"Hey, Mom, can I go to the movies with Ino and Sakura tonight?" I barge through the kitchen door with my school bag, kicking off my shoes by the table, knowing full well my mother hates this. She turns around from the stove with a glare straight at my shoes. I pick them up with a dramatic sigh.
"Yes, but be back by midnight. You have tests this week. And if you fail, you have to repeat your senior year. We don't want that, do we?" She gives me a wink and goes back to stirring the ground beef for spaghetti.
I run up to my room and throw my things on the floor beside my desk. I had homework, but I knew I wasn't going to do it. Half the time, I didn't and it never mattered to the teachers.
I searched through my closet for something cute to wear other than my ripped jeans and tank top that I tossed on this morning in a haze. I found a slinky red dress that matched my dyed red hair and dark Latino skin.
My phone started to buzz in my bookbag. I got it and answered.
"Hey, Ino, I can go! Just getting ready now. Wanna come over and help?" She agreed and hung up. Not two minutes later, she was prancing through my front door and up to my room. She lived literally right next door to me, which helped tremendously for pretty much everything.
We got each other dressed up and did our hair and makeup together. Through giggling and gossiping, we managed to finish up about an hour later. We grabbed a bite to eat when Mom said it was ready, then headed out the door.
"Varunee Lopez, you better be home by the time that clock strikes twelve, you hear me?" I rtolled my eyes towards Ino at how overprotective my mother was. She understood, because her mom was just the same.
"Yes, mother." I grumble and slam the door behind me.
The movie was great. It had the three of us in fits of laughter as we walked out into the street, pretending to dance like the characters of Step Up. We didn't even notice we were walking into an occupied alley.
"I don't have your money, but I promise I can get it this week! I swear!" Two men in the shadows were arguing in whispers. I saw something glint in the streetlight against one of the men's throats. Before they could see us, I grab my friends and snatched them back around the corner.
"Guys, shh!" They hadn't seen what we almost walked into. I peeked back around to see an empty alley. I walked out, surprised. Had I just been seeing things?
"What's up, Runee?" Sakura asks innocently. I shake my head and blink. My head must be playing tricks on me.
"Nothing. Come on, I have to get home by midnight." We walked on, but I kept a close eye out for any followers.
We made it home fine, and my nerves calmed as I reached my door. I had walked Ino home, and Sakura was staying the night with her, so it was just me through the last half of the neighborhood all the way to my mom's apartment.
"Hey, Mom, I'm home." I crash through the jammed front door and slip out of my heels that were beginning to kill my feet. I couldn't hear the TV going, or the radio, not even my mom calling back that I was two minutes late.
"Mom?" I shout out, fear striking my paralyzed in the middle of the hall. The men found out where I lived and came to kill whoever overheard them! I managed to make my feet work again and started to slowly walk through the house, checking each room individually.
My mom's bedroom light was on and I could see a shadow making its way out into the hall. I hid against the wall and glanced through the crack of the door where it was attached at the wall.
"Paul, you have to leave. I think I heard Varunee. If she finds you here, she'll be asking questions."
"I'm not leaving until you say yes. I got the money you said I needed. I can do this now."
"What's there to do, Paullie? You and I were done a long time ago. We're two very different people now." I could hear the sadness in my mother's voice.
"Sonia, I didn't change. Take me back. I can take care of you now." I tried to get a good enough look at the man talking but he was facing away from me and in the blindspot of the crack I was peeking into.
"And what about my daughter?"
"Yes, of course, her too."
"If you mess up this time, it's really over…" I saw the man walk over to my mother, who'd been sitting at the edge of her bed in her pajamas, and give her a tight hug. She hugged back hesitantly then spotted me behind her door.
"Varunee! I-um-" The man steps back and looks square at me.
"Hello, Miss Lopez. I'm Paul. I'm your mother's fiancée." He held his hand out to me but I refused to take it. How could she be marrying someone that I've never seen in her life? She's been hiding her own boyfriends from me, and this is how I have to find out?
I leave the doorway and go to my own room, slamming and locking the door behind me. The words I overheard pass through my mind but I can't make much of it. What is it this man is supposed to do?
No, now wait a minute. I don't do not knowing what's going on. This man is up to something, and I'm going to find out what. He's not marrying my mother until I know exactly what the story is.
Every day he comes into the apartment like he's owns the place. My mom slaves over the oven, like always, and he gobbles it all up without giving two thoughts of the two females in the house.
I suppose, if I'd met him in another light, I would have accepted him, his beer gut and Chicago accent included. But I had something against him. It was his fault for the change in our lives. He barged in and made himself comfy. And his greasy black hair put me off more.
After two weeks of him swallowing our food whole and leaving his dirty clothes laying all around the bathroom and laundry room, I'd had enough.
"Would you ever pick up your shit?" I growl under my breath during breakfast, a few minutes before having to catch the bus to school.
"What was that, young lady?" Mom's voice rose an octave every time I swore, no matter if I was 18 and almost out of home, and now it was about three octaves higher than normal.
