Caught by the Mafia Boss

ARIA MORETTI

Aria took one last sip of the coffee before setting the empty cup back on the table.

She then readjusted the study light to focus on the table where different photos of the same scene lay. It was the same loosely clad man sprawled across the floor with a pool of dried blood on the ground around his head. She shuffled the images and grimaced at each one that came to view before starting to type out the words that would be published by her small online newspaper for the readers who wanted more on the case the next morning.

The lawyer, Milano Cargioli, had been found dead in the most bizarre of circumstances. No sign of breakage into his house, no signs of a struggle, and no signs of even movement through the house. All that was there was a single bullet in his head, and there was no proof that it was a suicide.

For Aria, it was a matter of passion. She felt sad for Cargioli's family, but still wanted a path for herself in the News Industry, a path to fame and being widely known by all the faces around. In a few years, he would be forgotten, and all that would be there to remind anyone of him would be a tombstone covered in dust. Yet, if she could build her career...

She was still typing at her keyboard when a distant noise drew her attention. It was nothing close, and even seemed to be on the other side of the city. Yet, it caused her to jump up to her feet and rushed to check on the one man in the world who mattered to her more than anything else.

"Father," she muttered to herself, dashing through the small, dark space that was her house. Soon she was in his room, and darted to press her hands against her father's ears.

"Don't worry. I can already hear it." He said in the darkness, his voice calm.

She froze right behind him, staring at his head full of grey hair as he sat with his back to her and wondering what was happening on the inside of that beloved skull.

"Check and tell me what the cause of the noise is." He instructed.

She stood still, confused on what to do before walking to the window. The streets were dark except for the tiny glows that were passing cars and a few streetlights and signboards, until her eyes went higher up and closer to the horizon. There, she saw it.

It was a building quite shorter than the ones that surrounded it, but this time something drew all attention to it.

It was on fire.

A number of firetrucks were already working on it and spraying jets of water that ate at the mighty, hot, yellow glow that was the fire. It would be out of operations for a number of months, and no one would be able to work there. That was what half the city who stood watching that fire would be thinking. It was just a burning building that was put out before the calamity would spread.

For Aria, it was far deeper and more heartbreaking. That big building was the one in which her father worked as a truck driver. She knew that the fire meant hunger and poverty and devastation for her father, and the same for her if she could not put some food on the table.

"There's a fire somewhere. It is nothing , Father."

He only sat still and nodded.

"Elena and Mabel will be safe too, will they not?"

It was a ten worded question that set her on alert and caused her to rush towards the drawer, dig his antidepressant pills out within the fraction of a second, and spend another one taking out the emergency water that she had hidden in various places about the house just in case she needed a quick fix for him. Just like now.

"Have it, Father," she pleaded, holding out a single white pill in the palm of her hand. Her father would also take it from her with the gentleness of a lost child and wash it down his throat before sitting in the still manner he was as she entered the room. As soon as he did this, she threw her arms about his shoulders and kissed the wrinkled skin on his face."You are safe and fine. They are all safe and fine. They are happy too." She whispered, her heart tipping apart as he sniffed and started to cry, his body shaking all over.

It took a lot of composure-well accumulated over the years so that it left her with thick skin-to stop her from crying herself. Since the night of the robbery that left their little house picked clean of everything it had to offer and with the bodies of her mother, Elena and her younger sister, Mabel lying dead, her father had never remained the same.

The lights terrified him at night because he was sure that he would find a corpse waiting for him once he flipped the switch on, and loud noises like the one outside now drove him marbles, for they reminded him too much of that night. There was only one force keeping him together, and it was the surviving daughter who had somehow convinced him to go to sleep just then. He too, loved and appreciated how she had given herself to be cared for by him, and it was why he had taught himself never to question any one of her decisions.

She lay by his side and massaged his hair until he fell asleep, before standing up to go to the window where the building had now been reduced from a burning warehouse to half a large brick of red coal. Smoke billowed up from it slowly, and she stared at it for a long time, aware that the caffeine had had its effects and she was not going to be sleeping for a long time, that it was another piece of news, and that she was going to have a hard time consoling her father, who would lose his mind over the truth she just hid from him.

**

To forget all of that, she returned to her room and tried to finish the lawyer's story. Her worry over her father only permitted her to do it with a fair amount of success, and she was pulling at her hair when there came the sound of knocking upon the door.

It was strange, and she froze while trying to guess who was at the door before she heard it being kicked open with the sound of men yelling as they came in. Even then, she could only think of one thing.

"Father."

ARIA MORETTI

She ran into a horde of men rushing into the house and screamed.

Whatever it was, she could soon tell that she was the least of their problems. They shoved her off as soon as they saw her and almost crushed their small house with how rapidly they dashed through the rooms. Soon, her father's panicked yells reached her ears, and she quickly jumped back to her feet to go help her father. There were five of the men, and they all forced themselves into the room, filling the tiny space it comprised with their frames.

