Mena
With a wide grin, I pulled out the picture from the booth we had just visited. “Now I hope you can stop crying.” I handed him one of the strips, teasing him.
We were at the same diner I had gone to with Donni and Levi.
Alessio chuckled. “Now I hope you can throw the other one away.”
He wasn’t serious. He just wanted to make me feel special, and he succeeded. Without a doubt, that was also the reason why he had spend his day with me by eating at the diner to challenging me in those stupid little arcade games-but it was undeniably one of the best days I’d had in a long time.
“Is there something else you want to do?” Alessio asked.
“No.” I responded, but the thought of him getting back to work made me retract my statement. “I mean, yes!”
He looked puzzled. “Is it yes or no?”
I squinted my eyes, thinking about how I was going to talk myself out of this one. I didn’t want our time together to end just yet. “No, but I like spending time with you,” I admitted, feeling slightly embarrassed by my own confession.
Alessio grew a cocky smile on his lips. “You can’t get enough of me?”
“Okay,” I rolled my eyes. “Definitely not what I said, but I’ll let you run with it.”
It was true though. I couldn’t get enough of him which was why I didn’t want to let him go. Ever since he began spending more time with me, he reminded me of what my relationship with Anson could’ve been like.
Alessio’s phone rang, cutting our conversation short. “Sorry, I need to take this.” he said apologetically.
“Yes, sure-do your thing,” I said, stepping back to give him space to answer the call, but he had already stepped away himself.
I didn’t mind him picking up because I knew he wasn’t supposed to be here at the moment. He had dropped all of his work to take pictures and play games with me.
As Alessio paced back and forth, he was giving it to whoever was on the other line of that phone. His tone was aggressive, and he looked furious.
It was far removed from the gentle, kind way he spoke to me these days.
It was his ‘scary business’ voice, he had used on me when he had forced me to be his pretend fiancee, but now I would like to believe we were much more than that.
After a while he ended the call, and walked back towards me. His brows were knitted together, and he wasn’t that good at hiding his frustration.
“All good?” I asked, concerned.
Alessio thought about his response before replying. “I really need to take care of something,” I could hear the guilt in his voice as he scratched the back of his head.
“Oh,” I simply said. “Can I come with you?” The question slipped out before I could think about it. His world was still dangerous, and I had just set myself up with embarrassment.
“Come with me? I don’t know,” he hesitated. It was clear he didn’t want me there, but didn’t want to flat out tell me either.
“Of course not, stupid question, I’m sorry.” I quickly spoke, feeling stupid for even suggesting it. I was not some gangster wife and would be of no value to him.
Alessio looked at me for a long time while I was trying to figure out the meaning behind that gaze. “I mean, you can wait in the car if you want to.” he ended up saying.
I nodded, too humiliated to say yes. He didn’t want me there, I knew he didn’t want me there-he was probably hoping for me to say no, but I didn’t.
I didn’t care where we were going as long as I would be with him, and that thought scared me.
Even if it was just waiting in a car, I wanted to be around him.
We returned to the car, and after driving for a while, he parked in front of a house in a neighborhood that reminded me of the one I used to live in back in Texas. It wasn’t a good neighborhood and brought back memories I preferred not to think about.
“Wait here, I’ll be back soon,” Alessio said, getting out of the car. He locked it immediately, and it wasn’t difficult to figure out why.
My eyes slightly twitched as I noticed the gun he pulled from beneath his jacket.
Had he been carrying that the whole time we were together?
Two of the Fanucci men waited in front of the house, smoking a cigarette. Alessio greeted them with a handshake before entering the house. Thinking about what could be going down in that house, I felt a chill that had nothing to do with the air conditioning in the car.
Through the window, I could see into the house where there were a group of men, probably Fanucci men. My view was limited, although I could see Alessio arguing with someone, swinging his gun in his hand like it wasn’t a big deal.
As I tried taking a better look, someone drew the blinds, completely cutting off my view.
The voices escalated from yelling to a painful yelp that came from one person, and my heart raced. I shut my eyes, hoping it would all end soon, and in that moment, I understood why Alessio didn’t want me to come with him. It wasn’t about him not wanting my company; it was about protecting me from this side of his life. He had somehow managed to make me believe he was not the bad guy and wanted me to continue believing that.
