Arranged Mafia Marriage

Karma

That stupid conversation was yesterday. I haven’t seen the alphahole since. I had wanted to leave the bedroom I’ve been sharing with him and move into one of the guest rooms, but he wouldn’t hear of it. He had commanded me to stay and had walked out. He hadn’t come to bed, so I guess he’s sleeping somewhere else. Whatever. I’m not going to feel sorry for depriving him of his own bed. Not after what he did to me.

I woke up early this morning and he was gone. Good riddance! I took a quick shower, then headed down to the kitchen to check in on Andy…who had already been fed by Cassandra. I tried not to be jealous about that.

I grabbed his basket, as well as two bowls, one for his food and one for water, and a can of cat food, and brought them up to my studio with me. I settled him a corner, before continuing to work on my latest creation.

I’m not quite sure what it will be yet. I am still in the doodling stage. And yeah, I refuse to use the sketchbook he got me. I also haven’t touched the Andy Warhol book because… Well, I want to spite him. Maybe I’m spiting myself. But whatever.

I draw a design, then crumple up the paper and throw it aside. Draw the design again… Ugh! It sucks. I scrunch up the paper, toss it aside. To be honest, I don’t know exactly what it is that I am drawing here.

It’s often like that for me. I need to doodle first, wait for the design to emerge from my subconscious mind. Often, I have to draw for days on end before the motifs begin to reveal themselves. It’s like, by drawing, I plumb the images in my subconscious mind. I stare at my scribblings… The wide forehead, the hooked nose, the square jaw. Gah, it’s an outline of his stupid face.

Shit. Clearly, I have his features imprinted on my brain. OMG! This is soo not happening. I design clothes. I don’t draw people or profiles…but somehow, I have ended up etching his likeness instead of focusing on my new creation. I crush the paper between my palms, toss it over my shoulder.

“Ouch,” a female voice protests, “I’ve never had a patient deck me with a paper ball, and that too, on our first meeting.”

I turn to find a woman I have never seen before standing in the doorway.

“Who are you?” I scowl, “And haven’t you heard of knocking before entering?”

“I’m Doctor Aurora Garibaldi,” she murmurs, “and I’m sorry, we’re normally not that formal in this part of the world.”

“Well too-bloody-bad.” I sniff, “In my part of the world, it’s polite to knock and ask permission before you enter a person’s room, and-” I stiffen, “did you say that you are a doctor?”

“I am.” She tilts her head, “May I come in?”

My heart begins to beat faster and I don’t know why. No, I do know why, but I don’t want to acknowledge it. Yet.

“If I say you can’t,” I say in a low voice, “what then?”

She blows out a sigh, “I think you’ll want to hear what I have to say, Karma. May I call you, Karma?”

“You know my name.”

“Yes,” she nods, “that’s what I want to talk to you about.”

“Oh, hell.”

I stare at her, and an uncomfortable silence descends between us, broken by a soft mewling from Andy’s basket.

I turn toward him at the same time as the doctor. I watch as Andy peeks over the side of the basket. He mewls again, then crawls out and my heart stutters. I walk over, lift him up in my arms.

“Oh, wow, you have a kitten?”

I don’t reply. Instead, I walk over to the arm chair near the window and sit down with the kitten in my arms.

“So sweet,” she murmurs, still hovering by the doorway.

“I’m not sweet,” I snap.

“The kitten, she’s-”This text is property of Nô/velD/rama.Org.

“He,” I interrupt her. “It’s a he; his name is Andy, and I suppose you had better come in.”

She nods, steps inside the room and shuts the door behind her. She walks over to take the chair on the opposite side of the table, then places the sleek satchel she’s brought with her on the floor. One thing about Italy-everyone seems to be dressed and carrying designer wear, like it’s the norm. Which, I guess it is here, considering that so many well-known designers are of Italian origin. Both of us watch as the kitten purrs in my arms, then snuggles in.

“How old is he?”

“Nine weeks,” I reply.

“He’s beautiful,” she says, her tone sincere.

I can’t stop the smile that curves my lips, “He’s a Savannah.”

