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Vacillating, I grabbed his arm and watched him wield the gun, playing his role. However, the way he held me made me think that I wasn't so sure of what I intended. And as soon as the door opened with slamming hinges, and the group stood around me, I realized that if for the Mafia I was the debt paid, for Zachary it was an exception that would not be given.

God help us, I prayed, we will not leave here alive. Not together.

The smell of ammonia received us in a smoking breath, whose odor penetrated deep into our noses. Our escape route was summed up in an extensive dimly lit and vaporous basement, where machines worked at full speed below the dark iron stairs that crossed and surrounded the clandestine laboratory.

The sound of our steps was lost in the confusion of pressurization and packaging sliding through metal slides, so that the men who talked next to the machines were not able to perceive our presence.

The precarious lighting arose by small lights fixed on the black walls, shinin