The Mafia's Hostage

| 6 | Genovese.

E M E L I A N A

"Get up." I hear a hoarse voice say followed by a rough hand on my arm, pulling me up from my seat. I was trying to take a nap after about 20 minutes of being the car but I must've slept for a long time because it is already dark outside, a mixture of black and a midnight blue, blending into the night sky. Did they, drug me?

Fuck, the pancakes...

Luca is the one who woke me- sorry viciously ripped me from my nap, taking me out of the car and onto the hard concrete ground, making me wonder where Adriano went.

I'm still a little tired from my nap so it takes a while for me to adjust to everything.

"Where are- Holy...shit." I gape as I stare at the giant mansion standing in front of me. There are about 14 steps at the entrance of the mansion, the entire structure painted white and illuminated by golden lights-

"Start walking." Luca shoves me with a hard object, one I know all too familiarly, rudely interrupting me from my analysing.

We walk up the steps quickly, Luca pushing me with his gun, insisting on me walking faster.

I look up to the giant wooden doors at the entrance and notice the two men standing at either side of each door. They are dressed in black tailored suits, as well as black silk ties, tucked into their jackets.

"That her?" One of the men speaks with a thick Italian American accent, pointing at me as we stop in front of the doors.

"Yeah, open up the doors will ya?"

With that both of them reach for the giant chrome handles and push the doors open, making way for us to pass.

"He's waiting for you." The other man says before the doors close behind us.

The house is even more beautiful than it is on the outside. It is a bit similar to our mansion, except there are a lot more gold and bronze accents to the entire house. A giant chandelier dangles over the entrance of the house, with small crystals being illuminated by the bright bulbs. Expensive paintings adorn the amber-colored walls, complimenting the pristine goldness of the floor tiles.

"Monté," Luca says behind me just as I notice a tall man with a navy blue suit on standing by the edge of the hallway.

"Luca, back already I see..." The man smiles. He is very handsome and has a kind face, he doesn't look like the scary type and stares down at me almost with wonder.

"Where's Calvino?" Luca asks the man and at the sound of that name, all the blood drains from my face. No, no this can't be happening. There's no way this is happening. How could I have missed this?

"I'll take you to him," Monté responds and begins to walk through the hallway.

I feel like fighting back, turning away and running for my life. The name Enriqué Calvino brought back so many bad memories. He is an evil man, almost like my Father but worse. He is one of the most feared men in Illinois, one of the most ruthless and merciless. The new Don of the Genovese Famiglia.

We enter the large living room and find about 20 men standing around, all dressed in the same black suits, jazz music playing in the background. Once we walk in, all their attention turns to us, most of them staring at me with curiosity and unfortunately lust, which makes my skin crawl. Most of these men look about the age of 30 or older so I am a little bit creeped out.

"Ahh, it's about time Mariano." A ragged voice sounds in the room as I freeze in place recognizing the man's voice.

Okay. this is really happening.

The man, who dressed in a pure white suit is seated on a black leather couch, crossing his legs as he holds onto a short transparent glass which has a light brown, almost reddish liquid inside it.

His face has aged since the last time I saw him. His white hair is more prominent on his dark beard as well as his hair. Wrinkles have covered his face, making him look like a shriveled up prune and dark bags surrounded his eyes. Possibly the outcome of consuming so much cocaine and heroin.

"I got rid of Santiago and got the girl just as you asked," Luca speaks and shoves me forward. I gasp as I nearly stumble onto the floor but thankfully regain my balance. I look up and I'm immediately met by grey, cold and empty eyes staring into my own.

"Emeliana Delassaro. Daughter of Santiago and Elena Delassaro..." Calvino speaks as he walks up to me, eyeing me, making me feel uncomfortable in my own skin.

I remember what Luca said about keeping quiet so I decided to do just that and not let this monster get to me.

"Such a pleasure to have you in our presence Miss Delassaro." He says, reaching for my hand and planting a sloppy kiss on it.

"Do you know why you're here?" He asks me, his alcoholic breath hitting my face making me want to gag.

I shake my head no.

"It's okay my little flower, you are free to speak."

"No," I tell him, trying to hide the fear in my voice with whatever boldness I had in me.

He smiles and hands his glass to one of the men standing by. He then gets out a cigar out of his jacket pocket and a box of matches.

He lights one match and places it at the tip of the cigar, lighting it before putting it in his mouth and taking a huge breath of smoke.

"Your Father... Was a jealous man, very greedy, selfish and hateful. He betrayed our alliance and did something unspeakable... killing a Don. And therefore he had to pay with his life..." He explains, taking in another breath of smoke and blowing it in front of me. He glances behind me to Luca and sighs a bit.

