Subduing my Queen: An Arranged Marriage Dark Mafia Romance (The Underworld Book 3)

by Jolie Damman

  He gave me a sudden, powerful kiss and then resumed what he was doing, his hands moving more sheets of paper. I took one last look at him before going downstairs to the garage, where I then got into one of the cars.

  With the war over, we made the decision to continue living here. My dad was quite happy I didn’t object to the marriage anymore. Likewise, I enjoyed the prospect of living a new life with new people to keep me company.

  Without the war, I could live a life here without having to worry about being kidnapped again or killed.

  I drove the car to the front gate, and said to one of the men, “Open it for me.”

  He pushed a button, and the gates creaked open. It was automatic now, though the material of it was still old. Maybe one day Ed and I would do something about that, but for now, it was of no concern to me.

  I drove down to one of the stores I knew somewhat well. They sold bouquets, and they had lots of flowers for sales, from the plastic kind to the real ones. The sight of the very small establishment with flowers not only inside it, but also outside, made me feel a bit better already.

  When I got into the store, the smells of flowers graced my nose, making me stop and take in the atmosphere, my eyes closed.

  I opened them again and walked to the front desk, where a woman with a wide smile and attention-drawing red hair stood behind it. I said, “I’m looking for specific flowers to compose a bouquet. I’m going to marry and I was thinking I need the right one, you know? The one I will like the most.”

  Her voice was quite energetic when she spoke, her freckles catching my attention too, “Oh, that is wonderful. What kind of flowers are you looking for?”

  I felt welcomed by her sudden high energy. “Let’s see,” I said, putting my fingers on my chin and looking down, thinking, “I will need a couple of campions, ghost orchids and the chocolate cosmos.”

  Her energy died down a bit, though she still looked her radiant self. “I will see if I have them here with me.”

  From one of the portions of the desk, she got a catalog book and opened it. Her hands slid on the pages, her fingers looking for the flowers I mentioned. In the meantime, I looked around her shop, seeing if I could find the aforementioned species on my own.

  I found a collection of ghost orchids, but there were no traces of the other flowers. I could go to other stores, but then that would be more trouble than the bouquet was worth.

  The woman behind the desk called me and I said, “So, have you got them?”

  “Not anymore, I’m sorry. I was robbed not too long ago by a child. She took a lot of my flowers with her, and some of those were the ones you mentioned.”

  Shit. I couldn’t believe I got so unlucky, but if it was a child that stole from her, then maybe I could do something about that.

  “Do you remember what that kid looked like? Where did she go?”

  She looked down, more of her energy dissipating. “I actually know her.”

  “You do? Then, why haven’t you gone after her?”

  She looked into my eyes. “Look, I would rather not talk about it, but if you can find her and get those flowers back to me, I will make your bouquet without charging you.”

  I sighed. I couldn’t believe I would have to chase a kid and get back the flowers she stole.

  “Alright. Just tell me where she lives.”

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  The woman gave me the address and I went back to the car, sitting behind the steering wheel. With a belly as big as this one, I wouldn’t be able to run after any kids. I sighed and looked at the window, thought about the bouquet, remembered what those flowers looked like.

  Despite the obstacle, I wasn’t going to give up. I wanted to make the marriage something I would never be able to forget.

  I drove to the address, which was only a couple of blocks from where I parked. In other circumstances, I would have walked all the way here, but once again, with this huge extra weight in my body, I couldn’t walk for 10 minutes without feeling tired.

  I closed the door of the car and walked to a small, one-floor only house. It looked like the kind of place I would never step in other circumstances.

  I knocked on the door and waited. No response. Considering she was a kid, she had to live with an adult, right?

  I walked and looked through the windows into the interior of the house, but it was dark. No lights were turned on. Most of the curtains had been drawn too.

  I thought about giving up and finding other flowers for my bouquet when I heard a noise coming from inside the house. Slowly, as my body felt a lot of pain, I walked to the door, which was now being opened.

  A very short, shy girl opened it. She looked like she had just been through hell before coming back from it. Her hair was a mess, as was her face. Upon getting close to her, I questioned myself when was the last time she took a shower.

  “Hey, what is your name?” I asked.

  Shyly and looking at the ground in front of her house, she said, “Francine.”

  “I’m Elsa. Nice to meet you.” I stood my hand out to her, but she didn’t grab it.

  After letting my hand fall to my side, I said, “Do you happen to have a couple of flowers with you?”

  As she crossed her legs, she said, “I do…”

  “Can I see them? I need to get them back to a friend of mine.”

