Owning the Mafia Don

Lucien

The moment the identity of the person driving the battered little car dawned on him, Lucien was on the phone, bellowing at Beston, who sounded alarmed.

‘Boss…’ he began and then there was a scream and the call ended abruptly.

Lucien did not think twice.

“Turn around!” he roared, “We need to get back to the house. NOW!!!”

The driver did not hesitate.

When the Boss said Jump, you jumped. It was as simple as that.

he brought the car to a screeching halt and then took a sharp turn, tyres screaming in protest and they shot back the way they had come.

***

Sophia

Earlier that week.© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

When she opened the door to her miserable little apartment in the area she lived, she almost jumped out of her skin. Two men lounged around in her house, one was at the window, and the other was sitting comfortably on the only chair available.

“Wh…What.. Who are you?’ she squeaked.

She was roughly propelled into the room and she realised that there was a third man who had been hiding behind the door.

All of them had cold, cruel expressions. Slavic looks; gelled hair, dressed in dark suits.

In growing horror, she saw a large plastic sheet on the floor, unfurled and ready.

Ready for WHAT?

Sophie was no fool and she knew that the people who were killed by a mob were rolled in the plastic sheets and their bodies disposed of unobtrusively.

In her case, no one would even notice that she was no longer around. The smelly little diner she worked at, washing dishes, was run by a woman who could not care an iota if her employees did not turn up. She would just hire another desperate soul for the same meagre wages…

***

Lucien

The lead car swerved and so did all the others as Lucien gripped the phone, his knuckles white with strain and anxiety.

There had been many times during her interrogation when he had wanted to walk in and strangle Sophia. She was the one who had led his unsuspecting, trusting wife into the hands of Dmitri. The only thought that had held him back was what Grace had said when he had stood outside the door to the woman’s cell, fury in his tensed muscles, on one of those days when Proserpina had been in captivity.

He had been preparing to enter the room and kill the woman inside with his big bare hands.

But Grace had prevented him.

Looking into his steel grey eyes, Grace had said,

“Boss, do you think Proserpina would have let you kill her?’

And his shoulders had slumped. He knew his wife, his Woman who was kind and good, and her gentle nature spilt onto all the people she met and interacted with.

Breathing heavily, he had restrained himself with difficulty. Only the thought of HER, with her soft brown eyes and mouth that was always smiling at him, stopped him.

Swearing, he had turned away.

He had reined in his violent thoughts. Instead, he had contented himself with pounding fiercely on the door. Turning around, he strode away.

But now, he regretted his action.

“Ah, Grace,” he thought, his ear glued to the phone, “If you were here, I would have killed you for stopping me that day.”

***

Sophia

That evening.

“What do you want?” she began but got no further.

The man behind her twisted her arm viciously and she screamed.

The one lolling on the chair smiled coldly.

Speaking in a thick Slavic accent, he said, “See, we got no need to hurt you if you co-operate, wh*re.”

Sophie was shaking like a leaf. She could not forget the torture that she had been subjected to by Delano and his people when she was kept a prisoner at the Club.

She began to shake her head, ‘No, you go the wrong person, please…’

The man stood up, his shirt straining under the jacket. He was short, shorter than her but thickset and strong, with bulging muscles. But it was the expression on his face that terrified her. He displayed a joy in being sadistic and inflicting pain. It was obvious from the way his lips drew back in a sinister grimace which was supposed to be a smile, that he was a man who enjoyed being cruel.

He took out a knife and stepping closer, he said, ‘Would you like to have a couple of tattoos on your face, pretty girl?’

She screamed, and to her utter humiliation, wet herself.

***

Lucien

Paul Worthington, the weasel who was the one who had aided Dmitri in his plan, had not gotten off so easily. Lucien had killed him for being the one who had sent Sophia there with the plan of abducting his wife. The man’s battered body was about to give way anyhow, thought Lucien coldly, he had merely done the bas*ard a service by snapping his neck.

