Chapter twelve

I fulminate in Luke's gaze as he presses a gray tracksuit into my hands, then pushes me into Alexander's dressing room to change. Smirking at me, he closes the door, setting up a party. With the whole night ahead of us, I have to agonize in his company, so I'm increasingly considering whether committing suicide would be the best solution to free myself from these chumps.

It is said that you can't escape from the mafia, eventually, they will kill you, so what is the point of my life?

The best way is to slit your wrists while taking a bath.

Dressed in gray sweatpants, I put a hood over my head and, keeping my hands in the pockets of my pants, I come out of the dressing room pretending to be a hoodlum.

- Don't I look like a female mafioso now? - I ask, looking at Luke from under the hood and making a pout.

He is lying on the bed. He holds one hand under his head and I laugh at the sight of me.

- You look like the girlfriend of a neighborhood gangster. Throw a rap and we'll make love.

- I can throw it at you with a candlestick. - I grab the object at hand and aggressively attack the boy in charge of me.

Laughing loudly, he jumps aside, claiming that I am cute.

- Dangerous and sexy. That's the kind I like best.

A knock sounds at the door. Luke gets up from the bed and picks up a tray of tea from the housekeeper, as well as a small commercial containing cotton balls and makeup remover.

- Get your face cleaned up because you look like a koala bear. - He throws the commercial at me, which I catch nimbly, then walk over to the mirror to cleanse my skin.

He, meanwhile, sips the green tea the housekeeper has prepared for him in his favorite mug.

I wash off my makeup, but watch his reflection in the mirror. He is savoring the tea as if it were the most delicious drink in the world.

- Don't look at me like that. The housekeeper brews the best. You have to try it - he claims, pointing to the second cup that has been prepared for me.

I snort under my breath.

I pour the micellar liquid on the second cotton ball and rub it on my skin, out of the corner of my eye watching Luke smiling to himself.

Suddenly something comes to mind.

- Do you drink this tea every day?

He looks at me with surprised eyes and shrugs his shoulders.

- Sure you do. That oldest housekeeper in the kitchen is the coolest grandmother in the house. She's the only one who cares about me, just like she cared about my father.

I tilt my head to the side, wondering if, for that matter, he could be so naive that he didn't get the idea that the substance still has to be given to him, even in small amounts. For it to work. This is not a sci-fi movie.

- You shouldn't trust anyone in this house. Your father may have been her favorite, but the boss's word is a sacred word to her, so maybe she actually likes you. But giving the substance in an addictive tea would explain why you're still under the influence of the drug, despite the passage of time.

Luke pushes the cup away from his mouth and watches him for a long moment.

- No way. They may be giving it to me differently, but I will never believe that the housekeeper is also involved. I trust her. She herself tells me all the time that she will help me get out of here.

I turn to face him and shake my head vigorously.

- She comes up to you. I have met many such people in my life. This is the mask through which she gets everything out of you and reports to the boss.

He smiles nervously.

- No way. If that were the case, the boss wouldn't trust me. I would not be his favorite.

I walk up to him with a quick step and snatch the cup from his hand. I set it down on the tray and crouch in front of him, intending to reason with him.

- Listen... if you want to get out of here and at the same time get me out of this swamp, then don't tell this woman anything. - The boy raises an eyebrow, reacting to the fact that I keep my hands in his lap. - To me, the disturbing thing is that Alexander continually refers to how much he trusts you. He knows everything. This baba reports to him every word you say. He is testing you. I am one hundred percent sure of that.

- I am careful. I know what I'm doing.

- But you don't trust the right person. In this house, you can't trust anyone. Everyone is afraid of Alexander. Come to your senses. I don't know, maybe it's the drugs that take your mind away, but start being more careful.

- I never talked to her about running away. I don't talk to anyone about similar topics.

- So why does she allude to helping you escape from here?

- I don't know. I always just smile at those words and don't answer her anything. I am not stupid, Solar.

I walk away from him and feel that he is watching me closely the whole time.

- You need to stop sipping that tea. That way, we'll see if the symptoms go away. I will never believe that there is a substance that can work for several weeks.

Luke pulls his hair back, looking worried.

- If you're right, I'll turn out to be a complete moron. - He gets up from his chair and walks out onto the balcony. He looks down, then pours the rest of the tea out into the garden. I join him, feeling a strong gust of wind. He turns to face me, looking worried. - I think I need to air out my brain, and you will accompany me. I won't leave you alone in this cave.

I furrow my eyebrows, wondering what he is thinking about.

- How are you going to get out of here? They will report to Alexander.

He smiles half-heartedly.

- He may be cagey, but I'm not a complete either. - He walks into the room, and I follow him and close the balcony window. - Every mafioso has a second exit from his room, in case of danger.

I am filled with awe when the door of one of the closets in the dressing room turns out to be false. I follow Luke down the narrow hallway, unconcerned that we'll both be screwed if Alexander comes home early.

We head down a steep staircase and then emerge from the hallway.

