Chapter 45

How her own father was ready to toss her to the first bidder as death escalated and money poured out of syndicates.

"Then I'll pick it myself."

My tone was harsh with no room to defy, and yet she still did. She stood quickly. Hatred pouring from her eyes.

"Then so be it. It wouldn't be the first time you lied."

She'd silenced me.

"I wanted to work to stay busy. To have the drive to get up and push through the idea of having to live with you!" she spat as her body vibrated in anger. "To escape from the games and roller coaster of feelings I'm under in this hell." Alessandra looked into her folder. "But you are just like them all. A liar who is afraid to see a woman as an equal."

My heart beat in an array, wild to her accusations. But I couldn't speak up to defend myself.

Alessandra's eyes looked down on me as I fought to conceal the wild feeling she'd broken free inside, but she only saw what I'd allowed. A relaxed posture and a careless bastard looking back without remorse. Meanwhile, my chest loathed the constricting pressure that grew with each passing minute. Her eyes lowered, and her head shook disheartened. Alessandra glanced at the folder one last time before her back faced me.

I'd done it.

I had said no, but it didn't settle well with me. It wasn't the way I had planned; it was messy, and emotions were high without understanding reasoning.

As her hips swayed further away, I caught a glimpse of the fingerprints that marked her wrist. My fingerprints.

"I never meant to break my promise."

"Is that an apology?" she said as low as my voice had been, but she never turned. She held onto the doorway with her gaze trained on the wood stain, and when I didn't reply, Alessandra uttered, "I didn't think so." When she looked back, her hair obscured her features, and I couldn't see her eyes clearly. "June seventh," were her last words before she left.

June seventh.

Alessandra had kept me from breaking my word again, leaving me with gratitude and the feeling of failure. But why did I care? Why did my body sink deeper and my head fall onto my hands? Why did I feel so conflicted?

The yellow folder mocked me, urging me to peek inside and look through what she had put together for me. The chance I hadn't even given her as I'd focused on destroying the conversation before it even had the chance to begin.

I picked it up, opened it, and did what I shouldn't have done. Because as I took note of her previous financials, her intricate designs, drawings, deals, and paperwork to launch her business in the States, I was dumbfounded by the extent of her career and the length she'd gone to prove to me the part of her she desperately needed back.

Stunned by the might it took to get there, the business and financial mind it required.

Fuck, her family had been quick to hide the power she held, and I had done the same. But a part of me knew that even if I didn't want a partner, I would be a fool to ignore it.

And I was no fool.

The crowd was fueled with alcohol and sex drive as bodies piled in the middle of the club. Lights flickered in various colors as the ground vibrated with the beat of the music. As I waited for Vadim to get here, I pulled away from the glass that overlooked the sweating bodies below and faced Elio and Nate.

"Want to tell us why we are meeting in Malvagio's?" Elio leaned his weight on the wall by the corner and yawned.

Elio spent most of his time running the streets and businesses we owned. However, I hadn't missed the way he always finished his day here, looking over a certain curly dark-haired aerial dancer until close. He was careful and distanced himself from whispers about his inclination to this club. To many, it looked as if he was in charge of the safety of all our workers that spiraled high in the sky. Our biggest attraction as it added a unique danger and sense of eroticism from any other nightclub. I knew better. Elio's interest was in only one dancer in particular, and even if I didn't care who he fucked, I feared for the young and sweet girl who'd caught my brother's twisted mind.

If I'd learned something from my brothers, it was how their dicks blinded them into danger.

As I thought of Alessandra, they weren't the only ones.

Hell, I started a war.

I ignored Elio's question and turned to Nate, who was sitting across from us on the black leather couch.

"I need you to look over something for me before I make a decision," I said, with Alessandra's proposal outstretched for him.

Nate straightened, taking the folder from my hands. His posture changed the longer his attention looked through its contents.

Music slipped inside the room as the door opened, revealing Vadim's somber appearance. He wore all black and a cap over his head. A look he and Nate were accustomed to as they worked for the law. But even after Vadim left the force, his cap came out every night. Tonight, it was backward, and before I looked down at his knuckles, I knew I would find them battered.

"You good?" I asked.

The door shut, and Vadim

nodded as he stood next to Elio in the darkness.

I tried not to dwell on the changes and darkness that had changed him in the short months after vowing his life to the famiglia. Something I had tried to keep him away from and failed after Davina arrived in Miami. Now, it was too late. The more he followed Elio's and my steps, the more his morals were corrupted.

The change had already started, and eventually, his heart would become stone and his mind unemotional to the cries. Cold-hearted and unfeeling, like us.

"This is" Nate paused, and I met his rounded ice blue gaze. "Impressive."

