by Gina Whitney
I managed to get through the gate, latching it behind me, and then scurried through the shadows to the back yard. I could hear the voices of the guards, and used that as my guide, not getting near them and remaining as silent as possible. Once I made it to the back, just beneath my window, a light flickered on in the downstairs study, and I knew I couldn’t waste any more time climbing back up.
Putting one foot in front of the other, climbing the trellis, I finally pulled myself through my window. My heartbeat was wild within my chest, pounding an erratic beat against my ribcage. My breaths were frantic and short. I stumbled to my bed, sat on the mattress, and held my head in my hands, hoping to calm the fear within me.
I was Jordana Albanese. I was strong, capable, fearless…yet here I sat, panic filling me. I needed to calm down, to remind myself of who I was. I needed to find my courage and strength, to pull from my inner power.
Just as I thought I’d had it under control, my bedroom door swung open. My head flung back, catching my father’s wide eyes as he searched the room. Finally, he flipped on the light switch, turning on the lamp next to my bed. As soon as his eyes met mine, his rigid posture deflated and a desperate exhale left his lips. Shit.
“What’s going on, Daddy?”
He slowly moved to my bed and then sat next to me. “There were noises outside, and I worried you went missing as well.” He pulled me into his arms, his heart pounding harshly in his chest. These days, he ate paranoia for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Who could blame him? These were fucked-up, troubled times, and he hadn’t a clue just how much so. “What are you doing awake? It’s three in the morning.”
“I couldn’t sleep, Daddy. I’m so worried about Matty. I feel responsible, you know? He was with me, and then he vanished. I fear that I could’ve done something to keep him safe.” This was partly true.
“No, sweetheart.” He held me close and rubbed my back in slow, soothing strokes. “Don’t blame yourself. You couldn’t have prevented it. You know Matteo, he will do what he wants, regardless of anyone else’s feelings.”
Wait. What? I hadn’t expected him to say that. Since he went missing, my father had accused every other family for being at fault for Matty vanishing. Now it seemed he’d changed his tune, putting the blame on Matty himself. Which would’ve made sense had I not talked to Stefan already. I didn’t know where he went or why, but I trusted Stefan when he’d said my brother was safe. After all, it was all I had to go on.
My father backed away, holding my face in his hands so he could look me in the eyes. “You should get some rest. Stop worrying. Let me do that.”
I nodded and then allowed him to tuck me in like he used to do when I was younger. It seemed ridiculous for him to do that now, but I didn’t argue, knowing he needed it. He left my room, turning off the light and closing the door behind him. I wanted to sleep, but images wouldn’t leave my mind. Images of Carlo, of Charlie…of Stefan. I wondered what they were doing, what was being said in my absence. And I wondered if I’d ever see Stefan again.
Finally, sleep pulled me under, and I didn’t open my eyes again until morning.
Someone shook me until I woke, causing me to nearly punch Laura in the face. I didn’t like being woken that way. Never wake a person like that, unless you want a fist to meet your face.
“What the fuck, Laura?” I sat up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.
“You have a lot of explaining to do,” she said, sounding like Ricky Ricardo from I Love Lucy. “You can’t just leave me behind at a club while Stefan Giannotti carries you out over his shoulder.”
“You can’t be that worried about it if it’s taken you this long to come find me.”
“Wiseass. I called the next day, and your dad said you were sleeping.”
I rolled my eyes, giving into her curious nature. “What is it you want to know?”
“When did it start?” she asked, getting comfortable in my bed next to me.
“A while ago,” I answered curtly.
“Really? You’re going to keep it vague with me? I tell you everything.”
“Let’s face it, Laura, this isn’t an episode of fucking Gossip Girl. How about I just tell you the basic facts and then we’ll leave it at that?”
My cousin shrugged, but I knew she wouldn’t drop the subject without some juicy tidbits.
