My Mafia Madness 2

Chapter 23 - The Level of Seriousness

Dante’s head felt as if it were about to explode when he first opened his eyes and glanced around at his newest surroundings.

He was… back in his room?

But how?

The last thing he remembered doing was…

He fought for a moment to try and remember something from last night.

To retrace his steps leading him back to here. But there was nothing.

He had no idea of how he managed to find his way back to bed and dressed in his boxers.

The pain of his throbbing head seemed almost unbearable as he forced himself to sit up in bed, slowly so that he didn’t pass out or vomit all over the place.

Turning his head to the side, he spotted the wooden tray beside him on the other side of his large, plush bed.

On it were a variety of different breakfast foods and beverages, including freshly-cooked syrup-covered pancakes, eggs, bacon, toast, a glass of OJ, a cup of espresso and a packet of aspirin.

He immediately went for the packet of aspirin, taking out the pills and using the juice to help him swallow them down his massively dry throat.

As he swallowed them, he noticed that the bed beside him seemed to be freshly made beneath the tray.

This either indicated that either Alexa had already gotten herself up and went downstairs, or worse, that she had not slept in the same bed as him last night out of spite for his behaviour.

He prayed that it was the first option instead.

Guilt suddenly began flooding over him as he recalled the way he handled the situation back at the nightclub.

Knocking his brother out and carrying Alexa out of there like a bag of potatoes.

She must be so pissed with him.

Maybe she really didn’t sleep beside him last night…

Leaning his head back against the frame of his king-sized bed, Dante was startled when he heard a sudden and unexpected ‘knock’ at the door.

Before he had even managed to call out a response, the door promptly opened inwards revealing none other than his brother Roberto sporting a dashing new dark blue suit and patterned silver tie.

As Roberto spoke he seemed rather chipper, with a big smile spread wide across his face as he met the gaze of his hung-over brother sitting upright in bed with a frown.

“Good morning capo, up and at ’em!”

Roberto cried out his words in a chant, pumping his large fist up into the air as he strode across the large room towards the curtained window.

He then proceeded to pull the large, thick curtains back one at a time, allowing new morning light to come flooding into the once darkened room.

Roberto intended on waking his older brother by whatever means were necessary.

“Get the f**k out, Roberto!” Dante snapped, laying back down and burying his head beneath one of his pillows to try and block out both the bright light and the noise of his brother’s voice.

“It’s too early for any of your bullshit.”

Clearly the Don was suffering from one hell of a massive hangover at his own hand.

“Actually, it’s already eleven o’clock in the morning, Dante. You have a Skype meeting in half an hour, and I need you up and getting ready. Now! Head office has been calling non-stop for the past hour, asking for you. Something about this month’s budget being approved…”

“ARGH… f*****g Gary Harworth. That man irritates me… maybe I should have him killed.” Dante announced in a seething tone, closing his eyes and sitting back up against the bedrest.

The Don groaned as he lifted his hand up to rest on his throbbing forehead.

“That man is just doing his job Dante.” Roberto reminded as he continued opening up curtains and blinds around the room, one by one.

“Like I need you to be doing in…” he paused, glancing down at his expensive silver Rolex watch before continuing to finish his sentence.

“… twenty-eight minutes from now. Come on man, get the f**k out of bed!”

Rolling his eyes even hurt as Dante winced in pain before sliding out of the bed and stumbling across the room towards the ensuite.

Normally he would have had his brother shot for telling him what to do like he just had.

But in this particular situation, Roberto was right.

Dante needed to attend this Skype meeting with the board members in New York City for updates and approvals.

One of the many fun tasks of being CEO to Romano Enterprises.

-

When Dante was dressed and ready in one of his many black and silver Armani suits, he emerged from the ensuite to find Roberto sitting on one of the sofa chairs in his room.

He was holding an open book in his hand, reading from the page he had randomly opened it to.

Upon noticing Dante had arrived at long last, Roberto’s eyes flicked up from the page and he lifted the book up in his hand as he spoke.

“You actually read this stuff?” he asked in confusion.

Dante’s expression suddenly saddened, his gaze lowering to the floor out of guilt.

“Alexa does.” he admitted softly, clipping his golden Rolex around his left wrist.

“Oh... fair enough.” Roberto said as he placed the closed book back down onto the table he had collected it from moments ago and stood up, straightening his suit jacket.

“Speaking of Alexa… I should probably let you know about our little conversation last night.”

Dante continued to gather up his things as he replied.

“What conversation?”

“I, uh… I might have told her about what happened… your know? With Michelle.”

“Michelle?”

Dante, who had his back to Roberto suddenly froze in place as the realisation of Roberto’s words hit him like a sledgehammer.

His eyes began to blaze with fury and betrayal towards his brother as he spun around and glared back at Roberto.

“You did what?” he demanded.

Lifting both his hands out in front of him, the giant of a man looked rather strange cowering before a man who was clearly shorter than him.

Only by a little, but still it was obvious that Roberto was tallest of the three.

“She deserved to know, Dante, and you know it. If you’re really serious about Alexa then you can’t just keep her in the dark all the time... she needed to know why you flipped out back there!”

