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Home / Mafia / Indebted to the Mafia King / Kabanata 131 - Kabanata 140

Lahat ng Kabanata ng Indebted to the Mafia King: Kabanata 131 - Kabanata 140

302 Kabanata

Dreams

TonyI adjust the zoom lens on the camera, and the street below snaps into focus. Four twenty-somethings stroll down the sidewalk in the summer sunset, talking loudly to each other. The lankiest one says something that makes the bleached-blonde leader punch him. The final two laugh. With another twist, I zoom in on the only one we care about. Teo—Veniamin, as these fucks know him—cocks a fist back to hit the lanky one again, but the leader shakes his head. Together, the four of them enter a crappy electronics shop we’ve learned is yet another Russian front. I sit back from the camera.“How’s it look?” Mikey asks.Like Dante sent another kid just about Seb’s age into the goddamn lion’s den without thinking. The phantom Seb in my mind shakes his head. He talks less than he used to, since the funeral, but I can’t fucking get him to go away.“They look like besties.” I shrug. “’Nother guy in the group got hit. Not Teo.”Mikey nods. The sunset makes him look even older than he is, highligh

The Old Place

EleniI lean back in my seat and groan. “Too…much…food…”Gianna laughs. “Once you give birth, I’m getting you into pole. Even if you never perform, it burns calories like a mother—”Mama starts to frown, and Gianna stops. I laugh. She’s been working on her language.“Well, it’ll let you eat as much as you want,” Gianna says quickly.Mama nods. “If you don’t perform, I think that would be all right with Dante.”Gianna launches into a list of how many dancers Dante has gone out with, seemingly just to scandalize Mama, and I look around the homey surroundings. To celebrate the end of my midterms, Mama suggested we go to Zorba’s Tavern, a warm, blue-and-white-walled little restaurant back in the old neighborhood. We used to come here every time Christos or I got all As in school. I tried to explain I didn’t have my grades back yet, but she was adamant. She couldn’t celebrate my last grades, or me getting into Tandon, so we were going to Zorba’s.“Well,” Mama says. “I suppose some…standard

By the Balls

EleniSomething thuds upstairs, and even though we know it’s probably one of the other families in the building, Mama and I spook and scurry out. She nearly drops the keys as she locks the back door behind us, but by the time we emerge back onto the street, we’re laughing.“Is it really like this for you every day, zouzouni?” she asks breathlessly.I gulp down air. Do I tell her about the nights I spend sitting awake, terrified? How often do I kiss Dante and think it might be the last time? How the heartbeat that made my baby real scares the absolute shit out of me because that’s a whole, real person I’m responsible for?“Yes and no,” I say. “Should we find Gianna?”Mama peers at me, then nods. She knows I’m hiding something. For her sake, all I care about is that she doesn’t press.NTU. Hm.We find Gianna nursing three cups of coffee at a table outside the shop she mentioned. She waves as we approach.“See? You were here the whole time.” She gestures at the other two drinks.Mama gri

Sneaky

Dante“Quickly.” I hang up the phone and sit back down at my desk. I don’t know what the hell made El call me like that, but I know the driver headed her way needs to move fast. Anything that scares her, scares me.Which means it’s a bitch of a time trying to get my eyes to refocus on the work I was doing right before she called. I tap my fingers on the top of my desk, hum a song to myself, play music out loud. Nada. Finally, I give up, pour myself a glass of scotch, and take a long sip. Peaty. Rich. Steadying, thank God. When I sit back down at my desk, the words don’t swim off my computer screen.Windows crowd the monitor, all different transcripts of different reports from Teo since he’s gone under. He said something when he came out this last time that scratched an itch in my brain, and I’m trying to figure out where that itch came from.Klondike Paper. Apparently, it’s the name of an office the Russians control, one they don’t intend to let Teo into for a while yet. But I swear i

Belief

EleniWhen Dante kisses me, for a split second, I think about pulling away. The fear and anger of my encounter with Henry still courses under my skin. There’s so much to be scared about, enemies closing in from all angles.Dante bites my lip, and endorphins flood my system. This is why I’ve stayed. He makes me feel like no one ever has. Not because he knows how to touch me, but becauseI can melt into his arms, let everything go, and trust he’ll pick up the pieces afterward. I have nothing to fear with Dante.And he promised. So I’ll trust him.I throw my arms around his neck. “I want to listen tonight.”He sweeps me off my feet in a bridal carry. I yelp.“Shush,” he reprimands. “Tonight, you hear me, pet.”I bite my own lip as he jogs up the stairs. The heavy mantle of submission steals over me, crushing the remaining fears from my system.Dante veers into our bedroom and deposits me on the bed. “Do you particularly like these clothes?”I look down at the blouse and jeans I wore to di

