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“We’re going to set up Ricardo Gallo,” I said in a low tone.
I could hear the shock in his voice when he answered. “Set him up? Does Enzo know about this?”
“I can’t trust Enzo,” I said. “Not right now. I’ll figure things out with him later, but for now, Ricardo has to be dealt with.”
“He won’t take it lightly,” Alessandro warned.
“He knows who his son is,” I replied. “And if he wants to take it up with me, your name won’t be mentioned.” I knew that was what Alessandro was worried about. He was a good man when you were in a pickle, but he wasn’t about to risk life and limb for me. I understood that. I probably put too much of myself into the work, enjoyed it a bit too much at times. It was good to get my emotions out, since I usually pushed them so deep inside myself. It was like when I was working, I could throw my fists and let out some of the anger and resentment that had been brewing inside me most of my life.
After leaving Allegra, I’d almost lost myself. But now I needed to think about the future. I didn’t know where I stood with Allegra. I didn’t know how our newfound friendship would survive a secret this big, but I needed both her and my son protected. I felt an ache in my chest, some nameless emotion. I wanted to meet him, but I was afraid at the same time. I needed to talk to Allegra.
“All right, Rush. Tell me when and where,” he said, and I hung up the phone. I descended the stairs with my heart still in my throat, glancing toward Enzo’s office door as I did. It was closed shut. I guessed I needed to find a place to hide out. It wasn’t exactly like I could go back to the mansion, or even my apartment in the city.
Just as I was about to walk out of the front door of the mansion, Allegra hurried down the stairs. “Where are you going?” she asked.
I turned toward her, my jaw clenching. As much as we needed to have a conversation, I felt so angry with her that I didn’t even want to look at her. “Figured I needed a place to hide out,” I said gruffly.
Allegra worried her bottom lip between her teeth. “You should stay here. Papa’s men are all here, guarding us.”
“Is that all right with Romeo?” I asked.
Allegra’s chin tilted up defiantly. “It’s all right with me, and this is my house too,” she said firmly.
I looked at her for a long moment. “Are we going to talk about this?” I asked softly.
She stared at me for a moment before shaking her head. “Not yet,” she answered, and started back up the stairs.
I followed her and she led me to a guest room. It was bigger than the master bedroom at Enzo’s place. “Jesus,” I muttered. “Romeo really did well for himself.” I’d been inside the mansion before, but only in Allegra’s room, and briefly, because Allegra had always kept me a secret from her father. I guessed that in time, I would have maybe gotten tired of being a dirty little secret, but at the time it’d made sense to me. I wasn’t on the same level as Allegra Rossi, and I never would be. I wasn’t full-blooded Sicilian, and I didn’t come from crime royalty the way she did. She was what I liked to call a blue-blood, and they didn’t usually go after guys like me.
Allegra didn’t answer. I supposed she wouldn’t be sleeping in the same bed as me tonight. A twisted smile spread across my face, and I couldn’t help feeling bitter. “Still your dirty little secret, huh?” I asked.
Allegra stared at me. “What are you talking about?” she asked.
“Nothing,” I said flatly. “Doesn’t matter.”
“Rocco, I didn’t keep you a secret on purpose, it just—”
“It just what? Didn’t look good for a princess to be dating a thug like me?” This was a fight we’d had many times before, and I felt an odd sense ofdéjà vu. It was a stupid fight, especially now, but I couldn’t help thinking of how she’d kept me hidden and then kept Matteo hidden. Allegra was full of secrets, it seemed.
“I wanted to protect you,” Allegra burst out, staring at me with wide brown eyes with a hint of tears in them. Her brow was furrowed and the tension in the room was palpable. Half of me wanted to kick her out of the room and the other half of me wanted to kiss her, make her remember why she chose me all those years ago, tell her that we could really do this if we tried. The former half won out in the end.
“Protect me? By keeping me secret and then keeping our son secret for ten fucking years, Allegra?” I snapped.
Her lips thinned. “I said we’ll talk about it later, Rocco.”
“Well, until we do talk about it, you can get the hell away from me,” I muttered.
Her eyes widened, her mouth parting. “You don’t…you don’t mean that.”
“I do,” I said firmly and shut the door in her face, breathing hard. Everything seemed to pile up in me and I couldn’t hold it back anymore, punching the wood door so hard that my knuckles split and my wounds ached. I groaned, cursing myself inwardly, and headed for the shower. It would be the first shower I’d had in a week, and I planned to enjoy it, despite everything that had happened tonight.
19
ALLEGRA
My father had listened to me without speaking as I told him the whole story, omitting the part about Rocco drugging and kidnapping me. Instead, I just said that he came to me with the idea that Ricardo Gallo was after me, and we went on the run together. “Why would you leave like that? And not tell me?” Papa asked.
I sighed. “It doesn’t matter right now, Papa. We have to figure this out. Ricardo Gallo is trying to kill me, and Rocco too.”
