Chapter 36
ALISON
“ And that’s all I know.”
“Fuck.” Matt grunted, falling back into his leather chair, the pull of gravity and the wheels taking him back a few inches. “I’m gonna kill that Massimo motherfucker. And you’re sure he said sicarios ?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what he said. It felt like Vincenzo has his tail trapped and can’t get out. I’ve always seen him so confident and calm.”
“Fucking full of himself, that’s what he is! What did you say this guy’s name was?”
“I didn’t.” I paused, looking at my brother in suspicion. It’s like he was just waiting for confirmation of something he already knew. He could play his games on everyone else, but I knew him too well. I saw the eagerness behind his fake calm facade. “Diego Alcaráz.”
“Is Vincenzo aware that you know who and what this Diego Alcaráz is?”
“Well, we didn’t openly talk about it, but he saw me dancing with the man, I assume– ”
“HE SAW YOU WHAT?” Matt roared, standing back up and slamming his palms on the desk, staring intensely at me. I just stood there, letting the silence speak for me, finding nothing wrong in my words.
He pulled out his phone, setting it on speaker on top of the desk, waiting for someone to pick up. I walked across the office as it rang, looking out the huge window that oversaw the dance floor of Dea Tacita. The club looked so different without all the sweaty bodies in the silence of the day, barren and lost, like a body without a soul. This was the other side of the same coin, a hidden side that hardly anyone saw but the ones who had the privilege of belonging to the inner circle.
Like me.
I heard Matt’s infuriated voice from behind me, barking into the phone. “Max! My office, right now!” I couldn’t help the freezing shiver that descended my spine and lodged an uneasy tightness in my gut.
I turned back to Matt at the mention of Max’s name, trying to salvage whatever death sentence I had the feeling I unknowingly signed. “We just danced in a room full of people! What are you stressing so much about?”
“None of those people would stand in a Cartel boss’s way if he had his mind set on hurting you.” The implication in his words was clear.
“Oh right, ‘cause Max would?” I asked, pointing at his phone.
“Damn fucking straight, he would.”
“Oh oh oh, I highly doubt that!” I sarcastically laughed, my mouth running away with the words my heart knew to be true. Max didn’t even bother to be there. “Wait, you said Cartel boss. I never said that.” I accused in a sharp voice, my arms folding in defiance in front of me. I was sure he knew more than he was letting on .
“I’m assuming.”
“Right… You know this man, don’t you?”
“I’ve heard of him. What made you use Dad’s name?” I saw his game, changing the subject, but I was in over my head here, so I let it slide.
“Vincenzo and the way he reacted to Diego’s presence. Seeing that crack on his normal confident demeanor kinda threw me off a little.”
“It fucking should, too.” He circled the desk before firmly grabbing onto my shoulders as if he was shaking me into reality, his words the road map he was beckoning me to follow. “Cartels are dangerous shit, Alison. Their loyalty shifts to wherever the money is pointing. Death doesn’t even tickle their conscience, and they will stop at nothing to get what they want. Do you understand me?” I saw the warning in his eyes. The guilt and pain for bringing me into this were there, too.
“Yes, I do. But–”
“No buts, Alison. I’ll deal with this. In the meantime, please just lay low and don’t go anywhere without telling me. Are you still seeing Jax?” I raised my eyebrow at him. Jackson had been gone since that night at his apartment. “I guess that’s a no. Pity, it would be the one time having a cop around could do us any good. Just stay put, okay?” He knew I wasn’t liking the sound of what he was saying. Being captive or having to revert to a position where I had to ask permission to do whatever I wanted wasn’t exactly the kind of life I would choose for myself. Matt met my resistance with his grey puppy eyes, melting it with his stare. “Please?”
“Ugh… okay,” I replied in resignation. “Did I have a choice anyway?”
“No. But at least this way it’s as if you agreed to it.” His deep chuckle shook his shoulders, bringing a smile to my lips. “It’s either that or an appointed babysitter.”
“Yeah, thanks, but no thanks. I’m good. Let the record state that I will, as usual, be spending a massive amount of time at AD, only to return home to eat and sleep, wash and repeat.” I mocked, speaking louder as if the room was bugged with recording devices. Maybe it even was. With Matt, it wouldn’t be that surprising.
I gave him a peck on the cheek before turning to leave. “He didn’t do anything wrong,” I said before twisting the doorknob. I was suddenly uneasy with the faint notion that Max was probably in trouble because of me.
