My Mafia Madness 2

Chapter 37 - Plans of Betrayal

Not long after the Reaper had instructed Nicola to track down Alexa’s stollen phone to its exact location, Dante’s loyal second-in-command came marching upstairs to meet with his boss rather urgently.

Nicola had worked fast, and he had very important news to share with his Capo.

But unfortunately, it was news that Dante might not want to hear…

Making his way down the next hall, the well-built henchman stopped just outside the bedroom door, patting his friend Luca on the back with a smile.

Luca had been posted as a guard by Alexa’s door, as per their Don’s orders.

He was sitting on a singular chair positioned to the left of the doorway, his phone in his right hand.

“I see you got roped into guard duty, huh?” Nicola teased with a grin.

“Yeah, yeah… laugh all you want.” Luca retorted, rolling his eyes.

“Your turn’s coming, Nic… count on it.”

Chuckling softly, Nicola then turned to face the door and suddenly, appeared to change in his demeanour entirely as he let out a long sigh.

He now seemed quite tense… worried even.

And Luca immediately noticed, narrowing his eyes with sudden interest.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Luca queried, turning his head and pocketing his phone.

The second-in-command then met Luca’s gaze with an expression he rarely ever wore. Nicola Russo, a man who feared hardly anything, actually looked worried!

Luca knew something was up.

And whatever it was, it was big!

“I know that look, Nic…” Luca reminded his long-time friend, coming to stand up from his seat positioned beside the bedroom door.

“You’ve found something, haven’t you?”

Nicola puffed out his chest, glancing at the door that would lead him into where both Alexa and Dante were patiently waiting for news.

And boy did he have news for them!

“If you wanna hear it, you’d better join us, Luc.” Nicola commanded.

His serious expression never once faltered, not even for a single second as he reached out his clenched fist and knocked it loudly against the door three times.

‘Knock, knock, knock…’

Both Luca’s eyebrows lifted high onto his forehead at Nicola’s unexpected invitation.

Whatever it was that Nicola had just found out, it had to be pretty serious to have someone like Nicola shaken like this.

A commanding voice suddenly called out from inside the room, granting them entry.

“Come in.”

Reaching for the handle, Nicola then proceeded to open the door before leading Luca inside the bedroom.

As the two men entered, they each peered across to where both Dante and Alexa were sitting together beside the electronic fireplace, arm in arm with one another.

The couple simultaneously glanced across at their guests in question as both Nicola and Luca strolled across the length of the guest room, quickly closing the gap between them and their Don.

Dante was the first to speak.

“Boys… tell me you found something.”

Nicola nodded his head as he stopped beside the seat closest to his Capo.

“Yeah… and you’re not gonna like it.” Nicola admitted hesitantly, casting his eyes downward as he fidgeted with both hands.

This caused the Reaper to narrow his eyes as he spoke.

“What is it?” Dante queried with obvious authority.

But once again Nicola hesitated, his eyes flicking across to where Alexa sat in her comfortable chair positioned beside the fireplace for a brief second.

She was seated next to Dante who held her hand in his as the pair both looked at Nicola, eagerly awaiting whatever it was that had him so worked up.

This was strangely unlike him.

Judging from the hesitant glance at her, however, it was clear that Nicola felt what he had to say would not be something Alexa should hear.

And Dante quickly read the hesitation in Nicola’s demeanour.

“Perhaps we should… speak in your office, boss?” Nicola suggested.

Alexa turned to look at Dante in question. She didn’t understand why Nicola wouldn’t want to share the news with her.

Why couldn’t she hear what they had to say?

Deciding that Nicola probably had a good enough reason to imply they speak privately, Dante went into ‘boss mode’ and calmly turned to face Alexa, squeezing her hand with a comforting smile.

“It’s alright, bella. You just stay here and relax by the warmth of the fire.” he assured her, moving to stand up and planting a soft kiss on her hand before he released his hold on it.

“We won’t be too long, I promise.”

Sighing with defeat, Alexa gave her response sadly, feeling she had no choice in the matter.

“Ok.”

With that, she watched on as the three men all turned and headed back out through the doorway, leaving her alone once more.

Luca of course would have someone come to stand guard by her door before they left, but more than anything right now, Alexa felt she needed company.

Support for all that she was going through.

Alexa was a smart young woman. She already knew that there would be some things in their future lives together that Dante would have to keep hidden from her, to ensure that she remained well protected from the dark and grotesque details of his seedy Mafia world.

But she also hoped that he would include her in some of it too. Not the gross stuff of course, but some of his ideas and concerns along the way.

She wanted to be there for him, as his equal.

It was important for Alexa that she wasn’t kept in the dark for the rest of their lives together.

But was that a realistic expectation for her to have?

-

“Alright Nicola, enough with the drama… what have you found?” Dante commanded as he, Nicola and Luca all stepped into his large office and closed the door behind them.

Nicola appeared hesitant, afraid almost as he fought to meet his Capo’s gaze.

“Like I said before, I don’t think you’re gonna like what I have to say, boss.” Nicola announced solemnly as he came to sit down on one of the chairs.

Dante remained silent, crossing his arms over his chest as he waited with rare patience.

“I tracked down the GPS location of Alexa’s phone as you requested, and it led me to a large compound just outside of Puglia. And not just any compound either, mind you.”

