"You thought you were so fucking smart after what you pulled at that diner huh?" Giovanni's warm breath fans into my ear as he seethes at me.

"Smart enough apparently." I hate when my mouth does what my mind thinks.

The next thing I knew I was shoved to the ground. My hip slammed onto the floor as I tried to catch myself with my arm.

"Hey-" Adam shouts, stepping forward to help me only to be shoved back a step by some other guy with a gun. I realize then that with Marcel upstairs, there are five of them in total.

I hadn't seen him before, maybe this was Donny that Giovanni talked about. The one who found my picture.

"Who is this kid?" Giovanni asked, noticing Adam's movement.

"One of the friends," says Donny.

Before he can say anything else we all hear something smash upstairs. Giovanni raises his brows in the direction it came from. Then he looks at me. "Brought more friends?"

I don't say anything back, deciding the door was a much better place to put my attention. So I stare ahead.

"Go get them," He tells Donny, "And then get rid of them."

Donny, with his black hair and wrinkles around his eyes, lifts the corner of his mouth in amusement before he takes his gun out and walks towards the staircase.

"No!" I say without even realizing I had opened my mouth. Then I'm up on my feet again and moving to the staircase as well. "Wait, please-"

I don't even make it halfway across before I'm yanked back into a chest.

"Don't worry Rowena, I didn't mean you. You were just in time, you know that? We're skipping town and now you get to come with us." I ignore his words and struggle to pull away.

"DECLAN!" I shout as loud as I could manage. "CYRUS YOU HAVE TO GET OUT!" I didn't care if they had to jump out a god damned window, they had to leave this place before they were killed. Before they were killed because of me.

I threw my head back as hard as I could. I heard the crack of his nose as his grip on me loosened as I managed to free myself.

"Fuck!" He exclaimed before he threw his hands over his nose. "Dom get her to the truck, hurry up."

I feel the warmth from my tears as they begin to stream down my cheeks. When Dominic steps closer to me, I still manage to whip my hand across his face with as much force as I could muster.

It only seemed to have pissed him off and he puts that much force when he grips my arm so hard, I think it might snap. I drop all my weight to the ground before he pulls me away. He's almost dragging me when I bring my foot in front of me and kick him hard in the back of the knee. He stumbles with a loud curse as he loses his grip on me.

"For fucks sake Dominic, pick her up!" Giovanni yells and Dominic rights himself before stepping towards me once again.

I whip my hand out to hit him a second time, but he grabs my wrists and throws me over his shoulder.

"Row," I hear Adam call to me. He moves to help me again but the guy who shoved him before has a gun pulled on him now. The guy tsks at him and the last thing I see is his worried gaze following me out the door.

I don't see him, Cyrus, or Declan anymore. The thought that I may never see them again snaps me back into the moment. Then I'm struggling and kicking and clawing with as much energy and strength as I have.

"Stop squirming," Dominic snaps at me. I bring my elbow down hard into his spine. He stumbles and loses his grip on me so I drop to the ground.

It didn't matter though, his hands are on me again before I can get myself up. He looks angry and he opens his mouth to say something to me before Giovanni comes right up to us and rips me from Dominic's grip and into his own instead.

I barely have a moment to process anything before the back of his hand whips my face to the side. I think the force of it would have knocked me to the ground if we hadn't been holding me already. I taste metal from somewhere in my mouth and my lip stings now.

"That's enough, you hear me? You're going to stop fighting and giving everyone a fucking hard time. You're just making things worse for yourself."

I stare at him with my anger boiling through my veins. I know I still have tears in my eyes, but at this point I know it's not from anything but frustration. I can't do much with the way he has my arms pinned. So, I make use of the blood I had been tasting in my mouth to spit directly on his face.

His grip tightens so hard that I hear a pop in my wrist. I can't help the cry that escapes me from the pain of it. Giovanni takes a deep and shaky breath. He looks like he's trying not to explode. "This is the part where you apologize before I put a bullet in your god damned skull," He says before I feel the barrel of his gun on my temple.

But then I hear the sound of another gun being cocked and a voice that says, "This is the part where you take your hands off my daughter before I unload my entire clip on you and your friend here."

I nearly let out a sob of relief at the sound of my dad's voice. Then I see him, and I see Uncle Lio and three other men from the station that I recognize, all with their guns out and ready to fire if need be.

"Dad the house!" I say. "Declan, Cyrus, and Adam are there. They need help."

"I got them Row, don't worry," He replied to me. He must have already sent people to the house. I feel a bit of the weight release of my shoulders.

Dad keeps his attention on Giovanni. "Move it already, you sick son of a bitch."

Giovanni doesn't let go right away. He just stands there glaring at me with jaw twitching. Then, slowly, he drops the gun and eases his grip off my arm so that I can yank myself from him completely.

With two others still pointing their guns at him, dad comes over and takes me farther away from him. His arms wrap around me in a way he hasn't hugged me in years.

"Are you okay?" He asks me quietly.

"I'm okay," I say back. When he pulls away his shoulder bumps into my wrist and I cringe.

He notices my reaction and lifts up my arm. There's already a nasty bruise forming. He looks up to say something and seems to notice my face for the first time, my split lip.

"Is he a righty or a lefty?"

His question throws me off guard. "What?"

"What hand does he use to do stuff?" He asks slowly. "His right or his left?"

"Um," I look over at him, noticing now that he was holding the gun with his right hand. "His right hand. He's a righty."

Dad gives a single nod before he walks over to them. Uncle Lio was about to put him in handcuffs, but dad tells him to hold on.

He stares at Giovanni then looks around the ground. Dad bends down to pick up a wooden stick. "Catch," He nods to Giovanni and he catches it on reflex.

In the next second dad pulls out his gun again and shoots a bullet clean through his right hand. The sound of Giovanni's yelling rips through the air and Dominic gets to the ground with his hands behind his head with his pissy expression.

"Oh! Sweet Jesus," Dad exclaims. "Look at the mistake I made. I thought he was holding a weapon. Aurelio, didn't it look like he was holding a weapon?"

"No doubt about it," Uncle Lio replies.

Giovanni is holding his hand to his chest now and glaring daggers at everyone through the pain.

"Go ahead Lio," Dad says and Uncle Lio proceeds to put him in handcuffs. Another officer handles Dominic's cuff.

The sound of a gunshot goes off not far in the distance. My head snaps at the sound and I immediately look at dad again. He looks at me and I know he thinks the same thing. It came from the house.

So for the second time on that same day, I'm running back towards the house.

A/N: It just feels so wrong putting these light hearted and fun banners at the end of these serious chapters LMAOO

For all my fictional criminals out there: don't mess with Rowena. Dadd- i mean Papa Salone will end you !! 🤨

Anyway hi you guys :)

so sorry to leave you on another cliff hanger I have to finish this social studies homework real quick and then I'm getting right back to writing!!