Chapter 4
Leo
I’ve paced this room so often since Alessa brought me breakfast that I’m surprised I haven’t worn a hole in the floor.
She came in a little while ago and announced my brothers were on the way, then tossed me some jeans and a button-up shirt.
She said I can’t meet them in Gage’s basketball shorts and a t-shirt.
I didn’t miss the look of trepidation on her face.
She has no idea what’s going to happen at this meeting, either.
What did Frankie do to her?
Evander and Mateo have stayed mostly low key since Frankie died, trying to fix everything he messed up.
Frankie was a horrible leader, so he didn’t leave them any allies, hence the reason for going after Alessa.
What better way to get allies than becoming allies with the strongest ally in the world?
On what felt like my five-hundredth pass around the room, the door opens, and Ryder steps in. “Let’s go,” he barks, his face giving nothing away. I know if he gets the chance, he will be the one to kill me. I can see the hate simmering in his eyes, just waiting to be unleashed.
I reluctantly follow behind him, and I don’t know if I’m walking into a massacre or not. I know I’m telling the truth, but did Les want to believe me, or does she want me dead for lying to her?
He leads me into a conference room where everyone is already seated with Alessa at the head of the table, and Evander at the other end, so they face each other.
I take a closer look at Alessa and notice how pale she is.
Ryder points me to a seat on her right before leaning against the table behind her with Dexton, both with arms crossed over their chests.
Everything about it screams protective, but something tells me it’s all for show because she doesn’t need it.
Her scary as fuck uncle Micah is sitting to her left, casually leaning back in his chair.
Evander and Mateo told me some gruesome stories about Micah growing up, and the look he’s throwing me right now is worse than the death glares I keep getting from Ryder.
Gage is sprawled out on the couch against the wall.
His legs are spread wide, arms on the back of the couch, staring at me with a tilt to his head.
Mateo is sitting to Evander’s left. He looks at me with a raised brow, and I subtly shake my head, trying to convey for him to keep his big mouth shut.
Evander and Mateo are two years apart but look almost identical, except Mateo has green eyes instead of dark brown like Evander’s.
They both have the same shade of dark brown hair.
Mateo’s hair is just a little wilder than Evander’s perfectly styled hair.
They both look like Frankie, which seems to piss them off.
Evander clears his throat. “What’s this about, Ms. Poletti?”
Alessa stares him down for a full minute, and you can see her trying to collect herself. I wish I could reach out to her in comfort, but I figure that’s a bad idea since you could cut the tension in this room with a fucking knife.
Kind of like the one she held to my throat last night.
“There is no easy way to put this, gentleman, so I’m just going to lay it out there,” she says finally, looking every bit like a Mafia queen sitting in a black pantsuit, her hair braided and twisted at the base of her skull.
She looks gorgeous. “I know about your plan.” She lets that bomb drop, and you could hear a pin drop.
To their credit, Evander and Mateo don’t react.
“But as you can see, it didn’t quite work out. ”
“I’m not sure I know…”
“Cut the shit, Evander,” she barks. Everyone straightens their spines, and it almost makes me laugh. This little woman has this whole room on pins and needles just from reputation. “This meeting will go much smoother if you tell me the truth. Why did you send your brother to me?”
I told her they didn’t. She’s trying to catch me in a lie. It’s fucking smart.
Evander and Mateo share a look before Evander sighs. “We didn’t send him to you. He was showing you off the next day because we didn’t believe him. We told him to get closer to you when we realized who you were.”
“Why?” she says between clenched teeth.
“We don’t want this feud anymore, Ms. Poletti. We want to run this family differently,” Mateo finally speaks up, giving me the evil eye. I shrug. Yes, I got busted, but that’s what you get for sending a novice against the rival family.
Micah sits up in his chair, leveling Evander with the same look he’s been giving me. “Are you aware of why these families feud?”
I’d like to know that myself.
“No, we don’t. Father told us it was from years of fighting for the same land, but he never elaborated.”
Micah looks at Alessa, and she shrugs with a resigned look on her face.
Something needs to be said here, or this will end bloody.
One wrong word and Ryder and Dexton are going to level us.
I noticed we don’t have any guards inside this room; they are stationed outside, not enough time to react before we are dead.
