Chapter 35
Alessandro
My phone buzzes on a table nearby as I lie on the couch in a semi-catatonic state. I ignore it, unable and unwilling to talk to anyone. And besides, it’s probably Sofia calling to rub in that she’s successfully escaped.
A manic laugh escapes me, then I realize there are tears coming out of my eyes. When’s the last time that I’ve honestly cried? I truly can’t remember; it never helped me, so it must have been trained out of me early on.
The phone stops buzzing and then immediately starts again, so I build up the motivation to turn the damn thing off.
I slowly peel myself off the couch and see that it’s Elio trying to do a video call.
I answer because I figure that he’s Vincenzo’s best friend, so he should probably know that Vincenzo was having a relationship with his step-sister for most of his life, woke up from the coma, then died from my hands.
Maybe I’ll get lucky and he’ll fly up to my wing where I inexplicably have no one to protect me and end everything right now.
I hide a smirk from my face as we connect, a spiteful part of me happy that I can ruin someone else’s day so that they can feel an ounce of pain that I feel.
But I’m not greeted by Elio’s smug face. Instead, I see Sofia sitting in a cell in the dungeon: duct tape around her wrists, ankles, and over her mouth. Her eyes, red from crying.
A growl escapes me. I assumed she’d be on a plane to America by this point, so how did Elio get to her?
The camera switches to the front, and I’m greeted by Elio.
“It’s over, Alessandro. Vincenzo woke up the day we left for that boring trip, and we’ve been planning the takeover ever since.
If you make this easy and come down to the dungeon to give yourself up without a fight, we’ll give you an honorable death and ship your little wife back home.
If not…” He nods at one of his men, who backhands Sofia across her face.
She falls to her side at the force of the blow then sits herself back up, more tears forming in her eyes as she looks helplessly into the camera.
Any ill-feelings I had towards Sofia are gone, and all I want to do is get her out of there.
Her family must have botched her rescue only to get her into the hands of Elio.
“Give me some time to get my affairs in order and I’ll be down to exchange myself for her.”
Elio looks surprised for a moment, pleased at my lack of fight. “We’ll be waiting. Don’t take too long.”
My eyes scan the castle as I passively walk towards the basement, taking in the last of the surroundings so that I try to maintain this unnatural calmness I feel rather than letting panic overtake me.
I have spent countless nights where I went to bed hungry.
I’ve gone weeks with no meaningful human-interaction when Marco kept Elena and any friendly staff-members away from me as a punishment.
Forced to kill and torture to the point I became an iconic entity that people whispered of in their homes: Lo Spettro.
The ghost with no name. No true family. No origin.
And yet, this is the lowest I’ve ever felt in my life.
It was safer when I had no hope. When every day added on to the meaningless stretch of my existence.
When I’d put my focus on how much profit I brought to the family.
Sofia ruined all of that when I fell in love with her.
It made me weak in a way I didn’t know was possible.
She took my heart and built me up to the point where I actually looked forward to waking up and seeing the sunlight rather than the dull neutrality I felt all the time before I met her.
Even now, the power she has over me is unbearable. She betrayed me, and while I have the option to let her die in that dungeon, I’m going to give my life for hers without hesitation.
When I get down to the main level, two voices shout at each other in English.
“We already went this way!”
“No, we didn’t!”
“Should we give up temporarily? She’s probably hiding with Alessandro somewhere, and we’ll have to work on deprogramming her slowly. Maybe we can kill him and never tell her it was us.”
The Calabreses are more conniving than I initially gave them credit for.
I ought to tell them there’s no need to kill me.
“Hello,” I say in English as I walk over to them. I’ll have to communicate using only basic, choppy sentences.
They both snap their heads towards me, guns raised.
“Don’t kill me. Sofia is in trouble. But I can trade my life for hers.
Follow me.” My voice is unusually calm, and I feel like I’m a passenger in my own body.
None of this feels real to me—I’m a dead man already.
There’s no point in explaining any more to them or telling them how I felt about Sofia. Nothing will matter soon.
Max and Nick look uneasy at each other, as if this were all a ruse.
I put my hands up so they know I won’t try anything. “This way.”
I take a few steps, but Max grabs my shoulder. “Wait. Slow down and tell us what happened.”
“You two are here to get Sofia. Yes?”
They nod.
“And you failed?”
Nick glares at me. “If you hadn’t brainwashed her like a psychopath, then we’d be far away by now, but she had to go find you because you convinced her you love her and then she fell head over heels for you.”
“I do love her,” I state matter-of-factly.
Both of them give the other a questioning glance, and a cloud of silence falls over us as they seem to have a telepathic conversation.
Then, I wrap my head around what Nick just told me.
“Aspettare. She loves me?”
“Nick made her laugh over something stupid, and we promised we’d listen to her once we got out of the castle,” Max says.
