The Debt: Mafia Vows One

by SR Jones

  “Crete?” I say in shock. I mean, it’s a gorgeous island. Beautiful, but it’s a long way from home. I don’t know anyone there. I have friends on Corfu, and Evia, plus Santorini, but I know no one on Crete.

  “Yes, and this family is bad. They grow marijuana in their fields and live like savages.”

  “In what way?” Despite the fear clawing at my heart, I’m curious about her words.

  “Their home is like … a barn. I only met them once, a long time ago when your uncle and father went to see them to sort out shipping routes with them. We were all invited. You were only a young child, so you stayed at home. Their house was filthy. They went out every day patrolling their lands with their shotguns, and those guns weren’t for show; they fired at trespassers. They had illegal immigrants working for them, and they lived in terrible conditions. Essentially, they were modern day slaves. The family was cruel. Cruel to their animals, cruel to their workers, and from what I saw, even cruel to one another.”

  I take it all in. My father, no, I refuse to call him that ever again. Spiros, is a fuck up and a bastard, but surely, he won’t marry me off to these people? Doesn’t he care about me at all?

  “How can Spiros do this to me?” I ask.

  Mother gives a slight twitch when I call him Spiros, a tick of facial muscles that tells me she’s noticed, and she knows it’s not a slip on my part.

  “I don’t know. He’s sick. I’m leaving him.”

  “What?” I gasp. “Where will you go? You have no money, no way of supporting yourself.”

  “I know. I have some money, though. I’ve been siphoning funds out of the accounts these last few weeks. I’ve put some away for me, and some away for you. It’s enough to get me started anew. I’ll simply have to go out and get a job, like most people do. I might go to Germany, to be with my mother. I don’t know yet. You’re welcome to come with me. Or to go find your own future, but you can’t stay here any longer. We have to get away from this family. The Kantos family is … they are bad, Maya, and we need to be free of them. Of them all.”

  I know some of this is bitterness that Stamatis hasn’t stepped up and publicly claimed me and her, but why would he? She was the one who told him she wouldn’t leave my father. Stamatis wanted her to at the time, but she refused.

  “I’m not going to run,” I tell her. “I think Uncle will help, and if not, Damen will.”

  “Oh, child.” She takes hold of my face and looks me deep in the eyes. Then she breaks my heart. “Damen won’t. He won’t ultimately go against your uncle. Please don’t think he will. He doesn’t care for you the same way you care for him. Not because you aren’t worthy of it, but because he’s not capable of it. He’s closed off, cold. He, Alesso, Markos, they are soldiers, and I don’t think they ever stopped being soldiers. Except now, this business is their battlefield, and your uncle is their commander, and you’ll always lose out to that. Some men, they can’t survive without a war. They need it, need the orders, the black and white of it all, to function. I think Damen is one of those men. He won’t turn his back on his brothers in arms to save you. He won’t, and then you’ll be brokenhearted, but also in danger. This way? This way, you get your freedom. You get to make a life for yourself.”

  She still has my face in her hands, and she shakes me slightly, as if trying to impart the importance of her words. “You are a smart and beautiful girl, Maya. I may not have made you feel it often enough, but you are. You will be fine. You can get an education; you can do whatever you want. If you come with me to Germany, you’ll probably get citizenship, and you can study there, get a degree. I can see you in five years’ time, a lawyer or a social worker. Doing something you believe in and caring for others. I know it’s scary. I’m scared. Spiros is going to go crazy when he finds out I am gone. It’s why I haven’t left before now. He’ll most likely come looking for me. But my family has a home he doesn’t know about. There are no paper trails tying it to us. And it’s in the middle of nowhere in the mountains of South Bavaria. We can go there at first, hide out until your … until Spiros tires of looking for us. He will, soon enough. After all, he doesn’t actually care.”

  She gives a brittle laugh and takes another sip of the wine.

  I know nothing I say will calm her down, so I nod. “Okay, Mother. You go home, start to make preparations. I’ll do the same. I already have my passport here from the Paris trip and the few items I’d want to take with me. Call Grandmama and get things in place. Text me something innocuous, like… ‘let’s go shoe shopping’, and I will know it’s time for us to go.”

