TWENTY THREE

Larissa Kimi Cohen woke up in an empty warehouse.

Her head was throbbing like crazy, a headache rippling through her skull as she was forced to squint, since the dark warehouse was lacking light making it impossible for her to see anything.

Her surroundings were dead silent, not a sound around her or in the distance signalling that nobody was around.

She forced her small body to move, her foot making contact with something which she soon realised was her bag, which hopefully still held her phone.

Her hands were tied together with rope, which was tied to the wall so that she couldn't reach for her bag with her hands, but, if she took her time, then maybe she would be able to hopefully move her bag closer to her, with her feet.

She grunted as she stretched her legs out, feeling the strap of her bag wrap around her foot, which allowed her to slowly bring her leg back towards her body, until she was able to grab the bag with her hands and open it.

Her phone wasn't there.

She squinted once more as she took in the dark surroundings around her, before a light bulb seemed to go off in her head.

Her hands reached back in to her bag and pulled out a very small makeup bag, which when opened, revealed the silver metal of a nail file, which were engraved with her father's initials, since it used to belong to him.

Her small hand clasped around them as she began to slowly cut through the rope that bound her wrists together, and whilst incredibly slow, they were doing the job.

Within thirty minutes, her hands were free of their bounds, allowing her to push herself slowly up to her feet, finding herself swaying slightly from what she presumed was a dose of something to keep her in the state of unconsciousness until they arrived at the warehouse.

She slowly stepped her way towards an exit, her back flat against the wall to ensure that her grandfather could not sneak up on her from behind.

It wasn't the first time that she had been kidnapped in her life, because since she was the daughter of a rich Formula One driver, people saw her as an easy way to make money and so she had previously been taken from outside her school as a ransom for her father.

Her father immediately paid the money for the seven year old to be released, but discovered that her kidnappers had lost the child since she was clever enough to make her escape on to the streets of São Paulo.

That was the reason that had Luiz decided to home school her, since he didn't trust the streets of São Paulo to keep his precious little girl safe once more from the big bad men that hid within the shadows.

She had quickly realised that she was in her grandfathers warehouse where he stored his plane, since she was able to spot the silhouette of the plane through the darkness.

Her grandfather's footsteps were heard in the distance, in the direction that she had come from, making her even more on edge.

She was not dying here, alone.

She hurried her way silently through the warehouse, until she made it to the man's office, finding her phone laying next to a computer screen that held the picture of multiple surveillance cameras.

She knew the way out, but she couldn't make it without alerting him to her location and potentially allowing him to recapture her, so she had no idea what to do.

"Well, well, well."

Larissa's body froze in its place at his voice sounding from directly behind her.

"Clever little girl you are, aren't you?"

It was still pitch black, but she knew just by the closeness of his voice just how far behind her he was.

Her hands slipped her phone in to her trouser waist band, since her trousers annoyingly didn't have pockets, and clasped tightly around an object that she had previously known the placement of since she had been in the office of the warehouse previously.

"Fuck you!"

She grunted as she twisted her body around to hit her grandfather around the head with a fire extinguisher, knocking him to the ground and allowing her important time to run for her life, to avoid meeting the same end that her father did.

Her small feet pounded on the ground as she ran, her body barrelling through the exit door with force, before she continued to run, following the route that she had previously taken when she was last here, to hopefully escape his murderous clutches.

She leapt at the metal gate that was in front of her, and rapidly began to climb over it as she could hear her grandfather's car approaching as he gave chase.

As soon as her feet touched down on the opposite side of the gate, she took of running once more, silently thanking her trainer, Lucy, for helping build her stamina up enough that it could potentially save her life.

Her grandfather's headlights from his car were approaching her quickly from behind, as she ran, but she knew that no matter how quick she ran, that she would be caught and recaptured by her grandfather.

She took a sharp turn to the right, running in to woodland area, which thankfully was not suitable for a car, meaning that her grandfather would have to chase her on foot, giving the young girl the advantage due to her youth.

