My Mafia Madness 3

Chapter 19 - White Lies

Sensing that this little casual drink was quickly becoming highly inappropriate, not to mention incredibly dangerous for Alexa, Nicola knew exactly how Dante would react to hearing about it and decided that he would be the one to break it up.

Besides, they still needed to get her back to the penthouse safely.

Stepping up beside Alexa, the massive underboss glared daggers directly towards the handsome stranger with warning as he spoke.

“Sorry to break things up…”

He then turned his attention towards Alexa and spoke to her calmly.

“Time to go home, piccollo. Come.”

Reaching out his hand for hers, Alexa looked down at his large open hand and immediately, almost instinctively reached out hers, placing it inside of his larger palm.

“Oh… alright.” she agreed softly.

Besides Dante, Alexa trusted Nicola more than anyone else.

If he was adamant that they leave right now, she would not question him.

There had to be a sound reason for it.

Nicola gave Nicholas one last glare before he began leading Alexa back through the crowd of clubbers surrounding them.

And Alexa didn’t fight him.

Having been around Nicola long enough to know his reactions, Alexa could sense obvious caution and concern emanating off him as he gripped her hand tightly while weaving throughout the sea of people.

Something was wrong.

Watching on from where he now stood alone at the bar, Nicholas’ eyes narrowed in fury at being interrupted by Dante’s menacing lackies.

He knew that he was beginning to make progress with Alexa. Only baby steps for now, but progress just the same.

Next time he would have to ensure that they could not be so easily interrupted.

-

Luca followed along behind Alexa, sandwiching her between him and Nicola up front as they continued out through the entrance of the nightclub and towards the curb.

A black SUV was currently sitting in idle, waiting for them with Cecilio in the driver’s seat.

As they arrived at the large, armoured car, Nicola reached out and opened the back door, stepping aside to allow her to get inside.

Keen to finally get home for the evening, Alexa did exactly that, sliding into the back seat with Luca following her in before Nicola carefully closed the back door behind them and made his way towards the other side of the car to get into the front passenger side.

Just as the SUV pulled out into the street, Alexa was startled as she felt her purse suddenly vibrate where it rested upon her lap.

Frowning in confusion, she reached into her it and pulled out her phone to see who had sent her a text.

And a smile spread across her face as soon as she saw Dante’s name on the screen…

~

Bella,

You’re not home yet… is everything alright? Where are you? Are you safe?

~

Quickly typing away a response in the form of yet another text message, Alexa finished it and hit ‘send’…

~

Hey handsome,

I’m fine. Just bumped into someone on the way out. Had a quick drink (virgin, don’t worry). We’re headed home now. See you soon. x x x

~

Seconds later Nicola’s phone began ringing up front of the SUV and he promptly answered it with a long sigh.

“Yeah boss?”

Nicola was silent for a moment as Dante spoke on the other end of the line.

“Uh, we were… delayed. Alexa stopped for a drink with someone she knew at the club.” the underboss lied blatantly.

Nicola made the choice in the heat of the moment to tell a white lie to his Don rather than risk a full-on melt down here over the phone from him.

Once again, Nicola became silent as Dante spoke.

“Yeah, we’re on route now, ETA around ten minutes.” Nicola reported with a serious tone to his voice.

The underboss listened in silence one last time before he spoke his reply.

“Sure thing boss.” Nicola announced with a nod.

“Ciao.”

With that he hung up his phone and pocketed it before leaning back into his leather seat in a more relaxed position.

Only moments later Alexa received a text message response back from Dante and she quickly opened it, eager to read it…

~

I can’t wait to have you in my arms again, amore mio.

~

Smiling, Alexa found herself also leaning back into her seat as the SUV continued along through the evening traffic headed towards where the apartment was located, right in the centre of New York City.

She felt incredibly lucky to have someone like Nicola looking out for her.

In truth, Nicola had always been more like a big brother to Alexa, ever since the first time they had met back in that alleyway late one evening.

He had saved her life then, though neither of them had ever told Dante about what happened that night. Perhaps it had never come up.

Regardless, Nicola had always looked out for Alexa and would often show kindness and empathy towards her, even when it wasn’t a requirement of his job or task.

He was someone that she felt she could trust whole-heartedly.

Tucking her phone back into her purse, Alexa glanced down at her belly, which was now beginning to show as a round bump.

Lifting her hand up, she rested it with her open palm face down over the bulge and smiled with contentment as the SUV continued along down the road.

-

Seated out on his connected balcony, Matteo was casually sipping at a glass of scotch neat as his emerald-green eyes gazed outwards upon his incredible view from the twelfth floor of the building he lived in.

The sudden sound of his phone coming to life alerted the youngest Romano brother to turn and glance at it as it danced about upon the surface of the table.

‘Who the hell was calling him so late?’ he wondered to himself.

Reaching out, he picked up the phone and glanced at the caller ID through narrowed eyes.

‘Withheld’ flashed on the screen and he immediately tensed up upon realising who it was trying to call him at this very moment.

Only one person withheld their number every time he called.

And for good enough reason.

Swallowing away a small amount of nerves, Matteo used his thumb to press the green ‘answer’ button before lifting it up and holding it against his ear to speak.

