Chapter 2

Marcus

I wait for Mia inside the car. He has a plan for us to spend the afternoon, he has not wanted to tell me anything so I resign myself to what he has prepared.

- Hello dear - say hello by opening the door and sitting next to me.

She is wearing a white chiffon dress. Her red hair stands out even more and her huge green eyes look at me with amusement.

- How is the most beautiful girl? - I ask without letting him answer. I put a sweet kiss on her lips.

- Well, I don't know, you'll have to ask her.

A smile escapes me with his reply. Mia is one of the few people who have a wit that makes me laugh and that is difficult, because as a general rule I am serious and cold and if someone dared to speak to me like she does, I would kill him without blinking, but she does not know who I am dark and deadly.

- Are you going to tell me where you are taking me? - Asked with a false tone of anger.

A giggle echoes through the car. He is amused by my insistence, so I am too.

- Of course not. You have to be pacient.

He drives giving me funny looks from time to time. My phone rings. Dante's name is highlighted on the screen. Fuck! He knows that when I am with Mia they should not bother me unless it is something of life and death. If for any reason Mia found out about my real intentions or that I'm cheating on her, the whole plan would go to hell.

- Tell me - I answer curtly.

At that moment Mía looks at me with a frown. I suppose my change in personality has shocked him, but I can't speak like a teenage boy in love; first because I left adolescence long ago and second because love is for dependent assholes.

- Sir, the Martinez brothers have come to see you.

Two shit dealers come to see me without warning and without making a fucking date and to top it off they expect me to be available to them. They certainly do not know who they are talking to or to what extent they are playing their neck.

- Tell them to make a fucking date if they want to see me and not to show up again for good if they know what's good for them.

I hang up the phone. I have nothing more to say.

I take my cell phone away from my grumpy ear. All the drugs go through my hands. I decide who, when and how and I'm the fucking God of this city. Three-to-four junkies piss me off.

Soft fingers caress my hand.

- Are you okay? - He asks with his angelic voice.

- I'll be fine when you tell me what you have prepared.

By magic my fury disappears and I refocus on her and whatever she has in store.

- Nice try, but it didn't work.

Park your car in front of the mall. I turn my face towards her with doubt drawn on my face.

- Come on Marcus, you're going to like it - It cheers me up.

I hate shopping centers, how is it possible that I like the surprise if it is inside one of them? Anyway, I have to play the part that I love everything he does, so I end with a mischievous smile before shaking hands and walking through the great doors that open for us.

We go down a couple of floors, leaving the shops and restaurants behind us. Now I am really intrigued.

What if he found out and his thugs are waiting somewhere for me? I twist my neck back slightly, instantly calming down. My men are closely following us.

Mia would never recognize the guards who follow me everywhere because they dress like normal people, one of them even carries a bag from one of the stores to hide it. If she has prepared something she may be left for dead before she achieves her goal.

He stands in front of a bully photo with a big smile and eyes shining, expectant of my relationship.

- How about? - He moves the curtain to one side to show me the small space in which there is only a small and hard seat - we do not have any photos together, please ... - asks pouting.

It could be worse than taking some ridiculous photos.

I enter with a slight denial. My men must think I'm crazy. Not in my best time have I done this.

If I doubt it, Mía sits on my lap, puts an arm behind my shoulders and just before the Camera beeps, she sticks her tongue out and taunts me.

The photo appears on the screen. She is gorgeous and I am as serious as ever.

- Marcus, these are supposed to be funny photos. Look at you - points to the screen.

- Come on, give it back - cheer up. If doing nonsense makes you happy, I will do nonsense.

The beep sounds again. I ruffle her without contemplation, she opens her mouth in surprise and I burst out laughing. The photo reappears on the screen.

- You see? I can be a lot of fun.

- Love it! Thanks Marcus. I love you - he whispers giving me a kiss and being recorded in another photograph.

I jump out of bed like I'm burning. My face is drenched in sweat and my heart is racing without contemplation inside my chest. Instinctively, I place my hand on him. It was a fucking nightmare. No, no, it was a memory that I thought was forgotten.

Mía is gone, she died because of me. I get out of bed and stride my way to the small cabinet in the hall where my wallet and car keys are. I open it and take out the photograph where it is disheveled and I am laughing. Unexpectedly, I was happy by his side.

The funeral was yesterday. After three weeks of searching the body did not appear. Mía's small and tiny body is sure to have been lost forever in the depths of the sea.

His family was supposed to prepare a burial in style and be buried in the family pantheon, but it was not. His father put a small tombstone in the cemetery with his name, no surname, and the date of birth and death. Yesterday when I found out I prepared everything. Although her body is gone, she will be remembered as she deserves.

As soon as dawn breaks my men will go destroy the shitty tombstone your father bought and a new big shiny one will be placed in my family vault. My men think that I have gone mad, and that does not matter to me as long as they do not believe that that implies that I have become weak, because I am more lethal than ever. My heart is gone. Nothing and nobody matters to me, they do well to assume that everyone is expendable.

My heart reacted late. When Mia was resting peacefully in another world, I realized that in the middle of all my trickery it was she who deceived me, and turned my lie into real feelings. Now I know that I love her and that I will never see her again. I look at my reflection in the large metal mirror at the entrance. I never cared about being a bad person, until now. I smash my fist against him and break him into a thousand little pieces. I don't want to see my reflection.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Far away from that destroyed man, a thousand three hundred kilometers away, a girl with a black wig and sad green eyes, drinks a scotch in any bar in Syracuse. He raises the glass and says softly.

- Father, brother, Marcus, get screwed.