André chased her down on foot, armed with a shovel, and he was livid at how she was able to get the better of him and escape, since he knew that if the world believed her, that he would spend the rest of his life rotting in a prison cell that he did not deserve.

What he didn't count on either, was her running far enough ahead to make it on to a main road and stumbling in to the middle of the road, where a car abruptly pulled in front of her, coming to a halt.

"Get in, now!"

Kimi Raikonnen yelled at his niece, who definitely did not need to be told twice, with her body throwing herself in to the passenger seat and allowing her godfather and uncle to put his foot hard on the gas pedal, flooring the car, away from the man who had murdered her father.

As soon as they were safely away and back in familiar surroundings, Kimi halted the car to turn to his niece and goddaughter, taking in the messy state that she was in.

Her hair was matted and bloodied, sprawling everywhere with bits of leaves and twigs and sticks in it from her desperate run in the woods.

Her face was pale, scratched and bloodied, her under eyes were prominently purple and her cheeks were wet from her tears.

Her body was battered and bruised, cuts and scrapes littered her skin as payment for her escape, and her chest was rapidly rising and falling from her heavy and frantic breathing.

"Who did this to you?" Kimi breathed out in worry for his little girl.

"Vovô." She hiccuped out as she attempted to calm her terrified breathing down.

"What? Why would he do this to you? Where is he? I'm going to kill him!" Kimi sneered at the knowledge that his little girl suffered at the hands of her own grandpa.

"He-he- he killed... he killed papa." Larissa began to break down as the words left her lips, tears flowing down her cheeks like a waterfall.

Kimi felt a lump form in his throat at the knowledge that his best friend was in fact murdered. He remembered desperately trying to put the flames out on his best friends car, hearing the man's desperate screams of agony.

He failed to save his best friend because of the man's father in law murdering him and he didn't even know. He still had nightmares of that day, his best friends screams and the smell of his burning flesh.

He was so close to reaching him, so close.

His best friend, his brother, had reached his hand out to him, and his fingers had grazed the Brazilians, just as the car exploded, killing him instantly.

"He- he killed Luiz?" Kimi's voice broke at the words that he never thought that he would say.

"He knew about the brakes, he sent him out and ignored dad's warning about not having any breaks." Larissa cried.

Kimi barrelled in to his niece, hugging her as tightly as he could to hopefully offer her some comfort.

"How- how did you find me?"

"Yuki told Anthoine that you didn't meet him when you were supposed to. Anthoine found your car and noticed your keys in the door, so he contacted me as I was talking to Toto, telling me that something was wrong and that you were missing." Kimi explained.

"I traced your phone, and Toto said that he recognised the location. I knew something was wrong so I came straight here."

"Aarre, it's going to be okay. You're going to be okay."

"You're safe now."

____________________________________________________

"Papouille, oh my god."

Anthoine Hubert ran in to his best friend, pulling her tight against his chest as he ran his fingers soothingly through her matted dark brown hair.

"I didn't want to be right." Anthoine's voice broke as he spoke, seeing and feeling the tears flooding down her cheeks like a river.

He had never expected Yuki to call him asking him if he had heard from the Brazilian, and upon tracing her car to a car park and finding the keys in the door, he knew.

He knew that it could only mean that she was in danger, the feeling in his gut making him want to be sick.

She was practically his sister, and he could only hope and pray that he was wrong, but just in case that he wasn't, he contacted her uncle Kimi, since the Finnish man was the only one of her uncles that he had the contact number for.

"Are you okay, Papouille?"

"I'm okay, asticot. I'm okay." Larissa mumbled quietly in to his shoulder, feeling his arms tightly wrapped around her body in an attempt to offer her comfort and safety.

"Of course I'm still called maggot, even when I help you." Anthoine grumbled, hearing small giggles leaving her lips.

"I'm tired." Larissa yawned, stretching her body as exhaustion filled her body.

"Come here, you koala." Anthoine smiled as she held her arms up in the air.

