Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
ALESSANDRO
We arrived at the house in just twenty minutes. Still, it felt like a fucking eternity getting to where Isabella would be safe. My heart had never experienced a panic like I had. Everything in my body demanded that revenge be meted on everyone involved.
Isabella fell asleep in my arms, so I carried her to our bedroom and laid her down in bed, and covered her up. Sitting next to her, I admired her beauty and prayed that she wouldn’t leave me. My life wasn’t always like this, but someone finally saw a weakness in me and took the moment to strike.
As much as I didn’t want to wake her, I refused to let her freak out when she woke up. “Amore. Isabella. Isabella,” I stated, calling her name two more times before she would look up at me. She looked around and then back at me. Caressing her cheek, I said, “I have to go.”
“Alessandro, don’t leave me.” She clung to my shirt, making my soul burn with more anger than before. The thought that fear invaded her gutted me.
“You’re safe here. I promise.”
“What about you? What if he has friends?” I loved how worried she was for me, but they couldn’t do shit when I had a reason for coming right back to my queen.
“Then I’ll kill them all.” Wrapping my arms around Isabella, I pulled her to me and slammed my lips on hers. A low rumble ripped through my chest as I slipped my tongue into her mouth.
I pulled back, still clinging onto her biceps as I dipped my forehead to hers. “Fuck. I really have to go.” A sigh slipped past her lips, and I smiled internally. At the very least, she was going to miss me. “How about you rest, and I’ll be back soon?”
“Promise.” Her pout was so damn cute that I wanted to taste her lips again—and I did.
“Indubbiamente. Without a doubt, cara mia.” She gave me a smile that filled me with relief that she would be okay in time.
After settling Isabella back down in our bed with some pain medicine and water, I went to handle the garbage that took her from me in the first place. There was something else going on here, and I wanted answers before I disposed of him for good. Others were involved.
Since I’d just met Isabella yesterday, this was an opportunity shot. Still, they fucked up big time because the second I saw her, I’d kill a thousand men to keep her safe.
Since I already had his blood on my suit, I kept it on and went into the room where we kept the traitor. “Ciao, Carlo. Is there something you need to say to me before you meet your father?”
“You are a pathetic fool to fall for a woman. It will make you weak, and the others will get you.”
“The others?” He nodded with a smugness that pissed me off. “Names.”
“I’m going to die either way. Why would I tell you?” he scoffed.
“Okay. That’s the way you want to play it.
Fine.” For the next hour, I tortured him before he finally confessed that there were no others.
He wanted to ransom Isabella off, and he hoped that I would take the bait.
I finished the job with one between the eyes.
Then the men began the cleanup, making sure that Carlo would never be found.
An hour later, I was clean and changed into a pair of shorts and a t-shirt while my clothes had the fasteners and buttons removed before they were burned. The buttons and buckles would get washed and used for mending my suits if needed.
When I opened the bedroom door, my woman sleeping on my side of the bed, curled into a ball, hugging my usual pillow. I climbed into bed, trying not to wake her. She stirred and then turned into my embrace.
“Alessandro,” she whispered. “You’re back.” Her mouth brushes gently against my jaw. I loved the way my name came off her lips. “It feels so good to be in your arms.”
“You’ll be wrapped up in them for the rest of our lives.”
“What time is it?”
“It’s ten. Are you hungry?”
I’d been so busy that I’d completely lost track of time. “I slept that long. It felt like I just closed my eyes, but I am hungry.”
“Good. Let me feed you, and we can go about getting to know each other as I promised.”
My staff prepared a quick pasta with chicken breast because of the late hour. “So tell me more about you, your family, where you’re from.”
“I’m from Chicago. I lived there my whole life with my parents until they died last year in a car accident.” She choked up on the last bit with the pain of the loss still extraordinarily strong.
“Oh, no. I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah, we were happy, planning my send off to college when they were hit on the expressway by a stoned driver. He’d been getting high in his car when he dropped his weed and reached down to get it, veering into the other lane. The bastard survived.”
“I’m sorry. It is a terrible way to lose your loved ones.”
“What about you? Any family? An ex-wife who’s ready to get me.”
“No, my sweet woman. No ex-wife. My family owned a vineyard just outside of the city when they were forced to sell it to the mafia. I came home from college to find them dead and the vineyard owned by the Petrucci family.” Isabella gasped as tears formed in her eyes for my own pain.
I hated and loved as the tears slipped down her feminine face.
Swiping her tears away with my thumb, I continued, “Needless to say, I had a choice to make. Stand up for my family and avenge their deaths, or flee Italy with my tail between my legs and never return.”
“Are they all gone?”
“No. Not all. I only took out those who actually killed my parents and their boss, who orchestrated it. Others learned to either stay clear of me or become loyal.”
“So, you’re a mob boss.” I could see the hint of fear, but her curiosity seemed more significant.
I took her hand in mine, rubbing her pulse, which sped up. “Not quite. I just own and run many things around here, but I don’t have any illegal activities. Well, except for the occasional dead body.”
“Aren’t you worried about getting caught?”
“My parents’ deaths tipped my hand, and I received immunity for it because I freed the police force from the chains the mafia had on them.”
“Oh.” She relaxed. Did she fear my possible incarceration?
“Does this all scare you? Do I scare you?” I’d do whatever I had to prove that I would never hurt her.
“No. Surprisingly, not at all. You saved me…unless…that was some ruse to make you look like a hero.” She raised her brow, glaring at me while fighting the urge to smile.
“Fuck no. God, I’d never been so scared in my life.” I brought her hand to my lips and then kissed it. She had no idea what she meant to me. A part of me was angry with the suspicion, but it was fair to say that she didn’t know me. However, I knew my own heart, and it belonged solely to her.
We finished our meal in almost complete silence as I watched her eat.
With every bite, she let out the slightest moan that went straight to my balls.
I swore she was intentionally doing it. Then she dropped a little sauce on one of her breasts that peeked out of her shirt.
Leaning forward, I licked the spot clean and then sucked on her supple flesh, leaving my mark on her.
“I’m ready for bed, Alessandro.” She didn’t look tired. In fact, she looked hungry and not for any more food.
“Then let us go to bed,” I growled, standing up and letting her see what she did to me.
“You don’t mind.” Her eyes lingered on my cock, which stretched out the material of my shorts, leaving nothing to the imagination.
“I’d let you have anything you want, especially when you look at me like that.”
“Like what?” She played innocent, but the way she licked her lips, I ached to shove my cock in her mouth and show her what she was doing to me.
“Like you want to grab my cock and slip it between your lips or deep in your pussy.”
“Am I that easy to read?”
“I’m simply good at reading people, Isabella. Are you really tired, or do you want to have our dessert in bed?
“Depends what’s for dessert.”
“Each other.” I didn’t wait for an answer. The sexy gleam in her eyes was all I needed. Picking her up and flipping her over my shoulder, I raced to the bedroom with her giggling the entire way.