Reformed (Gangsters at War #5)

Chapter Eleven

Alessandro

J ane was fast asleep when I slipped out of her bed and walked naked downstairs, gathering up my clothes that I’d flung onto the floor next to her shop counter. It was only lucky I had good night vision, with the neon lights outside barely infiltrating the interior’s shadows.

I climbed back upstairs into Jane’s apartment, flicking on a floor lamp in the lounge room before I dressed. I left the light on as I went back into her bedroom and stared down at her, my chest warming and my breath catching at her shadowed face.

She didn’t need to be fully illuminated, she was naturally beautiful, a woman with a kind heart and an old soul. She would have been as comfortable in an earlier century as she was in this one. That she didn’t use cosmetics or surgery to beautify herself made her even more gorgeous in my eyes.

In a world where authenticity was often left behind, she was a rare and unique jewel, a star shining brightly in the darkness.

I swallowed down a yearning to rejoin her in the bed, but I couldn’t risk staying. I couldn’t risk my enemies knowing this woman meant something more to me than a quick fuck.

I had enemies everywhere and couldn’t trust anyone. I had no doubt the O’Malley and Accardi families had spies watching my every move, just as they’d have spies watching every other Agostino family member.

I sighed softly. Jane would be furious when she woke alone, but it couldn’t be helped. She didn’t know it, but I was protecting her from enemies who’d kill her just for being someone I cared about.

I finally spun on my heel and stalked back through her apartment. Heading quietly downstairs, I went through her vintage shop’s storage area and out its door. After ensuring it locked behind me, I glanced left then right before striding over to where my town car waited in a parking bay.

Tony had stayed inside the vehicle like I’d ordered. I couldn’t have one of my enemies drive past and see my driver waiting for me. No doubt they had the names and faces of all the soldiers who worked for me and my family. It was far less likely they’d recognize one of my many town cars.

“Captain,” my driver greeted after I pulled open the back door and slid inside.

“Tony,” I said distantly, my thoughts already on the woman I’d left alone in bed. It wasn’t until Tony pulled out onto the road that I asked, “Any backlash yet from the hit on the Accardi boss?”

He shook his head. “Not that I’ve been told. Everything is quiet.” He looked at me in the rearview mirror. “Too quiet, if you ask me.”

My stomach knotted. It’d already been three days since we’d cut the head off one of the snakes. We’d been keeping an eye on both the Accardi and O’Malley dons. While the latter had stayed elusive, the Accardi don had been foolish and cocky imagining he was invincible.

While Valentino and Salvatore had moved into position and waited in vain for the O’Malley don to visit his usual brothel, my brothers and I had been at the other end of New York, where we’d settled in across the street from the Accardi don’s drug sorting facility. We hadn’t had to wait long for him to show.

It’d been ridiculously easy to shoot him and three of his men, then disappear into the night thanks to our getaway car and driver. The Accardi family would realize soon enough who’d whacked their don, and I was certain they’d avenge his death in the days to come, hence me trying to keep away from Jane as much as possible.

No matter how much I wanted to be with her every minute of the day, I couldn’t risk her getting involved with me, and therefore, my enemies.

“One thing is for certain though,” Tony said, his eyes now on the road ahead as he slowed for a bus that pulled out in front of us. “We have a snitch in our midst. The O’Malley don has never gone so deep underground.”

“If there is a snitch, I’ll find him and deal with him.” The bastard would rue the day he turned on his own family. “Until then we carry on as usual.”

“Of course, captain,” he said. It wasn’t until he slowed and stopped at some red lights that he looked in the rearview mirror again and asked, “And Jane?”

My jaw tightened along with my chest. “I just want to keep her safe.”

“Is she safer with or without you?”

I closed my eyes and ran a hand over my face. Tony had a point. There was a good chance my enemies knew about Jane already. “She’d never accept my lifestyle.”

Tony gaped. “She doesn’t know who you are...what you do?”

I shook my head. “No. I’m a businessman, nothing more.” I snorted. “She’d run a mile if she knew the real me, and who could blame her?”

“You can’t hide who you really are from her, at least, not for any length of time. She’ll see the real you sooner or later.”

I nodded. “I know. But if I introduced her to my way of life I’d strip her of the very essence of her that keeps me coming back to her.”

“Her purity?” Tony asked.

I nodded. “It’s that obvious?”

“She’s a sweet girl, captain. She radiates goodness.”

I sighed. “She’s also an independent woman. I can’t take that away from her.”

“So selfless, captain?”

My pulse thudded like a drum in my ears. “She makes me look at the world differently. She also makes me look at myself differently, and I’m not sure I like what I see anymore.”

“I think you need to give her more credit, captain. A good person can still love someone who has done bad things.”

“But would a good person continue to love someone who continues to do bad things?”

Tony winced. “That’s something I can’t answer.”

I smiled without any joy. “I doubt even our consigliere would know how to advise me on this one.”

That I’d never involve Carlo in my affair with Jane told me everything I needed to know.

I wanted to separate my love life from my business persona.