Falling For The Mafia Underboss

CHAPTER 8: PERTURBATION

Aki had taken her to a little resto that offered Al fresco dining; it was the only one they could find that was open. They were seated on one of the small wooden tables arranged around a small patio at the back of the resto. Little yellow light bulbs were strung up along the wooden canopy, giving off a warm, cozy atmosphere to the area. It looked so out of place, though, as the patio was squeezed in between the adjacent buildings — unsightly concrete walls surrounded them on three sides. A few people were huddled at a corner table indoors, but they were the only ones seated outside.

“Are you good with pizza?” Aki said.

“Yeah,” Kelsi said, taking her eyes back to Aki, who was seated opposite her, looking at the menu.

A waitress came out bringing two glasses of water, took their order, then disappeared back inside the restaurant.

“So, how was your shopping?” Aki asked as he leaned back on his chair in a relaxed position.

Kelsi thought for a moment .“It was fun,” she said cautiously. She decided not to mention the part where they tried on clothes and walked around for three hours. “Bree’s cool too. I like her.”

“Yeah, she did a great job.” Aki smiled. “You look really nice.”

“Aki!”

“What? I’m serious.”

Kelsi rolled her eyes. “You don’t think it’s too much?”

“No way, you look great,” he said. “Although you still look beautiful even without the makeup.”

Kelsi blushed at the last part. She didn’t know how to respond to that. She opted to change the subject.

“Speaking of too much,” she said, biting her lip. “I’m so sorry about the number of things we got. Bree was picking out so many items and the next thing I knew —“

“Hey, it’s okay,” he interrupted. “I did tell her to get you a bunch of stuff. Owing to the circumstances, it’s the least I could do, you know.”

“Least you could do?” Kelsi asked with disbelief. “Aki, you’ve already done so much! You know you didn’t have to, especially since you also told me how expensive everything is here.”

“Nah, I’ll make that back in a day’s work,” he said smugly.

Kelsi narrowed her eyes. She placed one elbow on the table and leaned on her arm.

“Alright,” she said, her face serious as she looked him in the eyes. “Talk.”

“About what?”

“About you! What do you do? How do you get by? Who are you?” she said in a rush, with a hint of frustration. She was tired of trying to come up with different jobs that Aki could likely have. She had imagined him working a desk job in an office, but that didn’t seem to suit him. She imagined him working for the government, but the way he sounded when he talked about the city earlier made it clear he hated it. Or maybe he could be running his own flourishing business; that would probably explain why he had so much to spare.

She tapped the table with her fingers impatiently as she waited for a response.

Aki gazed at her for a moment in contemplation. He ran his fingers through his hair, then spoke.

“Okay,” he said. “Remember what you told me earlier on what you heard about this city?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, I am part of a gang,” he said. “But not like what you assumed about us, no,” he added as soon as he noticed her eyes getting wide.

Kelsi took a sip of water from her glass and slumped back on her chair. She couldn’t believe it; whatever she expected, this was not it. A gang? Like the rumored Gaunt City gangs that do terrible things and cause a lot of issues against the law? So many issues that it made the news and reached her from another part of the world?

“Right,” Kelsi said dubiously. She crossed her arms and studied him. He must be joking, there was no way he could be in a gang.

Aki laughed at her expression. “I’m actually telling you the truth,” he said.

“Alright, Aki,” Kelsi said, humoring him. “Why are you in a gang then?”

“Okay, what you need to understand first is how this city works and how disgusting it’s run,” he said. “The people running things from the top? They’re full of s**t. All they care about is themselves. They steal everything, and I’ve talked about the taxes, right? They take all the people’s money — money that’s supposed to be for the improvement of the city and livelihood. I’m sure you’ve noticed the state we’re in, especially in the suburbs.”

Kelsi nodded. He was right. From the broken roads to the shabby structures, it was apparent that no attempt by the government had been made to restore the city.

“It’s basically the rich get richer and the poor get poorer situation,” he quoted. “All the citizen’s hard work just goes to them and the people they favor. You’ll see what I mean once we go downtown,” he explained, just as their order arrived.

The waitress placed a pan of hot freshly baked deep-dish pizza on the table; it looked as if there were no toppings, just red tomato sauce spread out on the top. Kelsi had never had it before. Aki took out a slice and placed it on a plate for Kelsi; melted mozzarella cheese was oozing from the filling. Her mouth watered in anticipation.

“Ouch! Hot!” Kelsi said as she attempted a bite.

“Be careful,” Aki scolded. “Just give it a minute.”

