Chapter 335

“I missed you.” It’s as breathless and low as it could possibly be, and he sinks me into his body, wrapping me up in his arms and pulling my legs so I end up curled like a little ball in his embrace. He rests his chin on top of my head and just holds me tight. It’s like being cradled as a baby, warm, tight almost suffocating. Crushing me to him soundly and I can feel his heart beating through his chest a little faster than is normal for him.

I can sense the stress seeping out of his pores and push him back to lift my chin to see his face. Gazing up at him as concern overtakes me. Not liking that all I can feel are vibes of high tension and low mood.

“What’s wrong? You seem … off.” My voice trembles lightly, because deep down my gut is going crazy with anxiety and tying itself in knots. I’m so sensitive to the changes and moods in him because there is still that fear he will tell me this has all been a game and he duped me to the extreme.

I know it’s stupid when all the evidence points at the exact opposite but it’s still early days for me accepting that this is real and hard to overcome in just a short time.

Alexi lifts a hand and strokes back my hair gently, like he always does, before kissing me softly on the forehead. Coming back to rest his skin against the spot he graced with affection and looks down at me with so much fatigue on his face. Dark circles, tired eyes and a complete lack of hard lines of familiar cold scowling. He seems all used up. So very young and deflated, and I just hug him tighter.

He’s tired, and even though it’s obvious to me, it’s not to the untrained eye. I have learned how to understand his tiny signals so much better. I can read this on him loudly.

“It’s not Santagato, and it’s not as simple as someone moving in to claim some turf.” He breathes it out with a low husky tone, irritation present and as selfish as it seems, I get instant relief that’s what he’s uptight over and not us—me, more specifically. I exhale with a rush of warmth enveloping me, replacing the cold doubt that this is not about us. It’s about bigger things and I’m being stupid.

I need to stop doubting a man who imprinted my name on his chest for all time.

“Are you going to tell me?” I press gently, lifting my hand to trace the buttons up the black shirt he has on, against that strong hard body, until I get to the top one and trail the V of his exposed neck with gentle fingertips. Smooth tanned skin with only a slight peek of hair. Taking comfort in being able to touch him this way freely and being nestled in his embrace.

Nothing feels like this does, nothing ever could. I feel like I’m where I belong.

“I don’t know where to start. It’s the past coming to finally payback for things that happened when I was just a kid.” Alexi slides his arm under my legs and stands up suddenly, taking me with him, cradled against his chest before turning around and depositing me on the couch carefully while he moves to a little side unit to get a fresh drink. I just nestle down, hating the sudden separation, freezing when Lync crawls forward and puts his face in my lap the way he had with Alexi minutes ago. I just sit motionless, and stare at his huge warm head nestling heavily in the crook of my body as I try to get comfortable again. His excessive heat creeping through the thin satin of my nightdress and I nervously pat him as gently as I can. Flat opened handed tap taps on his head with a look that must translate disgust because I’m so very wary of him.

This dog is going to eat me I’m sure of it. I’m the competition and he is a fly little fucker, attempting to take my guard down until I least expect it.

I realise Alexi is silent and still and glance up to catch him staring at us weirdly. Frowning with a hint of surprise and yet that tiny smile of amusement. Eyes fixated on my hand on his dog’s head and I glance down in case he thinks I’m smacking him or something absurd.

“What?” I ask defensively and put more effort into stroking the heavy lump on my legs gently in case he thinks it’s some sort of animal abuse and I just broke his little code of proper treatment. Lync has strangely odd textured fur. It's soft yet wiry and a little unruly and doesn’t feel too bad when you smooth it properly

“Lync doesn’t like new people and usually takes weeks to get within feet of someone. It’s just odd. He won’t lie down like that with anyone, except me.” Alexi turns away to pour the drink into two glasses he has pulled out and I blink down at Lync in a moment of ‘oh’. Those words sinking in and taking note. Not sure how to feel about that and push it out of my head for the much more important topic at hand.

“The past Alexi … coming back … go on.” I almost command with impatience and lay my hand down beside me to stop attracting the dog as a distraction.

Alexi turns, giving another strange glance at his beast, then me, then him again, the smile is genuine before he comes back and hands me the brandy he has poured. He stays standing to leave us settled this way, obviously liking the fact his two possessions are bonding. He seems amused anyway, maybe warmed by the fact Lync seems to like me and I guess he isn’t so bad after all.

Wild little beast that he is.

“Back when I was young, and my father was head of the family, six Italian families were always warring over the state of New York. It’s prime real estate, and they all wanted to govern it.” He begins with what is obviously important backstory and I nod, watching him as he paces around slowly. That restless energy finding it hard to dissipate and I wonder if Lync somehow helps to ground him when he needs a focus. He was calm enough with the dog in his lap when I walked in.

“The problem with always fighting within the families meant it left resources stretched thin and left all of us vulnerable to outsiders trying to push in. Too busy fighting among ourselves.” He adds, turning on a low light lamp on a desk I didn’t see in the shadows and brings much more warmth to our dim room.

“Sounds chaotic. Stressful.” I point out and sip my burning liquid slowly, keeping my eyes on him and listening intently. I didn’t want a drink, but I guess he feels like I might need one and I have told myself I will try to argue less from here on in.

“So, my father sat down the families and tried to bring them together. To create a sort of hierarchy where they united while governing their own areas respectfully. No more turf wars but an ability to come together should anyone else try to invade.” He raises a brow, a sip of his drink as he takes a breath and I nod. Understanding fully.

