My Mafia Madness 4

Chapter 8 - Jumping to Conclusions

At first Alexa wasn’t quite sure if she was mistaken or not as she stood staring at the intruding men now surrounding both her and Lanzo in the bedroom of the hotel room.

She couldn’t be one hundred percent certain if it was indeed him or not but could have sworn that it was as she stared particularly at the leader holding the gun up and aimed at Lanzo’s head.

Opening her mouth, she spoke the name aloud while hoping that she was right about this man’s identity.

“Gabriele?”

The leader’s eyes flicked directly to Alexa as his smirk morphed into a large smile.

“Gabriele Russo?”

“So, Miss Myers… you do remember me then.” he beamed happily.

“Good to know I’m not that easily forgettable.”

Letting out a sigh of relief, Alexa relaxed as soon as he had confirmed his identity. This man wasn’t here to make trouble.

Gabriele Russo was Nicola’s half-brother and totally loyal to the Reaper, which meant that he was on their side.

“You asshole…”

Alexa spoke sarcastically, storming across the room to where he stood.

“Seriously, you scared the s**t out of me with that stunt of yours just then.”

“You know me, I like to make an entrance.” he joked back at her.

As she approached him, Gabriele lowered his gun to his side as he used his free arm to wrap around her for a hug of greeting.

As they embraced warmly with one another for a moment, the other men working for Gabriele stood in silence just behind him.

Their eyes were all simultaneously locked onto Lanzo who remained sitting on the edge of the bed, unable to walk around too much right now.

Parting, Alexa seemed confused about something relating to his surprise visit and she quickly chose to ask Gabriele about it.

“Hey, how did you manage to get inside our room?” she questioned him with narrowed eyes.

“I know for a fact that the door was locked. You didn’t break it, did you?”

His smile grew unbelievably larger as he reached into his pocket and then held up the hotel key card he had used to gain entry.

But this baffled Alexa even more.

“How-”

“-I think you’ll find that I can be very persuasive.”

Gabriele mused, lowering the card and then repocketing it again as he went on.

“I convinced that gorgeous lady down at reception to give me a spare key to my sister’s room. Said I had something to deliver to her in person and needed to get in.”

“Seriously! That’s how you got the key card? No security checks or phone calls to confirm your story, or anything like that? Just, here you go…”

Alexa sounded taken aback.

“I am quite good at getting what I want, luv.” he chuckled proudly.

But his playful persona suddenly fell away as soon as he lifted his head to meet eyes with Lanzo sitting on the bed.

Now his expression showed sheer rage and anger as he lifted the gun up once again, aiming it at Lanzo as he spoke with a newly angered tone to his voice.

“And right now, I want this fucker’s head on a silver platter.” he snarled, his top lip lifting up enough that it exposed his canines as he spoke.

Alexa looked across at Lanzo with concern now as she reached out and placed her hand on top of the gun Gabriele had aimed at him. She made sure to speak as calmly as possible.

“Whoa, there’s no need for that, Gabriele. Lanzo’s on our side-”

“-Like hell he is!”

Gabriele cut in over the end of her.

“From what Dante said, this bastard’s working for Don Moroni. He’s nothing but a dirty, filthy stinking rat that needs to be put down!”

Alexa knew that she needed to quickly defuse the situation now before it escalated into anything more serious.

“Gabriele, put the gun down, please. It’s not like that at all, I swear. Lanzo isn’t working for Vincenzo. In fact, he willingly rescued me from my kidnappers.”

She tried explaining while forcing him to lower the gun back down by his side once again.

“Oh, I’m sure he did.” Gabriele spoke in a sarcastic tone.

“I’m sure he’s a real hero. Probably gave you some sort of sob story to explain why he was there at the villa tonight, right? Tried convincing you that he’s not really working for Moroni?”

Now Alexa was becoming somewhat annoyed that Gabriele wouldn’t listen to her properly.

He seemed to have made his own mind up and wouldn’t hear anything else she had to say.

Well, she would change that!

Summoning up all of her inner fire, Alexa’s eyes narrowed into a harsh glare as she raised her voice and shouted.

“THAT’S ENOUGH!”

The entire room went instantly silent as every one of the men turned to stare at her with wide eyes and stunned expressions upon their faces.

“My God, you’re all the same, every last one of you Mafia men! I’m so sick of being told how things are when you yourselves clearly have no f*****g clue whatsoever!”

Alexa was now venting all of her built up rage caused by her most recent kidnapping and seemed to be aiming it directly at poor Gabriele.

