Page 2 of Bound to the Mafia King

The coke that I had brought burned a hole in my pocket as I lied to my brother. The only person I felt like I could trust in this world. He also happened to be the only family that I had left on this God-forsaken land.

“I’m only checking.” I heard some ruffling in the background before I heard the tiny little laughs of my nephew and niece on the other side. He whispered something to them that I couldn’t quite make out. “Valerio, I need to go, it’s bedtime for the kids. But our conversation is not over. Not by a long shot.”

I sighed dramatically, but internally I was thanking the heavens for sparing me. “I will see you when I’m home. The jet is due for take-off tomorrow morning. Give Miguel my love and tell Sav I said hi.”

“I will.” And then he hung up.

My brother had created this little life for himself where he could find peace. I envied that, and I envied the fact that he wasable to escape from the harshness of our world. I, on the other hand, stayed rooted in the chaos.

Much like the storm that raged outside the car, my life had been the same for the past year. Most storms had an eye where, for just a moment, you were allowed reprieve. You were given some time to catch your breath and to try and find your bearings. But not for me. I never got the chance; my world was flooded and had been wading through monstrous waves.

The coke in my pocket burned my trousers as my mind screamed for solace. That was what the drugs gave me. They offered me a momentary peace where I didn’t need to think, feel, or do. I could simply just be.

I started the car and pulled away from the warehouse, my mind completely engulfed in the frenzy of thoughts and emotions that bubbled up every once in a while.

I pushed the car harder as the rain pelted down heavily. The thunder roared, shaking the window of my McLaren as I moved down the dark road. My heart clenched as images of past experiences with my father resurfaced in my mind.

He had embedded this code and told me of honor, dignity, and respect. Only for him to turn around and stab us all in the back. I didn’t lack anything in my life growing up. Whatever I wanted was brought to me by the snap of a finger. But the fundamental thing every child needed was love from their parent. And I guess that was what I chased as an adult. It was what I sought after when it came to my father. I wanted him to fill the vacant hole that had been left by the scars of my childhood.

My father thought love was a weakness, and my mother, well, she loved us in her way. But I guess at a point in time it all just got too much for her. The abuse from my father and the callousness from the life she had been plunged into. There were many times I had blamed her and been angry with her forleaving. But it wasn’t until I truly lived and became an adult that I saw what this world did to the soft women in it.

I pressed the gas even harder and pushed the car as hard as I could. It felt like I was trying to run from something, but the problem wasn’t in the physical world. It was in my mind. I was battling with my own demons, and I didn’t know how to slay them.

It had been almost 2 years, and I had been trying to reconcile what had happened.

I pressed the pedal down even harder. The car zoomed through the air. My ears popped from the pressure and my heart increased in speed as my eyes glared at the dark road ahead. The blood in my veins gushed past my chest, filtering the adrenaline throughout my entire system.

You are my son…

You are my legacy…

It’s okay, it won’t hurt…

This is a service to the brotherhood…

My father’s voice echoed in my mind loudly as it bounced off the walls of my skull. With each passing second the air grew heavier in my lungs, the voice only getting louder and louder, until…

The steering wheel jerked left and then right as the car aquaplaned and veered off the road. Everything happened so quickly it may as well have been in the blink of an eye.

The McLaren went airborne for a few seconds, heading right for a fence pole by the side. I closed my eyes, already expecting the worst, which inevitably came only a few seconds later.

My body jerked forward, but the seatbelt pulled me back into my seat. My head bobbed against the side of the car just before shards of glass erupted from the windscreen and sputtered all over. The rest was all but a blur.

The last thing I remembered was making eye contact with the most gorgeous pair of green eyes that I had ever seen. The world fell away, and all my mind could focus on was her sweet voice that carried into my ears.

“You’re going to be okay. I will make sure of it.”

My eyes shifted lower to her neck, where I saw an intricate little pendant that hung from her neck. It was in the shape of what seemed to be a heart with a small diamond in the center.

“You’re going to be okay,” she said again. Her voice was like sweet honey to my ears. Was she an angel? Had she come to take me to the afterlife? “Stay alive for me, please.”

And then it all went black.

Chapter Two

Valerio

The first thing that I noticed when I woke up was the scent of antiseptic that filtered into my nose. It was sharp, and burned the sensitive parts of my flesh. I tried to move my arm but, for some reason, it felt heavy, like there was something weighing on it.

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