Game of Love : A Mafia Romance

by Khardine Gray

  “I expect you to forget that prick and focus on the future. We’re getting married in two weeks and here you are bawling over your dead lover.”

  Dead?

  Christ it was true. Armand had confirmation. He’d spoken to Pa several times throughout the day, maybe he got confirmation that Xander… died.

  God, no… please.

  I shuddered inwardly hoping against hope that it wasn’t true.

  “You know he’s dead?” I asked.

  He leaned forward and grabbed my face. I winced when he pressed his mouth down hard against my lips and kissed me. When I didn’t kiss him back he bit my bottom lip, squeezed down with a force that made me scream, then released me. I grabbed my mouth, shaking from the pain.

  Although tears poured from my eyes, I raised my hand and slapped him hard across his cheek.

  My retaliation, however, did nothing. It was nothing to him.

  Completely unfazed, Armand just smiled at me.

  He held his face and beamed at me. “Love the fire baby. Can’t wait to get my little slut in bed.” He gave me a deep hearty chuckle. “I hope Xander is dead. Forget him Jia. Forget. Him. You are trying my patience and you know patience is not one of my virtues.”

  “I wasn’t aware that you had any virtues Armand,” I spat back.

  He leaned forward again. “I’d watch that tongue of yours Jia. I own you now. I own your sexy as fuck ass. If you want to have a decent life I would definitely watch what you say to me.”

  I laughed a laugh without humor and shook my head at him. “Armand, threaten me all you want, do whatever you want to me. You people are fools. Don’t you realize that you and Pa killed the only leverage you had over me. You’re basically telling me Xander is dead. So you think you own me, you only think you own me. But, I’m just a shell. A body.”

  He smiled and his gaze dropped to my breasts, lingered there for far too long, and climbed back up to meet my eyes.

  “I’m very happy with the body Jia. Very happy and I’ll take it,” his viperous tongue uttered, making me sick. Everything about this man made me sick. Sick like I’d vomit, especially when I thought of having to sleep with him. I knew I’d have to whether he forced me to or not. It would happen.

  “Do you really have no form of decency?”

  “No. I do not. I simply exist and take what I want bellezza.” He touched my face and ran his finger down the length of my neck, down to my chest and over my right breast, brushing his finger backwards and forwards over my nipple.

  I cringed and his grip tightened on my breast, the touch becoming a clasp.

  I winced, recoiling from him but he pulled me back.

  “You’re hurting me, stop it.” I gasped. “Armand stop.”

  “When will you tell me yes? Your lover is dead. When will you say yes to me? You used to.”

  Every time I was reminded that I used to be with this man I died a little inside. He wasn’t like this. Not at all. The power Pa had given him went straight to his head.

  In the past he would never have laid a hand on me and he knew the word no meant no. He would never have forced himself on me or touched me when I didn’t want to be touched.

  That was the past and I suspected I was naïve and lacked awareness to see him for who he was until the day I caught him cheating on me.

  “I will never say yes to you Armand. Never. I don’t know how you could be okay with that. You’ll have me, but I will never love you. I will never give myself to you. You will be the loser.”

  “I’m not the loser here, it’s you. You couldn’t leave well enough alone. Not my fault that you got caught up in shit and burned, you were told what was expected of you and you went against it. The only person to blame in a scenario like that is yourself. Not anybody else.”

  I couldn’t answer.

  I couldn’t give him any form of comeback because he was right, he was actually right.

  I got involved with Xander and there came a point where I should have ended it but didn’t. I should have ended it when I found out who Xander was. I couldn’t resist him though, then I fell for him. He had me hooked right from the start. The only result was this.

  I looked away from Armand and he released me.

  I gazed out the window, out to the shadows of night, out to the lights that lit the approach to the route that would take us to the airport.

  It was better not to think about it, better to go through the damn motions and take each minute as it came. My problem was I was still hoping. I was praying. But there was nothing to hope or pray for.

  We got to the airport in the time I’d guessed.

  Pa was waiting for us.

  Frankie was standing next to him and Freddo. Frankie was a welcomed sight. He’d been nice to me over the last few weeks.

  I needed nice and he’d made it possible for Xander and I to see each other.

  Pa greeted Armand in the usual way. I couldn’t believe it though when he came to give me a hug and a kiss.

  Just this afternoon he’d treated me as little more than a rag doll when he shoved me onto the balcony and tried to get me to rat on Xander.

  He was acting now like nothing had happened.

  Like this was some meeting we always had and he was simply seeing me off.

  “Everything okay?” he asked Armand.

  “Everything is perfect and ready to go.” Pride danced on Armand’s stupid face.

  “Wonderful. Is there anything you two need?” Pa’s eyes glittered with the satisfaction of this moment I still couldn’t believe was happening.

  I was at the airport. I was actually here walking through the motion of this nightmare.

  Armand shook his head in response and I just stared back at Pa, blank and expressionless. I just stared at him and stiffened like a statue.

  Pa set his eyes on me and he narrowed them. “Jia, a little less tension from you would be appreciated.”

  “Did you kill him?” I asked ignoring his shit comments. “Is he dead?”