It was almost confusing at first, until someone flicked on the lights and it sent her father into an even bigger panic. That was when she saw him on the floor and far from the bed she had left him in. Both his hands were over his head to shield himself as he screamed, and the men were kicking him.

"Leave my father alone," she screamed, rushing to bite into the arm of the man closest to her. Her teeth sunk into his skin, and enough of it for her to taste his blood in her mouth, until she felt something that sent her to the floor faster than she could blink. Even then, she tried to stand up, but two quick, successive slaps sent her back to the floor and caused her to reel where she lay in pain, the taste of his blood replaced by the taste of hers as she wondered why the room had suddenly gone dark.

"It's alright, boys," a commanding voice spoke, and her father's screams toned down a bit. "How is he? I always thought all the old man really needed was a bit of some shaking around. Get me a seat."

The light came back into the room, and Aria only then understood why the room had gone dark. In reality, it hadn't. She had only shut her eyes tight in the same way she had on the night her mother Elena and Mabel were killed. Then, it saved her, because she hid under the bed and waited for the storm to pass. This time, she doubted that it would.

The sound of a chair being dragged against wood soon screeched in her ears, and she struggled to sit up and see what would happen. As it turned, the men had the least interest in her. They had come straight to business, and whatever it was, it had everything to do with her father.

"Marco," the same voice that had brought an end to the storm, now called her father's name in a softer, almost affectionate tone. "Sorry to visit like this Marco. It's rude, and-"

"That's why you need to pack up with all of this and go." Aria shot, jumping to her feet.

All the heads in the room turned towards her, including the head that had uttered the only words that meant so far. He had a bit of a slick smile upon his face, his right eyebrow furrowed in a manner that was almost teasing. A better word to describe it was cocky, but she was in no mood for thinking about anything that wasn't her father, who was shivering on the ground and crying to himself like a small, scared child. He was saying only one word.

"Please. Spare her. Spare them. Don't kill them."

His words were going unattended because nobody was listening to him. It was a doubt that they genuinely wanted to.

"What other fire do we have burning here?" He asked no one particularly, his eyes fixed on her. Around them, his men started to laugh.

Aria did not care in the least. She wanted them to leave.

"I am the fire that will burn you if you remain here."

The man only swung his head to the side, and a third slap across the face sent Aria back to the floor she had just gotten up from. This one hit the very same spot on which she had received the first one, and it hurt so much she thought she would start to bleed. From afar, she heard her father continue to cry and beg people that weren't there. Then the man spoke:

"Marco even has a girl that's got a better pair of balls than he has. I think she's got a better brain too."

She grunted and jumped up to fight, incensed by this comment on her father.

"Leave the girl," The man said with a wave of his hand, dismissing her without another thought. "We are here for you, Marco. You coward burned our warehouse down with your stupidity, and you're going to pay."

"He didn't. He only drives his truck around."

The man scoffed, and turned to Aria with an expression that showed he was slightly annoyed. "Nobody is talking to you, girl. We're only here for your crazy father."

"He can't talk. That's why I'm answering."

Again, he looked at Aria with that cocky expression of his, and there was a smile on his face before he spoke again. "Give Marco another shake, boys. I need him to start talking."

They did this far too eagerly for Aria to stand still. Punches on her father without regard for where they were going to hit. Kicks all over his body as he shed tears and called for help from his memories and not the men that were harming him. Sitting and watching all this was one man, a sadistic look of pleasure on his face.

Aria tried to get to her father, and got a shove and two more slaps for it. By now, she was smarting from the pain, and aware that they were not going to stop unless her father died, or she did something to pacify the man who was overseeing the whole thing. To do this, she mustered all the force she could, dove between two of the men, rushed towards her father and threw herself upon his body. Her face was now streaked with tears, and she was screaming for them to let him go through chattering teeth.

"I'll pay what he owes. Please just let him go."

She paid for this action, taking several painful kicks to the side that only stopped when he raised his hand. The beatings instantly stopped, so that the silence that followed was only disrupted by her father's cries from below her.

"Did you just say you will do anything?"

"Anything."

He fixed an eye on her before continuing. "Your father will be spared if you agree to serve me. To do as I say and follow my every order without question."

Aria only needed one look at the broken man beneath her to decide.

"I will. I will do as you say."

"It is done, then. Let's be on our way, boys. Take the girl so we can assume Marco has paid a bit of something."

Before long, and long meant what felt almost endless to her, she had been shoved into a car that moved until she lost track of where she was, and was only aware that she was being driven into a big mansion. The whole time, her mind remained on the last image of her crying father as the men tossed him back into the bed they had gotten him out of.

It was the sight of the tears streaming down his face that made her decide.

She would endure all to save him.

ARIA MORETTI

Aria thought she was entering into a whole new world.

