The Mafioso´s Bodyguard

-Clara, it's late, let's go home please," protested Micaela, Clara's best friend.

The young girl leaned her forehead on the desk with frustration, waiting for her friend to deign to put the books away and leave together.

-I'm almost finished..." exclaimed the natural brunette with long curls and a honey-colored gaze, who was focused on her practical work for the first aid course of her medical career.

Micaela rolled her eyes and fiddled with her phone, knowing that her old friend's "I'm almost done" was a complete lie.

Everyone in medical school knew that Clara was a bookworm, the nerdiest of them all, at the top of her class.

She turned in assignments on time and never missed a class, no matter how exhausted she was.

Micaela looked at her friend out of the corner of her eye with admiration.

The young woman knew that if her friend was working hard to get the best grade of the course, it was because she really needed it.

You didn't have to be very astute for someone to realize that Clara Herrera was a humble, low-income young woman.

The brunette was wearing the same old gray sweatshirt that had once been black. She had given it to herself for her 24th birthday, and Clara was now 28 years old.

She knew that her old friend liked baggy things, things that didn't mark her stunning body that Micaela knew she was hiding under that T-shirt three sizes too big and her old sports pants that she had stolen from her uncle.

-Ready!" exclaimed the brunette, closing the book and putting it in her backpack a thousand times over since she couldn't afford to buy a new one. She herself would say it was an unnecessary expense.

-At last!" shrieked Micaela, throwing herself back in her chair in exhaustion.

Clara laughed at her friend's gestures and they both left the room, which had already been empty for some time.

It was late, almost midnight as the two young women walked down a desolate street in the most precarious area of the city.

They both stopped at a lighted corner.

-Are you sure you don't want me to come with you," her friend asked worriedly. From that street on, everything became more dangerous.

During the day it was something else, full of stores and people coming and going, but as soon as the sun went down and the stores closed their doors, the place was desolate, full of lowlifes and alcohol and drug users.

Micaela did not like her friend living there, she had insisted that she live with her. But Clara refused and her friend knew why.

-Don't worry," exclaimed the brunette, who felt bad every time her friend sacrificed herself for her wellbeing, "It's enough that you go so far away to accompany me here.

Micaela hugged her goodbye.

-Anything at all, you call me, you hear me? And if your idiot uncle isn't home, let me know. Is that clear?

-Mica... I'm not a child anymore," protested the chestnut, smiling sideways.

Micaela pouted and turned back the way they had come.

Clara waved her arm in the air until her friend disappeared from her sight.

Once alone, the chestnut sighed heavily, letting exhaustion win out.

"I don't know how much more I'm going to put up with this" She thought walking down the street inside.

Juggling between study, internships, family business and also paying the bills and keeping her uncle out of trouble was nearly impossible.

Clara walked up the uphill street with the last of her strength, feeling her slender but toned legs burning with the effort.

The young woman had always been athletic, but with how little she had eaten all day and with so many hours away from home, there was no body that could withstand so much effort.

The young brunette was so lost in thought, preoccupied with the work she would surely have to do late into the night, that she did not realize she was not alone when she entered her family's small store.

As soon as the little bell on the door rang in the silence of the shop, an agonized groan filled the air.

The brunette raised her honey eyes to the darkness of the counter of the fast food place and stepped back alertly.

-What the fuck?" she exclaimed to the gloom before her.

Suddenly, the light came on, revealing that a burly, scarred man had turned on the light.

Clara stepped back further, bumping into the door.

-Mhhh... Mh....- the agonizing sound was heard again and Clara's now alarmed eyes moved and found her uncle Ricardo on the floor, gagged, bound hand and foot and with several bruises on his face. Behind him, A thin man, but with a dangerous look, who was smiling mockingly at her.

Clara didn't have to ask who those two men were, she knew them perfectly, they were the thugs that the boss of the whole city sent to collect his damn tax just for having a place in his area.

-We had agreed that on Monday I would give them the money! What did they do with my uncle?" she protested full of fury, not afraid of those two idiots who between them didn't have a brain.

The older one laughed, with that stupid laugh characteristic of him, but he let his companion, who was more "Intelligent", speak.

-Oh Clarita, Clarita .... Why do you keep defending this useless rat? - exclaimed the thug, shaking the tied man- You are more than this primor... you know that the offer to join us still stands- he winked provocatively.

Clara felt nauseous that this disgusting man dared to flirt with her.

-Now go away, you've beaten him enough, on Monday you'll get your money. At the weekend I'll finish collecting it, you know very well that on weekdays it's harder to get it- -The bully carelessly let go of the thug.

The thug carelessly dropped the guy on the floor.

-We know that Monday is payday.....

