My Mafia Madness 2

Chapter 24 - The Risk of Losing Her

Lounging beside the large lagoon-sized swimming pool in a pair of bright white bikinis, Alexa had been making some great progress with learning to speak Italian over the past couple of weeks.

As she listened intently through the tiny Bluetooth wireless earbuds, one in each of her ears, and with her eyes closed to truly focus, she would hear the voice speak a phrase and then try repeating it herself aloud.

“I am going to the shops…. Sto andando ai negozi.” the feminine voice spoke into her ear.

“Sto andando ai negozi.” Alexa repeated, focusing on mirroring her pronunciation to that of the voice.

The voice spoke again, this time it was another commonly used phrase.

“You are beautiful… Sei bellissima.”

And Alexa copied.

“Sei bellissima.”

She continued this a couple more times before she felt the soft tapping of someone’s fingers on her right shoulder and opened her eyes, looking up to see who it was.

“Will?”

Alexa sat up more, taking out the earphones.

“What are you doing down here?”

“Roberto told me you were down here lounging about all on your little lonesome, so I thought I would come join you.” she explained, dumping her bag down beside the pool chair next to her bestie.

Alexa watched as Willow began to remove her shorts and tank top, revealing the cute little black draw-string bikini she was wearing underneath.

Her long wavy red hair fell down over her shoulders and across her back.

“So, tell me… what’s with the weird language you’re speaking?” Willow questioned, lifting her left brow.

“It’s Italian, Will… I’ve been learning to speak it for a while now. We are in Italy, remember?” Alexa explained.

“How could I forget. I mean, look at the size of this pool!” Willow gestured out towards the lagoon-sized pool in front of them.

“And this place… it’s amazing! I’m not kidding, girl, I may never want to leave here.”

“It’s definitely something...”

Alexa replied dryly, turning off her phone and putting both of her Bluetooth speakers back into their charging dock.

“So, what kind of things can you say in Italian?” Willow questioned her friend out of curiosity.

Alexa pursed her lips together, trying to think of something off the top of her head. Then it came to her, a phrase she had just learnt only moments earlier, and she smiled back at her friend.

“Sei bellissima.” she announced proudly.

Willow looked puzzled.

“Which means?”

“It means ‘you are beautiful’.” Alexa complimented her while still smiling.

Willow too smiled, bowing her head in a dramatic way as she spoke next.

“Why thank you…”

Alexa lifted her finger up into the air as she corrected her friend using incredible pronunciation.

“Ah-ah, it’s ‘grazie’.”

Willow chuckled before she forcibly corrected herself.

“Of course, I mean grassy… or whatever.”

Willow waved her hand about dismissively as she rolled her eyes and stepped in closer towards the sparkling water of the massive pool.

Alexa gave a short laugh at her friend’s lame attempt at speaking Italian before she too got herself up from the lounging chair and followed along after Willow to the edge of the pool.

The two sat beside one another, dipping their long legs into the crystal blue water.

The water was quite warm, having been heated by the sun at this time in the late morning, and Alexa let out a soft moan in delight.

“So... how did things go last night?”

Willow’s question got right to the point and Alexa let out a long, deep sigh before she spoke.

“Not so good.”

“Details, girl. Tell me what happened?”

Willow continued her interrogation, but with a softer voice as the two kicked their legs together in the warm water.

“Well, you saw what happened in the club…”

“Yeah, what about when you got home?”

Alexa shook her head as she spoke.

“He… locked me in his room.”

Willow quickly turned her head to face her friend, her eyes wide with disbelief and shock at what she had just heard.

“He did not!”

“Yeah, he did.” Alexa argued, chuckling.

“What a possessive prick!” Willow spat, frowning and shaking her head.

“That’s not even the end of it.” Alexa admitted with a pleased smirk tugging at the corner of her lips.

“Apparently Mr. Romano couldn’t quite hold his liqour last night. The man downed an entire bottle of scotch all on his own. Roberto and Nicola had to cart his unconscious ass up to bed hours later.”

Willow looked dumbfounded by this, her mouth agape.

“What gives him the right to treat you that way?” Willow questioned, her infuriation at Dante’s actions obvious.

“I mean, I get that he’s filthy rich and that he’s probably used to getting his way all the time, but it’s still no excuse. I thought he cared about you. You don’t do that to someone you care about.”

Alexa was silent for a moment, as if deep in thought as she stared ahead of her at the rippling water their legs were dipping down into.

She knew the real reason why Dante had reacted the way he had last night.

His continuous feud of resentment and jealousy with his youngest brother Matteo, resulting in the heartbreaking suicide of a woman he had once loved.

She knew the reason, but she couldn’t tell her friend about it.

It simply wasn’t her place to do so.

In fact, Alexa had been up thinking about her relationship with Dante Romano since before the sun had managed to rise this morning, and she was able to come to a decision that she felt justified with.

Yes, she had decided that she would fight for him... for their love.

But she would wait for him to come to her first.

Alexa believed that she deserved an apology for his explosive actions, even though in Dante’s mind, they were done with a valid reason behind them.

Dante hurt her feelings by hiding the truth about his feud with Matteo from her this entire time. And his choice to hide such a terrible secret had in turn caused such a horrible disaster to occur.

So far however, there had been no sign of the Don the entire morning, and Alexa was beginning to worry herself that perhaps he wouldn’t want to come and see her.

Maybe he still angry with her about the night before.

Did he blame her for Matteo’s actions on the dance floor?

Alexa knew that Dante must have seen his younger brother with both arms wrapped around her last night. Why else would he have reacted in such a violent way like that?

Shaking her head from side to side as her concerns slowly ate away at her from the inside, the blonde beauty surprised Willow when she suddenly pulled herself up to stand and then dove off the edge into the cool, crystal blue water with a soft ‘splash’.

