Repaying the Mafia’s Dept

Emelia

I’m starting to worry.

Massimo has been gone for hours, and I’m on edge again. Like a ghost, I roam the house from one room to the next trying to calm myself and find something to do to distract myself.

Painting usually does that for me, but I can’t even think of what I might paint to take my mind away. That never happens. I’ve never been in a situation before that painting couldn’t fix.

This is a first.

Maybe it’s because I’m about to lose another parent. One who is already dead to me in my heart. As I read that contract, all the love I had for my father died. It faded into the ether. I couldn’t believe how truly despicable he was.

I just wish Massimo were here.

The place is heavily guarded. Guards were stationed at the front door when we got back this morning.

I’m supposed to be safe here, but to me there’s nowhere safer than with him.

It’s strange how that happened. Oh, so strange.

Deciding to go see how Pricilla is doing, I make my way downstairs. Earlier, she invited me to bake cookies with her, but I wasn’t feeling up to it. I’ll gladly do it now to take my mind off what’s happening.

I enter the kitchen and stop in my tracks by the door when my gaze lands on Vlad sitting at the breakfast table, eating cookies.

Oh my God… what is he doing here? Inside the house?

His appearance gets to me the same as it did the night I first met him at the charity ball.

Little did I know then what was in store for me.

He looks up at me and smiles.

“These are really good. Want one? I’d love to feed it to you,” he says, holding out a cookie for me to take.

Panic makes me back away to run, but I stumble into a wall. I turn to see Andreas, and relief washes over me.

“Andreas, Vlad is inside the kitchen,” I say, grabbing his shirt. My hands are shaking so much I can’t stop them.

“Now, now, Emelia, don’t you worry. You see, he got inside the kitchen because I let him in. We arrived in the same car, stopped for a bite to eat,” he explains with a smile. My jaw drops.

I release my hold on his shirt and backpedal. He walks toward me as I back right into the kitchen, right into danger.

I don’t know what he’s saying. He’s Massimo’s brother. He must know that Vlad is a dangerous man.

As I take in the sinister expression on his face, it dawns on me. Of course… he does know Vlad is dangerous man. This is something else.

“What’s going on here?” I look from Vlad to Andreas and shake my head.

“I’m going to tell you a very interesting story about secrets, and I’m gonna give you the major spoiler.”

“Is the spoiler that you betrayed your family?” I throw back. I can’t believe this. Not at all.

“No, it’s not that. That’s not news since I’ve always been the odd one out. There’s a reason for that. The reason is, they’re my half-brothers, and the spoiler is… you and I have a lot in common. Like how we have the same father.”

I gasp and bring my hand up to my heart.

“What!” I don’t understand.

“Ready for the story?”

“I am,” Vlad says with a smile. “Nothing like a juicy piece of news to get the blood going.”

“I like this guy,” Andreas states. Vlad tips his head.

“Thanks. It’s great to be appreciated.” His eyes lock with mine, and a shiver runs down my spine. I only look away when Andreas clears his throat.

“Ready for the story, Princesca?” he asks with emphasis on the last word. “That’s what Massimo calls you, isn’t it?”

I stare back at the man claiming to be my brother. Yes, indeed, I’m ready to hear the story. I’m fucking ready to hear it. Another secret revealed.

“Tell me,” I answer.

“It started with the death of my grandfather. That’s what started this whole thing. The man I thought was my father doesn’t favor tradition in the least. Or I’d be boss and king of the empire, not Massimo,” he says with a chuckle. I remember my thoughts about him that night at the dinner. He didn’t look happy when Massimo received his ring and everyone raised their glass to accept him as the new leader. “When I was told Massimo was chosen, it knocked me. In my life, when shit happens, I’ve always sought the company of my mother’s belongings. That day, I went searching through her stuff and found a journal I don’t think she wanted anyone to find. It carried her secrets. There I learned that she was with your father before Giacomo D’Agostino. She found out she was pregnant with me after she got together with him and never told him I wasn’t his. She couldn’t bring herself to ruin the relationship she’d always wanted.”

I start to shake. I don’t want to believe it. I want to tell myself it’s a lie, but I know it’s not. It feels like the truth.

“I went to your father, and we got tested. The tests confirmed he’s my father. Then we planned. I lived a hard life I shouldn’t have because she decided to stay with my father. You had everything, while I had to go through shit my other brothers didn’t have to go through because I was the eldest. I took care of everything. The last blow was Pa giving Massimo the empire. And to spit in my face further, Massimo chose Tristan to be part of the syndicate, not me.”

