The Mafia's Debt Bride

"Phoenix please.." Noah's eyes softened as he watched his sister. "You have to do whatever they say. They'll come after everything you care about if you don't."

"You're badly wounded.." Phoenix hushed. Her eyes kept raking the sight beneath her in. Her brother's brown hair was stuck on his face with sweat, his eyelids were shutting softly, hiding his honey brown eyes. His breath was raspy and filled with utterances that Phoenix paid no heed to.

"Who did this? Why would someone do this?" Phoenix worried under her breath.

Noah could have spoken but when he made eye contact with his sister, all he could do was shift glances between his sister's eyes and the ruffled paper she threw.

Upon hearing the siren's wail of the ambulance, Phoenix lifted her head up, her eyes softened as she yelled. "In here!!".

The paramedics pushed through the doorway, quickly setting down the carrier. Some drew Noah away from his sister, lifting him up with a -ho!- and carefully leaving his body on the stretcher. As they pushed Noah out of the house and into the back of their ambulance, Phoenix grabbed the ruffled paper she once threw away, threw her father's black tee that was lying on the couch on and hurriedly joined them inside the ambulance, her gaze never leaving Noah.

***

After receiving news that her brother would recover for a few months, Phoenix knew that she could finally breathe. Her once shaky hands now softly smoothened out the crumpled paper that was folded messily in the back pocket of her jeans.

Her eyes scanned through the paper. The thing about words is that they are easily misunderstood. The reader reads through their own filtered life experiences, jumbled with insecurities and judgement.

The paper read...

SALVADOR MANOR.

Phoenix grimaced at it. She studied the paper. Old like it's been soaked in warm coffee and left to dry. And the ink was exquisite, rare and insanely thin like hardened thread. Some parts of the paper had tiny stains, like crimson freckles.

"Miss Saur..."

Phoenix lifted her head and turned to find an older man, his hands tightly entwined with each other, dangling below his torso.

"Yes?" She answered.

"You can see your brother now. He's awake."

Phoenix smiled warmly at the man. "Thank you." She replied and she made her way down the white eerie hall and stopped in front of a sky blue door with the numbers; 26.

Phoenix huffed, shook her arms and flexed her fingers, releasing whatever negative energy had consumed her seven hours ago. Phoenix pushed the door open and winced at the scratching sound it made. She walked in to find her brother looking better than seven hours ago.

There wasn't sweat, there wasn't blood, there wasn't heavy medical equipment surrounding him any longer like he was in the ambulance. He was just there, smiling at his sister. A bruise on the corner of his lips and his arm still wrapped around his torso.

"Well..." Noah sucked in his breath "Don't you look amazing."

He meant it jokingly, she knew. Because her brown hair was up in a messy bun, the greasy strands slipped off. She was in a big black tee and silk pyjamas pants. She wore an oversized Ugg since she left the house hurriedly.

But her brother; always the jokester.

She frowned. "You scared me."

Noah knew the talk had to come about anyway. It was long and horrible but he would keep his sister safe. No matter what it took.

Phoenix drew nearer to him, sitting down on the edge of the bed, studying him. Her eyes were full of concern, worry and tiredness.

"What happened Noah?" she inquired. "We can talk about it."

Noah gave Phoenix a long look, contemplating whether to tell his twin sister or not. "You.." he started, suddenly hushing himself and watching his sister. It was a secret. A secret that if exposed, could cost her life and his as well.

"You cannot tell anyone about this."

Phoenix chuckled lightly. Her brother was never the type to be awfully serious.

"I'm serious Nix." Noah said quite firmly casting a dark shadow on Phoenix's once lightened face. "I work for the Salvadors."

Noah expected his sister to shudder in fear but he remembered that she hadn't a clue about who the Salvadors were or about their influence in the world. She was always stuck in books and real crime series.

With a sigh Noah continued. "They are dangerous people and I let some money slip."

"Why do you work for them when you know they're dangerous?"

Noah didn't respond to her question. "I am in their debt. I owe them some money and they punished me for it...."

Not allowing her brother to continue, Phoenix sighed. Rocking her head back and forth unseriously. "How much money?" She asked casually.

"Twenty three million dollars." Phoenix came to a halt. Her eyes widened at Noah.

"Are you crazy?" Phoenix dumbfoundedly asked. "Twenty..." she gasped. "Are you crazy!?"

"During my duty, one of their safe vaults was hacked. I wasn't able to stop it on time so they took it out on me."

"Aren't safe vaults illegal?" Phoenix tossed here and there. Her palms began to cry for help, rubbing against one another. An urge to choke her brother and an urge to fall on a rock and die suddenly heightened her overwhelming feeling.