“I needed a man that knew what he was doing in bed. I found Stefan, not having a clue as to who he was. It wasn’t like I knew him. We all knew about his brother, Nico, but never too much about Stefan. We talked briefly, he’s hot as shit, and then he took me to his apartment—for sex.”
“Go on…”
“Needless to say, it was the best fuck of my life. I’d go as far as calling it life changing, and exactly what I needed. We met up again, and before I knew it, it’d become a regular thing.”
“Dana, don’t play this off as purely sexual. I saw the way he looked at you across the room at dinner the other night. And then he chased you down like a caveman and carried you out.”
“It was purely sexual to begin with, but then something changed,” I said with a smile, replaying his words to me from the night before. “We developed feelings for each other.” I glanced up at her, catching her wide eyes. “I’m in love with him.”
“This is so bad, Dana. So very, very bad. You know you guys can’t be together. Your families hate each other. Look at what his family did to Matty. And you’re okay with that? How do you know you’re not just a pawn in his game?”
“I just know, okay? He loves me, too. He’s not just saying it to say it. Not to mention, he’s the one that helped my father with Matty’s debt. If he was really behind it, would he have done that? No. So please, stop painting him with the same colors you paint his father. They’re not the same. Stefan left the family business for years to go to school. He only came back when Nico was killed.”
“I’m worried about you. This can’t end well.”
The last thing I needed this morning was her negativity. I was still stuck on the word “pawn” she chose to use. That didn’t sit well with me. I wasn’t anyone’s fucking pawn.
I placed my hand on hers. “Trust me, Laura. I know what I’m doing. We have a plan, and we will be together.” I couldn’t tell her more of this plan we had, because, well, I didn’t really know what it was. But regardless, it was something between Stefan and me. No one else needed to know.
“If you say so. But you know you can always come to me, right? If there’s a problem, or he’s doing something that scares you…I’m always here for you.”
“I know.” I gave her a comforting smile. “And I love you for that. But for the first time in my life, I don’t feel lost. I’m not worried about him. I know he’ll do anything to protect me—he already has.” She had no fucking clue just how much we’d already been through or the depth of protection he’d already provided.
“Oh, yeah? What has he done?” She didn’t sound challenging, more like excited.
I waved my finger at her. “Nope. You know I won’t tell you that. It’s personal. All you need to know is that he came to my rescue, and did things that could get him killed. But he did them for me, to keep me safe.” I kept my voice still, but she teetered on the verge of an ass kicking if she continued on this path.
Fuck, I needed caffeine.
“You going to marry him?” she asked, and the question nearly gutted me. Of course I wanted to get married one day. The possibility of that happening, though, was another story. We weren’t there yet, but someday, I hoped we’d get there.
“I hope so…eventually. We just have to work it all out first.”
Laura nodded and then jumped out of the bed. “Since you won’t give me any real dirt to sink my teeth into, let’s go shopping.”
I groaned, not wanting to shop with her. She was the worst person to go with. But she did have her daddy’s limitless credit card, and maybe some retail therapy is what I needed. Maybe hitting Agent Provocateur or La Perla would cheer me up. Not
to mention, those were two of Stefan’s favorite stores. He had a real fetish for all things lace. Thinking of that, I nodded and got up to get dressed.
For hours, I’d let Laura drag me to all her favorite shops—shops that didn’t carry anything priced less than a hundred dollars. Fuck it, money was never an issue—we never worried about it. However, staying alive was. It was never smart to flaunt your money, especially if you want to stay under the FBI radar. My uncle had become a little loose in that department. When it came to Laura, money was no object. When it came to me, it was earn it before you spend it.
The goons my father had on our detail were flush with embarrassment at the stores we shopped in. We laughed our asses off knowing they were close behind and these stores were the last places they’d be caught dead in. Unless the filthy fucks were with their gumar. A fun little fact urban culture makes light of: Married to the mob, wives and “gumars”—girlfriends—were accepted and often encouraged. Totally disgusting, and if Stefan ever stepped out on me, it would be without the pair of balls between his legs.