Alexa was escaping the whole situation by swimming away.

She needed to clear her head.

Willow instead slid herself down into the water from the edge and then proceeded to wade herself out deeper, following along after her bestie.

She knew that something else was on her best friend’s mind right now. It was clear as day to her.

There was something Alexa wasn’t telling her and she was determined to find out what it was.

-

The meeting had finished in around fifteen minutes and Dante had been released from his duties as CEO by his brother Roberto immediately afterwards.

The head of the Romano family currently stood by the patio window, peering out through the large glass doorway leading out onto the back veranda where the large pool was located.

From his position by the door, he could see his beautiful Alexa as she swam along through the cool, blue water of his giant lagoon-sized pool.

Dante’s heart ached at being kept apart from her.

He wanted more than anything to run out there and jump into the water with her. He pictured embracing her with his loving arms and claiming her delicious mouth with his own.

Caught up in his little daydream, Dante hadn’t yet noticed as Nicola came up to stand beside him at the window.

His second-in-command also looked outside to see the girls swimming in the pool and smirked knowingly, though he said nothing about it at the time.

“Hey boss, you feeling alright?” Nicola finally asked.

Dante immediately snapped out of his daze and closed his eyes for a split second before turning to face his friend.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

Nicola gave his boss a curious expression.

“You did drink a hell of a lot last night.” he reminded.

“You sure you should be up and about like this?”

Dante shrugged both his shoulders, his gaze returning back to Alexa as she continued swimming outside.

And of course, Nicola noticed this.

“Why don’t you go out and talk to her?” Nicola suggested, stepping unusually out of bounds for his job’s description.

Once again, Dante’s eyes flicked to Nicola in a darkened glare.

It was almost as if the Reaper side of him was warning his second-in-command not to continue speaking about Alexa.

“You forget your place.” the Don warned with lifted brows.

Nicola immediately went on to explain his comment.

“I don’t mean to overstep, Capo. It’s just…”

Nicola paused, glancing out through the glass at Dante’s woman for a second as he found the words to continue and went on.

“You have yourself one hell of a woman… and after what happened last night, I know you wouldn’t want to risk losing her. Not over something like this.”

Even though it was coming from a man working for him, Dante considered Nicola to be a good friend of his and would gladly heed his advice regarding Alexa.

And in all honesty, he was right.

Dante wouldn’t risk losing Alexa… not for anything.

He needed to make things right between them once more.

And suddenly, an idea began to form.

The Mafia Boss locked eyes on his beauty as he spoke again, this time in a softer tone.

“Nicola, what do I have scheduled for today?”

“Let me check.”

Nicola reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his phone.

He then began scrolling through the Don’s calendar in search of any important meetings or events he would need to attend.

“You’ve already had your Skype meeting with head office this morning… your next appointment isn’t until two this afternoon.”

“What is that?” Dante queried, still with his sights fixed on Alexa as she glided along through the water.

“Er… looks like it’s a phone call with your father, Capo.” Nicola reported, his eyes on the notes on his phone.

“Anything else for today or this evening perhaps?” Dante went on to double check.

“No boss. That’s all you have scheduled for the day and from what I can tell, your night appears to be free as well.”

Dante thought for a moment to himself before he finally smiled.

“I have an idea… but I’m going to need your help to pull it off.”

-

By now, it had been over an hour of swimming together in the pool and the two were now casually chatting and giggling like schoolgirls.

They had spent their time together discussing how Alexa felt, and that Dante had wronged her. But she didn't entirely blame him either and that was something that Willow couldn't understand.

Both Alexa and Willow were now lounging beside one another in the spa section of the pool as the discussion once again returned to an all-too familiar topic.

Dante.

“So… about Dante… what are you planning on doing?” Willow finally found the courage to ask.

“I mean, I know he’s rich and handsome as f**k, but… how do you really feel about the guy. And be honest with me. You know I can tell if you're lying.”

Alexa leaned her head back against the edge of the pool and blinked for a second before she voiced her response.

“I’m in love with him, Will.”

Willow turned her head and body around to look at her friend with a baffled expression.

“Like… he’s fun to be around kind of love, or I’d die without him love?” Willow queried in her usually quirky manner.

Alexa didn’t need to think. She answered almost immediately with a smile.

“The second one for sure…”

Willow’s brows both rose in unison again, lifting high onto her forehead as she contemplated just how serious things had become between her bestie and the infamous billionaire CEO Dante Romano.

A lot had happened between them since their first ‘this isn’t a date’ dinner that Willow had helped her friend prepare for with her at the time boss.

And so much had changed in that time as well.

She took in a deep breath before exhaling just as slowly.

“Well… that’s some crazy shit.” the red head admitted softly.

The two sat in silence for a minute or two before Willow finally spoke again, this time with a sinister motive.

“So, if you feel that way about him, girl… why the f**k are you out here with me?”

Alexa frowned, turning to face her friend in question.

“Get your sexy ass back inside. You go find your man and show him how much you want him. Make him remember just how special you are.”

Alexa could feel tears welling up at the back of her eyes at her friend’s words.

Willow was absolutely right.

What the hell was she doing out here when she could be in there making things right between them right now!

Alexa couldn’t help but smile in thanks as she nodded her head at her bestie.

“I love ya, Will.” she announced happily.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah… go on. Go show that man what he’s been missing!”

Willow gestured with a nod of her chin for her friend to go now while she felt brave enough.

Turning around Alexa then proceeded to climb the stairs out of the pool and walked over to where her towel was laying over the back of her lounge chair.

Drying the majority of the pool water off of her with the fluffy white towel in her hands, now warmed by the sun it had been sitting in, she gathered together all of her remaining courage for what she would do next.

Alexa was going to go and see Dante.

Now her only problem would be finding him.