Something to Look Forward To

DanteAfter El falls asleep, I sneak out of bed. Henry might not scare me, but that doesn’t mean I don’t need to do anything about him. Just that she doesn’t need to worry about it.God, she’d kill me if I ever said that to her face.This is just a temporary measure, I promise myself as I change in a dark closet and leave the room. Just until she’s no longer pregnant.Yeah, that’d stop her from kicking my ass. I shut the bedroom door behind me with a sigh, then call Tony.He shows up twenty minutes later with Mikey in tow, both of them looking exhausted. I raise an eyebrow.“Teo needed an angel on his shoulder,” Tony says by way of explanation.“You call in a replacement team?” I ask.“You think I dropped out of school after kindergarten?” Tony replies.Mikey just nods and walks in with him. Without conferring, the three of us amble into my office and shut the door behind us. Only once I’ve poured everybody a drink and sat in the leather chair behind my desk do I begin explaining.“Wi

Bad Feeling

EleniThe next morning, my vibrating phone wakes me before my alarm. I shoot up in bed, immediately certain Dante snuck out, that he’s captured or bleeding out at Henry’s feet.He lays in bed next to me, his dark hair rumpled. As I watch, he rolls over to reveal a dent from the pillowcase in his cheek. I exhale slowly and pick up my phone.Mama’s calling. I glance at Dante one last time, then grab a robe and pad out into the hallway.“Hi, Mama,” I say.“I am very disappointed,” she says severely.I rub my eyes, check the time. It’s barely six-thirty. What could I have done already?“I told you I was going out to Staten Island,” I say.“Pah.” She huffs a breath. “You think I’m worried about that? No, zouzouni, I want to know why I just had to find out the date of your wedding from some woman”—she says the word like it’s poison—“showing up at the door to ask you about something called a save-the-date. Am I not your mama anymore?”“What?” I freeze at the top of the stairs. “We don’t have

Brigadier

DanteI walk up to a shuttered bodega. Pieces of the paper sign flap in the wind, declaring that I can get “sacks” and “dinks” inside. New York City flows around this abandoned piece of itself, not even glancing at it.Perfect.I slide into the alley beside it, unlock the chain on the back door, and step inside. Tony and Cal Duncan stand in the flickering light of the ex-backroom, now lined with knives, cattle prods, ropes, and any other torture instrument a Saint has come up with in the last decade.“I was wondering if you’d ever show your fine face.” Cal smiles. “I called you as soon as I heard.”“I had other business,” I answer crisply. “What did you catch?”“A tuna, if I do say so myself.”Tony rolls his eyes. “Brigadier. No sign of Fyodor, but the place was obviously important to them.”Someone grunts just past the thin door that separates us from the main room. I smile. Brigadier means decent information.“Who has him?” I ask.“One of my boys wanted first touch.” Cal grins. “Sim

Adaptation

EleniI walk out of Tandon, my hands sore from furiously typing for the last two hours, and blink in the sunlight. No sign of Dante. My stomach sinks.“Have you heard from him?” I ask Amando.He shakes his head. I reach for my phone.And a slick, black coupe pulls up in front of the school. The window buzzes down to reveal Dante inside. In unison, we sigh.“Wait, why were you worried?” I ask.He glances around. “I’ll explain later. You ready for our day?”I look at the tiny car, then at the guards.“They’ll follow behind.” Dante smiles. “Come on.”I’ve never been able to say no to that smile.***I don’t know what I expected when I asked to spend the day with Dante, but I didn’t expect this. It’s a little like the day I first visited the Tandon registrar. We wander the city, shopping aimlessly. Intentionally aimlessly, I realize, like Dante’s trying to create a path no one can follow. Though that sends cold fingers of worry up my spine, I try to just enjoy him. We eat a long, late lun

Bound Together

DanteDinner at Giancarlo’s is spectacular, as always, but I can’t think about anything other than the look on Eleni’s face when she asked me to tell her where to go. Who to be. I’ve seen that look a thousand times, on a thousand different women. Even on El, when I’ve pushed her to her limits in bed. Once upon a time, I thought it was all I wanted in a partner. To be submissive, pliant, able to fit into my world. Hell, I used to think that was what I wanted out of Eleni.But things have changed, she’s right. She’s just wrong about when. Everything changed the moment she told me why to get a gyro. Again when I took her to bed. A third time when I came back from being shot and discovered she’d whipped my crew into shape. Maybe I used to be a Dante who would’ve taken that open request for an answer and written my own will onto it. I can’t anymore. Not with her.We drive back to the house on Staten Island in silence. El’s still quiet as we walk inside, past the guards.“Go to the bedroom,

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