"I'm talking to your boyfriend. So, Paul. You eat here, you sleep here. You gonna clean here too, like the rest of us do?" I raised a black eyebrow, my brown eyes boring into his own dark ones. He chewed on his pancakes slowly, for once, then swallowed.
"I think you should mind your own business and go to school like a good little girl." His eyes didn't leave mine. I could read his every thought. He wanted me gone, and not just for school. He was only waiting for me to leave home to live my own life.
I'd show him.
"I'll catch you out, I swear." I breathe into his ear as I slip passed to the front door. I go to get on the bus waiting for me, but then I have second thoughts and amble over to the side yard where Paul's car is parked. I open the trunk to see if I can spot anything suspicious. Suddenly, I feel hands on my shoulders and I am shoved head first into the trunk and the back is closed. Pitch darkness follows after.
The car starts up and after many bumps and skids, we must make it to our destination because the car turns off.
Light hits my eyes and I squint. Paul is dragging me out and grabbing my wrists to tie them up.
"Your mother is mine, you little bitch. She's not even your real parent, you stinking orphan. And I'm not going to give her up again, just because of you." I can see now that I'm being led into a motel room door on the first floor. He shoves me through the door and into the bathroom. "You can't catch me out if you're dead. And I have a lot of experience in making people disappear." He guffaws and slaps his hand across his knee like what he'd said was some sick joke. I try to wrestle my hands free but he grabs them and squeezes them together so he can bind them tightly. He ties them to the shower curtain rail, which gives me hope for an instant before I realize it's sealed into the wall well.
"You're a bastard." I spit at his shiny black shoes. He slaps me across the face, hard. I blink back the tears of pain to stare him down into his core. "You're worthless and my mother is going to find out about everything." He only laughs and walks out of the room, leaving me to awkwardly hang with my feet barely hanging off the floor. I manage to scoot back and stand onto the tub side so my arms don't go numb.
For hours, I search any possible way to escape. I can just barely pull at the hemp rope keeping me hung up onto the pole but not enough to get it unknotted and untied. There's a bathroom window that I could possibly fit through if only I could get undone. The door also looks fairly weak if I need to kick it down. I do a pull up and hold myself there as long as I can, gnawing at the knot with my teeth. I run out of energy fast though and have to drop back down and let my arms rest.
I'm just about to trying chewing my way through the rope when I hear the motel door opening and the fumbling of the lock to the bathroom. The door is thrown open and in runs Paul. His face is panicked and he's holding onto a handgun stuffed into the front of his pants. He goes to untie me but I kick him away.
"You're not killing me! Help!" I keep on kicking, lifting all my weight up with my hands on the poles and I go to bit his arm which is reached up to unbind my hands.
"Shut up, you dumb bitch!" He punches the top of my head. Red splotches gather in my eyes and I can feel my stomach lurch with the sheer pain. He manages to get my hands free and slings me over his shoulder like a ragdoll. My head lolls over and through blurry unfocused eyes, I see a group of men in suits at the reception. A black car is parked nearby and beside it stands a tall dark haired man with a cigarette in his mouth and his eyes glaring straight at us. He says something that we can't hear but the men in suit can and they all look over to us.
"Shit!" Paul turns his head back to look behind him, right where I'm looking. He starts to walk faster towards his car. I watch as the men get closer and I can hear guns loading all around us.
"Paullie, there's no point in running anymore. Come on, give it up and come with us." I am dropped to the ground and that's when I black out.
"I swear, I don't have your money! I never laid a finger on it!" I blink my eyes open to find myself in a study room with a fire going and books on shelves surrounding me on all four walls. A man is screaming through the walls and I can't help cringing at the terrible sound.
"You're lying." A calm voice states from the room over. I'm surprised I could hear this voice, it was spoken so low, but the words seemed to carry.
"I'm not! Oh, god, don't-" More screaming followed the last sentence, and then an eerie silence fills the absence of the agonizing screams. I shudder at the thought of what made someone cry out like that.
The door opens gradually and in walks a face I thought I would never see again.
"Sa-Sasuke!" I jump up from my chair and regret the decision in doing so. My head spins wildly and I collapse with no strength in my legs at all.
"Hello, Varunee." He sits down at the desk across from where I sit. He lights up a cigarette and takes a long drag. He exhales with a look of stress across his face.
"Sasuke… What- what's this all about?" He sighs and leans his elbows in the table to face me full on. His eyes are slanted, unemotional.
"Did Paul tell you anything?"
"That bastard didn't say anything. He was going to kill me. He's my mom's fiancée." The relief flashed his eyes for a split second then the veil covered over again.
"Well there's not going to be a wedding after all. But… I can't take you home now. You've seen too much." He buries his head in his hands, his cigarette smoldering between his fingers.
"If you're afraid I will tell people I saw you, that won't happen. I can keep your secret. I don't know anything about what has happened. As far as I'm concerned, I've been at school this whole time." He gazes up through his hands and his eyes send a shock through me, just like it always did when we were in junior high together.
