MARKED BY THE MAFIA
Marked By The Mafia - Episode 15&16
[...BOUND BY DUTY...]
GENRE: Dark Romance
TAGS: MAFIAS, OBSESSION, POSSESSIVE, LOVE, STEAMY, LOVE TRIANGLE, EMPIRE, BETRAYAL, CRIME, VIOLENCE, DEATHS AND MANY MORE...
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✮{...PREPARE THE CHAINS...}✮
30 minutes.
That was all Ace needed.
He moved like death in motion... silent, focused, brutal.
The black SUV peeled out of the Moretti Empire compound like a missile on wheels. Ace sat in the back, checking the holster under his jacket, a matte pistol kissed with a silencer.
"Alive and well" Matteo had said.
Ace could already hear the unspoken part:
*But barely breathing by the time I’m done.
He cracked his neck, cracked his knuckles.
Valentina wouldn’t see him coming.
•••
Aurora stood by the window in Matteo’s office, arms folded tight against her chest. Her pulse hadn’t slowed since he gave the order.
She hadn’t expected him to react that fast. Or that violently.
"Why would you do that?" she asked finally, turning to him.
Matteo looked up from his desk, where he was loading bullets into a custom gold-plated handgun. His expression? Stone.
"She touched what’s mine" he said.
"She’s my sister"
"Then she should know better"
Aurora’s jaw tightened. "You think hurting her will make me fear you more?"
Matteo smirked faintly. "No. I think it’ll remind you who the real monster is"
A silence settled between them.
Then... the door opened.
Vixen stepped in.
"Someone’s here, and you’re going to want to see this"
Matteo stood slowly.
Aurora followed him till they reached a secured chamber.
Beyond the steel door stood the Clan again. Ace wasn’t back yet, but the rest were stationed like statues.
In the center of the room sat a figure.
Chained to the floor.
Blindfolded, bloody, breathing but barely.
It wasn’t Valentina.
It was someone else.
A message.
Matteo narrowed his eyes. "Who sent this?"
Rocco stepped forward, dragging something behind him... a small black box with a crimson ribbon tied around it.
"There’s a note" he said, handing it over.
Matteo ripped it open.
Inside was a photo. A burned vehicle and two bodies.
A bullet casing engraved with an old crest. One known only to the Ghost Syndicate.
And a note, handwritten in thin, slanted letters:
*You took what doesn’t belong to you. Tick-tock, Matteo. Tick-tock.
— E.V.
Matteo’s expression didn’t change.
Aurora stepped back slightly, goosebumps racing up her spine.
"Elijah Varga," Matteo muttered darkly. "So he finally shows his teeth"
"He messaged me this morning, to get back a drive or something" Aurora confessed.
Matteo’s head turned sharply. "What?"
"I didn’t respond"
"Next time," he growled, "you tell me immediately"
"I tried telling you but you kept interrupting me"
Matteo’s jaw ticked.
"You tried?" he repeated.
"Yes. I said I needed to talk and you slammed your hand on the table. You were too busy barking orders to listen"
He stared at her.
Two seconds.
Three.
Then he looked away and dragged a hand through his hair in anger.
"Next time someone threatens you" he said slowly, "you come straight to me"
Aurora looked him square in the eye.
"Then maybe next time... listen when I do"
They stared at each other before Matteo turned to the others.
"He needs the drive... and he will never get it" The clan nodded in quiet understanding.
Matteo’s eyes locked on the chained figure at the center of the room.
He walked toward him slowly, each step a death sentence. His fingers curled around the gold-plated pistol, his face unreadable.
The man groaned.
He lifted his head weakly, blood dripping from a gash across his brow.
"Please…" he rasped.
Matteo didn’t blink.
A clean, merciless shot straight to the skull.
The man's body slumped forward with a sickening thud, blood pooling beneath him.
Silence fell and then the doors opened.
Ace stepped inside, dragging Valentina behind him. Her wrists were bound, her cheek swollen, hair matted with sweat but her posture? Unbent. Unapologetic. A smirk curved her lips, even now.
Matteo turned, his face still expressionless.
Ace raised a brow. "Let’s not waste time here," he said. "You want me to kill her… or should I do you the honor?"
Aurora’s heart dropped. She pushed forward.
"She’s my sister! Don’t hurt her!"
Valentina didn’t say a word.
