Mafia King's Obsession

FRAN'S POV

No one tells you that being anything in LA is difficult.

No, wait, maybe they do, but we don't listen because we have dreams, and they never die.

Or so we tell ourselves just to have some hope. And it was hope that made me s*ck the deepest breath I could manage as I listened to the announcement from the stage. Everything was ready, I was ready to perform again today just like always. But one thing was different about tonight. I wasn't just going to perform to a crowd of judgmental LA wives and mogul husbands, I was performing for HIM.

Luca Castello.

You may ask me, Francesca Khefe Elaise, why the hell do you set your sights on such a dangerous man? A man who, according to words on the street, was the most feared crime boss in the city with fatal underground afflictions and powerful upperground connection. Surely you must be out of your mind!

I know what I'm doing is dangerous, but I also know deep inside that Luca Castello and I have something in common - no, we have a connection, albeit a thin one.

I've been dancing here at Ricky's Purple Satin Club for 3 years now, and I have only just recently felt the most intense audience ever, and it happened when Luca began to frequent the club last year. If I'm right and that connection between us is real, then he is the man that can help me. I just need to give my best performance today to be able to approach him.

Janet Jackson's voice filled the stage with the beginning of the song 'That's The Way Love Goes'.

"Like a moth to a flame drawn by the fire, my love is blind. Can't you see my desire?"

I specifically asked for that song because I was the silly moth drawn to the flame that was Castello. He would burn me, that's for sure.

Dancers at the club don't have much say in the affairs of the club - who am I kidding? They don't have a say in anything at all. But I begged Keith this evening when I arrived for my set. I begged and begged because I had spent all night practicing. It was the perfect song for a man like Luca, a man whose aura was as dark as his looks.

I haven't seen him outside the club, but I've felt his presence night after night when I climb on stage. I've felt those intense eyes watching my moves. I wonder what he thinks when he watches with that unwavering stare.

I glided on stage dressed in my short gold sequin dress. It barely covered a thing, but then that's the purpose of it. As a jazz fusion dancer, everything about me from my dress to my dance moves was supposed to provoke desire, lust and I was good at it.

How did I end up here? Well, you won't believe it, but when my parents moved from Nigeria to the States they had a different dream for me. I would have become an architect. If only they were alive to help me actualize that dream, but they died, leaving me and my younger sister alone in a foreign land with no means to survive. I had to work odd jobs in kitchens, scrubbing floors, cleaning pools, picking up garbage off the street. When I moved to LA with my younger sister, picking garbage off the street paid even better. Environmental enthusiasts, young rich kids who fought capitalism with their $1200 Apple laptops and $800 iPhones while sipping from large Starbucks cups would donate some cash when I uploaded pictures of myself picking up plastic bottles, straws and Starbucks coffee cups off the streets.

That didn't pay off for too long though, because it turns out they weren't as passionate about the environment and I couldn't have been passionate even if I wanted to. I was trying to survive with a younger sister to take care of. What I needed was money. I barely had the time to be a social justice warrior when I had to play mommy at age 15.

All the money I had wasn't enough to get a good place to stay in a place like LA the city, so we moved into one of the housing projects in Watts. And we lived there for 5 years until I moved us out to the city last year. My sister Faith is a year younger than I am, so when she turned 19, I turned 21.

After a long time, I finally saved enough to get a good phone and that was when I discovered what the young kids were doing.

TikTok.

I have a previous history of dancing. Well, I could dance to the best of my ability from what I learned off YouTube, but when I watched the kids dance I realized I didn't have as much talent as I thought. So, while I worked days in diners as a server and a scrubber in the kitchen, I spent nights dancing until I finally had the courage to upload my first video.

At first nothing happened and then it blew up. 10, 000 views?

I thought the money would come easily since I was getting so many views and likes and comments. Turns out I needed an agent to really make it big and, for an immigrant, a black girl with no connections, no savings, good luck getting an agent who doesn't want to pump you full of STIs before working with you.

