Indebted to the Mafia King
Family Ties

Eleni

I blink awake to an ache in the back of my head so intense that, for a moment, I expect to see a cheap couch and smell gas like I did in the basement of Frank Lombardi's garage. But the surface underneath me is cheap vinyl, like a couch from the fifties, and I smell...salt? I run my hand over the back of my head and replace a huge bump.

Wait, I run my hand over my head? I'm not restrained. For a split second, I let myself hope I missed the fight while unconscious, that I'm already in some new safe house of Dante's. I open my eyes a crack and peek around.

No such luck. Men with guns parade through the warehouse around me. I lay on exactly the sort of couch I was picturing, which happens to be blue, against one wall. Most of the men wear T-shirts from the garage and barely ever stop touching their guns. My heart pounds. Luca has me. He...what, convinced Thano to turn on Dante? The mafia politics are too hard to follow with my head pounding louder than the drums in the Thanksgiving Day parade. As I watch, one of the guards nudges another and looks at me. The second one nods and walks away. Damn it. They realized I'm awake. I close my eyes and try to stretch out on the couch like that was a brief blink of consciousness while secretly checking for the gun I brought into Thano's. No luck. All my pockets are empty.

My heart leaps. My pockets might be empty, but my necklace is still on!

Footsteps lumber up to me and stop.

"It's cute that you think you can trick me, Ellie," Luca says. "Or do you just want our first time not to be your fault? Your ass is tempting, up in the air like that."

Anger flushes my veins. He killed Christos. He may as well have killed Baba. He's the reason Mama left. I won't let him get the better of me again.

I sit upright and fix my skirt over my knees. "It's cute that you think you can rattle me by objectifying me."

"Cute?" He makes a face at the man next to him, the guard who seemingly left the room to get him. "She thinks I'm cute."

That man laughs. Luca backhands him.

"Look at what you make me do." He grabs my chin and forces me to look at the man as a bruise forms on his cheek. "Val, get out of here before I have to castrate you to impress her."

The guard nods and scurries away, leaving me with Luca. As much as we can be left in an empty warehouse.

"What do you want from me?" I demand.

"I want you to learn your fucking place." Luca backhands me.

Pain sparks through my vision, and I tumble to my side on the couch. How did the guard stay standing? All my teeth feel loose.

"That means"-he hauls me to my feet by the lapel of my jacket-"you stop playing mafiosa and start playing docile housewife."

Rage courses through me. I've never been closer to him. "Okay."

He blinks. I lean in like I'm going for the kiss. He leers at me.

I sink my teeth into his lower lip with all the force I can muster. He rips himself back from me with a yell, and a piece of his flesh remains in my mouth. I spit it out before the taste of blood can overwhelm me and try to remember everything I know about fighting hand to hand.

Luca whips out his gun and presses it against my throat. I freeze.

"You little bitch," he hisses. "I'll end it right now. I'll fuck your corpse just as happily and toss it out to your fucking master still full of my cum."

I swallow. The metal freezes my skin.

"That's what the fuck I thought." He bashes the gun against my head.

I stumble and catch myself against a shelf. In seconds, the gun is against the back of my head. I can't move. I've failed everyone.

Luca traces a finger over my shoulder, then rips my jacket off with a sound of tearing fabric. I wince. He presses the gun against me harder, crushing my face into the metal shelf, daring me to say anything as he reaches around my front and tears my blouse open, displaying my bra for all to see.

"Move." He pulls me away from the shelf and shoves me forward.

I stumble ahead of him on numb legs. Everywhere I look, a new man is leering at my chest, laughing with his friends, saying something crude. All of them are armed.

But Dante's necklace bounces between my breasts. His voice echoes in my mind, and being seen like this is less shameful. I have nothing to be ashamed of. These men do.

Luca shoves me into a side room. "My men like the show, but I can tell you perform better in private."

I turn to him and open my mouth to retort, but he shoves the gun inside. I gag as he steps closer, shoving the weapon further down my throat.

"Think really hard about what you're going to say next, Ellie," he murmurs. "You're not the only Calimeris I know how to reach."

I blanch. Mama, he knows about Mama.

"Now you're getting it." He pats my cheek so hard they feel like small slaps.

My eyes water. If he knows about Mama, the GPS necklace doesn't mean anything. I'm not just running out the clock anymore, I'm doing whatever I must to stop him from going after her.

He pulls the gun out of my mouth, its barrel now slick with my spit, and nods. "I know a few things about your big brother too. But I have a sense you're not ready for those yet. I'll break you in a little first."

My mouth falls open. He's taunting me about killing Christos, promising details. Maybe the location of his body. Maybe awful things I'd never want to know.

"God, you really are prettier when you're not talking." He slams his fist into my gut.

All the air leaves me in one gust, and I crumple to the floor.

"By the time I come back, I want you better behaved." He spits blood on me, then steps on my hand, sending pain lancing up my arm. "If you're feeling strong enough, maybe strip for me. I know the guys would really like that." I swallow down the insults I want to scream at him and let him close the door and walk out. When I curl into myself, crying as quietly as I can manage, the air around me reeks of blood.