“That was a lie,” Nick says, pointing at his bloody lip. “Once I started dragging her down the hill, she punched me in the face and ran back inside.”
“So… she didn’t want to run?”
“No,” Max snaps. “You said she’s in trouble?”
A resurgence of energy courses through me at the knowledge that Sofia loves me.
Whatever unattached, passively suicidal, mindset that was protecting me in a sense melts away and I’m met with all types of horrible bodily sensations to replace it: suddenly I’m too nervous to swallow, I can hear my heartbeat in my ears, and my palms are dripping in sweat.
Now I can’t even picture her as a manipulative witch who broke my heart to cope with the fact she’s hurt and scared in that dungeon—she needs me.
I ball my hands up into fists to calm down enough to explain to them what happened. But I’m really struggling to find the right words. I give up and use my phone to help translate.
“Elio, one of my capos and Vincenzo’s best friend, planned a coup.
My stepbrother woke up from a coma a couple of days ago, and they made a plan to dethrone me and put Vincenzo in charge.
” I sigh and wait for my phone to translate for me before continuing on.
“I don’t know if you’re aware, but Sofia and I are expecting.
We just found out for certain this morning.
So, I will not try any silly plan to get us all out of this because I love her too much.
I’m simply going to exchange myself for her, and you two take her back home. ”
They both blink at me, dumbfounded.
“You’ve had a hell of a day, man. I’m sorry,” Nick says.
“Now, let’s go before he can harm her further,” I say.
I walk towards the dungeon, leading the two down the hall.
“What has he done to her?” Max asks.
“Tied her wrists and ankles together and slapped her a couple of times. Nothing serious yet, but I refuse to let it escalate.”
He swears under his breath. “Where is everyone?”
I look around the dark, empty halls. Literally everyone is gone. The captains, the soldiers, all the low-level guards, and even all our employees that keep this place running and clean are missing. It just makes this nightmare more surreal.
“I have no idea.”
“Do you have any men who are loyal to you?” Max asks.
“I thought so, but it doesn’t look to be the case.”
“Just wait a minute.” He stops in his tracks, and I resist the urge to continue on without him.
“Things aren’t adding up, and I don’t want Sofia upset because you threw away your life so quickly.
You’re depressed as shit, and I understand that, but you need to snap out of it and think.
Does it actually make sense that no one: not a single soldier or captain is still loyal to you? ”
I had myself convinced of that when I thought Sofia had left me, but my head was too warped from everything that had happened in that narrow amount of time to think rationally.
“You wouldn’t have survived killing Marco for this long,” Max adds.
He has a point.
Maybe. Maybe. It’s possible for both of us to survive and share the rest of our lives together.
“Let me try calling Sal.” I reach into my pocket and grab my cellphone.
The call drops immediately without going through.
“Hmm, let me try restarting the thing.”
I restart my phone and try calling Sal and Gio, but nothing goes through.
“Give me some of their numbers. Let me try,” Max says.
I do as he says, and he connects with Gio right away; then he hands me the phone.
“Gio? It’s me.”
“Where the fuck are you?” he shouts—and he is not typically the type to lose his temper.
“Home. Where are you?”
“At the warehouse you instructed us all to go to?”
Elio must have hacked my phone or found some way of giving them faulty information.
I try not to think about that too much and instead focus on what’s important.
“That wasn’t me. Now, how far away are all of you?
Elio has Sofia, and he is attempting a coup.
Vincenzo woke up from his coma, and I killed him already. ”
I hear Sal’s voice from far away. “What is it? What is he saying?”
“We’re forty minutes out, but we’ll be there in twenty.” He hangs up the phone as he’s shouting commands at his men.
I relay the information I learned to Max and Nick.
“Great, we also have a few men on standby who can be here in ten minutes to help. But do you think she can wait until everyone gets here? How long until Elio really starts hurting her?” Max asks.
“Elio? He does what he needs to do to get ahead in life, but he’s not sadistic. He will not enjoy harming her, and I’m sure he’s hoping to get away with everything and maintain his conscience.”
My blood goes cold when I wonder where Dante is. With Elio? Or with Gio and Sal?
“Let’s hold off and think of a plan then,” Max says. “If he calls and hurts Sofia, then we’ll get you down there before your men show up.”
“Fine.”
“Now where are they?” Nick asks. “The dungeon?”
I nod my head.
“How many entrances and exits?”
“One.”
A smile forms on his face. “So, they can’t scatter.”
“And it’ll make it harder for us to get Sofia out,” I say.
“What types of weapons do you have at your disposal?”
I scoff. “Everything.”
“Smoke bombs?”
“Yes, but what about the baby? Is it okay for Sofia to breathe in that poison?”
Nick paces around as he contemplates, then his face brightens. “How many sets of night-vision goggles? And is there a backup generator down there to turn the lights back on if there were a power outage?”
“Enough… and no…” A smile creeps on my face, and I feel an ounce of hope for the first time this afternoon.