  I pitied her. Where was her mother?

  “Alright,” she began to say, “but keep some of them with me, please? I need them for my mom.”

  “Is she here with you?”

  She nodded slowly, and I then said, “Can I talk to her?”

  She nodded once again, and led me inside, and then, into a bedroom. When my eyes caught sight of her mother, I almost gasped.

  Her mom laid down on her bed, and she looked so old. A piece of wet cloth stood on her forehead, and despite having thought that she might be dead, her rising and falling chest told me otherwise.

  “Francine, I’m sorry. I had no idea…” I said, the words feeling heavy all of a sudden.

  She promptly ignored me, going to her mom and caressing her cheek. I went to her and said, “Do you need help? I can call an ambulance.”

  “But we don’t have any money for it…”

  “Fuck the money,” I said, making her eyes dart to me, a look of surprise on her face, “I can’t stand by while the mother of a girl like you dies in here.”

  I went to her landline phone and asked for an ambulance to come. She was looking at me when I returned, “They will be here soon. I left my number on this piece of paper here,” I said, handing it to her. “If you need anything, don’t hesitate to call me.”

  Her eyes shot wide. She was shocked I was helping her this much, but to be honest, how could I not?

  I got the flowers she stole, left some money on the table in her kitchen, and then walked back to the car, the heaviness of my belly making itself known once again.

  I grunted when I sat back down on the driver’s seat and upon looking at the flowers on the backseats of my car, a slight smile appeared on my face. I wasn’t only going to get my bouquet for the marriage, but I also did two good things today.

  Phew. I didn’t think it would take me this much time to get the flowers I needed, but in the end, what I did was worth it.

  Eduardo

  Elsa stood before me. The most beautiful woman in the world. Her wedding dress was made with a white color that caught my attention the moment she showed it to me. Now, it looked even more lovely. It fit like a glove on her body.

  “You are staring at me,” she said, shyly giggling.

  “How can I not?” I questioned, but without actually asking her.

  The church looked so beautiful, so perfect. I spent hours designing the position of the flowers, where they needed to be located. I also put as much effort into other decoration items, like the candles and that sort of thing.

  I thought about them so much, for so many days, that the last thing I wanted was to think about them once more.
>
  The church was packed. I was surprised I managed to make so many people come for my marriage. Looking furtively at one of the corners of the room, I found Romano, and he looked his serious and composed self. He would never change.

  We still had some time to talk to each other right now. “Tell me, Elsa, how do you feel about becoming a Russo?”

  “It’s wonderful.”

  We weren’t merging our families. The Russo was making her family ours. After this marriage, the Russo would become one of the most important Mafia families in the whole world – more so than we already were.

  This event was important, which was why men and more men protected it from anyone who could have funny ideas about storming in to kill us. Even the police helped to keep the church safe.

  Our lives would forever be dangerous, and yet, I relished living like this.

  Her father came too. Without him, this marriage would never be happening. My parents sat at one of the front benches, their eyes gleaming with joy. Their baby boy, who brought them so much shame when I said I joined the Mafia, was now getting married.

  I was far from being their baby boy right now, but still, to their eyes, I would always be that.

  The father began to cite the words, and the marriage continued. Once he finished pronouncing them, there was only one last thing that needed to be done.

  With her ring in my hand, I slid it into her finger, her eyes gleaming with joy. She did the same to my finger, and then, once the father said the last magical words, I pulled her in for another powerful kiss that sealed our fates together.

  Elsa’s Epilogue

  Iopened the door and found him. Little Valter, our baby boy. He was born so fat and tall. He was bigger than most babies his age. The silence outside reminded me it was nighttime and that he should be sleeping.

  And yet, he was still awake. Valter was the agitated kind of baby, always full of energy and wanting to eat something different.

  I tickled his belly, making him giggle and smile at me. He had only one tooth in his mouth, and some hair on top of his head.

  I looked out the window and closed it. I thought about Regina. She died a long time ago, and I still had short, but sweat-inducing nightmares about what happened to her.

  Ed didn’t come back yet. Something probably kept him busy right now. His absence was odd, but didn’t worry me. Differently from my father, he kept so many men patrolling the area we lived in that there was no chance someone would ever do harm to us again.

  But maybe I was being mistaken about that. Being fully safe all the time wasn’t a thing that could be accomplished. I felt not in danger at all in this neighborhood here in Chicago, and that was good enough for me.

