“Please,” I said in a hoarse voice, tears in my eyes. They did not move Luke. Compassion was not one of his character traits. A knock was heard, and Luca motioned me to stay where I was. He drew his gun and headed for the door. My mind was spinning, trying to find a way out. “Good evening, Luca,” Alessio said calmly. Luca stepped back and let Alessio pass, then closed the door. Alessio peered at me from head to toe, then walked toward me. He pulled me against him, his expression anxious. “What’s going on?”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I wanted to help and I ruined everything.” Alessio peered into my eyes before his gaze met with Luca, who was looking at us as if trying to decide whether we were friends or enemies. The change in Alessio’s body was immediate. He stiffened and the look in his eyes became predator-like as they looked at each other. He was armed, of course. Two guns and at least the same number of knives. Luca did not take his eyes off Alessio and looked at him as Alessio did. Alessio gently squeezed my side, then kissed my temple. “Let Elia take you home.” Was he serious? I wouldn’t leave this suite without him.
“Alessio…” He elbowed me in the direction of the door. I cast a glance between Luca and him.
“Alessio, Luca knows about Gaia and Andrea,” I whispered imploringly, trying to get in touch with him. Alessio nodded.
“I know. Your brother called me to warn me about your father’s plan.” I froze.
“What exactly did he say?” Alessio gently stroked my hair. “That you are fighting like a lioness to protect Daniel, Simona, and me.” His mouth tightened into a wistful smile. I scanned her eyes. Did that mean he knew they were not his children? I did not ask for fear of revealing more than Christian had revealed, but his words led to only one conclusion.
“I know you didn’t want to find out.”
Alessio nodded, then looked again at Luke, who was watching him intently, his gun hand hanging casually at his side. “You need to leave now.” “You should. We have things to discuss,” Luca said coldly. Alessio tried to elbow me in the direction of the door again. I took a step back.
“I’m not going anywhere without you.”
“Gianna, everything will be fine. Let Elia take you home so you can get some rest.” I scanned Alessio’s tall build to fix Luca with a glance. “Will it be all right, Luca?” Luca’s gray eyes remained emotionless pools.
“I think you should leave now, like your husband said.” “I don’t care what you think, and I certainly won’t leave until you swear that my husband will come back to me.”
Alessio hugged me to himself.
“Gianna, you are leaving now.” I did not miss the way he positioned his body between Luca and me, as if he feared my disrespect might cause Luca to hit me. “No,” I blurted out and let my legs fall out from under me. Alessio winced and barely managed to break my fall. I sank to the ground like a stubborn child, or like a pregnant woman determined to save the man she loved. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying right here. You’ll have to drag me out.”
Alessio shook his head, but his eyes reflected his admiration. He bent down and took me in his arms smoothly, despite my protests. He led me toward the door and sat me down, with an arm around my waist so that I would not try to sit on the floor again. I clung to his shirt, wrinkling it. He cupped my chin between his thumb and forefinger.
“Go home, honey.” His voice was silky and pleading.
Tears blurred my vision as I clung to him.
“Swear you’ll come back to me.” Alessio turned to Luca and for a moment they looked at each other.
“I swear.” Elijah appeared at my side and, at Alessio’s nod, wrapped his arm around me and pulled me away. I looked over my shoulder at Alessio. He gave me an encouraging smile before closing the door. Had Alessio lied to me about coming home?
Alessio
I closed the door on Gianna’s terrified face before facing Luca, who was still holding the gun. Despite the almost irresistible urge to pull mine, I did not. I respected Luca and he appreciated me more than most of his other Underbosses. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t kill me. There wasn’t a man or woman Luca wasn’t capable of killing, except his wife and children, perhaps. “You lied about Andrea.” “I did not lie. I omitted part of the truth.” Luca’s lip curled dangerously. “Some might say that omitting part of the truth is lying,” he said.
“The only opinion that matters to me is yours.” Luca approached. The gun still hung loosely. The sight could have fooled someone who did not know Luca as well as I did. Luca was a born killer. Few men were as dangerous as he was, with or without a gun. “If that were true, you would have told me everything when I asked.” I nodded.
“Andrea was my soldier. When I killed him, he was under the sentence of Philadelphia.”
“Philadelphia is mine, Alessio. Everything in the East is mine. You and all my other sub-chiefs rule my cities in my name. Never forget that.” “I do not. But you trust me to rule in Philadelphia as I see fit, and you know I do it well. You don’t expect me to tell you about every incident in town. You trust me to take care of them on my own.”
“I expect you to tell me when there is a traitor in the Family.” “Andrea was a rat.”
“Was it him? Or was he just the man who fucked your wife?” With anyone but Luca I could have attacked. I stifled my fury.
“It was both. The vice president of the Tartarus MC chapter in Philadelphia that I dismembered told me they had a contact and that the description matched Andrea.” “You extracted a confession from him?”
“That’s what I should have done,” I admitted. I held Luca’s gaze. “When I came home after attacking the clubhouse, I found my wife naked and pregnant riding my brother-in-law, her half-brother, under my roof with my son downstairs thinking they were playing some game. When I confronted Andrea, he bragged to me that he had been fucking my wife since the first day of our marriage and that my children were not mine. I beat him to death with my bare fists, broke every fucking bone in his body, smashed his cheating face until his eyes popped out, and I would do it again.” Luca nodded because jealous rage was something he understood all too well.
“Did you kill Gaia?”
“No. I didn’t even consider it,” I said.
“She killed herself, as I told you. She missed her too much.” The pain of the past did not come this time. Gaia was the past. Gianna was my present and my future. She had shown me what it meant to love a woman as fiercely as I loved my children. Luca put the gun back in its scabbard.
“I expect the truth from my men,” he said.
“I didn’t want anyone to find out that Gaia had cheated. Some people did, of course, and their reaction was quite negative.” I hated to admit it, but Luca needed to understand. I swore to Gianna that I would return to her, and I had every intention of keeping that promise.
“I understand,” Luca said simply. “I’ll make sure Felix keeps his fucking mouth shut unless you want the truth to come out.”