Chapter 5

⚔️Carlos's POV⚔️

It was the beginning of September, and I had had a couple of bad days, losing a few good men in a gun fight.  I hadn't been asleep for more than a few hours, when my phone rang.  "Fuck!"  I answer the phone angry. " What?!?"

"Carlos?" There is sobbing on the other end. "Carlos, its Maria...I need help..."

She has my full attention.  "Maria, what's wrong?" I'm up and getting dressed.

"It's my.... " and the phone goes dead. Fuck!

I try to call her several times, but there is no answer.  I try calling the house phone, and then her sisters, but no one answers.  I message Rocco.  I hired him to keep tabs on Maria and tell him to get to the house to make sure everything is okay, and then message my brother to tell him I'm heading to Baltimore and to have a few good men to meet me at the Airstrip.

On the plane back to Baltimore, I'm telling my men to prepare for battle and that we don't know what we are walking into, when I get a call from Rocco asking for permission to shoot the guards at the gate  because they are denying him access to enter the premises.

"Put me on speaker...Listen up you sons of bitches...This is Capo Carlos Romaro of the New York Archangels...I am on my way to check on Maria because she called me crying, and no one is answering the Ricci telephone and I fear she is in danger.  You either open that gate and let my men in, or suffer the wrath of the Reaper...Do I make myself clear?" 

"Gate is opening, sir" and Rocco hangs up. Fuck!!!  What is happening.  I try dialing Maria again, but still no answer.

When I arrived to the Ricci manor, Police were surrounding the place.  "SHIT!"  I nod to Josh. 

"Take care of this will you?"   We pay off the police in our territory to keep our men and women out of jail.  I'm sure it works the same here.

I go inside and find Francesca in the kitchen talking to a female officer, and see Sergio in handcuffs sitting at the kitchen table.  "I take it you're family?" The officer asks. Now its time to play nice guy.

" Yes mam." I shake her hand.  "I'm Carlos Romaro, future son-in-law... I take it Sergio has been drinking again and beating on his wife again?" I shake my head at Sergio.

"Carlos...Romaro.... your the..." She stutters.  That's right...fear me...I am well known around the world... Probably one of the most wanted.  I am a monster to be feared by men and women...only wives of the Archangel famiglia knew that we didn't hit or abuse our women.

I smile.  "Yes mam, Capo of the New York Archangels...let me tell you how this is going to go...your going to leave the keys to the cuffs here on the kitchen table, call in a false alarm, take your buddies and leave...My man, Josh will write you a little bonus for the trouble before you leave."  The officer nods, drops the keys on the table, and leaves.

"Where is she?!?"  I pop my neck and then my knuckles.

"She's upstairs in the safe room." Francesca answers, wiping blood from her lip.

"Who called the cops?" I ask, angrily.  That's one of our number one rules.  You don't involve the Police no matter how bad the situation.

"One of the girls, I'm assuming." Francesca answered.

I nod.  "Go upstairs, get the girls, tell them its safe, and get yourself cleaned up...Pack a few bags...you and the girls are taking a last minute vacation." Francesca nods and leaves.  I bust Sergio in the jaw, knocking him backwards in the chair.  "You like to hit girls?"

Sergio laughs.  "What business is it of yours what I do with my women?"  He spits blood out of his mouth.

I punch the table..." Its my business when I get woke up at one in the morning by your daughter crying and fearing for her life....what did you do to her!"

Sergio laughs.  "You actually like her?  What she do?   Go down on you?  Is she any good?  Maybe I should give her a go." I kick him in the side and then pick him up, drag him to the basement door, and push him down the stairs.

Rocco, Josh, and Bruno enter into the kitchen.  I turn to Rocco.  "Where were you?!?!"  I said angrily. He should have been in here taking care of this.

" Arrested!" Rocco answers. You have got to be kidding me!  Stupid police...what is it with this city?

"Go to the basement and take care of it...I want him kept alive...but save some torturing for me!" I yell.  I couldn't wait to get my hands on him. "Josh, get a hold of his Consigliere, Fratelli.  I want a meeting with him."

I wash the blood off my hands and go upstairs, and find Alissia and Camilla holding onto each other on Maria's bed.  "You girls okay?" I ask, seeing welts on their arms and legs.