  Pa looked uncomfortable at the question, but he did that usual hard man thing by trying to look like he didn’t care. The thing was, I knew he didn’t care about Xander. What he cared about was what I thought about him. He cared that I’d stopped looking up to him.

  “My dear girl, it is time to stop thinking about our enemies. Time to move forward and focus ahead.”

  “Did you kill him?” I repeated, ignoring his bullshit. As far as I was concerned Pa was everybody’s enemy. He got involved with the wrong people and this was a symptom of that.

  “He will be dead before the stroke of midnight I’m sure. If not, a bullet to the head should do the trick.”

  I bit down hard on my back teeth and gave him a long hardened look of despair.

  “I hate you,” I seethed. Resentment burned my chest. “I hate you.”

  My father had done a number of things in my life, all enough to make me hate him. It was because of him, him with his enemies, that my mother died. They came at her to get to him. It was his fault. He’d done enough questionable things. Despite that, never once had I told him that I hated him.

  Not once.

  From the rage in his eyes and the line etched across his jaw, I could see my words stung.

  “That’s okay my love. You can hate me if you want to, that’s fine. It happens just like shit. It happens. You simply don’t understand. That is all. I can’t expect you to fall in line with everything I say. But at least I know I got to keep you safe and with someone who can do it.” He looked from me to Armand.

  I needed… some space.

  God… I needed space. Lightheadedness and tension took me from the angst of everything.

  Some time away from them was what I needed, even a minute to breathe.

  “I need … two minutes.” I panted, running a hand through my hair which was now a matted mess.

  “What for?” Pa flared.

  “Please, I just need two minutes and then I’ll come back. The ladies room. I just need to g
o.”

  “I’ll go with her,” Frankie offered.

  I swore Armand was just about to say the same thing but he was one of the people I needed the much needed break from.

  I was relieved when Pa nodded his agreement.

  Frankie stepped forward first and started walking. I followed next to him.

  Once we got a little distance away from them he set an arm around me and I found myself leaning into him for support. Support and comfort.

  “Frankie I can barely walk, I feel like I’m dying.” I tried to stave off a fresh bout of tears.

  “Princess, I need you to not die on me right now. I need you to have a little more strength just to get out of here.”

  I lifted my head not quite following what he was saying to me.

  “Frankie, Pa’s going to kill Xander…” my voice trailed off.

  “No. He won’t. Don’t worry about Xander.”

  I wasn’t sure how he could tell me that when he knew Pa was serious. We all saw today that Pa had every intention of killing Xander.

  “I’m worried sick and I feel like I’m going to die if I step on that plane.” My voice shook as did my legs and he held me closer as I stumbled.

  “Calm doll,” he leaned nearer to my ear. “Lucky for you, you won’t be getting on that plane.”

  I tensed and shuffled to face him as we walked but he held me still, tightening his grip around my waist.

  “Don’t,” he broke in quickly with a rasp. “Just walk with me and act normal. Please.”

  God, my heart…

  It raced a hundred miles an hour. It galloped.

  Was this hope? Could I hope?

  Frankie was the only person among Pa’s knights who would have known that just being here was killing me inside. He was the only person who knew how I felt about Xander.

  He would have known that me stepping on that plane meant me signing my life away. It was death. It would be. Nothing else could describe it better than death. Death to my body and soul. All that was left of me.

  Jesus please… Please let this be hope.

  We went down the escalator and continued to the signs for the toilets. We went through the section and he went into the ladies division with me. The custodian on duty went to say something to Frankie, but one hardened look cast his way and the man backed down without a word.

  Frankie was the kind of man I wouldn’t have wanted to mess with either.

  We walked the whole way down the cubicles and headed to a door that said staff only.

  He moved his hand away from my waist when we got there and took my hand instead.

  He walked faster and I followed.

  I followed and my brain caught right the hell up. I caught up to what we were doing, what he was doing.

  We went through the door and the night air graced my skin.

  Frankie didn’t falter in step, he kept going with me, pushing forward ahead in a straight line, never looking back.

  We verged on the parking lot and I saw his truck. It looked like someone was in the back.

  “Princess, jump in the back seat as quick as you can, now,” he ordered, letting go of my hand. We ran to his truck and he headed to the driver’s seat. I did as he instructed and jumped into the backseat.

  As I did my eyes landed on Xander.

  He was there.

  I’d barely registered that this was real, and it really was him, before Frankie gunned the engine and took off at lightning speed out of the parking lot in true mobster style.

  “Xander,” I gasped when Xander reached forward and touched my face.

  His hands were shaking, but it was him. His face was a bloodied mess. Dark, dark circles were under his eyes and he was completely messed up.

  “Baby,” he replied and rested his head back on the seat.

  I slipped my arm around him and held him. He felt so weak in my arms.

  Yes, Pa was right about him being close to death. He looked like he was on the verge of death.

  Only God knew how my man must have suffered.

  “Baby…” he whispered on the edge of a breath.

  “I’m here.” I assured him and looked to Frankie who was looking at me through the rearview mirror.

  He did this. Frankie saved Xander and they came for me. They saved me.

