Filed to story: Bring It On My Mafia Life Novel (Rhea & Lukas)
Enjoy what show? The freak show? As much as she loathed Costanza, Rhea would rather exert her revenge on her by herself than let someone else make a public show of it.
Rhea was sure she would never forget her cousin’s terrified scream in a hurry as she watched helplessly as Costanza was forced onto the table and placed on her stomach.
The straps were put in place, restraining Costanza from moving around while the soldier who would execute the whipping stood over her with a sadist grin on his face.
Rhea marked his face, she would definitely hunt him down after this was over. Costanza was hers to handle, no other person. He would pay for that. Yes, it was true he was doing his job but the asshole loved every bit of it especially when he spanked Costanza hard on the ass building anticipation.
…..
The guard wasn’t the only asshole in the room, most of the guests laughed at that gesture while Big Joe wore an indifferent mask, busy eating his meal unaffected by what was going on. He didn’t care that the woman he was humiliating was the cousin to the woman he planned to marry. That confirmed her thoughts, she would not have a say in this marriage.
Rhea looked around, this wasn’t the type of life she wanted to be part of. Although gangs were known for the wrong things, these sets of people were heartless. Even Lukas wouldn’t treat a lady this way. Well, what does she know about Lukas anyway? She thought she knew Big Joe and this happened.
When the first lash landed on Costanza’s back and she screamed in pain, Rhea did not look. She squeezed her eyes shut and turned the other way, unwilling to watch her cousin’s disgrace. Costanza was not a circus animal or a source of entertainment to the guests yet Big Joe made it that way – and it was all because of her. Because of what she did.
She tried to tune out every opinion there. The cheering jeers from the guests made her clutch her palms so tight it turned pale and trembled with rage. Their misogyny was so irritating that she was tempted to just pick up her knife and stab every male being in here.
But Rhea knew before she made even one kill, she would be shot down. She cleared her thoughts instead and sought that inner peace.
Ariana imagined she was away from this place and everything was perfect. She accomplished her dreams and was married to the love of her life. The only problem with her imagination was that she couldn’t exactly conjure the face of the love of her life which was quite disturbing because the name was right at the tip of her tongue.
It wasn’t until Rhea felt total silence that she finally opened her eyes to see that the whipping session was over and all eyes were on her. But she didn’t care about them, her gaze resting on Costanza who thankfully was not bleeding. She didn’t know if she would be able to bear the grief if Costanza died from this – she let her die.
Don’t get her wrong, Rhea still very much hated Costanza and her family for what they did to her, but at the end of the day, they were still family. It was family against the world. They were supposed to be united and fight against their enemies. Well, here they are. Divided and in pain.
“Since we are all done here, I’ll be taking my leave,” Rhea announced and it was quite obvious that Big Joe was not pleased with her dismissal.
He was the one who invited her to breakfast, she could not leave without him asking her to.
Big Joe was just about to stop her when Rhea interrupted him by placing a kiss on his cheeks unexpectedly and his jaw dropped. He didn’t see that one coming.
“I’ll see you later,” She disarmed him with her charming smile. Rhea leaned towards Big Joe making sure her cleavage was in full display and the man was unable to think properly while staring at it.
The guests who had been waiting for Big Joe’s reaction were stunned when he simply said, “Sure,” granting her request right away. At that moment, they became skeptical of who held the power here, Rhea or Big Joe.
Yet none of them dared to say a word, especially not after the whipping scene minutes ago. They didn’t want to push the leader of the Red Giant to the wall.
Costanza was being released from the table when Rhea took her leave and was relieved. They wouldn’t do anything to her behind her again. Even at that, Rhea didn’t dare to look at her. Some things were better left that way. Costanza and her parents were the ones who started this, they should clean it up.
The guards from earlier were the ones to escort her back to her room and as soon as the door was shut close, Rhea rushed to the bathroom where she leaned over the toilet and began to throw up every single thing she had eaten.
She felt sick to the stomach during the whipping and it was only by willpower that she didn’t throw up at the scene. The experience in that room made her sick to the stomach.
When she was done, Rhea leaned against the wall wondering what to do. This wasn’t just punishment for running away, Big Joe was giving her a warning. If she ran away again this time, he would end her family to teach her a lesson. The whipping today had only been an appetizer.
If that was the case, her escape plan was as good as useless. She can’t let Big Joe murder Costanza and her parents, and though they brought everything happening upon themselves, they were the closest thing to a family she had left.
Exhausted, troubled, and unable to come up with a solution, Rhea went to lay down on her bed only to stumble upon a small note there.