“Fine,” she said, glaring at her steaming food impatiently. “Let’s go back to the ‘gang’ thing.”

“Okay, first of all, let’s stop calling it a gang. I belong to a Mafia.”

“Wait, what? A Mafia?” Kelsi frowned. “Isn’t that the same thing?” She’d heard the term mafia before, but her knowledge of that topic is about the same as her knowledge of gangs.

“No, not really. The Mafia is bigger. It’s an organization that controls the city from the underground. So yeah, due to the higher-ups’ corruption, we, the average class, decided to take things up on our own. That’s mostly how it all started; people form their own groups for a means to survive, or to try and take back what the government stole from them.”

“So does everyone just sign up to be in the Mafia, then? How many are there in the city?”

“There are a few Mafia families in the city, and no, you can’t just sign up,” he said as he picked up his food with a fork. “There has to be a qualification… or a sort of test, something to prove a person’s loyalty or worth or whatever. And once you’re in, you have to be in… if you get what I mean.”

“So… do you just fight each other? How does it work?” she asked as she finally took a bite of her pizza, it was very cheesy and delicious.

“No, we don’t go about fighting other families randomly,” he answered with a slight smile, then paused thoughtfully. “I guess people join the Mafia to be a part of something — a family, and it helps a lot working with other people towards the same goal. All of the Mafia families recognize and respect each other. As long as there’s no conflict of interest, no overstepping of boundaries, then we’re all good. Some citizens do choose the low-paying, law-abiding citizen route, but nah, not for me. I can’t deal with the unfairness and inequality of that. I’m way better off in Fahren.” He stopped as he took another bite.

“Fahren?”

“Yeah, I’m with the Fahren crime family,” he said proudly.

“Fahren crime family?” she repeated incredulously. Is there such a thing as a crime family? The longer she stared at Aki, the more he did begin to look like a gang member — from the tattoos on his arm to his confident, carefree mannerism even in the face of danger, like how he was just casually looking around in that scary place earlier while Kelsi was terrified every minute they were there. She gazed at him in assessment — the front of his hair falling slightly over those penetrating gray eyes as he relaxed nonchalantly on his seat… he definitely had a ‘bad boy’ look on him — it sounded cringey in her head, but to her, he was the very definition of that term. She knew she was prejudiced in her assumptions, but it really did fit once she put two and two together.

“Yeah,” he replied. “Bree’s a part of it too. It was a while back but she’s the newest member.”

Kelsi dropped her fork. “Bree? In the Mafia?” She couldn’t imagine it. Bree was so sweet and dainty. “But she doesn’t look the part!” she exclaimed.

“What are we supposed to look like, then?”

“I don’t know… criminal-like?” Kelsi muttered. As soon as she said it out loud, she wanted to take back her idiotic comment. She looked down in embarrassment.

Aki burst out laughing. “What the hell does criminal-like mean?”

“I don’t know! I assume they look mean and scary… or very intimidating and violent…?” she said sheepishly, very aware that she was making a fool of herself.

“Am I like any of those?” he asked quietly, leaning in closer.

“No,” she whispered. Aki was the exact opposite. Whatever preconceptions she had before, she needs to push them to the back of her mind and forget them. She felt the little flutter in her stomach again.

Kelsi cleared her throat. “Tell me about Fahren.”

“We’re actually doing great. Fahren is one of the best families in the city. We always get jobs done because we work really well together. None of us are related, but we are the very definition of the term ‘family’. Although things could get pretty chaotic quickly, it always works out in the end,” he said, smiling to himself, as though he was recalling a happy memory.

“Why is it called a crime family, then? Is crime all you do?” she asked point-blank.

“Yeah, mostly,” he answered.

Kelsi looked away, a little uncomfortable. Crime? She wasn’t sure if she made the right decision to trust Aki, or if her judgment was right on his character. It was hard to believe that Aki was in the Mafia, of all the things he could be. How many people had he hurt? He could probably be just like the men who took her. He could be a dangerous murderer for all she knew. She was disheartened; her face fell.

“But just some minor things,” he added quickly as he saw her reaction. “We have a few businesses here and there, and we also do heists... every now and then.”

“Oh,” Kelsi said flatly, only half-listening, as she stared at the half-eaten food on her plate. She was absently fidgeting with her pendant again.

“Look at me.”

She looked up reluctantly.

“What are you thinking? Tell me,” he pleaded softly.

Aki had that familiar tender look in his eyes. She felt a sudden spike of pain inside her chest. She was very conflicted, she was afraid to know any more, now that there was a possibility that Aki may not be the person she thought he was, that he may be capable of doing terrible things… like kidnapping girls from their homes, for example. But part of her still wanted to believe that he was a good guy.

