25. ALESSIO
25
ALESSIO
He dared to touch her. Dared to pin her to the wall. Fucking dared to bruise her. I don’t regret his death. No, what I want to do is go back and unload more bullets into his body, one for each bruise she now has. One day, when we’re in hell together, I’ll kill him over and over again for daring to harm what’s mine. I want to go and find Nico’s communication team and give them the same treatment. They put her in danger.
I , unknowingly, put her in danger, leaving her completely unprotected. And as much as I want to put all the blame on them, I can’t. Because I stupidly left her by herself, when I should have made sure she had one of my men as a guard. It is a mistake I will never make again.
I pull her further into the room, but stop and look at her arm again. A fresh wave of rage runs through me, seeing the clear imprint of the bastard’s fingers now forming on her bicep. “I’m fine, Alessio,” she tells me softly.
“You should never have been put in that situation in the first place, cara mia ,” I tell her tightly. “And you never will be again. You will be assigned a guard while we are here, and you are to never let him out of your sight if I am not with you.”
“Where is Gia?” Nico suddenly demands as he walks in, his face hard and tight. “She was with you, and her guard should have been.”
“She was tired so she went to bed,” Sienna answers.
“He should have known better than to leave her alone,” I hiss, infuriated all over again.
“What’s done is done, and there’s no point in getting pissed off about it now,” Dante says tightly. His gaze moves over to Davide. “What I want to know is what was going on here while we were gone. Under your watch.”
Davide doesn’t flinch at that. “I’ve been watching everything, and no woman was brought onto the grounds. If this happened, it happened away from here.”
“Fucking hell, this is the last fucking thing we need,” Nico rages, clearly pissed. “Dante, fix this shit. I want you to get me new soldiers. We’re going to need as many as we can for what’s coming.”
Dante nods and leaves the room. Davide steps out with him, just as Alonzo walks in. “Mario is waiting outside,” he announces. “He’ll be her guard.”
“I don’t need a guard,” Sienna tries to argue.
“It’s not up for discussion, Sienna,” I tell her firmly. “You and Gia will be protected at all times. We have three possible threats coming at us, and we are not taking any chances.” She still looks like she wants to argue, but she stays quiet, her mouth turned down into a scowl. I grip her chin and turn her head back to look at me. Her eyes narrow at me in warning, which I ignore. “When it comes to your safety, coniglietto , I will never take any chances. And if you think to try and slip your guard even once, your ass is going to pay the price.”
“You obviously haven’t figured out that I can take care of myself,” she tells me darkly. She yanks her head away from me, and I curl my fingers into a fist to keep from grabbing her again.
“Alright, let’s get back on track,” Nico barks, irritated. “The De Lucas and Parisis all know we’re back, and our moles have told us Leonardo is already assembling his men.”
“And Marco and Giovanni?” Lazaro asks curiously.
“Nothing obvious,” Nico huffs out in frustration. “And that’s exactly how they want it. They know we’re going to be watching them, and waiting.”
“Do you think they’ll try and attack again tonight?” Sienna asks curiously.
Nico glances at me, and I nod since I know she’s not going to be dissuaded, even as much as I want to shield her. I’m not letting her out of my sight until Mario takes her back to our room. “Doubtful, but I wouldn’t put it past them,” Nico finally tells her.
“If they did, it would be especially stupid, considering how close it’s been since they last attacked,” Lazaro points out.
“But it was Marco that attacked, not Leonardo and Giovanni, and they would know that now is the perfect time to strike,” I point out grimly.
“How do you know it’s going to be an all-out attack?” Sienna asks curiously. “I mean, I know that’s kind of the way of things around here, but wouldn’t it make more sense that this other guy, Parisi, heard you brought us here, and either had the team he hired to kill us in Sicily come here instead, or hire a second team?”
My blood goes cold, and I see the sharp and dangerous look that comes over Nico’s face. This wasn’t something any of us considered. “We would have heard something about that before now,” Lazaro points out, though I can see his brain already working.
