25. Massimo
Chapter twenty-five
Massimo
I ’ve been trying to get a hold of Alessia all day, and when her phone goes straight to voicemail several times in a row, I know something is wrong.
I had nothing to do with the hit on the Bonetti’s, and my father has been out of town, so it couldn’t have been him either. And what would be the point in starting an unnecessary war with them?
“De Luca,” Tullio Bonetti answers after two rings.
“I’d like to speak with my fiancée. Is she alright?” I rush out, unable to contain my eagerness.
“She’s fine, and she’s where she belongs. Home.” I stand up to my feet with hostility. “The marriage is off, and so is the truce.”
“The fuck are you talking about? It wasn’t us, Bonetti,” I snarl like a rabid beast.
“We have one of your crew, and he says otherwise.”
“Who,” I snap.
“His name is pointless.”
“ Sti cazza .” Fuck that . “Let me speak to Alessia.”
“Not happening.” His serenity only infuriates me more.
My blood begins to boil as a dark haze veils my vision. “I want my fiancée back,” I clip every word out on another snarl.
“You two are done. And you will pay for what you did.”
“The fuck—” I’m met with silence as he hangs up on me.
Roaring at the top of my lungs, I fist my phone and miraculously refrain from smashing it. The thought of Alessia being unable to reach me has me thinking with somewhat of a lucid head. Tullio didn’t say anything about her not wanting to speak with me, only refusing to let me speak with her.
“Boss?” Vinny questions, somehow breaking through my pernicious smog.
“Pack heavy. We’re going to get my fiancée back.”
Three SUVs are packed and loaded, and we head for the Bonetti estate. I will gun down their soldiers if I must to get to Alessia. She’s mine, and she will not be kept from me. Not locked inside a tower or kept inside a cage. She belongs to me, and if she ever needed to be held prisoner, it would be me as her warden.
We’re met at the gates with their armed men as if waiting for us. “Boss, don’t,” Vinny says when I open my car door. He’s been trying to talk me down the entire ride here.
Ignoring him, I get out, and he and the four other men in the car join me. “Tell the others to stay in their vehicles,” I tell Vinny and walk up to the gate to stand before Jino, their cousin. “I’d like to see my fiancée.”
“Not happening, De Luca,” he says evenly.
The urge to storm their estate is so prominent I can hardly think straight, but if I want to live to see my fiancée again, I need to find some tranquility and be less rash. Again, thinking of Alessia has me able to clear my head from the bloody haze.
“Tell Tullio that if he does not return her to me, it’s war.”
“It’s already a war that you’ve started.” I can see his composure broken and his emotions leaking into his tone. Everyone around him stirring uncomfortably.
“I didn’t start shit,” I growl, spit flying at him through the gate. “So, if he does not give her back to me, I will fucking burn down the city until he does.”
He cocks his gun and lifts it to aim at me right between the eyes. Guns cock back all around us on either side of the gate. “If you don’t leave, I have the authority to shoot,” he warns.
My nostrils flare as my molars crack. The plan was to shoot our way inside, but what good would that do with me dead? Knowing I have to devise a better plan, I turn and get right back in the vehicle. My attack needs to be strategic and well thought out. Not impulsive. No matter how much my insides are roaring to go through whatever I have to, I know I’m not invincible, and I could lose everything I’m dying for.
“It’s now war. Find me a Bonetti. I want them alive,” I murmur lowly to Vinny.
It’s been four days since I approached their gate. Still no word from Alessia, and I’ve been making good on my promise. We invaded two businesses they launder money through, and I’ll hit up another one today. Then I’ll take another one and another one until I have my bride back. I’ll fucking bleed them out.
Even if Alessia told me herself that she didn’t wish to speak to me, I still wouldn’t back down. She. Is. Mine. She was promised to me, and I will have her back.
“Your father’s plane just landed,” Vinny says after he pockets his phone.
My father has been avoiding me for the past few days, not answering my phone calls or calling me back. It only leads to suspicion, and I’m eager to get in the same room as him and question him myself. I know a liar when I see one, no matter how skilled they are. But if he did have anything to do with the assassin, he’s pompous enough to admit to it openly.
“Did you seriously order another hit on a Bonetti business?” Ezzo demands as he storms into my office.
“Yes.”
“You have to stop, Massimo. You’ve started a war, and for what?”
“According to them, we have already started a war. And they’re holding Alessia against her will.”
“You sure about that?” He pauses. “The Bonetti’s are convinced it was us who took out Marino. Alessia thinks you helped kill her father.”
“She knows I wouldn’t do that,” I growl through clenched teeth. I know she doesn’t believe it and that Tullio and her brothers are keeping her as a prisoner. I refuse to think otherwise.
“How do you figure?”
“If Alessia thought I had something to do with it, she wouldn’t ice me out. She would confront me herself, swooping in like a bat out of hell. Trust me. I know her.”
I know my batshit crazy woman well enough to know that if she thought for even a second I was guilty, the cold shoulder would be the last thing she would give me.
“Fine. Let’s say her brothers are keeping her against her will. It’s not like they would hurt her.” He tries to reason.
“Alessia belongs to me, and until they give her back, people will die.”
He exhales dramatically as he drops down into a chair. “At least wait until you talk to our father for another raid.”
I study my little brother closely for a moment. “Do you know anything?”
“I don’t. I swear it. My loyalty is to you, Massimo. Always has been and always will be.”
“Don’t ever let him catch you saying that.” I glance over at Vinny, then back to Ezzo. “Or anyone else.” If our father even caught a whiff of disloyalty, he wouldn’t hesitate to take us out. Son or not. “Fine. I’ll wait till I talk to him.”
“And what if you find out it was him?”
“I’ll do what I have to do.” Whatever I need to do to make things right and get my bride back, I’ll fucking do it. If handing over my father as a bargaining chip will make peace, I’ll fucking do it .
My phone starts going off, and I pick it up without looking. “Yeah.”
“Boss, we got a Bonetti,” one of my men rushes out.
“Who?”
“The youngest. Paolo.”
“Is he unharmed?”
“He’s alive but not exactly unharmed.”
“Do not fucking harm him,” I order.
“Got it. Do you want us to bring him to the warehouse?”
“No. Bring him here.”
“Yes, sir.”
I hang up and run my hands through my hair. “They got Paolo. He’s on his way here now.”
“ Porca troia , Massimo,” Fucking hell, Ezzo curses.
“I’m not going to kill him. Just using him as leverage.”
“ Cazzo , Massimo. You need to rein it in some.”
“I’ll rein it in once I have her back.” He doesn’t even understand how much I’m already reining in. I want to charge the estate guns blazing, but I’m trying to be prudent and not emotional.
“She’s really worth it to you?”
“Yes.” The word is out before he’s even finished his sentence.
His eyes widen in shock, not only because of my honesty but how I didn’t even hesitate. “Well, then, I guess I can be somewhat understanding. Okay. I won’t give you any more shit, but please don’t let your actions be so ardent.”
Ezzo finally leaves me to my morbid thoughts and self-loathing. I need to focus on my father, though. Search for any clues before confronting him. He was never bashful with his enmity toward the Bonettis, but never said anything more than snide comments.
That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t put it past him.