"Noah, what the heck have you gotten yourself into?" She whispered but it cut Noah like a knife. "How do we pay this off?. I haven't even been given an official licence yet to work and working for twenty years won't fetch me that kind of money!"

"That's the thing.." Noah winced in pain. "We can't."

Phoenix at this point was losing it. And so was her messy bun. "What do you mean we can't?"

This was the tough pill. Noah lowered his head, staring at the floral patterned bed cover. "I already pleaded to pay them back and they don't want money."

"Well..." Phoenix's lungs ached. "What do they want?" Her intrusive thoughts dominated her. Was it gold they wanted?Diamonds?Was it some weird fetish thing?

Phoenix pressed her head forward, as if getting her ears closer to Noah would make her hear him better. But Noah wasn't saying anything. His head was still lowered, as if avoiding her gaze. It made her thoughts even more so deadly.

"Noah.." she whined.

"They want you to marry one of their own." Noah said speedily. He lifted his head, his eyes meeting with his sister's damning gaze. "You are to become a Salvador before the end of Spring."

Phoenix's gaze spoke an - unless? - and Noah answered.

"Unless, we both die."

***

Warm showers in Phoenix's opinion, were a go-to. Warm showers enhanced her skin and made her feel ever feminine. With her scented candles and citrus body wash, she always felt divine. Matter of fact, her bathroom was her favourite place in the world.

However, the catastrophic situation that engulfed her and her brother Noah, took the joy out of bathing. Her shower head sprung out rushes of cold water and the bathtub on the far end of the bathroom begged her to relax herself.

She ignored it of course.

With her African sponge in hand, lathering with an antibacterial body bar, Phoenix scrubbed skin off her body. When she was done, the cold waters rinsed her off but yet, the ugly feeling brooding in her chest refused to go. Phoenix sighed getting out of the shower.

Pairing her floral gown with her floral sandals, she picked up the ripe scent of her citrus perfume and sprayed it all over.

It was hot in Santa Barbara, California so as Phoenix got down from her fairly grey painted Toyota Prius C Hatchback, her hands flew to her forehead, casting a shadow over her eyes. She could have sworn she put her sunglasses in her bag.

Phoenix stared at the black gate before her. It was tall and thick. She walked towards it, her fist raised at the protector but it made a buzzing sound even before she could knock. At once, she walked in and it seemed as if the weather forecast changed.

Santa Barbara was a sunny place or at least a mushy place if it rained. But this place, Phoenix thought, this place couldn't be on the maps of Santa Barbara.

-Get to Sherwood Forest. Where the end of the road stops, walk further into the forest, it's safe. You'll see a black gate. Just walk in. Don't look around.- Her brother's words echoed in her head.

The walk was long and scary. Past staircases surrounded by shrubs and grass that didn't have the audacity of green. The sun seemed to hide in the clouds and the odd noises of leaves rustling shook Phoenix. She wasn't a "land" girl or a ''jungle' kind of girl. She loved to swim in the ocean where it was clear and beautiful.

Finally she got to the front of the house. The house; a giant three storey painted in black. There were no lights, no torches, nothing. It seemed empty and eerie. But there were windows here and there, small sculptures of symbolic nuisance lay on the wall. She studied the manor for a while before climbing the steps and walking to the front door.

As the sole of her sandals touched the black painting on the floor, the door opened and Phoenix jumped back in fear. She tilted her head to the right, wanting to see what was inside the house before she took a step in.

The door shut behind her with a loud thud and through a small light, she saw a man standing a few steps away from her.

"I've been expecting you, Phoenix Saur."

Safe to say, Phoenix shunned any invites to people's homes. Back in the day when she was a highschooler and even a freshman all through grad in college, she didn't go to anyone's home. Houses were intimate, she believed.

So to be standing here, in an eerie environment near a cold looking man with a scar that ran through his cheekbone to his neck definitely didn't feel like her.

"You've been expecting me..." she repeated after him. Her eyes did all the work, observing the brooding man and wanting to see if he had a dagger underneath his blackness, wanting to see if he would harm her in any way so she could run away immediately.

"Noah said you'd be here soon enough..." his tongue ticked against his teeth. "if I managed to break a bone or two."

She remembered Noah's aching ribs instantly, she breathed in, allowing it to wash over the overwhelming feeling of anxiety and worry gushing over her.

"You want me to marry your son." Phoenix slightly widened her eyes, shocked at her sudden bluntness.

It was stupid; she thought, this is how stupid girls get killed in those real crime series, by saying something blunt yet stupid.

