Page 22 of The Mafia's Captive

“I can tell.” I get back to the couch, and mindlessly watch the television. An hour later, the doorbell rings. Fucking finally. He must be back from wherever he had gone, but why would he ring the doorbell if it were him? Colin gets up, and walks over to the door with a hand on his pistol pointed downward.

“Who is it?” he asks as he gets to the door.

“Room service.” A strained voice answers.

“We didn’t order anything.”

“Compliments of the hotel, sir. It’s a spar treatment.”

He glances at me and then he says, “Not necessary.”

There’s a long silence and I’m sure whoever was behind the door is gone. Colin seems to think so too as he retreats into the room, but suddenly the door bursts open. All I see are two men with guns in their hands. As they lift their guns, I hear Colin scream, “Duck!”

I dive under the couch just as a barrage of bullets rain down in the room. At the same time, I hear Colin return fire. Or was he already dead? I couldn’t tell from the noise. It goes on for a couple of seconds and then it’s over. From my vantage point behind the couch, I see shoes streaked with blood marching over to where I was. I dared not look up. Was Colin dead? Am I about to die? “Get up.” A voice says. I can hardly hear him through the thumping of my heart and I’m too terrified to make out if it’s Colin or one of the intruders speaking. I feel a hand take hold of my arm and I scream.

8

Silva did not come to the meeting. The old man invited me to his offices and had me waiting, first in his lobby, then in a giant empty boardroom. His people kept coming to me with excuses, all of which had me that much on edge. Something was off and even Pedro wasn’t taking my calls. If the bugs were a sign, him skipping the meeting was a giant red flag. It’s as if he was keeping me away from the hotel room and when that clicked, I headed straight to there.

Our arrival is timely. Just as the elevator doors open, in we see two men with guns in both hands crushing down the door. There’s no time to think. I withdraw my gun and shoot straight ahead and so does Rob, who guns down one man as we reach them and I the other one. It takes just two bullets for them to fall, but I make sure they’re dead by putting a couple more bullets into each of their backs.

The suite is filled with broken glass pillow feathers and blood. Rob rushes to Colin and I immediately search for Corina. I don’t want to think about her body lying in a pool of blood, mangled and bruised, but the image keeps flashing in my head. And I can’t find her anywhere. Where the fuck is she?

Relief washes over me when I see her covering her head, cowering behind the couch. “Get up,” I say to her. She’s rolled into a ball like a porcupine. When I reach out for her arm, she shrieks, hands pummeling my chest as I lift her up. “Hey, it’s me,” I say as I wrap her in a hug. I’m so glad she’s alive, I welcome her hits. “Calm down, it’s me.” When it finally dawns on her who she’s with, she whips herself out of my embrace. “What the fuck!” She shoves my chest.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes. I mean no. What just happened!”

“You’re hurt?”

“No!”

My racing heart slows down to a steady beat. It’s because she’s an asset that’s why I was worried, I tell myself. Not because there was some other more personal reason. This is just business.

“Is Colin okay?” She says.

I turn to Rob, who’s helping Colin up. His right shirt arm is soaked red with blood. Rob leads him towards the couch and lays him down. Beside me, I notice that she’s disappeared. A moment later, she comes out of the bedroom holding a first aid kit. For someone who was shocked frozen only a seconds ago, she’s adept at responding to Colin. Immediately she kneels next to him and tears open his shirt. Blood spurts out, and she presses down on the wound to stop the bleeding. “I forgot a towel,” she says.

Rob rushes out and comes back with several. I rush over to the door to close it and check on the intruders while they take care of Colin. The two men seem dead, their bodies are pretty much lifeless. This and another vacant suite are the only rooms on this floor, according to Rob and Colin. However, I’m sure someone below heard the gunshots and the police might be making their way soon. We best get out of here.

Corina is tending to Colin’s wound when I get back to them. “It looks like the bullet scraped you,” she says to Colin. He mumbles something, and she smiles at him as if she understood. She finishes cleaning him up and while she’s dressing the wound, Rob gives Colin what I assume are painkillers and washes them down with brandy. When she’s done dressing the wound, she checks the rest of him, asking if there’s anywhere he’s hurt. Hearing her talk, you’d think she’s a trained professional.

“We need to leave. Now before things go south,” I say to them.

“I think that’s already happened,” Corina says as she continues to examine Colin.

“There’s more of his people coming. It’s a trap, and it’s closing in. We need to go.”

She raises her head towards me. Her eyes are filled with fear. Something inside me wants to comfort her. Tell her it's okay, and no one is going to hurt her. I almost do it. But Colin, good Colin, severs that connection by struggling up and sitting in a lopsided position to say, “I think I can walk,” he says.

“Good.”

A few minutes later, we make it out of the hotel in a hurry. I had already called the pilot and told him to get the jet ready in the morning. I was expecting this trip to be short, not as short as it became, but still. Rob rushes past the traffic while Colin sits with his weight partially leaning against Corina. I glance back at them in the car, feeling a tight pang in my chest. Corina had insisted Colin sit in the back with her, much to my chagrin, and Colin’s frank refusal, but she was persistent and we didn’t have time to argue. Colin seems to enjoy it too, the bastard. He’s leaning a little too close to her chest. It makes me want to rip his head away from her. Luckily for him, we arrive at the hangar in record time and the plane is ready when we reach it.

I’m sure we’ll see Silva’s people waiting for us on the plane, but nope, we arrive just in time. I only relax after the plane is out of Brazilian skies.

Colin and Rob are in their seats in the back and Corina is in the front with me. She keeps glancing back.

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