***

Sophia

Sophia was shaking so hard, that she could barely stand up. If not for the man standing behind her, who had clamped his hands on her arms, she would have slid to the ground in a heap.

“No,” she wept piteously. She knew that her nose was running, she felt her bladder give way again as the thug approached,

“Please, I will do what you want…”

The man laughed appreciatively and looked at his companions, stony-faced fellows who watched her dispassionately. He had a look of sly disappointment on his face that she had caved in even before he had got started.

“Then,” he said, stepping closer, “We have a small task for you, red.”

***

Proserpina

Beston turned to me, his face white.

“Move away, Ma’am,” he roared, “For the love of God, get back, now!”

As though we were in a slow-motion reel, I felt hands grabbing my twins and Philippe, forcing them to run.

“Mumma! Mumma! Come on, RUN! ,” screamed the twins in the chorus but I was staring at Sophia in frustration.

I had to get it off my chest; there was not going to be another time, said my gut.

***

Lucien

The car careened madly along the way they had come, eating up the miles. But Lucien sat, tense and straight, thinking.

As for Catalina, she had been left free. Initially, she had slunk back to whichever hole she had come from.

He had had his people keep tabs on her. She was destroyed. No work, no money. So when Catalina had begged and pleaded for her life, reminding him of the days when both of them had been together, he had spared her life. But he made sure she was no threat in an effective way.

Knowing that she would have had to go back to the only profession she knew, selling her body for whatever it took to survive, he had sent her to a business associate in Columbia named Perez.

Lucien and Perez had shared a lot in the past, including women in the depraved orgies that regularly took place at Perez’s places.

But all that had been before he had met Proserpina.

Perez had an insatiable appetite for sex and he also kept a whole lot of women in his private harem.

Catalina had been added to that.

With her talent, she was bound to be in demand, thought Lucien drily.

He had ways of ensuring that she was out of his life and powerless as well. He had reasoned, ultimately, that the woman had only been a pawn. She was harmless on her own. And he had seen to it that she was part of his friend’s harem. And his friend had peculiar tastes…

She would stay there till she died. For no woman had ever lived to tell the tale of the kinky stuff Perez indulged in…

***

Proserpina

Sophia was smiling, a ghoulish grin, an emptiness in her eyes. She had thrown open her jacket and I saw to my horror that there were a million ugly wires and straps attached to her, with some sort of vest over her clothes. She was waving a stick-like object now, a maniacal gleam in her face.

Paddy still clung to me, sobbing loudly. I tried to push him to safety but he held on to my skirts, refusing to let go. So I held him behind me, trying to protect him.

“Why, Sophia?” I cried in anguish, “why? I only regarded you as a friend, I never…”

“A FRIEND?” she screamed even as Beston’s men moved away from her, as Beston tried to pull me back. But I was beyond thinking sanely.

As he almost dragged me away, I cried,

“WHY?”

She laughed.

“Because YOU have it All. And you don’t deserve Sh*t!”

I felt a rage building up. I resisted Beston’s powerful arms and standing my ground, I screamed,

“I gave your mother a decent burial! She is in the graveyard at The Holy Saint’s Church, the one she always visited! I did not force your sister into the life she chose! So why…?”

Tears coursed down my cheeks as I stood, trying to prevent Beston from lifting me up and hauling me away. With a curse, the man hefted me up on his shoulders and began to run, stumbling over the grass.

Sophia stood, mouth hanging open.

She had never known about how I had arranged for her mother’s burial a long while ago, even before I had been abducted. The realisation hit her like a shock.

Suddenly, there was a report, a loud crack …

***

Lucien

The cars raced back along the road, forcing any sort of incoming traffic to pull to the side. Luckily, his mansion was in a slightly remote part of the town and not much of traffic was encountered.

They were almost at the side road leading up to his property when the sound of an explosion rent the air. Lucien shot forward in his seat.

“FASTER, MAN!’ he yelled.

The driver met his eyes nervously. His security men were sweating nervously. They were already tearing down the country road. There were no other houses for miles around.

But both of them knew that the explosion had come from the Delano house.