CHAPTER 2: CHAOS AND CAPTIVITY

Cassandra POV

All I could hear was yelling and gunfire.

"Get down!" I heard the tall stranger scream, and I quickly did as I was told.

When my brain started to catch up to what was going on I started to panic.

All I could think about was where the hell were Leo and Amira.

"Hurry, get up," he said to me, giving me his hand,

I reached out and took it, and he pulled me to the standing position.

As I looked around all I could see were dead bodies.

My mouth gaped in shock, and I fell unconscious, a hard tugging at my hand.

When I didn't move from these persistent tugs, I felt myself being thrown over someone's shoulder.

At this point, I was in complete shock; I had no idea what was going on around me.

What knocked me out of my daze was being put into the back seat of a car.

There were five men in the car with me, and they were speaking fast Italian.

"What the fuck happened?" the tall stranger said as he quickly sped away from the gala.

"I have no idea! It has something to do with French and Spanish!"

"Wait, Pablo who the fuck is this?" said one of the men.

I soon felt all eyes on me and my cheeks started to heat at this newfound attention.

"I'm not sure."

"I found her at the bar all alone during the shootout," Pablo said.

"Why didn't you just leave her?"

"What were you thinking!" The man sitting next to Pablo said, "I don't know..." Pablo stammered.

"Well, what's your name, baby?" said one of the men sitting next to me.

"Umm— Cassa-dra." I managed to say.

"Your full name." Pablo barked.

"Cassandra Gonzalez," I said with much more confidence this time.

"Well Cassandra, I'm Nick. And these are my older brothers Ricky, Mario, and that douche bag Pablo."

I could see Pablo rolling his eyes at his brother's obnoxious comment.

"Then the one sitting next to Pablo, that's Andrea." He finished off with a big grin on his face.

I could just tell by the way he talked that he was the least serious out of all of them.

All the other faces were made of stone, which made them extra intimidating.

After a couple of brief moments in silence, we pulled up into a large estate.

This estate was at least three times larger than my father's.

As the SUV came to a complete stop all the men started to jump out of the car.

Pablo looked behind him and said, "Take her to one of the guest rooms."

I saw Nick nod his head as he took my hand.

"Come on, Cassandra, follow me," he said plainly,

After Nick had dragged me through the large mansion, he opened a bedroom door for me.

"I'll be down soon to see if you need anything," he said with a short smile.

"Okay, thanks, Nick," I said, trying to smile.

He gave me one last smile before he left the room locking the door behind him.

What the hell am I going to do now?!

Pretty much from what I have gathered, I am stuck inside another mafia family's house, and I'm pretty sure they are Italian.

I soon started to panic.

How is my father going to find me?

How is anyone going to find me?

And what about my brother and sister, who disappeared in the middle of the party!

My mind was running wild and I became almost frantic.

I looked around the room, looking for something to distract myself with.

As I started to walk deeper into the bedroom, I noticed a balcony.

I found comfort in the stars and the slight breeze that flew through my hair.

After a while, I grew cold and decided that it was time to head inside.

Since it was obvious that I was going to be here for the night, I might as well get myself comfortable.

Walking back into the bedroom and into the connected bathroom.

The bathroom was just as fancy as the rest of the house.

It had marble floors and countertops, with a spacious shower.

Closing the bathroom door behind me, I started to undress,Once I finished, I slipped into the shower, allowing the hot water to soothe my muscles.

This is the first time since the whole ordeal that I finally felt relaxed.

After a couple of moments, I reached over to the soap rack and took the purple bottle of shampoo I poured a generous amount into my hand before lathering it through my hair.

Once I rinsed all the remaining soap out of my hair, I reached for the conditioner bottle repeating my previous movements.

Once I finished up in the shower, I stepped out and wrapped a gigantic towel around myself.

I walked over to the mirror and wiped away some of the condensation so I could see myself.

I looked unrecognizable.

I had dark circles under my eyes, and I'm sure my leftover mascara wasn't doing me any favors.

Sighing to myself, I turned around and walked out of the bathroom.

When I got into the bedroom, Nick was sitting there with a bottle of water in his hand.

"Geez! Couldn't you have waited until I had put my clothes back on!" I yelled at him.

Thank God I kept my towel on, because this would have been ten times more awkward if I hadn't.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable," he said as his eyes lingered on my legs a little

longer than I would have liked.

"Well, are you going to leave, so I can get dressed?" I said exasperatedly.

"Oh yeah, I just wanted to bring you water," he said with a small smile.

"Thanks," I said as I reached out to grab the bottle.

"Oh and just so you know, there are clothes in that dresser," he said while pointing at the small dresser at my right.

"Thanks for letting me know," I said. "Good night, Nick."

"Yeah, no problem, good night, Cassandra," he said as he exited the room and locked it.

As soon as I heard the door lock, I went over to the dresser and pulled out a white T-shirt and grey sweatpants, I held the clothes up against my body and gawked at how large they were.

After dropping my towel, I pulled the shirt over my head and pulled the sweatpants up to my waist.

I rolled the elastic band up three times, in an effort to make them stay up.

I then walked over to the bed and pulled the covers up to cover my body.

I sank into the mattress, and for the first time all night, I cried.

I cried for my brother and sister since I had no idea where they were or even if they were alive.

I cried for my mother and father since I knew they were probably sick with worry.

Lastly, I cried for myself.

I had no idea where I was or what was going to happen to me.

Was I ever going to see my family again? Am I even safe here?

The more I thought, the deeper my sobs got.

I placed my hands over my mouth in an effort to dampen the noise.