Ruthless Empire: A Dark Mafia Collection

by Seth Eden

  My whole lower body shook with the ecstasy of the woman around me. Her moans of pleasure and vibrations as she worked herself into her own orgasms were golden. My hands dragged up her back as I felt myself getting closer and closer to the edge. Willow could hear it, could feel it, she had to, but she didn’t let up.

  “Baby,” I warned.

  She didn’t ignore me but met me with a kiss. She ground herself against me until my cup filled to the brim and started to overflow. I released my own set of moans against her lips, and tears crawled down my cheeks. It was Willow. It was me. We were us again, two people who’d nearly been torn to shreds by the Varasso curse, just barely managing to pull themselves back from the brink of destruction. Saying it was overwhelming would be an understatement.

  Willow smiled at me, and it melted me. It occurred to me at that moment that I hadn’t seen her pure, happy smile in a long, long time. I gave her one back, and hers grew.

  “I love you,” she said again.

  I shook my head, hugging her close to me. I buried my face against her chest and sighed, making a silent promise to myself never to let her go again. “Not nearly as much as I love you.”

  24

  Willow

  My heart wouldn’t stop pounding. It reminded me of the way it beat when Alessandro asked me out on our first date—that nervous excitement and that uncertainty about what was next, but the feeling of knowing it would be good. I couldn’t pinpoint exactly when Alessandro and I had walked into a twisted cavern of darkness and emptiness, but I finally felt like we saw the light ahead. We were both bloodied and bruised, but we were walking out together, something I’d long believed wouldn’t happen.

  He was on his back, his head on the pillows, eyes closed, deep breaths coming in and out in a calming, rhythmic pattern. I might have thought he was asleep if his fingers weren’t tracing a continuous circle across my lower back. I could have laid my head on his chest and fallen asleep that way, but it was difficult to do so. My eyelids were heavy, and my brain was screaming for sleep, but I didn’t want to leave consciousness yet. I wanted to stay awake with Alessandro for as long as my body would let me. I just wanted to be near him and be aware of it. I wanted to live in the comfort that, for the first time in several months, I didn’t have to scold myself later. I was with him, and it was okay.

  “I meant what I said,” he said, breaking the silence after a long time.

  “What part?” He’d said he loved me about a million times, but I had never doubted for a second that he did.

  “That I’m going to do whatever it takes.” He poked a finger against my cheek, and I looked up, meeting his blazing brown eyes. “You are more important to me than anything. I’m going to do whatever I have to for us to be together.”

  I smiled up at him. “I’m very happy to hear that.”

  I realized that the gravel in Alessandro’s voice was gone. The roughness it had carried the past year had evaporated. He was really and truly himself again. I wasn’t so lost in a fairy tale to think that it was gone for good, but it was a reminder that the real Alessandro was very much alive and well. I hated that it took me nearly getting my head blown off to bring him back out, but now that he was here, I was going to cling onto him and never let him fall into the murky Varasso waters again.

  “So, can we be us again?” he asked.

  Hearing it was wonderful enough, let alone making it official. “Yes.”

  The smile that found Alessandro’s face after that was blinding and nearly lit up the darkened room. “Good.”

  “Alessandro.”

  He looked into me. “Hm?”

  “I also meant what I said.” He tilted his head in confusion. “Outside, when I was…” I let my voice trail away at that. Neither of us needed reminding. “All that stuff I said to you, I meant every word of it. I never stopped loving you. I honestly don’t think I’m capable of that.”

  He nodded. “I know what you mean.”

  “It hurt me to watch you turn into someone other than yourself. I know you, and that person wasn’t you.” I rubbed his stomach lovingly. “This is you, the man I fell in love with. I don’t want you to go away again.” A lump of emotions choked me at the thought. “I don’t want you to become that other man again.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t want to, either. I forgot what it feels like to be…” He took a deep breath. “Me.” He kissed my forehead. “That’s why, in the morning, I’m giving the family back to Luca.”

  I shot up from where I was lying. “What?”

  Taking charge of the family from Luca may have been a decision that the dark Alessandro made, but it was one I wholeheartedly agreed with. Luca’s decision making had taken a severe downturn. One could argue that it was because he did the opposite of what Alessandro did—let falling in love and having a family soften him—which wasn’t a bad thing, but it didn’t entirely bode well for what we were trying to accomplish. Then again, if Alessandro was to hang onto his real self more than his dark one, that meant that he, too, served in opposition to that goal.

  Alessandro chuckled. “I thought you’d be pleased, but you seem shocked.”

  “I think you handled things better than him.” My hands trailed over Alessandro’s fingers, where his father’s rings were still nestled. The middle finger on his left hand held the ring that was meant to be worn only by the head of the family. Luca handed it over when he gave in to Alessandro’s demands to run the family. “I don’t know. Do you think he has the spine for it?”

  “I don’t think any of us have the spine for it anymore. Gabriel never did, and Marco was always better at punching than thinking. It was always going to be Luca or me, and it came down to who my dad had poisoned more, and that was me.” He sighed. “Luca’s better suited to it because he managed to resist the temptation to turn into Angelo Jr.”