“Have you had him long?”

“No,” I rub my finger over Andy’s tiny forehead and he yawns, “Michael gave him to me yesterday.”

She blinks rapidly, “The Capo gave you a kitten?”

“Umm, yeah.” I scowl at her, and she stares at me with a strange look on her face.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Out with it.” I point a finger in her direction, “It’s not nothing when you have that weird look on your face.”

She tilts her head, “It’s just… The Capo, getting you a kitten…is-”

“What?”

“It’s out of character.”

“Hmm,” I bite the inside of my cheek. “Well, I am his wife, after all.” Not that you’ll catch me saying that to him, but he’s not here in the room, so it’s fine to say it aloud in front of a stranger, isn’t it? Speaking of… “Why are you here, Doc?”

“Call me Aurora.” She half smiles. “I came to check on you, Karma.”

It’s my turn to blink, then I square my shoulders. “You’re the one who did it.” I touch the slight bump behind my ear which, while I had managed to push it to the back of my mind, in all honesty, I haven’t forgotten about. “I heard your voice last night. I thought maybe I had dreamed it, but guess I didn’t.”

“I was there,” She folds her hands in her lap. “It’s why I had to come and check on you today.”

“You were there and you didn’t stop him from tagging me?” I say in a low voice. “What kind of a doctor are you that you were actually part of this process? Isn’t this going against the Hippocratic oath or something?”

She glances away, then back at me, “You have to understand that this is the Capo you are talking about. I am but a lowly doctor. I have to do as he says, else-”

“Else?”

“He’ll kill not just me, but every member of my family. He’ll wipe out all trace of us if we defy him.”

I take in her wide gaze, the white skin around her lips. “Wow, you really do believe that, don’t you? You are afraid of him.”

“He’s the Capo,” she says simply. “His word is law.”

“And I am his wife. Supposedly.” I scowl, “And this is what he does to me.” I rise to my feet with the sleeping Andy in my arms, then walk over to the basket. I place him in it, soothe him when he wakes up so he falls asleep again. If only it were that easy for me to forget everything he’s done to me. I turn to face her. “You know this is wrong… So wrong,” I ball my fists at my side. “He tagged me like I am some…some…animal with no rights.”

“He,” she clears her throat, “he only wants to keep you safe.”

I stare at her, “I can’t believe you are taking his side.”

“I am not really.” She swallows. “If I were, I wouldn’t have risked his anger and insisted he allow me to come check on you this morning.”

“Fat lot of good that will do.” I begin to pace. “You were there and you didn’t stop him.”

“I tried, believe me. His brother and I begged him not to do it, but he was most insistent. I got the impression that he-”

“What?” I scowl, “Say it.”

“That he’s afraid for your safety. That he’d do anything to protect you. That he doesn’t want you out of his sight. That he wants to make sure that if, for whatever reason, you are separated from him, he’ll know where to find you.”

“Ha,” I scoff. “All this is just a power play. It probably turns him on to know that he can do anything with me. That he could even…even…put a bloody tracker on me so he’ll know exactly where I am every minute of every day.”

“And you like that?”

“What?”

“That he’s so…focused on you. That all of his attention is targeted on you.”

I flush. Honestly, there’s a part of me that revels in it…but damn, if I am going to admit that aloud. “Frankly, I don’t care for it. Especially not, if it means that he virtually has me on a leash here… Besides, it’s wrong. Can’t you see that? You don’t go around tagging another human being just because of your own insecurities.”

“You’re right,” her shoulders slump. “It’s not the ‘done’ thing. But then, when have the Capo and his brothers ever conformed to the ‘done’ thing?”

“You sound like you know them well.”

“No one knows them well.” She half smiles. “They are a force all their own. I went to the same school as them, though they are all much older than me. All the boys wanted to be them and all the girls… couldn’t take their eyes off of them.” She adds, “Even our teachers were afraid of them in school. They could do pretty much whatever they wanted and no-one would dare stop them.”

“Sounds like nothing has changed.” I scowl, “Once a bully…”

“They weren’t all bad though.”