Right after lunch, I received a phone call from Stefan, demanding I meet him at his condo. I told him I was out with my cousin, but he didn’t care. He told me to have her drop me off. He had no idea that Laura knew about him, but apparently, he didn’t care if she did. When I told Laura what Stefan had said, she became unglued with giddiness and eagerly drove me to his condo, efficiently ditching our tail.
“Laura, you can’t come up.”
“Like fucking hell I can’t. You can’t possibly think I’m going to just leave you here without making sure it’s safe. Your brother is missing. How do I know you won’t be next?” She wouldn’t take no for an answer and followed me to the elevator.
“He’s going to be pissed,” I said, using my key and pressing the button.
“Tell him you didn’t have a choice. And why would you want to be with someone who’d get mad so easily? He sounds very controlling and…” She hadn’t a clue. His control was what I craved. Her words vanished into thin air as the elevator doors opened into his foyer.
Stefan came around the corner, stopping in his tracks once his eyes met Laura’s. “What’s she doing here?”
“She wouldn’t let me come up alone. Said you might kill me or something.”
Laura scowled, mortified, and punched my arm, then turned a smile in his direction. “All fucking lies. I never said such things. I only wanted to check it out for myself.”
“Okay. You see it. He’s not going to harm me. You can go now,” I said, nudging her toward the elevator.
“No,” Stefan interjected. “She can stay. But we need to talk in private first.”
Nerves filled me, wondering what he could possibly have up his sleeve. I nodded to Laura, telling her to take a seat in the living room while I went to see what Stefan wanted. Maybe he wanted her to stay so she could drive me back home. That’s the only thing that made sense to me.
Stefan held my hand, dragging me to his office in the back of the condo. I’d never been in there before, knowing much like my dad’s office, it was off limits. But I followed him anyway, and took a seat across from him at his desk.
“I swear, I told her to go home,” I pleaded, catching the worried expression on his face.
“It’s quite all right. We will need a witness anyway.”
That caught my attention. “Witness? For what?”
He exhaled heavily and said, “Carlo wants us to be married. We must go today.”
I had to have heard him wrong. “Excuse me?”
“I’ll explain everything later, but right now, we need to go so we can get married.”
His callousness at the entire situation pissed me off. This isn’t the way to ask someone to marry you, or even the way you’d treat the woman you swear to love. “Have you lost your mind? No…just fucking no.” That caught his attention, his gaze turning fierce as it pierced mine. “You’ve kept me in the dark enough, don’t you think? And now you expect me to just jump at this ridiculous proposal? Fuck! It’s not even a proposal. It’s a demand.”
He hung his head, and I could tell he felt worn out and exhausted. This wasn’t the typical, controlling man I knew. He acted as if he’d been defeated, and I didn’t know if that was an insult to me or not. “Well, that’s how it was delivered to me. I wasn’t given an option. I wasn’t asked my opinion or how I felt about it. I’m just following orders here, Jordana.”
Tears pricked my eyes, but not out of sadness or rejection, they were completely born of rage and resentment. “How romantic. But this doesn’t make any sense. Why do they want you to marry me?”
“I told you, I’ll explain everything later.”
I leaned forward and slapped my hand on the top of his desk; the burning sensation in my palm didn’t even come close to the sting of rejection I felt. “You need me to marry you? Well, I need you to give me answers.”
“What do you want to know?” Everything about Stefan’s attitude was of a man who’d given up. His voice was soft, almost uncaring, and his posture portrayed one of weakness instead of the normal rigid and confident nature I’d grown accustomed to seeing.
I chewed on my lip, trying to sort through the unanswered questions that had been running through my head for weeks. “That night after the club, when you came after me, what happened? I don’t remember much before waking up in the morning. What happened after you took me out of the club?”
He smiled and shook his head, revealing the first glint of humor in his eyes since I’d shown up. “You passed out in the car. I took you to your house and helped you up to your room.”
“Where was my father?”
