My Mafia Madness 3

Chapter 1 - A Question of Loyalty

One of Dante’s many henchmen named Joe, now bruised and battered, sat hunched over in a chair seated right in the middle of a darkened room.

As he slowly began to rouse himself from unconsciousness, Joe went to open his eyes and take in his surroundings.

Strangely, his eyelids felt extremely heavy as he slowly forced them open, blinking several times to try and adjust his sights towards the darkened and blurry room he was now in.

After a moment of searching, Joe quickly realised that wherever he was appeared totally unfamiliar to him; he was in a place he did not recoignise at all.

‘Where the hell was he?’

Grunting, he went to open his mouth in an attempt to moisten his incredibly dry lips, but found it barred by a thick strip of duct tape which had been stuck over the top of his lips.

Pulling at his arms, Joe then realised just how much trouble he was in as he found them tightly bound behind his back, his ankles too, bound to the chair he was seated upon.

His heart began to pulse with fear; fear created by the uncertainty of how this would turn out for him.

It didn’t look good.

Another grunt came from beneath his taped gag as he desperately looked around the room, pulling at his bindings which appeared to be made of thick rope.

But the more he pulled, the tighter they became.

It was only then, as he turned to the left, that Joe happened to glance at the still figure seated beside him, hunched over with his eyes closed.

He immediately recoignised who it was, and he tried calling out his partner’s name from beneath the tape, to no avail.

“Mmmph!”

His attention was suddenly pulled from his unconscious partner towards a ‘click’ followed by a loud ’creaking’ sound.

A dull ray of light wafted into the room, revealing the smooth concrete walls surrounding them, as well as the disgusting floor beneath their feet.

Joe counted several figures entering the room with him before an even brighter fluro light flickered on, illuminating the room and his visitors.

Three men now stood before him, each dressed in what appeared to be expensive suits, each in a different shade of blacks and greys.

And the man standing in the middle, Don Vincenzo, was staring down at Joe with his bright amber eyes and a mischievous smirk curving the corners of his mouth upwards.

“Rise and shine.” Domenico, the man standing on the left commanded, stepping forwards and reaching out his hand.

His fingers gripped at the corner of the duct tape right before he mercilessly tore it away from Joe’s face.

“Aah!” Joe grunted angrily at him.

“Who the f**k are you? Why have you brought us here?”

As Domenico stepped back into his position, Vincenzo instead stepped forwards, looming over poor Joe in a predatory manner as he spoke down to his captive.

“I have some questions for you.” Vincenzo announced, his tone of voice filled with obvious authority as he went on.

“If you answer them correctly, you will be rewarded…”

Joe watched as the Don tilted his head to the side, ever so slightly while he spoke again.

“Refuse and there will be certain… consequences for you and your friend here.”

Vincenzo explained, gesturing towards the unconscious man seated beside Joe.

But this powerful man’s words didn’t seem to frighten Joe in the slightest.

Joe would never willingly betray his Capo, no matter how badly these men attempted to intimidate or torture him.

He was and always would be completely loyal to the Reaper.

“So, let’s see which option you choose, hmm?” Vincenzo mused.

Joe decided not to waste any more of their time and instead came right out with his choice to be disobedient.

He wasn’t saying a thing...

“You’re wasting your time here...” Joe announced as confidently as he could muster up.

“Neither of us know anything of value.”

“Is that so?”

Vincenzo challenged as his smirk grew wider and wider with each passing second.

“Well then, let’s start with something simple first, shall we?”

Turning his head to the side and nodding, the clear leader of this mysterious trio had given Domenico a silent command.

And just as he did, Domenico strolled across to grab a chair from the corner of the room, carrying it over and placing it down in front of his boss as their conversation continued.

As Vincenzo unbuttoned his jacket suit and sat himself down, he smiled menacingly.

“So, tell me...” he prompted.

“What’s it like working for the infamous Reaper of New York City, hmm?”

But Joe’s face remained free of expression as he replied.

“Like I said, you’re getting nothing from me. So don’t bother wasting your time.”

The third unknown man took a step forward as he gave a verbal suggestion to his Don.

“You want me to loosen him up a bit, boss?”

