Saved by the Mafia

The Boss

“I’ll put a bullet in your goddamned skull, Morelli. Tell me what the f**k is going on here.” I pressed the barrel of my gun against Morelli’s temple as he started to sweat.

“Alright, alright!” He conceded. “The shipment got intercepted.”

I gritted my teeth. “Intercepted by who?”

“I don’t know who, Slater, I swear it,” he pleaded.

“God damn it!” I yelled. I pulled my arm back and swiftly whipped Morelli in the side of the skull with my gun with brutal force.

“f*****g leave him here. He’s useless to me until he gets me my shipment back.” I tossed the keys to Morelli’s apartment into Peter’s waiting hands.

“Where are you going, boss?”

“Mind your own f*****g business, Peter. And find out where the f**k Maddox is, for god’s sake.”

“Yes, sir.”

I left Morelli’s apartment in a hurry, putting my gun back in my shoulder holster and wiping the blood off my hands. My driver was waiting patiently by the end of the driveway.

I already knew where I was going. In my phone was an address, one I’d been tempted to visit everyday for the past week. And now I was finally going. I didn’t care if it was three in the morning.

“Don’t need you for this one, Rex. Ride back with Peter. Give me the keys.”

Rex handed me the keys to the Cadillac, stepping to the side and bowing his head at me. I gave him an emotionless nod and climbed into the driver’s seat.

As I drove to the other side of town to her address, I seriously contemplated what I was doing.

Why did I care so much about one random girl? It wasn’t like I wanted to date her. I didn’t date. I didn’t love. Sure, I had urges like any other man, but those could be taken care of with a phone call if I wanted. So why couldn’t I get the image of her beautiful, bruised face out of my head? I convinced myself it was curiosity.

As I drove towards her address, the area quickly declined. She lived in a crime-ridden, poor part of town. The houses were small, run down and unkept, surrounded by rusting chain-link fences and trash.

As I pulled up in front of the small blue house, I parked quickly and turned my lights off and cut the engine. I slumped down in my seat, lighting a smoke and taking a pull.

What was a girl like that doing living in a s**t-hole like this?

The yard wasn’t cut, the grass overgrown. A bunch of old furniture was piled up on the porch. The paint on the house was chipped and peeling, and part of the roof was patched with a tarp. It hardly looked inhabitable and I just couldn’t picture her asleep inside of it.

A fascination with some girl who would probably disappoint me— most of them did— was the last thing I needed. I needed to focus on the Rinaldi situation. If the Rinaldi family were the ones intercepting my shipments, it could mean war between two very powerful Italian mafia families. I had my suspicions, but I couldn’t confirm or deny.

I pulled out my phone to shoot a text to Peter.

Me: Update me on Rinaldi.

It took only seconds before he sent a response.

Peter: Got two guys watching the estate. Nobody in or out today.

Me: Keep them there.

Peter: You coming home, boss?

Me: No. Lock the gate.

I put my phone back in my pocket, leaning my head back against the headrest.

I kept my eyes focused on the front porch for a long time, until sleep took me over and forced my eyelids closed.

I woke a while later to the sound of yelling.

My eyes flashed open, and I gazed around me. It was still dark, but the sun was starting to rise. I could hear a man yelling violently from inside the home, and I could hear the girl trying to calm him down. It was muffled, and I couldn’t pick up on words, just tones.

After a few minutes of listening to the nonsense, irate screaming, the front door came flying open. I quietly cracked my window.

It was her.

I had to keep my hand from ripping the f*****g door off as I watched an older man— probably late forties— grab her by her shoulders and shake her as hard as he could. Her pale hair shimmered under the early morning sunrise, and for a minute I thought the man might shake her so hard he’d snap her neck. Don’t get out, Slater. It’s none of your f*****g business.

“You stupid little b***h!” The man roared. Rage boiled under my skin, and I wasn’t sure why. “Get the f**k out. And don’t come back without my f*****g gin, you spoiled f*****g brat.”

The man shoved her off the porch as hard as he could, and she tumbled down the front porch steps, landing painfully on the cracked pavement. She quickly reached to pull down her blue dress as the man went inside and slammed the door.

Dad, pimp? Who is that? Either way, what a sorry piece of s**t.

