16. ALESSIO
16
ALESSIO
Anger makes my strides long and purposeful, eating up the stairs as we make our way down. Sienna is silent, and at least not trying to pull away from me, but I won’t make the mistake of thinking she’s being compliant. The woman doesn’t have a single acquiescent bone in her body. Any other time I might enjoy it, but not now. Not today.
I’m still pissed Dario almost shot her, almost managed to take her away from me. And now she’s here—again, where she belongs—and she’s still fighting me tooth and nail. Acting like everything over the past week and a half means nothing. Cheapening what we are to nothing more than the physical. We are so much more, and I’m going to make her see it if it’s the last thing I do.
I do not chase women. Ever. I charm, I seduce, but never chase. Never let them see the darker parts of me. No, they only see the mask that I allow them to. With Sienna, however, there is no hiding. She brings it out in me in ways I never could have imagined possible. I both despise and enjoy it where she’s concerned. But now she’s pulling parts of me forward that I had no idea were even there, like this dark possessiveness that makes me want to kill any fucker that even looks at her. Fuck, I wanted to snarl at my father the moment he interrupted us. Something I have never done, nor would ever do. My father is a good man, but when it comes to disrespect, even from his own sons, he’s as brutal as expected.
I need to get a grip on myself and not let my anger cloud my senses. Especially not when we’re about to go into a meeting full of emotion and tension. I’m well aware my father wants to get the introductions out of the way between Sienna and Gia, but I’m selfish enough to want one more night to myself. One more night to make her understand this is where she needs to be.
When we finally reach the bottom of the stairs, some of the anger inside me dissipates when I catch a glimpse of Sienna’s expression. It’s like she’s zoned out, forgetting I’m even there. She’s staring straight ahead, but there’s no hiding the tension in her shoulders or the nerves on her face. It hits me that none of it has anything to do with me, but what we’re about to do. The people she’s about to meet for the first time. Not just a bunch of criminals, but family she didn’t know existed. The one who didn’t make it out.
I slow my steps, and instead of continuing into the sitting room, I pull her into a little alcove just off the hallway, turning her so she’s shielded by my body. She looks up at me in surprise, and I release her hand to cup her face. She blinks at me, as if unsure of what I’m doing, but her nerves are dissipating and being replaced by suspicion. I don’t let her get too far down that road, as I lean down to take her mouth in a soft kiss. She resists at first, but soon enough she’s kissing me back. The kiss is nothing like the ones we’ve shared so far. This is soft, gentle, soothing. The tension leaves her body, and I pull away because if we keep going, I’m going to say fuck it to my father’s order and we’ll go right back up to my room to finish what we started.
“What was that for?”
“They’re going to love you.” I caress her jaw with my thumb.
She stares up at me but doesn’t reply. As much as she tries to hide it, I see the vulnerability in her eyes. “It’s not every day you meet members of your long-lost family. One tries to kidnap and kill you, while the other might resent you for getting out when she couldn’t. Not exactly an easy reunion.”
“Your brothers are bastards and you’ll do well to not worry about them at all, but your sister, she’s nothing like them. You’ll see that once you meet her. If you need a buffer, I’ll step in.” I can’t resist leaning down to kiss her again. “I’ve got you, Sienna. And if you really can’t do this now, then I’ll take you back up to my room and do this without you. My father will understand.” I’ll make sure he does.
“No, I’m fine.” Then she surprises me by lifting her hand to mine and leaning into it for the briefest of moments. “Thank you, Alessio,” she whispers, before dropping her hand and nudging me back. I move, but all I want to do is pull her back into me. I want more of this side of her. The soft, vulnerable side that makes me want to hold her close and never let go, that balances the stubborn side that drives me insane. Fuck, the woman is seriously messing with my head.
I take her hand again, and this time she doesn’t try to pull away as she follows me to the sitting room at the end of the hall. The noise of everyone talking increases the closer we get, and I can feel myself sliding back into that practiced skin as I always do. Sienna glances at me with a slight frown, but says nothing as I let a wicked smile pull on my lips. Then she rolls her eyes when I yell, “Where is my Boo Bear? I’ve missed you! Come and give me a kiss.”
The entire room bursts into laughter, even as Nico shoots me a withering glare. He glances at Sienna before he grinds out, “You’re lucky you have a shield protecting you or I’d kill you where you stand.”