Sienna moves to sit down on the couch, pulling her legs up under her, looking thoughtful. “He probably wouldn’t have known that Gia and I came here until we landed, so we should have time, right?” she finally asks.
“Possibly,” I say thoughtfully. “Lazaro, get a hold of Aurelio and see what you can figure out. I wouldn’t put it past Parisi to be watching the flights. And find out what we know about Parisi’s movements back home. If there’s one thing about him, it’s that he’s predictable and has a temper. If he’s been told Sienna and Gia are here, it’s safe to say he’s getting his men ready to come and try and take them by force.” The very thought has my instincts screaming to hide Sienna as far away as possible, where she can’t be found. Lazaro nods and steps out of the room, phone already to his ear.
Dante returns, his face dark and grim. “We’ll have more soldiers within the hour,” he announces. “Regarding the message with my orders, I’ve found out the message was sent, but somehow it didn’t reach the men. The team are on it. As for the rest, the men aren’t talking, but I’ll be interrogating as many as I need to before the night is out. I’ll have names, and whether the event that fucker was talking about happened.” Nico nods sharply. “Oh, and Sofia told me to tell you she’s going to chop off your balls for getting blood on the carpet only hours after she got home,” Dante adds with a smirk my way.
I give him a taunting smile. “She should be grateful that it was that fucker’s and not yours, then.” Dante just keeps smirking at me, uncaring. The son of a bitch is cool as a cucumber, and any other time I would admire that. Right now, though, I’m still pissed off enough to make a very bloody point.
“Alessio,” Sienna scolds. I look at her, arching a brow. “There are more important things happening right now than you worrying about who Sofia is sleeping with, don’t you think?”
“None of this fucking matters right now,” Nico barks angrily. “Deal with this shit when we’re not in the middle of a fucking war.” Lazaro steps back in, and Nico snaps, “Well?”
Lazaro arches a brow at his tone, but I just roll my eyes when he looks at me. “From all accounts, it looks like Parisi’s hit team is still heading for Sicily. His men back home are mobilizing, and the moles say they plan on striking within the next twenty-four hours.”
“Which means, twelve,” I say grimly. “Those fucking moles are constantly trying to throw us off.”
Lazaro nods. “Papa is already working on getting rid of them. Casualty of war and all that. We’ll plant new ones that will give us accurate information. Still, if that’s the plan back home, you can bet your ass Parisi is going to try and do the same thing here.”
“And we have no one in Giovanni’s camp we can call on to get information out of?” I demand, frustrated.
“What about Marco’s?” Sienna asks. “I mean, wasn’t he the one who attacked here first?”
“Fuck,” I hiss, irritated as I start to pace. “This whole situation is a goddamn mess. We’ve got people hitting us from all fronts.”
“So why don’t you hit them all back on each front before they come here?” Sienna suggests. We all turn to look at her, and she blinks. “What? Is that not a thing? I thought that was Mafia 101. They hit you, you retaliate. But wouldn’t they expect you’re going to go after Marco hard in retaliation? So you surprise them and let Marco and the others know you aren’t about to hide away, but you’re going to hit them with everything you got.”
“She has a point,” Dante agrees, looking thoughtful.
“Has it been discovered where Marco is hiding out?” Lazaro questions.
“Word on the street is he’s holed up in a house he bought himself a few years ago,” Dante replies. “Though he went through a few different shell companies and trusts to do it. It would appear that up until all this shit started happening, neither his father or uncle knew about it. Now that shit is out in the open, he has men patrolling and constantly on guard.”
“He’s expecting an attack from his father,” I summarize. “Or possibly his father and uncle.”
Dante nods. “But his numbers aren’t anywhere near either of theirs.”
“And he still attacked here, knowing that he would lose more,” Nico says tightly. “Fucking suspicious.”
“You think he’s got another source of men.” I give Nico a pointed look, and he gives a short nod.
