Totally Devoted

by Wanitta Praks

  “I could say the same to you. At least I am hot-tempered. At least I still have warm blood running through my veins. But you, you are so cold-blooded, you don’t even know what the word mercy means.”

  “I don’t. That’s why what I’m about to do, I will surely enjoy it.”

  My heart was thrumming in my chest at Lorenzo’s words. What did he mean? My fear escalated into reality when he spoke.

  “How much do you love your girl, Giovanni? Now is the time to test it. Could you lose your pride and beg me for the life of your girl?”

  And my heart dropped. Lorenzo. He wanted…he wanted to test Giovanni’s love for me.

  “You’re asking me to get down on my knees to beg for my girl’s life?” Giovanni put it in simple words.

  Lorenzo clapped his hands and nodded his head in the affirmative. “That’s right. You put the words right in my mouth. Bravo. That’s exactly what I wanted to say. For your girl, I think it shouldn’t be that hard of a decision to make. If you love her, go on, beg me. Grovel like the dog shit you are. Beg me and then I’ll let her go.”

  And in the blink of an eye, Giovanni pinned Lorenzo with a gun to his forehead. “You want to fuck with me, Lorenzo? Why don’t I pull this trigger first and see if you are willing to get down on your knees and beg for your life.”

  “Giovanni. You think you have your men here to save you. Let me tell you. You are on my territory. That’s one wrong move already. If you fire your gun at me, I’ll make sure to annihilate every single person in your clan. See those men upstairs? They are my men. They have their eyes trained on your girl already.”

  I stood still, watching as all guns were pointed at me and the gang. Somehow, the second Giovanni pointed that gun at Lorenzo, dozens of guns were automatically pointed at us. We were outnumbered. Six members of the Dente clan to at least twenty or more of the Lorenzo clan. I was so scared my knees almost gave in. But I stood firmly in place and watched the event unfold before my eyes.

  “You think you’re quick enough with the trigger.” Lorenzo continued taunting Giovanni. “Let me tell you something, Giovanni. The second you pull that trigger, her brain would explode into a million pieces. Do you still want to pull that trigger?”

  I watched as Giovanni paused. He was weighing his options, his jaw clenched tight. Until he sighed, his decision made.

  He dropped his gun.

  No…

  He turned to me, his eyes misty.

  Gio, don’t!

  He smiled and mouthed at me, “I love you, Jay.”

  And he slowly dropped to his knees. I broke out of my four-man shield and ran to him, dragging him back up just before his knees hit the floor.

  “Don’t beg him, Gio. Don’t lose your pride over me,” I shouted, trying to knock some sense into him. “He’s trying to make you lose pride. I won’t let him win. Don’t beg, Gio.”

  Giovanni cradled my cheek, hushing me and hugging me.

  “Shush, it’s okay, Jay. It’s okay, baby. It’s just some fucking pride. It doesn’t mean anything. For you, I’m willing to do it.”

  “I won’t let you, Gio. Stand up. You’re the mafia boss of the Dente clan. What would your underlings do if they saw their boss kneel on the floor? Have pride, Gio.”

  “Jay. Listen to me. You are my pride. You are my life. If I lose you, I will also lose my pride. And nothing will break me more if I lose you. So step out of the way and let me do this.”

  “How easily fooled you are, Giovanni,” Lorenzo muttered on the side. “For the love of a girl, you are willing to grovel like a dog. Go on. I still want to see a dog like you grovel at my feet.”

  And Lorenzo waited, except the person who did his bidding ended up being someone else. Lorenzo went into shock mode as he watched that person get down on their knees and beg him.

  “Nikolas, please let my sister go.” It was my sister, knees on the floor, begging for my life. “You wanted someone to beg for my sister’s life. Then I am willing to beg for her life. Please let her go.”

  I went berserk. First my lover, now my sister. This piece of bastard needed my foot to teach him a lesson.

  “Mel, get up. I’m fine. You don’t need to beg him.” But she didn’t listen to me. She kept begging him. And all Giovanni and I could do was watch my sister in misery as she continued pleading for my life.