“Your father,” Micah spits the word, “had Alessa kidnapped when she was thirteen ordering his men to,” he pauses visibly, collecting himself, “keep her. All because my brother Luca outbid him on a casino they were fighting for. So, you can see why the fuck this seems a little like bullshit.”
My head whips to Alessa, but she won’t look at me, so I look at Evander and Mateo. They both look pale, but they don’t look like they knew. Did they?
“Mr. Poletti, I assure you we had no idea,” Evander says, then looks at Alessa. “I swear we didn’t know.”
“You’re around my age?” she asks Evander, and he nods. “I want to believe you didn’t know then, of course, but you could have been told about it later.”
“Our father never told us anything. We figured it out on our own,” Mateo adds. “We discovered a lot after he died, but that was never mentioned. Anywhere.”
“I remember a bunch of his men dying, but I always assumed it was some bad job my father sent them on,” Evander says, and I look between them, seeing the truth all over their faces.
I can tell Alessa is doing the same thing, trying to find even a hint of dishonesty. She glances over her shoulder at Ryder. He and Dex stand up taller, ready for anything.
Alessa’s face is carefully blank when she looks back at Evander and Mateo. “I killed your father,” she announces, just as she did to me. There is no emotion or warning, just throwing it out for the reaction. Evander and Mateo exchange surprised looks before looking back at her.
“Good,” Mateo spits. “He deserved everything he got.”
My brother filled me in on the type of person Frankie was, even with his family.
He was verbally and physically abusive to both of them until they were old enough to fight back.
That’s what kind of coward Frankie was. I could never quite figure out what the hell my mom saw in him, and she never really talked about that time in her life.
Ryder steps forward, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “You’re telling me that you’re all good with the fact she just told you that she killed your father?”
Evander shrugs. “We aren’t like him, and the world was a better place when we found out he was dead.”
Alessa rubs her temples. “Okay. Say we agree to this cease-fire. What does that mean, exactly?”
“You can’t be serious,” Ryder starts. Alessa flicks her hand up, and he steps back, shutting his mouth. It’s funny to me that she can handle them with a slight gesture or word. It shows the level of respect they have for her.
“No more fighting over businesses. No more fighting amongst our men. We coexist peacefully side by side,” Evander tells her exactly as he told me. “Truth be told, the Perez’s can use all the allies we can get. Father didn’t leave many of those.”
Alessa waves a hand towards Dex’s scarred face. “You do realize that your men did that to him? I see one of them standing in the hallway out there.”
“He’s as good as dead,” Evander assures her.
“Just like that?” She asks with that tilt to her head that makes her look a little crazy and a lot sexy.
“Yes. We thought we weeded out our father’s loyalists, but I see we missed one. We don’t want those kinds of people.”
“What happens if we bid on the same business?” Micah asks.
“We fight for it fair and square. The highest bidder wins. I hope for a bright future between the families, Mr. Poletti,” Evander answers.
Alessa turns to me. “Anything to say?”
“No. I told you everything last night,” I reassure her.
She looks back to Evander. “I can’t let him go.” He goes to open his mouth, and she holds up a hand. “Not until I know I can trust you. This trust will go both ways with you leaving your brother in my hands.”
“I see he’s been treated with the most care,” Evander says dryly, motioning towards the marks on my neck from her knife.
She shrugs. “You’re lucky he’s alive if you want to throw stones, Evander.”
He acknowledges that with a nod, but I can see he wants to argue. He’s not used to taking the backseat to people telling him what to do, but he knows he doesn’t have the upper hand here.
“He will be treated fine from here on out. I won’t apologize for what happened after I found out, but I assure you it won’t happen again.
Unless any of you fuck up,” Alessa warns.
“If everything goes to plan, he will accompany me to the charity gala in two weeks as a Perez heir. That will show the other families that the Poletti’s and Perez’s have formed an alliance. That should cause them to follow suit.”
“Thank you, Ms. Poletti,” Evander says politely.
“Don’t thank me,” she says harshly. “I don’t think you realize how close I came last night to slitting your brother’s throat.”
“I apologize for how this came about, Ms. Poletti,” Evander says, his eyes flicking over me again.
“Call me Alessa,” she tells him. “If we are going to start on the right foot. We’re of equal power, Evander.”