Mafia War by L. Steele
12
Karma
"Aurora?" I stare at the woman whose face appears on the screen.
"Karma!" She smiles. "How are you? Where are you?"
"I’m in London."
"London?" She frowns. "What are you doing there?"
"This is my home, you know?" I retort. "More to the point, how did you get to a phone?"
"Ah," she glances to the side, then back at me, "the phone is Christian’s."
"Christian’s, huh?" I tilt my head, "Are you and he—"
"No," she says, horrified, "of course, not. He, ah, came by to check how I was doing—"
"Did he now?" I smirk.
She scowls. "It’s not like that. He just wants to be sure I don’t escape or anything. He’s responsible for me."
"Responsible for you?"
"I mean, he’s taken charge of me. I mean…" She throws up her hands, "You’re twisting my words all around the wrong way, and I wasn’t calling about me, I was calling to find out how you are."
"I am fine," I sink down onto a chair near the window and Andy jumps onto my lap. He meows, I pat him, and he stretches up to try and peer into the phone. Funny cat. He purrs at the screen.
Aurora laughs. "Hey, Andy," she calls to him, and he blinks at the screen. "Whatcha doin’, boy?" she coos.
I blink, "I thought you'd speak to him in Italian."
"Well, he's your cat," she pushes out her chin in a very Italian gesture, "so I see him as English."
Andy yawns, then leaps down onto the floor and flounces away.
"Guess he isn’t impressed by our discussion," Aurora chuckles.
"At least, he travelled well. I thought he’d have trouble on the flight, but nope. We strapped his pet carrier to a seat for takeoff and landing and he was fine. He’s also not had any problem adjusting to his new surroundings."
"And you?" She peruses my features, "How are you?"
"Honestly, I don’t know." I rise to my feet and begin to pace. "I am still trying to adjust to everything."
"Hold on," she murmurs. "Don’t say anything more until I dial in Cassandra."
"Cassandra?" I frown. "How did you—" Before I can complete my statement, Cassandra pops up in a window on the screen.
"Karma," Cassandra exclaims, "how are you?
"Not too bad," I raise a shoulder. "Are you at the house?" Is he there? That’s what I want to ask, but I don’t.
"He’s not here," she says softly.
"Who?" I arch an eyebrow.
"You know who I am talking about."
"If you mean the man who cheated on me—"
"Cheated on you?" Aurora bursts out. "No, really?"
"Yeah," I hunch my shoulders. "I walked in on him with another woman, and they were... Let's just say, they were quite intimate."
"Oh, Karma," Aurora cries, "I am so sorry."
"Yeah, well," I flick my hair over my shoulder, "what can I say? Guess I overestimated him, eh?"
"You sure he cheated on you?" Cassandra frowns. "The Capo is not the kind of man who takes his promises lightly."
"Yeah, well... In this case, he broke his vows, all right."
"Are you sure?"
"I was there, remember?" I scowl.
"Maybe you were mistaken?" Cassandra posits. "Maybe it’s not what it seems?"
"You don’t think I’ve been trying to convince myself of that? But not only was he engaged in the action of getting his dick sucked, but when I confronted him, he told me to leave."
"Oh, Karma," Cassandra bites her lips, "I am so sorry. I wish things had worked out differently."
"Yeah, me too." I roll my shoulders. "But enough about me. What are the two of you up to?" I turn to Aurora, "When are you going to tell Christian that you have a thing for him?"
"I don’t have a thing for him."
"Ha, if the sparks between the two of you were any hotter, you’d set the room on fire," Cassandra laughs.
"And you, girl," I narrow my gaze on her, "you and Adrian."
"Wha—" She opens and shuts her mouth, "Me and Adrian, what?"
"There’s something there." I waggle my eyebrows.
"But—"
"Don’t bother denying it, missy, I’ve seen how he follows you with his gaze when he thinks no one is looking, and how you steal glances at him on the sly."
"I don’t steal glances at him," she protests.
"Oh, yeah, you do." Aurora laughs, "I noticed it too."
"Right?" I crow, before redirecting my attention toward Aurora. "So, when are the two of you getting on and doing something about it?"
"Somehow I don’t think that’s a good idea, considering I am still the captive of the Mafia."
"Some captive," Cassandra says with a wicked gleam in her eyes. "From what I’ve seen, you are getting the royal treatment. You have Christian hovering around you. Any excuse he has to come see you, he takes it. If ever there is a need for a doctor, and given these Mafia guys are constantly involved in some scrap or the other, there is a need a lot of times… Guess who volunteers to go get you?"
"Suppose there’s something to be said for having a doctor in the house huh?"
"I'm sure it’s very convenient for them," Aurora huffs. "Guess it suits them to have me locked up in here."
"You don’t seem to be too put out by it, you know?" I observe.
"What am I going to do, protest?" She scoffs, "Like that will do any good. At least, I know that my family is taken care of."
"How can you be sure of that?"
"It’s an unspoken promise among the Cosa Nostra," Cassandra explains. "If one of us is injured or dies in the line of duty, so to speak, then the family is taken care of."
"Huh," I blink, "I didn’t know that."
"The Cosa Nostra takes care of their own," Aurora says in a soft tone.
"Their influence within the city and the community is all pervasive. They are linked into the police, the judiciary, and with the heads of Fortune 500 companies." Cassandra begins to pace the room she is in. "And of course, they rule the underworld. It’s why, if you have a problem with anything, you go to them."
"With anything?" I frown. "What do you mean, anything?"
"Meaning, anything." Cassandra raises a shoulder, "If you have a problem with your husband cheating on you, you go to the Cosa Nostra. If you have a problem with your business being in debt, you go to them. If you have a problem with the plumbing in your house, you go to them. Hell, if you have a problem with dog shit littering your street, you go to—"
"—them," I finish her statement. "Though I don’t understand why. I mean, it seems so archaic. Like you guys live in some kind of feudal country."
"We do, for all intents and purposes." She laughs. "Remember, this is the country whose prime minister, at one point, owned the biggest media company in the country, effectively controlling the media itself, and who was responsible for some of the worst scandals we have seen."
"And the only organization who could stand up to him was—"
"—the Cosa Nostra?"
She nods.
"Thanks for the history lesson," I lower my chin to my chest. "Still…not sure where I fit in with all of this."
"You are one of us, Karma," Aurora states. "You are married to the Capo of the Cosa Nostra."
"The most-wanted man, internationally."
"What...what?" I gape. "I mean, I know he is not on the right side of the law…He is a…"
"Criminal?" Cassandra suggests.
"Most people would call him that, but here in this country, he is…second, only to the Don, in terms of the sway he holds over most people’s lives." Aurora seems to carefully watch my reaction.
"You make him sound like God or something." I laugh nervously.
"Close." Aurora nods.
"Jeez, if I had known all this before-hand—"
"—you wouldn’t have married him?"
"Not like I actually had a choice." I drag my fingers through my hair, "You girls have given me a lot to think about."
"Don’t tell me you didn’t realize all of this already, Karma?" Cassandra peers at me through the screen.
"I guess, I was aware subconsciously, but honestly, to hear it from the two of you… Well, it kind of makes a bigger impact on me."
"You okay?" Cassandra half smiles. "Hope we didn’t scare you with the conversation. We only wanted to make sure that you were okay."
"I will be," I say with more confidence than I feel.
"Stay in touch, eh?" Aurora smiles at me, "Let us know what you plan to do next."
"I will, as soon as I figure things out myself."
We hang up and I walk over to the window and gaze down at the garden. What the hell am I doing here? Am I really going to have to spend Christmas Eve on my own? I ponder my options, then mind made up, I head out of the room.