Vincenzo never once took his eyes from Joe as he quickly responded with his hand held up into the air; a signal for silence.

“That’s alright, Nicholas. I’m sure he’ll be more than willing to talk soon enough.” Vincenzo mused confidently.

“Perhaps what’s needed here... is a change of topic.”

Joe’s brows creased inwards with confusion as his captor went on, casually leaning forward and resting both his arms on the tops of his knees.

“Let us talk about something else instead...”

The Don made sure to leave a suitable spaced gap between the first and last parts of his sentence, drawing it out a little for effect.

“…perhaps we could discuss the beautiful woman accompanying Dante everywhere more recently... Alexa Myers, isn’t it?”

For a split-second Joe’s eyes widened, although he was quick enough to turn his head away in an attempt to hide it from view.

Now one by one, questions began to circulate over and over within his head at the mention of Alexa’s name...

Who the hell were these men?

Why were they mentioning Alexa?

What was this all about in the first place?

And more importantly, how did they know so much?

“Where on Earth did Dante snag such an innocent creature, I wonder?” Vincenzo queried playfully.

But Joe kept his head down, choosing not to speak a response.

And of course by now, Vincenzo’s patience was wearing dangerously thin.

He would get information out of these two men no matter what methods of torture it took.

“Come on now, start talking.” Vincenzo spoke with a grin.

“Tell me everything there is to know about Alexa Myers.”

But Vincenzo cut in, feigning ignorance on this particular subject.

“I’m sorry, who’s Alexa Myers?”

Joe was clearly challenging his captor; a very dangerous idea in his current situation.

Upon hearing this Vincenzo’s amber eyes narrowed for a moment, just as a soft groan came from his second prisoner, seated right beside Joe.

Also tied to a chair of his own and with duct tape over his mouth too was another one of Dante’s henchmen named Cooper.

After three long hours of being unconsciousness, it appeared that he was finally coming to.

Joe glanced sideways at Cooper, clearly concerned for his friend and partner’s wellbeing in this rather unfortunate situation.

Cooper began blinking and fighting to adjust his blurred vision, due to the brightened room they were now seated inside.

The fluorescent lights positioned on the ceiling were quite powerful in their level of brightness. Perhaps too powerful.

Trying to open his mouth in an attempt to speak, Cooper immediately frowned upon noticing the thick strip of duct tape stuck over his mouth.

He went to lift his hand up to tear it away, but then too realised he could not move his arms or legs from their current position.

Cooper had been restrained, bound to his chair by his wrists and ankles using a thick rope, just like Joe who was seated beside him.

Suddenly, Cooper could feel his heart rate rapidly increasing with each passing second as fear snuck its way into his mind.

A voice quickly pulled him from his concerned thoughts.

“Looks to me like these two stronzo’s (assholes) are choosing to do things the hard way, boss...” Nicholas announced menacingly.

As Nicholas spoke aloud, he casually began cracking his knuckles and neck, in a clear show of power and dominance.

One meant to frighten both Joe and Cooper, or in the very least intimidate them as he added his next comment.

“And we know how much fun that’s gonna be.” he added, grinning devilishly from ear to ear.

Joe watched as Domenico moved across towards the other side of the room and then picked something up from the table positioned up against a wall.

From where both he and Cooper were seated, they couldn’t quite get a clear view of what it was he now had in his hand.

And of course, they began to panic, struggling pointlessly against their rope restraints.

Cooper’s words came out as nothing but groans and grunts from beneath the tape covering his mouth as his eyes went wide with terror.

In truth both Joe and Cooper needed to make a choice right here and now.

One that would either mean life or death for the both of them.

Either they tell this man what he wanted to know about their boss and perhaps be set free as a reward for it...

or...

They could choose to remain loyal to their Don, refusing to assist their captors in any way, shape or form. And in turn risk losing their own lives.

Luckily, both men were loyal enough to stick by Dante’s side and wise enough to know that the fearsome Reaper did not tolerate betrayal.

After all, it was well known that the infamous Reaper was brutally merciless when it came to eradicating rats lurking within his territory.

This included snitches, with no exceptions whatsoever.

