Chapter 14
“Fuck.” My eyes go wide when I see him, raging like a fucking bull. Our eyes lock, and my heart races even faster. Alessandro is devastatingly handsome even with his now very obvious beard, more unkempt than normal. He stands frozen with his hand still on the door handle, his death glare focused on the two of us.
“Enjoying the show?” Geovani chuckles before sucking my juices from his fingers in a show just for his cousin.
I could kill him myself. This room must have been an old interrogation room and that blacked glass window one with one way glass. I stare at him in disbelief. Does he want us all to get killed here tonight? Baiting my ex-fiancé is a fucking great way to go about it if he does.
Ricky shoves past Alessandro. “Baby doll,” he calls as he races across the room toward me, pulling me into him and breathing me in. I let him hold me close. Even though I’m angry with him, I still miss him. After having had some time to think, I can see how much of an impossible situation he is in. He sided with his family, the people who saved him when his mother was killed. I can’t blame him for thinking he was doing the right thing. “Where the hell have you been? I’ve had men searching the state for you.”
“Somewhere safe,” I mutter, feeling teary all of a sudden. I can feel his pain, his concern for me, and it kills me. I really have missed him.
I feel Geovani fall to my side protectively. “Red, not with the door open,” he grumbles, and I know it has nothing to do with the door being open.
Ricky takes a step back from me, his cold distaste for Geovani obvious.
“I’ll explain everything when you’re all inside,” I tell him with a half-smile.
Alessandro’s eyes are haunted as he moves toward me in a rush. Geovani steps in his way. “If you laid a hand on my…” he growls out.
“She’s not yours.” Geovani squares off with him.
Alessandro grabs his shirt and shoves him up against a wall.
“For fuck’s sake, not this again.” I shove in between them, placing a hand on Alessandro’s chest. Our eyes meet properly for the first time, and it’s like the earth moves. I can feel his heart racing like crazy in his chest under my palm. Just for a second, I close my eyes, trying to center myself so I can concentrate on why I’m here today. This isn’t about me; I need to protect Elisa and show these boys just what Enzo has been up to and hopefully get them to help me knock him off his high horse.
Maddox moves through the open door, closing it behind him. He gives me a nod of acknowledgment that makes my heart ache.
The testosterone just hit a new level with four of them in the same damn room as me. “I called you all here today to discuss something very important, not so you can see whose dick is bigger.”
“Are you okay? Has he hurt you?” Alessandro scans my body, taking me in. I’m not sure what he thought Geovani would have been doing to me, but I can see how genuinely worried he has been. He looks like he hasn’t slept in days. Since I disappeared.
“I’m being looked after just fine.” I glance at Maddox. So does he, and I see his furious tick of betrayal. But he has to understand Enzo left them with no choice. Alex left them no choice because he was so fucking pigheaded about marrying me.
“What the fuck is going on?” Alessandro snarls, trying to shove past me to get to Geovani.
I fix my glare on him. The tension in the air is so thick, so uncomfortable. I knew this first meeting would be difficult, but this is worse than I could have imagined. Maybe we should have done this over the phone.
“Come and take a seat so we can talk about all this civilly,” I say more calmly than I feel. Someone has to take control before these idiots kill each other. Maybe Elisa is right and I have more power over the men in this room than I thought. Because even though I can feel their anger toward each other, they haven’t actually started throwing punches. Right now, I need to use whatever my power over them is to my advantage. I lower my hands, hoping to God they’re going to listen to me.
Geovani is the first to back down, moving across the room and relaxing back into one of the seats, and I breathe a sigh of relief. I follow him to take a seat at the head of the table, my hands steepled in front of me as I wait for the others to follow.
Everyone sits except for Maddox and Alessandro. Maddox stands by the door like he’s guarding the room, even though we have two perfectly good guards just outside the door. Alessandro stands at the other end of the table, arms crossed over his chest, a furious expression on his face and that damn vein in his neck looking like it’s about to pop.
Knowing this is as good as it’s going to get, I take the folded piece of paper out of my jacket pocket and place it in the center of the table right in front of Ricky. “You want to know what’s going on, why I’m staying under Geovani’s protection? Enzo has been lying to you all, and somehow, I’m stuck in the middle of it. I brought you all here tonight so you can hear the truth for yourselves.”
“Where did you get this? I can’t be Enzo’s child.” Ricky gasps, taking the paper and scanning his eyes over it in a mad panic. My heart aches for him as I see him break into a thousand tiny pieces on the concrete floor of the room. He had no idea. There is no way he’s acting right now, I see the hurt written all over his face.
“That’s not important. What is important is it’s all true. And it’s about time you boys all knew how closely related you are.” I glance over to Maddox, wondering why he’s not joining us.
Maddox doesn’t budge from his spot in the doorway. He watches Ricky, a sadness passing between them. For most of their lives they have had each other to rely on thinking they were stuck here from bad circumstance but this would be so much worse. No one wants to find out they’re related to Enzo Moretti.
“This new information doesn’t leave this room,” Alessandro’s voice booms off the walls. He’s more than furious. I don’t miss the subtle tremor of his fingers as he snatches the paper from Ricky and strides over to Maddox, shoving it in his face. “What the fuck did you know about all of this, cousin .”
Maddox’s eyes narrow in on him with a cold distaste he didn’t have toward Alessandro last time I saw them together. So much has changed in such a short time, and I don’t like it. They stare each other down. “Enzo told me I was his sister’s child at the rehearsal dinner. That was it. I knew nothing about Ricky. He was using my family ties to him as an excuse to control me after I told him I wouldn’t be taking him up on his offer to work in Italy with Marco,” he snaps, bitterness dripping off his every word. “He didn’t mention anything else. I had no idea Ricky was Enzo’s real child.” He glances at Geovani for confirmation that he didn’t either.