- How did you know about this passage? - I ask in a whisper, looking around. We find ourselves in an overgrown part of the garden, where we are hidden behind plants.

- I told you that I'm waiting for the right moment when we can escape from here. It's not today yet, it's too soon, but when everything is ready, we will leave this place.

- Are you carrying out your escape plan?

- I'm going to escape the mafioso, so I have to have a plan to survive. It won't be as easy as you think, Solar said.

With my eyes wide open, I watch him as he climbs the high wall to jump over to the other side. He extends his hand toward me intending to help me, to which I snort under my breath.

- Not such walls I jumped over when I ran away from school to play truant. I'll be fine - I assert, then jump up and, like a cat, climb to the top. Sitting next to Luke, I smile broadly. - I'm not as gentle a lady as you thought. - I jump down and shake off my hands. He lands next to me and points his finger at me, being proud.

- You'll make a good companion during your escape.

This is the first time I laugh in Luke's company. Running beside him, we escape from the main street as long as no one notices us.

I am happy because even if only for a moment, he let me free from this prison.

*

I'm 100 percent sure that we'll both be dead if Alexander actually puts Luke to the test and comes home early to see if he follows his orders.

I should be concerned since we're playing with a mafioso, but at this point I'm somehow left dangling. I'm sitting under a neighborhood tent with a man who has a split ego due to drugs, and I accompany him to drink.

When he's not bouncing, it's pretty cool because he lets me contact a friend, however, I didn't call Henry from my cell phone because Luke says Alexander might have all his calls bugged. I took advantage of a nearby phone booth and one word was enough, and I heard my friend breathe a sigh of relief and assured me that he would be there shortly.

- We've got our lives screwed up - Luke spoke up depressingly, tilting another glass of vodka to his lips. - After my father died, I was forcibly forced to serve Alexander, and you were sold to him. Why did this happen to us?

With my hood imposed on my head, I shrug my shoulders and tip my glass to my lips.

- It is probably because we were born under a dark star.

The boy forces a slight smile.

- I guess there is something to it. Some are born under a bright star, others under a dark star, given how our lives are going. - He looks at me with compassionate eyes. - Your life in particular will turn into hell if I don't hurry with my escape plan.

- Why? - I am disturbed by his words. - What else is this psychic man planning to do to me?

- It's disturbing that the boss didn't want to sleep with you on your wedding night, and went to the club.

I furrow my eyebrows, clutching an empty glass in my hand.

- Shouldn't I be happy about this? I noticed that you yourself breathed a sigh of relief when you saw that I was not raped by him.

Luke lowers his head and massages his forehead.

- It's true. I was relieved because he did not hurt you; however, this is a bad sign. Because of your hatred, you are not physically attracted to him at all. His desire for revenge is so strong that he doesn't even feel like shagging you.

I will kill him, really. How dare he tell me straight to my face that I am not attracted to him? After all, Alexander confessed to me that a man like him must have a young and beautiful wife, so it's impossible for me not to be attracted to him, unless....

- Alexander is gay and I am his cover?

I swear Luke chokes back a laugh. Although we're both in danger, I make him laugh to the point where he can't hold back a giggle.

- No, he's not gay. What I mean is that you are purely his bargaining chip - his main point of revenge. Alexander hates your father with all his heart, they are enemies, so he doesn't see you as a woman.

- So in his eyes I am a man?

I understand that this is not the right time for jokes, but I'm trying to understand who I am to the mob boss.

- In his eyes you are neither a woman nor a man, just the main point of revenge.

I pour myself a full glass and drink its entire contents, reflecting on Luke's words.

- Nonsense... so he bailed me out just to kill me in the name of revenge? Doesn't he have any money to spend? If I don't escape from his house I'll die?

He bites his lower lip, looking at me with compassion in his eyes.

- Something like that, though it doesn't quite look like that. - He scratches his head. - I'm sure your biological father already knows that you have become Alexander's wife and are in danger. When you were a baby, my boss paid strangers to take care of you for eighteen years so that your biological father wouldn't find you.

I'm stupid and don't understand any of this.

- It could have killed me in front of my father by then. Why did he wait eighteen years to do it? - I snort under my breath. - Apparently he has serious head problems.

- I don't fully understand his actions either, but it seems to me that even though, you are his bargaining chip. He also wants to protect you for the sake of the fact that your mother was the love of his life. He is torn.

I chuckle with alcohol, looking at him with big eyes.

- Are you suggesting that I find myself in some Mexican telenovela where the climax is the revenge of a mafioso?

He doesn't answer me as someone tightly embraces me from behind, snuggling his face into my hair.

- I'm so glad you're okay, Solar. - I hear Henry's voice, and a feeling of joy fills my heart. - I was so worried about you.

I put my hand on his hand, smiling slightly.

- Just a little more and I promise that my life will return to normalcy - I say, watching Luke's face, who with a look lets me know that my life will never again look the same as before. - Even if it's hard, I won't give up.