My Mafia Madness 4

Chapter 18 - The Right Questions

Just as Alexa and Willow were watching their clothing selections being carefully wrapped and bagged by the team of workers, the store’s doors were slammed open as Dante came barging in with several of his armed men in tow.

Baffled by why he had entered the room so dramatically, Alexa frowned as she met his eyes from across the room.

“Dante?” she called out.

“What is it?”

Already on his way marching across the length of the store to where the checkouts were located, the Don started barking his commands with a stern tone to his minions.

“Get everything loaded up. We’re leaving now!”

He glanced over at Roberto who stood up with Alessandro in his arms. A confused expression showing upon his face.

“Bro? What’s going on-”

“-Get the baby in the car, now Roberto!” Dante cut in with his command as he made it to where Alexa and Willow were standing in awe.

And of course, Roberto wasted no time in following his older brother’s commands as he shuffled out of the store with the child, headed for the cars while being chaperoned by several armed men.

Something was wrong.

Very wrong!

“What is it?” What’s going on?” Alexa asked as Dante stopped right in front of her.

His eyes held a fear in them that she had not seen there that often since their first meeting all that time ago. But it was a look that terrified her.

If the mighty and merciless Reaper was afraid, what was it that frightened him?

“In the car, both of you. We’re leaving.”

He spoke while reaching out and grabbing both women by the arm, before he started leading them out through the same way he had just entered.

“Wait, what about the clothing-” Willow started to interject, but Dante cut in over her again.

“-I’ll have it transported to the manor once we’re certain everyone is secure.” he explained as they reached the entrance to Nordstrom and stepped out into the cool morning air.

“It’s not safe here anymore. We need to get you to somewhere that is.”

Alexa was having a difficult time trying to understand and wrap her head around just what was going on here as she furrowed her brows at Dante and tried to further enquire.

“You’re not telling us anything. What’s not safe? I don’t understand.” she pleaded, suddenly pulling her arm out of the Don’s grasp and forcing him to stop, turn around and face her.

“Tell me what the hell’s going on, Dante Romano!”

With a heavy huff, Dante rolled his eyes and tilted his head off to the side as his hands found their way into his jacket pockets.

“It’s not safe here anymore. That’s all you need to know right now.”

He kept it vague, which unfortunately continued to seriously irritate Alexa as she crossed both her arms over her chest in defiance.

“Tell me why we’re running?” she demanded.

“What’s happened? I deserve to be kept in the loop, Dante.”

His eyes now ablaze remained staring directly into hers as his chest breathed heavily in and out a couple of times before he finally opened his mouth to give some explanation.

Willow stood just behind him, watching the scene unfold in silence.

“You really want to know? Ok, I’ll tell you...”

Dante proclaimed as his brows lifted high onto his forehead in annoyance.

“We just located a tracker planted on the jet. One that seems to have traced our flight here from New York.”

The words were almost damning as he spoke them aloud, causing Alexa’s eyes to widen and her entire body to instantly fill with dread.

“Someone’s… following us?” Alexa spoke with disbelief and fear.

She shook her head from side to side for a moment.

“But… who-”

“-We’re looking into it.”

Dante answered sharply over the end of her query, once again leading both women in towards the waiting town car, sitting idling by the curb with Nicola standing by the open backseat door.

“Lex, I’m scared.” Willow whispered into her bestie’s ear as the two women were both ushered towards the waiting vehicles together.

“Me too.” Alexa admitted softly.

“Hey, cutie!” Roberto called out from where he stood by the door of his car, a big smile on his face as he met eyes with Willow.

Turning to face him, Willow realised that she was instead meant to travel with Roberto in his car and quickly turned back to Alexa for a moment, her heart thudding with apparent concern.

Concern that for some unknown reason, she may never see Alexa again.

Wrapping her arms around her best friend and squeezing as tightly as she could, she took a couple of seconds to reveal her obvious affection towards Alexa, with her fear clearly taking over completely.

As they parted Willow looked Alexa in the eye and spoke one thing.

“I’ll see you there... yeah?”

Alexa nodded her head with a smile.

“Yeah.”

With one last smile, Willow spun on her heel and jogged across to where Roberto was waiting for her, by now holding the car door open for her to jump inside.

Alexa watched as Roberto too climbed inside after Willow, right before closing their car door behind them with a ‘click’.

“Come, bella.” Dante spoke as he placed his hand at the small of her back, prompting Alexa to climb inside the town car ahead of him.

And without another word, she did exactly that.

Climbing in she was closely followed by Dante himself. Right before Nicola closed the door behind his Don, rounded the front of the car and got into the front passenger seat.