He shakes his head. Like he had no idea.
“This is what changed your mind. The reason you helped her and Marco escape?” Alessandro bites back, fury radiating off his every pore. He paces the room while we all stay deathly silent.
I glance at Ricky, worried Alessandro’s about to snap and get us all killed. “I’m sorry, Ricky I… I didn’t want to keep this from you.”
He stands, coming around to where I’m sitting. He pulls me up to standing with him, kissing my forehead before holding my face in his hands. “You did the right thing, baby doll. Enzo had no right keeping this shit from me, like I’m his dirty fucking secret. It’s sickening.” I feel his pain, and I wish there was something I could do to ease it.
Geovani clears his throat, not letting Ricky get any closer to me. “I’ll say the same thing to you I did Maddox when he discovered the truth. You can’t change what that motherfucker did. The lies and secrets he’s kept from you all are horrendous. It’s what you do with that information now that will modify your life. It’s time for a change around here. We all know Enzo’s gone too far. What are you going to do about it?”
Alessandro drags his fingers through his hair, tugging on the ends before his haunted eyes come back to mine. I suck in a deep breath, scared for what he’s going to do. “I let you all down.” His head drops.
I thought he was about to lose it at Maddox for helping get me out, yet he’s not angry with him. It seems he’s disappointed with himself. He always said he would do anything to keep the people in this room safe. He thinks the responsibility lands directly on his shoulders. It doesn’t. Enzo is the only one responsible. “I should have known better. I should have…” His fist collides with the drywall separating the rooms, and I jump when his fist goes through the wall.
He’s livid. He didn’t know anything either. I look at Geovani, silently pleading for him to do something. I don’t know how to handle Alessandro like this.
It’s Maddox who approaches him, his hand coming to Alessandro’s shoulder, his cold demeanor shifting. “How could you have known anything? Enzo has kept you in the dark just as much as us.”
I take Ricky’s hand, lacing his fingers with mine. He looks numb. That was a huge secret to learn. “Now it’s time to take back control,” I tell him, trying to pull him from the trance he’s in.
His eyes rise to meet mine, and I see his pain. “I’m Enzo’s son,” he mutters in disbelief. “I nearly lost you because of him and his lies. I’m not related to him, I can’t be… I don’t want to be.”
“We won’t know for sure until you get a paternity test, but my sources are pretty positive your ma and Enzo were having an affair for years, resulting in you. That’s why she stopped working as an actress and you all lived in the safe house hidden away in the forest. He wanted to keep you a secret, my guess is from Valentina.”
He pulls me to him, and I hold him tight, needing to comfort him as much as I know he needs it. “I’m so sorry, baby doll. I never should have trusted him.” He stares at me, and I see his pain, the tumultuous emotions swirling through him. “I nearly married my cousin because he demanded I do it. I gave up my fucking career, my life. Everything because he told me to for the fucking family. Nothing is more important than family. We do it all for the name Moretti.” He spins to face the other boys. “That’s what we had beaten into us from the moment we moved into his house. Alex, what else has he been lying about?”
Alessandro comes toward us, his concern for his brother obvious. But his expression is just as blank. He’s been kept in the dark too. He was brought up to believe he was an only child. The sole heir to the Moretti family business. “For a while now, we have known he was up to something. But I never thought this.”
Geovani says, “He didn’t just lie to you, he sided with Carlo and was ready to trade Harley to him the night before your wedding for the chance to work alongside him again and to gain control of the Havardi businesses.”
Alessandro’s angry eyes fixate on Geovani. “You’re full of shit. How can we believe anything that comes out of your mouth?” he snaps in his direction, taking his newfound rage out on him.
I step in his path, knowing I need to derail this train before it leaves the station. “It’s true. How else do you think Carlo got through the tight security Enzo supposedly had on that property,” I explain, trying to bring his attention to me. His eyes drop down, looking me over, and I see his torment. He’s so angry.
“If Harley didn’t think quickly and crash his car that night, there is no way she would be here today,” Geovani adds. “Enzo didn’t want you to marry her. That was never his plan for you. That’s what you wanted, and we both know you went against direct orders to get your way.”
I see the truth written all over Alessandro’s face. The tension between him and Enzo was because of me. He knows what Geovani is saying is correct. His body shakes as his hands ball into fists again. “He’s going to fucking pay for this.”
I wrap my small hands around his fists and stare up at him. I don’t know what to say to him or how to fix this. He has every right to be furious. Right now, I need him to have a sound mind and be thinking straight so he doesn’t rush into anything that could get himself or anyone else in this room hurt.
His dark eyes meet mine. Eventually his clenched fists soften, and his fingers intertwine with mine. His hand travels up my arm, lacing into my hair, and I lean into his touch. The rest of the room is deadly silent, but I can feel their eyes fixed on us. I feel like one of those animal tamers trying to sedate a wild beast. I have no idea how I’m doing it, but with every passing second, he calms a little more. “I thought I lost you,” he whispers.
I smile up at him softly. “I’m right here.” For a second I wonder if he’ll kiss me, but I don’t get a chance to find out.
The far wall suddenly explodes as a small truck smashes right through the center of the room. Drywall, bricks, and glass fly through the air. The driver and passenger are both wearing painted masks, the exact same as the ones the boys wore the night they broke into my papa’s house. And there is no mistaking the Springfield Hellcat pistol pointed right at me.
A scream of pure terror rips from my lips.