She just smiled wider like she knew something no one else did.
Matteo looked at her… and then at Aurora.
He chuckled darkly, shaking his head.
"One day," he murmured, "you’ll beg me to kill her for you, Piccolina"
He brushed past Aurora, and with that… he was gone.
Ace cut the restraints binding Valentina’s hands.
She rolled her sore wrists, flexing her fingers… and stepped closer to Aurora.
So close their foreheads nearly touched.
Her breath was cold.
"Wrong choice, lil sis… but thank you"
She whispered it like a kiss of death.
Then she turned and walked past Ace with the same smug grace she’d always had like nothing had changed.
The rest of the clan began to disperse until only Ace and Vixen remained.
Vixen leaned against the wall lazily, crossing her arms over her black silk corset. She watched Aurora like a cat watches a trembling mouse.
Ace stood stiff and silent, arms folded, his sharp eyes pinned on Valentina as she left the room.
Vixen, however, pushed off the wall, her stilettos clicking with every step as she approached Aurora.
Then she leaned in, her lips brushing close to Aurora’s ear.
"Will love to see you around, Boss' wife"
She gave a slow smirk, turned, and left leaving Aurora alone with Ace.
"Is there something i need to know?" She asked him.
"Is there something I need to know?"
Ace didn't speak at first, then after a long pause, he spoke.
"Yeah. One thing"
He stepped closer.
"Next time you protect someone who tried to kill you…" He leaned in, head tilted slightly.
"…make sure she doesn’t stab you deeper when you turn your back" Aurora’s chest tightened.
But Ace didn’t wait for a response. He turned, grabbed a fresh magazine from the weapons table, and shoved it into the pistol clipped at his hip.
Just before stepping out the door, he glanced back at her one final time.
"And for what it’s worth," he added, "you made the wrong choice" Then he was gone, he door slammed shut behind him.
And Aurora stood there... alone.
Even the walls seemed to whisper:
Tick-tock, Piccolina... Tick-f+king-tock.
Viper peeped out from her hiding, glaring hard at her and she smirked.
"Looks like I can team up with Valentina"
•••
MATTEO’S MANSION*
Aurora got back to the mansion. She left the empire 30 minutes ago.
She needed something to do.
Opening the fridge, she pulled out a bottle of water and uncapped it before gulping it all.
Her mind was somewhere else.
Or rather… back in time.
Back in that suffocating house she once called home.
Back when Valentina was the golden girl, their parents' pride and joy. The strong one and he perfect one. While she, Aurora, was the fragile one and he sick child.
They trained Valentina to shoot before she could ride a bike.
They taught her to fight, to survive.
But Aurora?
She was told to smile pretty, to stay safe, to stay silent.
They never thought she’d survive her sickness.
And when she did… they didn’t know what to do with her.
They ignored her, forgot her, abandoned her.
Enzo was the man who decided to train her on his own accord.
While Valentina trained with warlords and ex-assassins, Aurora got Enzo… and funny enough, he was the only one who gave a damn.
He taught her how to throw a knife.
How to aim.
How to win.
Not with brute force… but with her mind.
"They’ll never see you coming, Feather" he had whispered once, pressing a blade into her hand. "And that will be your power."
Her lips twitched, not quite a smile.
Let them all keep thinking she was weak.
Let them think Valentina was the storm.
They had no idea what they were creating.
She then made a decision, she's meeting up with Enzo this night and this time... she doesn't care.
Let him punish her.
Let him rage.
She pulled out her phone and sent him a message, he replied almost immediately.
She tossed the phone into her bag and strode out of the kitchen.
The guards at the front didn’t stop her this time. No questions.
Just watched her silently as she walked toward the garage like she owned the place... well, she technically does now.
She pulled out of the mansion gates, her eyes never leaving the road ahead.
An hour later, she arrived at an abandoned shooting range..
Aurora stepped inside.
The smell of gunpowder still lingered, mixed with dust and old sweat.
She paused… then saw him.
Enzo stepped out from the shadows, wearing a worn leather jacket, dark jeans, and that same calm intensity in his eyes that always made her feel safe.
They stood still for a heartbeat.
Then she walked straight into his arms.
He didn’t hesitate.
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He wrapped her up like he’d been waiting forever.
"Missed you a lot, Enzo," she whispered, voice breaking slightly against his chest.
His hand ran gently down her back, grounding her.
