My Mafia Madness

Chapter 28 - Chatting with the Enemy

Once the brothers had finished their discussion they finally emerged from the back room, only to find Alexa out cold, fast asleep on the black velvet couch in front of the television.

The T.V series ‘Game of Thrones’ was playing softly in the background, with one of its more tense scenes as the three men came to stand around the sleeping woman.

“Guess she drank too much.” Roberto announced with a smile.

“Wow, how unprofessional.” Matteo teased his older brother with a grin.

“You should probably fire her for such behaviour, Dante.”

Dante ignored his youngest brother’s jokes.

He couldn’t keep his eyes off her.

Alexa’s long blonde locks had partially fallen in over her face as she silently breathed in and out, one long breath after the next.

She lay on her side, along the length of the velvet couch.

As Dante’s emerald green eyes scanned her from head to foot, he noticed that she still had her black heels on.

Roberto was right, she must have passed out.

“Roberto, call Nicola. Have the car ready to leave downstairs in five.” he commanded softly, never breaking eye contact with her as he spoke to his brother.

“You got it, bro.” Roberto reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.

He walked away from them as he made the call to Dante’s second-in-command, as asked.

Dante unknowingly found himself reaching out towards her.

He carefully used his finger to brush her hair away from her face, tucking it in behind her ear.

This revealed her perfect, angelic face to them once more as she slept soundly.

“She’s really something, isn’t she?” Matteo found himself admitting as the two remaining brothers continued to stand over her, staring down at the sleeping beauty before them.

“You feel something for her, don’t you?”

Dante turned to face his brother with a sudden hardened expression, one that practically shouted for him to back off.

His green eyes blazed with fire for a moment before he turned back towards his sleeping assistant and spoke.

His voice now held a deep and harsh tone.

“A man like me can never feel anything, Matteo.”

Matteo watched on as his eldest brother and Don carefully leaned in to scoop Alexa up into his strong arms.

Carrying her bridal style, he then turned around and proceeded to make his way toward the exit.

-

As instructed, Nicola sat waiting in one of the company’s black SUV’s when Dante emerged from the elevator, carrying a sleeping Alexa in both his arms.

Initially Nicola panicked as he darted out from the driver’s seat and ran across towards them.

“What happened?” the second-in-command sounded worried.

But Dante quickly put his mind at ease.

“Relax… she’s only asleep.” he announced as they continued to make their way towards the waiting SUV.

“Asleep? It’s only…”

Nicola lifted his arm up to check his watch.

“…five thirty in the evening?”

Dante sighed as his loyal friend opened the door to the backseat of the SUV.

“She met my brothers.” the don announced solemnly.

Nicola rolled his eyes at this.

He knew both Roberto and Matteo all too well. The two enjoyed having a good time.

Clearly their good time was a little too much for poor Alexa to keep up with.

When Alexa had been safely placed inside, Dante climbed in after her, before Nicola closed the door behind them and got into the driver’s seat.

The car took off, headed back up the steep ramp and out onto the adjoining road.

Nicola looked in the rear-view mirror as he spoke to his boss.

“So where to?”

“The safe house. I’ll drop her off and have a chance to get ready for the meeting while I’m there.” Dante replied.

“We can grab a bite to eat on the way in.”

“Sure thing.” Nicola replied, turning the wheel to the left.

As the car rolled along, Dante glanced down at the beauty whose head was resting on his lap.

True, he had hired her to be his personal assistant and as such, there should be professional boundaries between the two of them.

But he couldn’t seem to keep his hands off her.

And the kiss they had just shared… he was mere seconds away from taking her right then and there on the kitchen counter.

His brothers could watch for all he cared!

Even the scent of her hair was driving him into a crazed frenzy.

He could detect the scent of vanilla and something else.

He used two of his masculine fingers to gently stroke her long locks as he marvelled at her in silence.

“What am I going to do with you, bella?” he whispered softly.

-

Once they had arrived at the secure safehouse, Nicola passed through the armed gate leading on to a long driveway.

The driveway was made of pebbles and ran all the way up towards the incredible three-story white mansion ahead.

The SUV’s tyres crunched against the rocky surface as it rolled along at a steady speed toward the safehouse.

Nicola helped both Dante and Alexa out of the car, with the young assistant still fast asleep in the don’s arms.

The trio passed by several suited guards, each fully armed and prepared for anything.

When they made it inside, Dante proceeded to carry Alexa up the curved staircase and into one of the guest bedrooms.

He gently placed her onto the bed and stood over her with a huff.

He was deciding what to do next.

Deciding it wouldn’t be too comfortable for her to sleep in her high heels, he carefully removed them one by one and placed them on the floor beside the bed.