“What?” Her brows furrowed and she slowly picked the paper with suspicion. There were just three words written on it but when she read it again, her eyes grew wide in understanding.
“HANG IN THERE .”
No way, it can’t be….
Rhea sprinted to the door to go investigate who had left her the note but the guards had locked her in as usual.
Damn it!
His First Kill
Lukas had not been able to sleep a wink last night and was up before the first crow of the morning. He had a few cases of insomnia and tonight seems to be one of those days.
Most times it always took him drugs to go to sleep but when Rhea had been around, it was like she had been his special concoction. Her presence was distracting and all he needed was for her to royally piss him off and he’d go to bed annoyed, his demons pushed to the back of his mind.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t sleep but his sleep was usually plunged with nightmares of his troubling childhood and most times, his first kill. Why was his first kill so significant?
His first kill was his debut as a “made man” and Lukas accomplished that while he was merely thirteen years of age. It was a Mafia initiation ritual to become a made man before being welcomed as a member of the gang. While a novice would follow the custom of pricking fingers to draw blood and taking an oath of loyalty to the Luciano family, Lukas had not done any of those since he was royalty himself – the son of the Boss of the Luciano family.
Lukas only had to accomplish his first kill. A made person was supposed to make a kill that was approved by the leadership of his family, else retaliatory hits would be made, possibly inciting a war. And his father Daniel had been the one to approve his own kill, overseeing the whole process, after all, he wanted to see what his son was capable of.
His first kill had been an Associate. Now an Associate is not a member of the Mafia, but works for a crime family nonetheless. And this particular Associate had provoked his father by brokering a deal between two other gangs that had been detrimental for the Luciano family and he had to be eliminated. And yeah, no one else but his one and only son, was the man for the job.
His five ft two thirteen-year-old son had to go against a six ft one older man and his father Daniel was not bothered at all, if anything he was filled with anticipation. Lukas had been trained from young and though he couldn’t be termed a professional as of then, his excellent marksmanship and ability to assemble a gun in seconds was definitely praiseworthy.
His mother might have been useless to his father but she gave him the best gift in the form of a talented son. No wonder his father had not been able to send her away as he wanted because he – Lukas – had been defensive of her and Daniel knew better than to turn his son into an enemy. Lukas was his only son and child, losing him would be the end of everything. Everything he was doing was for him, so he says.
As his heir and son, Lukas usually followed his father to several meetings – and executions. He knew what was expected of him and was left to figure out how to do it. He had the Associate stalked and went over his schedule and of which most times, he was usually flanked by guards until he saw an opening.
…..
The Associate had a date with his daughter in an amusement park and his daughter made it known to him that she didn’t like the guards that followed him around. To please his daughter, he had them stay far away from him such that his daughter couldn’t see them while performing their duty.
Lukas recognized that the guards would be the problem and searched for a way to get rid of them. It was one thing to kill your target and it was another to come back alive and his father apparently gave an S-rated Mission to a child. Until now, Lukas still wondered what was going on in that mad man’s head when he did that, what if something happened to him?
Lukas was to prove himself hence external forces were not permitted. Although he couldn’t help but wonder if his father Daniel would have gone out of the way to help him if things had gone wrong. Daniel was an unpredictable mad man so Lukas couldn’t exactly answer that.
But on D-day, the population of the park did him a good favor. It was difficult for the guards to keep up with the crowd’s enthusiasm and keep an eye as well on the Associate dragged away by his overzealous daughter. Lukas watched them in the shadows and no one suspected him, after all, it was completely normal for a thirteen-year-old with a silencer gun to accurately take out an adult man, right?
The opportunity came when the Associate went to get an ice cream cone from a vendor and Lukas made his move. Little Lukas intended to leave as soon as he came once he fulfilled his mission.
However, when he intentionally bumped into the Associate and before the man could apologize, he released two shots swiftly into his body, intending to disappear before raising suspicion. But Lukas stopped short at the sight of his daughter.
His eyes connected with his daughter’s and Lukas saw her watch him hide the gun into the inside of his jacket and for a moment none of them said a word until the man slumped and her gaze moved to her father before she released an ear-piercing scream.
Lukas was gone before the girl could look back and identify him as the killer. But even as he ran, he couldn’t outrun the guilt that filled his heart. His father had celebrated his kill and his men praised him as a prodigy but that was the day he saw himself as a monster.
His father taught him to kill without regrets but the regret of his first kill was forever etched in his soul and he couldn’t cleanse it no matter how hard he tried. He only knew there was a section in hell reserved for people like him where he would rot forever.