Trust and loyalty were Dante’s highest beliefs and one of great importance in his line of work.

Being involved in the Mafia was highly dangerous. If you couldn’t trust the men working for you, you were basically labelled as a dead man walking amongst others.

It seemed that a price would need to be paid here this evening... one way or the other.

And now it was time for them to make their choice…

-

It was the morning of Alexa’s twenty-sixth birthday, which meant that it was also time for her surprise birthday concert later on that evening.

The same event that Dante had been working tirelessly on for weeks, including late nights and early mornings.

Having felt somewhat distanced from Dante of late, Alexa was having a lot of trouble sleeping at night.

That and her pregnancy which were also causing her restless nights of tossing and turning in bed.

But this particular morning Alexa had risen much earlier than she normally would and carefully snuck out of the master bedroom to go and make herself a nice hot cup of tea and to read her online novel.

With her warm beverage now in hand, Alexa carried her phone along with her as she strolled out onto the penthouse’s balcony and found herself a seat.

Luckily she had chosen to wear one of Dante’s black silk robes over her nightgown, as the crisp cool air outside was much colder than it was inside.

But with her warm tea, she didn’t seem to notice it.

Curling herself up with her knees tucked in against her chest and her drink balanced with both her hands, Alexa sat in silence for a moment.

All she was doing was listening... listening to the sounds of the city down below her as everyone else went about their daily lives.

Alexa had called New York City home for most of her entire life now, having been born and raised here.

So of course, these sounds were quite familiar and oddly soothing to her.

The honking of horns...

The sound of cars driving...

And a distant siren sounding somewhere off in the distance...

Yes, this was her home. The City of New York was where she was born and raised. Even her immediate family lived closeby.

But did she want to remain here in New York forever?

After her recent trip to Italy, and brushing aside her attempted kidnappings, Alexa was beginning to have second thoughts about living in such a busy place.

If there really were other places around the world as exciting as Italy had been, she wanted to go there and visit them all, one by one.

The sun was beginning to rise now, casting a brilliant canvas-like sky of yellows, oranges, pinks and purples for miles across in either direction.

Her view of New York City down below was also quite incredible. Already the streets were bustling with cars and trucks headed both in and out of the gigantic city.

No doubt on their way into work as it was after all, a Monday morning. Most normal people had to go to work.

But not Alexa... not anymore, anyway.

And she was having trouble keeping her emotions in check more recently, possibly due to stress and her elevated hormones.

At least that’s what the doctor, Frank Goulding had told them when he came for a scheduled check up two days ago.

From what the doctor could tell, their child was growing perfectly well and had a strong, steady heartbeat, which of course was a good sign.

And for the first time ever, Alexa as an expecting mother got to hear her child’s heartbeat as it thudded loudly around the room.

The entire experience had brought tears to her eyes.

They were, however, tears of joy.

-

~ 2 Days Earlier... ~

With the feotus now at the twelve week mark, Doctor Goulding offered to reveal the gender of their expected miracle while performing the routine ultrasound.

Looking to one another for confirmation, both Alexa and Dante nodded their heads in agreement as they faced the doctor once more.

“Please.” Alexa spoke softly, hesitantly.

“Very well then...” Doctor Goulding said with a smile.

“Let’s take a look at your little one...”

He squirted another small amount of the minty-smelling gel onto the end of the transducer and lowered it down to touch against the skin of her slightly rounded stomach.

Dante stood by Alexa’s side with her hand in his as the couple both watched the monitor anxiously for the result.

Alexa could feel the transducer sliding across her soft skin, all the way down to her pelvis until it finally stopped.

“Ah ha! There you are little one...” the doctor mused.

“Now, hold still...”

After several tries to determine the gender, the doctor was about to give up and try again another time.

But their child had other ideas.

The fetus suddenly surprised everyone as it turned over, moving into the perfect position for the doctor to reveal its gender.

Doctor Frank Goulding smiled happily as he made his announcement with great pride.

The answer was there, right in front of him.

“Congratulations Mr Romano and Miss Myers. It appears that you will soon have yourselves a future heir to one day take over the Romano Empire...”

The doctor spoke, beaming with pride for their exciting news.

“It’s a boy!”