“Awww, Boo Bear, are you jealous?” I taunt, pulling Sienna in close and wrapping an arm around her waist. “Don’t worry, you’ll always be my first love.” I blow him a kiss that has everyone else snickering, while Nico looks like he’s ready to murder me. I understand his intention to make me pay for all the shit I continue to poke at him with. Standing over six feet tall, with dark hair that he currently has swept back in a simple style, dark eyes, and a five-o’clock shadow, I know he and I would be equally matched, but the woman in his lap would never let that happen.
That very woman is staring at Sienna with a look of shock, longing, and even fear. The smile falls from my face as I look at Sienna, who is watching her with a look I can’t quite decipher. I give her hand a quick squeeze and say, “Sienna, I’m sure you’ve already figured this out, but this is your sister, Giulia Armani. Gia, your sister, Sienna Harris.”
“Hello,” Gia says softly, her voice cracking. Nico’s face morphs into a scowl at the sound and he holds his wife closer, his arm curling around her protectively. The look he aims at Sienna is one of warning. Sienna meets it head on, her gaze direct, and pride swells inside me. There she is, my fearless little rabbit.
Sienna tugs her hand away from mine; as much as I want to snatch it back, I force myself to let her walk away. From behind her, I send Nico a dark warning look of my own. I will never allow Sienna to be disrespected by anyone, not even him. Nico’s gaze is hard, but he also releases Gia—extremely reluctantly—who gets to her feet, wringing her hands. I want to soothe her too, but I know that’s not my place. Though I don’t miss the way Sofia moves from her position near Dante.
When Sienna stands in front of her, she gives her a wry smile and says, “Can we agree that men suck, and our brothers, well one for sure, suck ass and could use a good pistol whipping to knock some sense into their thick, misogynistic heads?”
Sofia lets out a snorting laugh, and Gia’s mouth lifts into an amused smile. “Yeah, we can agree on that.” The sisters grin at each other, and it strikes me how alike they look. Then it’s instant as they reach for each other and hold each other close. I can see the relief on Sienna’s face from here, and the longing and pain on Gia’s.
I glance around the room at the smiles and knowing looks from my family and friends. This is what we hoped for, and to finally have it happening is another step towards winning the coming war.
I look back at Gia and Sienna who have pulled back, but are still holding hands as if neither is ready to let go. I step forward, but Sofia shoots me a warning look. Normally I would ignore it, but something tells me not to screw this up. So I stop my advance and watch as Sofia steps forward with a warm smile toward the women. “Welcome, Sienna,” she says warmly. “Seeing as this is an emotional occasion, how about us ladies step out for a moment? I have some lovely wine in the kitchen waiting for us.”
“Sofia,” Nico growls, getting to his feet.
“Oh calm down, Nico,” Sofia sniffs, clearly uncaring he is also her boss and could fire her if she pushes him too hard. “I’m not going to steal your wife away. I’m merely going to give her and her sister a few minutes to get their emotions out in private instead of in front of a bunch of people that one of them doesn’t know. You can cool your obsessive husband vibe until we’re back.” She takes each of the women by the arm and leads them toward the doorway without another word.
I want to grab her and hold her back, but I also know Sofia’s right. This is a big moment for them, and Sofia will make sure Sienna doesn’t go too far away. As Sofia walks past with them, she sends me a knowing look, and that’s all I need to relax. She’s got it handled, and I can focus on what we need to discuss. Still, I can’t help but groan when I hear Sienna remark, “I can already tell that we’re going to be fast friends.”
Sofia chuckles. “Honey, I knew it the moment you put that knife to Alessio’s throat and took a picture. You’re going to have to show me some of your moves and I’ll show you some of mine.”
“Wait, I think I missed this,” Gia chimes in. “What happened?” Their voices drain away as Sienna explains, and I make a mental note to make her pay for that again later.
“I’m killing you if your woman even thinks of teaching my wife any of that shit,” Nico warns Dante darkly. “Or yours,” he adds to me as well.
Dante Esposito just smirks. At a little over six-feet, he’s a large Black man that keeps himself in remarkable shape, and even though he works with Nico in New York, the man’s reputation is well known across many different continents. His eyes are a bright blue, and few know that he is an illegitimate cousin of Nico’s; his father is Nico’s uncle. It’s a tangle of family connections, but the loyalty Dante has for Nico is unbreakable. He also isn’t one for talking; at least not around here. Probably because he knows that one wrong word will have all of us on his ass. Sofia is the only girl in the Cattaneo family, and ours by extension, so to say we’re protective is an understatement.
