My Mafia Madness 2

Chapter 22 - A Haunting History of Betrayal

After around half an hour of drunken target practice on Alonzo, Dante finally passed out, collapsing from his chair to the floor below as the expensive scotch took hold of his system.

Luckily for him, Nicola was out doing his usual rounds and happened to notice the Mafia Boss laying on the floor beside his chair when he came to check the cell.

He quickly swept into action, picking Dante up and carrying him out, headed on his way up towards the Don’s shared room.

On his way up, Nicola was joined by Roberto who assisted him by grabbing Dante’s opposite shoulder and helping to carry the unconscious Mafia Boss upstairs, one step at a time.

Roberto wasn’t surprised at finding Dante like this.

His older brother had always been terrible at communicating his issues.

Rather, he would often resort to befriending the bottle instead. Something he had always done.

A Mafia Don rarely had anyone to confide in when things got tough.

“Come on bro…” Roberto mused with a smirk.

“Let’s get you into bed.”

-

The large bedroom was incredibly dark when Alexa was suddenly awoken to the sound of the door opening.

At first she panicked, confused as to who would be coming in at such an early hour in the morning, but then she stilled and watched from her position sitting upright on the mattress with a confused frown on her face.

“What’s going on?” she called out.

Two large figures stumbled inside carrying someone held up between the two of them.

From where she sat, she couldn’t quite see who the two men were, but from their height and builds she could only assume they worked for Dante.

Reaching across to turn on the lamp beside her bed, the light flickered on and immediately illuminated the entire room in a soft, comforting glow.

It was Roberto and Nicola and the two of them were dragging Dante along, who appeared to be unconscious, held up by both his shoulders.

Her eyes widened as she threw the covers back and got out of the bed.

“Oh my god, Dante!” she cried out in concern, quickly crossing the room to join them.

“What happened to him?”

“He drowned his sorrows in scotch, that’s what.” Roberto replied bluntly as the two men proceeded to carry him across the room towards the bed.

Closing her eyes for a second, Alexa let out a sigh and shook her head as she followed along after them.

She watched as they lifted him up and laid him down on his back, with his head resting neatly on the pillow beneath.

He was still fully dressed in his expensive suit and polished shoes as he lay there peacefully on the mattress.

Nicola turned and exited the room in silence, while Roberto turned to face Alexa.

“Let him sleep it off.” he announced, shaking his head as he glanced back at his brother in disappointment.

“Don’t worry, he’ll be back to his usually pleasant self by morning.”

“I seriously can’t believe the way he’s acted tonight. I just don’t understand…” Alexa admitted solemnly, placing both her hands onto her hips.

“He punched his own brother for Christ’s sake! You saw it.”

Roberto looked to her and licked his lips, sighing heavily.

He was aware that Alexa knew nothing about Dante’s past relationships.

Of the troubles he had experienced courtesy of his baby brother and the reason for his actions this evening.

And for some strange reason, perhaps due to how important Alexa had become to them more recently, Roberto felt compelled to explain things a little more for her.

So that she could understand Dante’s actions as he did.

He knew that his brother would probably kill him for it later on, but in the moment, he didn’t seem to care.

“Look, I know that it might have looked like Dante was acting like a complete ass back there at the club, but he had a pretty good reason to react the way he did with Matteo.” Roberto announced.

“If you ask me, my little brother had it coming.”

Alexa frowned.

She had no idea what he meant by this.

“What are you talking about? What on Earth justifies being punched in the face like that?”

Chewing the inside of his mouth for a moment, Roberto hesitantly glanced across at his sleeping brother before letting out yet another sigh of defeat.

Hesitance radiated from his posture as he appeared to be thinking something over.

Finally, he decided to tell her the truth about Dante’s past.

Not everything, but enough for her to begin to understand his reasons for such extreme jealousy.

“Come over here with me and have a seat.”

He gestured with a nod of his head towards the sitting area close by and the two proceeded to move over there, each sitting down on the comfortable chairs to continue their apparent discussion.

Rubbing at his bearded chin with his large hand, Roberto seemed worried in his expression, as if he couldn’t seem to relax.

Even so, he began to tell the story to her.

“It all happened a while ago. At the time, Dante was in a close relationship with a girl named Michelle he met back in high school. In fact, they were high school sweethearts and they’d been together for years. The two were totally inseparable, it was kinda sickening actually…” he paused, scrunching up his face playfully, in an effort to lighten the mood.

“Ok?” she prompted him to continue.

“Go on.”

“Well, on the night of their college graduation…” once again he paused, as if unsure if he should continue with the story all of a sudden.

Alexa reached out, placing her hand onto Roberto’s as she spoke softly.

Comfortingly.

“Please, go on. I need to know what the hell’s going on here.” she urged.

“Not knowing is driving me insane.”

Swallowing his remaining nerves, he forced himself to continue with the story.

“Matteo…” he cleared his throat, “…he seduced her the night of our college graduation. f****d her that night too.”

Alexa’s eyes widened in a mixture of disbelief and shock at his admission.

“He didn’t!”

Roberto remained silent while nodding his head in response.

“s**t!” she muttered to herself, lowering her gaze towards the floor.

“The truth was, Matteo had no interest in Michelle whatsoever. In fact, my asshole of a brother went and dumped her the very next day.” Roberto admitted in embarrassment.

“Can you believe that?”

Alexa couldn’t.

She suddenly began to see Matteo in an entirely different light than up until now.

Sure, he had always been rather flirty with her, but she never thought he would actually defy his brother in such a way.

