Saved Mafia Bride by Mae Doyle

Clara

I’m pacing back and forth from the bedroom to the living room, completely unable to stop my feet from eating up the floor. My nerves jangle as I walk and I shake my head to try to clear it, but I can’t.

I have no way of knowing what’s going on out there. No way of knowing if Gavin is going to come back to me in one piece, and for the first time I feel myself starting to spiral. It’s not that I want out of here, which was how I was feeling for the longest time, but suddenly I want him back.

I want to know that he’s going to take care of me. I want him here to protect me, even though that sounds stupid. I don’t want him to get hurt.

He’s the first man in my life who actually wants me for me. He wants to get to know me, not put me in a pretty dress and make me stand up on a pedestal so that everyone can see me. It’s wild and it’s new and different, and I have to admit to myself that I actually like it.

“Fuck!” My voice echoes back at me and I sink down to the floor, pulling my knees up to my chest. I’m pretty sure that this is Stockholm syndrome or some shit, but I don’t care. I don’t want to fight it any longer, I just want him here to take care of me and make sure that I’m happy.

Sitting still on the floor I take a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves.

Another.

Then another.

I’m so quiet that I think I her thunder, but when I glance outside I’m surprised to see that the sky is blue and cloudless.

There it is again.

It’s not thunder, though, I’m pretty sure of that. Standing up, I walk over to the huge windows in the front of the house and press my hand up against the glass while I try to think.

Not thunder, so what was it?

The answer hits me like a ton of bricks and I gasp, stepping back from the glass. That’s gunshots. A hell of a lot of them, the sound rumbling down through the woods to make me feel like my core is actually shaking from the vibrations. Gavin is in there, he’s in the middle of that terrible thundering sound, and that though makes me want to throw up.

What if they come here looking for me?

Instead of throwing up,, I run to the bedroom and sink to my knees at the side of the bed.

I have to protect myself.

It was silly to think that Gavin would just leave a gun out for me to use when he left, but right now I wish that he had. It’s not that I’ve ever fired one or would even know how to aim it, but my hands shake as I reach under the bed and pull out a trunk.

There’s a huge lock on it and I grab it, rattling it back and forth like I’m actually going to be able to get it open.

Nothing.

“Fuck!” I cry, pulling on the lock again. I know that there are weapons in here, I just know it. I have to be able to protect myself, have to have some way to stop someone from getting into the guesthouse if they actually try. I yank so hard on the lock that when I let go, I fall back on my ass. “Come on, where would you put a key?”

Running my hand through my hair, I hurry back down the hall to the living room. I haven’t seen a key just hanging out in here, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t one. It doesn’t mean that it’s not in plain sight and I’ve just been overlooking it in my panic and fear of being here.

Taking a deep breath, I try to calm myself, but that’s when I see movement outside.

Something is in the woods. I drop to my knees behind the sofa and poke my head up just enough to see out. The movement doesn’t happen again and I exhale hard.

Just a trick of the light, right? I’m seeing things because I’m so worried about actually seeing things. That’s all it is.

Still, I stare at the spot in the woods a bit longer, willing myself to figure out if someone is really there.

And then I see it again.

Movement, only this time, it’s not just a nebulous mass in the woods. It’s a man, a gun slung across his chest, his eyes locked on the guesthouse. I have no way of knowing if he saw me or even if he knows that I’m here, but from the set in his jaw and the way he’s coming towards the house, I don’t have to guess.

I need that fucking key.

Now.