“Yeah?”

“Matteo… just a quick check-in.” Vincenzo’s voice spoke on the other end of the line.

“Is everything prepared for tomorrow evening?”

Matteo’s eyes lowered in what appeared to be a small level of shame before he spoke his response into the receiver.

“It is.”

“Good. You’re doing the right thing Matteo… keep your eyes on the prize.” Vincenzo reminded.

“When this is over, the girl will be yours and I will have Dante’s entire empire. No one will ever dare to go up against us, ever again.”

With that the call ended and Matteo lowered his phone, placing it back onto the table where it had been moments earlier.

He couldn’t understand why he was suddenly feeling such terrible amounts of guilt. Guilt over what he and Vincenzo planned to do in less than forty-eight hours-time.

True, Dante was his brother. And he had been loyal to him since they were children.

But this was an entirely different matter.

This was the dark and sadistic world that they now lived in. The Mafia world.

One where things like betrayal and hatred were more common than the days were long.

Where it was kill or be killed every… single… day.

He couldn’t allow his emotions to get in the way.

Not now.

In a matter of hours he would have Alexa for himself; his prize.

After all this time of watching her from afar, he would finally be able to show her how he felt.

How much he wanted her.

And he could only hope that, with time, she would begin feel the same way for him.

But when the time came, would Matteo really be willing to betray his own flesh and blood?

Could he really go through with such a serious decision and live with the guilt?

-

Vincenzo had just finished his phone call with Matteo and was hanging up his phone when his second-in-command spoke from behind him.

“Sei troppo gentile con quel bastardo, Capo.” (You’re too nice to that bastard, boss.) Domenico announced as Vincenzo placed his phone down on the coffee table in front of him.

“Non gli stai davvero consegnando la ragazza del Mietitore, vero?”(You’re not really handing the Reaper’s girl over to him, are you?)

Vincenzo gave a dark and sadistic chuckle in response before he turned and looked into Domenico’s eyes with a taunting grin.

“Non una possibilità all’inferno…”(Not a chance in hell…) he announced.

“È un regalo troppo prezioso per essere consegnato a chiunque, specialmente a uno dei suoi fottuti fratelli.” (She’s far too precious-a-gift to be handed over to anyone, especially one of his f*****g brothers.)

Domenico smirked as his boss went on.

“Non appena i suoi fratelli maggiori saranno fuori dai giochi, mi prenderò cura del più piccolo Romano. E questo lascerà una Alexa in lutto a cadere proprio tra le mie braccia aperte, poiché sono io quello rimasto a consolarla da circostanze così tragiche.” (As soon as his older brothers are out of the picture, I’ll have the youngest Romano taken care of. And that will leave a grieving Alexa to fall right into my open arms, as I am the one left to console her from such tragic circumstances.)

“Sai che aspetta un bambino, giusto?” (You do know she’s expecting a child, right?) Domenico pointed out, his brow lifted in question.

Once more, Vincenzo gave a dark and sinister chuckle as he met his underboss’ gaze and spoke his honest reply for what he had planned.

“Suo figlio non sopravviverà abbastanza a lungo per venire a termine, posso assicurarvi... Farò tutto il necessario per liberarmi di ogni singolo ultimo di quei fottuti Romano, se è l’ultima cosa che faccio! (Her child will not survive long enough to come to term, I can assure you... I will do whatever it takes to rid myself of every single last one of those f*****g Romano’s, if it’s the last thing that I do!)

-

Dante needed a distraction right now, and badly.

Waiting for his fiancé to arrive back home at the penthouse was currently killing him as the Mafia Boss paced impatiently barefoot, back and forth across the expensive carpet of their living room.

Dante was still wearing most of his fancy suit attire from his most recent meeting, though his jacket was now laid over the nearby chair and he had also taken off his shoes, socks and tie to feel more comfortable.

His long sleeve white dress shirt had the first three buttons of it undone, revealing the beginnings of his intricate blank-inked tattoos which ran all over the sculpted ridges of his muscular pecs.

And his short dark hair seemed more unruly than it normally appeared, as if he had been running his hand through it nervously, over and over again for the past couple of hours...

Because he had been.

One of his many side effects from such uncontrollable anxiety it would seem.

Dante’s usual business meetings happened to keep him away from his beautiful wife, yet again, and it was beginning to get on his nerves the more and more often it happened.

In truth, he missed spending time with Alexa.

He wanted to be there for her like a normal, loving fiancé.

To care for her, to give her everything that she deserved and more, and to prove his devotion towards her.

But unfortunately for him, being a powerful Mafia Don demanded the majority of his time and this meant that whatever time managed to have with Alexa was limited, much to his ongoing frustration.

Especially now that she was in the middle of her pregnancy.

Still, Alexa had agreed to marry him that night at the concert, which was definitely a positive note regarding their relationship.

If she was willing to officially become his wife, then perhaps she was also capable of dealing with their short spaces of time spent together.

Then again, perhaps not.

One thing was for sure; he would find a way to change how often they were apart from one another, somehow.

Dante Romano was unwilling to let Alexa go.