Six

Cassie knelt in the darkroom that Corleone's henchmen brought her to. The black cloth that was put over her face blocked her vision and she could not make out where she was or how she got there. Underneath the black cloth over her face, she had a gag around her mouth that hindered her from screaming for help. The white gown she wore was dirty from all the kicking and struggling that ensued when she was brought to the lair and the sandy ground on which she knelt contributed to the stains too, and her cheeks were drenched in tears.

The place she was kept in was a stable, a stable without horses, just as Baccio's son, Corleone had ordered.

She was left there for hours buried in thoughts till she fell asleep_ nothing she hadn't thought about before except this time she thought of her target.

A long sleep.

Cassie woke up when she heard the door that barricaded the barn swing open and footsteps marching toward her.

They forced her up as she whimpered in fear and took her out of the stable and into the cottage. The cottage served as a hideout for Corleone since he escaped death at the hands of Ricci's men. It was located miles away from Acciaroli and all the danger. A perfect place for a safe house and it was protected by the guards that survived Ricci's raid.

Cassie was placed on the sofa opposite Corleone and the cloth was forcefully uprooted from her face. The first thing she saw was the face of Corleone staring back at her. His eyes fixed on hers as he chewed at his Cuban cigar stuck between his lips. He bore a striking resemblance with his father; he was fat and he had the same haircut as Baccio.

"My men say you are affiliated with the Esposito family. Who are you to them?" his voice was raspy and compressed; he possessed a repugnant Italian accent. Cassie was confused at the question, she used the moment the question was asked to collect her thoughts so when Corleone said the last word of his question, her attention was not available. She widened her eyes; a cue for Corleone to repeat the question. Such disrespect to a son that could not protect his father.

"I think your head will do just fine." He signaled for his men to take her back to the barn and take off her head.

"Wait!" she uttered loudly enough to get the attention of everyone in the room, even the over-fed elephant in it.

I will describe him as an overfed elephant in my book if I survive this. She reasoned.

"I am incredibly important to them and you can use me to get back your father" her sentence seemed to surprise everyone.

Corleone puffed the smoke out of his mouth and asked, "My father is alive?"

"Yes, he is still alive, I know where he is being kept and you can use me to get him back."

"Go on."

"Ask for and exchange; my life for your father's"

"She is lying boss. You know the Esposito's would never spare a Guiliano" one of the henchmen said.

"It's true. I saw him and I know they are keeping him alive without a doubt" Cassie fought for her life with her words, she knew it was a fruitless attempt to save her life but she had to do something to keep herself alive long enough and hope for her benefactor to chip in and save her because she needed it so badly at the moment.

Smart move Cassie.

Corleone took a moment to analyze the situation, staring suspiciously at Cassie while she stared back and slightly nodded.

"Take her to the barn." He said and immediately the men charged at her and grabbed her arm to take her back to the barn while she struggled, screaming at the top of her voice, "I promise you your father is alive. Please don't kill me."

They took her into the barn and forced her to kneel.

"I can get you your father" she latched on to the hope that the words will somehow vindicate her.

"Alphonse, I trust you know what to do," Corleone said as he nodded to his men's direction, the direction Cassie was at too.

Alphonse, Corleone's second in command, gave inaudible instructions to his men.

"You can't kill me; they will come after you with everything they have." Cassie did not know what to say anymore to save her dear life. She hoped for the best to happen yet all she could expect was the worst_ death. One of the men forced a gag on her to fade out her screams and to put her in check

The men fetched horse blood from one of the stables and drenched her white cloth with it. Alphonse pointed a knife to her throat and this made her cry extremely. Her muffled cries were deep, she thought she would be no more and all of that was going to happen because she accepted to do the job.

A best-selling job that came with the thrill of danger.

Danger stared her right in the face as the knife approached her and nothing was thrilling about it, just pure disaster and terror.

He drew the knife closer to her throat and the sound of her inaudible cries intensified.

Closer.

Her eyes shut.

The sound of the shutter of a Polaroid camera and the flash that followed replaced the sound of slashing and gushing of blood from her neck and in that moment of utter confusion, she burst open her eyeballs to see what had transpired. One of the men held a camera and took another picture as she popped her eyes open. The Polaroid that slid out of the camera was good enough to portray a distressed, tortured, and hopeless Cassie.

