Ghost of my Mafia Lover

Chapter 13

I wake up in the morning and he is not by my side. I spring out of bed and look around the room. He’s nowhere in sight.

I hope he didn’t… I reach out to my book bag and then I feel for the novel. I flip through the pages searching for the yellow bookmark. As I’m thumbing through the pages, my heart is thumping at a supersonic pace.

Relief washes over me. It’s right there… The bookmark is in my bag. He didn’t steal it and run off with it.

At that moment, I hear the key and door turning. It could be him or those mafia guys.

I brace myself only armed with a blanket.

Owen opens the door and steps in the room with some food, a packet of toiletries and a new set of car keys.

We’ve got to leave, I got a new car…

“Where did you get those?” I say.

“It doesn't matter, I left them our car, I’m sure they’re going to enjoy it. I got us a camper.”

We go outside and you see an RV parked.

“You could have had any car in the world.” I say thinking of the contrast with the black Rolls Royce.

“We needed something that’s not going to attract attention.”

He goes behind the wheel, reverses and goes down the road in the RV.

“So where are we going?” I ask, as I chew into the food.

“If we need passports, we’re going to have to get into the city. And we can go anywhere in the world.” He says. “But first we’re going to have to reach the Lake House. I need to make a few calls.”

The thought of being anywhere in the world intrigues me. I’d love to be free from all the betrayal and just have a space to be able to express myself without fear of being caught. He paints this perfect image in my head as we drive through the country.

We move on the road until the next day. I feel the tension of the last night still lurking in your body.

“It’s right over here.” He indicates, slows down and puts the high beam lights on. “It’s right down here. We can spend the night.”

He gets off the tarmac and onto a dusty road on the way to the lakehouse. Is this another trick? Should I really trust him?

He drives into the darkness until we arrive at a lake. At the edge of the lake is a beautiful delicate house. It rests in silent darkness. We arrive and he gets out of the car and opens the door to the house.

I slowly take my time, hoping that this is safe. I look around the place, the moon is casting its glow over the lake.

I look back at the mountains that hide Aldin Town. That rainy city used to be my safe and happy place. Things will never be that simple again.

I look up to the house, Owen has turned on the lights and mosquitoes are visibly flying in the air as he fans them away while simultaneously clearing the dust.

I approach the door and see bullet holes around the front of the house. I step in still skeptical while he’s frantically clearing the dust on the surfaces.

“I haven’t been here in a while. It’s still the same way I left it. We should stay here till the morning.” He says as he places a mattress from the open room on the floor.

He points to the door and says, “That room is yours. I got some canned food somewhere in the kitchen… so I’ll make us something to eat.”

I get undressed and step into the dusty bathroom in the lake house. I step in the shower and feel refreshed after the bath.

I step out of the room and find Owen standing in the kitchen. He’s got something cooking and it smells incredible.

He has started a fire in the living room. The flames are crackling and the air is aromatic. He’s doing everything right as I go to sit down, mouth drooling with anticipation.

“I’m almost done. I have 5 years worth of food in the basement of this place.”

“Good forward thinking… We really needed to eat right now.”

“The good thing about wine, it never goes bad.” He pours me a glass of the French wine he’s enjoying. I relax sitting near the fire as he dishes the meal and brings it to the table. He’s made a delicious meal. I devour it and leave nothing on the plate.

“This is great. Thank you for everything.” I say looking at the clean plate and sipping on the wine in my glass.

“I love being in this place. I once thought I could retire here… But maybe one day, if I have the right person to live with I can come here.” He says looking at me with love in his eyes.

“I like it here too… But the bullet holes might be a bit over-the-top for me.” I say pointing at the holes on the side of the house.

“I was lucky to get out that day.” He says topping off his glass with more wine.

We sit and talk while the night passes. I get the book bag and take out the bookmark and hold it up. It gets his attention.

I look at the numbers one more time…and then I toss the bookmark into the flames and it goes up in smoke.

“What are you doing? We need that!” Owen says.

“Yes we do… and we will have it when we need it.” I say.

“ Why did you just do that?” He says looking at the numbers going up in flames. All his hopes of safety gone.

“I am doing this for my safety. You can always take the bookmark and run away with it.” I say. “But if you want the key, you have to take me, run with me and keep me safe. I am worth all these trillions of dollars you were talking about because I memorized the numbers.”

“I would never betray you again. I’m only going to save you.” He says. “You should trust me.”

I look out at the silent lake and back at him again. His mind is still conflicted and he doesn’t know how to feel at this moment.

I get in the bedroom and he sleeps on the couch. The night is quiet except for the mosquitoes buzzing around the room.

—

I can hear him turning on the couch. I go to him and wake him up.

“Do you have a mosquito net or something?” I say “I don’t want to catch malaria from you lakeside mosquitoes."

“I see, you just need to burn some wild grass and they’ll go away.”

He comes into my space and he lights up the wild grass. The smoke rises and it goes through the air of my room. It’s a big smoke that travels in the room. I start coughing and choking as he laughs, already used to the strong smell.

I step out and close the door. He continues to fumigate the whole house of mosquitoes with this wild grass. Before long the buzz of mosquitoes is completely eliminated.

He walks me to the door, he opens the door and the smoke has cleared.

“Thank you, it’s much better.”

“You can thank me later,” he says. He holds my gaze and I take a deep breath that brings more thoughts to my mind. Should I kiss him? I really want to.

He moves closer, his fingers brushing on my waist. His face is close to mine and his body pressed up on my chest. I feel him breathing with a gentle hunger that's making him take deep breaths.

He devours me with his lips. We dance each other into the bed, rocking and rolling on the old sheets.

The moment is cut short when we both hear the roaring on the engine a distance away. The sound is coming closer like a chopper about to land.

“We have to get out of here!” He takes the keys to the RV and puts all his things in his back pack as we scramble and run around the place.

We get to the door and get inside the RV but the car is closing in. The lights are flashing and beaming at you as it gets closer. He shouts: “That’s my truck!”

He drives in the RV but it’s no match for his truck in this terrain. The road is bumpy and the RV engine is rustic. It doesn’t take them much of an effort to surround us with guns pointing.

He lowers the truck’s windows and throws out the keys in complete surrender.

“What are you doing?” I ask him.

“There’s no use running from them anymore. We need to surrender and come back with a better plan out of this. We can’t outrun them in an RV. “

He has given up… What are they going to do to me?