Chapter 37
Alessandro
“That was a hell of a day.” Sal swirls his drink around in his glass as we meet in one of the sitting rooms. Sofia sleeps upstairs, but I’m still uneasy being away from her even though I know that we’re safe.
“Good call on the ‘lights out’ plan,” Gio says.
I make a noise in my throat. “That was Nick’s idea. Crazy fucker.”
We gave those two access to a couple of our guest suites as they wait for the rest of Sofia’s family to show up. From what I understand, everyone even remotely related to Sofia is on their way over.
I dread this gathering with every bone in my body.
But she needs it after everything she’s been through. And not just today, but everything myself and Marco put her through as well.
“How’s your wife doing?” Sal asks.
“She’s fine. Better than I expected her to be. She fell asleep so quickly after everything happened.”
“Good. It’s easy to be plagued with sleepless nights after an event like that. I hope that doesn’t happen to her.”
“Me too.” I take a sip of my drink and notice Gio staring contemplatively out the window.
“What are you thinking?”
“I’m wondering what your next plans are. You don’t have many captains now.”
We never promoted anyone after losing a couple of capos after Marco’s death. And now we’ve lost even more.
“I’ve thought of this today, and I’m come up with a few names…” I tell them where my head is at. My first priority is loyalty, so I don’t care as much about age or skills. After all of that? I won’t risk harming my family.
We continue back and forth, mulling over the various personality traits of the top candidates along with thinking of reasons that choosing this man or that man could create tension within our family.
And after the number of men we lost today, we’re vulnerable to our enemies.
Both Sal and Gio had some promising nominations to bring forward.
The conversation leaves my head spinning but in a good way—bringing up things I wouldn’t have even thought of. I’m grateful for these two.
Our discussion dies off eventually; it’s time to part ways for the night. Gio gives me a brief goodbye, hurrying out of the room, but Sal lingers.
He clears his throat and looks uncomfortable for a moment.
I worry that he’s about to give me bad news.
“I’m only going to get sappy this one time, so listen up.
I remember when you came to this castle as a skinny child.
To be honest, I was too focused on moving up in rank and starting a family at the time to really notice you or the horrible situation that Marco put you in.
If I had known that thirty years later, you’d be leading this family…
” He chuckles, shaking his head. “I’m fucking horrible at this.
I just want to say I’m happy for you. And I’m happy that you’re the one in control.
It’s not too often that someone with a good head on their shoulders takes over. ”
I snort.
He frowns. “I’m serious. Usually, the meanest bastard floats his way to the top. Not saying you lack the ability to be mean when necessary, but…”
“Yeah, I understand.” I say to relieve him of having to over-explain himself as his words sink in. I feel as though a storm is over. That anyone disloyal to me has been squashed this morning, and I can finally not be so paranoid.
“Anyway, Giorgia and I want to spend more time with you and Sofia. When Marco was alive, I had to play the political game, so I tried to stay distant from you.”
“And now you’re kissing my ass to make up for it?”
“Fuck you.” He laughs.
“Of course. I’ll reach out once Sofia is recovered from all of this.” And I mean it too. I don’t want to spend time with Sal out of obligation; I genuinely want to.
Maybe I’m slowly becoming more social, after all.
Sal leaves, then I make my way to the master bedroom that Sofia and I have finally taken over now that everything related to Marco has been removed. My heart beats in my chest as I look towards the room Elena was staying in. Where I found her and Vincenzo earlier today.
Where has she gone?
I had the castle scoured from top to bottom once Sofia was settled in and resting, because part of me wondered if maybe she was hiding somewhere within the castle walls. But she was nowhere to be found.
Now that I’m cooled down from the confrontation we had and I’ve had time to process it some more, I wish I hadn’t told her to leave.
But she was threatening my life.
I shake my head, trying to get my thoughts away from Elena as I approach our bedroom.
When I enter the room, I find Sofia scrolling on her phone.
“You’re awake,” I say.
She sets her phone down on the nightstand. “Well, I’ve gotten my full-nights sleep, and it’s now one in the morning. So, I guess I’ve managed to jet lag myself without flying to another continent.”
I strip down and climb into bed to join her.
Pulling her close to me as soon as I get under the covers.
Her coconut-scented shampoo fills my senses as I bury my nose in the top of her head.
Her skin feels so soft, her body so delicate, and it makes me think back to how helpless and scared she looked in the dungeon.
“That’s okay, Sofia. You can stay in bed all day tomorrow until the rest of your family gets here.”
She readjusts against me, and I try not to get too distracted by the way her ass feels brushing up against me.
“Alessandro?”
“Hmm?”
“Do you think Aurora was playing me? That she pretended she liked me to help Elio.”
I pause my thumb that was stroking her arm, fighting the urge to tell her, of course not, as if she were a child. That’s how her family treated her, and it didn’t do her any favors.
A million phone calls were made to tell Aurora, along with all the other wives of those that were slain today, that their husbands were never coming home again.
I helped with some of these, and I truly hope that Sofia never receives that call.
But because of our age-gap and my profession, I better not outlive her.
“I don’t know,” I answer. “Aurora didn’t seem like the manipulative type to me, but it’s not as if I’m adept at reading people, anyway.”
“Good point. I shouldn’t have asked the world’s most antisocial man.”
I playfully slap her ass. “Brat.”
She giggles, her hand resting on her stomach. “Sometimes I worry about what we’re going to create.”
I kiss the back of her head, my hand resting over hers.
“That’s a healthy fear. I cannot fathom what you were like as a toddler. How stubborn were you?”
She cuts me off to laugh and elbows me in the chest, then turns around. “Bianca was an accident. Apparently, I was so much of a handful when I was a baby that they wanted to stop with me. My mom told me that once after several glasses of wine last New Year’s Eve.”
“Now, that does make me nervous,” I say.
Her warm-brown eyes shimmer as she smiles at me.
“I’m programmed to be miserable constantly.
Combine that with a spitfire, overly-competitive personality and we’ll have a baby that wails day and night, a toddler that ignores everything we say, and then a moody teenager that doesn’t know what to do with themselves. ”
She groans. “I hope we’re only joking, but something tells me this is going to be our reality.” She strokes the back of her hand against my cheek. “You’re not miserable, Alessandro.”
I raise my eyebrows at her.
“I’m serious. It was your environment that made you that way. If you were truly miserable, you wouldn’t have appreciated those last-minute birthday gifts so much.” She bites the inside of her mouth. “It made me kind of sad, how happy you were.”
“Stop…”
“That’s how I knew I loved you. I’ve never been so overjoyed seeing someone else happy before.” Her eyes are shining as she talks to me. Her words are so sweet I almost get choked up.
“I love you so much. And I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.”
She snuggles up to me, and we stay embraced until I fall asleep.
My thoughts go from one thing to another, wondering how vulnerable I am now.
An unhappy man is a dangerous man—he has nothing to lose.
And that’s how I’ve spent my life until this point.
Now? I feel that I have everything to lose.
It terrifies me. However, I don’t think I was truly alive until the day I met Sofia.
Or at least, whatever day I slowly stopped despising her.
And maybe I never despised her. Maybe I could sense where the two of us were heading from the moment I stalked her social media profiles. Maybe it made me nervous knowing that I’d fall head over heels for this beautiful woman and life would never be the same again.