“I don’t know,” she said weakly.

“Are you disappointed?”

Kelsi didn’t answer.

“I’m sorry… you must have expected me to be something else, huh. Something better,” he said quietly, but he sounded dejected.

“No, it’s just…” She wasn’t sure what to say. She decided it’s better to be direct about it. “I’m just wondering about your crime family. Are you just like those men who took me? Is that one of your ‘jobs’?” she asked miserably.

“Oh hell no!” he said loudly as he threw his hands on the table, making the tableware jump a little.

“Shush!” Kelsi told him as she looked around to see if anyone noticed, but the people inside were ignoring them.

“We aren’t like that, okay? I promise you,” he said, a little calmer this time. “We don’t do pointless violence. We don’t work like that,” he said firmly. “But there are malicious crime families out there. The men who took you most likely belong to one. That’s what I was trying to figure out while you guys were out shopping. I was trying to find out who they were.”

“What?” she asked, sounding slightly annoyed. “Why on earth would you go look for them? Didn’t I tell you how dangerous they were? What if you did find them? You could’ve gotten hurt!”

Aki looked taken aback by her outburst, but then he smiled.

“Oh, so now you care, huh?” he said. “A minute ago you acted like you didn’t want anything to do with me anymore.”

Right, you i***t, Kelsi thought to herself. She could not comprehend how quickly she forgot her perturbation when she heard that Aki might be in danger.

“I do care, Aki. It’s just…” She sighed.

“Kelsi, you can trust me, okay? I’m just me. I’m still me,” he said. “I know that you may have bad notions about me or what I do, but I can assure you that I am not like those men. I’m not evil, you know. I would never hurt an innocent.”

“An innocent,” Kelsi repeated, raising an eyebrow. But she felt more reassured now; she knew deep down in her heart that she trusted him fully.

“Yeah,” he said slowly, looking attentively at her.

“Alright, Aki.” She sighed in resignation. “I trust you.” She did. No matter who he may be or what he does.

“Great,” he said cheerfully as relief swept on his face. “Now finish your food.”

Kelsi nodded and complied.

“By the way, I notice you always do that thing when you’re anxious or upset,” he said, gesturing at her neck. They had just finished eating.

“Oh, this?” Kelsi pulled back her hair and showed him her necklace. It was a simple gold necklace with a small chain, ending just below her clavicle. The tiny infinity pendant was made of two interlocking gold circles, one bigger than the other. “This was given to me by my grandfather. See the pendant? The big circle represents him, and the smaller one is supposed to be me. It means we’ll be together forever,” she said, smiling sadly.

“I’m sorry,” he said sympathetically.

“Yeah. We just lose the people we love. That’s life, I guess.” Kelsi took a sip from her glass.

“You won’t lose me.”

She choked on her water. She started coughing uncontrollably.

“Hey, be careful.” Aki leaned over to pat her on the back.

Kelsi looked up in alarm, just to find Aki’s face so close to hers. She quickly pushed him away.

“I’m fine,” she managed to choke out. She was so flustered. Is he that dense? Aki doesn’t seem to know the effect he has on her.

“Did you forget how to swallow?” He was grinning.

“Shut up.”

The waitress came out a few minutes later and Aki handed her some bills. As they were making their way out of the restaurant, Kelsi noticed Aki giving a small nod to the occupants of the corner table inside.

“Friends of yours?” Kelsi asked.

“Not really, but they’re associates that work with us.”

She looked up at him questioningly.

“They’re harmless,” he said. “They clean our money.”

Kelsi rolled her eyes inwardly. She didn’t understand why anyone would ever clean their money, but she was too tired to care. She yawned as she got in the car.

“Sleepy?”

“A little,” she admitted. Now that she thought of it, she wondered how they would go about their sleeping arrangements. This time, she would make sure to take the couch. “How far are we to your apartment?” she asked.

“Oh, we’re not going back there.”

“Wait, why?”

“I told you. I own the place, but I don’t live there.”

“Explain.”

“We’re going back downtown to HQ, to the cul-de-sac. It’s where we all live.”

Where they all live? she thought anxiously. Seriously?

“Relax,” Aki said. “Don’t be nervous.” He offered her a reassuring smile. “It’s a little bit far, about forty minutes away. You can get some sleep in the car if you’d like.”

Kelsi was far from reassured. She was very uneasy. She felt like she was about to go into the lion’s den and she had no idea what to expect.