My Mafia Madness 2

Chapter 34 - Spilled Secrets

Meeting his younger brother in the parlour, along with several other henchmen working for his older brother Dante, Roberto strolled into the room with a large grin on his face.

“What’s this?” he asked, gesturing outwards with a wave of his hands at the surrounding room.

“Drinking on the job, are we? What the hell are we paying you for huh?”

Matteo laughed a sinister, deep laugh at his brother as he lifted himself up from his stool and closed the gap between them, patting Roberto on the back in a friendly manner.

“Hey man, you know how it is… when the capo is away…”

“Yeah, yeah… the mice will play.” Roberto finished, nodding his head and moving to join them seated around a large timber table now covered in drinks.

“Fair enough.”

Matteo sat back down on the stool beside Roberto and picked up his bottle of tequila, taking a long scull down the length of his throat.

“What a f*****g crazy-assed night.”

Roberto sighed out the words, gratefully accepting the bottle from Cecilio as he came and handed it to him.

“It certainly was not meant to go down like that, I’ll tell ya…”

Matteo frowned, turning to face his brother in question.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

Roberto suddenly realised his massive error and turned away from Matteo, avoiding eye contact entirely.

And of course, this only caused his brother to be even more interested in whatever it was that he was hiding.

“Robbo… you’re hiding something from me.” he announced, knowingly narrowing his emerald eyes.

Roberto swallowed nervously, taking a large mouthful of the tequila and swallowing it down.

“Tell me.” Matteo demanded.

Roberto shook his head, signalling his response was inarguably ‘no’.

“Hey, come on man. Since when do we keep secrets from one another?” Matteo demanded, sitting upright on his stool.

“I’ve told you everything since I was a kid… come on, lay it on me.”

Sucking in another deepened breath, Roberto quickly glanced around the room, as if checking to see who was with them as he spoke in a soft voice, leaning in closer towards his baby brother.

“Fine, but this goes no further than this room, understood?” Roberto warned with a stern gaze.

“Got it… now dish.” Matteo agreed.

“Dante was proposing to Alexa tonight…”

Matteo’s emerald eyes widened to the size of saucers, and he froze.

“You serious?”

Roberto nodded his head, taking another mouthful down his throat before going on.

“Had the whole thing planned out down to every little detail. It was all meant to be perfect… I have no idea what the f**k went so wrong. How Alexa even got attacked in the first place, but…”

He trailed off, lowering his head in defeat.

“Dante’s gonna be crushed.” Roberto said softly.

“Especially when he finds out about-“

Roberto immediately paused, silencing himself as soon as he realised that he was about to let loose another massive secret he had been struggling to keep locked away.

And of course, like a moth to the flame, Matteo leaned in with a massive interest in what his brother was about to announce.

“Finds out about what?” he urged.

Roberto shook his head rapidly, showing the stand he was making right here and now. He refused to tell Matteo about his other uncomfortable secret.

In all truth, it wasn’t his secret to tell.

“Na, man. I can’t.” Roberto insisted.

“Hey, no secrets, remember?” Matteo urged, tilting his head off to the side.

“No, not this Matteo.” Roberto suddenly stood up from his stool and placed the half-finished bottle down onto the table.

Matteo couldn’t see the harm in it and frowned as he watched his brother abruptly turning and heading for the door.

“Roberto! Wait!”

Matteo called out after his brother, but Roberto was out the door before he could say anything else.

Leaning down onto the table in front of him, Matteo sat wondering what it was that Roberto would keep hidden from him.

He noticed how uncomfortable his brother was with whatever information this was, so it most likely had to be big news of some kind…

But what on Earth could be bigger than Dante popping the question?

-

Several hours had passed and by the time Dante finally did wake from his drug-induced slumber, the sun was filtering in through the cracks between the curtain covering the large windows of his massive room.

Groaning with obvious discomfort and blinking the sleepiness from his eyes, the Mafia Don slowly sat himself up in the bed to find that he was still fully dressed in his suit from the night prior.

His shoes had been taken off, but he was still wearing his socks on both feet.

Frowning, he tried to recall his last moments the night prior. To find a reason as to why he would be fully dressed and in his own bed.

Lifting his hands up to wipe over his tired face, he suddenly froze at the sight of them.

The hand he now held up in front of his face was covered in what appeared to be dried blood and his heart sank deep down into the pit of his stomach as the memories came flooding back.