And just like that, the sleek modern car pulled away from the curb with a high-pitched squeal of the wheels.

The other cars all followed along afterward in perfect formation as the group merged onto the empty city street.

They were now headed for the Romano Family Manor.

Hopefully it would be a place that they could feel a lot safer from the endless lurking threats surrounding them on what felt like a daily basis.

-

The journey from the city to the Romano Manor took about an hour driving in the convoy of cars, but eventually after arriving the group began to exit their cars, standing in awe of the massive structure that stood before them.

Romano Manor.

The building looked incredibly sturdy and strong. Well built in most aspects.

It appeared to loom high over them in an eerily intimidating way, while also giving off a somewhat majestic feeling about the place.

Glancing upwards at it, Alexa couldn’t quite identify how she felt about the manor within that particular moment.

There was something strange about it.

Something that she couldn’t seem to put her finger on.

“Well?”

Dante mused proudly as he too joined her from the car, wrapping his arm around her shoulder lovingly as the two stared up at the building together.

“What do you think?”

“It’s… incredible.” she spoke in awe, still caught in a wave of her shock.

“Just how big is this place?”

Dante shrugged as he gave his response.

“Somewhere around the ten-thousand acres or so, I believe.”

Alexa turned to face him, her eyes wide in disbelief as he went on to brag and explain more about his family’s estate.

“The grounds are quite extensive and range from the beginning of the driveway we came in on, through to the manor here…”

He paused, pointing off to the West as he continued.

“…there’s a forest off in that direction which spans for over a thousand acres on its own and then off in the opposite direction…”

Once again, he paused and pointed towards the East this time with his outstretched finger.

“…our own private beach.”

Alexa immediately perked up upon hearing this news.

Having been raised close to a beach since she was young, she had always enjoyed visiting the sandy shores and whisping waves of one.

“Seriously? There’s a beach near here?” she enquired with obvious excitement.

“Why aren’t we heading there already?”

Dante’s smirk morphed into a mischievous grin as he took her in both his strong and supportive arms. His musky scent mixed with scotch and sensual sweat.

“Si… it’s incredibly isolated and very romantic, especially at sunset.”

Wiggling both his eyebrows to further emphasise his point, the Don was clearly insinuating what they might like to do together later on.

And Alexa quickly caught on, smiling with embarrassment. Her cheeks flushed with a crimson hue as she bit her bottom lip shyly.

“I might just have to take you up on that… a little later on, perhaps.”

Dante chuckled darkly before pulling her in against his muscular chest.

His hands moved around to cup her firm backside before giving each of her cheeks a firm and dominate squeeze.

One meant to show ownership over her.

“A little alone time, hmm?” he urged sinfully.

Giggling, Alexa was about to lean in for a kiss when a voice spoke, gaining their immediate attention.

“OH… MY… GOD! This place is INSANE!”

It was Willow and she was practically jumping up and down on the spot at the sight of the massive structure standing before her.

She was clearly overcome with sheer excitement and disbelief.

“Roberto, it’s everything you said it would be and more! I can’t believe this!”

Standing arm in arm with her was Roberto, a large smile on his face as he stood proudly before his family’s estate.

This was his chance to show off a little more of the family’s fortune to his newest girlfriend and soon to be mother-of-his-child.

“Wait till you see what’s on the inside.”

He replied as the two began walking towards the stairs leading up towards the front entrance.

“It’s gonna blow your mind, cutie. Trust me. This place has everything you can think of and heaps more.”

Smiling at his younger brother’s happiness having found someone to share his life with, Dante watched as his brother and the soon-to-be mother of his child, Willow began ascending the stairs towards the front door.

It hadn’t clicked until that exact moment, but Dante would soon become an uncle for the first time in his life, and Alexa an aunt to Roberto’s future child.

Their family was rapidly increasing which was a good sign for their family lineage, but it also meant that the threats might now begin to increase, what with the bringing of children into their dark and despicable world.

His mind was racing with these complex thoughts as he suddenly felt the warmth of Alexa’s hand slipping into his from where she stood beside him.

Turning to face her, he couldn’t help but smile at the sight of her gorgeous face.

And he decided right then and there that no matter what came at them, no matter who chose to oppose him and his growing family, Dante Romano would fight for the ones he loved.

He would fight until his dying breath.

By now the staff working at the manor had already opened it up for their arriving guests and were all assisting to bring in everyone’s belongings.

They seemed to be both male and female, all dressed in their signature black and white costumes and all looking incredibly professional as they worked.

