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Alessandro dropped Gino to the ground, his face beaten and bloody, and he stood. He glanced at me but all softness from earlier was gone. “I’m sorry, my don. He was assaulting our guest.” Alessandro glanced at me as did everyone else and I shrank back.
“Which deserves punishment. But not this. To go this far against one of your loyal men for a stranger is unacceptable.”
“I know. I apologize. I let my emotions get the best of me.”
Teo turned to a couple of men I didn’t know who stood nearby. “Take him to a private room. Have Armando take a look at him.”
“Yes, don,” the men said in unison, and they hurried over to help Gino to his feet.
Teo took a step farther onto the terrace, bringing himself close to Alessandro and he spoke low so that none of the bystanders could hear. “Get inside and get cleaned up. We’re supposed to be celebrating you tonight and you’ll be going on stage soon.”
Alessandro nodded before casting me a glance and I took a step to follow him, but Teo held up a hand to stop me.
“Just a moment, Ms. Marino. There’s something we need to discuss.”
I stopped in my tracks and looked at him nervously. “In private.” He raised his voice so that the remaining onlookers knew to leave and soon everyone had flooded back inside, leaving me alone with the don of the entire Venturi Mafia family.
My heart raced and I found myself wishing that Alessandro was there with me. I took a deep breath, trying to steel my nerves as I waited for him to speak.
“You’re supposed to give me your decision tonight as to whether you will come to work for me or return home.”
I nodded, trying to sound as calm and professional as he did but my nerves were still frazzled from the altercation with Gino. “I’d planned to speak to you about the possibility of an extension on that decision.”
He looked at me with his brow lifted in surprise. “An extension?”
“Yes. But after witnessing what I just did, it’s clear to me that I want nothing to do with this world of yours.”
He scowled at me and pursed his lips.
“I mean no disrespect to you and your family. I do feel that you and some of the others are good people at heart but it’s clear that you are the exception and not the rule and I want no part in any of this. I just want to go back home to my life from before and forget any of this ever happened.”
“Do you really believe that you can do that? Forget it ever happened?”
“It will be hard...” My gaze drifted in the direction of where Alessandro had disappeared inside.
“I see the way that he looks at you, the way you look at him too. You care about him.”
“I do. Alessandro is a good man at heart but the world he lives in is not.” I let out a sigh, suddenly feeling sad at the revelation in speaking it out loud for the first time.
“And you can’t be persuaded otherwise? Even if you were granted the extension?”
I shook my head, unable to speak the word. “I just want to go home.”
Chapter 20
Alessandro
I stood in my room, getting ready to pick up Sienna from the compound. She thought that I was going to be driving her to Teo’s private jet to go home. She had no idea that she would never make it there. I felt sick. The memory of my conversation with Teo from the night before kept running through my mind on replay.
‘What the hell do you mean she’s already made her decision?’I stood in the back room of the ballroom after most of the party had wound down. Teo had asked to speak with me privately. I thought it was about my actions with Gino, but it was much worse.
‘I talked to her while we were out on the terrace.’
‘Well, of course she said no then. She’d just been attacked by Gino. I thought I’d get a chance to talk to her first, to let her know that nothing like that would ever happen again.’
‘Could you really promise her that? Our world is not as soft as the outside world.’
‘I would have protected her. I wouldn’t let it happen again.’