“Afraid to wake up to a knife against your throat, Armani?” Massimo snickers. My younger brother by two years, he’s the only one out of the three of us that looks like our mother, something that has irked him since the day we found out about her betrayal. But he is just as lethal as the rest of us. His hair is a dark blonde, and his eyes are hazel, much like Sienna’s. He runs the logistics side of our businesses, making sure our products have a clear route wherever they need to go.
“Probably more afraid that he wouldn’t wake up and would just feel the slash, then it would be over,” Zeno snickers. The youngest of us, and six years younger than me, the only thing that he got from our mother is her hair. The rest of him is purely our father, right down to the dark eyes. Zeno is often the quiet one unless he’s with us or close friends. He handles the soldiers and contractors we employ, while also dipping his hands in the logistical side when we need him to. He is the one who took our mothers’ betrayal the hardest; he wasn’t himself for a while until he seemed to finally snap out of it.
“It’d be more like Sofia to be the one to do it and then help Gia escape,” Lazaro states. “Might need to start hiding the weapons, Armani. Make sure no one gets any ideas.”
“A foolish thing to do when war is coming,” Papa remarks with a shake of his head. “Gia will no sooner do such a thing than Sofia unless she was ordered.” He gives Nico a sly smile, the underlying implication making the rest of us grin. Nico just narrows his eyes but doesn’t reply. “Now, we need to get down to business. We don’t have much time before we have either the Parisis or some faction of the De Lucas on our doorstep. Having both women under our roof will draw them in like buzzards.”
The room sobers and I move to take a seat on the sofa next to Aurelio, who gives me a slight chin lift in greeting. An older version of his sons, the man stands at six-six, with salt and pepper hair, dark eyes, a well-kept beard, and built like a fucking brick thanks to keeping himself in tip-top shape. I’ve had a few cracked ribs thanks to those fists when I was young and training with him. He and my father have been friends for a very long time, and there were times growing up he was the only one I felt I could go to with my problems. He never made me feel less for it, and he graciously stepped aside as the Underboss when I came of age and took over as head of our security. There are few men I respect as much as him.
“My guy has been looking for any information on the De Lucas or Parisis and their movements, but so far most things are quiet, aside from their men currently in Europe to get to Sienna,” Aurelio says, leaning forward and looking at his phone. “And we can confirm that Rafaele is still in New York.”
“He’s going to be pissed when he finds out that Giovanni’s men failed to get Sienna,” Alonzo remarks grimly. All the Cattaneo brothers look like their father, with dark hair and eyes, but Alonzo is the shortest—if six-five could ever be considered short —and has a boyish charm to him that the others don’t. The final brother is Urso, who is six-six like his father, and has a quiet intensity that makes him very good at his job, and also one of our most intense soldiers. Not to mention the bastard is fucking creative in his torture techniques.
“You think he’ll kill Giovanni?” Lazaro asks.
“It’s a high possibility,” Massimo answers. “He’s always killing people that piss him off, so I doubt he’s going to care about killing a man who’s not even a Don. I mean, if he does, Leonardo isn’t going to go after him for it. He’ll probably send him a fucking medal for getting rid of one of his problems.”
“Don’t underestimate Giovanni,” Nico cautions. “He’s been fucking his brother over for years and has never been stopped yet. He’s just being more open about it now that he has no other choice. I have a feeling his sons are helping him, because that is Giovanni’s only ace in the hole.”
“Leonardo dismissed them and never so much as gave them another thought,” Dante agrees. “But that also gave them the free rein to develop their own skills and intel. There was a rumor for a while that one of the sons was a damn good hacker; that he managed to take money from another Don and do it without a trace.”
“Probably Orlando or Marcello,” Nico nods. “Both of those fuckers are quiet and methodical. Lorenzo is much like his father and thinks he’s going to run the whole thing one day and lets his ego get involved. Emilio is too young and overzealous.”
“Which is probably how that information circulated in the first place,” Dante agrees. “If memory serves, Orlando and Emilio were always at odds because Emilio can’t keep his mouth shut to save his life. It’ll get his ass killed before long, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Orlando is the one to pull the trigger.”
“How can one family be so fucked up and so fractured?” I can’t help but wonder aloud. “All it’s done is make it easier for all the other Dons in the area to swoop in and take over while they’re all fighting. That’s how you lose everything you’ve built.”