  “Yes, good. I’ll text you that, then we will get out of here. I’ll come here to the house, and we can say we’re going on a shopping trip. We can’t take our clothing or anything as we can only take what we can fit into a handbag. Luckily we both have some huge handbags.”

  I laugh at that, because we do. I have a Mulberry you could fit a village into.

  She grabs my hand and eyes my ring. “That’s worth a fortune too. Damen certainly spent a lot on a ring for a fake wedding, but it suits us now as we can sell it. I’ll pack all my jewelry, even if we have to pawn it for much less than it’s worth. There’s a few hundred thousand in jewelry alone, and most people don’t ever have that kind of money in their life. So we will be okay. Pack as much of value as you can into a large handbag, and we will meet in town and lose the guys in a department store. I know one that has a staff door in the Ladies’ bathroom. We can go in the customer entrance then out the back. It will be fine. Trust me.”

  She sounds as if she’s convincing herself as much as me. I won’t be surprised if in a day or two, she finds a reason why we shouldn’t leave after all. I love her, but my mother is not a strong person.

  I see her out the door, giving her a huge hug, and it’s heartfelt. I am grateful she came to me with this information as it means I can talk to Damen about it. She’s wrong. He won’t let this happen. I know it.

  A few hours later, and my uncle’s men finally leave. Markos heads out too and it’s only me, Damen, and Alesso. I go on a hunt for Damen and stop outside the study door when I hear him and Alesso talking.

  I’m not meaning to eavesdrop, as I am about to push the door open and enter the room when something Alesso says makes me stop cold.

  “Have you ended it with Maya yet?” Alesso sounds pissed.

  The door is open a tiny crack, not fully closed, so I can hear clearly. I hear Damen’s sigh. A sigh, as if I’m an irritating problem, not the woman he’s been screwing for days on end now.

  “No, not yet.”

  Not yet. So he is going to end it with me? My heart shatters. And in this moment, I know. I do love him. Not in a stupid, teenaged girl with a first crush way, but I love him. I know it because only love can hurt this bad.

  “Damen, you can’t let this carry on. You and I both know you don’t love her, and her heart eyes get worse by the day.”

  “I know.” Damen’s words kill me. I bend double and hold my stomach as I press my lips tight together to hold in the despair trying to burst out of me.

  “Listen, I get it. You like her. She’s a hot screw. But fucking and liking isn’t love. This can’t go anywhere. Your loyalties lie with Stamatis.”

  I don’t wait to hear anymore, don’t wait to hear what Damen says. I can’t, because I am about to scream. He’s already said he doesn’t love me. I know. Those words are ricocheting around in my head, and I turn tail and run. Keeping my footsteps light, I head down the hallway, up the stairs and to my bedroom, where I throw myself on the bed and bite into my pillow to muffle my cries as I let out my heartbreak.

  Screw Damen. Screw my father. Screw all of them. I am done with these disgusting men and their games. Mom is right, we need to leave. And the sooner the better.

  I won’t spend another moment trapped in this stupid house with these idiotic men who think women are nothing more than playthings at best, and inconveniences at worst.

  I start to shove some things in a
bag, then I text Mom.

  Damen is not looking at me as we talk, and I can tell he’s pissed, but this has to stop. He’s putting himself in grave danger here, and I love him like a brother. I won’t let him piss everything he’s worked for away on a girl he doesn’t love.

  “Listen, I get it. You like her. She’s a hot screw. But fucking and liking isn’t love. This can’t go anywhere. Your loyalties lie with Stamatis.”

  “You’re one to talk,” he says with a sneer. “You’re throwing your life away for Sophia, and yes, you say you like her, but you’re about to get in so deep with her you’ll never get out.”

  I pinch the bridge of my nose. I’ve got a pounding headache. “It’s not real,” I tell him. That gets his attention, and he finally looks my way.

  “Come again?”

