AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The first person I see, sitting at the empty bar, drowning something by the looks of it… is none other than Alessandro.
“You’re not drinkin’ age…” I call from behind him. Jamie’s eyes widen behind the bar and she pulls the glasses away, tucking them beneath the bar.
“I’m not a cop, Jamie…” I mutter.
The young man turns to look at me, his eyes are riddled with burden. There are dark circles beneath them and his face is white as paper. His movements are slow, his head weaving and bobbing as he struggles to sit up straight. He looks exhausted…
Not drunk.
“What the hell are you doing here?” He asks, pulling his gun, aiming it at me.
I hold my hand up. “I heard she was taken and I’m here to help…”
“Or you’re here to lead us into a trap.”
“What options do you have other than to hear me out?” I ask. “And what would Madam Rosa want withyou?”
“You okay?…” I growl, sitting down next to him. “Do you know where she is?”
“If I knew that…” he growls, licking his lips. “I wouldn’t be sitting here with my finger up my ass with those idiots!” He gestures upstairs. I can hear them. They’re all talking loudly. Arguing by the sounds of it.
I know pain when I see it.
Alessandro Lorenzo is drenched in it.
“I’m getting her back…” I say sternly before getting up. I grab the back of his shirt and yank him up. “And you’re going to come with me…”
“I don’t have time for romance…” he chuckles, bitterly as he lowers his gun and slaps me off him. “She’s MIA and I need to track her down.”
“Yeah?” I scoff. “Looks like you were doing a great job of that before I got here…”
He cocks his arm back and launches a punch right at my face, knocking my head to the side. I massage my jaw. It stings. Not a bad hit, if I’m being honest. I probably deserved it, too.
But that’s his only freebie.
“I’ve got the Colombos breathing down my neck…” he grits. “Thinking she jipped them on a deal…”He laughs, bitterly. “We were this close…” he held his fingers up an inch away. “To make a truce…”
I shake my head. “You know as well as I do that’s a bunch of shit!”
“How do you know what I know?” he grits. He has a lot of his mother’s tenacity. I’ll give him that.
“I know you’re not stupid and neither is Aria. I know that you know that Donny Colombo and the rest of them bastards aren’t going to stop until you all are in a body bag and I guarantee you some of it has to do with Madam Rosa.”
“Yeah, and you’re the spawn of her so why should I listen to a goddamn thing you say?”
“You don’t have to, but I’m telling you I’m the only option you’ve got right now!” I take a deep breath and lean close to him, lowering my voice slightly. The last thing I need is all the rest of the family coming down to pay me a visit while I yell at their incoming Boss. “You only thought you were making a truce. Let’s get you upstairs so we can talk to the rest of these assholes…and you can tell Donny Colombo that his ol’ buddy Tony Giordio says hi and he can hold the fuck off for a little while or I’ll make sure the next time I get ahold of him, he won’t be breathing.”
His face turns from paper white to red instantaneously and his arms begin to flail haphazardly at my head. “Get off me!” He snarls like a rabid dog. “She wouldn’t jip them, though…” he grumbles, pushing himself up from the bar, ignoring me. He’s talking out of his head. His footsteps are unsteady, and slouched. “She is a lot of things… ruthless as they come…but she’s a woman of her word…” He sounds like he’s trying to convince me. Like I didn’t know of her integrity.
I’ll have to ask her later why the hell she would make any sort of deal with the Colombos.
I grab him by the shoulders again. I can see that he’s panicking.
“Al,” I remark with a slow, deep, intentional breath. “Take a breath…”
“I can’t!” He fights, pushing me off him yet again. He’s like a fucking animal begging to be tamed.
“I know where she is!” I stomp. “Do you want to hit me some more, or do you want to make a plan to get her back?!”