"That ought to do it," Corleone said, "send that and a letter to Ricci telling him, I have someone dear to him and I would love to meet for an exchange. A life for a life. Got it?"

"Yes, Boss." Alphonse and the others chorused

"Now let's see how this unfolds," he addressed the sentence to a very confused Cassie.

He took off the gag from her mouth and continued, "You better be right and my father is still alive." He walked away toward the door of the barn. He paused and turned around, "Clean her up and send her to Bobby's former room.

Bobby was Corleone's half-brother who lived in the cottage with him when they were children and 'the former room' was an upgrade from the barn.

In no time, she was cleaned up and sent into the cottage with a room and a good meal awaiting her.

So this much benefit comes from being affiliated with the Esposito's, she reasoned.

Hours passed while she sat in the cozy room provided to her, thinking of the next lie that would make her live to see the break of dawn. She thought of Ricci and his sexy build, she thought of what he was doing at the time.

Cool thought brain, she slurred.

A knock on the door halted her thinking and threw her into confusion.

What do they want this time?

"The Boss wants to address you" Alphonse called out from the other side of the door. "So open up", he banged the door harder until the weak lock let up and he walked inside. "Now!" He was stern.

Corleone's room was neat and it looked like it had not been used in years. His pallid study room was just at the other side of the room, through a door that almost barricaded it. Cassie could make out the lay of the room through the cracked door.

She was observant and smart enough to tell the kind of man that Corleone was from the way he arranged his room and the way he spoke.

"I know that you're not that important to the Esposito family," Corleone said after Alphonse directed Cassie to sit directly opposite him. He signaled for Alphonse to leave.

"I will just try anything to see my father again, even if it is trusting the words of … well, your words."

"Why am I here, Mr.?" Cassie asked sheepishly and as respectfully as she could because she did not want to spike his temper.

"Corleone." He sensed the fear in her voice and replied with the delicate primal pride of a Mob Boss.

A silence that caused discomfort to the two parties flooded the room. They sat inches away from each other; Corleone whiffed and chewed his cigar while gawking at Cassie. Cassie, on the other hand, roamed her eyes around the drab room in an attempt to avert his intense gaze.

"How did you come to Italy?" he broke the silence.

"I … I … I came here for important business with Ricci Esposito," she stammered.

"I see. What business?"

"It is confidential"

An awkward silence, again.

"Have you ever lost someone close to you, Cassie?" the tone of his voice lowered and he ended his gaze. He looked at the room and adjusted how he sat.

He relaxed his posture in a way that infected Cassie and caused her to relax too, but she could not completely relax, her mind traveled; how did he know my name? I never told anyone that and there is no way he or his henchmen could have known. Well, they could have known that from anywhere or when they took me from the hotel.

She dismissed the thought and replied, "I lost both my parents when I was five in a car accident."

"How did you feel?"

"I didn't cry much. I felt the loss but it was just that. The pain I felt has blended and I can't recall how the five years spent with them felt like."

"Mm-mmm" Corleone grunted in pity. That was his way of saying 'sorry, that must have been tough on you'

***

The year is 1992 and a Mercedes zoom through the empty countryside road of Missouri. Cassie sits in the back seat of the car, her parent's car, listening to the song playing on the radio.

The wind gushed into the car and gently brushed against her face as the car sped through an empty open road. The family was just returning from a vacation, a vacation to complement their absence in her life. Her parents were always busy with work and were seldom around for her so she was bred by one too many nannies.

The song drowned out the discussion her parents were having and left her focused on the tune. Cassie could remember being sad during the ride_ the last ride she would ever have with her parents.

The two silhouetted love birds in the front seat of the car smiled and chatted away paying little attention to the road.

Her father who drove could not see the car speeding toward them from the left when they reached a junction. The car zoomed past them making them lose balance and swerve to a spin.

A spin to a halt.

"That was close, are you okay Cassie?" her mother heaved a sigh of relief.

They arrived home and dropped Cassie off. They didn't spend much time in the house after the evening they arrived.

"We have to attend to business Cassie, I have told Mrs. Wendy to look after you.

"When will you be home Mummy?"

"Soon pumpkin, soon."