  “Please, Nikolas. Please let her go. You can do anything to me, but please don’t hurt her. Please just let her go.”

  Lorenzo gave Giovanni and me a sly look. “You’re a coy one, Giovanni, for letting a girl go down on her knees to beg for your girl’s life on your behalf.”

  “Nikolas, you fucker. She’s her sister. Of course, she’s going to fucking beg for her sister’s life. Don’t you have any mercy in your bones?”

  “I have clearly told you that, and you have clearly specified it before, to which we both agreed, that I don’t possess such a thing. Remember the word, Giovanni. I’m cold-blooded. I don’t know what the word mercy means. Now are you going to get down on your knees, too, because I’m starting to become impatient.”

  “Nikolas, please.” My sister tugged at his leg, and his eyes flicked back to her, and an unknown emotion which I couldn’t decipher crossed his face. This was the man who had hurt her, physically and emotionally, and here she was begging him to spare my life.

  “Mel, that’s enough. Get up. Giovanni is here to save me, and he’s here to save you too,” I shouted, but she just wouldn’t listen to me. It was like my voice was like the wind, flapping around her but never entering into her ear. She just kept on begging, knees on the floor, asking to spare my life. How could she not see that I was already protected with just having Giovanni beside me? Didn’t she see Giovanni was already here to save me and there was no way in hell he’d let me die? It was a miserable sight, and I started crying.

  “Nikolas, please.”

  Lorenzo finally cracked.

  “Get up,” he demanded.

  “No.” She shook her head. “Not until you let her go.”

  Lorenzo crouched down to her level and looked her straight in the eye. “Do you think you have that much power over me, Amelia? Remember who you are. You are still under my debt. Remember that.” And he caught her arm, dragging her on his way up, signaling to his men to take her back upstairs.

  “Nikolas, please. Let her go. Please.” The sight was miserable. I could still hear Amelia’s voice begging him until she was well upstairs, and her voice became nothing but a buzzing broken sound piercing my heart.

  I cried, my body so distraught, I was literally shaking in anger. And it was that very moment that I went ballistic. I lashed out, lunging at Lorenzo, the man who had hurt my sister. Except Giovanni had caught me in time.

  “Let me go, Gio. Let me kick his ass,” I yelled at Giovanni, but his hands clamped on to my arms tight. I pushed him off, but his strength was so much greater than mine.

  “Jay, that’s enough. Leave him to me.”

  “No. I want to kick him,” I shouted at Giovanni, then directed my wrath at Lorenzo. “Nikolas Lorenzo, you dickhead. Don’t you dare hurt my sister, or I swear upon my Ma’s grave I’ll chop your balls off. You just watch me.”

  I swung my leg and attempted to give him a good kick; if only Giovanni hadn’t stopped me in time, I would have had him in the nuts already. Lorenzo just laughed, like he found my reaction funny.

  “Hahaha. Your girl really is a spitfire. You two are really suited for each other. The hot-blooded mafia boss and his spitfire girlfriend. I’ve had enough. Get her out of here. She’s giving me a fucking headache. And that applies to all your people, too. And don’t ever fucking step foot on my ground again, or you won’t like what I do to you next time.”

  “We’ll step foot out of here when we are ready,” I yelled at Lorenzo again, but my world was already toppled over, and I realized Giovanni had practically lifted me up and carried me, bridal style, back to the car.

  “Gio, let me go. I want to give him a pie
ce of my fist,” I kept screaming and yelling.

  “Jay, enough. That’s enough, baby. Let’s go home.” He placed me gently in the car, but all I wanted to do was crawl back out to where my sister was, locked up in one of the rooms.

  I was so mad and frustrated, I cried and kicked at him. And Giovanni just let me. He endured it all. Until I ran out of energy and strength and collapsed into his arms.

  “Gio. Gio. I can’t leave her,” I sobbed into his shoulder. “She’s my sister. She’s like my mother. She has always taken care of me. I need to do something. I’d thought all this time she had disappeared, but I was wrong. She’d also been kidnapped. How could I think so less of my own sister? When I’d thought she’d disappeared with Pa and left me to fend for myself, but she was also sold, to Nikolas Lorenzo. Gio, did you know she’d been living under his roof for the exact same time I’d lived with you? What must she have suffered? All this time when you took care of me and loved me, she must have cried and was made to suffer under Lorenzo. Gio, I beg you, please, save her. I don’t have any other way to help her. This is the only way. I beg you.”