“I said I would deal with it.” That dark tone in Matt’s voice was more than clear to me, more than transparent that, in this room, who stood behind that desk right now wasn’t my brother. It was Don Battaglia.
I crossed the threshold just as Max arrived, my eyes resting on his placid face while he stepped aside and let me through.
“Miss Battaglia,” He greeted with a curt and cold nod, receiving a small, fake smile in return, together with an ‘I’m sorry if you die now’ look before he walked into his doom, closing the door behind him.
For the next two weeks, I tried hard not to notice his absence. I hadn’t seen him since he disappeared into the night as I snuggled in Victor’s arms at my brother’s wedding. It was as if he had agreed with himself to let me be and promised not to return.
I knew how Mafiosi men were with their fucking promises. It’s like a freaking religion. A highly punished sacrilege to go back on your word that no amount of Hail Marys could fix. They called it honor. Sometimes, I called it cowardice.
I had managed to feed my frustration towards him for being one, for not admitting to himself, to my brother, to the fucking world that he felt the same way that I did. Deep down, I was sure he had feelings for me, and it gutted me that I wasn’t worthy enough for him to fight for.
It seemed to be the story of my damn life. I never was worthy enough.
That resentment turned into full-blown fury, borderline hate, nurtured from unrequited love. The line was thin, if not non-existent. I knew this rage came from a place of love. I just wondered when it would pass the checkpoint that wouldn’t allow for reverse.
I needed that, but feared it nonetheless.
For now, I had to settle for a fragile mirage of normality as I continued my routines at AD, facing yet another one of my demons.
My strength was wearing thin, but I liked to think that I had more than I gave myself credit for.
Carpe fucking Diem, Alison. Life goes on.
I sat at my desk, burying myself as much as I could in work, trying desperately to numb out all the rest, following Matt’s instructions and not rocking the boat. The only thing to look forward to was my distracting evenings with Victor.
We had planned a trip to Providence for today, but after my promise, I postponed it until I was released from my close-to-house arrest, so we settled for a quick lunch. I still thought Matt was overreacting, but I used his plea as an excuse not to go looking for what I thought I wanted to know .
Truth was, as I’d found out, Providence was where Adrianne was from. I thought I wanted to know who we were welcoming into the family, but this obstacle came almost as the perfect barrier for me not to admit to my fear.
Of what? I had no idea. Maybe finding out that she was as innocent as I was in all this. Who would I blame after that? The person I wanted to feel loved by the most? Not sure I could risk that right now.
I looked around, watching as most people left for lunch, once again relishing in the awkward silence of a place that hardly ever was.
I closed my eyes, trying to breathe in the tranquility. Instead, I had all my little follicles up in the air as a primal sixth sense whispered a promise of imminent danger loitering behind this peace. Just like before a thunderstorm, where an unsettling calm reigns as a final reprieve.
I could only hear my heart, hammering in a deafening thunder inside my head, as I opened my eyes just in time to witness the flash before the roaring thunder, and then…
Nothing.
I wasn’t sure what happened first. The light, the sound, or the shaking ground. But before I could even understand what hit me, everything went black.
Weightless darkness in an unconscious limbo.
I felt my body as heavy as my lids when I tried to peer through one. Dense, black smoke coating the air, trashed tables and shattered glass covering the floor. That was all I could see until bright flames came into view.
What just happened?
I had a sharp pain in the back of my head. I stretched my hand to feel it, my fingers returning drenched in blood as I massaged my skull. Another similar but more acute stab came from my leg, the pain intensifying each time I tried to move .
I couldn’t. Not a foot, not an inch.
In my panic to get away, I couldn’t control my breathing, coughing and inhaling clouds of toxic smoke that tainted my lungs with each gasp. I was stuck, frozen in my spot in this burning hell.
Today must be my turn to die.
Was that a bomb?
Before I could understand any of this further, I went under again, my lungs screaming for pure and fresh air that was nowhere to be found. When I opened my eyes again, the heat had intensified, and my throat was dry and sore.
I tried moving again. Pulling my leg from the weight of the beam that pinned me to the ground. Nothing.
Eternity was a short time compared to the one that passed as I tried to figure out how I would escape this.
The answer was always the same.
I wouldn’t.
I knew it in my gut, felt it in my throbbing head, tasted the end on my ferrite tongue.
Merciful darkness took me down, sparing me from the pain, the thoughts, the fear.
“ALISON!” I thought I heard someone call me, so far away I didn’t even know if it was real or just my brain tricking me. “ALISON!” Again, the same shout, the same voice.
