My Mafia Madness 3

Chapter 27 - Rising Suspicions

By now Dante was beginning to grow increasingly impatient, especially with Alexa having been out of his sights now for almost twenty-three minutes.

Not that he had been counting the minutes as they ticked by one at a time, constantly glancing down at his expensive Rolex from the exact moment that she had left his side.

The Don was adamant that his fiancé should remain within his own eyesight anytime they left the penthouse apartment.

Anywhere out in the open like this, where it wasn’t considered to be safe.

Not only that, but an endless sea of excitable party guests continued to hover between him and his fiancé, each of the wealthy aristocrats with a story of their own to tell and each of their stories totally boring as f**k!

Dante wished that he could just pull out one of his concealed guns hidden away beneath his jacket, instantly parting the bothersome crowd with but a single gesture from the lethal weapon.

It would have been so simple to do so…

But like it or not, the billionaire was in high demand right now. He was after all, the man of the evening, the face of his family’s illustrious company as co-owner and CEO of Romano Enterprises.

To Dante fame was far more of a curse than anything else. It always had been.

And it didn’t matter that he undoubtably trusted his men to help keep an eye on Alexa, in order to keep her safe from any potential threats that may emerge.

No…

The truth was that Dante needed to be the one to protect her.

To protect his growing family.

Now with Nicola and several of the others off following along after Alexa, Dante needed to find someone who would be able to assist him with some sort of a distraction. One that would allow him to go and search for her.

But who?

As his emerald-green eyes carefully scanned the crowd, moving from left to right, they suddenly fixated on someone who would be perfect for the task…

-

At the other side of the large room, a rather large crowd of well-dressed men and women had begun to gather around the tallest Romano brother, Roberto.

He appeared to be delivering the punchline of one of his trademark jokes, right as Dante came in to stand beside him.

As the guests suddenly began to laugh together in unison, Dante saw his chance to cut in.

“Sorry to interrupt…” the Don announced apologetically, placing his hand up onto his brother’s shoulder as he gave a large smile to the people gathered around him.

“I need to borrow my brother here for a moment. Please excuse us.”

With that, Dante began to lead Roberto aside to a quieter area on the massive floor of the luxuriously decorated ball room.

Turning to face Roberto, Dante began to explain his predicament, making sure to use a softer voice so that others would not overhear them.

“I need your help with something...” he explained.

“I’m listening.” his brother urged with a nod of his head.

“I need you to create some sort of distraction. Something to shift everyone’s attention away from me, and long enough so that I can go and find Alexa.”

“Wait, you lost her?” Roberto seemed confused now.

Rolling his eyes at such a ludicrous suggestion, the Don began to explain whilst simultaneously shaking his head.

“Don’t be daft, Roberto. I didn’t lose her.” he announced matter-of-factly.

“Your fiery little red head was the one who came over and stole Alexa away from me. The minx did it right when I was in the middle of a conversation with the Mayor too!”

“Yeah, that actually doesn’t surprise me. It definitely sounds like something Willow would do.” Roberto agreed with a chuckle as he fought the need to burst out laughing.

“Alright, leave it with me big bro… I’ll see what I can do to stir things up a bit.”

With a grateful nod and a smile, Dante went in search of somewhere a little quieter that he could make a phone call to Nicola for an update on his fiancé and her whereabouts.

After dialling his second-in-command’s number, Dante lifted his phone up to his ear and waited as it rang several times.

And then he finally answered.

“Si, Capo?” (Yeah, boss?)

“Nicola, tell me she’s alright…” Dante got right to the point, his tone hinted with obvious concern as he waited for a reply.

“She’s fine, boss. She and Willow have just headed to the restroom. The team and I have had eyes on her the entire time with nothing suspicious to report.” the underboss explained calmly, hoping to possibly calm his Don.

Nodding his head, Dante let out an auditable sigh.

“Good…”

“Relax, try to enjoy yourself for the rest of the evening, hmm?” Nicola reminded.

“We’ll keep a close eye on the girls and let you know if anything changes.”

With that, Dante agreed before hanging up and ending the call. Pocketing the phone once again, he glanced around the busy room.

But just as he had he instantly realised his mistake as a familiar set of eyes met with his.

He felt his entire body slump over noticeably with disappointment and annoyance at the menacing tone of her voice.

“Dante Romano, the man of the hour…” the busty brunette proclaimed with a devious smirk as she moved in closer towards the wealthy host with each passing second.

“Sophie…”

Dante spoke softly, fighting to mask his obvious frustration at seeing her here.

“This event is for clients and dignitaries only.”

The Don turned to look her directly in the eye as she came to stand right in front of him, a rather seductive look glinting back at him through her hazel eyes.

One of challenge.

“So, that leaves only one question… why are you here?” he demanded calmly.

She hummed as a wide smile formed on her face.

“Hmmm… oh, I happen to know someone, shall we say… high up.”

She chose to keep her responses vague as she slowly scanned him up and down with her hungry eyes.

“Came as their plus one to this little ball of yours.”

Dante scoffed, both smiling and shaking his head as he spoke.

“Of course, you did.”

And Dante was spot on with his assumption.

Since he had been the one to end their little fling which had only just spanned around a week in total, Sophie had then become rather fixated on him and would often follow Dante to places and events such as this one.

And it was becoming quite frustrating for the Don, who was now happily settling down with Alexa.

He needed to end things once and for all. To show Sophie that there was no future for the two of them.

But would this woman get the message?

And even if she did, would she listen?

“You look good tonight, especially in that tux… really good, in fact.” she complimented him.

“Then again, you never did have any trouble in the looks department, what with that incredible body of yours…”

As she spoke the brunette reached out her right hand and slid her heavily manicured pointer finger down the length of his chest, from his neck towards is stomach.

