Indebted to the Mafia King
Normal Girl

Eleni

"Wait, there's seriously a ceremony?" I ask as I pick through a wooden tray of pears for the best ones.

Seb glances at the stall owner. "Yes. Do you know you talk very loud?"

I roll my eyes and pay for the three pears. "We're in the middle of one of the busiest farmer's markets in Brooklyn on a Saturday afternoon. I'd discuss the nuclear codes here if I had them. Now tell me, what exactly does the ceremony for becoming a capo entail? I skipped that step."

He laughs and accepts the bag I hand him. This has become something of a routine for us. Dante said being a boss, even a part-time one, means having at least one bodyguard at all times, and Seb was an easy pick. He's actually fun to talk to and hangs out instead of hovering three feet behind me at all times.

"It's not like a graduation ceremony, if that's what you're picturing."

"I was picturing something much more Arthurian," I say. "Like Dante with a big sword, knighting you."

He shakes his head. "Try again."

"It's a big gun!" I giggle. "Or, no, it's like one of those cult things where you all have to wear velvet robes and chant in Latin!"

He laughs along with me. "You couldn't be farther, but since you're being such a dick, I won't tell you."

"No!" I loop my arm through his and bat my eyelashes. "I super, totally want to know."

"Okay.” He lowers his voice and leans in conspiratorially. "There's a reason the ceremony only happens at the end of the summer. It's because secretly we all get naked and sit in a pool full of special moonlight that gives us wolf powers." He throws his head back and howls.

People turn to look at us. I smack his arm and try not to totally dissolve in laughter. Another key element of our errand runs? Both of us are trying to out-embarrass the other by making a bigger scene. I've never had a younger brother, but I dreamed about it all the time when I was a kid. Talking with Seb feels almost exactly like that. Like hanging out with Christos, except Seb's not trying to be smarter all the time. It's just so easy.

I hip-check him while he checks out a girl's ass, and he stumbles. "You'll tell me for real sometime, right?"

"Nah, at this point I think it's more fun if it's a surprise." He laughs. "You'll just have to show up and see."

His genuine excitement shines through his every pore. I can't help remembering when he first admitted he wanted to be a capo in the woods behind the safe house. He got his dream so quickly. Now, to get mine, all I have to do is graduate from one of the most prestigious engineering colleges in New York. While holding down my position in the Saints.

For a second, I wish I'm a normal girl, out on a Saturday with her brother. The pieces snap into place. I'm an average college student who got an exciting opportunity, and he just got a promotion at his dream job. I have this guy I think I'm excited about, and he's a chronic bachelor. In my mind's eye, Dante transforms into a severe CEO with nothing more illegitimate than a few accidental insider trades on his record. Now that I'm not chasing revenge and the syndicate doesn't need me at its head, it's much easier to imagine a life without it.

"Earth to Eleni." Seb snaps his fingers in front of my eyes.

I blink and return to reality. "Sorry."

Someone slams into my shoulder, and I drop the bag of produce I'm holding. A burst of real pain spirals out of the impact point, and anger surges through me.

"Who the hell do you think "I look up, up, up at the man who smashed into me. A real mountain of flesh, large in every dimension, and those dimensions are unmistakably filled with muscle. I swallow, and my hand twitches for the gun I still carry in my waistband.

He sneers at me and starts to walk away.

Seb steps into his path. "You gonna fucking apologize?"

The massive man snorts and tries to walk around Seb.

"No, you just hit a woman." Seb dodges back and forth to block his way. "Were you raised in a goddamn barn?"

I want to tell Seb to leave it be, but I know how this works now. The man could just be an asshole, but if he belongs to another syndicate, Seb needs to show them I'm not alone out here. I slide my hand under my shirt and caress the butt of my gun, hoping against hope I don't have to pull it in the middle of this crowded space. Maybe if I got in tight, I could press it to the bastard's side, make him leave without a fuss.

The first guy shoves Seb, exposing the black-and-white tattoo that covers most of the man's arm. I think I recognize it, but it disappears too quickly for me to be certain.

Seb stumbles back a step. "So, it's like that?"

He swings a punch at the taller man's face. The man catches his fist and just stares at it. I study the tattoo in more detail. It's a building with multiple towers. Fuck, I learned so many different signs and symbols when I was trying to get a hold on New York's organized crime. Why can't I place this one?

Seb hisses in pain, and I realize the man is trying to crush his fist. Two more men, almost as large as the first, flank the man Seb is antagonizing. I catch the split-second downturn of his mouth, a tell he no longer likes his odds. My move.

I shove myself in between Seb and the men, then with a pounding heart put my back to them and my hands on my hips. "I want to go. There's a sale downtown, and I'm not missing it for your macho bullshit." The men snicker.

"You hear the little lady," one of them says in a thick accent. "We will let you go."

As the men turn to leave, the accent and the tattoo click. That was a Russian church, with four towers for four prison sentences served. In Russia.

My skin goes cold with the reminder I'm very much not a normal girl anymore.