-So, you were just bored and came to ruin my day? she exclaimed in exasperation, "You idiots, get out of here! At that moment the big man grabbed her by the arm angrily, "Let go of me, you big, brainless, big man," shouted the young woman.

-We came to give you a warning, so that there would be no misunderstandings on Monday," he whispered very close to Clara, making the young woman turn her face to the side with disgust because of the thug's stale breath.

-What?" she asked tiredly, feeling that she could no longer stand those two idiots.

It was so late!

She just wanted to sink into her bed, or take a shower, whatever, but not have to deal with this now!

-You know how the country is, things are complicated, so we had to increase the payment," he exclaimed calmly, as if he really was a financial expert.

Clara saw red, feeling anger rising to her head.

-A raise?! You're crazy! Forget it! Tell your boss not to even dream about it!

The man laughed, mocking the woman's outrage.

-You only have two days to get the money together Clarita, I recommend you do it- the thug turned to the gagged man- Unless you want us to kill your uncle as part of the payment.

-They wouldn't dare..." warned the young woman. Her uncle might be a lout, a ludopath, a stone in her shoe, but he was the only family she had left and she could not allow herself to be left alone.

-Let's not take the test and collect the money, Clarita," the man sentenced, passing by her side and pushing hard on her shoulder.

The larger man did the same, causing the young woman to stagger and fall to her knees on the floor.

-See you Monday sweetheart- greeted the thug walking out the door, but not before changing the sign to "Closed".

Clara stayed on all fours against the floor looking at her own hands, tears of rage wetting the floor.

Her uncle's mute protests brought her back to herself and she crawled silently to him, untying him slowly, the last thing she took out was the gag, as if she didn't want to listen to him.

-Clara...- said the man with a hoarse voice- I'm going to get the money, this weekend we're going to get double in sales- he said so sure that the chestnut for a moment believed him.

But that was not true, they barely had enough sales to survive, with this increase they would quickly go bankrupt.

And the last thing she wanted was to lose her parents' business, it was the only thing she had left of theirs.

The chestnut sighed, getting up from the floor, helping her uncle.

-I'm going to try to get a weekend job, anyway, I don't have a faculty those days," she exclaimed, shuffling her feet on the floor.

The uncle didn't protest, if there was one thing he hated it was having to work more than usual, if Clara got the money, then he wouldn't have to work overtime.

---

Clara went into her little room, a makeshift one she had on the mezzanine of the store and sank her face into the pillow thinking about what to do to get the blessed money, just to stretch her agony one more month. Because the thugs came every month for his money.

Her money!

That she had earned with sweat and tears.

-Bloody crooks- she snarled with hatred, if there was one thing she hated in this world, it was lowlifes, people who lived off the efforts of others.

"I can't tell this to Micaela" She thought with anguish.

Her friend had already lent her money many times, she couldn't drag her once again into her misfortunes.

"This time I have to do it on my own" She thought sobbing against her pillow.

---

It hadn't been too difficult for Clara to get a part-time job and a night job to boot, since she helped her uncle with the trade during the day.

The problem was the kind of job she had gotten.

Yes, it was going to give her enough money to pay the raise, but she had to give up her dignity in return.

Clara climbed down from the pipe that was perched on a dais on a small stage of red curtains and sequins in a dive bar in her neighborhood.

An unpleasant place, smelling of tobacco and alcohol, where powerful men came to see a good show and distract themselves from their routine.

The young brunette knew she sucked at dancing and being sensual, but she also knew that her sculpted body counterbalanced her clumsy dancing.

-I'm going to take my half hour break," she exclaimed to her boss, a depraved man who was gold-plated by the efforts of young girls like her.

-I want you dancing on that pole in half an hour," he exclaimed, his voice raspy from so much whiskey.

Clara didn't protest and quickly went out the back door, leaning against the cold and wet wall until she slid on the floor.

-It wouldn't hurt to be addicted to cigarettes at this point- she thought frustrated, feeling full of anxiety about the demeaning job she had gotten- -All for the trade- she said to herself, giving herself miserable encouragement.

"-Come here you fucker!"

Carla sat up suddenly and frightened, turning to where the angry shout was coming from.

At that moment, a burly body much larger than hers crashed into her head-on, sending her stumbling, especially since the silver stiletto heels her boss had given her didn't help much.

They both fell to the ground, her back to the cold, dirty floor, and the mysterious guy on top of her, with each arm on either side of her face, holding himself up so as not to crush with all his weight the young woman who had come out of nowhere and ruined his escape.

It all happened so fast, Clara opened her honey-colored eyes wide as her upturned, small nose brushed closely against the straight nose of the man in front of her.

Clara couldn't remember the last time she had been this close to a man. In fact, she had never been.

She wanted to protest, but the man was quicker and spoke first.

-Help me hide," he commanded, in the deepest, most velvety voice she had ever heard.