The Mafia's Princess

Chapter 1

FUCK! I tried to turn around to look but the Wind bit at my face and slapped my hair into my eyes; I was effectively blind. How exactly was I supposed to lose my shadows, if I couldn't see shit behind me?

The street was busy with people all trying to hustle and fight their way through the city while trying to escape the bitter ice laced wind that seemed to always accompany the late PNW Fall.

I knew I was being followed because I was always being followed. The family called them shadows and they were the little one's bodyguards until the age of 18. I called them the stooges in black and other varying less than polite terms, much to my family's dismay. Everyone lost their shadows at 18; Everyone except me. I told people the reason I still had my shadows was that I was the firstborn daughter, granddaughter, and niece of the Kage family; of course, I still had my shadows! The real reason was that this was my punishment for all the havoc I had caused when I was younger. I was sentenced to have my shadows until 2 years after my crime.

I chanced another glance over my shoulder. If I looked too many times my shadows would close ranks thinking I was about to run; (rightfully so)you know, My usual cues. My eyes watered in response to trying to look through the freezing wind but I found my target. There he was, about 15 feet back, fighting the wind but he didn't seem to be struggling quite as badly as I was in fact  he seemed to be actively gaining. Damn, He'd figured it out and since I had been actively low key trying to loose him for the last half hour, he probably had good reason to be trying to catch me. There was an upcoming street that I knew had an alley I could cut through immediately after the turn.

A perfect place to lose my stooge.

I dashed through a group of bundled tourists and flounced through the middle of a family to make that first right turn and as fast as I could, I ran up the street to that immediate alley and ducked inside. My heart felt like it was about to beat out of my chest as I leaned against the wall to catch my breath from the adrenaline rush that running from my shadows always gave me. Chuckling to myself, I started to focus on my surroundings, and only then did I notice that the alley I had ducked into was a dead end. FUCK! I'd been wrong not just wrong but seriously wrong. I was now trapped. DOUBLE FUCK! My foot hit the ground in frustration as I spun on my heel. I had to leave right now. The panic and the time constraints of the situation began to sink in only to find my personal Man in black leaning casually across the alleyway entrance with a smirk on his face; Knowing he'd caught me. Knowing he won. His smugness pissed me off and made me want to kick his teeth down his throat.

I ground my teeth.

"Hey Sergei, Fancy seeing you here. I didn't know Satan let his hell hounds out on Saturdays" I smiled sweetly at him.

"Sergei isn't even close to James. You couldn't be more creative, Penelope? Why make us catch you? Why do you not just accept the shadows? We did not ask for it to be our job. We do not want to fight with you constantly" the Stooge said.

I rolled my eyes and his narrowed.

He tsk'ed me.
"You keep rolling your eyes so freely, you're going to roll them at the wrong person." His voice softened "You remember the punishment the last person received for that, don't you?"

I really didn't mind my shadows when I was in a good mood, but god damn it! Let me be mad! Yes, of course, I remembered what happened to the last person who rolled their eyes at the wrong moment! How could I forget? They lost them!! They sat floating on a shelf in my Aunt Julies office as a permanent reminder.

I sighed.

"Yes, James, I remember what happened." I half whispered.

"Good, I've already called the car. Your Mother has requested your presence." Seeing my look, he added "don't do it. So help me If you make me come get you; I promise that I will enjoy it and you will not" he growled.