THE RUSSO BRIDE

The Deal

Dawn came with rays of sunlight, brightening up the living room. A reflection on Alessia’s face, caused her eyes to flicker open.

It took a couple of seconds for her consciousness to align with her mind. When it did, she raised her body up.

A slight throb on her temple dragged her fingers upwards. She was rubbing the spot, when her memories jolted.

“Good morning Alessia.”

Her eyes snapped, and her head whipped behind.

The moment her eyes caught his piercing gaze, reality struck her hard. None of it had been a dream. It was all real.

“Oh God.” The words slipped out of her lips breathlessly, as her head spun around the room.

Broken glass covered the floor, furniture lay overturned, and to top it off, two dead bodies reeked on the torn rug.

“You lost consciousness,” Dante said.

Her stomach churned, as she grappled with everything she was seeing and feeling.

Distantly, siren blared.

Dante lifted his gaze a little. “Oh, they’re here,” he muttered.

A couple of seconds later, police vans filled the driveway.

Dante turned his attention back to Alessia who looked like she was at the brink of going unconscious again.

Something stirred in his heart. Something strange and unfamiliar to him.

“Shouldn’t you be leaving?” she asked in a barely audible voice, her eyes wearing a faraway expression.

His brows knitted. “Why would I?”

The inspecting officer walked into the room with his team following behind him.

“Mr Russo?”

Panic gripped Alessia’s already tensed heart. From everything she had seen and heard, Dante wasn’t a good guy. Surely, the police would figure that out and have him arrested.

It worried her that he didn’t seem the slightest bit bothered.

“Officer Berkely. Thank you for coming around.”

They shook hands, producing a thunderous clap. Officer Berkely briefly glanced at Alessia.

“Everything alright sweetie?”

She acknowledged his presence by looking up at him. But she couldn’t bring herself to form a response.

He nodded in understanding. “We’ll just get to work.”

Alessia exhaled softly after the officer left. It dawned on her that this Dante guy really was powerful.

“Excuse me,” Dante said to her, and stepped aside to answer a call.

Even exhausted, he carried an unsettling kind of control that looked calm, and untouchable.

His dark gaze shifted toward her briefly, then back to the call.

“She stays under our protection,” he said coldly. “Anyone gets near her, they’re dead.”

Her stomach dropped when she heard how casually he spoke about violence.

The call ended, and he walked over to the officer to hear his concluding reports. A couple minutes more, and they were gone, after moving the bodies away.

Alessia, having mustered enough strength to dive into all the necessary details that were still missing, finally looked directly at him. “Tell me the truth.”

Dante slipped his phone into his coat pocket, walked around the couch, and came to a stop in front of her.

“What truth?”

“Everything.”

He didn’t budge.

“My father is dead,” she continued, her voice shaking slightly. “Men broke into my apartment looking for something, someone died on my floor, and somehow you knew all of this would happen before it did.”

He still remained silent.

“Who are you?”

A wry smile stretched the corner of his lips. “Come on. You already know the answer.”

In that moment, it hit her hard.

Russo.

The name she had heard whispered in news reports and rumors her entire life.

The Russo family. One of the most powerful criminal organizations in the country.

Immediately her blood ran cold.

“No,” she whispered faintly. “No… my father had nothing to do with people like you.”

“He worked for us, Alessia.”

The words shattered her instantly. Alessia stared at him. “You’re lying.”

“I don’t lie.”

“My father was an accountant.”

“He was our accountant, Alessia.”

The room tilted slightly beneath her feet and everything suddenly made horrible sense.

The late-night phone call, the unexplained money, and the fear in her father’s eyes before he died.

Tears burned her vision again.

“You’re wrong,” she said weakly.

Dante’s voice softened slightly. “Your father handled financial records for the Russo family for nearly fifteen years.”

Fifteen years. The words echoed in her head. Her father had lived a double life.

Alessia’s back sank slowly onto the couch, trying to breathe through the panic crushing her chest.

“This can’t be real…”

Dante watched her carefully but didn’t move closer.

“Three weeks ago,” he continued, “your father disappeared with sensitive information connected to several mafia families.”

She lifted her head sharply. “My father stole from you?”

“No.”

The answer surprised her.

“He took something because he believed people inside the organization were planning a betrayal,” his expression hardened for a moment. “Then he ran before they could silence him.”

“And now he’s dead.”

“Yes.”

The bluntness of it hurt. She looked away quickly, blinking hard.

“Why would he hide anything from me?”

“To protect you.”

The apartment fell silent again. Outside, distant thunder rolled across the city. It was going to rain again.

Finally, Alessia forced herself to ask the question haunting her mind.

“What were those men searching for?”

Dante’s eyes darkened. “A ledger.”

“What kind of ledger?”

“One capable of destroying powerful people.”

Hearing this made fear curl painfully inside her stomach.

“And they think I have it?”

“Yes.”

“But I don’t!”

“I know that,” Dante said.

“Then tell them!”

Pity claimed his eyes. “It doesn’t work that way.”

Of course, it didn’t, she thought. This wasn’t her world.

This was a world where men broke into apartments with guns and bodies disappeared before sunrise. A world where people solved problems with violence instead of laws.

Alessia hugged the blanket tighter around herself.

“Then what happens now?”

Dante didn’t answer immediately.

Instead, he walked toward the shattered window overlooking the damp street.

“For the last twelve hours,” he said quietly, “three different organizations have been searching for you.”

She felt her heart racing at the sound of those words.

“If they find you first, they’ll torture you until they get answers.”

Terror gripped her throat immediately. “You’re exaggerating right?”

Dante looked back at her. “I’m not.”

The calm certainty in his voice scared her more than shouting ever could.

Alessia stood suddenly. “I can leave the city.”

“You won’t survive long enough.”

“I’ll go to the police.”

“They can’t protect you, Alessia.”

“I’ll disappear.”

“They’ll still find you.”

Every answer felt like another door slamming shut, and hope, nothing but an illusion.

“There has to be another option,” Alessia whispered.

“There is.” Dante replied.

Something in his tone made her stomach drop.

“What op-tion?” she stuttered, unsure she would like whatever he suggested.

He walked back, standing in front of her again. “Marry me.” His dark eyes locked onto hers.

Marriage-the word hit her like ice water.

She stared at him, her eyes bulged with disbelief. “What?”

“You become part of the Russo family officially, under mafia law, and that places you under my protection.”

“You can’t be serious,” she chuckled lightly, bewildered.

“I am.”

“This is insane.”

“No, it’s necessary.”

She laughed bitterly, shaking her head. “You think I’m going to marry a man I met yesterday?”

“A man who saved your life you mean?”

“And because of that I’m being dragged me into this nightmare.”

Dante’s expression hardened for a moment. “You were already in it, Alessia.”

Everywhere went silent because deep down in her heart, she knew he was right. Her father’s secrets had already destroyed her old life.

Dante moved closer, and then lowered his body to be levelled with her.

“If you stay unprotected, you will die,” his voice remained strong and certain. “As my wife, nobody touches you without declaring war on the Russo family.”

Her heart skipped a beat at the look in his eyes. It was the most confident she had ever seen anyone.

But marriage?

To a mafia heir? To a dangerous stranger whose hands were probably stained with blood?

She was about to refuse him, when a bullet shot past the broken window, missing them by the whiskers.

Alessia screamed, as Dante dragged his body over her, using himself as shield.

“My boys will handle them, but you have to give me an answer now!”

In the heat of the moment, the gun exchange happening outside the home she grew up in, and Dante’s body heavily pressed on her, she just needed one positive.

“Your answer. Alessia!”

‘Yes!” she screamed out, and the air stilled. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”