Camilla nods.  "Father hit Maria though.  She's still bleeding....She tried to protect us."

I go into the bathroom and find Maria who is bleeding from what appears to be her eye.  Her eyes swollen and red. She's also covered in welts.   She's trying her best to clean her mother up.  Francesca nods to Maria and she turns and just starts sobbing.  I take her in my arms thanking God she is okay.  I was really falling for this  girl and couldn't explain why, but I wanted to protect her.  Maria was fragile and kind, but fierce and a fighter.

I text our doctor, Sebastian to head up and tell him that two of the girls need stitches.  I take Maria's chin into my hands and kiss her for head. "I'm taking you out of here." Far, far away from here.

Maria sobs some more. "Father broke my violin and hit me with the bow....we were practicing, and he was having a meeting... We didn't know."

I wrap my arms around her.  " Francesca, why did he hit you?"

She hung her head down.  "I got in the way of my girls." She sobbed. "He was beating them with his belt....harder than he's ever done before... I thought he would kill them.

I turned Maria around, lifting the back of her shirt, seeing welts all across her back.  " They are on my legs too....please don't look."  She was so fucking terrified.

"And your sisters?" I asked.

"Both have welts, but I tried to cover them with my body until Mother came to stop him."

❤️Maria's POV ❤️

Sebastian sewed the cut on my eyebrow and told me I was lucky I had no eye damage.  He also sewed a place on my mom's lip. He gave the four of us an Ambian  and told us to rest, but my sisters and I spit them out as soon as he left.  He sent a maid to help us pack. 

After mother fell asleep, we went and relaxed in Camilla's room and started watching Handmaids Tale on Hulu.  Camilla got up and looked in her mini fridge.  "Damn it, I'm out of Monster!"  She drank that stuff like it was Pepsi...I'm surprised she hadn't had a heart attack yet.

"Damn, now I want one." Alissia complained and they both look at me.

"I'll go get some!"  I head for the door.  I was always the one to go and do.  I was always the gunie pig.

"Get some Doritos!" Camilla yells.

I go down the stairs and start heading for the kitchen when I hear my father screaming, like I've never heard before.  I go in the kitchen and see that the basement door is open and that's where the screams are coming from.  I slowly walk down the stairs and at the bottom I see my father on his knees, sobbing like a little child.  He's only in his boxer shorts and his body is covered in welts and lash marks. 

Carlos is standing behind him, and his shirt is covered in blood.  He is holding my father by his hair.  My father is pleading for his life, begging Carlos to spare him, offering him drugs, whores, and money.  Our Conseglier, Fratelli is just standing back and watching.

The men in the room start chanting loudly "No Mercy!"  Carlos takes out a pocket knife  out of his pants pocket, and pulls my father's head back so that he can look at him.  "What do you say boys?...An eye for an eye?"  Shit, this was about me!!! The men get louder and cheer Carlos on.  I can't move, or speak.  Is this real?  Am I dreaming?  Carlos takes the knife and stabs my father in the eye, and rips his eye ball out!  All of a sudden, I hear a scream...wait is that me..."MERCY!"...and then I hear nothing.

⚔️Carlos's POV ⚔️

I drop the knife on the floor, complete smile on my face.  I kick Sergio in the side, and spit on him, when I hear a girl's scream.  I see one of my men turn and grab a girl telling her not to look when I notice its Maria.

"Shit!!!"  I take Maria in my arms and she's just screaming "Mercy" and wont stop.  "Maria, look at me."  She's completely trembling. 

"Maria, look into my eyes...don't look at him...look at me!" I pull her against me right as Sebastian stabs her arm with a needle.  She falls into a deep sleep against me.

❤️Maria's POV ❤️

I woke up with my head resting on my mother's lap.  She was also asleep.  I look around and notice that I'm on a private plane.  My sisters sat at a table at the end of the plane, playing Uno, and I saw Carlos in the front of the plane talking on his phone.

I get up and start to make my way to my sisters when I get dizzy and collapse.  I could hear Camilla gasp.  I look up and see Carlos standing over me, and then it all comes back to me.  I start crawling backwards. 