"Precisely Phoenix.." she watched as he undoes the button of his sleeves. His eyes never leaving her. "Marry my son, and no one gets hurt."

"And if I could pay you back?" She bit the corner of her lip, her palms rubbed a little too fast against one another. The man in front of her tilted his head to the side and let out a chuckle.

His outburst of amusement slightly echoed through the room. "You have a month."

Phoenix strained her ear subconsciously, needless to say, she could not comprehend what he had said. "But..." her lips closed shut when met with the darkening gaze of the man a few steps away from her.

And as Phoenix left the gates of her demise and got into her car, deep down she already knew it was impossible to pay off her brother's debt in a month. So she would have to mentally prepare herself for the worst that could happen.

***

"What do you think they do in there?"

Phoenix sighed. Her eyes rolled back in a way that her brown iris was sucked back. For a while, she'd been sitting in the waiting room, sighing at her friend; Charlie Ninn.

Her black hair was pulled in a high ponytail and single braided so as she whipped her head from side to side, observing the halls of Santa Barbara's Local Hospital like she'd never seen it before, Phoenix silently begged for the braided weapon not to hit her face.

"They provide emotional support, pain management techniques and guidance during this intense and transformative process of childbirth." Phoenix answered her friend.

On a normal day, Phoenix loved Charlie. They had met senior year in high school with Phoenix moving in from New York and Charlie had given her the cold shoulder.

Upright and seemingly perfect, Charlie was no match for Phoenix academically and after the forced proximity of tutoring, they walked into the hallways of Santa Barbara High hand in hand.

Charlie looked at Phoenix with a low animalistic scoff. "I know that of course, I'm just asking if Aubrey is cheering everyone she sees before meeting us."

"You know Aubrey." Phoenix groaned.

Phoenix and Charlie's head snapped right at the high pitched overly excited voice.

"What about Aubrey?"

She stood there with her tossed lab coat in her arms. Dressed casually in her knitted vintage dress and black boots, it highlighted her ginger hair and her ginger freckles.

Aubrey; the chatter ginger.

"Hold on a sec, let me sign out." She said quickly, rushing to hang her coat and scrabble something on the huge book before turning to her friends. "Let's go."

Phoenix needed this.

The cool Santa Barbara breeze with iced mojito under the scorching sun of the outside diner of Reef Royalè.

And her two best friends; Charlie Ninn and Aubrey Adams.

"Nix.." Aubrey swirled her strawberry shake with the straw. "you wound me." Phoenix, already knowing what it was about, hummed agonizingly under her breath, feeling the need to defend herself.

"It's the exams and..."

"It doesn't count." Aubrey countered. "Even though we were in college, we had time for each other..."

"Charlie.." Phoenix nudged at her black haired friend who watched Aubrey in utter amusement. "Help me out here."

Aubrey still went on. "Charlie, I understand but you Phoenix.."

"Hey.." Charlie whined, a smirk on her lips as she dropped her black coffee on the table. "Keep me out of this okay.." she turned to Phoenix. "We're attacking Nix, not me."

Phoenix threw her head back in laughter. It just never seemed to be dull with Charlie and Aubrey. They made her worries vanish and time seemed to stop with them.

"So.." Charlie grabbed her black coffee, dragging the straw to her mouth. Her lips closed around it and she closed her eyes as she sipped the coffee.

Her voice turned grounding as she dropped the coffee on the table. "What have you two shawshanks been up to?"

"Um.." Started Aubrey. "Mike and I have taken our relationship to the next level and work's gotten much easier."

"What do you mean next level?" Charlie sat upright in her chair.

"We're living together." Said Aubrey. Getting shocked looks from her friends, she quickly added. "No sex. I promise you guys. Seriously, no sex for reals, have you seen what people go through to birth a child?"

Phoenix would love to see that. Aubrey was a midwife in the local hospital and she'd been working for five years. Time to time, she does ask her to record a video but Aubrey"always forgets".

Phoenix tore away from her thoughts to find her friends staring at her, wanting to hear what she had to say.

"Nothing much." Phoenix's heart raced when she thought about the Salvadors and the brooding choice she had to make. If she tells her friends or not, it all bothers her.

She took a silent breath in and then out. "The forensics exams are in a week and it feels like my life has been turned upside-down."

Charlie grinned. "It's Noah, isn't it?"

Phoenix huffed, shaking her head. No matter how much she wanted to express herself, she had to keep silent for their well-being. Noah said the Salvadors were dangerous, dangerous enough to wipe out the existence of a living being from the earth.

So Phoenix grinned back, fakely. "Whatever Charlie. What's up with you? Out of town again?"

