My Mafia Madness 3

Chapter 15 - Rise of the Green-Eyed Monster

A moment went by and still Alexa had felt no pain whatsoever.

A strange occurrence seeing as she had just been shot, she thought to herself.

But no pain?

Wouldn’t that mean…

Slowly opening her eyes, Alexa peered around at the surprisingly familiar faces now surrounding her, each with expressions of concern as they stood staring back at her.

Now frowning, Alexa was confused as she looked between them and spoke softly.

“Nicola? Willow? What… what’s going on?”

“Oh my god, are you alright?”

Willow asked her question rather frantically, grasping her best friend by both her shoulders and scanning her from head to toe.

Eventually, the red head lifted her gaze back up to meet Alexa’s chocolate brown eyes as she spoke again, still with obvious concern for her friend.

“Lex, honey, talk to me!”

Blinking several times Alexa looked to her bestie and watched her friend visibly sigh with relief.

Turning her head to the side, Alexa noticed her fiancé and immediately felt her own sense of relief washing over her.

Not only did she now feel a lot safer than she had before, but now she knew where the gunshot had come from.

It hadn’t come from her kidnapper as she originally thought.

No, instead it was none other than Dante who had fired the singular shot only moments earlier, with the intended target now lying lifelessly on the floor beneath her feet.

Her kidnapper was dead.

Fully armed, the armed Reaper less than a couple of metres away, his gun misting a fine silver smoke as he lowered it to his side while his men rushed in to double check on the deceased men lying around the room.

The same men who had attempted and failed to kidnap Alexa from her birthday concert.

Two of which had somehow been taken out by the stranger Nicholas, who now stood off in silence after sheathing his knife and tugging on his suit jacket once again.

Alexa was lost in a haze of unanswered questions as she watched everyone rushing around her.

Everyone seemed to be moving in some kind of slow motion to her, as she found herself unknowingly in a state of shock.

She could hear the voice of Willow calling out to her, echoed and seemingly distant for some reason as she tried to focus on her friend’s words.

“Lex, are you alright?” Willow repeated.

“Did they hurt you?”

Blinking herself out of her apparent daze, Alexa spoke her response softly at first.

“N…no…. no…”

Smiling, Willow turned to look at Roberto as he came up to stand beside her.

“You had us worried there.” Roberto commented with a smile.

His obvious attempt at lightening the mood, though it did very little for Alexa.

In truth, she was terrified!

This hadn’t been the first time and would most likely not be the last time that she had been kidnapped since meeting Dante Romano.

But what concerned her most of all was protecting the tiny little life growing inside of her.

Her innocent and completely vulnerable child.

Suddenly Roberto looked up and his expression quickly changed to one far more serious.

Alexa knew right away who Roberto was now looking at as she was soon consumed by his intoxicating cologne.

It was Dante… and he was right behind her.

“Come diavolo è successo?” (How the hell did this happen?)

The Reaper barked his question in Italian, one again in an attempt to ensure that both Alexa and Willow could not understand their apparently private conversation.

Roberto shrugged as Nicola came in to speak.

“Sto facendo controllare i loro documenti d’identità. Presto sapremo chi sono questi uomini, Capo.” (I’m having their ID’s checked. We’ll soon know who these men are, boss.) Nicola explained.

“Voglio risposte, Nicola!” (I want answers Nicola!) the Reaper snapped, seemingly frustrated by this unfortunate interruption to such an incredible night.

“Coinvolgi tutti. Nessuno si riposa finché non scopro chi erano questi uomini e per chi lavoravano, capito?” (Get everyone involved. Nobody rests until I find out who these men were and who they worked for, understand?)

“Si, Capo.” (Yes, Boss.) Nicola replied.

With his orders the Underboss gave a stern nod before getting to work.

Dante in the meantime began to cautiously eye Nicholas, the strange man standing close by.

His emerald eyes scanned the well-dressed man from head to toe for a moment in silence as he determined whether Nicholas was a possible threat or not.

Before Alexa got the chance to introduce them both, the Reaper glared at the man as he spoke his thoughts aloud harshly.

“Who is this?”

Alexa turned to look over at Nicholas and found herself smiling in apparent gratitude.

“He’s a hero, Dante.” she admitted proudly.

“This man here saved me from the kidnappers; caught them completely by surprise too. I don’t know what might have happened had he not been there when he was.”