Trying not to wake her, he carefully tucked her body in underneath the fluffy quilt cover and took a step back from where she now lay, fast asleep.

A picture of perfection.

Suddenly his phone began to ring, and he panicked.

He was worried that the ring tone would wake Alexa.

Dante quickly reached into his pocket to grab it and promptly answered the call as he turned and strode back out of the guest room, closing the door softly behind him.

-

Stepping out into the empty hallway, Dante answered his phone call.

“Sì.” (Yes) he said with the phone held to his ear.

“Dante Romano...”

Dante recoignised the voice on the other end of the phone immediately and his face hardened, causing his eyes to narrow in spite.

“Raphael.” he replied dryly.

“It’s been a long time. How did you manage to get this number?”

“How does anyone do anything?” Raphael’s tone teased.

“It’s surprising what you can find out… for the right price.”

As angry as he was that this man would have the balls to call him on his personal phone, Dante remained calm and in control of his conversation as he began to fast walk towards the mansion’s surveillance room.

The Mafia Boss couldn’t comprehend that one of his own had willingly handed over his personal phone number to his enemy.

It appeared that his family had a rat once again... it never seemed to end!

When he reached the surveillance room, Dante marched in through the door, surprising both Stefano and Lanzo.

The two loyal henchmen were in the middle of a conversation as they sat by the wall of monitors displayed in front of them.

“Boss?”

Stefano watched as Dante lifted his finger up as a commanded gesture of silence.

“To what do I owe the pleasure of your phone call?” Dante questioned sarcastically.

Raphael’s deep chuckle on the other end of the line made the Reaper’s eyes darken somewhat.

“Oh, I just wanted to offer my gratitude for the recent gift you sent my son.” Raphael announced snidely.

Dante smirked, chuckling darkly himself now.

“I gather he liked it then?”

“Of course… In fact, he insisted that we send you a little something in return. As a token of our… gratitude.”

That had Dante silent for a moment.

What exactly did his rival mean by that?

He knew that the Greco’s would respond somehow, but he didn’t expect it to happen so soon.

“There really is no need-”

Raphael cut in over him.

“-No, no, I’m afraid I must myself insist. You can expect your… gift, to arrive soon enough.”

Gritting his teeth at the clear threat this man was making against him, Dante focused on remaining calm and in control.

Raphael wanted to get in under his skin and he wouldn’t allow him to.

“I look forward to it.”

He spoke in all seriousness, with his hardened expression never once faltering.

Just as he was about to hang up he heard his rival’s husky voice one last time.

“Oh, and Dante…”

The Reaper pulled the phone back in against his ear, rolling his eyes with impatience.

“What?”

“Who’s the girl?”

His eyed widened as he felt his heart skip a beat.

How on earth did Raphael know about Alexa?

This was her first day working for him? Until only a couple of days ago they had never even met!

He decided to call his rival’s apparent bluff, making sure to keep his tone light.

“Which one?” he teased, playfully.

“The one you just carried into your house…”

Dante’s eyes blazed a bright green as they widened at the realisation.

He quickly hung up his phone and began scanning the monitors one by one with a panicked expression.

He was looking for something, or someone.

“Boss, what was all that about?” Stefano asked with a frown.

“What’s going on?”

“Stefano, I want this place on immediate lockdown! No one goes in or out without my express permission, is that understood? No one!” Dante commanded sternly.

Stefano nodded his head and began typing things into the computer in front of him, activating the mansion’s security measures for such a thing.

With the click of a button he had locked all of the doors and windows, sealed off all exits and electronically locked the main gate leading in and out of the compound.

Dante dialled Nicola’s number and waited for him to answer.

As soon as his second-in-command answered he got right to the point.

“Yeah Boss?”

“Greco has eyes and ears in here and I wanna know how!”

“I’m on it.”

With that, Nicola hung up, as did Dante before he went to dial yet another number.

This kind of thing happened every now and then.

Usually, it was nothing more than a harmless threat, especially when it came from one of Dante’s rivals.

But he had to be certain that the mansion was secure.

Especially now that Alexa was with them.

As he waited for the phone call to go through to Cecilio, Dante turned and looked at Lanzo who was busily scanning the monitors for anything strange.

“Lanzo, check to see if anyone’s managed to somehow hack into the mainframe.”

Lanzo turned to his boss and nodded before he too got to work.

He quickly pulled out his laptop and began typing away at such an incredible speed.

If their enemy had eyes or ears inside of their safehouse, it was clearly no longer safe.

Which meant they needed to leave immediately.

Dante gave his next command at the exact moment his henchman answered his phone.

“Cecilio, have the car out back in ten.”