My TikTok fame came to a grinding halt when another TikTok user began to steal my moves. Oh, I know they were mine because I've always infused dance moves from my culture with jazz and ballet and whatever else I liked. My followers warned me about it, insulted her for it, but all of those did nothing to save my fame when the girl had larger following than I did. How was I supposed to compete with someone who had 1 million likes in less than an hour? I couldn't even fight her legally because I didn't have the money to spare, so I deleted my TikTok, gave my sister the phone and got a smaller one for myself.

I would have gone back to cleaning pots and serving rude customers if Keith had not gotten me the job at the club.

Keith was a follower on my TikTok. He was much older, and he had a friend whom I briefly dated, but when Jay went missing during a riot back in Watts, Keith stepped up. I know his friendship with Jay must have made him feel responsible for me. I was grateful for his friendship.

He got me an audition at the club and I accepted. Turns out I was good enough to dance there as long as I danced for the pleasure of the lecherous men who came to watch with their jealous wives.

Mom and Dad would be rolling hard in their graves.

I miss them. We were a happy family back in Nigeria, and it remained like that when we migrated, even though we had to start all over again. I always wanted to make them proud. Even now, I thought about them as I gyrated my hips in time to the slow music under the blazing lights.

My parents might get past me dancing to survive, but I could feel their disappointment from beyond knowing that I failed them when my sister went missing.

Faith went missing two weeks ago under dubious circumstances. Turns out humiliating myself night after night to protect my baby sister wasn't enough. Faith's wild streak finally led her into trouble. I just didn't know the extent of trouble she was in and how dangerous the people she got herself involved in were.

No news of her whereabouts. Her phone was switched off, calls and messages were not going through.

But I'll find her.

Luca Castello was just the man that I needed to help me find her, which was why I was performing specially for him.

Casting my gaze beyond the glare of the white lights, I looked in the direction of his reserved booth. I could feel his presence even though I couldn't see him. It was as powerful as the man according to the rumors.

Lowering my eyelids over my eyes in a sultry manner, I did a pirouette, then another and another, ending with a leg raise to the side of my face. I hugged my right leg higher, letting my lips part slightly.

Applause rose from the invisible crowd, but Luca did not clap.

He watched.

I let my leg fall, sliding over the smooth stage floor as I transitioned to a right split. I bent my back, flailing my arms to the side before swinging them back, grabbed my left leg and lifted it from my feet to my knee for a scorpion split. It was a challenging position, but I mastered it all night because a man like Luca had to know the advantages of my flexible body.

I was selling myself to the most dangerous man in the city, but I will do it again and again for my baby sister.

The music ended and I slowly, sensually got out of the scorpion split, flashed my bright smile and blew a kiss into the faceless clapping crowd.

Was he still watching?

He was. I felt his eyes hot on my back as I made my way off the stage to the back of it where the other performers were getting ready.

I was sweating. My body ached slightly, but it was all worth it. Luca Castello watched. Now I just need an audience with him.

I was just about entering my dressing room when Keith appeared.

"Hey."

"Hi," I managed a smile.

He grinned. "That was amazing."

"Thanks," I replied breathlessly.

I moved to open the door, but he placed a hand over it. "You were dancing harder than you've ever done, Fran. You were a bit... more sensual than normal."

"Keith, your job is to manage the lights. How would you have seen me dance? Stalking me now are you?" I joked.

He didn't laugh, instead his grin faded lightly. "You were dancing for him, Luca Castello. I saw you looking at him..."

"Keith, the lights were bright, how could you have..." I started.

His voice and face hardened. "Don't lie to me, Fran. You know that I'm right." His gaze took me in from head to toe. "He's not that kind of man."

I raised my brow in anger and irritation. "Oh what, so he's not into black dancers? Just because you're mixed doesn't give you the right to belittle me."

Fuming now, I pushed the door open, jerked his arm off the front and stormed in. I would have slammed the door if he had not put his hand out to stop it from closing.

"That's not what I mean and you know it! He's dangerous! He's the devil, Fran!"