Nicholas glanced downwards, apparently feeling modest about being praised so highly.

In truth, it was guilt that he was feeling in that very moment, guilt for his part in her kidnapping.

For the truth was, Nicholas himself was the one who had arranged for Alexa to be taken by those men.

The whole rescue had been staged for him to come out as the apparent hero.

“He… saved you?” Dante queried, as if to confirm as he looked to Alexa in disbelief.

“How?”

She nodded her head as she gave her reply verbally.

“Yes. Fought them off all on his own, isn’t that right?” she turned her attention towards Nicholas now as he stood alone in silence staring back at her.

“I guess in a way, I owe him my life.” she added thoughtfully.

Spotting an opening, Nicholas quickly took this as his opportunity to introduce himself to the billionaire CEO and Mafia Don.

Perhaps in an attempt to smooth things over between them.

Reaching out his hand with a friendly smile, he attempted a formal greeting.

“Nicholas Valentino. And you, of course must be Dante Romano.” he spoke with his strong Italian accent as he went on.

“I’ve heard a lot about you, and I must say, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you in person.”

Dante’s eyes flicked down to land on Nicholas’ outstretched hand for a second or two before he finally decided to reciprocate in the gesture and reach out his own hand.

Grasping Nicholas’ hand in his own, the Don gave it a firm shake, all the while never once breaking eye contact with him.

“It seems that I owe you my thanks...” Dante spoke to the stranger void of any kind of emotion.

It was obvious to anyone watching that the Don was still sizing the stranger up as he continued their conversation.

“Forgive us, but I must get my fiancé back home before the event finishes… you understand?”

Nicholas plastered on a fake smile as he gave his response.

“Of course…”

Nicholas turned his attention towards Alexa once more as he spoke with a cheeky smirk.

“And might I add Dante, you are a very lucky man indeed to have found yourself such an exquisite young woman. My congratulations to you both on your recent engagement.”

Alexa couldn’t fight back the crimson blush forming on her cheeks, even if she’d tried to in that moment.

She smiled in an effort to try and hide it from view.

And of course, a rather jealous Dante noticed her blushing right away.

Jealousy washed over him like a tidal wave as he narrowed his eyes with fury.

Reaching out his hand, Dante grasped Alexa by her right hand and began to lead her along away from Nicholas, now headed for the main entrance.

They were headed back to Dante’s penthouse, the night apparently over prematurely.

As they left, Nicholas stood watching after them with a smug expression as Dante’s men worked to drag the lifeless bodies out of the lobby before the crowd of concertgoers emerged to see them.

Once both Dante and his fiancé had exited the building, surrounded by their crowd of security detail, he too turned and headed off for the evening.

There was still so much to do.

And time was running out.

-

Due to security risks after the attempted kidnapping of Alexa, yet again, Dante had ordered that he and Alexa travel alone as they returned to the penthouse, located right in the middle of New York City.

After about ten minutes of awkward silence having been shared between them, Alexa finally decided that she’d had enough of Dante’s silent treatment and turned to face him with a frown as she spoke.

“Is something wrong?” she queried.

“Have I done something to piss you off?”

Dante, who had his gaze directed down at his phone, continued typing away with his fingers at tremendous speed as he spoke, not bothering to turn and face her as he did.

“What makes you say that?” his tone was practically dripping with sarcasm with each word he had spoken, and Alexa immediately had her answer.

Yes…

Somehow, she had done something wrong. Something to upset him…

But what?

“Well, you’ve ignored me for the past ten minutes now…” she spoke, lifting her brows in challenge at him as she pursed her lips tightly together in frustration.

“Have I?” he questioned, still with his gaze set solely on his phone.

“I hadn’t noticed.”

Now Alexa was seriously angry herself!

Not only was Dante giving her the silent treatment, but now it seemed that he was also acting like a complete child towards her… and rightfully so, she’d had enough!

“Look, from my point of view you have two chances right now, Dante Romano.”

She began speaking confidently, affirming her dominance for the first time in a while now.

“Either you can continue acting like a spoiled brat and ignore me for the rest of the evening, or you can choose to talk to me. Tell me what the hell I’ve done to piss you off so much!”

Suddenly his head turned just as he launched himself off his seat to hover right in front of her.

