Trapped In A Mafia Maze

CHAPTER THREE

Dante had rushed out of the bathroom, put on clothes and sped, in his Ferrari, down to his father's mansion immediately the name “Isabella Moretti” was mentioned.

Isabella had been his first love and, quite frankly, his only love. They'd known each other due to slight affiliations between their two families. They were still teenagers, then, but although Dante was 6 years younger than Isabella, his maturity and early blooming body had attracted her to him. They'd been in love, and there were even talks of an arranged marriage being whispered around the two families, until Isabella had decided that the mafia life was too dangerous for her, and had fled to another part of New York.

Dante hadn't seen her since, and so when his father mentioned her name, there was only one place he was headed: to her.

He arrived at his father's house to see, in the massive living room, his father seated on a large couch - smiling broadly - and Tito, Don Moretti's step son and successor, and then, of course, Isabella. She was as beautiful as ever, her skin glowing, her body as full as ever and her eyes still as charmingly blue as they always were.

“Hey, Bella,” he said, smiling slightly as he sat. Her response, however, was cold; a brief wave before she looked away. Damn.

“Well, son, I'm glad you're here,” his father said, “and although I gave you a debrief over the phone, I'd like you to get the details from Tito, here.”

Tito cleared his throat, rather impatiently, and began to speak:

“Thank you, Don Romano. This is the thing, Dante. Our father, Don Moretti, was assassinated last night..”

He paused to see if it would be greeted with any emotion from Dante but all he got was a straight face. The young man really was heartless. However, he continued:

“And, as I'm sure you know, there will be a long line of people - rivals, traitors within the organization and even feds - who want to swoop in on us and kick us in the balls while we're down.. So we want, rather, we need your help.. Your protection, your umbrella, your funding.. All we can get is all we need, because I just took over from my father and I'll be damned if I'm letting the family fall on my watch or in my own lifetime. So, although she hates the idea, I and the entire family would be willing to wed Isabella to you, in return for all these.”

Dante nodded his head, drinking it all in, before speaking.

“Any word on who killed your father?” He asked.

“Nothing, yet,” Tito said, shaking his head, “But we're working overtime to make sure that we find whoever did it. And make them pay.”

“Mm.. Well, I know how these contractual marriages work and I know this would have a clause somewhere in it that says that after a certain number of years, we can divorce,” Dante pointed out.

Tito nodded his head, “Yes, that is indeed how it works.. But I know you're not a man who likes to waste words, so what are you getting at?”

Dante looked, briefly, at Isabella who looked away again before refocusing on Tito:

“If I help you find and kill the man or men or even the fuckin army that took out your father… The contract becomes indefinite..”

At this point, Isabella screamed:

“Dante, you bastard! No way that's happening! No way! I'm not some commodity that you can just switch up terms on! Have you no conscience?”

Her outburst was unexpected by everyone but Dante, who smiled slightly before speaking again:

“Father, Tito.. Give us the room, please..”

The two men, stunned at Isabella's reaction, gladly obliged. The two of them clearly needed to work things out.

When he was sure that all was clear, Dante spoke:

“Did you really think I would let you go again? Let you walk out on me again?”

“I don't care what you would let or not let, Dante.. You will not trade me like this,” was the reply.

“You're leaving me no choice, Bella, if I let you, you're going to leave, in the end. And I can't have you do that to me again..”

Bella looked at him and went silent. Dante was a part of her life that she'd wanted, so badly, to be rid of. But she'd never been able to. She thought about him often and remembered how things had been between them as teenagers. It was a wonderful time, between them, and although she'd constantly told herself that Dante was the past, seeing him before her, with that assuredness about him that she'd always loved, she could feel her belly tingling.

Finally, she stopped trying to be tough.

“I didn't want to leave you, Dante, you should know this.. You know I loved you..”

“Loved?” Dante asked, provocatively, trying to see what her reaction would be like.

Isabella exhaled loudly before replying, “It's been years, Dante.. I've felt a lot of things for a lot of men since you and I.. Seeing you again brings back nothing but good memories and a unique feeling of.. Joy.. And I don't know if it's reasonable to call it love.. So I really can't answer your question.. But I can tell you why I left.. I left because of the guns, the killing, the violence and because of this..”

As she said ‘this', she spread her arms. Dante looked around the room, wondering what she meant.

“What?”

“This, Dante! Sitting in houses built off blood money and deciding people's fates! It's too much power for a man to have! Any man! And dad didn't listen to me, and now he's dead..”

Mentioning her dad reopened the fresh wound of his passing, and she broke down into tears and started crying again. Dante, unused to emotion but well aware of how to deal with outbursts of it, calmly got up out of his chair and walked around to her to sit by her.

When he wrapped an arm around her waist, she succumbed to his touch and soon she was grappling him tightly. For the first time, Dante felt Isabella's breasts pressing against him and it felt oh, so good.

“Damn, Dante, the woman is crying and you're thinking about her boobs.”

When she calmed herself, he spoke to her:

“Listen, Bella.. I'm sorry about your dad, and I promise, I'll do whatever it takes to find who killed him..”

“At a price, though, right? You'll want me in return, right?” She asked sarcastically.

“Don't you want me?” Dante asked back.

And, at this point, Bella had nothing more to say. Dante moved in for a kiss and she let him. Their lips locked, as did their hands. The agreement had been silently settled: They would indeed get married.

***

At the same time, someone was arriving in the city at New York City Airport.

He walked through “Arrivals” with a blue hat, a matching jean jacket, blue jean pants and pure white kicks. He pulled a travel bag behind him and he had a backpack as well.

Outside the airport, he walked for a bit before a ride pulled up in front of him. The driver wound the front passenger mirror down and asked:

“Are you Mr Marco DeLuca?”

“Exactly,” the fashionista from the airport replied before getting into the car. The driver immediately started to drive away.

“Coming for a visit, sir?”

“Actually,” Marco said while tenderly holding a picture in his right hand, “I'm coming home..”