Three

Eric watched in total dismay as Luiz Sanchez dropped to the floor next to the car, a gun had been fired. He turned to look at Ricardo where he was standing and for the first time that night, Eric noticed the pistol was in his boss's hand. Ricardo Alvarez had fired the shot.

Ricardo held the pistol in his hand after he had shot at the space next to Luiz's good leg. He had every intention to hurt the man but he had to know what had happened to his money.

"Stand up and come here right now!" Ricardo's voice drifted from the entrance to where Luiz was laying on the ground with his hands over his ears. Eric breathed a sigh of relief as Luiz wobbled up on one leg and with the aid of his walking stick, walked up to Ricardo.

After finding out about the accident at the factory that had led to the loss of Luiz's leg, Ricardo paid for a prosthetic leg and all the physiotherapy sessions Luiz went through to get back on his feet again, literally.

When he was sure Luiz was well recovered to operate with the leg, he hired him and put him in charge of his deliveries in the mob. Luiz had met Ricardo by accident a year before the accident, Ricardo had just lost his wife to a fight between the two most influential mobs in Madrid and he was lost.

Luiz on the other hand was struggling to get past the hurt of losing his own wife to cancer, they met at one of Ricardo's casinos and with no knowledge of who the Mafia boss was, they went ahead to share a drink and a friendship bloomed not long after. With most of Ricardo's men losing their lives in the battle of the mobs, there was no one to make the delivery.

Ricardo reached out to Luiz and explained the whole situation to him, Luiz looked at it as helping a friend with a favor and made the delivery which landed Ricardo one of the biggest contracts in his career as a businessman. From making business related deliveries, Luiz was introduced into the mob and became a member thereafter.Ricardo called it an opportunity to help they way he could as a way of returning the favor Luiz had done for him, Luiz couldn't really compare the two deeds but he was grateful still

"Where is my money, Sanchez?" Ricardo wasted no time.

Luiz stammered, "I, t-rie-d to get to Mi-lan on time but I had an emergency and I couldn't make it" Ricardo wasn't interested in what Luiz was saying, no mention of his money had been made and that was his concern.

"I don't like repeating myself, Sanchez" Ricardo said with his voice rising. "Where is my money, Luiz Sanchez?" He asked again with a hint of thunder in his dark green eyes. It would surprise anyone to find out the most feared Mafia boss in the history of Madrid had eyes as clear as crystal and as beautiful as emeralds.

Luiz quickly dropped to his knees, again. "I'm so sorry Jefe" he said taking hold of the hem of Ricardo's trousers. Luiz Sanchez was old enough to give birth to Ricardo Alvarez but that didn't stop him from pleading for his life.

"My daughter was rushed to the hospital, she had an attack and this one was very severe" Luiz tried to get Ricardo's sympathy but the Mafia boss was more interested in the end of the story.

"I'm sorry about your daughter, but that doesn't answer my question" Ricardo snapped. "Where is my money?!" Luiz flinched, there was no escaping the wrath of his boss.

"Do you know what an unsettled deal means?" Ricardo asked with fire in his green eyes.

Luiz nodded slightly. Everyone in the mob knew what an unsettled deal meant. A loss.

"It means I have lost over a million dollars all because of you" Ricardo stopped to check if Luiz was following and he most definitely was.

"I had to send another package to Milan" Eric let out his breath slowly. Shit.

Luiz knew it wasn't just the loss that was making his boss very upset, Ricardo was very careful about his honor. In the Mafia world, it is better to be feared and respected than to be loved. No one cared about praises or gifts, all they cared about was how much fear they could instill in others and how much respect the other groups gave them. And with messing up a huge deal with Milan, Ricardo had gone two steps down the food chain in that category and he was livid.

"You will pay back every single penny" Ricardo said and Luiz started crying. Where was he going to get such an amount. "And you'll pay it back in three days time"

Luiz almost screamed, "Three days?!" There was no way he could get that huge sum of money in three days, he couldn't even afford to get such an amount in three years time.

Ricardo scoffed, "You heard me correctly" he said, "Three days" he repeated as he turned to go into the house.

Luiz grabbed his trouser with tears streaming down his face, "Please, don't do this Jefe. I can't meet up with this. Please" Eric felt crushed but Ricardo wasn't fazed. He wouldn't have been the boss of the most dangerous mob in Madrid if tears got to him.

"You should be thanking me I didn't put a bullet through your heart" Ricardo turned and walked into the mansion.

Luiz sat on the ground outside the mansion for what felt like ages, he was glad Ricardo hadn't killed him but what good was that? His death was only been delayed, there wasn't any possible way for him to get a million dollars in three days. He had watched Ricardo shoot down people that owed him money, he didn't want to be in that list.

Eric watched as Luiz Sanchez finally got up and wobbled out of the driveway towards the gate. He was still alive, for now. Eric knew there wasn't any chance of Luiz getting such an amount in so little time. He had to do something to help, anything at all.

Eric caught up to Luiz as he got to the gate and rolled the window of the car down.

"Get in, I'll drop you home" Eric said and waited as the older man walked across to the passenger side of the car and got in. The rest of the drive was quiet, Luiz was thinking of ways to gather such a huge sum of money in such a little time and Eric was thinking of ways to help Luiz.

Eric parked near the sidewalk facing Luiz's house, he had never seen Luiz so quiet before. Sanchez was the most lively person he had ever met in the mob, he made jokes, helped out, gave advice and was very nice to everyone. Eric felt bad about the whole situation but he couldn't blame Ricardo, handling an empire isn't a simple task and with the size of Ricardo's empire, the workload was quite as hard than before. "Heavy is the head that wears the crown", no saying had ever fit well with Ricardo Alvarez.

"Thank you for the ride, my boy" Luiz said as he got out of the car. Luiz was fond of addressing Eric as "my boy" and that was just one of the things Eric loved about him.

"Mr Sanchez?" Luiz stopped as he was about to walk into his lawn, he turned and looked at Eric through the space in the window.

"Yes?" Eric knew this was the right time to be of help to the ever helpful Luiz Sanchez.

Eric reached into the back of the car, brought out a bag and stretched it to the window. Luiz walked back to the car and collected the bag.

"What is this for?" He asked without opening it. Eric gestured for him to open it and he gasped as he did. "Why are you doing this for me? Ricardo would kill you if he finds out you helped me and besides isn't this the money you've been saving for college?"

Eric gave Luiz a weak smile and muttered, "I'm too old for college, Mr Sanchez. Besides Ricardo wouldn't want me to go to M.I.T" he turned on the ignition and before Luiz could try to convince him to take the money back or better still, thank him, he drove off.