That was the last time she saw her parents. They died in a fire accident at their workplace. The fire accident was investigated and believed by the FBI to be a homicide and not an accident but lack of evidence made them close the case.

Cassie went into the system after that night; from the system to a foster home. The foster parents adopted her and she lived with them ever since and grew to know them as her parents.

By the time she turned 18, she sued for emancipation and won the case, and ever since then, she has been on her own making a living as a writer and working minimum wage jobs.

Despite the emancipation, she still kept in contact with her foster parents but the frequent calls and texts, to inquire about her well-being, dwindled with time and in a few years she barely heard from them.

Cassie was always, naive, trusting, smart and kind. Her days in high school were spent being quiet and reserved. She didn't keep many friends until the fateful day she met Aria.

Aria was a transfer student who took a liking to Cassie at first sight. She stood up for Cassie when a teacher talked down an assignment she did and they were both sent to detention. Those few hours they spent in the detention room would come to be the few hours that glued the two of them for life. They became best friends.

They were inseparable from each other. Their friendship poured into their college days; they went to Georgetown University together where they grew closer.

Aria was kind, friendly, and scared most of the time. She also lived a sorry romantic life while Cassie wrote interesting ones and made money off them.

Cassie made enough money to almost pay off her student loans. That was before she received the letter from Mysterious that sent her into a new world of danger.

A world that would change her life's story forever.

***

"So you can relate with me right now. The pain of losing a father?" Corleone's said. Cassie thought she was seeing things.

Is a dangerous killer fishing for sympathy from me?

"How did you cope?" he asked again.

"I cannot assure you that your Father will be the same as he was. But everyday life is lost and it sucks. You must have taken a life … lives?"

She paused for his reaction and when he didn't flinch, she continued,

"So you know how feeble and dangerous life could be. Shit happens so deal with it."

Why did I just say that? Her inner voice cried.

Her naivety had kicked in and strangely enough, Corleone bought it. He liked what she said; it seemed to calm him down.

The silence was not so discomforting as earlier.

Maybe I will not describe him as an overfed elephant, just a good soul born into the wrong family, but in a way, aren't we all. I am putting these lines in my book.

"I had a feeling that I would like you. You can go back to your room now while we wait for the Esposito's response."

"Okay."

She got up and made her way out of the room. The cottage did not seem so unsafe after her conversation with Corleone, even when she met Alphonse's terrifying gaze as she stepped out of the room, and when she returned to the room reserved for her she was able to get in a few hours of sleep.

A few hours of sleep were interrupted once again by Alphonse and his men, who forced her awake and dragged her to Corleone's drab room in her half-sleep.

"You said you are important to the Esposito family but they don't seem to care about you. A day has passed and they have not replied to my parley." An inch closer and Corleone's face would have been inside of Cassie's face.

A day? How long was I asleep?

He stared in anger at her resolve.

The atmosphere was tense once again as she sat on the chair opposite a fuming Corleone. The door to the drab study room was opened wide enough for her to make out the contents of the study, but she couldn't see because her view was blocked by angry mobsters.

"When will he get back to us?"

Cassie was stunned. She struggled to find the words that will save her once more.

"Your head is going to have to do." As the men charged at her, the door of the room swung open from a henchman's kick.

"Boss. They want to meet." The door kicker handed a letter to Corleone.

He ripped it open and read.

We meet at the Wizen Warehouse by nightfall. Bring the girl.

In the letter was a picture of a bloodied Baccio.

"You were right, he lives. You are one lucky bitch are you not?"

Cassie was so relieved that she would get to live again, that she paid little or no attention to the slur.

"Get up," Alphonse said.

She got up and looked around the room, her attention focused mainly on the ajar door of the study room, something inside the office caught her attention.

"Tonight, we kill end Esposito's" Corleone roared.

In the middle of the silent jubilation of the men in the room was Cassie staring into the study room, trying to make out what she saw. It looked familiar.

On the table in the study room, that she could now see, was a brown envelope.

The brown envelope was similar to the one Mysterious had sent her thrice, she could tell it from afar.

She moved slowly, closer to the door to confirm it. Without a doubt, it was the same envelope. It had the same inscription that all envelopes from Mysterious had.

How the hell did that get there?