Nicola began his report with his eyes fixated on Dante’s the entire time, even when he paused for a moment, allowing his boss to query.

“Who owns the compound?” Dante questioned in all seriousness.

“That’s the part you’re not gonna like…” Nicola admitted hesitantly.

“The compound… it belongs to the De Luca’s.”

Dante’s eyes immediately widened into a hue of blazing fiery green upon hearing this, his expression filled with unrelenting disbelief and fury at what he had just heard Nicola announce.

The De Luca’s owned the property…

Did that mean that they were somehow involved in Alexa’s attack?

“You’re sure of this?”

Dante’s voice was softer than normal, unusually soft.

“Yeah, and there’s more.” Nicola admitted, continuing on with his report.

“From what I’ve found, it looks like the De Luca’s hired the man who attacked Alexa. That’s why her phone ended up at their compound…”

As Nicola continued to explain, Dante began to feel his rage building up from within as his pulse throbbed loudly over and over within his head.

His eyes were now narrowed slits and beneath his sealed lips, his teeth gritted together.

“From what my sources told me, the guy who attacked her was a hired hitman, well known around these parts. The prick poses himself as a homeless person to keep himself off radar while following his marks and taking them out.” Nicola finished.

“So, you’re saying the De Luca’s were the ones responsible for Alexa’s attack?”

Dante’s voice was much deeper now and sounded demonic in its tone. He was doing everything he could to hold back his frustration from being unleashed right here and now.

“It looks that way, boss.” Nicola admitted solemnly.

“Although from what I can tell, they had help… someone from within our own ranks tipped them off when Alexa left the restaurant. That’s how the hitman knew where and when to find her.”

Dante’s eyes narrowed even further as he thought of the possibility of someone working for him betraying him like this.

A rat…

How he loathed rats.

His anger boiled to the surface, suddenly unable to be controlled anymore.

“AAARGGH!”

Both Luca and Nicola quickly stepped back as Dante suddenly let out a demonic roar while reaching down and grasping at the underside of his large oak desk.

The Mafia Boss easily flipped the large piece of furniture over in one swift movement, causing it to ‘crash’ loudly on its side.

“I want whoever leaked that information found! NOW!” he commanded angrily.

The desk’s contents were now messily scattered all across the floor as the Reaper reached for his trusty pair of twin-black glocks from the nearby table’s surface.

Each of the matching guns had been specially designed for the Reaper, having been given to him as a twenty-first birthday present many years ago.

Both guns had a detailed picture of a sickle carved into them, just like Dante had tattooed on the side of his neck.

It was after all his infamous trademark.

Both Nicola and Luca watched on with concern as their Don slid both weapons forcefully into their matching black leather holsters on each side of his hips.

It was clearly evident that Dante’s entire body was now tensed up with uncontrollable anger as he let loose verbally.

“I’ll kill every single one of them!” Dante snarled loudly, monstrously.

It was around now that both henchmen decided to try and step in to defuse their capo from exploding like an active volcano.

Dante was clearly on edge right now.

“Boss, come over here and sit down, huh?” Nicola tried prompting with the intention of distracting him from his current thoughts.

“We need to talk strategy.”

But Dante appeared to completely ignore his second-in-command as the Don marched angrily towards the doors.

He was focused solely on his mission of revenge.

Luca looked to Nicola with a panicked expression. They needed to do something to try and calm their anger-fuelled capo down.

Nicola thought of the only thing that might stop his boss from leaving and before he knew what he was doing, he blurted it out.

“What about Alexa?”

Dante froze mid-step at the mention of her name. Then, slowly, he turned back around to face Nicola with a stern expression on his face.

“What about her?” Dante demanded.

“Have you thought about her in all of this? About what might happen to her should you choose to start a war with the De Luca family? You know she will become their prime target… of the danger that you would put her in…” Nicola explained.

And Dante appeared to listen as his at first tense expression suddenly softened within a matter of seconds.

Nicola was right.

Alexa had already been fixated on by the local crime family. If Dante started something he couldn’t finish out of anger, who knows what might happen to her in the crossfire!

He wouldn’t risk anything happening to her, especially now with her carrying their child.

Taking a long, deep inhale of air into his lungs and closing his eyes, the Reaper calmed himself enough to slowly make his way back over to where both Nicola and Luca now sat on the lounge chairs around a dark wood coffee table.

Dante too sat down, joining them.

“What do you propose I do?” Dante questioned Nicola in a calming manner.

Nicola looked to Luca for a moment before replying.

“If you’re gonna do this, boss, we’ve gotta do it right.” he reminded, leaning forward in his seat.

“With careful planning and level heads. Don’t get me wrong… we’ll make ’em pay. But we need to be smart about this if we want to pull it off.”

Dante’s emerald eyes flicked from Nicola to Luca, then back to Nicola again before he eventually nodded his head in agreeance.

“Very well. But not a word of this reaches Alexa, do we understand?” the Don reminded with a look of obvious authority shared between them.

“The last thing she needs to know right now is that my enemies want her dead.”

“Got it, capo.” Luca agreed from where he sat off to the side.

“Loud and clear.” Nicola added.

“First thing’s first… I need more information about the De Luca’s and their plan to have Alexa taken out. I want to know who was behind it on our side…” Dante announced, leaning forward a little more.

“Bring me that hitman… alive.”