  I attempted to get down on my knees when Giovanni pulled me back up and cuddled me close.

  “Jay, don’t cry. I understand everything. She’s precious to you. And you are precious to me. I’ll help her. I promise I’ll help her. But promise me that whatever I do, whatever way I choose to execute this mission, I ask you to trust in me. Don’t be worried and don’t be scared. Just trust that I’ll get your sister back. Will you promise me that much?”

  I looked at Giovanni and saw sincerity in his eyes. My lover, Giovanni, the mafia ruler of all New York City. He’d asked me to trust him. He’d asked me not to be scared or worried about him. But I was already scared, already worried about what he was going to do. But I also trusted him, and with this thought in mind, I lunged into him, hugging him so tight, seeking his comfort and warmth I sorely needed.

  My lips traveled to the shell of his ear, and I whispered. “I trust you, Gio. I trust you wholeheartedly.” And I kissed him as my act of promise.

  Chapter 5

  Giovanni Vs Lorenzo

  My stomach coiled in dread. When Giovanni had told me he’d get Amelia back, I had thought he’d fling some three-million-dollar cash over Lorenzo’s head, like the usual arrogant person he was, and the negotiation would be a done deal. Cash in exchange for my sister’s life. Simple as that. But this, this was something else. This was not what I had anticipated. This scared me.

  I eyed my lover, Giovanni Dente, who was up in the boxing ring, fists poised in a fighting position. He was half nude, wearing only his tight denim jeans that showed off his perfectly shaped butt. His broad chest was on full display, showing his spectacular chest muscles for the whole female population in the underground garage to see. Whenever he moved, those muscles would flex and contort, sending those girls into a frenzy, oohing and aahing at his God-given physique. I couldn’t help feeling the spur of jealousy. Giovanni was mine. He belonged to me and only I was allowed to ogle his body. But clearly, I was too worried for his safety to even think straight; the thought of him being injured scared the shit out of me.

  Who in their right mind had decided to battle out for supremacy using a fistfight as the ultimate criteria? Was this a mafia thing I wasn’t aware of? Maybe one of their rules between interclan rivalry?

  I grew pale, thinking of all the possible outcomes that might transpire during this event tonight. Either Giovanni came out battered, looking black and blue, with a severely bruised ego, or he’d come out victorious, winning Amelia’s freedom as a bonus. Whatever it was, I was scared shitless.

  I was literally spewing in my gut because Giovanni’s opponent wasn’t some lame lanky dude like those high school boys I saw fight behind the school gate after class, or like Finnie and Jonny who just merely fought with Giovanni for the sake of practice. No, his opponent this time was asking for the kill. Big broad shoulders, cascaded colorful phoenix tattoo covering the whole expanse of his back, and eyes so fierce he could literally kill people with one look. Giovanni this time had met his one true opponent, Nikolas Lorenzo, the qualified head clan of the Lorenzo mafia group.

  “You look like you’re about to faint,” Dawson said, his eyes also fixed on the two opponents in the boxing ring. “Don’t stress out. Giovanni will win for sure.”

  “She’s never seen men fight,” Justin said quietly.

  I was wedged between Giovanni’s two best friends. Justin was on my left, and Dawson was on my right, while Finnie and Jonny were seated on either side of them. We five sat wedged together in this underground garage, with dark dingy light hanging from the ceiling, the perfect platform to get bashed tonight. Opposite from us sat the Lorenzo clan.

  My eyes fell on my sister, who was sitting among them, and a beautiful blond woman with breasts the size of an E-cup sat to her right and a bald-headed man on her left. Amelia was scared, I could sense, but she put on a brave face. Because the outcome of her life would depend on this battle tonight.

  How shitty both of our lives had been. We were just some random girls who were minding our own business when fate took a turn for the worse, both of us being sold to mafia leaders while our own father had disappeared into the unknown. At least my mafia man loved me. What about Nikolas Lorenzo, though? He looked like the type of man who was not to be reckoned with.