  “I’ve been meaning to tell you, but I swore to her I wouldn’t. You know we’ve been friends for years, her and I? Our families are friends. Well, her parents are pushing her hard to marry a local man. It’s not an arranged marriage as such like Maya had, but it’s uncomfortably close. She wants to study business at the international school in Athens, but they can’t afford it, so they say her best bet is to marry a local man and have a good life on the island. My parents offered to pay for her to go to school, but her father is a proud man, and he didn’t like the idea. He took offence to be honest. So the plan is, we tell them we’re in love. They’ll be happy as they want to see her settled down. She comes with me to Athens, but once here, she enrolls in the school paid for by my family. Once she’s a few terms in, we announce we’ve split up. She lies and says she got a scholarship, and I say I will make sure she’s safe while in Athens. Her family is hardly gonna come and drag her back. So no, I’m not throwing everything away for a girl, far from it, friend.”

  “Wow. Well, thanks for telling me, finally.” I can see me keeping it to myself has pissed him off.

  “I’ve been trying to, for weeks as it happens. Every time I started, I got interrupted. This isn’t about me, though; it’s about you,” I say.

  No reply.

  “You’re the one who seems determined to throw your life away.”

  Still he doesn’t answer me. He takes a sip of his whisky and turns to face the fire, his profile harsh, serious.

  “You’re going to fuck everything up, and for what? You don’t love her.” I want to wring his fucking neck, make him see sense.

  “That’s it though, Alesso.” His voice is low, quiet. “I think I might.”

  I stare at him in shock.

  “What?”

  “I mean,” he continues as if talking to himself, “I’m not sure with my life, my background, if I even know what love is, but I feel something for her, and it’s something strong.”

  Shit. Oh fucking shit. This is going to ruin everything. Everything we’ve worked for these last few years. Our place in Stamatis’ company, in his life. And suddenly I see a future where I have to choose. Stamatis or Damen.

  I glare at him, and I’m angry as hell because I don’t think he loves her; he’s got a major hard-on for her and can’t tell the damned difference.

  “You don’t love her,” I seethe. “And you need to realize that and get your head on right before you mess it all up.”

  I go out of the room, closing the door fully behind me. Pissed as hell at Damen, and not used to the feeling, I decide I need a cigarette. I grab them from the shelf in the kitchen and head out of the back door, by the pool. About to light up, I pause when I see a shape creeping through the bushes to the right of the pool.

  The shape darts into the undergrowth by the pool and disappears amongst the overgrown hedges and bushes there.

  What the hell? I turn to go and alert Damen that someone is on the property when I hear a small squeal, a curse, and a tussle coming from the bushes. With no time to get Damen, I’m running toward the bushes. I recognize the voice that cursed. Maya.

  Why is she slinking about in the bushes? More importantly, who else is in there?

  I reach the overgrown hedges and push my way into them, only to see a man dragging Maya toward the wall at the end of the garden.

  Fuck.

  “Hey.” I have my gun drawn, but it’s dark, they’re moving, and I can’t get a clear shot without risking hitting Maya.

  Maya starts to scream, but it’s cut off and muffled, I presume by the guy holding her and putting his hand over her mouth. Shit.

  “Damen,” I yell. I’m pulling my phone out of my pocket. Doesn’t Damen have a guard outside the driveway? Why the hell is Maya outside? She knows not to come out here alone.

  The man reaches the low wall, separating the garden from the long drive, and three more shadowy figures pour over it, moving like silk in the dark as they drip down the light stone and grab Maya, pulling her up with them, handing her to more shadowy figures who hoist her over the wall.

  Stamatis answers on the third ring. “Yeah.”

  “Someone is here, taking Maya now. I’m not sure how they got up the driveaway.” I’m running toward the low wall as I speak.

  “What? Shitting fuck. Stop them.” His order is the last thing he gets to say to me. I drop the phone and sprint at the van driving away from the wall, down the long, winding tarmac toward the street at the end.

  I raise my gun and fire in desperation, trying to hit their tires, to slow them down, but I miss. They’re flying, must be doing seventy miles an hour, and the driver is good as he’s weaving the van from side to side, making it hard to hit.