“If he does, it’s probably Seamus,” Dante says grimly. “By now, it will have made its way back to Seamus that Marco and Sinead have been fucking for months. And knowing what’s probably coming, it would be a hell of a lot smarter for him to get on Seamus’s good side and secure more men.”
“How would he do that?” Sienna asks, clearly confused. “I’ve always heard that the different types of mafia didn’t do business.”
“Maybe in the old days or in the movies, but there are constantly things being put into place with different countries and their families. Marriages, products, territories, pipelines, you name it,” Lazaro told her. “And if he’s been fucking the daughter, the easiest thing would be to promise an alliance by marrying her, linking the two families. The promise of more territory and everything else he’ll get after this is all said and done-if he survives-will be something this Gallo guy will want.”
“Gallo has been wanting more power since his Irish ass took over,” Nico says darkly. “But he’s always had a stick up his ass about Italians. He and my father had skirmishes all the time for years, and Leonardo was the same. The Russians mostly kept to themselves until they decided to try and take some of Gallo’s territory when he was going after us and the De Lucas. After that, Gallo was more cautious.”
“And he made sure to put his sons and nephews in positions of power to ensure that shit didn’t happen again when they got old enough,” Dante adds. “They’re just as power hungry as their father. It would make sense that Marco figured out a way to get Seamus on his side.”
“Which is exactly why I suggested that you attack first,” Sienna butts in. “I mean, with that many unknown variables, getting caught here with attacks on all fronts is asking for a giant mess. So go and make that mess elsewhere and then you’ll know where things stand before they try it back here.”
“You’re turning bloodthirsty, coniglietto ,” I remark with a smile.
She gives me a bland look. “Look, I don’t have to like all this, but I don’t exactly have a choice. And with all the training I’ve had, it was drilled into me that if I have a chance to hit first, then to take that chance because it might be the difference between me getting away or not. Or, in extreme cases, living or dying. So why can’t that apply here instead of trying to be all complicated about it?”
“She’s right,” Alonzo finally says. “But I also think we don’t have to go in guns blazing. They’d expect that, so we make a statement. Send in small groups, make sure they get the message, and then close ranks and wait to see what they do. Personally, if we had the time, I’d pull together a couple of our best men with tactical training to get in and make a statement by taking out one of their top men, but we don’t have that.”
“So, what, we do a drive-by, take out some of their men?” Lazaro asks, looking unconvinced.
“That’s too predictable,” Alonzo says with a shake of his head. “I’m thinking something more stealthy. We take out something important that might hobble them for a little while and buy us time. Like a house, or some place that the majority of their soldiers will be.”
“But if you blow something up, what’s to say that you won’t kill innocent people too?” Sienna points out tightly, her expression pinched.
“ Cara mia ,” I tell her patiently, “none of these men expect to live through this. When they signed up, they knew what was possible. And these men, they are not good men. Every single one of them would kill you without a second thought, after they raped and tortured you.”
She winces at that, and I feel a shred of guilt for being so blunt, but I can’t sugarcoat it. This is the life she’s now a part of, and it’s a reality she’s going to have to accept. “I know that, but I can’t stop thinking about what if some of those soldiers don’t want to be there, or are trying to get out and better themselves. Killing them will make it so they never see that. Or what if they have families that they need to provide for? Their children would grow up without fathers, and children are innocent in this.”
I move over to her, sitting down next to her and looking at her seriously. “Your optimism is something I admire about you, Sienna. But as much as I want you to keep it, you need to understand things are not like that in this world. Once you’re in, you’re in. There is no getting out, no bettering yourself. These men knew what they were signing up for. What they were signing their families up for. And as for their children, a provision of this life is that the families are provided for as long as they are loyal to the family they serve. More than likely, those sons will grow up and replace their fathers when they’re old enough. It’s a constant cycle.”
She scowls. “None of that makes it right.”
“Maybe not, but that’s the way things are.”
She crosses her arms over her chest and looks away from me, but I can see her wrestling with what I’ve said.
