out of the parking lot, grateful that I had reversed into the space. I speed in and out of cars turning corners constantly in an attempt to lose the red camaro trying to catch me. Eventually I lose it thanks to a truck suddenly pulling out onto the road, and speed off trying to find something that looks familiar to navigate me back to my apartment.

Twenty minutes later, I pull into the apartment complex, and make my way up to my penthouse. Opening the door, I'm greeted by the sight of three anxious bodyguards and an angry looking Gabriel. He whips his head round to me as my keys clang against the worktop. "Where the hell have you been and what were you thinking" he asks in a stern voice.

"Calm down I just went out for some coffee" I decided not to mention what happened, as that would only end up with me back on a flight to Italy and being home schooled for senior year. No thank you.

"And since when did a cup of coffee involve, beating up your bodyguards and slashing tyres?" He was so dramatic. "I didn't beat them up, I just gave them a distraction" I smirked glancing at Chris and the other guy, now sporting identical bruises on their heads. He just sighed at me, "My god your father told me you would be difficult, but I underestimated just how difficult he meant".  I could tell I had stressed him out.

"Look Gabriel, I'm sorry If I made you made panic but I'm not sorry for what I did, I was promised a mafia free year and I can't have that with you guys around. You'll no longer need to deal with me tomorrow, I've spoken to Papa and he's going to ease up on this security thing." Hopefully they get the picture now of how serious I am about this.

"I spoke to your father earlier Alejandra, and he's already informed me of the change. Tomorrow you will have no official guards, however I am to remain in New York for the time being to check up on you every now and then. I won't be far away if you need anything.
I have not informed him of this little incident, but please Alejandra, for your sake, don't get into anymore trouble or I will be forced to tell him. I want you to enjoy your senior year here, but you know that Don Collisimo will have you on the first flight back if you continue to misbehave." He reasoned with me. I guess I can commit to that compromise, eventually there will be no use for him and he'll have to back to Italy. Complete freedom might take a bit longer than I thought.

"Ok Gabriel Thank you, but I'm tired now and wish to go to sleep" It really was the truth, I was completely shattered after the day I'd had.

"Very well Miss Alejandra, we'll take our leave now, Oh and your mother has requested that you call her before you go to sleep, Goodnight" With that they all left and I was alone in my big new apartment.

Sighing I grab my phone. Going through my contacts I prepared to be bombarded by questions of my travels by Mama.

***

Two hours later and I was sitting in my bed, freshly showered and dressed in my pyjamas. As I lay down, I couldn't help but think about the events of my day. The familiar guy at the diner constantly popping into my head With his sleek brown hair and skin littered with ink, one look from him alone was enough to redden any girls face. Mine wasn't an exception. He was dangerous though, I could tell. The way he and the two others so calmly pulled their triggers, showed definite training and practice. Their reactions showed that that wasn't their first kills. I had to stay away from them, I couldn't handle them finding out my identity, nothing good would come from that. I had to avoid them at all costs, it shouldn't be too hard and I hopefully won't see them again.

If only it was that easy.