SUMMARY: Damon is the head of the Italian mafia, based in New York. He is feared and respected around the world. He thought his life was fine, until he met her. He meets Elena and his personal and work life collide. What will Damon do when the love of his life is in danger because of his lifestyle? Will Elena be able to survive the dangers of the mob lifestyle, or will history repeat itself
DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognisable characters, settings etc are the property of their respective owners. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended. No profit is being made from this work. The author only owns the plot line of this story.
"You cannot change what you are, only what you do" – Phillip Pullman
It was mid afternoon, and after glancing through the rest of the schedule for today, Damon found himself already feeling done for the day.
The rain was hammering outside, echoing through the halls of the Salvatore estate, making it feel almost peaceful. But this estate was anything but that, he thought.
He found himself sitting at his desk, swirling a glass of scotch in his hand and watching as the ice circled the bottom of the glass.
He had an extraordinary life, but always found himself drifting off during his quiet moments, wondering what it would have been like to be someone else… to be something else.
He was the boss or 'Capo' as they called him, of the Italian mafia. Based in New York City, they ran cartels all over the world, dabbling in drugs and weapons mostly. After his father Giuseppe stepped down and passed on the family 'business' to him, his life's hope and dreams put to the side, in order to keep the Salvatore name thriving as that of wealth and power.
He had no say in the matter, it was either him or Stefan and Damon had stepped up, wanting to protect his brother, try to get him out of the mafia dealings. Not that it did much, Stefan was as deep in this as he was.
His thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door…
"Come in" he groaned.
Klaus stepped through the door, a subtle smirk on his lips.
"Sorry mate, but we have a problem…"
Klaus was his right hand man and one of his best friends. All of the Michaelson family were apart of the family business, with their own ties to cartels throughout the UK and northern Europe.
He stood from behind his desk, buttoning this suit jacket back up and slid around the desk heading towards Klaus.
"Well, this should be interesting"
As Damon rounded the hall with Klaus in toe to the living room, standing in front of the fire place was non other than Katherine Pierce.
"Well, well, well… look what the KAT dragged in" he smirked to himself at his lame joke.
"Hello to you too lover" she smirked back.
"Ex-lover, thank you very much"
Katherine had been one massive error in judgement…. His now ex-girlfriend? No, I wouldn't even call her that… ex-fuck buddy? That sounded more accurate.
She was caught trying to sell our intel to the highest bidder, but wasn't very subtle about it. Stefan caught her in a club trying to sell some guy from what we can only assume was some Sicilian gang information on where we store our weaponry. Information she didn't have, but the implication was there…. She was given the shakedown by his men, Stefan shot the party interested and she ran for the hills. I haven't seen her in years…
"What are you doing here Kitty Kat? You're brave to step foot in here again…"
She looked nervous.. Well that's new, he thought… She looked down right pitiful.
"I need help Damon…"
"Well, you're barking up the wrong tree Kitty Kat… What makes you think I would help you?" he chuckled, others now standing around watching the confrontation, muttering to each other.
"This isn't funny Damon! Someone has been following me! My apartment was completely trashed and I have been getting messages to watch my back… I messed up…"
"What did you do Kat?"
She looked down, shaking, completely drenched and shivering from the rain outside… She looked back up with genuine fear in her eyes…
"I sold mis-information to … him…"
The room went silent… everyone knew exactly who she was talking about it, but no one dared utter his name. Not in this house. Not under his roof.
He stalked forward, like a cat about to pounce on its prey, watching as Katherine nervously stepped back a few times.
"Oh Kat… You have messed up. Big Time. Now I don't know what you tried to sell that psychopath, and I don't want to know.. I know exactly what you should do"
He reached out and put a hand to her cheek, tracing his fingers from her temple all the way down to her collar bone.
She leaned into him, relaxing as his touch travelled down her neck.
Damon suddenly wrapped his hand around her neck. Not enough to restrict her breath, but enough to jolt her.
"You can get out, and don't come back…. You are not my problem anymore. And if you chose to piss off the wrong person, that's all you Kitty Kat"
He let go of her neck and walked over to his bar cart, pouring himself a glass as Stefan and Tyler grabbed Katherine and lead her out of the door.
"What does this mean Damon?" Rebekah piped up in the silence of the room, everyone turning to face Damon.
"It means, business as usual… everyone back to their duties" he said sternly, watching everyone flutter out of the room.
Klaus and Stefan just stared at Damon as he wandered towards the fire place, staring at the blaze in front of him.
"He's back? What does this mean Damon?" Klaus shifted, asking the same as his sister had earlier.