“Dante, I want intel on good targets for us,” Nico orders briskly, clearly finished with the discussion. “Then have our men get ready, but make sure they stay fucking quiet. Your interrogation will have to wait; we’ll handle that as soon as this is finished. We need three teams, and I want our security on high alert until we see their response. Triple the patrols, and all staff is to be escorted in and out, no exceptions. The teams leave as soon as we’ve identified targets, because I’m not waiting any longer to give these sons of bitches a chance to get in here.”
“Done,” Dante says, heading for the door. “I’ll also set up for double patrols of the house. Two guards per floor.” Then he’s gone, and I can hear him barking orders.
“Lazaro, ensure that our men are aware that they are to assist, and anyone disregarding orders will answer to me,” I add firmly. Lazaro nods and also steps out of the room. “Alonzo, you’ll assist Dante to identify our targets, and you’ll be leading one of the teams. I assume Dante will lead the other?” I ask Nico.
“Yes,” Nico answers. “Lazaro can lead a third if you’re willing to risk sending him.”
I snort. “As if that bastard would stay out of it. He’d be pissed if he didn’t have the option.”
“How on earth can Lazaro do something like that?” Sienna asks incredulously. “Have you seen the size of him? They’ll see him coming for miles.”
“Lazaro is far stealthier than you think, cara mia ,” I tell her with an amused smile. “All the Cattaneos are. That’s why they are some of our best soldiers. They might be large, but they have trained their entire lives to go unseen when they need to.” Sienna looks doubtful but doesn’t argue.
“Alright, that’s settled. I’m going to get a couple hours of sleep before we have to deal with this bullshit,” Nico says briskly, rounding the desk.
“Goodnight, Boo Bear,” I call after him, unable to resist. “I know it’s not the same as sleeping with me, but if you need a little something, I’m sure Sienna and I could make room.”
Nico stills and turns around, dark and foreboding. Despite the tension in the room, a wicked grin splits my face, while Sienna just sighs and shakes her head. “Your father isn’t here to stop me from killing you, fucker,” Nico reminds me tightly. Then he’s out the door.
“I swear, sometimes you really do have a death wish,” Sienna huffs as she gets to her feet. “I’m going to bed.” She starts to head for the door, but before she can reach it, I move quickly and scoop her up. She gasps in surprise and glares at me when I carry her out of the office and down the hall toward the stairs. “What the hell are you doing?”
“I’m making sure you can’t get away from me. Besides, isn’t this what women want? A sexy man to sweep them off their feet and carry them to bed?”
She rolls her eyes. “Someone’s full of themselves,” she mutters. “I’m perfectly capable of walking, thank you. You can put me down.”
I hitch her higher against my chest instead, as I reach the top of the stairs and head down the hallway toward our room, ignoring her. I hear her grumbling under her breath, and I can’t help but grin. When we reach the bedroom, I walk inside, kicking the door shut behind me. I set Sienna on her feet but instead of saying anything to me, she walks into the bathroom and shuts the door behind her. I hear the lock snick before I can even start to head that way.
I narrow my eyes at the locked door. She really thinks that is going to keep me out? I shrug out of my suit coat, hanging it up on the back of the door, and try to battle back my irritation. Every time I think we make some headway, we take two steps back. I know she’s struggling with what was said downstairs, but instead of leaning on me, or talking to me, she’s shutting me out.
I grind my teeth as I angrily pull off my tie and then unbutton my shirt, hearing the water run for a bath. As much as I want to rage at her, I hold it back as I walk to the door and make quick work of the lock. I open the door just she starts to pull her shirt over her head. She stills and her eyes narrow on me as I shut the door behind me, leaning back against it. “Get out, Alessio,” she orders as she continues pulling her shirt over her head and letting it drop to the floor. Her black sports bra snags my attention for a brief moment before I force my gaze back up. “Did you not hear me? I said get out. I don’t want company.”
“Never lock me out, coniglietto ,” I warn her tightly. “You have shit to say, you say it, because a lock is never going to stop me from getting to you.”