“He was there. He wasn’t happy that I’d brought you home, but when I pointed out how it could’ve been worse, he let it go. I told him I saw you out and you’d had a little too much to drink. After I explained how I had to fight off a guy that was a little too touchy, he seemed thankful and all right with it.”
“My dad caught you inside and let you leave with all ten fingers still intact?”
“What could he do, Jordana? Huh? I’d saved his son, and then I got his very intoxicated daughter home safely. It’s not like he had a choice seeing your head lolling and your shoes barely on your feet. He owes me.”
Fuck almighty, what a disgraziata I was. My poor father must’ve been so disappointed. However, I couldn’t let my shame distract me. “He doesn’t owe you anything. You know it and he knows it.”
Sounding bored and slightly annoyed, Stefan said, “Think what you will, Jordana. Your father doesn’t have beef with me. His issues lie with my dad. I’m an innocent bystander.”
I didn’t understand why my father never mentioned any of it to me the following morning, but I chose to ignore that nagging thought, needing other answers. “Okay, so what about Matty? Where is he?”
He took a deep breath and ran his fingers down his face. “He’s safe.”
“Yeah, so you keep saying. But where?”
“You know he has battled with gambling problems, but what you don’t know is that he’s also gotten himself into other addictions—drugs. My brother suffered at the hands of drugs, and it had cost him his life. I didn’t want to see the same happen to Matteo. Not to mention, if Italy found out about it, he’d never get the chance to be made. And since he’s the only Albanese son, the bloodline would end with your father. They’d never give it to you.”
Oh, fuck…drugs, I thought. How in the world did I miss that? Guilt churned my now sour stomach. “Where is he?” I asked again, more stern this time.
“He’s getting treatment. No one knows where he is because it’s all done on the down low. I have him set up in an apartment in Jersey with the best detox team available. After he finishes that, he’s going to a secluded rehab treatment center to help him learn to live without the drugs. He’s using a fake name, and no one knows who he is. He’s safe. He’s getting help, that’s the main thing.”
“You make no sense, Stefan. Yo
u protected him and paid off his debt when he owed your family money, but then took the cash from my dad. You say you want to take over the families, so why get my brother help?” Nothing made sense anymore. Every time Stefan spoke, he only confused me more.
“The money I took from your father is paying for his treatment. It’s being used to help him start a new life when this is all said and done. It’s all going toward the greater cause.”
“That all sounds quite lovely for a man dedicated to helping people…but that’s not you, Stefan. You always have an ulterior motive. So what’s it this time? Why are you helping my brother? What are you getting out of it?”
“There are things you don’t know, Jordana.”
“Then tell me!” My patience had grown too thin to keep a calm tone with him.
“You think Carlo’s visit was random? Well, it wasn’t. You think I came back because my brother died? Well, again, you’d be wrong.”
“Stop speaking in riddles. I won’t marry you until I have all the answers,” I said, digging my stubborn heels in.
“Then you’d be going against the Father of Italy. You’d be defying Carlo himself. Is that what you want to do?” He leaned forward, pressing his elbows on his desk and steepling his fingers like I’d seen my father do too many times to count.
“Just tell me. I think I have a right to know what I’m legally getting myself into here.”
He hung his head, taking in a healthy breath before locking eyes with me once more. “I was approached by Carlo about three months before Nico died. He’d heard about my brother’s problems with drugs and came to me about it. I guess the issue had been brought up to my father, but he’d denied Nico had a problem. To top it off, Carlo isn’t happy with the way our fathers are running their crews. He’s not happy with our fathers’ old-school approach, saying we need to be relevant in these new days ahead. And he really isn’t happy with the Carraras and the way they’re doing business as if they don’t have to answer to anyone else. So he came to me, seeking help getting the families to be what they once were. But we needed to wait, to plan, because he didn’t want our fathers knowing his intentions before the time is right. That’s why I’ve been doing so much business behind my father’s back. He can’t know. And neither can yours.”
