38. Massimo
Chapter thirty-eight
Massimo
T he thin rose gold chain with the tiny swan hanging from it stares up at me as I open the top drawer of my desk and slam it back shut.
Mia cigna . My Swan . Proud and effulgent-looking but dangerous when provoked. They happen to be very protective, as well as monogamists, mating for life.
It’s been three years, and it still feels like a knife twisting in my gut. It only took three hours to change my mind and call Tullio to ask if we really did the right thing.
“It doesn’t matter. It’s too late now. She wouldn’t come back no matter how much we begged her to.”
I was notified that Alessia had departed the grounds before I arrived. I walked into the maids and several of my men scrambling to erase the remnants of the wreckage she left in her wake throughout the house. However, my quarters were off-limits so that mess remained untouched.
The bed was the first thing I noticed. Nothing was left from the nights we spent together but my own memories.She tore the mattress and everything on it to bits—pillows, blankets, everything. After glimpsing her slight insecurities about my past, I had our bed replaced as well as anything that might have come near another woman.
Then I walked into our closet and saw a pile of torn-up gold and cream intricate fabric in the middle of the floor. Her wedding dress. I didn’t even know she already had it. I dropped to my knees and fisted the fabric, wishing I could see her in it once. To have a vivid picture of her in a wedding gown inside my head. I’d envisioned her plenty of times, but to see her with my own eyes only once would’ve lasted me a lifetime.
Willing myself off the floor, I ventured back out into the room and found her phone with a broken screen. The screen lit up as soon as it was in my hand, and my heart skipped a beat. It was a picture of the two of us. I remember exactly when she took it. We were sitting out on the patio and she’d told me about the plans she had for a garden back there. She was so zealous and passionate when she talked about it, and I was willing to give her the most outlandish garden there ever was. Then she came over to sit on my lap as we enjoyed a bottle of wine together, and she held out her phone to take a picture of us because the point where the sun was in the sky created this magnificent glow. She stared at me in awe as I reflected the same expression.
After punching in the passcode, I sat down to scroll through her phone to see what else she had on there. There were not a whole lot of pictures of us because neither of us is the type to take selfies and pose for the camera, but there were quite a few. More than I have taken in several years combined.
I explored everything she had on her phone, and when I found letters she had written to her loved ones in case anything ever happened to her, I slumped to the ground, strength deserting me.
To the love of my life,
The Don of the De Luca’s and the king of my heart. Who knew love was ever really in the cards for me? I never thought that in my wildest and dirtiest of dreams, I would ever end up with a man like you. One who could somehow harness my temper but not tame it. One who could take control but make me feel all-powerful. One who could make my knees shake with one single touch. You’ve grounded me in so many ways yet made me feel like I was empress of everlasting paradise on Mt. Olympus.
Massimo, amore mio , my re , cuore mio . My love, my king, my heart.
Know that you have made me the best version of myself. The most fierce. The most driven. The most loving I have ever been in my life.
If you’re reading this, it’s because something happened to me (or you’re snooping) and I need you to remember how much you truly meant to me in case I’ve been too stubborn to tell you or if we’ve recently gotten into one of our epic battles with one another and it didn’t end up with me tied to your bed and me screaming in ecstasy.
I love you, Massimo De Luca. My greatest one.
Love,
Alessia
After I read it over and over, I wanted to call it all off with or without Tullio’s approval. But he was right though. If my woman is anything, she is tenacious. Also, I am a bit of a grudge-holder. And I loved her for every bit of stubbornness in her body as long as she yielded to me eventually. But there’s no coming back from this or rescinding.
My phone starts ringing, breaking me from the haunting memories and displaying a blocked number on the screen, which is impossible to do. A blocked number wouldn’t be able to get through the cyber security on this phone, nor could my phone be traced. Warning bells are going off inside my head as I answer with trepidation.
Placing my phone to my ear, I wait for whoever it is on the end to speak first. “Massimo De Luca. It’s been quite a long time.”
“You have two seconds to tell me who this is,” I say evenly.
“It’s Komodo,” he says with a Polynesian accent, and I glance around the room for anything that might be out of place that I haven’t noticed before.
“How the fuck did you get through to this number?”
“I come with information, Massimo.”
He’s a busy man and he made the effort to track down my number and break through all the firewalls, so it must be some tangible information he has. “I’m listening.”
“It’d be best if I came to speak with you in person.”
“Not happening, Komodo.” Mercenaries don’t reach out to you unless they’re contracted to kill you. You reach out to them when you need their services. “Tell me what I might need to know.”
“It’s about the Bonetti girl.”