Her face twists into an angry scowl. “Maybe I just wanted privacy, ever consider that? What if I was on the toilet or something?”
“You really think that’s going to bother me? Cara mia , there is nothing about you that I won’t know by the time this is all done. And we both know that wasn’t what you were doing the minute you started your bath.” I ease away from the door and shrug off my shirt.
“For fuck sakes,” she mutters under her breath, but I can hear it anyway. I still, though, when she looks up at me says, “I need some time to myself, Alessio, and you need to not be an asshole and let me be, okay?” The statement is calm, even casual, but I don’t miss the look in her eyes. Confusion, uncertainty, and even desperation.
I don’t move for a moment, the two of us locked in a tension filled stare until she finally looks away and moves over to turn off the faucet in the tub. When she turns back, I’m already behind her, and she lets out a gasp of surprise as she stares up at me wide-eyed. “What’s wrong, coniglietto ?” I ask her, reaching up and cupping her face in my palm. “I can’t fix it if you don’t tell me the problem.”
Apparently that’s the wrong thing to say, because she instantly pulls away and scowls at me. “I don’t need you to fix everything for me, Alessio.” She moves around me, and despite the urge I have to pull her back to me, I let her walk to the vanity and open the cabinet door. She pulls out a jar of bath salts and walks back over, the scowl still plastered on her face. “I’m perfectly capable of handling things on my own, and right now, I need to process some shit on my own without you hovering over me and acting all growly. So, get out and leave me be.”
She dumps the bath salts in the steaming water, and then lets out another gasp of surprise when I lean over and snatch the jar from her hands, setting it down on the thick ledge of the tub. She glares at me, but I ignore it. Instead, I pick her up and stalk over to the vanity, setting her down on top of it, caging her in with my arms, and lean down so we’re eye to eye. “You are not processing anything on your own, Sienna. I’m your man, and that means you tell me what the fuck is wrong so I can either fix it or figure out how to solve the problem. That’s how this shit works.”
Her eyes narrow at me. “You and I aren’t anything more than fuck buddies at the moment, Alessio. Which means you are not entitled to my thoughts all the fucking time.”
I clamp down on my temper, reminding myself that losing it isn’t going to be helpful. “That is where you are very wrong, coniglietto . Do not cheapen what we have by calling it what you’ve had with your previous lovers. Because there is nothing buddy about us.”
I expect her to argue with me, but instead, her eyes lose all their fire and her head falls back, eyes closing in defeat. It’s such an abrupt change that at first I’m not sure what I’m seeing, but then she opens her eyes and looks back at me with a pleading expression that makes my gut clench and my chest burn. “Alessio, I don’t have the energy to fight with you, so please, I need you to leave me be, okay? I just…I need to be alone.”
I don’t move, staring at her. A part of me wants to grant her that request, but the rest of me is screaming not to back away. To not let her grow more space between us. And I always trust my gut, so instead of doing as she asks, I ease back slightly, but only enough that I can cup her chin with my fingers. At first she resists, but I hold firm, until some of that fire comes back in her eyes as she glares at me. It pleases me to see it there, but I ignore it and say firmly, “Sienna, I am not leaving you alone. Don’t even think to ask me to do that, cara mia , because the answer will always be no. If you are feeling overwhelmed, you need to tell me why; you need to give me the reasons. And maybe I don’t need to fix them, but I want to know about them. I want to ease whatever pain you’re feeling. You are not alone here, and I’m not going to let you have another panic attack like you did before because you’re so upset or in your head where I can barely reach you. So tell me what the problem is, so we can figure out what to do next. Give me the pain that put the shadows in your eyes.”
“I don’t need you?—”
“Tell me,” I interrupt firmly. “I’m not moving from this spot until you do. So tell me.”
She looks like she still wants to argue. I’m not letting her push me away. Not now, not ever. Sienna might not want to believe that we’re going to be more to each other than she can even fathom, but I do. And soon enough, she’s going to see it.
My sweet little rabbit is done running, even if she doesn’t want to admit it.