11. I haven’t told her we’re getting married
ELEVEN
I HAVEN’T TOLD HER WE’RE GETTING MARRIED
SHARK
Giulia’s death changed Alessio. He’s become harder and harder on himself over the years, and some days, I think he blames himself for it, even though he wasn’t at fault. It was an accident.
During his mourning, he became more secretive, more reclusive, and even though he’s emerging from his fortified mental fortress, he’s more cautious, more protective, more vigilant about people he considers his family.
He considers me family. In that way, he’s a bit of a mother hen.
Once Leo started walking, Alessio moved us from Rome to here, where he controls pretty much everything. He imposed a ban on all motorized vehicles, since Guiliana’s death was caused from being hit by a car. I’m here only a few times a year, so I don’t mind the move out of Rome, but Valerina misses the city.
Since she took over Leo’s care, Valerina misses working, and even though she’s a great stay-at-home aunt, she thrives on human contact, company, and meeting new people. I can tell by how quickly she adopted Troy, and I feel bad for not having the time to tell Valerina about Troy. Which resulted in Valerina forcing her hand and prying what she needed to know from Troy. I hope Troy can forgive that.
As I follow Alessio through the mud room and kitchen, Valerina mouths, Good luck .
Past the foyer, on the other side of the house, Alessio enters the office and goes directly to the liquor cart. He pours a whiskey, neat, and I know what time it is. It’s hard time; otherwise, he wouldn’t be drinking whiskey this early in the day.
“Can I have one?” I ask.
He pours me two fingers of whiskey over ice and pops open a small can of caramelized soda, then pours it over the liquor. I don’t take my whiskey neat. I dislike alcohol in general. It impairs my judgment, but since my judgment is already impaired in regard to Troy, I might as well double down on it.
We click our glasses and sip. He doesn’t tell me to sit down, and he doesn’t take a seat at the desk either. He leans a shoulder on the widow frame and peers outside, where sunburned parents drag their kids away from the man who is selling ice-cream from a cooler attached to the back of his bicycle parked in front of the house.
Alessio opens his mouth, clamps it shut, opens it again, closes it. “I’m speechless.”
“I improvised,” I say to explain why I brought Troy back from a mission where I executed over two dozen people that can be traced to me, and now to Alessio along with his family. Yeah, that explanation wouldn’t satisfy his little nephew, let alone Alessio.
He cocks an eyebrow. “You improvised by kidnapping a kidnapping victim?”
“I wouldn’t put it that way.” I would, but he doesn’t need the encouragement.
“Oh no? How would you put it, then?”
I rub the back of my neck. “I gave her the fifteen mil I lifted from the yacht and asked her to come with me.”
“Asked?”
He’s so picky with words all of a sudden. “Okay, told, but…” I shrug. “Same thing.”
Alessio tsks. “That’s not good enough, Miroslav .”
When he uses proper pronunciation of my name while speaking in English, it feels like he wants to bite me. “It’ll have to be enough, Alessio.” I emphasize his name too.
He inhales though his teeth. Yeah, he wants to bite, maybe even shoot me, but Alessio didn’t get this far in life by being impulsive. He got this far because he’s contained himself in the darkest, most dangerous moments of his life. I like this about him.
“What made you take her?” he asks.
“I tried to shoot her, but I saw her belly and lifted my wrist. The bullet grazed her hair.”
“You spared her life. Why?”
“She’s pregnant. I didn’t have it in me.”
“Is that all? She’s pregnant?”
I look away. “Maybe not. I don’t know. It’s not like I’ve done this before.”
“Oh, but you do know, Miroslav. Ti zna? za?to si je doveo na moja vrata.”
“I didn’t bring her to your door. You did that. You brought her into your house.”
“What should I have done, hm? You are my closest friend, my brother, and you failed to maintain the secrecy of our mission. You spared a witness to a crime that can be linked to me.” He snaps his fingers. “Like that. A sheriff from the town she’s from could figure out how to pin me with the kidnapping of this girl. The international court would love to get their hands on her. Not to mention, you’re not supposed to exist, and now you must exist since you’re getting married.”
If I tell him her dad is actually the sheriff of her town, he might really shoot me. “About that…” I rub my unshaven jaw, looking forward to not having to obsessively shave twice a day now that I’m off the assignment. “I haven’t told her we’re getting married yet.”
“Oh. Come. On.” Alessio looks like he’s about to cry.
I’m sure he’s suffering from a migraine by now. It’s kind of funny, actually, but I try not to laugh at his pained expression. If I were anyone else, he wouldn’t even entertain the idea of sparing me. He would have sunk the yacht with me and her on it and not even lost sleep over it. But tonight and for the foreseeable future, he’ll lose sleep for sure.
“When you lied to me about her being your wife so I’d take her off the yacht with you, did you think I wouldn’t send a plane for you in Turkey?”
“I gambled on that, yes.”
“You’re a shitty gambler.”
“I always have been. You know how much I love a sure thing.”
