Sold to Moretti Mafia

Markus

I pull into my designated parking spot and cut the engine. The underground parking garage is silent and dimly lit. Still I feel like we’re out in the wide open. I can’t believe I’m bringing her here, to my place, my apartment.

I bought it because it’s safe. But it’s set up to keep people out, not to keep someone in. There is no way for me to keep Fallon here besides constantly having her tied up, and I know she isn’t going to like that, not one bit.

“Where are we?” Fallon asks curiously as she peers out the window.

“My place. Come on.” I get out and jog around the car quickly just in case she gets any ideas about running. I take a step back, giving her some distance so she can get out.

When she stands, I take her hand, close the car door, and lead her over to the elevator.

“Jesus, could you maybe slow down a bit. Not all of us are six feet tall,” she complains, and I grunt in response. All I want to do is get us upstairs. Here in the city, anything could happen, and we don’t need to be ambushed.

Inside, I punch in my code, and the door slides shut. When they reopen, we’re looking into my penthouse. I tug her out of the elevator and into my living room. She digs her feet into the wood grain floor.

“Wow… this is your apartment?” The shocked tone of her voice meets my ears.

I nod and tug her further inside. “You want a drink?” I ask before forcing her to sit on the couch.

“Sure, why not?”

I pour us both a glass of bourbon and hand her one. Taking the seat across from her, I lean back and take a sip of the amber liquid. A sigh slips past my lips. I still feel uneasy, but nothing like I felt on the way here or coming into the building.

Fallon takes a hesitant sip, almost as if to make sure it’s not poisoned or something. Once she is convinced it’s not, she takes an actual drink, leaving the glass half empty. Her blue eyes gleam when they meet mine.

“How long are you going to keep me here?”

“Indefinitely,” I reply, swirling the bourbon around in my glass.

She laughs. “I’m serious.”

I look up from the amber waves in my glass. “So am I.”

“You can’t just keep me forever.”

“We’ll see.”

She sighs heavily, as if the weight of the world is pressing down on her shoulders. “I need to help my sister.”

“You can help her. Give me the number. Trust me.”

“Trust you?” She laughs humorlessly. “How can I trust you? You tell me that you are a bad man. You point out how you bought me and how you’re using me until you’ve had your fill. Hell, you told me just earlier today that you are going back on your word of not hurting me. Now you expect me to trust you?”

I shrug. “I’ve never lied to you, and none of today would have happened if you would have done what you were told.”

She places her glass down on the coffee table. “I’m not a child, Markus. You can’t just demand things and expect me to follow them blindly. I have my own mind, fears, and morals. I can’t just override them. I can’t change who I am, and I definitely can’t risk my sister’s life on a whim to trust the man who has not given me a single reason to trust him.”Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.

Logically, I know she is right, but what she doesn’t realize is that’s the only way this is going to work. She either tells me what I want to know and gives me the information so that I can help her, or she doesn’t. I could easily make everyone disappear. Tie her to the bed and hunt down these people, killing them one by one, but she’s stopping me.

Fallon is the moral compass I don’t have.

She’s the guidance I need, the rope tethering me to the rational side of thinking. Her sister would die before I could save her if I did things my way.

“So, tell me, Fallon. How do you see this working out? What do you think I should do with you?” I give her a moment to answer, but her rosy lips are set in a thin displeasing line. “Hold on, let me guess. I should let you go, but don’t worry because you’re not going to tell anyone what happened to you, right?”

“I wouldn’t,” she blurts out. To her credit, she sounds sincere.

Moving, I place my glass on the table as well. “Maybe that’s what you think right now, but in reality, you will eventually give in. People are going to keep asking you. Your parents will know you’re lying right away, and they will nag you about it. Not to mention, the police will get involved. Do you really think you would be able to lie to an officer’s face in an interrogation room?”

Her eyes go wide, and the reality of everything sinks in. She knows I’m right.

“I hate to break it to you, but you’re a shit liar. Any cop is going to smell your lies from a mile away, and then they’re going to tell you stuff like, if you don’t tell us the truth, we’ll have no choice but to charge you for obstruction of justice-”

“They can’t do that,” Fallon gasps. It’s comical how she assumes she’ll be safe when all of this is over. Does she not fully believe me when I say I’m a bad man? Did she not witness me killing a man today? Maybe she’s just blocking it all out, afraid to see the truth that’s right in front of her.

“Yes, they can, and they will.”

She shakes her head. “I don’t care what happens in the future. I care about the now. About saving my sister.” Despair drips from every word she speaks.

“I offered to help you,” I add once more.

“And I declined. I don’t want your help.”

“Then I suppose there is nothing I can do for you. You’ll stay with me, and I’ll fuck you whenever and however often I want.”

There is a long moment of silence.

“Will you ever admit that it’s more than just sex?”