“No?”

“They helped my father when he needed money the most.”

“Oh? How did they help?”

“The Capo paid off his mortgage, paid for me and my sister’s education.”

“Only so he could buy your father’s loyalty.”

“That may be the case,” she raises a shoulder, “but just the threat of his power would have been enough to have my father fall in line. He needn’t have done everything else that he did. I know he comes across as gruff and uncaring-”

“You have no idea.”

“-But that’s just the persona he’s had to create to survive in the Mafia world.”

Maybe I did guess that. Maybe a part of me has hoped that’s true. Maybe, in the moments that we had been intimate, I had glimpsed the tenderness that he is capable of… But then he had gone and chipped me, and without even asking me. He may claim that it’s to keep me safe, but surely, I should have a say in it too?

“I am afraid I don’t buy it.” I square my shoulders. “Why are you here anyway? If you came to make sure that I am alive, then you can rest assured that I am.”

“It’s not only that.” She bites her lower lip, “I guess, I just wanted to make sure that you are okay.”

I scoff.

“Maybe I just want to help?” she offers.

“You can help me by getting rid of this microchip.”

She shakes her head, “I am sorry but I can’t do that.”

I push my hair back from my face, “Then get me out of here.”

“What?” she says in horror. “I… I can’t. If I go against the Capo, he will have me killed.”

I can’t stop the smile from curving my lips, “You owe me, Doc.”

She shakes her head, “No, please don’t ask me to do that.” She rises to her feet and picks up her bag, “I guess it was a mistake coming here. I should have realized there was nothing to be gained from it.”

“Sit down,” I say in a hard voice. Shit, some of Michael’s assertiveness is rubbing off on me. Hell, I even sounded like him there for a second.

She blinks, but sinks back slowly into the seat. “You are not letting me leave without some kind of a deal, are you?”

I smile wider, “You guessed right, Doc. You can make up a little bit for what you were part of.”

“How?” She swallows. “He has you chipped. Even if you did manage to escape, he’d be able to track you.”

But if I manage to get to a phone and call Summer first, she’ll be able to help. “Let me worry about that,” I murmur. “Your role is only to get me out of here.”

She locks her fingers together, “The moment you go missing, Michael will suspect me. Also, I was checked thoroughly on the way in, and they are bound to repeat the procedure on the way out again.”

“Hmm,” I tap my finger against my chin, “you’re a doctor, right?”

She frowns, “You know I am.”

“So, if I were unwell enough that you couldn’t treat me here, you’d have to take me out of here to a hospital, right?”

She peers into my face, “You really are a devious woman, aren’t you?”

“You have no idea.”

“Does he know that you can run circles around him?”

“He has no idea.” I chuckle and a reluctant smile curves her lips.

“So, I was thinking…”

“Stop,” she throws up her hand, “whatever it is you’re thinking, don’t tell me. I trust you to plan the events. Then, I’ll be called in and when I am, I’ll simply be the concerned doctor who insists on doing the right thing by you.”

She rises to her feet, “Now, may I check you out, to make sure the wound behind your ear is healing properly?”

“That was like barely a prick.”

“Regardless, Capo’s orders.”

I take my seat again and she checks me out. When she’s satisfied, she packs her bag, and straightens, “Right then, I’ll leave you here.” She glances around the studio, “The Capo had this set up for you, didn’t he?”

“Are you surprised?”

“Not anymore. When it comes to his wife, I am realizing, the Capo will do just about anything for you.”

She heads toward the door. Somehow, I get the feeling that my only friend in the entire world is leaving. Not that I know Aurora that well, but with some people you just know that you can trust them, right? Maybe it’s because she’s a doctor… A doctor who is in his employ, who was the one who implanted the tracker. But still… She’s also a woman. Surely, she understands why it’s important for me to leave here?

“Aurora!”

I call out and she stops. She turns to me, with a quizzical look on her face.

“Thank you.”

She tilts her head. “Don’t thank me, yet,” she murmurs, “you don’t know if this plan of yours is going to succeed.”