Zara had never felt so alone in her life before. Sure, when she had found out that her parents had died in a car crash, she truly felt like she had no one in this world that she could call her own. But even then, she had her aunt with her.

Now? She was surrounded completely by testosterone and she was a captive.

She walked out of the dining room and went in search of the man, wanting to know his name so that she could stop calling him an idiot inside her mind. But every corner that she turned, she seemed to face the guards. Some wore casual clothing, some wore suits but all of them carried weapons. 

And so, seeing no other way, she retraced the steps that Marvin had done and went into the room where she woke up. She started to pace it, wanting to talk to the man about what was going on. Maybe she shouldn't have thrown water at him the second time.

After gathering her thoughts together about how she would deal with the situation, she opened the doors and almost stormed out, if it wasn't for Marvin waiting right outside. "I can't let you leave the room."

"I'll go wherever I please."

"Then I will lose my job."

"Then I will scream at the top of my voice. You might as well let me pass now."

The old man considered his situation. He could betray his employer's wishes by helping the young lady out. It wouldn't have mattered even if she had screamed, but he did not want her to feel uncomfortable in the manor than she already was. Marvin gave her way and pointed to the right end of the hallway. 

"No," said Zara. "I want to meet him."

The butler nodded and led the way once again. It was highly sad that his position in the job had been downlighted so much to provide directions for someone. If it were up to him, he would love to have accompanied the rest of the guards in operations, but he was stuck with the young lady.

"How long have you been working here?"

He was surprised at that question, but from what the master had told him about her, it seemed right that she would want answers about what was going on. Unfortunately, he couldn't be the one to give them to her. "Since before the young master was born."

Zara's eyebrows shot up and was glad that the butler couldn't see her surprise. She followed him silently, this time armed with the butter knife that she had taken from the dining table. She needed something to help her in any potential fight.

Marvin stopped at a room at the end of the hallway on the first floor and knocked on the door. He walked inside and there was complete silence surrounding Zara. She wanted to tap her foot on the ground, her impatience taking over her, but the house was eerily silent. There seemed to be ghosts haunting the hallways, making her not want her presence to be known.

After what only seemed like half an hour, but was actually only a minute or so, Marvin opened the door and left it open, indicating that she could walk inside. But as she did so, she noticed the glass of water that Marvin held in his hand. Zara hid her smile well as she faced the man sitting at a study table in front of a laptop that was now closed. "I demand answers," she said as he opened his mouth to talk. "And I'm not leaving this room until I get them. I want to know why I'm being held captive here against my wishes and what you could possibly want with a normal person like myself. I haven't done anything wrong. I haven't even been given a ticket for fasting!" She realised that she was rambling and stopped herself right there. "Answers. Now."

The man leant back in his seat and gestured for to sit in the chair opposite his work desk. Several papers were scattered around and he closed his pen as she took a seat. "How well do you know of the Ferrara gang?"

That was it.

Two words and Zara's breath caught in her chest.

"F-Ferrara gang." Who didn't know them should have been the question. "Arms dealers. Illegal immigration. Own restaurants." She spoke the key points from one of the assignments that she had submitted for mid-term. If someone had told her that it was going to bite her back, she would have never taken that topic.

"You've been paying attention to your college classes."

"College....wait a second. How do you know-" She connected the two dots together. She was in a mansion somewhere in New York City. A secluded location. Several bodyguards with weapons themselves. A mysterious hunk that refused to talk who spoke about the Ferraras with poison in his voice. "You're...." She stood up immediately and took a few steps backwards from the table, away from the man. "What does the Cardena gang want with me? I have never written anything about you, if that's why I'm here. My papers have been about the mafia in general and not about you and/or anyone that you know and-"

The man chuckled. "You don't have to be so scared. I'm not going to shoot you." He spoke so casually that she wondered if he knew how to be human or not. "And you can let go of the butter knife. It's not going to be of much help." Zara gaped at him but pulled out the knife out of her pocket. She set it on the counter over the fireplace, far far away from him, which made the man smile. "I'm not going to hurt you," he repeated.

"Thanks. But I like having precautions." She walked reluctantly to the chair and sat down once again, pulling the chair back and waiting for him to continue talking. 

"As you already know, our rival gang, the Ferraras....they have been trying to take over the Council seat ever since the war happened."

Zara knew about the war. The Ferraras and the Cardenas - the two wolves of the mafia - had finally let their differences be known where both the leaders killed each other in the fight that took place, but their empires would always rise because they had entrusted it to the right people.

But the man that sat before her was too young to hold an empire by himself. He was only her age. He could have barely been out of college himself. "Now, we don't want that to happen because a seat at the Council will give them the ultimate access to....well, let's just say, to everything." He gathered the papers on the table together. "And now, they want you."

"What?" She spoke immediately. "Why? Have I done something to get in their way? Or yours?"

He shook his head. "Maybe it was your college paper." He shrugged, but his voice indicated that it wasn't. He was teasing her interest in their lives. "The three men that came after you last night are a part of the Ferraras. At least that's what they are saying."

"But-"

"You've gotten your answer." She opened her mouth to argue. "For now. I need you to cooperate because as much as you don't want to believe it, I'm only trying to keep you safe."

She scoffed. "Yeah right! Says the leader of the worst crime family gang in the city!" The second those words were out of her mouth, she regretted having placed the butter knife so far from her.

She expected the man to get angry but he simply smiled, but there was no happiness in it. There was a hidden sorrow behind all the harshness that he was trying to embody. "Welcome to the house of the worst crime family then."

She kept shaking her head. "You have to let me go. My aunt....she is all alone. If my life is in danger, so is hers."

That caught his attention.

The man leant forward in his seat. "Your aunt?"

Her eyebrows furrowed together. "If you know all the basic details about me already, shouldn't you know that I live with my aunt?"

The man held her gaze and nodded. "I did know it," he said. "Your aunt has left town. She is not in the house."

Zara glared at him. "You've been inside my house?" Her aunt was out of town? That was a relief. Maybe she was taking one of those painting lessons that she always talked about.

"Someone had to get your belongings."

"My....belongings." She opened her mouth, wanting to give a comeback but closed it. She was having a hard time processing what was going on. "Exactly how long do you intend to keep me safe for?"

He smiled once again. "As long as it takes."

Zara was practically pushed out of the room by Marvin when the man got a call on the vintage landline on the desk. Or as the butler liked to call it - escorted. "I need to go to the bar. I need to get my things from there and-"

"I will send someone there. I'm assuming that you need your phone."

"Can you please tell me what's going on? That guy in there gives me more questions than answers. It's so frustrating!" She said, knowing when it was safe, which was when she was out of earshot from the room and there were no bodyguards around. She had a feeling that she could trust Marvin but even if he was a tattle tale, she did not care. The leader of the Cardenas needed to know how she felt.

She mentally slammed her head. She had forgotten to ask for his name.

She added it to the second slot of her bucket list.

The first was to find a way to escape.

Marvin had to admit that the young lady had a fierce personality. "All will be revealed, Miss Medina. In time."

In time it was to be, indeed.