"Naur..." dragged Charlie in her attempt of an Australian accent. "More like taking a break from the gigs and stuff..."

Aubrey and Phoenix watched their friend Charlie as she was not one to speak about her bothersome all too well.

Charlie heaved in, her shoulders slightly dragging upwards. "I mean.." her shoulders relaxed as she let out her breath. "It would be nice to actually make some progress."

"What progress?" Aubrey asked. Her hands took to underneath her chin, supporting her head. "I thought you had gigs."

"Yeah.." Phoenix softened her voice, a look of worry began to work up her face, wanting to hear from her friend. "I mean...isn't that why you've been in and out of town for three years?"

"Honestly," sighed Charlie. "Let's talk about something else huh?" Her head crooked to the side. "I am not going..."

Abruptly, the -sorry- Phoenix said under her breath cut Charlie off. Her friends watched as she stood from the chair, handling her phone with care as she pulled it to her ear.

They watched as her once softened facial expression turned to one of panic. And in an attempt to figure out what happened, Phoenix gave a fake smile here and there while her feet shuffled her out of their presence.

***

Phoenix slammed the door of her car a bit too harshly. Her hastening feet drawing awfully close to these black gates she did not think she would see anytime soon.

Under the furious pouring of the rain and the bone wrenching sound of the thunder, Phoenix shook the gate with every emotion rushing through her.

Anger, rage, frustration.

The gates opened and Phoenix wasted no time as she ran towards the dark manor. And as soon as she found her way to the entrance, he was there already, waiting for her.

"Welcome Miss Saur. It is a most refreshing day." He said, grinning warmly in his thick Italian accent.

She stood in front of him, completely drenched and feeling utterly vulnerable. "I understand Noah's judgment that you passed upon him. Even then, you went too far as you almost killed him. But.." She stepped closer to him, her eyes darkening. "Why go after my mother and father?"

Edd Salvador; the patriarch of the Salvadors never had his authority and actions questioned. Not in the thirty three years that he had served as the head of the Salvadors.

Edd Salvador maintained his posture, anger rising through him. "Careful" He says to Phoenix with a darkening gaze. "I can be very persuasive with my friends around the world."

He watched her in the rain. Her once fiery gaze turned soft, weak. He didn't care, all he wanted was all he was going to get. "You really think I wouldn't find out where your parents live?"

"I'll be your son's wife!" She yelled, mostly for herself so she would be convinced she actually said it. "So please...leave everyone around me alone. If I am to marry your son, surely we can come to some sort of agreement." She was planning, of course, that her friends and her family would not suffer. That Edd would leave them alone, that after Noah heals, he wouldn't work for them anymore.

Edd smiled. His dark demeanor intensified as he kept on smiling. It wasn't a normal smile, Phoenix thought. It was a smile for killers, the one she'd seen thousands of times in real crime series.

Phoenix wished she knew what he was thinking about. She wished everything was a dream and that she would wake up the next day drenched in her own sweat in her bed. She wouldn't even mind if the sweat was in her book and tore the book, she really wouldn't mind. But she was about to give up on her happily ever after because of her brother's carelessness. And to someone she had never seen before.

Who knows what his son would be like. If Edd was this way, wouldn't that mean his son would be spoiled, entitled, unkind and one of those guys she'd sworn she would never even give a chance to. And now, she was about to be married to one.

And at that moment, she was completely drenched under the rain. But the next day, she sat in her room with gray walls that filled her consciousness with sorrow, unpacking her bags and filling the room with all memories of home.

If at all she didn't feel comfortable here, she could leave. But then everyone around her would be really suffering. Deep down, a part of her blamed Noah. She forgave him of course but...even he couldn't outdo the sacrifice she just made.

He is an actual human being and is not imaginary, isn't he?

Phoenix asked herself repeatedly since she arrived a week ago. There was no wedding ceremony, just a small gathering of legal practitioners so she could sign the contract of becoming his wife.

To her knowledge, he'd already signed it. And all she saw was his name; Lorenzo Jeremiah Salvador.

She was allowed to study for her exams and do whatever she liked, allowed to stroll the manor grounds and the garden, and allowed to tour the manor.

But not all of it.

She was allowed access to her floor which is the third floor, the second floor, first floor and the ground floor. But she was not to go near the last floor. She was restricted from the fourth quarter east wing of the manor, she wasn't allowed to speak to the maids, wasn't allowed to stroll or even leave the house on her own.

She had a husband, all she knows, on paper for sure but not really. She had asked the attendants of the manor if he was unkind or ugly or shy but they all said nothing.

Her new life, she thought, was a bore.