“So, you want to wipe them out? How could you be so cruel?” I seethe.

He grabs my face and squeezes hard. “Don’t talk about things you don’t understand. You haven’t lived my life. You don’t know me, and you don’t want to. I have no desire to know you either. I accepted some hard truths when I found out my mother didn’t kill herself, but it was your father, my father, who pushed her off a cliff, all because she chose Giacomo D’Agostino.”

My mouth falls open, and I stare at him wide-eyed.

My God… I can’t believe what I’m hearing. My father is indeed evil, but how can Andreas just accept it?

“How can you be okay with that?”

“I never said I was. I said I accept it. I loved my mother to no end. I hate her choices, but my love for her will always be there.” His jaw tightens. “I wanted to kill your father when I realized it was him who killed her. I wanted to end him. But it would achieve nothing for me. She is dead and gone, and I’m still here. There are things I want. Things I’m owed. Things only he can give me. You do what you have to do, Sis, to get what you want. You suck up shit feelings of remorse and anger, push them aside, and don’t cut off your nose to spite your face. That is what I’m doing.”

“Let go of me! Get your hands off me!” I cry, trying to free myself from his grasp.

“No, I’m afraid I can’t do that. You’re needed as payment. Part of the grand plan. There’s one more contract for you to sign. Cross me, and you’ll end up like her,” he jeers, flipping me around.

He forces me to walk around the counter. I scream when I see Priscilla lying on the ground in a pool of blood. Bullet holes riddle her body.

I scream and cry, shaking my head.

“No! How could you? How could you do this to her?”

“Save your tears, Emelia D’Agostino. There’s worse to come. Wait until you see what I did to Massimo.”

Terror claws its way through me when he laughs, crude and hard.

I’m taken away, taken off the property, and no one says anything. Of course, they wouldn’t. I’m with Andreas. Massimo’s brother, one of the most trusted people who could come and go as they please.

Vlad disguises himself with a large pair of Oakleys and a hooded sweatshirt. He slips into the back of the black Sedan quite comfortably. Any of the guards or soldiers who saw him wouldn’t have seen his face properly, but again, they wouldn’t dare question Andreas.

When Andreas tells the men at the gate that Massimo asked him to take me to see him, no one questions him. It makes sense that I would be with his brother. That he got his older brother to escort me with his guard.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

I keep wondering where the guards on surveillance are. Who’s watching? Then it hits me that Andreas could have easily done something to the stop anyone from seeing what he was up to. That’s the only thing that makes sense. It will only be when someone discovers Priscilla’s body in the kitchen that they’ll know. Even then, they’ll never guess that Andreas could have killed her. I’m still in shock. People I get close to keep dying. I can’t take it anymore. What will I do if something happens to Massimo?

That’s why I keep quiet as Andreas leads me out. I’m too afraid to breathe. The leverage they have over me is death. Not to me. No, they have plans for little old me, so I mustn’t die. They’re threatening to kill Massimo. I don’t know if they even have him, but I comply because I can’t go on what I don’t know. I have to take this risk, throw myself in harm’s way to make sure nothing happens to him.

We drive off the property easily. I’m quiet for the whole journey, trembling under Vlad’s stare as he looks at me the whole time.

I endure two hours of his leer. Him looking at me, licking his lips as he stares at my breasts, undressing me with his eyes. He says nothing the whole time. It’s when we pull up outside the entrance of an old mine shaft when he suddenly grabs my arm and pulls me to him so he can smell my hair.

“I’m going to have so much fun with you, my pretty,” he says, licking my ear. “I will fuck you all six ways to Sunday on your knees. I’ll fuck every hole in your body and make sure that pretty little mouth of yours is always full of my cock, and whoever else I tell you to suck.”

I shake and try to hold back tears.

It’s him who practically drags me out of the car. We’re near the mountains, but I don’t know exactly where we are. There’s a sign ahead saying Danger Keep Out, yet they both usher me inside the mouth of the cave.

While the outside of the cave looks like it should be deserted, I see that a whole operation is set up inside once we move deeper inside. We walk through a metal door. There are men everywhere. Some sitting at computers, others milling about. Everything so organized. They look like they’ve been in this hideout for months.