“Now, if you’d be so kind as to shut up and listen, maybe you wouldn’t go jumping to conclusions and we won’t have to murder an innocent man here this evening. Hmm?”

Gabriele’s stunned expression suddenly changed into one of impressed pride as he smiled back at her for choosing to stand up for herself at long last.

“Alright, alright… calm down luv…” he mused while lifting both his hands up in a form of surrender.

“Sorry if I overstepped. Go ahead, I’m all ears.”

Exhaling the remainder of her rage, Alexa took a moment to gather herself before she started to explain their current situation aloud to Gabriele and his men.

This was Alexa’s chance to try and explain why Lanzo didn’t deserve to be shot and killed right now for his betrayal to the Romano’s.

-

Meanwhile, Dante and the others were still on route and due to arrive at the hotel in less than five minutes or so.

After calling Nicola’s half-brother Gabriele and asking him to go and check in on Alexa before their scheduled arrival, Dante and his entourage of SUVs manoeuvred throughout the Long Island city streets, one block at a time until they finally arrived out the front of Hotel Nirvana.

They had finally arrived and now it was time to go upstairs and find Alexa.

A mixture of excitement and fear pulsed throughout the Reaper’s veins as he led his men from the parked vehicles and into the massive hotel through the entrance.

The lobby was somewhat empty at this time of the evening and one woman stood behind the front desk at reception.

She looked up and noticed the group of men now marching in her direction and the understandable look of fear danced about in her eyes.

Dante stopped by the reception desk his expression seemed cold as he spoke.

“Room 246… put it on my card, whatever the charges are.”

He pulled out a black platinum credit card and placed it onto the counter. It shimmered in the dim lighting of the lobby's giant foyer.

“I’m sorry?”

The receptionist questioned him, clearly not catching on as quickly as a powerful man like Dante Romano might have liked.

Completely ignoring her, Dante asked another question, gazing around behind her as if she weren't even there standing in front of him right now.

“Which floor is it on?”

The receptionist seemed stunned as she looked from the credit card back to Dante standing in front of her and patiently waiting for an answer to his question.

“Floor?” she asked, apparently yet again not following.

“Room 246… which floor is it on?” Dante repeated, this time a little slower and with a stern tone to his voice.

“Oh, uh 246… that room would be on the second floor, sir.” she spoke with a nervous smile.

With the information that he required, Dante then turned and began marching directly for the elevator, calling out one last thing over his shoulder as he continued along.

“I’ll be back for my card.”

Reaching out, the receptionist picked up the snazzy credit card from the reception’s black marble counter and examined it for a moment in a stunned silence.

There was a name printed on it and as soon as she read it her eyes widened in disbelief, as did her mouth.

‘MR. DANTE ROMANO’

“Holy s**t…”

She muttered under her breath as she looked up and watched the famous billionaire stepping into the lobby elevator along with several of his accompanying men.

It appeared that she had just unknowingly come face to face with one of the world’s wealthiest bachelors. Not to mention one of the most handsome ones.

Tonight’s shift at the hotel seemed to be more eventful than she initially thought it would be, and that’s a fact!

-

Now having had everything explained to him, Gabriele fully understood why Alexa had chosen to stand up for Lanzo when he had threatened his life earlier on.

And now everything made sense.

“Well, I suppose you can’t help who you’re related to.”

Gabriele admitted aloud with a shrug of his massive shoulders as he glanced across at Lanzo.

“I know I certainly can’t.”

Lanzo smiled, lowering his head as he struggled to take the kind words on board.

“The hard part of course will be convincing Dante to spare his life.” Alexa pointed out.

As she spoke, she simultaneously noticed as Lanzo stiffened for a moment from where he sat on the edge of the bed. She needed to reassure him.

“But leave that to me. I’ll speak with him in private. Explain everything. Then he’ll understand.”

“Are you sure about that?”

Gabriele questioned her with his left brow lifting upwards upon his forehead in challenge.

“I mean, Dante’s a smart man and everything. But to him, a traitor is still a traitor... and we all know what the Reaper does with rats.”

“Gabriele, you’re not helping here.” Alexa reminded him with a stern tone.

“Sorry, sorry… I’m just pointing out that it might not end as well as you’d hoped. That’s all.” he announced.

“Just… be ready when the s**t hits the fan, Alexa.”

And Gabriele was right on the money, as none other than Dante Romano himself, accompanied by his entourage of armed men finally arrived at the door to room 246 on the second floor of the hotel.

The brooding Don who stood in front of the closed door lifted his clenched fist up and knocked against the wooden barrier three times.

‘Knock, knock, knock…’