Their faces mere inches apart from one another as Alexa’s eyes widened in shock, a gasp escaped her glossy lips as her chest heaved in and out rapidly.

She could feel the warmth from his breath fanning out across her face, the minty scent of it mixed with scotch filling her nostrils as she stared deeply into his blazing emerald green eyes.

And Dante, it took everything within him to restrain himself right now, heated with such unrelenting anger and jealousy.

But was it her fault?

As he remained hovering over her, breathing heavily in and out, he began to realise that it was never Alexa who had caused this sudden surge of jealousy to stir from within.

Never her.

His harsh expression suddenly melted away before her very eyes and Alexa watched him transform from the merciless Reaper back into the man she had fallen so hard for.

Her brows furrowed inwards as she spoke.

“What’s going on? Talk to me, please…”

Letting out a long hard sigh, Dante lowered his head and ran his large hand through his short, dark hair to try and lessen the highly-tense feeling he was currently consumed by.

Alexa watched on as he then sat back a little to give them some more space. Right before he began to explain the reason why he had been acting up until now.

His thoughts were a mass of tangled threads and right now, he was finding it quite difficult to manoeuvre through them.

“It’s not you.” the Don admitted softly, slowly lifting his gaze to meet hers.

“I’m sorry, bella… you’ve done nothing wrong. I am the one being an asshole here. Not you.”

Alexa blinked and just as she did she noticed that Dante’s expression showed vulnerability now, which was completely unlike him.

“Never you.”

The Don added the last part with a small smile curving the corner of his stubble-surrounded lips upwards.

“Will you forgive me?” he queried, lifting both his brows at the same time.

Alexa searched his eyes before she spoke her response.

“Only if you tell me what’s going on with you.” she announced.

“Why are you acting like this?”

Once more, Dante sighed and lowered his head in apparent shame of his actions.

“I couldn’t handle seeing that man make you blush like that.” he finally admitted the hard truth, his expression showing just how hard it had been for him to do so.

Upon hearing this, Alexa lifted her left brow in surprise as she spoke almost instantly.

“Who? Nicholas?”

Dante’s roll of the eyes was enough of an answer for her as Alexa watched him puff out his chest proudly. Her heart melted on the spot.

For some unknown reason, he was jealous of Nicholas.

Smiling, she reached out her hand for him, cupping the side of his face and gently turning it so that their eyes met.

Straight away, Alexa could see the look of pain hidden deep within his eyes and it caused her heart to ache for him as she spoke how her heart felt in that moment.

“There is only one man who makes me to feel more alive than I have ever felt before… one man whose smile melts my heart and whose touch alone drives me wild…”

Alexa paused for a moment, swallowing away the rising emotions as she battled through to finish what she intended on saying to him right now.

“A man who showed me an entirely new world… one that I’d never even heard of before. A loving man who makes me feel safer than I ever thought I could possibly feel. The same man that I intend on spending the rest of my life with...”

Consumed by her heart-warming words, Dante suddenly felt the overpowering need to kiss this beautiful woman seated beside him.

His woman.

With his breathing heavy and his eyelids hooded with lust, he reached out for her hand and gently took it within his, pulling it over so that he could see the dazzling diamond engagement ring now resting upon her slender finger.

It looked perfect on her. As if it had been made for her and her alone.

Lifting his eyes to meet hers again, he asked her a question, seeking to learn how she truly felt about her newest accessory. After all, she would be wearing it all the time from here on out.

“Do you… like it?” he queried hesitantly.

Alexa’s smile widened as she looked down at her ring for a moment, and then back up to him.

“It’s absolutely beautiful… even if it is a little excessive.”

Dante chuckled at the last part of what she had admitted.

“Only the best for my woman.” he proclaimed proudly.

With that, the Mafia Boss slowly leaned in and sealed his lips over hers. His kiss started off as sweet and cautious but had soon become more passionate as it progressed.

Alexa moaned into his mouth with delight as their tongues tangled together.

With their hands roaming all over one another, the power couple panted heavy breaths between kisses as they worked at removing Dante’s suit jacket cooperatively, followed closely by Alexa’s golden cocktail dress, pulled up over the top of her head.

Laying her down across the long leather seat of the limousine, with Alexa now wearing only her lacey black thong and nothing else, Dante continued his ruthless kiss as if he intended on consuming her right then and there on the spot.

This was his woman… and he intended on making that point loud and clear.