Falling For The Mafia Underboss

CHAPTER 4: AKI

Kelsi was shocked. She didn’t know how someone got behind her without her noticing. Fear started crawling up again. She slowly backed away while pressing her hands to the front of her body.

“Wh-who are you?” her voice trembled slightly with fear. “Please don’t hurt me.”

The man looked startled, his brows furrowed in concern. He held his hands up and also backed away a few steps.

“Hey, just relax, okay?” he said, his voice now softer. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

Now that Kelsi was facing him, he had a good look at her disheveled appearance. His eyes traveled from her frightened eyes, to her bound hands that she failed to hide, then to her grazed bare feet.

“Did someone hurt you?” he asked quietly.

Kelsi didn’t say anything. She was still wary of the man, although she did feel that he wasn’t one of the bad guys. But she knew she couldn’t trust anyone.

“Come over here,” he said as he slowly moved around the bench and sat on it. He lightly patted the seat beside him. “We can just talk, you know.”

Kelsi still didn’t move, but she started to let her guard down. If the man had any ill intentions, he would have already forcibly taken her at this point.

“Are your hands tied? It must be uncomfortable. I can help you get them off.” he said. “I’m not going to hurt you. I promise.”

Kelsi made up her mind. She slowly took a step forward, not keeping her eyes off the man in case he makes any sudden movement. The man was just staring at her, waiting patiently. She finally made it back to the bench and sat down at the farthest end from where the man was sitting.

“Now don’t be afraid, okay? I’m going to take a knife out from my pocket —“ he began.

“—But I’m not going to use it to hurt you,” he quickly finished as he saw her eyes widen in fear again. “I’m going to use it to cut off your cuffs, alright?”

Kelsi nodded. She had to trust him at this point. He may be the only one that could help. Or he could turn out to be one of those psychopath murderers and stab her on the spot. She winced inwardly at the second thought.

The man slowly took out a pocket knife and flicked it open.

“I’m going to come closer now, okay?” he said as he gradually inched forward on the bench until his knee was touching hers. He carefully took her hands and pulled them to his lap. He raised the knife.

Kelsi flinched and closed her eyes. This is it. It’s the end, she thought while waiting for the knife to s***h her. But nothing of the sort happened.

She opened her eyes and found herself looking at a pair of dark gray eyes. His face was so close to hers, she could study every detail on his face. He looked a little older than her, probably in his early twenties. He had fair skin, a few shades lighter than hers. For a second she was mesmerized with all the light being reflected in his sharp but gentle-looking eyes. Her eyes instinctively moved down to his full lips, one corner was drawn up in a reassuring smile.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” he whispered.

Kelsi’s heart started beating fast, but this wasn’t the same feeling she had back when she was still fearing for her life. She wasn’t sensing any danger. She felt safe. Secure. She also felt a nervous flutter in her stomach.

She quickly averted her eyes as she felt her face flush.

“Okay,” she mumbled.

The man began carefully hacking away at the cable tie that had confined her for hours. He positioned the knife in between her wrists so that the sharp edge was facing up, to avoid getting her hurt accidentally. His other hand was holding her hands in place. It felt warm.

“Got it!” he said as he finally succeeded in cutting it off.

A great relief washed over Kelsi as soon as she felt the cable fall apart. She stretched both her arms and carefully rubbed the raw skin on her wrists.

“Oh my God I’m free!” she said gratefully. “Thank you!”

The man smiled.

“My name is Aki. What’s your name?” he asked.

Aki, she thought. What kind of name is that? But it’s pretty. Aki.

“Kelsi,” she answered. “Hi,” she added awkwardly.

Aki laughed. “Hello,” he replied.

Kelsi gave a small smile, the first time she smiled in ages. For the first time in so long, she did not feel afraid. Aki had saved her.

She then realized how close they were sitting together; his knee was still pressed against hers. Kelsi instantly felt self-conscious. She pulled back the rest of her hair that had been stuck inside the back of her hoodie, and gathered it to the side. She discreetly attempted to smooth out her tangled hair with her fingers.

“What were you doing here, Aki?” she asked, hoping that it would distract him from what she was doing.

“I was just in the area,” he said nonchalantly. “But I should be asking you that. What happened to you?”

The thought of recounting her terrible experience engulfed Kelsi in anxiety. She started shivering again.

Aki noticed. “Let’s get out of here, Kelsi,” he said as he stood up. He held out his hand to her. “You’re cold. I don’t know how long you’ve been under the rain. Let’s go somewhere warmer. We can fix you up to.” He said as he looked at her. “No offense,” he said quickly.

She knew she looked like a mess. She felt like a mess. She had already decided to completely trust Aki. After all, he did save her. She took his hand.

“Where are we going?” she asked as she stood up.

Aki removed his cap and placed it on Kelsi’s head.

“Thanks, that really helps,” Kelsi said sarcastically. Then she caught herself and looked up to see if she had offended Aki.