"You...you..you killed him." I cried.  I remembered everything.

Carlos picked me up and held me against him.  "We gave you a pretty strong sedative.  I'm really surprised your awake."

My voice was raspy.  My throat was sore, and I had cotton mouth.  "You killed him."  I repeated.

Carlos carried me to the front of the plane, and had me drink some water.  " He's alive, Maria.  I showed him mercy...for you and for your mom and sisters...Tomorrow he will wake up and wish for death though...I broke both his legs after putting you to sleep."

I started trembling again.  " And you cut out his eye?"  I hope that it had been a dream, but he was confirming that it wasn't.

Carlos turned me to look at him holding my face in his hands.  "Maria...I am the Reaper...This is my job...this is who your future husband is...I am not a good man.  I enjoy pain and bloodshed.  It gives me a thrill to see one suffer at my hand.  It is who I am...who I was born to be...Your father is lucky I spared him...I am sorry for what you saw today.  This is my work...what I do...I will try and not bring my work home, and will try and keep your nightmares at bay."

Carlos ran his thumb over my eyebrow and I flinched. " You are so lucky he missed your eye.  He leaned in to kiss me, but I pushed him away, and he chuckled.  "Maria, are you scared of me now?"

I bit my bottom lip. "Maybe, just a little." I was scared...I was horrified... But a part of me relieved because I was safe...my sisters were safe...and we were away from him.

Carlos chuckled.  "You don't have to be.  I promise to keep my job away from home...but you need to know, I have a reputation to keep.  When we are out in public, I am feared by many, but at home...you don't have to worry." He was trying his hardest to reassure me, and I so much wanted to believe him.

"So, your like a light switch?  You can turn it on and off?" I ask him.

"Most of the time...just don't ever piss me off...its a side of me I don't want you to see...ever...I promise to keep you safe forever and always." He kisses my cheek, and pulls me against his chest.  "Rest now...I promise tomorrow will be better." He rubs my back, and I fall back asleep, taking in his spicy scent.

I woke up again in a large bedroom.  It was around evening time, and so I assumed since it was dusk outside.  I got up, and saw Carlos on his phone, standing on the balcony.  The sliding glass door was cracked.  I go into the bathroom, and start filling the large tub with water.  I crack the door and start undressing when I hear Carlos knock on the door.  " Maria, are you doing okay?  Do you need any help?"

"Not until our wedding night!" I yell. And I hear him laugh. I turn off the water and carefully climb into the water.  "Could you maybe find me a change of clothes...and maybe stay close by just in case? ...I still feel groggy."

"I'm not going anywhere till I'm one hundred percent sure your better."  He tells me and I hear him unzipping a suitcase.  "Your sisters are on the beach, but its almost dinner time...Would you like lounge wear or a sun dress?"

"T-shirt and sweatpants are fine...I go under the water and come back up. " Carlos, what happens now?... Are we going to be at war now?...You attacked another Capo...Father won't walk away from this."

"We aren't at war...Your father has been asked to step down as Capo, and Mr.Fratelli will be the new Capo of Baltimore...I gave them what they wanted."  I gave them the painting, The Storm of the Sea of Galilee by Rembrandt Van Rijn.  My father had gotten his hands on it back in 2014.  There is currently a $5 million dollar reward for it today.

"What about me?...I don't want to go back." Please tell me I don't have to go back...send me away to a boarding school...anywhere but home."

"You're not.  You are moving in with my Madre until our wedding.  Our mothers are planning it now.  My Madre can get things done really quick...We are to be wed next Saturday."

I sit up and splash water.  "What?  Not December?...Saturday!  As in this Saturday?"

"No...we are doing it now...your mother and sisters will stay here with you until everything is prepared.  All you have to do is relax, and let our mothers do all the work!"

I climb out of the tub and wrap myself in a towel.  I open the door and Carlos is standing there.  "Are you okay with all of this?"  He asks.

"I didn't think I had a choice."  I smile, and he wraps his arms around me and kisses me.  I don't know if its love or lust that I am feeling, but I think I somewhat like him.  His kiss, his arms...His touch...his smell...his protection... I felt safe, something I hadn't felt since my brother had passed.