Chapter 2 I Will Do Anything

ARIA MORETTI

She ran into a horde of men rushing into the house and screamed.

Whatever it was, she could soon tell that she was the least of their problems. They shoved her off as soon as they saw her and almost crushed their small house with how rapidly they dashed through the rooms. Soon, her father's panicked yells reached her ears, and she quickly jumped back to her feet to go help her father. There were five of the men, and they all forced themselves into the room, filling the tiny space it comprised with their frames.

It was almost confusing at first, until someone flicked on the lights and it sent her father into an even bigger panic. That was when she saw him on the floor and far from the bed she had left him in. Both his hands were over his head to shield himself as he screamed, and the men were kicking him.

"Leave my father alone," she screamed, rushing to bite into the arm of the man closest to her. Her teeth sunk into his skin, and enough of it for her to taste his blood in her mouth, until she felt something that sent her to the floor faster than she could blink. Even then, she tried to stand up, but two quick, successive slaps sent her back to the floor and caused her to reel where she lay in pain, the taste of his blood replaced by the taste of hers as she wondered why the room had suddenly gone dark.

"It's alright, boys," a commanding voice spoke, and her father's screams toned down a bit. "How is he? I always thought all the old man really needed was a bit of some shaking around. Get me a seat."

The light came back into the room, and Aria only then understood why the room had gone dark. In reality, it hadn't. She had only shut her eyes tight in the same way she had on the night her mother Elena and Mabel were killed. Then, it saved her, because she hid under the bed and waited for the storm to pass. This time, she doubted that it would.

The sound of a chair being dragged against wood soon screeched in her ears, and she struggled to sit up and see what would happen. As it turned, the men had the least interest in her. They had come straight to business, and whatever it was, it had everything to do with her father.

"Marco," the same voice that had brought an end to the storm, now called her father's name in a softer, almost affectionate tone. "Sorry to visit like this Marco. It's rude, and-"

"That's why you need to pack up with all of this and go." Aria shot, jumping to her feet.

All the heads in the room turned towards her, including the head that had uttered the only words that meant so far. He had a bit of a slick smile upon his face, his right eyebrow furrowed in a manner that was almost teasing. A better word to describe it was cocky, but she was in no mood for thinking about anything that wasn't her father, who was shivering on the ground and crying to himself like a small, scared child. He was saying only one word.

"Please. Spare her. Spare them. Don't kill them."

His words were going unattended because nobody was listening to him. It was a doubt that they genuinely wanted to.

"What other fire do we have burning here?" He asked no one particularly, his eyes fixed on her. Around them, his men started to laugh.

Aria did not care in the least. She wanted them to leave.

"I am the fire that will burn you if you remain here."

The man only swung his head to the side, and a third slap across the face sent Aria back to the floor she had just gotten up from. This one hit the very same spot on which she had received the first one, and it hurt so much she thought she would start to bleed. From afar, she heard her father continue to cry and beg people that weren't there. Then the man spoke:

"Marco even has a girl that's got a better pair of balls than he has. I think she's got a better brain too."

She grunted and jumped up to fight, incensed by this comment on her father.

"Leave the girl," The man said with a wave of his hand, dismissing her without another thought. "We are here for you, Marco. You coward burned our warehouse down with your stupidity, and you're going to pay."

"He didn't. He only drives his truck around."

The man scoffed, and turned to Aria with an expression that showed he was slightly annoyed. "Nobody is talking to you, girl. We're only here for your crazy father."

"He can't talk. That's why I'm answering."

Again, he looked at Aria with that cocky expression of his, and there was a smile on his face before he spoke again. "Give Marco another shake, boys. I need him to start talking."

They did this far too eagerly for Aria to stand still. Punches on her father without regard for where they were going to hit. Kicks all over his body as he shed tears and called for help from his memories and not the men that were harming him. Sitting and watching all this was one man, a sadistic look of pleasure on his face.

Aria tried to get to her father, and got a shove and two more slaps for it. By now, she was smarting from the pain, and aware that they were not going to stop unless her father died, or she did something to pacify the man who was overseeing the whole thing. To do this, she mustered all the force she could, dove between two of the men, rushed towards her father and threw herself upon his body. Her face was now streaked with tears, and she was screaming for them to let him go through chattering teeth.

"I'll pay what he owes. Please just let him go."

She paid for this action, taking several painful kicks to the side that only stopped when he raised his hand. The beatings instantly stopped, so that the silence that followed was only disrupted by her father's cries from below her.

"Did you just say you will do anything?"

"Anything."

He fixed an eye on her before continuing. "Your father will be spared if you agree to serve me. To do as I say and follow my every order without question."

Aria only needed one look at the broken man beneath her to decide.

"I will. I will do as you say."

"It is done, then. Let's be on our way, boys. Take the girl so we can assume Marco has paid a bit of something."

Before long, and long meant what felt almost endless to her, she had been shoved into a car that moved until she lost track of where she was, and was only aware that she was being driven into a big mansion. The whole time, her mind remained on the last image of her crying father as the men tossed him back into the bed they had gotten him out of.

It was the sight of the tears streaming down his face that made her decide.

She would endure all to save him.