I shoot forward in my chair, my heart in my throat. “ Cazzo ,” I hiss and growl. “Talk.”
“In person, Massimo.”
“Sir, someone just pulled up to the gate,” Vinny says as he and Monte enter my office unannounced.
“I assume that’s you,” I say in a lowered voice.
“I swear I come in peace, my friend.”
“I’m not your friend.” He chuckles, and I’m too desperate for answers to react to his levity. “Get out of the car, no weapons. Once my guys check you out, you’ll be walked through.”
“I’ll see you soon.”
As soon as I hang up the phone, I tell Vinny and Monte to grab some men and keep their weapons raised as he gets out of the car and to check him thoroughly. Then to cuff him and walk him through the estate, bringing him straight to me.
Komodo is a legendary contracted killer in the underworld. He’s who you call to get a job done and done right, a man with no conscience. You pay him enough and he’ll take out anyone for you.
About fifteen minutes pass before Komodo is escorted into my office, surrounded by my men and cuffed. Vinny forces him down into a chair, and I give Vinny the okay to clear the rest of the men from the room.
“Start talking.”
“First thing’s first. I’ll tell you what you’d like to know, and you get me out of the country.”
“You need help getting out of the country?” His justifications seem dubious, considering he can usually hop from country to country undetected like a flea.
“Yes. Once I give you this information, the price for my head will double. So, I need your word first.” So, he’s done something to make the organization turn on him.
“And it’s about Alessia Bonetti.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you go to the Bonetti’s with this information? Why me?” I casually lean back in my chair and study him.
“That I would like to keep to myself if you don’t mind.”
I wait for a minute to reply. “Tell me what you know, and I’ll let you know if I do mind or not.”
“You’ll help me out of the country.”
“Yes.” There’s no reason not to help him even if the information he gives me isn’t as valuable because he’s a well-respected and venerable marksman. Though, if it involves Alessia, it’s priceless.
“Do you know what your ex-fiancée has been up to these past few years?” I don’t answer because I don’t. If I kept an eye on her, I’d break down and go to her, or I’d hunt down every man she involved herself with. “I figured, and her family obviously doesn’t either because I don’t see how they would let her, considering you all made the effort of removing her from danger.”
“Stop prattling. Just spit it out.”
He ignores my curt tone. “Just a few months after you guys banished her.” I don’t correct him because it isn’t essential. “She contacted me.” I swallow hard, afraid of where this might be going. “She wanted a job.” My fists clench. “After I checked into her new alias to ensure your tech guys did their job correctly, I didn’t have a reason to tell her no. Plus, you don’t tell Alessia Bonetti no,” he muses, but I’m not in the mood. “Anyways, I got her an interview, and she was in.”
“And that’s what you came to tell me? That she’s a contract killer?”
“Not exactly. She’s a big girl, so who am I to blab? No, I came to tell you that the people I worked for found out who she really is. I’m not sure how, but they know, and there’s now a hit on her.”
I jump up to my feet and roar, “ Che cazzo !” What the fuck ! “You wasted this whole time rambling when there’s a fucking hit on her head?!”
He’s awfully calm for a man who is about to fucking die. “There’s time. I was the one contracted for the kill, which obviously I’m not carrying out, but once they realize that, they’ll go to the next contact and put me on the chopping block for refusing the job. So, you see my dilemma here?”
I do. Refusing to kill her, he’s putting a hit on his own head. He’ll lose most of the connections he would typically use to get in and out of countries, so he needs some outside help, hence why he came to me.
“How much time do we have?”
“Enough to get there before someone else does. Even if someone does beat you to it, it’ll take a lot of time getting past all her own security she has put up around her property.” He smirks, obviously amused by something about that.
“Why haven’t you told her?”
“It wouldn’t be safe to do so.”
“You’re saying if I call her to warn her, I’m endangering her.”
“Yes. I’m not positive, but it’s not worth the risk.”
“She needs some kind of heads up.”
“I’d say it would be safe to call her once you’re close.”
“ Cazzo ,” I spit. “Ready the plane. Get a team together,” I bark orders out to Vinny, and he swiftly leaves my office. “What I don’t understand, though, is why you didn’t carry out the hit.”
“If I killed Alessia Bonetti, I would have at least three prominent families who wouldn’t stop looking for me. Especially you now allied with the Abramovs.” He’s right about that. And how the fuck does he know about the Abramovs? That’ll have to wait till later. Right now, the exigent dilemma is getting to Alessia in time.
“I’ll get you out of the country. After I get Alessia home safely.”
And after I spank her ass black and blue for her senseless temerity.