Mattia Russo

Isabella swiftly angled her head towards the direction of the voice

"Francesco" she laughed as she breathed out a breath of relief "Why did you say that" she asked.

Francesco inched his face closer to her's and said

"Because I know him better than you do. After you" he said as his gaze shifted to the door which was already opened by him a minute ago.

"What?" she asked and followed his gaze "Oh! thanks".

_______

The periods rolled by quickly until school hours were over. Bella packed her books into her bag then shut her locker close, today was really stressful for her so she had to get home to take a quick rest.

She opened her class door to step out only to be met by two hefty men staring down at her, they were not just big but tall. Her brother Leonardo, groggily stepped in front of them and said to her "Let's go home".

His face looked off, his Amber eyes drained of all it's colour. Something was wrong somewhere, she thought.

Isabella heard whispers coming from her class, she cocked her head back and caught some of them looking suspicious trying to get a better view of what was going on. She nodded at her brother and shut the class door close leaving them hanging.

"What's wrong" she whispered into her brother's ears as they walked out of school.

"Find out yourself when you get home" he said wearily and began to walk ahead of her. Something was really off.

Group of students that passed by clinged to each other as the two men took almost all the space in the narrow hallway. Isabella was sure that they'd be the talk of the day by tomorrow. How frustrating?

But, these were not the two men that always escorted her and Leonardo home. Even if their dad decided to replace them, their duty was to wait outside the school by their car and not stand at the entrance of her class. She was also sure that if she hadn't stepped out that very moment, they would have barged in terrifying the whole students.

Their face alone looked terrifying, they looked all muscular and hardened, perhaps from constant frowning. Her dad had started it again, behaving all caring for a day then the next was always heart breaking. Thinking that your father had began to care and understand your feelings but it all ends up in delusions.

Those were all Bella's thoughts, "Ha" she scoffed to herself and shook her head in a pitiful amusing way.

_ _ _ _

"Dad!" Sofia cried out loud, almost at the verge of breaking down completely.

"I've told you and that's final" her father replied her.

"But_" she said and sniffed in fresh tears "I don't wanna go there" the tears she sniffed came rushing uncontrollably.

"Please honey try to understand why we are doing this" her mother came behind her and patted her on the back. She shook her mom's hand off angrily and walked away.

"She'll never learn" her dad sighed and collapsed on a sofa beside him.

Sofia Mariono was thin, sun tanned, a mane of sun streaked hair that only the very rich seem to be able to cultivate and with golden brown eyes. Her dad had decided to change her school to somewhere she didn't fancy, a place she'd hated since sixteen because of the unforgivable and unforgettable memory.

"She'll calm down soon" his wife said as she sat close to him.

"I hope so because I'm not going to change my mind for any reason"

Mr Mariono was a business tycoon also involved in the Drug Business. He and Pedro Mancini were friends, more like brothers. They were childhood friends till now, always did everything together and visited each other regularly.

Unlike Aldo, whose wife didn't know a thing about his Drug cartel, his wife knew and also supported him as long as it kept them in their high position. Only his daughter, Sofia didn't know and he wanted it that way rather than endangering her life.

"You have a guest sir" Mr Mariono heard a voice disrupting him from his thoughts "It's Mr Mancini". He looked up to see one of his most trusted servants who had been with him for years.

"Ah, send him in then. Why keep him waiting" the servant nodded and left.

"I guess I head to my company" his wife said

"Sure" he nodded "But make sure you're back early okay?".

Just as she stood up ready to leave, Pedro trooped in with a big smile on his face.

"Hey, ciao, Tomasso, my friend, my brother. How are you?" Pedro greeted with his arm extended openly for a hug.

"I've been good. You?" Tomasso stood up and embraced him.

"I'm alright" Pedro replied.

Tomasso's wife watched them happily forgetting that she was about to head to the company. She cleared her throat gaining their attention.

"Ah, Greta lovely how have you been?" Pedro disengaged from the hug as he took notice of her.

"This year has been favourable" she smiled as he held her hand "Can I get you anything?" she asked.

"Not really, just a few black olives"

"Okay then" she replied and left.

Once again, Pedro turned to face Tomasso. They clasped hands and patted each other on the back before Greta came in and handed the black olives to Pedro, then hastily rushed to her company.

"Well?" Pedro asked impatiently

"I think we need to take him out" Tomasso said in a low voice "His cartel is really posing as a threat". Pedro nodded thoughtfully, his friend was right. Their drug cartel was crumbling all thanks to Aldo whose cartel seemed to be overtaking theirs.

"You're right. If he doesn't agree to give us his cartel then we take him out" Pedro agreed sucking on a black olive.

"You heard of this guy?, Mattia Russo?" Tomasso asked.

"Yes"

"I think we'll be needing him. If Aldo disagrees to give his cartel then we bomb all the places he owns and has connections with before taking him out. Isn't that a good plan?" Tomasso asked proudly.

"Yes it is friend".

They were going to lay lots of bucks on Mattia. Mucho, mucho big bucks. He wasn't just some random guy to hire for the execution, he's been in the business for nearly 12 years.

He joined a street gang at the age of thirteen but he knew he had to move on for better things. He then decided that drugs were the business for him. He was goodlooking and a convincing talker, he never had trouble with finding a bed to sleep in, his parents were dead.

Mattia was moving up, he was getting himself a reputation attracting envies and it was doing him nothing but good.

Now 8 years and he had moved out of the drug scene. He used his spare time to study explosives, electronics and computer bombs. There was nothing he didn't know how to do, from blowing up a market place to planting a bomb in a plane that he could denote a week later.

He had a reputation for taking risk, and every risk he'd taken paid off.

"We'll hire him" Pedro said with his mind finally made up.

Mattia Russo was a freelance man. The best

Looking for a hit job?, call for him.