69. Alessia
CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE
ALESSIA
I ’m standing at Astor’s car, waiting for him. I check the time again. He’s ten minutes late. I pick up my phone and call him. When it goes to voicemail, I will myself to calm down. I call again and he answers almost immediately.
“Little devil, I’m sorry.”
“Where are you? Are you ok?”
“I’m fine, meet me at senior seminar class.” I frown at his request. Why do I need to meet him there?
“Ok…I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
I look around with the feeling of being watched, but quickly ignore it when my phone rings again.
I answer it, knowing it’s probably Astor because I’m not there yet.
“Baby, I’m coming. Just give me second, I’ll be right there.”
“Calling me baby after the scene you made today?” the male voice says.
My blood goes cold and I stop in my tracks.
“Why the fuck are you calling me?”
“Just to tell you that the next time I see you, you’ll be underneath me again. I’ll be so deep inside of you that you won’t have a choice but to like it,” Miles purrs to me.
“Oh, don’t we love a rapist raving about being a rapist. I truly can’t wait…because the next time I see you, you’ll be underneath me. Dead. With my knife so far into your jugular it becomes a part of you. I can’t wait to see you choking in your blood. You’re going to pay for what you did to me.”
“You wanted it, whether you want to admit it or not. You wanted it. You wanted me. And you still do, tornado.”
“No, I wanted Astor. Only Astor. And it will only ever be Astor.” I hang the phone up and walk into the building, heading the senior seminar class. Fuck, I can’t wait to kill this bastard.
When I walk in the classroom, Astor is sitting on the desk with his gun over his lap as Professor Bello sits behind his desk with fear in his eyes.
“Ast…what is going on?”
“Bello here is going to tell you how Miles got enrolled in this class.”
I frown and stand next to Astor, looking at the professor. He visibly swallows and I raise my eyebrow.
“I added him…” he admits with a whisper.
“Why?”
“He’s…he’s my nephew. His mom is my sister, you killed his entire family.”
“He raped me. And as of a few minutes ago, he called to personally tell me he planned to do it again.” Astor shoots me a look.
“I-I—” Professor Bello stutters.
I hold my hand up, stopping him. “You don’t matter. You’re going to resign and never stick your nose in business that doesn’t concern you again. If you do, I’m sure my husband has no problem taking care of a lose end.”
He nods his head vigorously and I look to Astor.
“Can we go now? I have a shit ton of homework.”
Astor looks at the professor and grunts, tucking his gun away before holding his hand out for me to take.
We’re almost at the car when Astor stops me and turns me to face him.
“What did you mean, he said he was going to do it again?”
“He called. It’s nothing. It’s not going to happen.”
“Alessia…”
I sigh and bite the inside of my lip.
“Promise you won’t haul off and call a team to take him out if I tell you? He’s mine to take care of.”
“I won’t promise that,” he says.
“Figures. He told me that the next time I saw him, I’d be underneath him. That I’d like it. He said I wanted it then and I’ll want it again.” His teeth start grinding and I run my hand up and down his arm. “It’s fine. I’m fine.”
He turns away and hits the unlock button on his key fob when suddenly the car goes up in flames. The explosion knocks us back and Astor covers me with his body.
“Alessia!” I’m disoriented, my vision is blurry, and my ears are ringing. There’s smoke all around Astor and I can see the car in flames in the distance behind him. He’s snapping his fingers in my face and his lips are moving, but I can’t make out the words or hear them. I force myself to focus, to hear him.
“Are you hurt? Hey! Talk to me, malyshka . Are you hurt?” I shake my head and he looks me over.
“I’m ok,” I cough out. The smoke is getting inside of my lungs and I’m beginning to feel like I can’t breathe and I’m dizzy. “Ast...Ast...I can’t breathe.”
I can hear sirens blaring in the back, but who called them? Astor has his shirt over my nose, but it’s not helping. My lungs are burning and I feel like I’m drowning. I see Caroline and Justin running towards us. What the fuck is happening?
“We need to move away from this smoke, hold onto me.” But the moment he stands me up, I collapse. The last thing I can hear is Astor yelling my name.
“I want him fucking dead. Tonight. I don’t give a fuck what you or your men have to do. My wife is in a goddamn hospital bed!” I can hear Astor yelling at someone, but I can’t get my eyes to open yet.
“Ander, you have to do something. What if they were in that car when it exploded? Our little girl would be dead.”
“Eleanor, don’t worry. Russ is already getting a team ready for us. It will be handled.”
“I’m not waiting around for Russ or his team. I’m going after him,” Astor says.
“You can’t leave, when she wakes up, she’ll want you, ” a voice reminds him.
Caroline .
I let out a groan, but no one hears me. Soon after comes a cough and that gets Astor’s attention. I see him barreling through the doors and at my bedside a moment later, my hand in his.
“Hi,” I say. He sighs, kissing my hand.
“Hi, little devil.”
“What happened?”
“Too much smoke for those lungs of yours. You can go home in a hour or so.”
“We aren’t going home, we’re going to find Miles. And I’m fine. Who called 911?”
“Alessia, you’re going home. You’re going to rest and you’re going to let me handle this. And Caroline called, she was waiting for you outside of your class to walk with you. She wanted to make sure you were ok.” I nod, turning my attention back to the bigger problem.
“You are not doing this without me, so if I have to rest, then I guess you’re going to have to rest, too.”
He shakes his head and picks up his phone before putting it to his ear.
“If you catch him, tie him up and take him to the warehouse. Water and that’s it. No food, no bathroom breaks, nothing…and Jay, take Mikhail with you; he’s been itching to rearrange his face.” He hangs up and tilts his head at me. “Happy?”
“Ecstatic, now get me out of here.”
“Lessia, I’m glad you’re ok,” Elsi says, hugging me. I smile at her and she hands me my coat. The doctor didn’t think it was wise for me to leave, but I told Astor that I was either being discharged or I was breaking out. I wasn’t staying here, that’s for sure.
“You’ve been MIA these last few days. Everything ok?” I haven’t talked to her since Christmas.
“I know, I know. Mom is making me restart my training. Says that it’s getting dangerous and she doesn’t like that I stopped. So, I’ve been literally fucking fighting for my life.”
I laugh and wrap my arm around her, “Aren’t we all? Let’s get your grumpy brother home before he kills someone.”