The voice of my angel.
I tried shouting back, but I couldn’t make a sound. My throat had shut down, dry and flaring, just like the flames around me.
But I needed to reply. Try harder. Find the strength beyond what I felt I had. Maybe someone could find me and save me from this nightmare.
That Angel .
“ALISON!”
I coughed, trying to clear my lungs to scream, but not a single sound came out. I fought back the dizziness, the lack of oxygen trying to take me out again. Scanning around me, I picked up a broken piece of metal and tried banging it around, signaling whoever was calling for me.
I coughed again, but the sound was weak and died in my throat.
“Oh my God, Alison. Shit!” I felt his hands holding my face, his fingers feeling my pulse. “You’re alive, Baby. Hold on. I’m going to take you out of here.” I tried to see him, but I couldn’t focus or keep my eyes open.
The roar that came from his throat was strained but loud. Soon enough, the pain in my leg that was close to unbearable multiplied by a thousand as he set me free. Blood rushed to a specific spot on my thigh, and I was sure it was oozing out from a nasty gash.
I bit the inside of my cheek, trying to keep myself from losing consciousness again, but the next thing I knew, that voice was beckoning me back to the land of the living.
“Alison!” His voice was laced with a panic that somehow soothed my heart. It was ragged and heavy, too, a soft shout above the sound of destruction around us. “Alison, open your eyes. Hold on to me as tight as you can.”
But I couldn’t. I couldn’t stand, I couldn’t grip, I couldn’t breathe. Through my stinging eyes, I saw a glimpse of his lips as he continued to speak, my ears registering none of it.
Strangely enough, he seemed to be glowing, a bright aura of peace and redemption all around him. His figure dipped in darkness, in contrast with the bright light behind him. I tried to rest my head in the crook of his neck as he kneeled to lift me, and soon, I was levitating both in his arms and on the edge of my own consciousness .
“Stay awake, Alison. Do you hear me? FUCK!” He shouted, making me feel the despair in his voice as he tried to make me react, but I could feel myself slipping away. “Fight it, Goddamn it! I will get you to safety. Just stay with me.” Those were the last words I heard, his deep voice rumbling in his chest, making me feel the vibrations before my head fell back as I gave into darkness.
My angel came to hell to rescue me.
I had no idea where I was besides in the arms of a hero. Someone who had consciously run into a blazing building to pull me out.
A building crumbling from the impact of a bomb. A fucking bomb . Well, it did seem fit. My life was imploding figuratively, and now exploding literally. The irony!
I tried to open my eyes again to look into his eyes, to maybe thank him for risking his own life to save mine. But I couldn’t. I could hardly see past the misty haze that clouded my vision. Who was he?
“Alison! Open your eyes!” He had stopped running, laying me on the floor. “Alison! Can you hear me?” I fell in and out of consciousness as he held something against my lips. “Drink this before we carry on. Just please hold on, you’re going to be fine. We are almost at the bottom,” He reassured in a not-so-certain voice while small droplets of water fell against my cracked lips. I slowly licked them, welcoming the cold and pure reprieve, but it wasn’t enough to keep me awake. Before I could inhale another cloud of smoke, I was falling again.
A darkness deeper than night, a silence purer than bliss.
“ALISON!” He shouted, piercing straight through my unconscious state, “I am not going to lose you like this. Do you hear me? Not before I tell you how much I love you! ”
“Max?” I tried to say, and even if the words didn’t quite come out, he heard me.
“Yes, Baby. It’s me. Live for me, please, live for me.”
It was hard to die when the man I loved begged me to stay alive. But did I even have a choice?
Who was here with me still? Liam, Jamie, Dad? Did they make it out?
I couldn’t face the finality of what seemed to be my fate, and each time I submerged in an unconscious slumber, my mind knew this was more than I could bear, bringing me familiar faces of happiness and laughter in places I had been before.
I saw them all smiling down at me, giving me permission to let go. Everyone but that unrelenting voice that kept calling my name, beckoning me back to my harsh reality.
I couldn’t face it, so I closed my eyes again. I went back and did the only thing that brought me peace.
I remembered.
To be continued…
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Continue reading Alison and Max’s story in
ANGEL OF LIGHT
Don’t leave them hanging off this cliff.
Really, you’ll want to read this.
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No! Don’t go yet. Are you sure you don’t want to know what happens next? You planted that bomb? Really? I think you do.
Here’s the link again:
ANGEL OF LIGHT
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