  “Frankie thank you so much,” I told him. A tear spilled down my cheek. “Thank you so much Frankie.

  “Jia, girl we’re in for one rough ride. I’m just letting you know princess. Just letting you know. Your father will not take this lightly.”

  I nodded. “I know.”

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Jia

  My senses heightened the minute Frankie’s phone went off. They were already on high alert from the second I felt that Pa would be looking for me, that was half an hour ago.

  Frankie answered the phone. I thought it was Pa calling but it was Vinny.

  Frankie had the phone on speaker.

  “He just called me man. The boss just called me. Wants to know if you’ve been in touch. He’s looking for you and Jia at the airport. I said I haven’t heard anything,” Vinny blurted.

  It sounded like he was in on this plan too.

  “Good. I’m gonna get gone with them.”

  “Fuck man, he’ll kill you I know it.”

  “Yeah, he’ll try to. See you on the other side bro. Don’t call me again, and dispose of the phone. I don’t want you linked to this in any way.”

  “Understood brother. I’ll do what I can from this side.” Vinny hung up.

  Frankie focused on me and glanced at Xander who’d fallen asleep in my arms.

  “We have separate phones. Your father would have tracked me if I used the phone he has the number for,” Frankie explained.

  “I can’t believe you’re doing this. He’ll know it’s you,” I winced, swallowing hard.

  “Yeah I know. I might have gotten away with getting your boy out because that whole area has no surveillance whatsoever, but I knew I was all in balls to the wall when I knew I had to come get you.”

  “Thank you.” I couldn’t say thanks enough.

  “Not just me princess. It’s him. You were the first thing on his mind when he realized he had a chance. Nothing else. The goal is to get the fuck off the radar. Giovanni has his empire of people and they have eyes. Cops and criminals alike. If I can get us out of sight then we can get ahead.”

  It sounded like he had a plan.

  “Frankie what are we gonna do? Can we really just disappear?”

  “I hope you guys can. I want you to. The boss still has the thing Xander came to get. The blueprints.” He said that in a way to let me know he knew.

  “The blueprints?”

  He nodded. “He still has them and while he does it’s not good. I won’t be able to just get back inside so I don’t know what’s going to happen on that front.” He gave me a poignant stare. “I think it’s best we take one thing, one step at a time. Get off radar first then think about the other stuff after.”

  I agreed. That was definitely in order.

  “What can I do? I have to do something to help.”

  “No, Jia. I know through this whole thing you hated being told what to do, but I’m gonna need you to do exactly that. This is out of your league. There’s some people we’ll head to in San Diego. I reckon we can hide out there for a max of a day or two. We get there and I hide the truck. Your boy needs to heal. He needs to heal something bad. Don’t be surprised if …” He paused and the linger of silence worried me. “We just have to hope your father didn’t drain him out too much. That whole setup was designed to kill him. The last guy… well, fucking hell, the last guy that was attached to the torture chamber blew up. The voltage was too high.”

  I sucked in a sharp breath. “Oh my God.”

  “Yeah. He came to kill your father and that was how your father got him to talk. Guy gave a name; your father got the person who ordered the hit but he still killed the guy for fun. Set the fucking volts
to blow the bejesus out of him and that is exactly what he did. Xander was just a few volts away from that and he was whipped. I’m hoping there was no internal damage.”

  I gazed down at Xander in my lap. He really did look injured. Pale and weak.

  “We should take him to the hospital. Frankie we can’t let him die.”

  “Can’t go to a hospital Jia. There’s a doc at the place I’m heading to. I’m hoping they can fix him up. I’m hoping we can get him fixed up because honestly I don’t know what we’ll do after. We got to get out of the state. Get fucking far away. He wasn’t able to tell me about his people. You know anything about who they are?”

  I did but I wasn’t sure if I should say.

  “Can I tell you Frankie?” My tone told him it wasn’t really a question on whether or not I could. It was a matter of should.

  He tilted his head to the side. “Doll… okay fine. How about we talk when he wakes up. Would that be better?”

  “Yeah, I just don’t want to feel like I betrayed his trust. That’s all. I trust you though. I do. Please don’t think I don’t.”

  “I know you do, it’s why I’m here.” He held my gaze. “You know everything, don’t you?”

  I drew in a breath and nodded slowly. “Yeah.”

  “You knew and you kept your silence. That took some serious balls Jia, it seriously did. And with your father…I’m proud of you for doing that. You chose the right thing.”

  I bit back the wave of emotion that came over me. Hearing that I did something right was so uplifting. It truly was.

  “That means a lot Frankie, it really does. It’s very rare that I’m told such things, very rare. You know on this occasion I had to choose Xander.”

  “Yes, doll, I know. It made me think. If you could stand up to the boss and do the right thing, I could too. Your actions did not go unnoticed.”

  I remembered how he’d looked when I walked into the castle courtyard earlier today, and I remembered through my tears how he’d looked as I was carried away from Xander.

  I knew he’d noticed what the whole thing did to me, but I hadn’t realized he’d seen deeper.

  “I think for the first time I truly realized how evil Pa was,” I stated, blinking back tears.