"I missed you too, Feather," he murmured. "You have no idea"
They stayed that way for a moment then he pulled back slightly, hands on her shoulders as he scanned her face.
"You okay?" he asked.
"No" she said truthfully.
"How's that bastard been treating you?" He seethed.
"Badly, i hate him now" she said and Enzo smiled inwardly.
Aurora exhaled slowly, stepping back, eyes locked on the bullet-riddled targets at the far end of the range.
He turned toward the weapons bench and picked up a pistol, offering it to her grip-first.
Aurora took the weapon without hesitation.
She cocked it smoothly.
Took aim.
Fired.
The bullet tore clean through the paper target’s head.
Dead center.
Enzo whistled low under his breath. "Looks like someone’s been practicing"
Aurora smirked faintly. "Only thing keeping me sane"
They kept firing for the next hour silently syncing like old times, like nothing had changed… except everything had.
The echo of the final gunshot faded into silence.
Aurora lowered the pistol, breathing steady, lips slightly parted.
Enzo watched her like he was seeing a memory come alive.
"You remember the first time I brought you here?" he asked softly.
Aurora chuckled, the sound short and dry. "I nearly passed out from the noise"
"You nearly shot my foot" he corrected with a grin.
She smiled genuinely this time. "You shouldn’t have stood so close"
"I thought I could catch the bullet"
Aurora glanced at him, amused. "You were crazy back then"
"Still am"
She laughed quietly, and for a brief second… it felt like peace.
"I used to cry myself to sleep after our sessions here, not because of the pain… but because for once, someone actually believed in me" she admitted.
Silence again.
"You remember the time you taught me how to throw knives in the rain?" she asked.
He nodded slowly. "You were so mad you couldn’t get it right. Kept yelling at the blade like it owed you money"
Aurora laughed again, this time deeper. "I was soaked. Cold. Angry. And you said—"
“"The blade isn’t your enemy. Your mind is" Enzo finished for her.
She turned to him, a slow breath escaping her lips.
"You always knew what to say"
"Still do. Sometimes" he said, smiling faintly.
Then his voice lowered. "You remember when you turned sixteen?"
Aurora’s face changed... nostalgic and sad.
"You gave me a small silver dagger" she whispered.
"You named her Mercy" he said.
She blinked. "I still have it"
Enzo looked proud. "Knew you would. That blade saw more than any of your family ever did"
They stood in silence for a long moment, both lost in the pieces of their shared past.
Finally, Aurora turned to face him completely.
"Thank you… for never giving up on me"
"I saw you had it in you" he moved closer and pressed his lips on her forehead.
•••
BACK AT THE EMPIRE*
The room was dim and only the cold glow from the monitor lit Matteo’s face.
He sat motionless in the leather chair, hands steepled under his chin, eyes locked on the screen in front of him.
A folder was open.
Photos.
Still frames.
One after the other.
Aurora… smiling.
Aurora… laughing.
Aurora… aiming a pistol.
Aurora… in Enzo’s arms.
And then… the video.
He clicked play.
No sound.
Just her soft lips moving.
Her leaning into Enzo’s chest.
And then… the kiss.
A simple press of lips against her forehead.
Matteo didn’t move at first, didn’t breathe until he did.
His hand shot out and slammed the laptop shut.
He stood abruptly, the chair scraping against the floor.
His chest heaved once, twice.
Then he reached into the drawer and pulled out a thin black tablet. A red dot blinked steadily on a map.
The tracker was active.
He’d always known where she was.
His hand balled into a tight fist.
A punch flew into the mirror nearby, glass shattered, blood splattered.
He stared at the broken reflection, blood trailing down his forearm. Breathing heavy.
Then another punch.
And another.
Until the mirror was nothing but shards on the marble.
Blood dripped freely now, mixing with the fragments on the floor.
He leaned forward, pressing both bloodied hands on the sink beneath the mirror.
His eyes were wild, dark and animalistic.
He looked up at the jagged remnants of his reflection.
His throat tightened.
"She let him touch her…"
His hand slammed down again.
"She let him in…"
He dragged his bloodied fingers across the countertop, painting it red.
He stared at the crimson stain. Then at the screen still glowing on his desk.
He reached for his phone and typed one thing to his most loyal person.
"Prepare the chains. I’ll deal with my wife myself"
•
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TBC😈
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