Such a terrible way.

Roberto went on as she listened intently.

“Dante told me that she came crawling back to him days after it happened, claiming that she’d made a huge mistake sleeping with Matteo and that she didn’t love him like she did Dante... but of course it was too late. She’d already broken the man’s heart; shattered it into a million tiny pieces. He couldn’t even look at her anymore... I was the one that had to pick up the pieces of what was left of Dante…”

Roberto’s green eyes suddenly lowered as he contemplated telling Alexa the next part to the story. By far it was the most traumatic part, especially for his brother, Dante.

He wasn’t even sure if this was his story to tell.

Knowing his older brother though, Dante would probably never tell Alexa this part willingly and Roberto decided in the moment to do it.

To tell her everything. Why it had hurt Dante so much.

As he spoke again, his voice sounded saddened.

“Three nights after Dante ended things between them… the police found Michelle’s body floating in the bay…”

Alexa couldn’t supress a gasp, covering her mouth with her hand. This was such a tragic twist to his story.

“…It turns out she’d taken her own life. Jumped off a f*****g bridge to do it too.”

Her heart constricted with grief and pain at such a horrible loss for the man she loved to experience.

She silently wept for him on the inside.

“Oh, Dante…”

She spoke softly, her brows furrowed in concern as she turned his head to glance at him laying silently on the bed.

“I get it now. The jealousy. The overprotectiveness… all of it.”

She was beginning to understand his past actions, as it all fell into place within her mind.

Roberto went on.

“A while after it happened, I confronted Matteo about what he’d done, and do you know what the bastard said to me? Said it was all a power play. That he just wanted to prove himself over Dante. That he could have whatever Dante had. Because unlike him, Dante would one day become Don to the Romano Family and CEO of Romano Enterprises…”

“And Matteo was jealous of it.” she added, connecting the dots.

Roberto merely nodded.

“That’s a terrible excuse to do something like that.” Alexa countered with a frown.

She shook her head slowly from side to side, baffled by what she had discovered about Matteo here and now.

“I don’t even know what to say...”

“We’ve all made mistakes in the past. I myself have made some that I’ve wished I could take back. But at the end of the day, it’s what you learn from those mistakes that’s truly important.” Roberto announced, tilting his head off to the side as he met her gaze.

“Sure, Dante’s been through a lot. But it’s helped to shape him into the wise and powerful man he is now…”

Roberto suddenly stood up from his seat, looming over her with his tremendous height.

She peered up at him from her seated position.

“…Besides, if he hadn’t gone through what he had in the past, he may have missed out on one of the most important things in his entire life…”

She smiled.

“I’d assume that would be him making billions of dollars with the family company? Right?”

A gruff chuckle escaped Roberto’s lips as he shook his head from side to side.

“No, Alexa…” he replied dryly.

“In case it wasn’t obvious enough, I was actually referring to him meeting you.”

“Me?”

“Yes you.” he nodded.

“And if I’m honest, I’ve not seen him this happy in a very long time.”

Roberto glanced across the room to his brother as he added his next part.

“You’ve definitely done something to change him. It’s like the Reaper’s heart’s beating again... and it’s all thanks to you.”

-

With the missing pieces of the puzzle that was Dante Romano finally falling into place, Alexa now had a better understanding of why he acted the way he had in the past around her.

His territoriality and possessiveness towards her.

And of course, his anger towards Matteo.

After Roberto had said goodnight and headed off towards his own room, Alexa made her way back towards the bed and stood beside it, staring down at the sleeping Mafia Don.

He looked strangely peaceful right now.

His dark hair was messier than normal, but she found it rather sexy when matched with his stubble-covered chin and lip.

This was the fist time she had ever seen Dante Romano as vulnerable and it was overpowering to say the least.

She had always seen him in a different way, as a man who could never be touched or defied.

A true form of unbreakable power.

Now, she was beginning to see the man behind the title of ‘Don’ or ‘CEO’.

The man she was falling more and more in love with, with each passing day they were together.

Realising that he was still dressed in his suit, Alexa quickly headed towards the walk-in-robe and located some clean boxers he could wear to sleep.

She decided that she would have to dress him herself.

He couldn’t possibly be comfortable sleeping in a suit and his shoes!

Working away to remove each article of clothing from him, one at a time, it took her a solid twenty minutes to completely strip Dante down and dress him in the black silk boxers she had found.

As he lay there unconscious before her, Alexa admired his various tattoos covering his neck, shoulders, chest, arms and hands.

The man was basically a work of art!

The Reaper’s sickle inked into the side of his neck was the one that had always intrigued her the most.

She thought of it as a symbol of who he thought he needed to be.

His expected persona.

But it wasn’t who he was, deep down on the inside.

And now, she knew that.

As her fingers slid over the inked sickle on his neck, she noticed him frown a little in his sleep-like state.

In that moment, Alexa felt rather sorry for Dante.

Being the leader of the family’s Mafia trade, as well as the head of a multi-billion dollar company, it was a massive load for him to bear on his own.

The strength that this man laying before her possessed was admirable.

Pulling the covers of the thick blanket up over his body, she carefully tucked him in before rounding the bed and climbing in on her side.

Once she was comfortable, Alexa snuggled into Dante’s side, wrapping one of her arms over his chest and closing her eyes to drift off.

Sure, they had problems communicating.

Most couples did.

But she wasn’t planning on giving up on the stubborn bastard.

One way or another, Alexa was determined to convince him of her faithfulness and genuine love for him.

She would find a way to prove how she felt… somehow.