"I'm aware."

"What do you need from me?" Nate asked.

"I need all her accounts secured, her paperwork and any credentials passed as Alessandra Lombardi, and to start the website with no trace of IP addresses, locations and such. It needs to be impenetrable, all of it." I took a deep breath and asked, "Can it be done?"

Nate nodded and said, "It's going to take some time-"

"Take however long it needs."

She didn't even know what I was doing. I wanted to keep it that way until the war settled.

"Okay, but first, I need her to talk and-"

"No." I cut him off. "Figure it out. She's not to be aware."

Nate's brows pinched together, confused. But if I told Alessandra, she would take it and run wild. I couldn't give her such power, not now.

"Wait," Elio said, fully awake in disbelief. "Are we talking about business for a woman? For Alessandra?" I stared at him. "You are serious." He chuckled, unpleased.

"I am."

"What the fuck is happening?" Vadim asked in Russian.

"Massimo is going to allow Alessandra to work," Elio replied bitterly in Italian.

I felt all their eyes on me.

"It's good business. Clean business," I expressed.

Vadim veered his eyes away while Elio continued shaking his head. Nate sat quietly with his eyes fixed on the paperwork in his hands.

"It's smart, Elio," Nate spoke up. "Alessandra's business will explode, and the Lombardi name will have another source of clean money in the eyes of the government. Having her tied into legal contracts and deals will make things easy to hide." Nate's smile shone wickedly. "It's perfect." He chuckled. "She won't be placed in any legal danger, and money will come and go, and whispers will now mix into the building industry. The revenue stream can be tricky, but large losses often happen."

Finally, someone who sees my vision.

"She will be in prison if caught." Exasperated, Vadim looked around us as if he was the only one who cared.

Nate closed the folder, stood up, and faced our brothers. "You don't understand. Everything will be legal. It's the Lombardi name that will benefit from having such a business drawing out suspicion."

"It's dangerous," Vadim fired.

"It won't be finalized until California is eliminated," I stated.

"She'll be in the public eye, and threats will follow her," Vadim fought.

"She can take care of herself," I added nonchalantly.

It was the truth. Alessandra could take care of herself in the outside world. The numbers in the folder spoke of it. I knew that, and the kind of threats he now spoke of were ridiculous compared to a war.

Elio scoffed. "She can take care of herself."

"You'd be surprised." I shrugged.

Elio's lip curled with malice, and I watched him carefully as his hatred for her deepened. I could only blame myself, because the moment I'd hid my reason for marrying her from him, I'd lost his trust to see my way.

"We'll see." His smile pushed through, and he left the room.

"He wasn't too kind to Davina at first. He'll come around," Vadim said, following the same path Elio had just taken out of the room.

Nate and I stood in silence, and when the music faded, leaving us alone to the vibration of tempo at our feet, I was reminded of Elio's warning.

Had he meant others or him?

"I have the last of my things in my car. I'm heading to your place. Are you coming or staying?" Nate asked, breaking through my questions.

The thought of Alessandra's heat in my bed and her touch over my skin led me to say, "Let's go."

ALESSANDRA

This morning was different. While the covers next to me were cold and ruffled, it was impossible to not sense his presence.

"Massimo?" I asked, low and deep.

"Morning."

I heard his undeniable timbre reply, and I shot up into a sitting position.

Fully dressed and ready for the day, Massimo sat in the chair calmly looking at me. I glanced at the clock. It was six fifteen, and he looked as if he had been up and ready for quite some time.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes."

"Are you feeling unwell?"

"I'm not sick."

"Is everything okay?" I asked, trying to understand why he was still here. Massimo was always gone before I rose in the morning.

"You ask a lot of questions in the morning."

"You wouldn't know," I fired back.

"I guess I know now."

"Diddid you come home last night?" I hated the vulnerability of my question.

He nodded as he ran his palm over his eyes until they settled back on his thigh.

"I should've mentioned this before, but Nate will stay here for a few weeks," he announced, a day too late. I'd already caught glimpses of him, but I guess he had finally settled.

"Anything else?" I motioned with my hand.

"Yeah, I'll be out this morning, but I'll be back sometime after lunch. You should have received a few dresses by then. Pick one."

This caught my attention.

"For what?"

"A charity function tomorrow night. You're coming with me."

Why, thank you for asking. You look so thrilled, Massimo.

"Charity events are not my thing."

Massimo stood with rigid shoulders and hardened features. Quietly, he made his way to my side of the bed, and I followed every footfall he took closer to me until his shins hit the bed. Anxiety crept into me as his peering body stood above me with his tired and uncaring eyes. When his hand fell along with his body, I froze in place.