  Pop. Pop. Pop. My ears ring, and I jump as bullets whizz by my head. Damen is here, unloading his own weapon in the direction of the kidnappers. But then they’re gone. The gates at the end of the drive are open, and the van peels through them before tearing off down the road.

  “Maya?” Damen asks me, his face stricken.

  I nod. “She was out here alone, not sure why the hell she’d do such a thing. Then a guy grabbed her, right out of the bushes.”

  We’re moving again, feet pounding as we eat up the space between the driveway and the guard house. I fear we’ll find Damen’s guard dead, but he’s alive, slumped at his desk, snoring. Clearly they drugged him somehow.

  “Who the hell would dare do this?” Damen is staring around him as if seeing the world for the first time. He’s genuinely bewildered. “Who the fuck would come at Stamatis and me this way by taking Maya? They must have a death wish.”

  “Come on.” I start to jog back toward the house.

  “Where?”

  “We need to go to Stamatis and see what we do next.”

  “No,” Damen says, stopping dead.

  “What?” I don’t take in what he’s saying at first.

  “No, I’m not doing what he says on this. She’s my wife.”

  I raise my eyebrows, plant my hands at my waist, and cock my head at him. “Your fake wife. Get your head in the game right now before you do something you can’t take back.”

  He pulls his phone out of his pocket, not answering me, and starts to dial. Is he ringing Stamatis? What the hell? Then he speaks, and my heart sinks.

  “Andrius? Can you come to Athens?”

  There’s a pause, then Damen says, “Now.”

  “Yeah, it’s urgent. Someone important to me has been taken, and I need your help. I’m asking, please, for your help. Okay. Yeah. Thanks. I mean it. Thank you. See you soon.”

  I start to pace, my heart pounding.

  “What the hell are you doing? You’re bringing in Andrius? Not going to Stamatis. Are you trying to start a war with our own boss?”

  Damen looks at me, his eyes blazing. “I’m not trying to start a war with anyone, but I am going to get Maya back, and I’m going to do it my way. No one takes her from me—she’s mine. If anyone gets in my way, I’ll go straight through them, and that includes you.”

  Then he turns his back on me and stalks back into the house.

  I watch him go and try to focus my breathing to stop the mini panic attack that is b
rewing. I need to call Markos, and then me, him, and Andrius need to rein in Damen, so he doesn’t go and blow everything sky high.

  One thing I know for certain now after seeing his reaction is that his feelings for Maya are real. I might not approve, but he’s my brother in every which way but blood, and so I’m in this with him. I won’t get in his way as he tries to get Maya back. I’ll be with him every step of the way.

  My eyes can’t see much in the dark interior of the back of the van I’ve been thrown into. I’m disoriented. One moment, I’d been sneaking out of the house and by the pool to try and get off the property without alerting Damen, the next moment, I was dragged over a wall by a group of men and thrown into a van.

  I heard gunshots and shouting and presumed it must have been Damen and Alesso trying to stop the men who have taken me.

  My heart is pounding, my mouth and throat are dry, and my hands feel all strange and tingly. I think I’m having a severe panic attack, but I can’t seem to move. This isn’t fight or flight. I’ve gone right past those and straight to freeze.

  I kneel, unmoving in the back of the van as it tears around corners, my knees painful, but finding myself unable to switch positions. I can barely breathe, never mind find the strength to move.

  We drive for what seems like forever. The whole time I try to focus on getting one breath in and then pushing it back out. It’s airless and hot in here. The men, whose faces I can’t quite make out, are laughing and chatting as if this is a normal occurrence for them. Maybe it is. The thought terrifies me more.

  Finally, we stop, and I think I might be about to find out who has taken me, but a man grabs me, pulls me into his side, and holds me tight to him as the others pull the doors open and stream out into the night. They close the doors behind them, once more sealing me in my tomb.

  There is commotion, noise, but I can’t make out what through the doors of the van. I scream as the doors fly open again, and the men jump back in. Someone hits me with a thud, making me groan as knees and elbows connect with my soft tissue.