“Makes sense. Better to focus on making money than shooting rivals, right?”

“Right. Clever girl.” Alexi smiles at me, a sudden genuine hint of adoration in that serious expression and it still gives me those little goosebumps every time I see those dimples. I flush with heat at his obvious infatuation and wonder how many times he gave me this look and I just failed to see it while living in denial. I saw this smile before, many times. I was so blind to what he felt for me.

“The problem is the sixth major player in the city. The Giuseppe family … Dimi was power hungry and didn’t want to settle for a piece of the pie. He wanted it all and thought he had the means to take it from the rest of us.”

“What? Fight all five families? Did he have an army or was he just stupid?” I blanch at the craziness of taking on just the Carrero family let alone a united five powers that run this place. He had to be mentally unstable to assume he could power his way over five of them. Santagato’s family are also a force to be reckoned with. I don’t doubt they all are.

Alexi is still standing by the desk with his butt perched on it, closed off, and an aura of tenseness cloaking him. I sit up a little more primly, moving Lync away, and cross my legs now this conversation is taking a more serious turn. Feet on the floor and glass in hand. Robe falling away because of its silkiness and I just let it.

“The treaty was formed, and a code agreed upon, but he refused to come, refused to sign his way into the union. My father reached out to meet him alone to try and resolve this for the greater good of the families, but Dimi had other plans. He sent out his men to take down the spouses and offspring of every head of the family as a show of his power … sound familiar?”

That dip in his tone, the eyes narrowing at his amber liquid and I nod mutely. Things clicking together but trying not to summarise just yet.

“Much like a low key, taking down the mistresses for the same reason. So, this is him?” Now it’s stirring in my head with a huge sense of foreboding as I realise this may be a huge Mafia war brewing and far bigger than just some stupid power play to get one up on the other. One that has taken decades to build towards. I feel sick instantly, stomach swirling heavily and skin breaking out all over in cold icy spikes and prickles. I shiver at the thought of it.

“No. I was thirteen when Dimi’s henchmen hit our family … you know how that went. Only two others were successful hits. A lot of innocent deaths in two days. Dimi is dead.”

There’s a silence as Alexi looks down into his drink again, pondering those memories from so long ago, and I instantly feel an overwhelming sense of pain on his behalf. That day moulded his path and now they’re coming back to try and ruin his life. No wonder he is so off. I ache to get up and hold him, squeeze him tight but I can sense he wants space. He would still be sitting with me in his lap if he didn’t.

“So, if not Dimi, then …?”

I push gently, my voice equally low in the intimacy of this small room. Alexi clears his throat and looks up with a heavy breath and a wry look.

“My father had the entire family wiped out of this state, one way or another. All the men were executed in the space of two weeks and their women and children given the option of fleeing with all they had or joining the men. Other families stepped in to help and they purged that name from every corner they could find. Giuseppe was removed from existence, and for the last fifteen years has been extinct in these parts.”

I literally sit wide-eyed and motionless as I try to wrap my head around what he is telling me. The complete destruction of an entire bloodline in two weeks. That is the cold touch of being in this world and the sad truth of the power they hold. Someone threatened them, and they dealt with it; not a single news report or whisper of it happening was heard in the whole state.

A whole family—wiped out. Poof. Gone.

Jesus Christ.

“So, if they are all dead, then who? How is it connected?” I blanch and down the rest of my drink in one go to steady the heavy thud of my heart.

“Dimi had daughters. They all fled to the origin of their roots in Italy. His eldest Marianne … she’s behind this. She came back, and it looks like she intends to carry on where her father left off. All of this, she was attracting attention and showing us, she was an adequate leader.”

It’s my turn to narrow my eyes as his words filter through, the sudden rage inside me coming from nowhere. The thought of all of this being some showy ‘look at me and what I can do’, and I just flip.

“What a stupid bitch. How the hell does she take on five families with nothing but left-over members who were scattered in the wind and think she can come in here and throw her weight around?” I snap. Annoyed at this faceless wench and the sheer nerve of her. Picking out people like me in some sort of power play to prove she is a worthy adversary.

What the actual hell?

“Some of those children were boys … some married into her family and it seems she has the wealth to hire outsiders. Men who have no respect for the code or order. I guess she feels like she is owed a place here and wants to stir up a name for herself before approaching the ruling five families.”

“So, it’s a kind of new turf war with an old enemy? Except her goal is what? To join you. How does she get that from killing all your girlfriends?”

‘It’s a show of resources and how big her balls are. She gets intel into our lives, to show she can, targets ones that will rile us but not actually declare war. She probably hopes it puts us in a state of unrest and willing to negotiate peace once more.’ Alexi shrugs, obviously as baffled as me why she thinks a plan like that would go down well with someone like him. I just gawp, push my glass on a side table and stand up abruptly, dropping my kimono as it slides away and I pace around in agitation.

‘So, coming after me twice … is that because she failed, or just because she wants to make more of a mark on you? Seeing as you’re the unofficial godfather of these five families.’

I’m riled, and hot with temper. Body itching all over so that even my flimsy nightwear is suffocating me. My skin feels like ants are crawling all over me and even pacing madly, cuddling myself, does not remove the tightening grip running over my whole body. High, intense terror at the news I’m being enlightened with and rage that some dumb bitch is using me as a pawn in a pathetic game of kings and crowns.