Married To The Mafia...?

I heard the buzz of the intercom and frowned. Everybody who I knew had access to pass codes for the elevator, nobody used the intercom unless it was staff. But staff didn't ask for access to my home at three in the morning.

"H-hello?" I cleared my throat while holding down the button on the silver pad, "Can I help you?"

"Amelia Radev?" 

I froze, the voice was unfamiliar. Instinctively I pressed the option for a visual look at whoever was standing on the bottom of the elevator. He was tall, incredibly tall and wide. His entire body built with muscles underneath his leather jacket. His eyes were small and beady staring into the camera as a crooked smile played over his lips.

"Yes?" I didn't know what to do, I was frozen with fear.

"Consider this a courtesy warning from Mr. Samuels." Slowly he opened the side of his jacket to reveal a shiny black gun. "This is how our games work. You take from us we take from you. You shoot Mr. Samuels again and we kill you. Watch where you step love, these are games your husband never taught you. In the future, if you ever have one don't play in worlds you don't know about." He walked away.

Fear filled every single cell of my body. In reality I had spent weeks at a time wondering when the mafia lives were going to come and find me, I just didn't expect to be pulled into the illicit world of murder, drugs and gangsters. It wast something I ever dealt personally with, I was sheltered and protected from everything it had to offer until now, now I was on my own. Or so I thought.

The shrill ring of my phone brought goose bumps proved my skin, my fingertips trembled as I slid my thumb across the screen and pressed it to my ear.

"Amelia?" Emmanuel's voice was urgent and it only worried menmore. "Mitchie Davis wants to see you. Immediately."

I swallowed hard. Mitchie Davis was a patriarch of the under world. He was one of Antonio's most trusted allies. He was the man who dealt with the ugly sides of the world and he knew no mercy. Higher names employed Mitchie Davis to deal with new, inexperienced threats to their 'business'.

"I-I" I had nothing to say, the fact that he was personally asking for mento find him and not coming to meet me himself was beyond a bad sign.

"Meet me in the office in ten minutes. I'll take you to him."

Antonio didn't make eye contact with me, I could tell he was confused at to why Mitchie Davis would be calling on me and my finger tips shook with anticipation as we walks aide bye side through the double doors of the small Italian restaurant.

"Kitchen is closed." A leggy blonde eyes us suspiciously, her jaw smacking a piece of gum noisily.

"We're her to see Mitchie." Emmanuel barked from by my side and I felt nausea rush through me.

"And you are?"

"Amelia Radev." I found my voice somewhere lodged inside my lungs and watched her eyes grew ten sizes bigger, staring me up and down.

"He's-he's expecting you." She swallowed the gum and stood straight at the desk, "J-just through there."

I raised an eyebrow up at Emmanuel as we both shuffled through the wooden door. The woman's sudden change in behavior confused and scared even more than I already was.

"Amelia." Mitchie Davis was every bit the cliche Italian man. His dark hair was combed over his fat head and his enlarged body was dressed in a plain black suit. He stood up slowly and kissed my cheeks gently, "I haven't seen your beautiful face since the wedding."

Smiling shyly I nodded my head, my voice was lost with the nerves shooting around my brain.

"Please take a seat. You want a drink?"

Emmanuel and I shook our heads as I tried my best to elegantly sit upon the wooden chair.

"I uh, I." I fumbled over my words, wringing out my hands slowly. "I don't quite know why I'm here."

I had asked, but I didn't want to know.

"Amelia, you sound nervous." Mitchie placed his palm over my folded hands upon the table, I wanted to pull them away but I let them remain there with everything I had. "Don't be nervous love, I just wanted to see you. It was a sad day when my wife told me of Ethan. Even sadder when I read about my good friend selling his stakes in the hotel. And now my boys say there was a shooting." He let the words hang in the air.

"I-I can explain!" 

"Amelia there is nothing to explain. I don't call you here to explain. You are a Radev, you're family now. And my mama, she taught me family stick together. That's why I'm giving you this warning."

"W-warring?" My eyes were wide and I desperately wanted this whole ordeal to be nothing more than a wild and crazy dream.

"Amelia you're getting yourself caught up in the wrong places at the wrong times. I have bosses come to me and ask about you, they say you're becoming a threat to business." He drank from a glass that was out before him before his old eyes fell back on mine. "The women in our lives don't play in our worlds Amelia, this life is a man's life. This life was Ethan's life, this is not yours. I heard you shot your brother and his men are after you, I heard that yours snooping with travel agents and meddling where you shouldn't be. I'm warning you Amelia, not everyone can protect you."

I nodded slowly, my throat was tight and I swallowed, my heart racing with everything he was saying.

"Go home Amelia. Go home to your hotel and smile for the press. Go home and live your life, we will take care of everything else."

Emmanuel grasped my shaking fingers in his as he led the way back to the parked car. My mind was screaming. I'd been give the chance to walk away from Mitchie Davis' office, a chance that rarely came around to just anybody. I'd been warned by the head of the mafia that my digging and searching was being watched, that my actions would bare consequences so great that I would have to face them on my own. There was all of this plus the added burden of Antonio selling, of Harry Gordon buying. 

I was drowning alone in a world of so much chaos and despair that my eyes weren't seeing what was really going on around me.