"I wish it were that easy, Varunee. It's not hard to guess what's happened and what I'm involved in. Hell, I'm the leader. If anyone left with that knowledge…" He sighed again, his eyes slowly disconnecting with mine to stare into the fire.
"So you're just going to keep me here?" I sit bolt upright in my chair, feeling his words sink in. These men that Sasuke controls kill people for a living. What will happen to me if someone doesn't like me?
"It's not what you think it is. My members lead normal lives, as do my bosses. But see, we could use you for things that the guys can't do. That way we have constant contact." His mind is running through different options as I just stare at him in disbelief.
"And what about my mom?" I say in fury. My hands are clenched against the arms of my chair.
"I think it would be ok for you to stay with her still. And go to school. But you have to swear an oath with me, and with this group. And you'll have your jobs to do too."
"This is insane, Sasuke. I can't work for a mafia! That's not who I am! I won't kill anyone, and you of all people know that…" I avert my eyes down to the ground.
We have more in common than we let on. We'd been good friends in junior high until Itachi, Sasuke's brother, killed off his family, and would have killed me too had I not run away first. When it came down to it, I had the opportunity to fend for myself. I had a knife in my hand but I dropped it at the thought that I would have had to actually use it. Thankfully Itachi didn't find me.
"I'm not asking you to kill anyone. Nor will I ask you to do anything you're not comfortable with. I also offer money for every job you do. Varunee, this is the best deal I can offer. I don't want to have to have guards watching your every move…" He holds out his hand for me to shake. I look at it, at all the grooves and lines etched into his palm, at the spots of blood on his cufflinks. I take his hand and squeeze.
"Ok."
And thus began my mafia life in which I ran errands into public places to get bundles of money or to make deals, a henchman always close-by to watch for my safety. I played the prostitute to get in cars and direct the man into a trap. I became someone I never thought I possibly could be. And I liked it. I liked the thrill. After the first year of it, I lost the fear of being caught or that thought that someone would hurt me.
"Something is still bothering me though," I say out of nowhere as Sasuke and I sit at a fancy restaurant, nibbling on a shrimp cocktail. I have my slinky red dress on again and my red hair is pulled into a clip, curls falling around my neck and face to frame my features nicely.
"And what's that?" I can feel his eyes glued to me, to my exposed skin. Sasuke's never been subtle in what he's thought, even as a kid. Now, with his eyes grazing my skin, I could feel my heart thrum sexily underneath my collarbone.
"That guy, Paullie, said something to me when he was going to kill me. Something about me being an orphan. I asked Mom about it but she disregarded it as deranged talk from an insane man. Could you look into it for me?" Our main courses come around and I lick my lips at how delicious, and expensive, it looks.
"Do you really think you want to know, Varunee? If I look into it, it could dig up something that shouldn't be known." His eyes haven't left me, even as I eat away at my fettucini.
"I think I'm ready. It's been in my mind long enough. I've gotten used to the idea, if it's true that is." He nods and finally looks away to call a waiter over.
"Can I get your best white wine?" He asks the man, stuffing a few hundred bills into his hand while talking. My eyes widen. It never fails to surprise me at just how much this man will spend for something so small.
"What's the special occasion?" I venture to ask, fiddling with a stray curl behind my ear.
"You might very well need it. You see, I've known about you since you joined us. I knew you were adopted by a Sonia Lopez, and that you're originally from Sri Lanka, where your birth parents were both killed in the raging war there." He has his hand over mine and the wine has arrived. The waiter pours it in his fancy manner into the glass and I take it from him, gulping the contents down without even tasting it.
"Oh." I fill my glass back up and take another smaller gulp. It burns my throat and I cough. "Thank you, then." He nods and squeezes my hand fractionally.
We continue to eat and talk about our past. Once the wine bottle is empty, Sasuke calls for the bill and pays it without hesitation, just like he always does.
We leave the building and he wraps his arm around my hip, pulling me close. I look at him with genuine curiosity just before he leads me to a dark corner of the building and pushes me against the wall.
"Stay with me." He whispers seductively into my ear. A shiver runs down my spine.
"Sasuke, I'm already with you." He turns my head to his and kisses my lips. I wrap my arms around his neck as he pushes me more into the wall.
"No, be with me." He moves his mouth away to breathe those words. I look at him, really look into his eyes. I knew throughout this year, after everything I've been asked to do, that all the other girls connected with the mafia meant nothing as much as I did to Sasuke. And now I understood why he always kept me so close and watched by his men.
"Ok… yes, I will." I can see the hint of a smile pass his lips in the shadows and then he's kissing me once more. In the corner of my eye, I see a car pull up near us. One of Sasuke's men get out of the car and hold open the door patiently for us. Meanwhile, Sasuke's hands are running up and down my arms possessively and his lips are claiming mine. I close my eyes and let the moment sink in.
"You ready?" he finally asks, both of us out of breath. I nod, grinning wildly with the passion that had me bleary eyed.
"Let's go." I grab his hand and he leads me into the car where we go on to my next assignment—seducing a drug dealer into giving up his vault of money. I am pulled close and kissed firmly across the neck as we drive away.