Alexa turned towards the car just as Nicola had approached with baby Alessandro in his arms.

He held a kind smile upon his face.

“Little man’s awake again.” he announced, handing the baby over to his mother.

“I think he woke up a tad cranky from his nap.”

Alexa’s expression immediately softened as she had her baby held in her arms, her eyes locked onto his as she smiled happily at the winging baby boy.

“Aww, is my little man being a cranky-pants?” she cooed playfully at him.

“Come on, let’s get you something to eat, hmm? You’re probably starving.”

With that she and Dante walked together towards the manor, about to enter as a family for the first time, officially.

The first time of many hoped to come.

-

Having finally made their way to Toronto, Vincenzo and his team were now lying low, with the intention of not being sighted by the Reaper and his men.

They wanted their arrival here to be a complete surprise to Dante when they did eventually decide to strike.

After choosing to stay at a grand hotel located right there in the city of Toronto, Vincenzo had made sure to book out an entire floor of the luxurious building.

Not only for obvious comfort, but more importantly for their own added security while they worked on their task at hand.

And they had already started their tedious search for the infamous Don Romano, but unfortunately so far had come up with nothing whatsoever on the Reaper’s exact location.

It seemed that Dante was a lot better at hiding his tracks than Vincenzo had initially predicted.

And that locating him may prove to be more of a problem than he had initially thought.

But it wouldn’t deter Vincenzo one little bit.

As he and several of his minions including Domenico sat around in the large sitting room, the Don continued to listen in to what they already knew as he sat on the surprisingly comfortable sofa with a glass of tequila in his right hand and a cigarette in his other.

“So far we’ve had him sighted visiting a local Nordstrum store here in the city, but that was around two, three am.”

Domenico explained as he placed photographs down onto the large oak coffee table in the centre of the room.

“Clearly he’s long gone by now.”

“Did they have any security cameras to identify where he was headed?” a henchman named Mason asked from where he sat.

Domenico took charge of the conversation, on behalf of his Don.

“We’ve already looked at those, but as expected they didn’t give us much. We know the direction he headed in, but by now he could have gone anywhere in the surrounding area.”

“If you ask me, we’re all asking the wrong kind of questions.”

One of the younger henchmen named Jack spoke from where he stood against one of the walls, not intending on gaining everyone’s attention but instead only speaking his mind aloud.

However, his point had them all turning to face him, intrigued by what he had to say next.

“And pray tell, what question should we be asking?” Vincenzo challenged the younger henchman who had only come more recently into their more trusted ranks.

Realising that he had gained the entire room’s interest, Jack took this as his opportunity to give his expertise and prove himself to his new Don.

Pushing off the wall, he made certain to speak with confidence and presence as he slowly strolled around the room while explaining his reasoning to the others.

“We shouldn’t be looking for his location. Instead, we should be asking ourselves why he came here in the first place? Out of everywhere in the entire world, Dante came to Toronto, Canada. It’s wildly specific and makes almost no sense.”

Domenico nodded his head in agreement.

“That is a good point.” he mused.

“With a man like Dante Romano, there’s always a reason for everything that he does. Every single move he makes has a purpose.”

Domenico turned his attention towards his Don now.

“He’s come here for something, capo. We just need to find out what that something is. Then, who knows… maybe we can exploit it in some way? Get ahead of his intended plan and destroy it somehow.”

Vincenzo’s eyes narrowed as the corner of his mouth quirked upwards.

“I like the way you think, Domenico… as always.” he proudly praised his underling before turning to face Jack with the same proud expression.

“And you… what did you say your name was?”

Jack stood proudly as he replied to his Don, bowing his head slightly out of respect.

“Jack Strong, capo.”

“I see potential in you, boy. Keep up the good work.”

Vincenzo praised him briefly before turning his attention back towards his underling Domenico.

“Domenico, get the word out to our contacts. I want to know why the Reaper has come here and what he’s after. Ensure you get the point across that money is of no concern here, I want info and I want it now.”

Nodding his head, Domenico turned around with a sinister grin as he made his way across to where Jack was standing, stopping right in front of the younger male.

“You got a way of thinking that I find quite useful, kid.” he proclaimed, clasping Jacks’ shoulder in a friendly manner.

“How would you feel about working alongside me on this one?”

With his eyes widening in excitement and disbelief, Jack began vigorously nodding his head up and down at the offer.

“Hell yeah. I’m in.”

With that, Domenico gave a pleased nod right before spoke whilst simultaneously leading the younger henchman along with him as they exited the room.

“Come on kid, let’s get to work.”