He lifted her up in to the air, chuckling to himself as she wrapped her arms and legs around him like a koala, her head resting on his shoulder as her breathing levelled out as she soon fell asleep in his arms as he carried her to his apartment.

He loved her, even if she was annoying, and he didn't know what he would do without her in his life.

He also couldn't wait, for her to stay true to her promise and allow him to walk her down the aisle at her wedding.

Well, when she eventually found an idiot to love her romantically, anyway.

____________________________________________________

"Please tell me, that you didn't deliberately put pineapple on my pizza and that it was an accident."

"I can neither confirm or deny."

"Nooooo!" Nicholas Latifi whined as his friend laughed at his misfortune, seeing her face light up at the pizza which was completely covered in pineapple.

"Oh that is bad luck." Larissa smirked at the heartbroken look on the Canadian's face.

"You took my favorite pizza and slapped a million pieces of pineapple on it! WHY? YOU KNOW I HATE PINEAPPLE!" Nicholas groaned, slamming his face down on to the table in front of him.

Nicholas Latifi used to be the team mate of Larissa Cohen in Formula Two, before she was promoted to Formula One and left him behind with the idiots of their other friends, Alex, Lando and George, since the only mature one was Anthoine.

They were always labelled as a very chaotic duo, as some people actually compared them to the Red Bull duo of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo.

He was exactly what she needed to distract herself from the harsh reality that she was being forced to live.

"IT'S FUNNY." Larissa laughed at her former team mate, seeing him repeatedly slamming his head on the table as he pretended to cry.

"You're mean." Nicholas whined in defeat, picking a slice of pizza up and biting in to it, grimacing at the pineapple overload.

"You love me really, Nicky." Larissa cackled at the face of disgust on the man as he ate the pineapple coated pizza.

"Lies."

"No it's not."

"Lies."

"No it's not."

"Liesss."

"I will force feed you pineapple." Larissa fake glared at her former team mate, seeing a smirk cover his features.

"And I will empty all of your Nutella in to the bin." Nicholas threatened, seeing her face morph in to shock as she released a gasp.

"You wouldn't dare, you love Nutella just as much as me."

"Watch me."

Nicholas stood to his feet as he attempted to run to her kitchen to destroy her Nutella, but found himself releasing a high pitched scream as she tackled him to the ground.

"Not a chance, Nicky, not a chance."

____________________________________________________

Since she had been kidnapped by her grandfather, her uncles, Fernando, Sebastian and Kimi, were determined to keep her safe.

They had been informed by the Finnish man what had happened and that the old man was responsible for the death of their best friend, amd immediately swore on their lives to protect their girl and ensure that André Santos went down for the murder of Luiz Cohen.

They had tried to come up with plans to expose him, but with further thought, they had unfortunately realised that those plans would not work.

They all secretly still suffered from nightmares and PTSD from the death of their best friend, since they had been right there when he took his final breath.

The three of them felt guilty that they were not able to save the five time world drivers championship winner from the grasp of death, with them all feeling like they had not only let their best friend down.

But also his daughter.

They began to doubt if they were ever going to be able to get justice for their best friend, their mentor, their brother.

It was just a shame, that nobody had realised that Larissa Cohen had accidentally and unknowingly recorded the entire confession of murder by her grandfather.

All she had to do was check her voice notes on her phone, and she would be able to ensure that he spent the rest of his life rotting in a small prison cell.

But she had no idea.

____________________________________________________

A/N

Posting this on the morning of my 21st birthday, because I 100% assure you, that I will be too drunk to post it in the evening.

Honestly, this is actually funny, because I originally was not going to be doing the whole 'mafia' vibes, I was originally planning to have the ferrari team principal to have accidentally sent him out, but I did my research and found out that Jean Todt was the team principal in 2007, and I loved him too much to make him an accidental killer.

But anyway, as we're talking about Ferrari,

Fuck you Mattia.

Enjoy the chapter!

-RUBY