Mafia Kings: Roberto: Chapter 50

Mei-ling drove us to the Summit as fast as was safe.

After a hot shower to get rid of the chill from the rain, we made love again – this time in her bed.

It was no less passionate than what we had done in the car, but we took our time… and used ropes and scarves to heighten her pleasure.

She had at least half a dozen orgasms before I finally came inside her.

Afterwards, as she lay in my arms, I finally asked her what I’d wanted to know all along.

“Why did you react so strongly when I told you I was in the Cosa Nostra?”

I felt her body tense against mine.

I waited in silence.

It was nearly 30 seconds before she whispered, “My father was a triad gangster.”

“…ah.”

Now it all made sense.

Even if I didn’t know the details, I could imagine why she’d reacted the way she did.

“I didn’t know until I was a teenager,” she continued.

“He hid it that well?” I asked gently.

“He ran the group he was part of, so he was more like a high-level businessman. He wore a suit all the time, and he kept his work separate from our family. I didn’t know anything about what he did until I was kidnapped.”

Kidnapped.

I looked down at her in shock. “Did they – ”

“No,” she whispered. “They didn’t hurt me. They were trying to use me as leverage, to make him give up part of his territory. They knew if they hurt me, he wouldn’t rest until they were all dead.

“But at the time, I didn’t understand why I’d been kidnapped. Not until a week later, when my father and his men came into the warehouse where I was being held captive and slaughtered everyone.”

My heart ached for her. My own life had been filled with violence; from the time I was a child, my father’s enemies had tried to kill my family. But they had never once laid a finger on me or my brothers.

I could only imagine how terrifying it must have been to be a teenage girl and be taken hostage without knowing about her father – and then watch him kill her kidnappers. That kind of trauma would leave lifelong scars.

“That was bad enough, but things got even worse when I became an adult,” Mei-ling said. “He and my mother kept pressuring me to get married. He tried to arrange matches for me – sons of other high-ranking gangsters – and I had to keep putting him off.

“Then, when I got into the BDSM community, my father found out somehow. The triads have connections to every illegal activity in Hong Kong, so it was probably just a matter of time.

“He sent thugs to my job – in front of all my co-workers – and they forced me to come with them. When we got to my parents’ house, my father screamed at me for ten minutes straight. He told me I was a degenerate and that I had dishonored our family. That probably doesn’t sound so terrible to you, but in Asian cultures, dishonoring your family is one of the absolute worst things you can do.”

“I understand better than you might think,” I murmured.

I was telling the truth. Other than my obsession with Mei-ling, the one thought that had gnawed at me the past week was that I was betraying my family. I was ignoring them so I could follow my own selfish desires.

I cringed to think what their reaction would be if they found out what I was doing.

“My father said he was ashamed of me,” she whispered. “He said he was ashamed I was his daughter.”

I winced and held her tight. My father would never have said that to me or my brothers – not even in his angriest, darkest moments.

“But I wasn’t a scared little girl anymore,” she said. “I fought back. I told him he was a bully and a thug and a murderer. I told him he had dishonored our family, and that I was ashamed to be his daughter. That was when he slapped me.”

Rage flared up inside me.

I wanted to kill him for laying a finger on the woman I loved.

“He told me I was officially cut off from the family and to never come home again. That I was no longer his daughter. I haven’t talked to him, my mother, or my brothers ever since. That was four years ago.”

No wonder she hated anyone involved in organized crime.

But there was still something I didn’t understand.

“What about the gun?” I asked quietly.

“What about it?”

“Why do you have one?”

“Originally, I got it because I was afraid my father might decide to make our estrangement permanent.”

She said it ironically, but the matter-of-factness in her voice chilled me to the bone.

The thought that a father might kill his own daughter? It was an infamia –

Even worse than a man murdering his own brother and then trying to kill his nephews.

Mei-ling’s father and my Uncle Fausto were apparently cut from the same cloth.

“He never did it, though. Obviously, since I’m still here. I guess there are some levels even my father won’t sink to.” Mei-ling laughed ruefully. “But having the gun was like a security blanket. In my line of work, you tend to run into some real assholes. I’ve had enough of them thrown out of De Sade that I wanted a little protection in case they tried to stalk me.”

“Does that include me?” I teased her.

She gave me a playful glare. “Yes, it does. Although when you’re as bad a stalker as you are – ”

“What?!” I said indignantly.

She laughed. “I’m constantly worried that gangsters and psychopaths are going to try to kill me. Did you really think I wouldn’t notice I was being tailed that first day you followed me from my apartment?”

“…oh,” I said, feeling deflated.

I thought I’d been quite clever.

Apparently not.

“We have dozens of security cameras on the streets outside De Sade. My security team picked you out the first time you parked in the alley.” She lightly tapped the tip of my nose. “Nice hoodie and sunglasses.”

“Alright, alright,” I grumbled. “Why’d you come out and confront me, then?”

“Because I was fucking annoyed at being stalked, that’s why.”

“Well… at least things turned out for the best,” I said as I caressed her back.

“Mmm… that’s true,” she murmured with a smile, then tilted her face up for a kiss.

After we did that for a while, she pulled back and asked somberly, “Are you still trying to get a gun?”

All my previous plans about Lau – the ones I’d forgotten over the last six days – came flooding back.

“Yes,” I admitted.

“Just borrow mine, then.”

“Thank you… but I need something else, too.”

“What?”

When I told her, her eyes immediately widened.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” she said.

“I need to pose a serious threat to force Lau to give me back my family’s money. That’s the only way I can think of.”

Mei-ling looked stunned. She laid her head down on my chest like she couldn’t bear to look at me anymore.

“Forget about it,” I said as I stroked her hair. “I have you back – that’s all I want. I’ll take care of the rest somehow – ”

“Alright,” she murmured.

“Alright, what?”

“I can help you,” she said quietly.

I reached down, put a finger under her chin, and tilted her head up to look at me. “You don’t have to.”

“I know. But I will.”

“You have contacts who can get what I need?”

“Yes. On one condition.”

“What?”

“That you take me with you when you leave Hong Kong.”

I stared at her in surprise. “You’d leave everything you’ve built here? Your business – your entire life?!”

“Yes.”

I frowned. “If you want to leave so badly, why haven’t you done it?”

“…it’s complicated.”

“I have time.”

Mei-ling sighed. “Well, first there’s my father. Even though he disowned me, I’m not sure he would let me leave. I think he’s hoping I’ll abandon De Sade and come crawling back to him someday.”

“He has contacts at the airports and train stations?”

“He has contacts everywhere,” she said bitterly. “I’m pretty sure he’s still having me watched.”

“But you could just drive into China and fly out of another city.”

“I also owe a lot of money to investors in De Sade. If I were to disappear, they might come looking for me.”

“So?”

“Do you think ordinary businessmen would invest millions of dollars into a BDSM club?”

“…ah.”

“Exactly. You wanted to know if I had contacts on the black market. Well – that’s how I got them.”

“I see.” I stroked her hair. “I don’t want to put you in danger.”

“Everything in my life put me in danger before I even met you, and it will continue that way whether I help you or not. So if I help you, I want you to help me.”

“Help you escape.”

“Exactly.”

“Alright – I’ll take you with me when I leave Hong Kong… but I have a condition of my own.”

She peered deep into my eyes. “What?”

“That when I take you with me… you stay with me.”

A smile slowly spread across her face. “That’s a condition I’ll gladly accept.”

I kissed her –

And then gently rolled her onto her back and made love to her again.