“Alexa…” he whispered with concern.

His emerald eyes were wide with fear as he immediately threw off his covers and got out of bed, headed in a frantic jog towards the door.

-

Alexa was awake and in the middle of a conversation with Willow when a frantic Dante came bolting straight into the guest room, stopping just inside the doorway with his wide eyes locked on her.

His expression alone showed the height of his concern as he panted softly to himself.

“Bella… are you alright?” he spoke, closing the distance between them within a matter of seconds and stopping right beside her at the edge of the bed.

“I’m fine.” Alexa replied, watching as Willow took a few steps back to give them a bit more space to talk.

His two hands worked together to scoop up her right hand, sandwiching it between his as he crouched down to her level and began looking her over.

Assessing her current state.

Alexa was currently wearing a black lacey bra and matching underwear from last night.

The doctor had already visited her earlier on this morning, checking over and redressing her wound for a second time, but Alexa hadn’t yet had the chance to clean herself off in the shower since waking up.

The dried blood stains covering her stomach and surrounding area were still visible and were becoming irritatingly itchy.

The skin of her face still appeared to be slightly paler in shade.

Even with the blanket pulled up to cover her hips, Dante could see the white bandage covering the side of her stomach and felt a sweeping sensation of guilt and failure for allowing such a horrible thing to happen to her.

Especially last night…

The evening had taken such a dark and sinister turn so quickly.

“I was so afraid.” he admitted openly, not seeming to care that Willow could hear his confession.

“For a while there, I thought that I might lose you...”

Alexa, who was surprised by his open admission of fear, found it strange as she sat staring back at him in silence.

For the first time since she had met this great and powerful man, she had clearly seen the intense fear and terror in his eyes.

This was a man who did not fear anything, not even death!

And yet, right here and now, it was evident that he was capable of experiencing fear…

The fear of losing her.

Glancing across at Willow for support, Alexa knew that this was the best chance she would get to break the news of her pregnancy to Dante.

With everything they had been through most recently, she felt that he deserved to know the truth. And that he should hear it from her lips alone.

Biting her bottom lip nervously, she fought her inner anxiety in this moment, in order to stay strong enough to do it.

“Dante… I need to tell you something. Something important…”

She forced the words out of her mouth, bringing her left hand around to place on top of his as she looked him in the eye with a comforting smile.

Dante smiled back at her, lifting one of his hands up to brush a stray strand of her silky hair away from her eye and lovingly tucking it in behind her ear.

“Of course, amore mio. What is it?” he spoke kindly to her, lovingly.

Sucking in a deep breath, as if it would somehow give her the apparent strength she needed, Alexa exhaled before she opened her mouth and tried to speak the words.

But the words would not leave her mouth.

Her brows furrowed inwards as she felt a sudden panic washing over her.

And luckily, Willow was smart enough to cut in and assist her friend in this urgent time of need.

“Lex, you got this.” Willow spoke comfortingly to Alexa from where she stood at the other side of the room.

Nodding, Alexa moved her gaze from that of her friend back to Dante once more.

This time instead of speaking the words aloud, she did the next best thing and grabbed his nearest hand.

Opening his palm, Alexa lowered it down onto her stomach before slowly lifting her gaze up to meet his.

She was searching for his reaction.

Alexa’s heart was pulsing loudly, and she could feel as panic reared its ugly head.

Silently, she hoped and prayed that he would react positively to the news. She needed him to be happy about this and not to turn on her.

Dante, with his open palm now resting on Alexa’s stomach, looked down at his hand with a confused expression for a moment before he finally lifted his gaze up to meet hers again.

As much as she had hoped that he would be smiling right now, her heart sank when she saw the unexpected fear within his eyes as they met hers.

He wasn’t happy.

He looked terrified!

“You’re…” he trailed off, allowing her to finish his sentence.

And she did, quickly.

“Pregnant… yes.” she spoke almost a whisper in response.

The room went uncomfortably silent for a moment before Dante surprised both women by suddenly standing up.

She felt her heart sink at the sudden loss of his touch.

Alexa watched on as the Don appeared lost, confused even as he found it difficult to look her in the eye.

His body appeared tense and panicky.

Finally, Dante abruptly turned around and began striding back out through the open doorway where he had come from only moments earlier.

“Dante? Where are you going?” she called out after him with a look of betrayal painted across her angelic face.

“Dante!”

