CHAPTER 31 JARED #4
"I don’t understand any of this! How is he the new capo? What about Rocco?"
"Rocco is dead. What Bay said turned out to be true. He finally met a miserable end. His madness crossed the critical threshold."
"Who… how…what?"
Alex chuckles.
"All excellent questions. He crossed the Nolan family. So they made sure he wouldn't do it again. And they have people like Bay, Storm and Snow, so they’re not a force you should underestimate."
Then Alex looks at Ennio and says, "And I suppose Jared’s reasons for being afraid of Ferro family are over at this point, right?"
Ennio’s cold expression doesn’t change as he answers briefly, "That’s right."
I’m shaking all over because the news hits me like proverbial hail falling from the sky. Instinctively, my fists clench and my lips tremble.
"Rocco is dead? Really? Just like that? Snap with a finger!?"
"Yes, and he was killed because he wanted to do what he had always loved doing. He wanted to rape Snow’s True Mate. The irony is that in the end, his sick obsession with sexual violence brought about his own brutal end."
I don’t know what to say. Swaying slightly, I frantically rub my temples, making huffing and whimpering sounds alternately, trying to make sense of everything.
"What now? Dear Fate… what now?" I mumble incoherently, feeling as if this were some kind of fairy tale or a dream.
This can’t be real.
Fuck, it can’t be that simple!
Unexpectedly, Ennio walks around the car and comes over to me.
He’s a tall omega too, only slightly shorter than me, and his cold black eyes lock onto my face before he suddenly speaks.
"What now? It’s simple. Don’t push Mauro away.
You have no idea what he’s been through all these years.
He suspected you were True Mates from the day Rocco kidnapped you, and even after being beaten unconscious, the poor kid staggered over to us with a severe concussion and begged us to get you out of Rocco’s hands and take you somewhere safe. "
I lurch hard and have to support myself on the roof of Ennio’s car. But he has no mercy, his black eyes drill into me, as he speaks.
"Over the next few years, Mauro completely changed his life, and you need to know that before you, he never exactly avoided the company of omegas. From the moment he met you, he lived in celibacy like a monk."
"I…I…" I try to say something, but my brain is in overload.
Ennio cocks his head, "All those years while you were married, he saved money and invested all of what he made from underground fights in vacation cabins so that one day he could offer you a better future."
Alex slowly comes closer, his eyes searching my pale face, I can see this information is also surprising to him.
Ennio continues, "Mauro also kept an eye on everything involving Mark. He wanted the omegas who worked for him and quit to take their cases to court, but… when Mark announced that you were expecting a child, Mauro backed off because he didn’t want to hurt your son by breaking up his family."
I tremble all over as I listen to all of this. Alex takes my hand and squeezes it lightly.
It’s hard to imagine, all these years, Mauro never stopped thinking about me…
He gave up having a normal life for me and struggled with what he should do, craving me but never reaching.
All this time he was painfully aware of his dreadful background, of the near impossibility of our future together.
Ennio narrows his eyes, staring at my face with an almost chilling intensity.
"And do you know that on the day the case involving the raped surrogate finally made it to court, it came very close to being buried?"
I swallow.
"How come?"
"All of this could have been brushed aside because it was only one person, and Mark already had a plan to discredit him… but then Mauro stepped in. He wrote again to every omega Mark had ever hurt, and he had an entire list of them… and encouraged them to join the lawsuit against him."
"I thought, I… I didn’t know," I mumble.
Alex interjects, staring at Ennio with raised brows, "Really? It was Mauro? I’m shocked. For all those years, not a single one of them had filed a case. I thought Mark had successfully intimidated them into silence."
"If it weren’t for the other omegas’ testimonies, Mark would most likely be free," I whisper. "And I would be forced to stay with the fucking serial rapist forever. I owe Mauro for that."
Ennio tilts his head slightly, his black eyes still boring into me.
"Well. Good to hear. Mauro was afraid you would blame him for sending Mark to jail."
I let out a loud gasp. "Well, for the first three years of my marriage, I kept feeding myself lies that I wanted to be with Mark.
But then…" I swallow. "…the violence started. Still, I couldn’t leave. Mark would never have agreed to let the perfect image of a political family fall apart. He threatened me more than once, saying he’d take custody of my child and discredit me by exposing my past in the Ring to the public, making me look like an unfit dad.