What he didn’t know was that I had already accepted he was the bad guy. I just couldn’t give a rat’s ass as long as it wasn’t directed toward me and my daughter.
Some time had already passed when the door eventually opened, and Alessio stepped out with a group of men, including Donni.
The last two guys dragged two large suitcases out of the house, and I wasn’t going to crack my brains about what could’ve been in it.
As Alessio stayed behind to talk to them, Donni, who had noticed me, made his way to the car. He tapped on the window, telling me to lower it and I did.
“So you’re the reason he’s been neglecting us today, treating us like a bunch of stray dogs?” He leaned in through the window, making it his job to bother me.
“It’s good to see you too, Donni,” I smiled, not giving him the reaction he had hoped for. In the beginning, I used to play along with his games, but now that I knew how to handle him, it became a whole lot easier.
Donni flicked my forehead, and I quickly covered it with my hand. “Good to see you too, Ducky.” he said while stepping back as Alessio approached the car.
“Can I count on you to take charge today?” Alessio was clearly not in the mood.
“Yes,” Donni said.
“And don’t fucking call me for something this small again. You know what to do,” Alessio added, either encouraging or threatening him. I could not make that one out.
“Yes, Boss. Got it,” Donni gave him a nod, sounding serious for once.
He shot me one last smile before walking away, and Alessio entered the car again.
I kept my mouth shut for most of the ride, sensing he might not want to talk or pretend like nothing happened.
Still, I was an annoyingly curious person and was determined to find out at least something.
“Did you kill that guy?” I dared asking.
Alessio glanced at me for a second. “No, just cut off a finger and a toe,” he said, dead serious.
My eyes widened in shock, and a chill ran down my spine. I knew the kind of world Alessio was involved in, but hearing it so casually from his lips was something else. I had to keep myself from throwing up, thinking about how that would’ve looked like and the coldness it would take to do such a thing.
“Just kidding. He’s unharmed, still alive. He’s a fucker anyway, so don’t worry about him,” Alessio clarified with a chuckle.
“What did he do?”
“Stole from us,” he said.
I nodded, trying to process this new piece of information. “I was planning to steal from you before you’d kick me out, but now I know not to do that,” I tried cracking a joke, and Alessio laughed. It worked.
“You know I wouldn’t just let you guys leave without anything, right?” he spoke.
I shook my head, not having considered that possibility. After we left the mansion, we wouldn’t be his responsibility anymore. Why would he do that?
“Then now you know.”
I was touched by his statement, “That’s so generous of you.”
Alessio snorted a little as if I was making fun of him, but I wasn’t.
“No, really, that’s nice of you,” I told him, wanting him to know I appreciated his kindness.
With mixed feelings, I looked down at the ring on my finger. It was beautiful, too beautiful for words and I had no business wearing it.
He should’ve saved that for his future fiancee, not me.
I got sick to my stomach at the thought of his future fiancee. It was scary because he was never mine to begin with.
“I like it on your finger,” Alessio said. “It suits you.”
I rolled my eyes playfully. “Do I get to keep this one too, or do I need to give it back?”
“Keep it, frame it, sell it.” he said as if the thought of me giving it back repulsed him. “It’s yours, I bought it for you.”
A smile appeared on my lips as I played with the giant diamond rock. He didn’t have to know, but the ring was so precious to me, I wouldn’t dare sell it even if it was worth millions. It was the first ring a man had given me.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked, suddenly aware that we were driving without a clear destination.
“What do you want to do?”
Good question.
“You can go and do your stuff while I just lie in bed and do nothing all day,” I suggested, not wanting to bother him anymore. The thought of spending a day just resting didn’t sound all that bad either.
Seeing how he scolded Donni for not doing his job correctly made me pity the guy. Actually both of them because I was certain he wanted to supervise his every move.
“Then we’ll lay in bed and do nothing all day,” Alessio spoke to my surprise, turning sideways to give me a comforting smile.
He had made it a ‘we’ thing.