Guns & Roses
Prologue

Tatiana

Running. I was never a fan of running, yet I always replace myself in situations like this. With every step I took, the harder it was to breathe, and being shot at on the leg wasn’t helping my case at all.

Panting hard, I crouched down beside a moldy wall inside an abandoned building. Shit. I only have one bullet left. Gunshots and shouting were heard from the distance. This is not how I planned this day to go. But then again, my day to day routine was far from normal, who was I to complain?

Getting up as gracefully as I can with a bullet inside my leg, I searched for the guy who was behind all of this chaos. Walking silently, I trudged forward looking for any signs of the devil.

Before I took another step, I heard a footstep from behind me. Being trained the way I was made your reflexes the way it is now. Turning around, I shifted into full fighting position and cocked my gun towards the culprit’s face, the devil himself, Arturo Mortelli.

Arturo is one of the most dangerous men in the entire continent. A ruthless Italian mafia boss who’s the epitome of craziness. Despite his obviously good looks, this guy was plain bonkers. His gang has been on the agency’s radar for a long time, and as hard as it is for me to admit, he’s someone you can’t take down just easily.

“Uh uh uh tesoro, if I were you, I wouldn’t point the gun at me” Arturo said with a smirk.

Unfazed by his looks and obviously fake sweet endearments, I faced him with a hard glare.

“Aw, the cuciola is trying to look brave, how cute. Well you see, this place is wired with explosives and one wrong move... Boom!" he said as he gestured it with wild hands.

“Give it up Arturo, I’m the one with the gun so I suggest you shut the hell up”

His smirk only widened and the smugness radiating of off him is infuriating!

“You know, the offer still stands, tesoro, join me and I’ll never bother the agency again”

Ever since I started to train, many instructors back at the agency took notice of my potential. I was great with guns and more so, one-on-one combat. But my true love still remains with sniper guns. I was the best sniper from our batch, and every mission was done swiftly and without fail. For that reason, many have tried to recruit me for their personal agendas, one of them, was Arturo himself.

I snorted, and something twitched within Arturo’s face. Disrespecting him was a huge blow to his already enormous ego, and denying him with what he wants, I may as well have a death wish.

“I’ll never work nor join your gang Arturo”

“Hmmm, so it’s okay if I just blow this whole place up, no? killing each and every one of your team” he smiled with an evil glint in his eyes

As I have said, totally crazy. When he pulled something out of his coat’s pocket, my eyes widened, a small tube like device with a seemingly obvious red button. He wasn’t bluffing after all. As he pressed the button, loud beeping started to be heard all over the place. I have no choice, I need to leave.

“This isn’t over Arturo” I said, as I ran towards my team’s location, hearing a faint reply from him.

“Certainly not, tesoro"

Shit. Shit. Shit. I have roughly 20 seconds before this whole place blows. Running upstairs towards the building’s rooftop, I mentally count down my time. 10 seconds.

As I reached the rooftop, I saw my team’s helicopter in the air with a rope ladder dangling from it. Running towards it, my heart was beating so loud, I have to make it.

5...4...3...2... when I was about to jump, the beeping sounds grew louder as if signaling its impending explosion, 1...