***

With another sigh, Phoenix stopped walking. The men a few feet from her rushed towards her like she'd been broken into pieces.

"Are you alright Miss Salvador?" One asked with his face awfully close to her.

She stepped back. "Yes. Yes I am." She looked at them, dressed in all black like gentlemen. Her thoughts pondered on why.

She could walk through that gate and baggy tees with jeans would make absolute sense but in here, in here was like a jump through the time machine.

She has asked about it of course to the head attendant whom she was only allowed to speak to and he had told her that the Lord of the Manor; Edd Alessandro Salvador, was keen on keeping everything formal, classical, historic and traditional. Although his origin of Italy spoke through his accent, he preferred the embodiment of the British and wanted it suited that way of course.

In his own words, "The world should never have advanced except for guns."

She was free to wear her baggy tees and jeans. But she was also newlywed, wanting to respect the order of the Manor, wanting to please her husband.

"Can I ask you something?" The two guards gave away their nods and she continued. "Can you tell me about Lorenzo Salvador?"

She noticed they pulled back, slightly fumbling in their steps and unable to respond.

She frowned. "Is he really that much of a scarce topic?! How shall I not know my own husband?!"

She sighed frustratingly again, she was even starting to speak like the attendants of the Manor. The guard who had asked her if she was all right suddenly spoke.

"Ma'am, if you would like...let us ask the kitchen staff to make you a most enjoyable meal for the noon."

Phoenix gave up, storming away with talks of ''ugh' and how everything about the walls beyond Sherwood Forest would lead to her doom.

***

It was one day after the other you see, the need for survival was intense and it was slowly chipping away every bit of sanity Phoenix had.

As her exams were the next day and she would most probably get to work with the local police, she wondered if she would leave the house with guards to her place of work without being questioned, she wondered if she had to wear a flowery gown to work and then change to her jeans and top, if she was going to have to speak all western and then cenare da solo when she returns home.

"Niccolo.."

She sort of liked Niccolo. He was tall, nice enough to explain things to her with kindness. The highest ranking attendant of the Manor whom she could speak with only.

Niccolo turned, a fresh late sixties looking man with Gray hair to show his honour of old age. He smiled warmly at Phoenix.

"Anything I can help with Miss Salvador?"

"Niccolo, I wanted to ask... I'm having my forensics exams tomorrow, I surely can't trouble the guards in following me."

"I'm afraid orders have been given out Miss Salvador and I am in no position to say otherwise."

"It's not like I'm running away Niccolo..."

"I am sorry Miss Salvador but these orders have been placed to keep you safe except..."

Phoenix, thrilled to hear what could contradict the awful lot she's been hearing cut in. "Except what?"

"Except your husband grants you his permission. For then if anything happens to you, he will bear the cross."

Her thrilled aura decreased. "My husband?, You mean Lorenzo whom I haven't seen since I got here."

"Patience Miss Salvador. I cannot speak ill of my superiors but I will tell you this; your husband is very much the kindest Salvador I have ever seen."

"Well.." Phoenix ticked her tongue against her teeth. "I don't know, guess we'd see."

But as Phoenix walked towards her room, she felt relieved with what Niccolo had said. Yet, it did not put an end to the fact that she was going to be dismissed from participating in the exams tomorrow because of some orders.

She had sacrificed her happily ever after but she was not going to sacrifice her dream.

So before dawn the next day, Phoenix had already gotten dressed, her jeans clung to her hips but let loose on her thighs all the way to her feet and her small top highlighted the curves of her breasts, threatening to spill them out of their confinement. Her lofah shoes were well cleaned, black and shiny.

Her plan? She'd sneak past the guards and find her way to the gate, bribe the guard at the gate and walk away freely.

She walked out of her room, proceeding to close the door when she heard the low stern voice of a passerby.

"I thought newly wed wives sat around lazily all day in the house...."

With a sharp gasp, Phoenix turned to meet the gaze of the passerby. His bronze hair was slicked back on the left and wavy on the right, his jaw, well defined and his body which walked brooding like towards her was a case 143.

"But not you I see..." He cornered her, making her press her back against her door. She met his eyes and he met hers. His was a shine of bright blue, like the skies.

"You're sharp on your feet.." his words pulled her thoughts back to this very moment. This moment where his gaze upon her very face made her hot and heavy, feeling numb in the head and knees. "Wife" he completed.

Phoenix's gaze softened, her hands reaching to touch his face and when it did, her thumb gilded softly from the corner of his lips to his cheek. For a moment, his features softened, a questionable look on his face and then a shocking one when she spoke.

"Jeremiah?"