Marrying the Mafia

Plotting

Derek's POV:

      It's been 2 months since Ryder came back, and 2 months since Aria said she loves me. I haven't slept with her yet, but we have been going out. I wake up next to Aria in my arms. I kiss her on the cheek and she rolls over into my chest. 

"Come on, we have get up." I whisper in her ear. Her legs shift and she get's up as fast as she can. She runs to the bathroom and slams the door.

Not even a minute later, I hear her shouting. "Damn it! Derek?!" She calls for me. I get up and wait outside the door. "What's wrong?" I ask her. 

"Tampon, please?" She asks me. Oh dear God, may he bless me. We don't have tampons. 

"Where are they?" I ask her. "My drawer." She replies. I walk over to my dresser and pull out the box. I knock on the door and she tells me to open the door. I toss them at her and she thanks me. I nod and close the door. 

      Out of every encounter we've had, that was the worst. Don't get me wrong, anytime she needs me, I'm there. It's just that I've never done that for anyone. I chuckle to myself and throw some clothes on. 

A minute later, Aria walks out of the bathroom. "I'm sorry I had to ask you to do that." She says awkwardly. I laugh and walk over to her while she looks like she's going to cry. 

"Preziosa, you need something, I'm there." I tell her. "You need a tampon, I'll get it. You need panties, I'll get it." 

"Now that's just perverted." She laughs. I kiss her head. "Point is, you never have to be embarrassed with me." 

She nods and grabs her clothes. I've given her respect. I don't do anything without her consent. With the hell she's been through with Ryder, I want to be careful. She's fragile and damaged. 

"I'll be downstairs, we're moving to the big shots today." I tell her. She smiles and nods as I close the door. 

    I go downstairs and wait for everyone else to gather there. My father comes in the kitchen where I am. 

"Derek, I've managed to buy us these months without the marriage, but Mason doesn't want to wait any longer. He wants money, a lot of it, and if he doesn't get it soon, you bet your ass he'll stop at nothing to get Aria." I sigh and sip my coffee as my father delivers the news. 

"Okay, if you buy me 2 weeks, I just might be able to get her to do it willingly. I will not force her against her will."

"Fine, 2 weeks, but that's it. After that, we're looking at maybe starting a war."

"Why a war?"

"That's just how Mason is. He could endanger the allies we have. He could lie to them and tell them that we lied about the money income."

"Fine, I'll make it work." I say finishing my coffee. I go upstairs into my room where Aria brushes her hair in the mirror. I smile at her and walk into the bathroom to brush my teeth and fix my hair.

   "Hey, babe?" Aria says from the other room. I spit out the tooth paste and walk back into my room.

"What's this?" She asks me holding up a necklace. "My mothers." I sigh. The infinity charm's still on it.

"Oh..." 

"She gave it to me before she left and never came back." I sigh. My mother was a complicated woman. She loved me, I know she did, but she didn't love the Death Dealers. She left my father when I was 9. She took my baby brother and left.

"Well, do you want to talk about it?" She says putting an arm around me. 

"Later..." I sigh. She looks at me with concern. "We'll talk over dinner, si?" I tell her. She nods and kisses my cheek. "I'm going downstairs, come down when you're ready." She says. 

After Aria closes the door, I pick up the necklace and examine it. It's the necklace my father bought her on their wedding night. I put it in my pocket and join Aria downstairs. 

    My team of men and Aria all gather in my office. "We're tracking him, but it's really hard. We don't know who he's taken up refuge with." Charles says. He's my best hacker on the case. 

"Check the name Todd Knox. He's an old friend of Ryder's. If he's with him, he'll be easy to track."

The hacker get's to work and track down Knox. In a matter of seconds, they pin point him.

"There, he's in Phoenix." Charles says. The combat men put the location in their GPS.

"We're killing him, today. Everyone round up your shit!" I exclaim. Everyone follows orders and we all scatter. 

"You can't be serious." Aria scoffs. "Oh, I'm serious, sweetheart." I reply. Aria 's eyes widen. 

"You can come or stay." I tell her. 

"I'm coming. I get to kill him though." She tells me. I nod and we walk out of the room. Charles get's his exact location while Aria and I grab some food. 

    "Where does he usually go when he's with Todd?" I ask her. I see her eyes freeze up. "Fancy parties that he ditches his girl friend at, then proceeds to beat her and throw her in the fucking trunk when he sees her talking to a 16 year old child." She explains. I just look at her as she resumes eating her chips.

"Well, we just have to find when the next one is."

"I can answer that one, he and Todd used to have them every damn Saturday. It's from 6:00 to midnight." Aria says throwing away the empty bag of chips. I look at my phone, it's Friday. 

"Okay, we leave tonight and arrive tomorrow." I say wrapping my arms around her small waist. She spins around in my arms and I peck her lips. "We'll take care of him once and for all. No more bullshit." I say. Aria nods and kisses me one final time. 

I walk back upstairs and start packing, as does Aria. "Derek, we still need to talk. I know you might not want to, but I major in psychology. Most relationships last longer if you talk about the love loss and pain." Aria says glancing at my mother's necklace.

    I stop what I'm doing and sit on the bed. "Aria, my mother loves me, I hope. She loved me my whole life. She loved me, my father, and our whole family, but one day, she had enough. She didn't want to be apart of the mafia. So she took my brother when he was 2 years old and left." I tell her.

"Derek..." She sighs. She sits next to me and puts her arms around my neck. I hold her close. "That's horrible."

"I know... she was an amazing mother. Nothing less. I hope to reach out to her one day, but maybe it's for the best that my brother doesn't remember I even fucking exist." 

"I see where you're coming from, but why not just call her?"

"She doesn't want to hear from me. Her last words were, 'I love you, part of me always will, but I can't live like this. I love you too much to see you have to go through this. Derek, I love you, but you shouldn't try to contact me, ever.'"

"Well, how about we move on and live our lives. I won't walk out like that, ever." Aria says. She stands up and finishes packing her suite case. This is odd. Where's the lecture on why I should call her?

"Aren't you going to lecture me about how I should call my mom like you always do?" I ask standing up.

"Nope. When you told me that, you told me because you needed to tell someone. Nobody else knows but me. Right?" 

I nod. "Well, when you told me, you weren't looking for me to lecture you. When you told me, you wanted me to just keep it between us." I nod again. "Like I said, I aced my psychology degree." 

Aria zips her suit case and puts it on the floor. I do the same and we leave our bags in the corner of the room. "He's going to pay, preziosa."