  I recalled Denise telling us that she knew the Varasso patriarch and that he intended to name Alessandro after himself. Alessandro’s name was the closest to Angelo’s, and no one could deny that Alessandro had proven to be most like his father. Maybe he was right. The longer he sat in Angelo’s chair, the more likely he was to be diseased by his father’s domineering, post-mortem presence.

  “If you think that’s best, then I trust you,” I said finally. “Hopefully, we’re close enough to the end that it won’t make much of a difference.”

  “If only we’d listened to you, we wouldn’t have taken this huge step backward,” Alessandro said. “I’m so sorry, baby.” He sat up and wrapped his arms around my back in a hug. That’s when it hit me. Alessandro still didn’t know what I’d learned.

  “Sandro.”

  “What, my love?” He kept his head nestled next to mine while his hands stroked my back. I pulled his face back so I could look into it, but before I could get any words out, he kissed me.

  I relented as he pulled me down onto the bed, lips attached to mine. There was a single brain cell of logic screaming at me to stop and tell Alessandro what I knew about Denise, but all the rest were binding and gagging that one in the interest of letting myself get swept away in him again.

  He pulled away. “I’m sorry.”

  My eyes widened a little bit. “For what?”

  “I know that I do that, too. You’re trying to talk to me, and I just kiss you instead of listening. You said that to me, back at the hospital. I didn’t realize how frequently I did it, but once you said that, I realized how true it was.”

  The hospital. That day was one I’d rather erase from my memory. There was nothing good about it—Marco nearly getting shot, Alessandro flipping sides, Alessandro’s attempt to use his power over me, me deciding I was done with him for good, me getting those pained stares from Molly and Luca, me talking to Denise and confirming she wasn’t who she said she was. I didn’t want to think about it.

  “Sorry. I shouldn’t have brought that up,” Alessandro said.

  “No, it’s okay.” I smiled at him. “Thank you for thinking about the thing
s you need to work on. I know I have things, too. We’ll get through it together.”

  He rubbed my cheek gently. “What did you want to say?”

  “Alessandro, I learned stuff about Denise. A lot of it. She’s not who she said she is.”

  Alessandro nodded. “I don’t know why I let myself get so lost in her charm. I guess I just really didn’t think that she’d go to such lengths to prove she was in it. I mean, a slight miscalculation, and she could have died while trying to convince us of something.”

  “This is what she does. She’s a con woman. She has been for many years. Maybe always.”

  Alessandro tilted his head. “What do you mean?”

  “Have you heard of the Costa family?” I asked.

  Alessandro nodded. “Yeah. Head by Illiana Costa. She’s currently trying to run Anthony Carducci out of Chicago, or she was. A few years before my dad died, their rivalry came to a screeching halt. They weren’t aligned necessarily, but something kept them from going at one another. It was a bloodbath out there, and then it just…stopped.”

  “Just a bit before your dad died? Like when he started trying to arrange an alliance with your family?”

  I saw Alessandro’s eyes glass over as he considered it. When he looked back at me, it was with darkened shock. “Almost exactly.”

  Every time I learned more about Denise and the Costa family, it left me with more questions. “Denise is a Costa. She’s Illiana’s daughter.”

  Alessandro’s jaw dropped. “Are you serious?”

  I nodded. “Yeah. She’s got something to do with the Carduccis, too, but I don’t know what. I think it has something to do with Anthony’s daughter, Callista.”

  “I don’t understand. She told those stories about Dario and Dante, and they sounded legit.”

  I nodded. “I know. I don’t understand that part, either, and even though she knows I know who she really is, she still said, ‘I really do want my brother dead.’ I don’t know why she would still refer to him as her brother at that point unless he really is.”

  Alessandro’s eyes widened. “Do…you think she’s both? A Costa and Binachi?”

  That thought hadn’t occurred to me. She mentioned that it was Donovan that was her dad, but that the boys’ mom raised her like she was her own. She mentioned that the Binachis had ruined her life. “What if Donovan somehow seized control over Denise after Illiana gave birth to her. Maybe he never meant for her to find out she was a Costa, but she did.”

  “Because of Anthony,” Alessandro continued. “That’s what caused the cease-fire. Anthony knew where to find Denise.” He let out a whistle. “Holy shit.” He looked over at the side-table where his phone was. “Shit, it’s too early to call a meeting.”

  “There’s still something I don’t understand, though. Nothing links Denise to being a Binachi, but everything links her to being a Costa. A lot of things don’t say her last name, but when I Googled her as a Costa, she had all these different disguises—different colored hair, different colored eyes,” I reflected on the search. “All mostly around the same age, though.”

  “It’s obvious we’re missing some pieces. We just don’t know enough. I think Denise is a product of Donovan and Illiana, but how Anthony factors into all of that and what Denise’s current dealings are with her family are unknown. We can’t risk anything. We have to snuff her and Dario out as soon as possible. I believe she wanted Dario dead, so the information she gave us on him probably has some validity, but we have to get the jump on them.”

  He laid back. “Luca will know what to do. Maybe I should call everyone right now.”

  It was about two in the morning. “Let’s let everyone sleep,” I said. “Yesterday was stressful. Besides.” I laid against him. “I don’t want to get up just yet.”