“She is the opposite of a sure thing, Miro. A wild card.”
I shrug. “I’m playing it anyway.”
Alessio pours himself another drink. “When do you plan to propose?”
“In a week or so.”
“Tonight,” he states and leans against his desk. He crosses one ankle over the other. “You will propose tonight because you’re marrying the girl tomorrow.”
“She needs more time.”
“I don’t give a fuck what she needs.”
“I do, so you better start paying attention.”
Alessio puts down his glass. “I am the only one who is paying attention. You’re the one who’s lost his way.”
I scrub my face. “Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”
“You brought her into the family!” he bellows.
Silence falls after his outburst. He’s right. I’ve got nothing to say for myself besides an apology. “I’m sorry.” I purse my lips. “About failing the mission.”
“You completed the mission. It’s the witness that’s the problem.”
“Don’t call her a witness.”
“She is what you once were. A witness. We both know what you and I did with the information you provided because you survived the ordeal.” I served Alessio with unmatched power. The things I saw over the years as my abusers moved me from one place to the next gave Alessio information and leverage over some of the most powerful people in the world.
The ones who wronged me, he put on my list, and I hunted them over the course of a year, ending them and anyone we thought could replace them. It was the single largest underground takedown of the century.
He fears Troy will cause another such incident, and this time, we’ll be on the receiving end of it.
“I know what you’re thinking,” I say. “Hence, she will become my wife.”
“What if she rejects your proposal?”
We stare at each other, the answer hanging heavily between us.
“Jesus Christ.” Alessio sighs. “Who’s the father of her baby?”
“She says there is no father.” I clear my throat. “I don’t think she knows. I suspect the worst.”
“Do you believe her?”
“I believe she is a victim who is trying to take her power back by claiming her baby.”
Alessio runs a hand through his hair, tugs it a little as if he wants to pull it out. I’m starting to feel sorry for all the stress I’m causing him. “You want another drink?” I offer politely.
He gives me a death stare.
“Pain meds?”
“What I want is to knock all your teeth out, collect them into a little plastic bottle with a nice cap, and hand it to your future wife so her baby can play with it.” He swishes his whiskey glass. “A homemade rattle.”
“How disturbing.”
There’s a knock on the door, and Valerina pokes her head in. “Your voices are rising, and Leo is wondering if everything is okay.”
Alessio lifts his hands as if surrendering and sits behind his desk. He removes his weapon and locks it in a drawer. “Putting my Walther away now so I don’t shoot you and make my sister and nephew sad.”
Valerina checks on Leo, who starts to push toy cars through the foyer right in front of our office. She sits down with us. “Who is that woman, and why is she here?”
“You already spilled your life story,” Alessio says. “It doesn’t matter now.”
“She’s staying with us, so it does matter.”
“How do you know she’s staying?” Alessio asks. “I could throw her out right now.”
“Stop it. You sound like a jealous best friend. Miroslav brought a girl home. Deal with it.”
I give her my closed fist. “You tell him, bestie.”
She bumps my fist with her smaller one. “Thank you.”
Alessio looks from me to her, then back to me. “Brutus and Cassius.”
I roll my eyes. “I haven’t betrayed you. I just happened to agree with your sister.”
“What happened to this woman?” Valerina asks.
I shrug.
“I will pray for her and her baby.” Valerina stands to leave. “Brother, she’s staying with us and under your watch. At your mercy. There’s pain in her pretty eyes, and I don’t want any of us to make it worse for her. Just…just let’s take it easy and be nice. I have to go. Let me know what you two decide. I’ll follow your lead, but I want to remind you that we are a family and we stick together, even when we disagree.”
“I am sticking!” Alessio shouts. “Why do you think I brought her into our home?”
“You’re raising your voice,” she says and slams the door closed.
“Temper, temper,” I say under my breath.
Blue eyes harden when they look at me. “My sister is in your corner.”
I shrug. “I’m an excellent fighter, and she likes to win.”
“You endangered us.”
Alessio makes no exceptions for the safety of his family. He’s trying to do so for me now, but he can’t forget the thousands of enemies we made over the years as he rose to power and became one of the wealthiest men in the world. People want to hurt us. Troy could be our Trojan horse.
“I’ll marry her. She will be my wife, and that is how everything will fall into place.”
“Just because you take a woman as your wife doesn’t mean she’ll fit into our family.” Alessio closes his eyes, opens them. “How could you put me in this position? You of all people. You break my fucking heart.”
“I’m sorry, my friend. I didn’t have a choice. It was a split-second decision, and I spared her life. I’ve never spared a life before, and it seemed significant. Call it God’s will. Call it the will of the universe, but I went with my gut.”
“It was not God. It was not gut. It was a lapse in judgment.”
“Yes, Alessio.” He can’t wrap his head around Troy right now. He’ll come around.
“Have you looked into her?” he asks.
“Not yet.” There go my teeth.
“Shall we look into her together, then?” Alessio opens his laptop. “Grab a chair.”
It’s not a suggestion.