“And that’s exactly what Marco is counting on,” Dante agrees. “I’ve been thinking of what he has to gain from all of this. He wants to be powerful, right? He’s aligning himself with the Irish bitch, and he’s had years to study the fighting between his father and uncle. He wants Sienna and Gia to further his plan, but I don’t think that’s going to be the end. He wants it all, and that means he’s going to try and eliminate everyone that stands in his way. First he’ll let his father and uncle battle their shit out while trying to stay out of the crosshairs, while also working in the background at either securing an alliance with Gallo or working to take him out completely. Then, when Leonardo and Giovanni are out of the way, he’ll start on the Russians and leave us until the end.”
“One would think that he would want to go after his biggest foe first and make the rest easy pickings,” Papa remarks thoughtfully.
“Marco is impulsive, but he’s not stupid,” Nico answers. “He also knows that he will never be able to best me with the few men he has now. Gallo has been trying to encroach on my territory for years, and Marco would know that. If he can align himself with Gallo, he’ll have the men to at least attempt it.”
“Fucking hell, you Americans love to start complicated wars,” Aurelio gripes. “Whatever happened to the days where you just went in shooting and prayed you came out alive? All this backstabbing and alliances to maybe make some small advances is a waste of time and brain power.”
“Clearly the De Lucas don’t have much of either,” Zeno jokes.
“Leonardo is the only one that really concerns me,” Nico says casually. “And I use that term loosely. Leonardo is cool headed and methodical, and he was trained for his position for years until he finally killed his father to take over. It hasn’t escaped me it was Dario that got to you and Sienna and not the others, which means he’s figured out a way to get ahead of them. He’s got more connections than Giovanni and Marco. Giovanni is looking at power, and Marco is looking at the short-term to get there as well, while Leonardo knows the benefit of the long game, and knows how to play it.”
“So you think that if anyone is going to come here and attack it’s going to be Leonardo?” I ask.
“That would be my guess,” Nico nods.
“I don’t think we should discount Parisi just yet,” Urso warns, leaning forward. “Parisi is going to find out Sienna is with us, as is Gia, and considering how close his men are to us, one phone call will have them on our doorstep. He doesn’t need to be here for that. And while the De Lucas have connections here, they’re not as close as Parisi.”
“You don’t think Marco has made any connections over here?” Aurelio asks Nico and Dante.
“Marco is focused on New York, and after double-crossing you all, I would imagine he thinks trying to get involved over here is going to cause more problems,” Dante answers. “Personally, if I was him, I would be seeing if there are any other secret De Luca women out there and trying to get my hands on them before his father or uncle, leaving them to fight it out over here for Gia and Sienna.”
“How is the search for the other two women going?” Papa asks Aurelio.
“My guy is closing in and thinks we have found one of them,” Aurelio answers. “Though it’s difficult because it looks like one of the children was left at a fire station as an infant and put into foster care. The only way he’s been able to find anything is because she did a DNA test when she was eighteen for a high school project. She’s Italian, but there are no current pictures of her online.”
“Do you think she’s a daughter of Leonardo or Giovanni?” Nico asks, leaning forward.
“Timing would suggest she was born around the same time as Sienna; that would make her Giovanni’s,” Aurelio answers after looking at his phone.
“You have a name?” Lazaro asks.
“Amara Smith,” Aurelio answers. “But my guy found some paperwork that indicates she might have changed her name recently. I’m waiting on him to get back to me on that.”
“How recently?” I ask curiously.
“Six months ago. I don’t think it has anything to do with this. But the information we were able to find is that she was never adopted out and she lived in foster homes her entire childhood.” He looks around grimly. “There are reports she was sexually assaulted in some of them. Medical records show a rape kit was done when she was sixteen, and she was removed from her foster home that night and put into a group home for teenage girls.”
Anger burns inside me at the thought of what she’s suffered, but if she is a long-lost De Luca daughter, we’ll make sure she’s safe from any further pain. “If she is, then we’re going to have a hell of a time convincing her to trust us,” I say grimly.
“Let’s focus on confirming where she is and if she is a De Luca,” Papa orders. “Then we’ll figure out what to do. Right now, we need to make a battle plan.”
“Fucking finally,” Massimo cheers. “I was worried I wasn’t going to have a good fight out of all of this. That shit in New York was just a teaser.”
I chuckle. Fuck, it’s good to be home. Now to get Sienna to realize it too.