The Maid: Mafia Romance (Series)

Begging

“Jay, baby, are you okay? Did the bastard do anything to you?” Giovanni asked me, his hands searching for any damage done.

I shook my head. “He didn’t do anything to me.”

“You don’t have to be scared of him, Jay. I’m here now. I won’t let anyone hurt you,” Giovanni kept saying.

I’d never seen him this worried before, and it only cemented the fact that he loved me, just as much as I loved him.

“Gio, I missed you,” I said to ease his worry when Lorenzo suddenly interrupted us.

“Alright, you two. Shows over. Stop mooning over each other. It’s a fucking eyesore.”

“Then shut your fucking eyes,” Giovanni barked back. “I’m having a reunion with my girl, here. Leave us the fuck alone.”

“I wish I could, but this is my house, Giovanni,” Lorenzo said all too calmly. “Or do I need to plaster it on your forehead to remind you that this is my house and you are standing in my territory.”

Giovanni let go of me, ushered me to stand behind his back, and turned to face Lorenzo. A second later, I felt Bobby, Heath, Finnie, and Jonny standing around me in a protective circle. My four friends, the boys who I’d come to know as family.

“Don’t worry, Jenny,” Bobby said. “We’ll protect you. Let Boss deal with Mr. Lorenzo.”

I watched as Giovanni insulted Lorenzo. “Why do you fucking irritate me so much, Lorenzo? It’s your voice. It’s so scratchy, like a fucking fingernail scratching on a chalkboard. So fucking annoying.”

“You’re showing your age, Giovanni,” Lorenzo retorted. “I don’t think I’m old enough to remember what a chalkboard is at school.”

“Fuck you, Lorenzo,” Giovanni swore again.

“Are you done with the swearing?” Lorenzo calmly said. “Do you have anything else to say? Because I’m done here. Let’s get down to business.”

“What do you want? The land deed again? All the trades in Las Vegas, is that it?”

“Like I said before it was a joke. I just wanted to see how you would react. And it was a fun reaction. You sure haven’t changed from all those years ago. Still a spitfire, always so hot-tempered.”

“I could say the same to you. At least I am hot-tempered. At least I still have warm blood running through my veins. But you, you are so cold-blooded, you don’t even know what the word mercy means.”

“I don’t. That’s why what I’m about to do, I will surely enjoy it.”

My heart was thrumming in my chest at Lorenzo’s words. What did he mean? My fear escalated into reality when he spoke.

“How much do you love your girl, Giovanni? Now is the time to test it. Could you lose your pride and beg me for the life of your girl?”

And my heart dropped. Lorenzo. He wanted…he wanted to test Giovanni’s love for me.

“You’re asking me to get down on my knees to beg for my girl’s life?” Giovanni put it in simple words.

Lorenzo clapped his hands and nodded his head in the affirmative. “That’s right. You put the words right in my mouth. Bravo. That’s exactly what I wanted to say. For your girl, I think it shouldn’t be that hard of a decision to make. If you love her, go on, beg me. Grovel like the dog shit you are. Beg me and then I’ll let her go.”

And in the blink of an eye, Giovanni pinned Lorenzo with a gun to his forehead. “You want to fuck with me, Lorenzo? Why don’t I pull this trigger first and see if you are willing to get down on your knees and beg for your life.”

“Giovanni. You think you have your men here to save you. Let me tell you. You are on my territory. That’s one wrong move already. If you fire your gun at me, I’ll make sure to annihilate every single person in your clan. See those men upstairs? They are my men. They have their eyes trained on your girl already.”

I stood still, watching as all guns were pointed at me and the gang. Somehow, the second Giovanni pointed that gun at Lorenzo, dozens of guns were automatically pointed at us. We were outnumbered. Six members of the Dente clan to at least twenty or more of the Lorenzo clan. I was so scared my knees almost gave in. But I stood firmly in place and watched the event unfold before my eyes.

“You think you’re quick enough with the trigger.” Lorenzo continued taunting Giovanni. “Let me tell you something, Giovanni. The second you pull that trigger, her brain would explode into a million pieces. Do you still want to pull that trigger?”

I watched as Giovanni paused. He was weighing his options, his jaw clenched tight. Until he sighed, his decision made.

He dropped his gun.

No…

He turned to me, his eyes misty.

Gio, don’t!

He smiled and mouthed at me, “I love you, Jay.”

And he slowly dropped to his knees. I broke out of my four-man shield and ran to him, dragging him back up just before his knees hit the floor.

“Don’t beg him, Gio. Don’t lose your pride over me,” I shouted, trying to knock some sense into him. “He’s trying to make you lose pride. I won’t let him win. Don’t beg, Gio.”

Giovanni cradled my cheek, hushing me and hugging me.

“Shush, it’s okay, Jay. It’s okay, baby. It’s just some fucking pride. It doesn’t mean anything. For you, I’m willing to do it.”

“I won’t let you, Gio. Stand up. You’re the mafia boss of the Dente clan. What would your underlings do if they saw their boss kneel on the floor? Have pride, Gio.”

“Jay. Listen to me. You are my pride. You are my life. If I lose you, I will also lose my pride. And nothing will break me more if I lose you. So step out of the way and let me do this.”

“How easily fooled you are, Giovanni,” Lorenzo muttered on the side. “For the love of a girl, you are willing to grovel like a dog. Go on. I still want to see a dog like you grovel at my feet.”

And Lorenzo waited, except the person who did his bidding ended up being someone else. Lorenzo went into shock mode as he watched that person get down on their knees and beg him.

“Nikolas, please let my sister go.” It was my sister, knees on the floor, begging for my life. “You wanted someone to beg for my sister’s life. Then I am willing to beg for her life. Please let her go.”