  Poor Amelia. What had she suffered during the last four months we were separated? I wished I had more time to talk to her, get to know how she had been faring these last few months, but when Giovanni had come to rescue me and had taken me back to our place, all I could think about was rescuing my sister from this dark mafia man named Nikolas Lorenzo.

  I was uncomfortable with the way he’d treated her. Where Giovanni had treated me with nothing but stark kindness, providing me with a roof over my head and endless delicious food to feed my stomach, before announcing that he would like to take me as his lover, and now endearing me with all facets of life, Amelia, on the other hand, must have suffered a different fate.

  What was she feeling right now? I wished I could sit beside her, take her hand in mine and comfort her like she always did to me. But we were a good distance apart, and only my lover, Giovanni would be able to save her tonight.

  The discomfort I felt not only radiated from my chest, this physical pain at seeing my own lover about to get bashed to a pulp by his equally strong opponent, but also from the physical discomfort of my seat.

  “Can you both move a bit?” I directed my question at the two gentlemen on either side of me. “I’m feeling a bit squashed with you two wedged so close to me like that.”

  “No can do,” Dawson explained, slinging his hand over my shoulder in his attempt to relax me. “Giovanni had strictly told us to take care of you. If anything happens to you, we’ll be dead meat.”

  “Mmmm.” Justin added, if you could call the sound he made an answer.

  “I have a feeling he treats you both like his underlings rather than his friends. How did you guys become friends, anyway?”

  “Long story, my girl,” Dawson spoke. “We will explain to you some other time. But us five, Justin, Julian, you remember him, right? You met him and his partner back in Singapore?”

  “Oh, yes,” I said. “I remember them. Kimberly and Julian Devereux, right?”

  “Yep, that’s them. Julian and Kimberly. That pair. They are based in Miami now. You should go visit them when you’re around Florida sometime. Now, where was I?”

  I was going to answer Dawson when Justin beat me to it. “Us five.”

  “Oh, yeah, us five.” Dawson nodded and started his story again. “People in the underground world like to call us the bachelor billionaires. Not that Julian or Giovanni is a bachelor anymore. And Justin, I say he’s going to be a bachelor forever, unless he found his first love again.”

  “Fuck off. Don’t bring my business into this conversation.” Justin decided at that point to intervene, since I was sure he
didn’t like to be called out, especially for something to do with his personal love life. I got a feeling he didn’t like to disclose his private life much. And if I knew better, I’d make sure never to utter that subject again, especially in front of him. He looked like he had some history going on there.

  “Alright, dude. That’s cool.” Dawson backed off, not in the least bit affected by Justin’s harsh tone.

  I had no idea what kind of language they used as friends, but to my ears, they were quite harsh. But what did I know? I was an innocent bunny until being thrusted into the world of underground mafia by Giovanni.

  “Now where was I again?” Dawson said, scratching his head in irritation. “Shit, being in this dark garage is playing with my brain cells. I keep forgetting what we’re talking about.”

  “About Giovanni and Nikolas being friends, or was it something else?” I reminded him.

  “Oh, right. No. No. Giovanni and Nikolas are not gay. Unlike me.” And Dawson decided at that moment to disclose all his private matters to me. He just rambled on and on. “And no, I don’t find any of them appealing to my standard. Now my standard is more like your best friend, Crispin. Now when can I get to see him? Can you arrange a date for us?”

  “Dawson.” Justin reprimanded the man. “Get back to the subject. Now is not the time to talk about your lust life.”

  “Hahaha,” Dawson chuckled again, like it was their everyday conversation. These men were beyond my comprehension. They weren’t normal people who conversed in normal manners. They were something else entirely. “Don’t mind Justin. He’s always a party pooper. Since his girl ditched him some seven years back, he’s never been the same again.”

  “Dawson, I’m warning you for the last time. If you carry on talking about my private life, let’s battle it out in that boxing ring.”

  “Alright. Calm your panties. I will never win against you anyway. And for the record, it’s my love life. Not lust life.”