"It means, Parker is back… It means this time I am going to find him… and I'm going to kill him!" he growled, throwing his tumbler into the fire.
He turned and looked right at Stefan, "for Mother" he whispered.
"For mother" Stefan whispered back.
After Damon had calmed himself down, he headed back to his office with his main men; Stefan, Klaus, Elijah, Alaric, Tyler and Matt. He assigned everyone jobs and briefed everyone on the upcoming threat: Malachai Parker – otherwise known as Kai Parker. The man who murdered his mother.
He sent everyone off to do their part, gathering intel on him and his recent whereabouts.
"Damon, we still have that meeting in the park in 30 minutes.."
"Ah the locals, yes…. I suppose we need to be making sure they are all still in check" he muttered, more to himself than anyone else.
"Alright Klaus, lets get this show on the road then shall we..?" as they both headed towards the door.
The driver already waiting, closed their door and headed to the local dog park to have a word with a client with a late payment issue that has become a recurring issue.
They did deal in loans, and even with this new information about Kai, Damon needed to make sure the air of fear still surrounded him and his men. Keeping the loan holders in check was just apart of that job.
They rolled up to the park where Damon wound down the window, watching the man in question playing frisbee with his dogs. He wondered how he looked so happy throwing something back and forth, and felt kind of bad that he was about to ruin it. This was definitely not his favourite part of the job.
As he stepped out of his car, Klaus right beside him, he spotted something in the distance. Not something, but someone…
Sitting beneath a large willow tree to the side of the park, in a dress and a sun hat, reading a book… she looked almost angelic.
Brown curly hair, long tanned legs, and an animated look on her face at the story she was reading.
He nodded to Klaus to carry on with what they were there for while he watched this girl.
As if she could feel eyes on her, she looked up. Their eyes locked, she smiled a little, and looked straight back down at her book, shaking her head.
What a magnificent creature, Damon thought.
He decided he couldn't spend a moment longer not knowing who this woman was. So he put on his best smirk/flirt face and strolled over to her.
"Wuthering Heights", he stated looking at the book in her hands. "She burned too bright for this world", he quoted, "now that I am sure you can relate to".
She looked up at him, impressed by his boldness. "You have read Wuthering Heights?" she asked sceptically, she looked him up and down admiring his features. He was gorgeous, and she could tell that he new it.
"Of course", Damon said, "the world belongs to those who read, right?" he replied, smirk still intact. He bent down in front of her, getting a little closer than necessary on purpose.
"I'm Damon", he reached down and took her hand, kissing the back of her hand.
She blushed, amazed by the gesture, which she had never experienced before.
"It's lovely to meet you Damon.." she said, trying her best not to stutter, but not giving her name. Damon noticed.
"and who might you be?" he asked, still holding her hand.
She looked at him for a moment, as if pondering what to say next… "And why should I tell you? A mysterious stranger with good taste in books?", she giggled.
Damon traced his thumb across the back of his palm soothingly, looking down at her soft skin and then back up to her chocolate brown eyes. "Because I think we will be seeing a lot of each other", he said.
She laughed again, her whole face lighting up while Damon watched in awe.
"Well, in that case, I'm Elena."
"So nice to meet you Elena", he said, and it was.. He realised in that moment, if there was ever such a thing as love at first sight, this was it.
"Damon!", he heard Klaus yelled across the clearing. Damon turned to glare at his friend, who quickly turned around and started walking to the car.
"I would love to take you out somewhere"
"Well", she said standing up, pulling her hand back, much to Damon's dismay, missing the warmth already, "I guess if we will be seeing a lot of each other, maybe next time I see you, I might give you my number", she said with a giggle and a smirk. Grabbing her book and bag and starting to walk off in the opposite direction.
"Until next time then, Elena", he said drawing out her name.
"Until next time" she repeated back, turning around fully and walking away breathless.
Damon started taking a few slow steps backwards, watching her walk away, then turned back and headed to the car. Klaus had taken care of the job, so his distraction wasn't an issue.
Looking at Klaus, who had a smirk on his face, "Oh now she was pretty, mate", he said.
Damon rounded the car to get into his side, both sliding into the car. "Don't ever interrupt me again" he stated to Klaus, who laughed in return.
"Yes boss, she doesn't look like you're usual type though… she looks like she actually has a brain… and a soul" he laughed. Damon did have a bad track record of woman.
Damon just turned to stare out the window at the now vacant spot under the tree where they just were…
"Whatever our souls are made of, hers and mine are the same", he smiled and mumbled to himself.
He turned to look at Klaus, "I want to know everything there is to know about her…"
"Sure boss, what's her name?"
"Elena" he breathed.