Dad.. probably. Pimp— no way. The way she immediately reached down to cover herself when her dress flew up showed she wasn’t that kind of girl. She didn’t strike me as a w***e for hire. The girl seemed more naive than my fifteen year old brother.

She stood up, brushing the dirt and grass off of her dress before she pulled up her hood, tucked her hands into her pockets, and came walking down the driveway and onto the street.

I saw her curiously turn her face towards my car, and the sunset gave me a stunning view of her face. I’d f****d, screwed, and played around with probably dozens of beautiful women— but none of them compared to her when it came to beauty.

As I watched her walk down the street away from me, I waited until she was a safe distance away before following slowly behind her.

Where the f**k is she going?

I followed behind her cautiously, sometimes taking a side street to come up behind her at a safe distance. Finally, she stopped in front of a breakfast cafe for a brief moment to pull her hood down before I watched her walk inside.

What a f*****g mystery you are, sweetheart.

I parked out front and waited a few minutes before going inside after her.

The breakfast cafe was tiny— just one long room with booths lining the walls. Blue and pink decor decorated the walls. The ugliest green tile I’d ever seen was on the wall behind the service counter, and the staff seemed to be rushing around.

I made my way to a booth at the opposite side of the cafe, where I could still see her where she sat alone in the booth near the restrooms. A few tables full of families were between us, but if I rested my back against the window and propped my feet up in the booth, I could turn my head to the left and have a perfect view of her face.

What the absolute f**k am I doing?

Fuck, I didn’t even know. All I knew was I was mesmerized by her. I was f*****g Slater Lucci, for f**k’s sake. I’d never chased a woman in my entire f*****g life.

But there’s a first for everything.

A waitress with huge curly hair walked up to her, a smile on her red lips. She seemed genuinely happy to see her.

“Morning, Evie girl,” she cheered. When Evelyn turned to face her and the waitress saw the bruises on her face, her expression softened.

“Rough night for him, honey?”

Her beautiful, high pitched soprano sounded clearly over the chatter. “Yeah. I’m fine, Becca. Can I have a coffee and a cream cheese bagel, please?”

“Sure, honey. I’ll be right back.”

Evie went back to staring at her phone on the table, a dreadful expression on her face, as the same waitress walked across the cafe to take my order.

“Morning, sir!” She cheered. She took in my expensive clothing and her eyes widened. Yeah, yeah. I’m going to tip you. “What can I get for you?”

“Coffee.” I said emotionlessly. She nodded, not suspecting my tone to be so bland, and scurried off to fetch it.

I watched her for the next hour. She sipped on her coffee, and I watched, completely engrossed at the way her full, peach colored lips looked when they met her coffee mug. Every once in a while, she’d take a small piece off of the bagel, but she didn’t seem too interested in it. She spent most of her time rubbing soothing circles on her temples with her thin, pale fingers— her eyes closed as if her head hurt.

What’s troubling you, baby?

“Sir? Are you ready for your check?”

I snapped out of my ogling and looked over at the waitress coldly. “Yeah. I want hers too, please.” I nodded in Evie’s direction.

I watched Evie as the waitress chuckled. “She is a very pretty girl, isn’t she?” She smiled. “I’ll be right back with both checks.”

About the time the waitress brought the bill back, I quickly threw a hundred in the folder and slid it back out. I watched as the woman teetered over to Evelyn to check on her.

“No thanks, Becca. I’ll just take my check please.”

“No check today, kid,” the woman told her. “Someone already picked it up.”

Evelyn’s head snapped up, looking around at every booth, trying to find out who would do something like that for her.

That’s when her beautiful golden eyes landed on mine, and her eyes widened slightly.

She turned to the waitress. “Thanks.”

The woman went to tend to her other tables, and Evelyn got up and started walking her fine ass straight towards me.

Fuck.

My eyes traveled across her entire frame as she approached me. Without her jacket on, I could see that not only was her face beautiful— she had a body I’d imagined only in my f*****g dreams. Her cheap blue sundress with white flowers on it clung to her in all the right places. She had perfect, perky, c-cup t**s and a tiny waist. Flat stomach. Thin, creamy legs. Tight little body. She was a small thing— maybe only five feet tall and barely a hundred pounds.

I snapped out of it when she sat in the booth seat across from me, and the smell of strawberry shampoo wafted into my face.

Her golden eyes were right in front of me now.

“You’re the guy who saved me last week.”