  We didn’t live in the mansion anymore. We lived there for the duration of the war and until we married. Once it served its purpose, we found a better place to move to. We needed to get away from the bad memories that infested that place.

  I tickled my little Valter one more time before turning to walk out, his giggles echoing in the room. That was when I heard a strange noise outside. I thought immediately about that night when my dear Regina was taken from me and so, I grabbed my gun, waiting to see if the noise would sound again.

  But nothing happened. Other than the chirp of the crickets. I wished I could live such a carefree life like them.

  I tucked my gun back underneath the waistband of my pants, and walked out of the room. The door to the living room swung open quickly, and I reached for my gun once again, but instead of finding a criminal that had come here to harm me, I found him.

  Ed. He came home, and upon seeing his smile appearing on his beautiful face, I rushed to him, my arms spreading wide for a hug. He hugged me back, my head resting on the crook of his neck.

  For a moment there, I was afraid. Afraid that the same could happen here, but his constant presence in my life assured me I could trust him to keep me safe. For how long? Forever. He was a beast. Everyone in Chicago who knew him feared his name.

  I pulled away from him and said, “I’m so glad you are here. I thought you would be even more late.”

  “Yeah, I had something that occupied more of my time than I thought it would. Anyway, it’s over and I’m here now. That’s what matters.”

  Holding his hand and giving him a naughty look, I said, “Then come with me. You’ve promised me this.’

  He smirked, following me to our bedroom, which we closed shut. This was going to be an unforgettable night.

  Eduardo’s Epilogue

  Ilooked at my men. They were all ready, their hands holding their Colts and Tommy guns. The serious look on their faces told me they didn’t fear this one bit. Well, maybe some of them were afraid, but they weren’t letting it get in their way of doing the right thing.

  Almost whispering, I said, “Men, this will be difficult, but I know I can count on you.”

  They were all behind me, and in front of me was a door. I was going to storm into the building through it, and upon setting foot into it, hell would break loose.

  We all wore dark suits with different ties. We looked the part. These were our attires, how we made sure lesser men didn’t think about crossing us. These men here, in this building, harmed my wife twice before, and now, I was putting an end to them once and for all.

  I cocked my Colt and kicked the door open, men behind pillars and walls shouting. My men rushed into the building from behind me, and I searched for cover behind a support pillar. Bullets and gunshots filled the room. One little mistake here could cost my life, but it wasn’t going to happen.

  Maybe I was being silly, but it was the good kind of silliness. My thoughts were with Elsa and my little Valter. They meant the world to me, and I was never going to let anything bad happen to them ever again.

  I popped out of the corner and pulled the trigger, my Colt aiming at some of those assholes. Who were they thinking they were when they kidnapped my wife and harmed her? They were crazy. Dying by my hands was what they deserved.

  My gun stormed, firing more bullets, making more of their men drop like flies on the floor. My men rushed ahead, covering more ground. The asshole Mafia gang that populated this building was a shadow of its former self.

  No wonder they could almost not put up a fight anymore.

  I stormed ahead with my men, killing more of those assholes. More and more blood spilled everywhere, filling my adrenaline. I never talked about this with Elsa, but seeing men like these die always made me feel so effing happy.

  I was a killer. I had a wife, but I was a murderer. I cherished being a Mafia member, and I would never have chosen anything different for my life.

  I got to the second floor of the run-down building, and upon hiding behind a wall, my men doing the same as they caught up to me, I looked into their eyes. Their resolve didn’t change. They were still resolute on ending this Mafia gang once and for all.

  I kicked the huge, double-door open and fired my Colt. I killed so many scared men in the room that their cries for help merged, becoming a sound that entered my mind through one ear and then out through the other.

  The shootout in this room didn’t last long. I lowered my gun slightly, pointing it at an old, somewhat bald man that stood at the other wall, trying to make himself as small as possible.

  My men calmed down, though their Tommy guns were still trained at him. In case he did anything stupid, he would regret it.

  I walked to him. His golden watch on his wrist told me he was rich, and probably the leader of this now-dead gang. I stood in front of him, towering over him, and then lifted him off the floor.

  His face grimaced as he looked aside. “Look into my eyes, asshole!” I shouted, spitting some of my saliva onto his face.

  He grimaced even more, his expression one of absolute fear. Slowly, but surely, he turned to look at me. He was frightened and he feared one thing only. Maybe he didn’t want to die. I had other plans for him anyway.

  And whoever he thought he was, it mattered nothing to me. This
man was mine, and I was going to make an example of him.

  The End

  Don’t go just yet…

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