And as Dante spoke, his tone showed obvious warning in it.

“Sophie, I have other party guests to attend to.”

Her finger slid lower and lower with each passing second, but Dante stood tall and proud, unflinching from her obvious acts to try and seduce him.

“I am warning you…”

“Mmmm… just thinking about all the things you did to me back at that resort, and those nights of intense passion. Nights I’ll never forget-”

Just as her finger was about to trace below his belt, the Don reached down and grasped her firmly around the wrist, pulling her hand back up as he spoke with authority.

“-Listen to me, Sophie. Whatever happened between us is well and truly over. Do you understand?” he insisted sternly.

She looked him in the eye for a moment in silent thought before another insidious smile graced her face.

“That’s too bad. I kinda thought you’d be a little more reasonable. Especially now that you’re engaged and all.”

Dante’s emerald eyes showed confusion as she tilted her head off to the side.

“Wouldn’t want the future Mrs. Romano to learn all of your deep, dark little secrets now, would you?” she teased.

Now Dante was unimpressed. She was clearly challenging him, threatening him even. And that would not stand!

“Sophie, I’m warning you. You are treading on thin ice here-”

“-Don’t worry, I’m happy to sweep everything under the rug, so to speak… as long as we can come to some sort of an… arrangement.”

“What kind of arrangement?” Dante found himself asking, purely out of curiosity.

“You’ll find out…” she announced coyly.

“Come on.”

Glancing around at the people who were nearest to them, Sophie grabbed the Don by his wrist before leading him away to somewhere a lot more private for them to talk.

And as they moved through the crowd, several men watched on with smirks of their own.

The fish had taken the bait.

Now it was time for the next phase of their plan.

-

The exact moment that both Alexa and Willow stepped foot inside the women’s restroom, Alexa turned around to face her friend in a mixture of confusion and fury.

“Alright, what the hell was that about?” she demanded, placing both hands onto her hips and frowning at her friend in disbelief.

“Why were you acting so harshly towards Nicholas?”

Willow responded with a frown of her own as she spoke up to defend herself.

“That guy was totally hitting on you, how could you not see it?” she accused, waving her hand out towards Alexa who rolled her eyes.

“I’m telling you, something’s up with him. The guy gives me the creeps.”

“What? What are you talking about?” Alexa shot back.

“Look, I can’t explain it exactly, ok? It’s… a feeling I get from him.” Willow went on to explain her suspicions.

“I mean, there’s the night of the concert, for one... The guy somehow turns up just as you’re being kidnapped, and by armed men I might add! Then he mysteriously fights them all off without even getting so much as a scratch on him. I mean, how is that even possible?“

“Hey, that’s not fair. You weren’t there when it happened. Besides, you’re judging him rather harshly, aren’t you? I mean, you hardly even know him-”

Alexa tried to interject, but Willow cut in defensively over her.

“-Neither do you, Lex! Why are you defending this guy? I don’t understand.”

“Willow, he saved my life!”

Alexa made her announcement a little too loudly, her voice having echoed off the surrounding walls of the luxurious restroom that they were standing in.

Luckily, they were the only two occupants currently in there, so it wouldn’t cause any problems privacy wise.

Alexa raising her voice like that had stunned Willow for a moment as she stood there with wide open eyes and her lips parted in wonder.

She needed to work harder at convincing Alexa. Willow’s gut was rarely ever wrong about men. And this particular one was screaming out ‘danger’ to her!

As Willow spoke again, her tone had become much calmer, softer and less challenging.

“Lex, you know how much I care about you, right? We’ve had each other’s backs for so long, I honestly can’t remember a time before I met you. You’re my family, girl and you always will be.”

Alexa’s shoulders lowered, her entire posture suddenly relaxed as she took in her friend’s heart-felt words and finally started listening to what Willow was trying to tell her.

“Now, I get it. You feel that this guy saved your life, so maybe you feel like you owe him something because of that… but it’s not just the night of the concert that has me so worried about this guy, Lex.” Willow reminded, taking her friend by the arm and leading her across towards the mirrors hung over the sink.

“What do you mean?” Alexa queried curiously as they stopped beside the lit up mirror.

Willow turned her best friend to face her directly and the two made eye contact.

“I want you to be completely honest with me right now, ok? I mean it, and don’t try lying to me, cos I can tell when you do.” Willow admitted, lifting her left brow.

“Ok, ok.” Alexa replied with a giggle.

“I won’t lie.”

But Willow’s expression was dead serious as she spoke.

“How many times have you happened to run into Nicholas before?” she spoke those four particular words while using her fingers and gesturing air quotes with them.

Alexa thought to herself for a moment as she tried to recall any other times that she had run into him in the past.

And strangely enough, she could think of at least a handful of them, all within a space of the past couple of months.

Ever since the night of her birthday concert.

The night that he supposedly saved her from those kidnappers.

Lifting her gaze to meet Willow’s, it was clear that Alexa was starting to understand what Willow was trying to get across to her. The intended message.

And maybe… just maybe… she was beginning to believe her as well.

“Look, Lex, you know that I love you more than anything, right?” Willow admitted, hugging her best friend in tight against her chest.

“Of course. And I love you, Willow.” Alexa announced with a smile.

“I just don’t want anything to happen to you…”

Willow paused, pulling apart before placing a hand onto the bump of Alexa’s growing belly as she continued.

“…to either of you. You’re the only family I’ve got.”

Alexa nodded her head, knowingly understanding exactly where Willow was coming from right now.

It was important that she be careful and make safe choices from here on out.

“Just promise you’ll be careful around this Nicolas guy, ok?” Willow pleaded.

“Just until we know for sure what kind of guy he is?”

With one last nod, Alexa spoke her reply.

“I will. I promise.”