So I stayed with him, terrified… because on top of that, Mark was the only one protecting me from Rocco. "
Ennio straightens.
"That problem is gone now. Rocco is no longer here. He’s not coming after either you or Mauro. You’re free."
His final words resonate with tremendous force. I let out a breath and press my hands to my face.
Wow… Free at last?
Ennio glances at Alex and says, "It’s time for me to go. I have plenty to take care of," he adds in a somewhat bitter tone.
"Thank you again for your help," Alex says, then adds with a subtle smile, "Capo."
Ennio accepts the remark without so much as a twitch of his eyebrow. He merely gives a small nod, gets into the car, and drives away immediately.
Alex peers into my face, and he has to tilt his head up, since he’s such a tiny omega.
I’ve been shaking this whole time, and every nerve in my body seems to have gone slack, trembling independently of all the others.
Alex takes me by the shoulders.
"Hey, easy, Jared. This is the moment when your path finally becomes clear. You can take a deep breath and focus only on building something with Mauro now… There are no obstacles anymore. Do you understand?"
"Somehow, I still can’t believe it," I whisper through my chattering teeth.
My entire life has been about pushing through one difficulty after another, always fighting against something, and now all of it has simply cleared up like this?
Alex, whose face is usually somewhat sad, smiles and slowly nods.
"I envy you." His gaze flicks toward the balcony of Bay’s apartment, and his eyes change slightly, becoming wistful.
"Can I really jump into this with both feet?"
Alex nods, his lips trembling as his eyes jump toward Bay’s balcony one more time. "I would. Without a doubt. Not a fucking nanosecond of hesitation!" Then he turns and heads toward the entrance of the apartment building, his head low, his energy gloomy.
Well, his own happily ever after doesn’t even seem to be a faint speck on the distant horizon yet.
Is mine so much closer?
I follow him, my head spinning with chaotic thoughts, strange excitation slowly but surely rising.
◆◆◆
That night, I can barely sleep. I toss and turn, Mauro’s sad, beautiful face constantly appearing before my eyes.
I can almost scent him, feel his touch, the heat of his skin.
I’m literally burning, my body craving him, aching to sink into his arms and feel his eyes on me, burning with desire and…
tenderness. I feel so hungry for him, my heart filling with turbulent emotions.
I curl up and turn over again and again, but sleep won’t come, and eventually I decide to do what my heart wants. And what it wants is to jump into the car and drive straight to Rainbow Springs.
An impulse. I mean, why shouldn’t I?
Fuck it, I’m going to do it, just like that. Sometimes life has a way of straightening itself out on its own.
I want him, without a doubt, and he’s my perfect match. The dangerous situation has been resolved, so I should do something!
When morning comes, at six o’clock, I get up and start packing Tommy’s things. There isn’t much to do because most of them are still in the suitcases Alex packed when he moved here to Bay’s place.
Around seven, Bay comes out of his room and sees me preparing breakfast. I realize then that he and Alex slept separately, and Alex is still snoring softly in his room.
I feel sad that things aren’t working out for them, that their incompatibility keeps them apart, because I really want my cousin to find happiness too.
"As I understand it, you’re leaving," Bay says.
"Yes. I’m going to wake Tommy in a minute, and then we’re heading out. Thank you very much for letting us stay."
"Don’t thank me. Alex asked me to, and I’d do anything for him."
Wow, that lands with some weight. There’s a strange intensity on his face as he says it.
"I… wish you and Alex happiness. I believe you’ll make it work someday too," I say, even though I’m not sure of that myself.
Bay’s face tightens, his jaw clenching, and I can almost feel how deeply those words hit him.
Then he turns his head because Alex walks into the room, wearing nothing but a long T-shirt, his light hair with its delicate pink tint tousled from sleep.
Bay’s eyes darken slightly when he looks at him, and there’s a hunger in his gaze that I’ve only ever seen in Mauro’s eyes when he looked at me.
Alex blinks in surprise when he sees the suitcases lined up by the door. "So you really are leaving?"
I slowly nod, then walk over to him and place my hands on his shoulders, my expression serious.
"Alex, thank you for everything, for always wanting what was best for me. I’m incredibly grateful to you. I’m leaving Florida and moving to Rainbow Springs to live there with my True Mate." I love saying those words out loud, the sound of them is thrilling.
I can see how deeply moved Alex is. His eyes grow slightly misty, and then he pulls me into a tight embrace.