"...And yours." He continues. A wave of fear overcomes my body as I shake my head. They were going to kill-

"Don't worry, we're not going to kill you... you could be of... Other uses to us." With that the men around me begin to sneer and chuckle, examining my body in ways I wish they hadn't.

Calvino walks towards me and spins me around so I can face Luca. Luca's face is hard, his full lips pressed into a small line.

"Hey Luca, have you f****d her yet?" Calvino laughs, slapping my butt forcefully resulting in me yelping in pain. The men begin to laugh at my embarrassment while I try to keep my composure, cringing in disgust as his firm hand remains on my butt.

"There wasn't any time for that... boss." Luca lets out, almost forcefully. His voice is oddly composed, but I can tell that Calvino's words made him spike up.

Why did Luca just call him Boss? He is a Genovese. He is meant to have some sort of authority in the Family since he's the son of the previous Don, as it has been in the past. I remember my Father telling me that Luca's Father died but didn't tell me how he died or if he was even killed.

"But you wanted to didn't you?" He laughs and squeezes my butt causing me to whimper.

"Let go of me you f*****g pig." I let out unintentionally causing a wave of murmurs to emerge from the men. I immediately regret my words when he spins me around and punches me square in the jaw. I scream as I fall onto the floor, painfully smacking my face on the tiles.

Here we go again.

"You will not speak to me like that little girl. You have no idea what I'm capable of doing." He growls out to me. I begin to cry once I notice the blood dripping onto the tiles as my nose and the right side of my face begin to throb.

"Get up." He commands but I simply remain on the floor... The pain is too much and it is getting to my head.

"Get the f**k up!" He yells and kicks me in the stomach, making me scream as the pain shoots through my entire body.

Taking in a deep breath, I begin to sit up, using my knees as support to get up, but cry even more when my stomach muscles contract, making the pain intensify.

"You have some nerve girl. I could have my men do horrible, atrocious things to you and make you beg for your life without even lifting a finger or breaking a sweat. You're in my house now, you're mine from now on and there isn't anything you can do about it."

I grimace at the metallic taste and smell of my own blood and cup my hand over my nose to stop it from bleeding.

"Take her to where the other women are being kept, feel free to rough her up a bit, I honestly couldn't care less, just don't bruise her face." A wave of nausea hits my head, making me feel like I am about to faint, fear churning my emotions.

Two men come around me and grab me by the arms, painfully tugging on me and holding me in place.

"No! No! L-Let go of me! Let me go!" I screech and thrash around, refusing to let these men take me anywhere. The men are surprised at my outburst and begin laughing at me as I fight for my life.

"L-Luca! Don't let them take me, please! Luca!" I begin to scream at him. I don't know why, I just felt like he is the only one who can help me. I watch as he frowns deeply at me and watches me, his hands balling up into fists as he stares at me with anger and a shred of remorse.

"Ahhh, she likes you, Mariano." Calvino coos behind me as the men continue to laugh.

I feel a hard fist collide with my stomach making me grunt and fall onto the floor again. I begin to cough harshly as my abdomen thumps sorely.

"Luca..." I whisper, trailing off as tears stream down my face.

It's no use, he won't help you...

"Why don't I take her, she's already caused you enough trouble," Luca states with a mild edginess to his voice.

Ha, in your face you pessimistic b***h.

"Fine, let him take her," Calvino says and the men instantly drop me onto the floor, my knees breaking my fall.

A rush of relief comes over me as Luca walks to me hauls me to my feet, taking me by the arm and dragging me away from the men and into a smaller room.

"Luca... W-wait... slow down..." I groan in pain as we stop walking. I begin to cough up blood loudly as I collapse onto the floor, landing on my hands as I stare at my translucent reflection on the tiles.

"Fuck..." I hear him whisper above me. He kneels and picks up my arm slowly, placing it around his neck. He then wraps one arm around my waist and the other at the back of my knees, picking me off the floor with ease. He carries me out of the room and into a wider one, which I assume is the parlor.

"Where... are you taking me?" I breathe against his chest. He ignores me and makes his way up the spiral staircase.

A few men stare at us peculiarly as we walk through a narrow hallway, lit by yellow bulbs, but Luca doesn't care; he simply walks through not even sparing them a glance. We get to a large wooden door before coming to a halt. Luca opens it with one hand and pushes the door open.

The room is massive and has a king-size bed in the middle with dark grey silk sheets. It smells amazing as well, like a mixture of cologne and smoke.

This must be his room.

He walks us over to the bed where he puts me down carefully, kneeling in front of me and beginning his examination of my face.

"Didn't I f*****g tell you not to say anything?" He grunts and lifts my chin, keeping my head up.

Any other time I would have snapped back at him. But he did warn me... Maybe I have no one to blame except myself... Maybe this is entirely my fault.

"Why don't you listen huh? Do you want to be killed?" He asks with irritation, a frown resting on his brows as he examines my nose.