“No problem,” he said, playfully matching her tone.

Aki was grinning as he ran a hand through his hair. Now that he had taken off his cap, Kelsi saw that Aki had smooth chin-length black hair. It was layered so that it framed his face perfectly.

“Come on. ”

Kelsi followed a few steps behind Aki. They were walking further along the same path Kelsi had taken, but now Kelsi was able to appreciate the beauty around her a little bit more.

“Aki…”

“Yeah?”

“Where are we?”

“What do you mean?” he asked, turning around. “This park? This park had been abandoned for so long, no one really comes here anymore. But I do sometimes.”

“No, not just this place. I mean, where are we? Are we still in Salvadora? Because nothing seems familiar at all,” she said while looking around.

“Salvadora? What are you talking about? This is Gaunt city.” He said, frowning.

“Gaunt City?!” Kelsi exclaimed.

Kelsi searched her memory and recalled her grandfather mentioning an infamous place far away from where they lived, called Gaunt City. That city had a notorious reputation — gangs are prevalent and crime is not rare. The city was led by heavily corrupted officials, which in turn increased poverty, which then made the citizens desperate enough to do anything to survive. In fact, Kelsi did see news on TV about Gaunt City, but she was not really paying much attention back then. She didn’t know if Aki was referring to the same one, but if he was, she was really in a very dangerous place.

“I can’t believe it,” she said, shaking her head in disbelief.

“Why? Are you not from around here?” Aki asked.

Kelsi shook her head and continued walking. Aki, who thankfully did not ask any more questions, fell in step beside her.

They finally reached the end of the path. Aki led her to a steel gray Honda Civic parked on the side of the road. He unlocked the car and walked around to the driver’s side. He was halfway to opening the door when he noticed Kelsi just standing on the road.

“What?” he asked. “Still scared of me?”

“No,” Kelsi answered unconvincingly. “Nice car,” she added as her eyes went over the satin finish of the car and the glossy black rims. It looked new and expensive.

“Thanks. But seriously, you don’t have anything to worry about. I have a place nearby, we can grab food on the way there,” he said. “Unless you want me to drop you off somewhere?”

Her mind raced. She couldn’t possibly ask him to take her home; he didn’t even know about Salvadora, which was probably hundreds of miles away. Besides if he did, Kelsi was not so sure she wanted to go home, or if she could still call that home. It was not safe there anymore.

“No,” she said quietly. ”There’s nowhere I can go.”

Kelsi opened the passenger door. She was about to get in when she realized that her clothes were still wet.

“Aki, I’m going to ruin your car seat,” she said apologetically as she gestured to her clothes.

“It’s fine, get in. I’m kinda wet too.”

The car smelled nice — a musky combination of lingering men’s perfume and air freshener mingled with a new-car smell, was slightly comforting to her. The interior was very clean too. It was evident that Aki had taken good care of it.

Aki got in beside her and pushed the ignition button. The car came to life with a low growl.

“Alright, there’s a twenty-four-seven burger place not far from here. Are you okay with burgers?” Aki asked.

“Yeah, anything,” Kelsi replied as she secured her seatbelt in place. She realized she hadn’t eaten or drunk anything in a long while. Her stomach grumbled at the thought of burgers.

“Aren’t you going to put on your seatbelt?” she asked him as they started driving.

“Nah,” he answered.

Kelsi rolled her eyes as she settled in the comfort of the suede-like seat.

A few minutes later, the car pulled over in front of a brightly lit resto. Aki turned off the engine.

“I’m going inside to get us some food, okay?” Aki said. “I’ll be right back.”

“Don’t take too long,” Kelsi said, afraid to be left alone again, although she’d rather stay in the dry comfort of the car.

“Yeah. Don’t worry, you’ll be fine,” he said. He smiled at her before he got out.

Kelsi watched Aki disappear behind the doors of the resto. She wondered who Aki was — this person who came to her rescue just when everything felt lost. She didn’t even know what kind of person he was, or why he was out there in that abandoned park in the middle of the night. She did know that he was kind enough to help a random person talking to herself in the rain. She nervously fiddled with her pendant again as she waited. She always had a habit of doing that whenever she felt scared; it subconsciously gave her some amount of comfort.

Soon after, Aki came out carrying two big brown paper bags.

“Hi,” Aki said as he got in the car, “Got us some cheeseburgers and fries.”

He passed the bags over to Kelsi. The first bag was filled with two wrapped cheeseburgers and two boxes of medium fries. Kelsi grabbed a bottled water from the second bag and immediately took a big long drink, almost downing the whole bottle.

Aki extended his arm towards her and reached inside the first bag, taking out a handful of fries, which he then stuffed in his mouth.

“You can eat on the way, it’s just a few blocks down. We need to get you some dry clothes,” Aki said as he started the car.

“Thanks,” Kelsi said as she started wolfing down the warm food.