AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The drive to Venice was what I needed to clear my mind of Enzo. I had hoped that he may have given up on going through with his plan to marry Elle after what she had just been through. But obviously not. I had put too much faith in him. Or maybe, I was just blinded by love. By the hope deep inside me that believed he would do the right thing eventually.
I had asked Alessio to meet me in an abandoned, old church that hadn’t been used for years, out in a rural part of Venice, where only a few locals lived and always minded their own business. It would be extremely obvious if either one of us was followed out here so it was our safest bet.
I parked my car on the dirt road and cut through the crumbling stone wall towards the graveyard. With a cap on and my head down, I didn’t see another soul until I pushed open the heavy, wooden door of the church. Alessio’s broad back was facing me as he sat in one of the pews. He was staring up at a stunning stained-glass window at the front of the church that was slightly broken but still impressive. I took a seat next to him on the same bench and stared up at it too. We sat in silence for a few moments before I couldn’t hold back any longer. I had to know.
“Were you going to give Elle to Galiz?” I asked, turning my face to watch his expression. It was the reason I wanted to meet him. I would be able to tell if he looked me in the eye and lied. His head turned and my eyes widened at the state of him. He looked like he had been hit by a fucking bus.
“No. Of course not. I would never give any woman to that slimeball, let alone Elle,” he replied aggressively, anger evident in his blue eyes that I could only just see through the puffiness of his eyelids.
“What the fuck happened to your face? Was that all from Giovanni?” I questioned; my attention immediately diverted from our conversation. He chuckled, shaking his head.
“I went back to our roots last night.”
I raised my eyebrows in surprise. “You went underground? Why?”
I had given that part of my life up as soon as I joined the mafia. But I knew Alessio had still been fighting every now and again, even as an adult. It was his way of blowing off steam. His therapy. Though he never usually lost a fight. This was different.
“To feel something other than fucking heartache,” he smiled, looking down at his scabbed knuckles. I stared at the side of his face and I knew. I could see it the night he came to the Buccini’s and I could see it now. He loved her.
“She hates me, doesn’t she?” he looked up at me and I held his gaze, slowly nodding.
“But I don’t think she has the whole story,” I quickly added when I saw how much that hurt him. “So, I need you to tell me Alessio. Tell me what the fuck happened between you both.”
“I don’t fucking know!” he groaned, leaning forward and dropping his head in his hands. “We went to Greece and we both agreed to give whatever was happening between us a shot. To try and see if what we had been feeling for each other was real if you took away all the shit. And it was, Finn. We had the best time together. And then I met with Galiz. He knew Elle was with me and he wanted her as part of our agreement. I refused. But he tried to take her anyway. I managed to save her before they did, but I knew by doing that, I had just fucked everything up back home. I thought Diego would kill me for throwing away the alliance with Galiz. We got home and I spoke to papi. He was mad, but when I persuaded him that all was not lost, that I could still take the North if I formed an alliance with Giovanni, he agreed. He even said I could marry Elle. It was what I had been hoping for. I proposed to her that fucking night. She said yes. The meeting was arranged with Giovanni and I was going to suggest an alliance between our families. But he never fucking showed. And then Elle never showed with Stefano. I got the call from the police that Stefano’s body had been found and then was told about the bodies in the fire. When I realised it was Isabelle, I knew it had to be Buccini who did it. That he came and killed Stefano to get to Elle and captured Isabelle and her men to murder them as revenge. But what I don’t understand is why Elle would kill Isabelle? Or why she would even go with Giovanni and let him kill Stefano after everything between us? It just doesn’t make any fucking sense.”
I stared at him, trying to keep my breathing even as he sat back and looked at me with desperation. He was telling the truth. His truth anyway. Which also didn’t make any sense…
“That is not what happened, Alessio.”
His eyebrows pulled down into the bridge of his nose as he frowned deeply.
“Elle started to speak to me the day after you turned up at the gates. She told me what happened to her,” I started as he turned to give me his full attention. “Isabelle’s men were in the car behind Stefano’s. They were flashing at him to pull over and when he got out to go and speak to them, they shot him dead in the road before running him over. They then kidnapped Elle, putting her in the trunk of the car, and took her to the warehouse where Isabelle was waiting. Giovanni was on his way to meet you when he was informed by one of his soldiers who was following Elle to check she was safe.”
Alessio’s blue eyes turned cold and ruthless as they darted between mine. His nostrils flared as his chest rose and fell in rapid breaths. I decided to keep talking before he lost his shit too quickly and he wouldn’t be able to hear anymore.
“Isabelle told her that you had planned it all. That you never cared about Elle and were just using her to destroy her. That it had all been a game to make Elle fall in love with you and now that Diego was dead and you were Boss, you were doing what you wanted to do all along to get the North. You were meeting with Giovanni to kill him and giving Elle to Galiz. Isabelle was in on it all and was holding Elle at the warehouse so she could be taken to Anthony.”
He suddenly stood up and walked away from me, his hands clenching and unclenching into fists. He stormed back towards me, that terrifying mask that said he wanted blood etched into his features. I stayed in my place, waiting for him to digest it all and speak.
“Isabelle was fucking lying!” he roared as I nodded my head.
“I gathered that. I tried to tell Elle that too, but for some reason she seemed adamant that you two were scheming together.”
“Because she knows,” he lifted his hands to his face as I frowned in confusion.
“She knows what?”
He sat down, looking defeated as he leaned back and stared at the altar of the church. It was only then that I saw the young boy I met all those years ago. The one who looked lost and terrified just like the first night we met. The vulnerability in his eyes was heartbreaking. As if he was carrying a secret that was too big for him. That he could no longer hold onto. My heart went out to him at that moment. Whatever he was dealing with, he needed to talk about it.
“Alessio. Haven’t I earned your trust by now? Have I ever betrayed you or done you wrong?” I asked carefully as he moved his gaze to his hands in his lap again. “You saved me from a life on the streets. Being used and abused by those fucking scumbags. And I have forever been grateful for the life you have given me. But I never understood why you took me in. Why would you vouch for me and change my life when you didn’t owe me anything?”
He swallowed audibly before he looked up at the altar again, still avoiding my gaze.
“Because I knew I could have been you. The night I met you in the underground ring and saw the way you were living; I knew my life could have so easily been yours.”
“I don’t understand,” I narrowed my gaze on him.
“I wasn’t born into the mafia, Finn. My mamma was a prostitute and drug addict. I lived in a crack house until I was three or four,” he chuckled as he shook his head. “I don’t even know how old I really am. I don’t even know when my birthday is. Or what my real name is. Diego just made one up. The woman who birthed me, sold me to Diego for a bag of cocaine. That was a step up from what she had sold me for before.”