I went berserk. First my lover, now my sister. This piece of bastard needed my foot to teach him a lesson.

“Mel, get up. I’m fine. You don’t need to beg him.” But she didn’t listen to me. She kept begging him. And all Giovanni and I could do was watch my sister in misery as she continued pleading for my life.

“Please, Nikolas. Please let her go. You can do anything to me, but please don’t hurt her. Please just let her go.”

Lorenzo gave Giovanni and me a sly look. “You’re a coy one, Giovanni, for letting a girl go down on her knees to beg for your girl’s life on your behalf.”

“Nikolas, you fucker. She’s her sister. Of course, she’s going to fucking beg for her sister’s life. Don’t you have any mercy in your bones?”

“I have clearly told you that, and you have clearly specified it before, to which we both agreed, that I don’t possess such a thing. Remember the word, Giovanni. I’m cold-blooded. I don’t know what the word mercy means. Now are you going to get down on your knees, too, because I’m starting to become impatient.”

“Nikolas, please.” My sister tugged at his leg, and his eyes flicked back to her, and an unknown emotion which I couldn’t decipher crossed his face. This was the man who had hurt her, physically and emotionally, and here she was begging him to spare my life.

“Mel, that’s enough. Get up. Giovanni is here to save me, and he’s here to save you too,” I shouted, but she just wouldn’t listen to me. It was like my voice was like the wind, flapping around her but never entering into her ear. She just kept on begging, knees on the floor, asking to spare my life. How could she not see that I was already protected with just having Giovanni beside me? Didn’t she see Giovanni was already here to save me and there was no way in hell he’d let me die? It was a miserable sight, and I started crying.

“Nikolas, please.”

Lorenzo finally cracked.

“Get up,” he demanded.Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.

“No.” She shook her head. “Not until you let her go.”

Lorenzo crouched down to her level and looked her straight in the eye. “Do you think you have that much power over me, Amelia? Remember who you are. You are still under my debt. Remember that.” And he caught her arm, dragging her on his way up, signaling to his men to take her back upstairs.

“Nikolas, please. Let her go. Please.” The sight was miserable. I could still hear Amelia’s voice begging him until she was well upstairs, and her voice became nothing but a buzzing broken sound piercing my heart.

I cried, my body so distraught, I was literally shaking in anger. And it was that very moment that I went ballistic. I lashed out, lunging at Lorenzo, the man who had hurt my sister. Except Giovanni had caught me in time.

“Let me go, Gio. Let me kick his ass,” I yelled at Giovanni, but his hands clamped on to my arms tight. I pushed him off, but his strength was so much greater than mine.

“Jay, that’s enough. Leave him to me.”

“No. I want to kick him,” I shouted at Giovanni, then directed my wrath at Lorenzo. “Nikolas Lorenzo, you dickhead. Don’t you dare hurt my sister, or I swear upon my Ma’s grave I’ll chop your balls off. You just watch me.”

I swung my leg and attempted to give him a good kick; if only Giovanni hadn’t stopped me in time, I would have had him in the nuts already. Lorenzo just laughed, like he found my reaction funny.

“Hahaha. Your girl really is a spitfire. You two are really suited for each other. The hot-blooded mafia boss and his spitfire girlfriend. I’ve had enough. Get her out of here. She’s giving me a fucking headache. And that applies to all your people, too. And don’t ever fucking step foot on my ground again, or you won’t like what I do to you next time.”

“We’ll step foot out of here when we are ready,” I yelled at Lorenzo again, but my world was already toppled over, and I realized Giovanni had practically lifted me up and carried me, bridal style, back to the car.

“Gio, let me go. I want to give him a piece of my fist,” I kept screaming and yelling.

“Jay, enough. That’s enough, baby. Let’s go home.” He placed me gently in the car, but all I wanted to do was crawl back out to where my sister was, locked up in one of the rooms.

I was so mad and frustrated, I cried and kicked at him. And Giovanni just let me. He endured it all. Until I ran out of energy and strength and collapsed into his arms.

“Gio. Gio. I can’t leave her,” I sobbed into his shoulder. “She’s my sister. She’s like my mother. She has always taken care of me. I need to do something. I’d thought all this time she had disappeared, but I was wrong. She’d also been kidnapped. How could I think so less of my own sister? When I’d thought she’d disappeared with Pa and left me to fend for myself, but she was also sold, to Nikolas Lorenzo. Gio, did you know she’d been living under his roof for the exact same time I’d lived with you? What must she have suffered? All this time when you took care of me and loved me, she must have cried and was made to suffer under Lorenzo. Gio, I beg you, please, save her. I don’t have any other way to help her. This is the only way. I beg you.”

I attempted to get down on my knees when Giovanni pulled me back up and cuddled me close.

“Jay, don’t cry. I understand everything. She’s precious to you. And you are precious to me. I’ll help her. I promise I’ll help her. But promise me that whatever I do, whatever way I choose to execute this mission, I ask you to trust in me. Don’t be worried and don’t be scared. Just trust that I’ll get your sister back. Will you promise me that much?”

I looked at Giovanni and saw sincerity in his eyes. My lover, Giovanni, the mafia ruler of all New York City. He’d asked me to trust him. He’d asked me not to be scared or worried about him. But I was already scared, already worried about what he was going to do. But I also trusted him, and with this thought in mind, I lunged into him, hugging him so tight, seeking his comfort and warmth I sorely needed.

My lips traveled to the shell of his ear, and I whispered. “I trust you, Gio. I trust you wholeheartedly.” And I kissed him as my act of promise.