One Night Stand with a Mafia Boss

Chapter 2: The Name behind the Face

For the next two days, Sofeey tried her best to pretend that her life hadn't been turned upside down by a total stranger named Vince.

The next morning she arrived at work. She worked at the Publishing house, she worked really hard - she edited manuscripts that no one will notice she did, smiled and laughed with her coworkers like nothing was different. But every few hours, her mind would go to the previous night - to his voice, the warmth of his hands on her body, his shadow in her doorway before sunrise.

It should have been a night. A reckless and wrong decision, a secret only her would carry quietly till it fades into memory.

But no, it didn't fade.

If anything actually, it is the thoughts that remained running in her head - the thoughts of what had happened the previous night or maybe the warmth she felt in her chest whenever she remembers the way he was looking at her, like he was memorizing her face.

By the next morning, looking at herself in the mirror, she asked herself if it was all real or maybe she had imagined them.

She saw his face - on a television screen across town.

She was sitting in the cafe below her office, waiting for her usual coffee when the breaking news alert flashed across the TV gaining her attention. The caption read: "Suspected Organized Crime Leader Avoids Indictment".

Sofeey's looked at the TV slowly with no intention of putting her attention - until the photo appeared.

Her heart stopped.

The man in the black suit, coming out from a courthouse, with bodyguards surrounding him and cameras flashing at him - it was him.

Vince

But the reporter seemed to call him something else:

|"Vincent Moretti, alleged head of the Moretti crime family, walks freely today after prosecutors failed to secure key testimony...."

Sofeey's cup of coffee slipped from her hand, hitting the floor.

People turned staring at her. She said a quick but quiet apology, she bent down to pick up her cup slowly, but her hands were shaking nonstop.

She was shocked, the broadcast kept playing but didn't enter her ear. She wasn't focused. She was lost. The image and broadcast was already stamped in her mind.

The man who kissed her the other night like he could rewrite her heartbeat..... was the most feared and terrified name in New York underworld.

-----

The rest of the day went by in a hurry.

That night, Sofeey had arrived home, she sat quietly in her apartment and turned all lights off, with thoughts running through her mind, her heart racing, she opened her laptop - she was searching his name. The results felt like a nightmare: Racketeering. Arms trafficking. Extortion. Homicide.

They were rumors, mostly, all of it - nothing ever proven. But the pattern and results were clear: wherever Vincent Moretti went, someone disappeared or someone paid.

She closed the laptop immediately, her nausea state rising.

She should have been terrified though. Or maybe called the police or something, or at least tell someone. But part of her, wanted to say nothing - she kept remembering the treacherous part, the way he had brushed her hair off her face, the way he looked at her like only her existed, he just didn't fit the monster the internet had described for her.

Which one was real?

A knock on her door made her leave her thoughts.

It was low at first. Then it grew louder. Three knocks.

Her pulsed rised like her heart was about to come out of her mouth.

No one had ever come to her apartment without telling her. No one at all even knew where she lived except her coworkers and her ex - and neither of them would knock like that at all.

She went closer to the door and looked through the peephole.

Nothing.

She was scared, she held her breath, waiting.

After she waited a minute more, she exhaled shakily, trying to convince herself it might be one of her neighbors. But when she turned towards the kitchen, she froze.

Through the window, across the street, a black SUV parked by the curb. The windows were tinted, engines running.

A chill ran through her spin.

Immediately she shut the blinds and walked away.

For the next one hour, she sat on her couch, she switched off the lights, listening to the sound of rain. Everywhere was silent. The SUV didn't move. Neither did she.

Finally, feeling weak and tired. She must have dozed off, because when she woke up it was already morning - and the streets were empty.

She tried her best to laugh it off. Maybe she was being overdramatic. Or maybe it was just a coincidence.

But when she walked outside from work that morning, her heart skipped again.

The SUV was parked across the street.

----

By the end of the day, she had fear written all over her body. She just couldn't focus at work. Everytime someone had entered the office, she flinched. And when her boss asked her if she was okay, she lied.

By evening, she had made up her mind to confront it. She said to herself - she wasn't going to let fear get the better of her.

She waited until rush hour, then walked into a side street that was near her apartment. The SUV flowed her - slowly, deliberately.

"Alright" she said under her breath. "Enough is enough".

She turned around, her heart racing and steeped out of the curb just as the passenger door opened.

A man got out of the car. He was tall, with broad shoulders. Black coat. Sunglasses.

"Sofeey", he said quietly.

She froze. He knew her name.

And then he took off his glasses.

"Vince?"

His expression was soft, almost apologetic. "You shouldn't have seen that SUV. I wasn't trying to scare you".

"You were following me". Her voice shakes despite all her effort to sound calm. "Why?"

"Because someone else was".

He walked closer toward her, his tone low but urgent. "There are people who saw us together that night. That puts you in big danger".

She stared at him, with fear in her heart. "Danger? From who?"

"The kind of people who are desperate - who would use you to get to me".

Her heart raced. "Why me? I don't even know you!"

He gave a faint smile. "Exactly. And that's what makes you vulnerable".

She steeped back. "You can't just show up out of nowhere after disappearing and expect me to believe __"

"Sofeey". His voice was hard, low but commanding. "I'm not asking you to believe me, am seriously not. I'm asking you to stay alive".

Something in his voice - cut through her anger.

He looked around the street once more, then looked at her. "Pack a bag. You're coming with me".

Her mouth opened with shock. "You can't be serious".

"You don't have a choice".

She folded her arms, forcing herself to look directly into his eyes. "You think you can just order me around because you what exactly - own half the city?"

His jaw tightened, his fist was firm. At that moment, he look changed, he wore an aggressive face - she saw the man from the news, the one whose power terrified everybody in the city even politicians. But then he sighed, and his expression changed - softer, warmer

"I don't want to hurt you, Sofeey. But I can protect you from who wants to hurt you".

She hesitated for a while. Her instinct told her not to trust him. But beneath the fear, something else was there - a feeling of the way he looked at her that night, not like the man she saw on the news fierce and powerful but like a man holding something fragile.

She took a heavy breath. "If I go with you..... will you tell me the truth? Every detail about who you really are?"

He was silent. Then he nodded. "Yes".

----

She packed one bag - her clothes, phone charger, a few essential materials - then locked her apartment behind her. As she entered into the back of his SUV, the city lights faded past the window, and she kept wondering to herself what the hell she was doing.

"You are making a very big mistake", she murmured. "I don't belong in your world".

He looked at her then, his eyes fierce but his voice soft. "You didn't belong in that bar either. But you walked in anyway".

The SUV sped through the city, through the night, heading uptown. Rain began falling again, hitting softly on the window.

Sofeey turned back, watching the city disappear behind them like it never existed, her reflection was faint in the dark window. Her old life thoughts ran through her mind - safe, small, dull - and she knew somehow, she'd never see it again.

Beside her, Vince's phone rang. He answered in a very low voice she couldn't fully hear. But she could only her one word - that reached her ears before he hung up.

| "Eliminate them".

Her heart paused.

He caught her looking at him, his eyes were sharp. For a moment there, neither of them could speak.

Then he said quietly, "You asked for the truth right?. You're about to see it".