Seeing this unfortunate reaction, Willow immediately moved in closer to be there for her friend, knowing full well that this would shatter Alexa’s heart into a thousand tiny pieces.

The way that Dante had reacted just now; she couldn’t believe that he would just walk out on Alexa like that.

Willow quickly came to sit beside her friend on her bed and reached in, wrapping both arms around Alexa as the newly pregnant woman began to sob painfully into her friend’s embrace.

Tears cascaded down both sides of her cheeks as she closed her eyes and allowed her emotions to take hold of her.

“He left…”

Alexa whimpered in shock.

“He just left…”

Willow hugged her friend even tighter now, lowering her chin to rest on the top of Alexa’s head as her friend continued to cry in her arms.

“I’m here, girl…”

Willow spoke solemnly.

“Don’t worry, we’ll get through this.”

-

Dante had never felt more conflicted in his entire life than he did in this sudden situation, right here and now.

The sudden and unexpected panic attack he had experienced when hearing the news hadn’t helped him much either.

In fact, it made him look like a heartless prick, especially to Alexa.

As he stood out on the balcony connected to his private office, the Mafia Don’s mind was a chaotic mass of endless questions and shadowing concerns for his future.

A future he had happily planned to share with the beautiful Alexa Myers.

But everything was different now…

Alexa was pregnant.

And that meant he was going to be a father.

The thought of such a thing had him more worried than anything he had ever experienced before in his entire life… and Dante Romano had experienced some really terrible things being who and what he was. Make no mistake about that!

But the simple truth was, he feared becoming a father himself.

His own father was such a selfish monster... cruel and unforgiving.

The way that Dante and his brothers had been abused and beaten by their ruthless and uncaring father in the past had scarred him incredibly deeply.

And in turn, this caused the Mafia Don to feel a great amount of doubt in his abilities to one day become a parent himself.

He refused to allow a child to experience what he had been forced to in the past.

The sound of footsteps approaching from behind pulled him out of such darkened thoughts and Dante turned around to see Roberto coming to stand beside him at the edge of the balcony.

Clearly, his brother had been filled in on what had just taken place between him and Alexa. Probably by Willow, no doubt.

Dante spoke softly as the taller Romano brother leaned down onto his elbows against the edge of the railing.

“I really f****d up in there, huh?” the Reaper asked.

Roberto chuckled before he gave his response.

“You probably could have handled it a bit better, yeah.” he admitted.

“Did you know about the pregnancy?” Dante queried, perhaps already knowing the answer.

“Yeah.”

Dante nodded his head, closing his eyes and lowering his head solemnly.

“You do know that you’re nothing like him, right?”

Roberto surprised his older brother by announcing this and Dante turned to look at his brother with a new interest in what he had meant.

“I'm nothing like who?” Dante asked.

“Our father… you’re nothing like him.” Roberto repeated in all seriousness.

“I know that’s why you high-tailed it out of there, Dante. You’re afraid that you’ll end up just like him… make the same mistakes he did…”

Roberto turned his entire body, placing both hands on either of Dante’s shoulders now as he looked his brother square in the eye and delivered the next part of what he had to say.

“You’re ten times the man Diego Romano could ever be, Dante. Do you hear me? You’ve always been there for me and Matteo, ever since we were little. You’ve had our backs through it all… if anyone deserves the chance at becoming a father, it’s you.”

Dante appeared taken aback, unable to formulate words as his eyes began to fill with unshed tears.

“That woman loves you, man. And now you’ve been blessed with a child. You have no idea of how lucky you are to have what you have, Dante… believe me.” Roberto reminded with a smile.

“Your future… it’s what you alone make of it.”

Closing his eyes to fight back the oncoming tears, Dante spoke while reopening them once more.

“What if I f**k it all up?”

Roberto squeezed both his brother’s shoulders as he gave his reply.

“We all f**k things up every now and then… it’s what makes us human. But somehow, we manage to make things right. To fix things. Like you need to fix things right now…”

Dante got the message loud and clear, nodding his head.

“That woman… she’s the complete package, Dante. It’s like she was made for you.” Roberto reminded wisely.

“And because of the way you reacted back there, she’s hurting right now… badly. Unless you want to lose her for good, I’d get my ass back in there right now...”

Dante glanced towards the door leading inside as Roberto spoke one last time.

“Get in there and give her a damn good reason not to leave... now before it’s too late!”