I’m led up a set of stairs and into an office space. The man who wears the face of my father stands by a bookcase and turns around to look at me.

He smiles. I shake my head at him.

“Welcome, my daughter. I told you I was working on a way to get you back. Good news, here you are,” he declares.

“You evil bastard!” I scream. “I can’t believe this is you. What happened to you?”

He laughs. “Nothing, my child. Nothing happened to me. I haven’t changed one bit. I guess maybe I was different when it came to you. But needs must. Being successful means knowing when you have to make certain sacrifices to increase wealth,” he explains, as if that’s a good enough explanation.

“So, you wanted to sell me to this madman,” I snap. Vlad tightens his hold on me.

“Watch it, girlie. You don’t know who the fuck you’re dealing with. I’ll cut out your tongue and feed it to you,” Vlad threatens.

Andreas chuckles and walks inside to grab a drink of scotch.

“Emelia, you will do as I say. I’m lucky to have found a buyer for you who won’t mind that you’ve been defiled by that scum,” Dad says, and my heart squeezes. “I trust you’ve met your brother,” he adds, as if we’re talking about the weather.

Andreas tips his head and knocks back his drink.

When I don’t answer, Dad pulls out a contract from an envelope on the desk and holds it up. When Vlad marches me over to him, I see it’s a copy of the contract I saw the other night.

“I’m not signing anything,” I bark. Disgust churns my stomach as I recall the contract’s wording.

“You will sign it,” Dad says with confidence.

I’ve wondered how he thought he was going to get me to sign it in the first place. That was what was supposed to happen to me if Massimo hadn’t come along.

“No, I won’t. You can’t do this to me. I’m not a thing.” Deja vu. I’ve said this before several times. It’s happening again. “I’m married.”

“We’ll see about that. Give her to me. We’ll see what she says after she sees what I’ve done to her husband,” Dad states.

There’s a difference about him that’s terrifying. Even his voice sounds different.

Vlad hands me over to my father, who takes hold of my arm roughly. We walk through another door, and I see an open space that looks like an area where people used to work in the mines.

There’s a pit. Dad takes me to the steps leading into the pit, and I gasp when I see what’s down below. It’s Massimo. He’s attached to two metal poles with chains around his wrists. He’s shirtless, but there’s so much blood on his chest that it covers all his tattoos. He looks like he’s been beaten near death. His face is battered and bruised.

“He said I had to tie him up to beat him. That’s true,” Dad states. “I did, but I did it in a more clever way. Everyone has a price, my girl. I got a man he trusted with his life and his empire to betray him. His own brother, who was so neglected and overlooked. That is the only way you can get to a man like that. Full of hate and rage it almost makes him invincible. Almost and never. You will sign the contract because he is your price.”

I turn my head and look at Dad. He nods, and I burst into tears.

“If you don’t sign, I’ll kill him. Sign, and he might have a chance if we let him go.”

He releases me, and I run down to Massimo.

“Massimo!” I cry.

He lifts his bloodied head. His eyes widen at the sight of me.

“No, you can’t be here,” he manages.

I touch his face. Blood stains my hands. “I’m so sorry.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you, Princess. I love you.”

“I love you too,” I breathe. I didn’t know that when he left this morning, it going to be the last morning we’d spend together. I won’t let him die. I won’t allow him to suffer if I can do anything about it.

“I-” he cries out when a whip lands hard across his back.

I scream, shaking my head, when I look up and see Vlad behind him getting ready to strike him again.

Another powerful blow lands on Massimo’s back, causing his knees to buckle. Dad laughs and comes closer.

Vlad strikes Massimo again, and again, and again.

My breath stills. I feel like I might fade away.

“Want it to stop?” Dad asks. “He’s strong, but even he has a limit.”

“I’ll sign,” I answer weakly.

Dad makes a mockery of me when he places his hand to his ear and leans in closer, pretending he can’t hear me.

Massimo gets another hit and cries out loud.

“What was that, Emelia?” Dad says.

“I’ll sign!” I scream. Dad takes my arm again.

With a bright smile on his face, he takes me away from my love. I look back at Massimo.

That’s the last time I’ll see him. The last time I’ll tell him I love him.

The last time I’ll feel love for anybody.

My father leads me away to the fate that awaits. Death.

It can only be that. I’ll be sold to a madman who will kill me when he decides he wants my life to be over.