Maid for the Mafia

**ALEX**

It's morning by the time Damien and I are finished watching the majority of Enzo's body disappear. We're at the farm an hour east of my house. It's owned by a once struggling farmer that I had the good fortune of running into years ago after going head to head with an old enemy on the side of the road. I was younger then. Much younger. My father was still alive and the man in question was one of the first to ever threaten his leadership. I observed the man following me home after a particularly chaotic meeting that day at my father's place and after I was finally certain that I wasn't just being paranoid, I pulled to the side of the road to confront the bastard. The moment he parked behind me I popped my door open and pretended to get out. Sure enough, the moment the door swung wide, *Giorgio* reached his arm out and emptied an entire clip into the back of my vehicle. Lucky for me, he was as alone as I was, and by the time his firing began to die down, he was probably thinking I was already dead inside of my car. But I had already slipped out the passenger door and snuck around the trees. I reached through his open window and had a gun pointed to his head even as he fired his last bullet.

He never even realized I was standing there. He died thinking* he'd won. But, of course, he hadn't.

The aftermath turned out to be an unexpected chance meeting with the owner of the land we were parked next to. Farmer Tyke Arnold just so happened to witness the entire event and at first I thought I was going to have to kill the poor old bird, but as it turned out, he was a die-hard true crimes fanatic. He knew who I was because he followed the news avidly, had an unhealthy obsession with all things mafia, and made a hobby of researching all the big players in the game. At the time, my father was one of the most notorious and he recognized me as my father's son right away. Old Tyke was more than a little excited to lend me any assistance I might require. He offered me the use of his pigs. who were by his own admission, starving. His business wasn't unlike my own in the respect that he inherited his position and land from his father. He swore I'd be doing him a favor by feeding his beasts, so I said fuck it and the two of us fed Giorgio to the Wilbur and Babe of modern society. After the deed was done and the pigs were sated, he and I made a deal. I would invest in his farm, keeping it out of the bank's hands, and in return I would have unrestricted access to Wilbur and 'fam' for the rest of my life. It wasn't long before he was back on track again and I was having dinner with him and his wife Nance once a month. Usually when I would stop in to feed the pigs.

*If you don't already know. Pigs will eat literally anything you dump in their trough. And I mean it when I say, they will not leave a bite.* If they're hungry enough, and you happen into their pen, you better get the fuck out because they'll swarm on you and eat you alive.

I only ever use the farm when it's someone *no one* else can know that I've killed. Which is why I'm normally alone when I come here. But Damien... he's been my best friend since we were small and if *anyone* gets to know about this place, it's him. Despite the Romany tug-of-war that we seem to be in the middle of. In the end, whether she chooses one or none of us, he will always be my brother.

As far as Tyke and I go, our arrangement is more than satisfactory. I'm the silent investor that owns a piece of something that I can *never* be tied to, and I always have somewhere to dump my trash. As I previously stated during our last meeting, Enzo cannot simply disappear, so I made sure to keep the best part of him for his people to find.

His dick and balls are in an icebox in the car. It will be all that his people find in the basket on his porch *and* it will also be all that they can bury. Hmm, I have to wonder if they'll decide to place it in an open casket for all to see before they bury it under the gaudy tombstone he will undoubtedly be gifted with. Probably not, but if they do, I will *not* be missing the funeral.

It's quite humorous really, that the removal of said part is ultimately what killed him. Both in reality and in a more philosophical sense. Don't get me wrong, I shot him too but it was the actual bleeding out that he did with the severance of his most prized anatomical body part that ultimately led to his death.

Now, it's after eight a.m. and I'm famished after a long night at work.

"What do you say we drop in on the folks for breakfast?" I suggest. Damien snickers, "The folks?"

I nod, pointing toward the barely visible farmhouse in the distance, just behind the barn. Tyke is there on the porch, watching us as he enjoys a morning cup of coffee. "Nance makes the best biscuits I've ever had." **ROMANY**

Surprisingly enough, that afternoon I found myself on Mickey's private jet with only Simone and Bruno for company. Apparently Mickey still had some business to '*see through'* and we couldn't stay there any longer due to the danger said business represented.

Simone and Bruno are borderline disgusting in the way they have been fawning over one another for the entire trip. Despite my two year lapse in judgment following my first private encounter with Matthew, I like to consider myself reasonably confident and I *know* I'm more than a little pretty. I consider Simone to be beautiful, even if she doesn't agree. Whether she realizes it or not, she is a definite catch. Call me shallow if you want to, but those being the facts as I see them, I can only do what I can do. And Bruno, better known as 'Pinch', is something that I *can't* do. He is an *uh-uh, no way, no how* kind of ugly and I cannot for the life of me understand how Simone landed herself in his lap. But... they do seem happy, and she deserves some happiness after losing her mother and finding out her brother is a piece of shit. So there *is that.*

Now, the three of us are in another limousine about ten minutes away from Alex's mansion. It isn't until we clear the gates that I decide to turn on my phone that was returned to me on the plane. When I do, no amount of deep breathing can steady my clamoring heartbeat.

There are a slew of text messages dinging across my screen. Most of them hate mail from Alex, but *one* is from Ruby.

I open her message thread while scanning the yard, hoping that I'm about to read that she's finally back and is waiting for me in Alex's living room. But that's not what the text says and when I finally read it, my heart plummets. RUBY-

Hello Miss Dubois, you don't know me, but my name is Antonio Rojas. You're probably wondering why I have your cousin's cell phone. The answer is simple, it's because I took it from her when she arrived here to kill me. Usually, such a person would already be dead, but there's just something about your cousin that I was hesitant to stamp out. She's an enigma. A formidable opponent. Someone I'd hate myself for taking from the world. I offered her a deal to save her life, but she refused. She'd rather die apparently. I don't want that and after reading your messages, I have a hunch that you don't either. So I've decided to offer YOU a deal instead. One night with you in exchange for your cousin's life. Should you agree to it, you have my word Ruby will be set free, more or less unharmed. Should you decline, or if you share this message with ANYONE else, your employer, the police, God... you will never see her again. You have until midnight on Friday to respond to this message. After that, I will take my offer off the table. Hope to hear from you soon - AR Santos.

I read the message front to back and back to front about a thousand times and by the time I finally look up from my phone I'm surprised to see that I'm in my room. I must have gotten out of the car, walked into the house, and climbed the steps without even realizing it.

One night with me? That's *all* this bastard wants? That's *it?!?!*

Some small part of me already knows it won't be that simple, but that portion of my brain has been silenced by the euphoric realization that there's still a chance to save my cousin's life. *She's alive!*

*Oh my fucking God!*

I knew she was alive! I knew it! I can't wait to tell Damien, Alex, and *especially* Mickey how wrong they were.

"Shit!" That's right. He said I can't tell them.

*Well... then I won't.*

Pulling the message back up, I take a deep breath and start to type out a response.