"Lower your head, or else the blood will go to your throat." He positions my head and lets go of my face.

"Stay here. Do not go anywhere." He says and gets up, leaving the room.

I remain on the bed, letting my tears flow down to my cheeks as I stare down at the floor. Blood trickles down my nose and so I had to put my hand over it to control the bleeding. My throat burns because I tried to withhold my coughing and my abdomen continued to thump, adding to my pain.

What were they going to do to me? Calvino said that I should be taken to where the other women were kept, but who were they?

Then it hit me.

I bite my lip to suppress myself from sobbing and squeeze my eyes shut as I figured out what they meant.

Human trafficking.

It is something most Families did as a source of income, but mine never did that. Income was earned from mostly from the trade of drugs such as heroin, m*******a, ecstasy and pure cocaine. You'd think with so many drugs around me I would have indulged few times, but I never did... Unless my Father asked me to test if the drugs were real or they were just flour or dried leaves wrapped up in a rectangular block to resemble cocaine or m*******a.

There was also weapons trafficking which I never took part in because I hated how my Father 'tested the quality of the guns.'

But never human trafficking. The only girls around the house were the men's wives and girlfriends or women who were there to please them...

Luca comes back in a while later with a box of first aid in one hand and a small hand towel in the other. I quickly wipe my tears, but forget about the burning sensation on my right cheek causing me to wince slightly.

I watch as he walks over to me and kneels in front of me, placing the first aid box by my left. He opens it and gets out some tissues, handing them to me.

"For your nose." He says calmly and holds them out to me. I take them from him and bunch them up together, placing them on my nose.

"Thanks..." I mutter. He then gets some cotton and a bottle with a brown liquid inside it. He pops it open and places the ball of cotton over the rim of the bottle and flips it over for a second, getting the liquid on the cotton. He then gets some tweezers to hold the cotton before bringing it down on my face.

I wince as the liquid burns my skin and shift my head away from Luca's hand. He pauses and stares at me for a second.

"If you let me do it quickly then it won't hurt so much..." He lets out. His voice is softer than I expected, a side of him I never thought I'd see.

I suck in a short breath and nod for him to continue. He brings the cotton again on my face and I whimper at the pain but don't move my head, frowning as I shut my eyes and bite my bottom lip. He is careful and does everything in a tender motion, making sure it doesn't hurt as much.

Once he is done he gets a bandage and places one on my temple where the source of blood was.

"Lift your shirt." He says, and I feel an uneasiness develop in my stomach.

"W-why?"

"You were coughing up blood, I need to see how bad your bruises are to try and tell if the internal damage is minor or major." He says and begins to lift up my shirt without my permission.

"N-no I-it's not that bad." I stutter and pull my shirt back down with one hand. I don't want him to see all the scars I had...

"Damn it Emeliana, can't you see I'm trying to help you? Just lift up the shirt." He lets out with frustration but not as if he is yelling, his voice still remains calm.

I feel more tears form in my eyes as I recall a few of the painful memories I had... How I got the scars.

I move my hand to the side and let Luca lift the shirt up. He stops and stares at my stomach with an unreadable expression.

I can tell he is disgusted.

"Lie down..." He instructs and I do as he says and relax on my back.

He rolls up my shirt further, stopping beneath my bra and picks up the wet towel, placing it on my abdomen. The towel is hot and feels good against my skin, easing the pain.

"Your bleeding isn't internal... That’s a good sign, and your bruises should heal in less than a week..." Is all he says and presses the towel against my bruised skin.

"Luca?" I call him while staring at the ceiling.

"Yes?" He replies, his voice calm and relaxed.

"Why are you doing this? Helping me?"

He removes the towel and puts it on top of the first aid box, rolling my shirt back down. Once he does that I sit back up slowly and stare at him, still waiting for his answer.

"You'd die if I didn't. No one else was going to help you. Besides you're the one who asked for my help." He tells me and sighs.

"Yeah, but, I didn't think you'll actually listen... I was just scared. I'd thought you didn't care if I live or die..." I say as my eyebrows furrow. He is the same person who killed my Father, and half; if not most of my Famiglia... I have to remember that. This doesn't make him a good person.

He doesn't answer me. He simply continues to stare at me, his hazel eyes looking into my blue ones before he gets up from the floor and picks up the first aid box.

"Make yourself comfortable and try and rest." He says and begins to walk towards the door.

"Wait, b-but you didn't answer my question," I state, stopping him from the closing door.

"I don't have to answer it. Besides, I'm sure you know the answer..."

I purse my lips at his answer, before relaxing my face a bit.

"Thank you... for helping me," I say to him. He looks at me for a moment before giving me a small nod, exiting the room afterward and leaving me alone.

In his room...

His room...