The gates were so big that their sheer size made her forget her imminent problems-a suffering father who was now going to be left alone, and the path of uncertainty that lay wide before her for the smallest fraction of a second. The guards standing there were just as distracting, for she had hardly seen men who were so mechanical, so devoid of life that they moved as though they were born and bred for opening those gates to the man who owned them.

All they did was stare and salute as the car passed.

"You won't be passing these gates for a long time," the man announced, sitting comfortably in the owner's corner. He was a deliberate man, that one, because all the five men he brought with him were in a different car going before this one, which was occupied by only the driver in front, himself and her.

She did not answer his words too, far too frightened of the ice in his voice to want to say anything. Yet, their eyes met, and she found a cruel look waiting for her beneath the pools that were his. It was as though he was the Devil, and she was his captive.

The vehicle moved forward before stopping in front of one of the biggest mansions she had ever seen. It towered high in the night sky, and white lights glowered from it so that it appeared almost otherworldly. Once it did, the man got out of the car door which his driver held open for him, and vanished inside of the house. She stood outside, dumbfounded, and even thought of how hard it would be to slip off and run away. Only the sight of a woman dressed in a housemaid's uniform coming towards her could manage to distract her from these things.

"Welcome. Don Nico Romano has asked me to prepare you for him. Come with me."

Clueless and unaware of what to do, Aria hesitated. It all felt like a trap waiting to spring up on her, and something from within wanted her to renounce her promises, run back home, and to dare the man to do what he would if he could. But her father...

Her lip disappeared into her mouth and her teeth pressed hard on it. A short distance before her, the woman stood waiting, and Aria clenched her fists before following her lead into the big mansion.

It was unlike anything in the place she had come to know as home-it smelled of lavender and rose and the air conditioners hiding high up in the walls pumped a cool wind on her skin as she walked past. The walls were white and the lights reflected off them in a colour that was beautiful, but there was something foreboding about the place that made her wish she was back at home, and with her father.

"He has asked me to give you this room. You should like it..."

And before she was done talking, the woman pushed the doors open to reveal a large room that was big enough to be half her apartment. There was a queen size bed in the middle of the room, and everything on the inside seemed to promise her comfort and luxury. They both stepped inside of it, and Aria stood right in the centre, refusing to believe she would be treated so well by that man.

The doors slammed shut, and Aria turned to see the woman looking straight at her.

"So Don Nico brought you here?" She asked, and Aria thought there was something fiery about her eyes before nodding to imply yes.

"He wants to teach you a lesson, then. And the best thing you will do for yourself is to learn it."

The woman she spoke to found herself oddly suspicious of her, and for good reason. "Why are you telling me this?"

"He hardly brings a woman into the house. Somehow, you're here. I do not know why, but I will only ask that you be wise. Act as you should, and you will be fine around here."

The words were no threat, nor were they spoken in a way that meant it was one. There was indeed something motherly and comforting about her heavily accented voice as she heard it, and Aria found herself liking the woman for this single tip she had just gotten.

"You should also bathe and wait and get ready for yourself to be called upon. As for more clothes, they will be given to you the next morning."

"Why should I wait to be called upon? What does he want me to do?" Aria asked, now confused. She had her suspicions, and hoped they would be far from reality.

"Don Nico wants you with him tonight."

At once, Aria's eyes widened.

"What does he want me for?"

Aria felt Anita's eyes go cold. "You shouldn't bother if you think it's sex. Don Nico will not try to sleep with you tonight. But he wants you for a reason you might never know until you find out. I will come to you when he wants you around. Enjoy while you can."

Slowly, and with these words, Anita withdrew, leaving the newcomer alone in the room. She could only swallow and sit and wait for what would happen while disturbed that she was now a part of a game whose rules could be anything.

Anything at all...

**

Aria could hardly remain in one place while alone. The room was a pretty, tidy place, but she felt caged within the walls, an animal in a zoo.

What was all this? What had she just done?

It was all to save her father, but now she did not know if she could go through with it.

She was still debating when a knock on the door and her answer led to Anita coming again, her head peeking through the open space in the door. "He wants you now."

The simplicity of the command left her dumbfounded, and she let herself be led through an endless labyrinth of hallways that only ended before a mighty, mahogany double door that parted to reveal a grand room with red curtains and carpets. It was a room so large that she was almost lost until she stared straight down and found herself staring into his eyes.

He was simply unbelievable, this Nico Romano man, the one Anita called The Don. For the first time, she took a good look at his face under some good lighting, and that slick, jet black hair of his that had been drawn into a tight ponytail. His blue eyes were sharp enough to cut diamonds, and so was the trace of his jawline. He sat composed in this seat as though he was Lord of all, with twenty men or so gathered around him, ten on each side. There were also several guards behind him, armed with sunglasses and guns.

"Come," She heard him say, his voice reverberating around the room.