Trapped in his End Game (Series)

When I finally reach my dorm room, I’m fucking exhausted. It’s 3am and I’ve had the longest night of my life. I still can’t believe what happened. I open the door quietly, because I expect Maria to be asleep, so I’m astounded when I see Jackie and Maria still dressed up, sitting on chairs and looking wide awake.

“Thank fucking God.” Jackie shifts in his seat and rakes a hand through his hair.

She bolts upright. “Jesus, Ade! I was so worried!”

I’m startled by their reaction. “Guys, it was fine. He just wanted to apologize and offer me a job.”

“What?”

Both of them yell at the same time. I start to smile, even though I’m ruffled by the shocked looks on their faces.

“Yeah. He wants me to deal cards every week. I made three grand tonight in tips!”

“Oh, fuck.” Jackie sits back down and buries his face in his hands.

I stare at him. It’s not like him to explode like that. “What’s wrong?”Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

Maria grabs my shoulders, her eyes bloodshot, but her face is livid with fear. “Ade, he’s a captain.”

“Captain? What the-”

“He’s a captain in the Vittorio Crime Family.”

Shit. Oh, God. I’ve just signed up to work for the fucking mafia? This must be a joke.

“What the hell is a captain?” Maria shrieks.

Jackie rubs his face. “God, don’t you guys watch movies? Every crime family has a boss. Under that boss, there’s an underboss. Under him are the captains. Capos,” he says, the Italian word rolling off his tongue. “They have soldiers working for them. It’s a hierarchy.”

“Are you sure he’s with the mob?”

“Of course, I’m sure.”

I’ve heard the name all my life. They’re always in the papers. Vittorio hit in Brooklyn indicates war with Rizzos heating up. Vittorio family mobsters arrested in connection to Italian Mafia.

I dive to the computer and immediately google his name. What was it? Vincent Cesare? I type it in and look him up, Maria and Jackie looking over my shoulder.

There’s not much on him, but there’s a novel on Giacomo Vittorio, the boss of the family.

The buzzing in my head gets worse and I feel the beginnings of a headache. Goddamn it. I can’t deal with this shit right now. Turning it off, I wheel around to stare at both of them. Then I remember something. Another swell of horror rises in my throat.

“I stole a pen from him.”

“You what?”

I take it out of my purse and swallow hard. It’s a Waterman pen, one of those expensive fountain pens. It weighs heavily in my hand. Solid gold.

Jesus.

“I couldn’t-I didn’t mean to!”

“Oh Jesus fucking Christ, Adriana. Of all people, you decided to steal from him.” Maria glowers at me. She knows about my habit because she’s caught me before.

“I’ll give it back to him,” I say in a small voice.

“No, don’t!”

“You just have to tell him that you changed your mind.”

“She can’t do that!” Maria shrieks. “What is she going to say? ‘Excuse me Mr. Badass Mobster, I was just wondering if I could quit!’ Then before she knows it, she’s whacked!”

Both of them are freaking me out. “You’ve watched way too many Martin Scorsese movies. I’m not going to get killed for turning down a job.” I’ll admit that calling Vincent up and telling him that I changed my mind intimidates the hell out of me.

They’re both looking at me like I need to act now, but I’m too tired to be scared. “Guys, I’ll deal with this in the morning. I’m too exhausted right now to think.”

“Maybe I can talk to my brother.” Jackie sighs and picks up his jacket that hangs on the post of my bed. “He’s just an associate, I think.”

I heard about his brother being the black sheep of the family, but I never thought that he was associated with criminals.

“Don’t do anything yet.” I’m chewing my lip.

Maria’s face looks bloodless, all of her makeup faded away. “You’re not thinking of actually going through with it, are you?”

I kicked off my heels and shrug. “Guys, I need to sleep!”

“All right, goodnight.”

We mumble a goodbye as Jackie leaves the dorm. Maria and I stare at each other in disbelief. Then I start to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. Maria’s head starts shaking and I clutch my sides as I laugh my ass off, until finally I’m wiping tears from my eyes.

“Too much excitement for one night,” she says.

That, I can agree with.