The Mafia’s Dangerous Love

A sudden shift

Elena's POV

I couldn’t breathe.

My father’s words echoed in my mind, every single word making me feel more and more into the bones. The name- Matteo had weight that I could not comprehend, but the feeling of ice that settled into a knot in my chest told me that it meant danger – real danger.

I looked at the phone screen for a second longer before my heart started pounding. What did my dad know about him? And how?

My eyes shifted back to the gun lying on the floor just under the table. It glistened in the light; a cold prodding of the life I was now touching on the periphery. Matteo De Luca. It took me sometime to recognize his face but I realized I had just encountered a very dangerous man. Deadly, even.

My gut was telling me to flee, to leave the café and never look back, and to forget this strange man ever existed in my mundane existence. But my feet were stuck to the floor. Curiosity burned in me. Why would my dad send that message now? Matteo was here, how did he know?

I stepped away from the gun, my thoughts racing in my head. I couldn’t just leave it there, could I? What if someone else saw it? But when I touched it I felt like I crossed the line I could never go back again.

I was trapped between two worlds: the one I knew, familiar and calm, and the one which belonged to Matteo – uncertain, dangerous and mysterious.

My phone buzzed again. Another message from my dad.

We need to talk. Meet me at the house.

I breathed in deeply and threw my phone into my purse. I had to leave this place after that. I took my jacket and left the café as fast as I could without looking as if my heart was trying to break through my chest.

---

The drive back to my father’s house seemed like a blur. The city zoomed past, the normal sounds of car horns and traffic, set to the background. But I had a feeling that everything was not quite right. I thought of what my father had told me before I left his house. He had always been overbearing and caring for her but this was somewhat more than that. He had never cautioned me against a person as strongly as he just did.

I arrived at a small two-story house located in a relatively more peaceful neighborhood in town. My father was already waiting for me on the porch, fuming anxiously as he walked back and forth on the porch. The moment I alighted from the car he came running towards me.

“Elena,” he said, he was becoming more tense and anxious as he spoke. “Did you talk to him?”

My brows furrowed. “To who? Matteo?”

His eyes flared up the moment he was mention the name. “Yes. Matteo De Luca. I don’t know why you talked to him like that.”

I tried to fold my arms over my chest protectively. “Dad, what’s going on? Why are you acting like this? He was just—”

“He’s not just anything, Elena.” My father interrupted me, his tone serious but worried. Matteo De Luca isn’t someone you want to be involved with. He’s a dangerous man. His family… they’re mafia, Elena. The De Lucas have a reputation and it is not a good one.”

Mafia.

The word struck a cord in me similar to how a punch in the stomach feels. At once all the pieces of the puzzle fell into their right places: Matteo, the men who have come to fetch him, the gun left at the café. I felt sick to my stomach.

“Mafia?” I said in a hushed tone, its pitch rising in response to disbelief. “How do you even know this?”

My father looked at me and then let out a deep breath, raking his fingers through the grey hair on his head. I have been in this city long enough to know that the names of the people.

The De Lucas are strong, vindictive and do not mind who they have to harm in order to achieve their goal.

I was shaking in my legs and I sat on the porch steps with the intention of finding a way to come to terms with what I had just heard. Matteo… mafia. This was a world that I only knew from the movies. It didn’t feel real.

I could only stare at him and say, ‘And you’re telling me this now?’ After I have already spoken to him? I said, angrily, What do you want me to do? “Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“I never believed that you would ever meet someone like him,” my dad sighed, clearly guilty. “You were always cautious you never mixed with people, you were always alone.”

I nodded my head, my mind was filling up with a host of emotions that I could barely contain. I had been prudent—until today. What was I doing to myself?

I did not get the chance to say anything more to him before his phone rang. He looked down at the screen and his face turned grim. “I need to take this. Stay here, okay?”

I just stood there and stared at him as he moved to the other corner to answer the call, I just blinked. My head was scrambling, my heart racing and constricted with fear and bewilderment. Matteo was part of the mafia. Of course, he was. It accounted for all the behavior that he observed from people, the aura of violence that followed him.

But why had he approached me?

Just on cue, my phone vibrated. My heart began to beat faster and I struggled to take it out of my bag. The screen illuminated an unknown number.

I paused and shivered but for some reason I found myself responding to him.

“Elena,” The sound of Matteo’s voice, thick, and velvety as honey, was enough to make the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. “We need to talk.”

I froze. How did he have my number? Why was he calling me now?

“I do not know what we have to discuss,” I told her in an uncertain tone, although my hands were shaking.

Matteo smiled, a low, wicked laugh that had my body responding in ways I didn’t understand. I believe that you already know what has to be discussed. You’re smart, Elena. Well of course you are already figuring things out aren’t you?”

I swallowed hard. “There are the remains of your cup of coffee at the café.”

“Ah.” He didn’t sound surprised. “The gun.”

I rose from the porch steps and began to walk to and fro. “I don’t know what game you are playing but I don’t want to be part of it, Matteo,” she said.

“This isn’t a game, Elena,” he said, getting more serious all of a sudden. You have got to a place you never want to be out of. And whether you like it or not, you’re involved now.”

I shook my head, the panic rising in my chest, I didn’t know what to do, I just wanted to get out of there. “No. I’m not involved. I barely know you!”

“That’s the thing, Elena. You don’t even know me yet, but now you have a decision to make. Get lost or let me know who you are really.”

I clenched my phone tighter. “And if I walk away?”

She heard silence for a moment before the line got heavier. It wasn’t until he started to talk again that there was a quiet menace in his tone. “You won’t be able to. Not after what you’ve seen.”

I realized the blood had rushed out of my face. This was worse than I thought it would be. It was not only that Matteo was dangerous; he was dragging me into something I could never get out of.

‘Okay, give me some time to think but don’t take much time’. I saw there are people watching now, and they won’t be as patient as me.”

I could feel the tone of his voice and he was trying to threaten me with words.

“Matteo, I—”

The line went dead.

I took a moment and looked at the phone, only to have a bitter taste of the truth sink in. Matteo wasn’t going to let me slither out of this one. And even if he did, some others—criminals of sorts—would not be able to do so.

My father’s voice interrupted my thinking process. “Elena, come inside. The next thing we have to do is determine what to do.”

But as I followed him into the house, one thing obsessed me alone.

How did Matteo know I was already being watched?

Opening the door to the living room, I turned pale at the sight of the man who was expecting us. He had a gun belted at his side, and a twisted grin that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

“Elena” he said casually, “I think that we have to talk about your new friend Matteo De Luca”.