Roberto tried arguing his point by taking a stand against his older brother for once.

“You looked totally crazy attacking Matteo like that. Do you want her to think of you as some kind of soulless monster all the time?”

“You had no right!” Dante snapped through clenched teeth as he began to close the distance between them with one slow stride at a time.

“I know and I’m sorry, but the way you were acting back at the club... f**k, you were scaring her, man. You scared me!”

This caused Dante to pause mid-stride and frown, narrowing his eyes.

“What?” Dante queried with his brows pulled inwards.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Alexa… she was terrified by you. I mean, you f*****g carried her right out of the club over your shoulder and locked her in your room like she was a disobedient pet or something!” Roberto spat back at his brother angrily.

“I’m surprised she didn’t high-tail it and head for the hills the next morning after the way you reacted. I know I would have.”

Suddenly, Dante’s expression showed a rare emotion hardly ever revealed to anyone else...

That of fear.

“She was… afraid of me?” he asked softly.

“You’re sure about this?”

His voice was filled with pain as he looked to his brother for his reply.

“I mean, do you even give a s**t about her, Dante?” Roberto challenged.

“Have you ever thought about how she feels about all this?”

Dante’s expression hardened at his brother’s accusation.

“You know I care about her, Roberto...”

“Then stop for a moment and think about how this is all affecting her…” Roberto suggested, coming to stand closer to Dante and placing his hand onto his shoulder.

“Alexa doesn’t come from our world bro, remember? All this death and non-stop danger… it’s not healthy for someone like her. She’s an innocent in all our chaos.”

Letting out a long, hard sigh, Dante closed his eyes and lowered his head as he took in his brother’s words.

It appeared that the Reaper was beginning to lower his defences at long last, and his brother quickly jumped at the opportunity to ask him a question.

A very important one.

“Just tell me one thing, alright?” Roberto prompted, squeezing his brother’s shoulder with his hand as Dante lifted his head again.

“How serious about this woman are you, really?”

The Mafia Don didn’t hesitate as he suddenly turned and headed back to the far wall of his bedroom.

He stopped in front of a large painting and appeared to press on a section of it with his outstretched finger.

Roberto stood watching in wonder as the painting suddenly slid aside like an automatic door to reveal a safe built into the solid wall behind it.

It was a hidden wall safe.

Dante then proceeded to press his thumb up against the thumb pad and it turned a bright neon green colour. A loud ‘click’ sound following soon afterwards as the safe was unlocked and opened outwards slowly.

“I’d forgotten about that old thing...” Roberto admitted, coming to stand beside his brother as Dante leaned into the illuminated safe and grabbed something in his hand.

“Looks like you’ve had it upgraded since I last visited the family Castello.”

Turning back around to face his taller brother, Dante handed Roberto a small black velvet box with the symbols ‘HW’ embroided on it in gold satin.

“What’s this?” Roberto questioned.

“This is how serious I am about Alexa.” Dante admitted, crossing both arms over his chest.

A large smile spread wide across Roberto’s face now, lifting his beard only slightly as his emerald eyes shone with pride and happiness for his brother.

“Dante, I’m admit that I’m flattered and all, but-”

Roberto began to joke, but his older brother cut in over him.

“-Don’t be a d**k, just open it already.”

Still smiling, Roberto did as he had been told and opened the small box, revealing a stunning oval-shaped 12 carat diamond Harry Winston engagement ring inside, staring back at him in all its sparkling glory.

There were tiny diamonds circling around the outside of the larger one and they curved around into the white gold band of the ring in a simple yet delicate design.

“Holy s**t! You really are serious about her?”

“Yeah.” Dante replied softly.

“So, she’s the one then? It’s finally happened?”

“It has…”

Closing the box, Roberto used his free hand to step forwards and wrap it around his brother’s shoulder, pulling the Don in for a congratulatory hug.

Dante’s eyes widened in surprise.

At first he was caught off guard by such closeness. The brothers weren’t usually that close even at the best of times… but this was a different matter altogether.

Roberto beamed with pride.

“I honestly can’t believe it… my big brother’s finally popping the question-”

“-SHHH!”

Dante cut in over him, looking towards the doorway for a moment, just to see that they were in fact alone.

“Relax, she’s down at the pool doing laps. Has been for the past hour or so.” Roberto assured him, handing Dante the box while patting his back playfully.

Making sure to do so as quickly as possible, Dante placed the box back inside of the wall safe and locked it again, pressing the button to return the painting over the top of it.

And within a matter of seconds, the safe’s contents were well hidden once again.

“I couldn’t be happier for you, man.” Roberto announced.

But Dante’s expression didn’t mirror happiness right now.

“Well don’t get too excited. She still has to agree to marry me. And after last night…” he trailed off, shaking his head slowly from side to side.

“I doubt she’ll say yes now.”

“I don’t know, she might surprise ya.” Roberto joked, grinning.

“You seem to forget that Alexa’s one hell of a woman. She’s got a fighter’s spirit hidden away inside her. If anyone can put up with your grumpy ass, it’s her.”

Rolling his eyes in defiance, Dante turned and began heading for the doorway.

“Come on…” he called out over his shoulder.

“Let’s get this meeting over with.”