  Alessandro’s face immediately turned sweet again. “Yeah, me either.” He kissed me and then started to climb out of bed. “Sorry. I’ll be right back.”

  I grunted in annoyance. “I thought it was clear that I also didn’t want you to get up.”

  Alessandro chuckled as he skipped out of the room, his nakedness bouncing as he went. I heard some rustling from the living room, and he finally came back around the corner. I grinned, glad that he’d taken the effort to keep his spectacular body in good shape, even amidst the chaos. He reached out for my hand, and I took it, letting him pull me to the edge of the bed. He knelt on the floor in front of me and pulled a small, velvet box from behind his back. He tipped the cover back, revealing a huge, white diamond ring. It had to be at least twenty-five carats and crested at the top of an infinity band of smaller diamonds.

  I gasped. “Oh my god.”

  I had an engagement ring, one that Alessandro had bought for me after we decided to be together before Alexis was born. I always wore it, even through our problems, but the one he held before me now was twice as beautiful and expensive.

  “I know you have a ring, but I feel like I didn’t live up to that one. I bought this one a few weeks ago. I promised myself to step up and become worthy of giving it to you. I failed, but I don’t plan on doing it again. This is proof that I would do anything for you, Willow. This is forever.”

  Tears were in my eyes before I knew they were coming. “Sandro.”

  “Willow Francine Moretti. Will you stay married to me?”

  I laughed as tears streamed down my face. “Yes!”

  Alessandro pulled the ring from the box, pulled my old ring from my finger, and replaced it with the new one. He put the old one in the box and set it on the nightstand before falling back against me on the bed. We’d be tired in the family meeting, but I couldn’t care less.

  This is forever.

  25

  Alessandro

  I woke up to the sound of my phone blaring in my ear, partnered with the sound of relentless pounding on the bedroom door. I was confused. My phone stayed in Do Not Disturb overnight. Otherwise, I’d never get any sleep, and Willow and I were supposed to be the only ones with keys to our suite. The door pounded a few more times, and then finally, it went blasting open. I reacted on impulse, jumping over Willow while clamoring to the bedside table, looking for my gun.

  “Oh, god!” I heard a familiar voice bark out.

  “Gross,” another added.

  Willow screeched and pulled the blankets further over herself. “What the fuck are you doing!”

  I looked back at the door, and Marco and Gabriel were standing there, both with their hands in front of their eyes.

  “Good god,” Marco huffed. “I did not drag myself away from my new son to come back here and look at your dick and ass hanging out. Put some clothes on.”

  “I’m in my bedroom,” I hissed back. “Why are you?” I crawled under the blankets and couldn’t stop myself from grabbing a pillow and blocking the view of Willow up to her chin.

  “Wait,” Willow yelped. “A son? It’s a boy!”

  I scoffed at Marco and Gabriel, who were still keeping their eyes averted. “I’m covered up.”

  Gabriel took a peek like he didn’t believe me and then dropped his hands. He smiled at Willow. “How are things?”

  Willow looked at me and then back at Gabriel with a nod. “Fixed.”

  Gabriel clapped. “Yes!”

  I crossed my arms. “You still haven’t answered why you’re in my room.”

  Willow held up her left hand. “I got a new ring!”

  “Whoa!” Gabriel started into the room, and I pointed the gun that I’d grabbed at him.

  “If you step any closer to my wife while she’s naked, I will blow your brains out.”

  Gabriel held up his hands, but his stupid smile stayed put. “I’ll see it later.”

  Willow giggled and then looked at Marco. “A boy?”

  He smiled widely. “A boy. Apollo.”

  She clapped. “Congratulations!”

  “If someone doesn’t tell me why you two just broke down my bedroom door in the next thirty seconds, I swear to god—”


  Marco pulled out his gun. “Stop being such a brat. I can wave mine around, too.”

  “Knock it off, you two,” Gabriel said, pushing Marco’s gun down. “Sandro, we busted in because it’s four o’clock in the afternoon, and you weren’t answering your phone or door. We got scared that something happened to you.”

  “It’s what time?” I grabbed my phone off the nightstand and looked at the time. Sure enough, it said it was four-thirty-two. “Holy crap we slept for, like, twelve hours.”

  “I got to sleep next to Kelly last night. I slept for ten hours straight.”

  That made sense. It had been a long time since Willow and I slept together, knowing that neither of us had to get out of the bed before the other woke up. I was exhausted. Not just physically and mentally, but I was totally sapped of the energy that only Willow gave me. I guess twelve-plus hours was what it took to get a full charge.

  “It would have been more if Ricky hadn’t woken me up so I could come home,” Marco continued, and then his expression went sad. “I hated leaving her.”

  The room’s energy changed to match his instantly. “I’m sorry, Marco. I wish this was over already so that you could be there.”

  He nodded. “Well, I heard things got nasty here, so I came back right away. Denise, huh?” Marco looked at Willow with guilt all over his face. “If only someone had tried to warn us.”

  Willow shrugged. “One day, people will listen to me.”

  Marco smiled, happy that she didn’t seem to be taking it personally.