Reckless & Ruined (9 page)

Eve pursed her lips. “No?”

“Nope.”

“Waiting for someone to call you?” she asked.

Yes.

Alessa hadn’t tried to contact Adriano since the night of the wedding. He’d sent her a couple of vague texts, just trying to get a response. But he got nothing back. He didn’t like that at all.

Adriano sighed. “You’re goddamn nosy.”

Eve shrugged. “Keeps me out of trouble.”

“Actually, it gets you in trouble.”

“Is it Alessa again?” his sister asked.

“I never should have told you about us.”

Eve grinned. “You didn’t. I caught you that time after one of your football games, remember?”

Adriano laughed, wishing he could forget that memory. The backseat of his beloved Camaro had seen more of Alessa and Adriano than anyone else ever had. Evelina had come to one of his final games in high school before graduation without letting him know she’d be there. Evidently, she’d stumbled upon more than she bargained for when she found her brother and Alessa in the parking lot.

“You’re such a bitch, Eve,” Adriano said. “You’re never going to let me live that down.”

“The parking lot was lit up like Fort Knox! It was your own damn fault.” Evelina’s smile faded as she asked, “It’s her, yeah?”

“According to some people, nothing is about her,” Adriano replied, his frustration growing again. “And I’m just …”

“What?”

“Trying to keep her out of trouble by staying away.”

Eve gave her brother an apologetic smile. “I don’t know how you ever ended up in the Outfit, little brother.”

“Quit it with that fucking shit.”

Eve laughed his warning off. “Seriously, I don’t know how. You’ve got a soft heart.”

“I do not.”

His sister didn’t have the first clue about Adriano or what he was capable of.

“I think you do,” Evelina murmured. “Even if it is just for one person. There’s nothing wrong with that. At least you know you’re not going to end up like Dad. Whoever you end up with, you’ll care about her. Beyond the surface, you’ll actually give a damn.”

There was only one person Adriano wanted to end up with.

Alessa.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Evelina asked.

“No, I’m good. Thanks, though.”

“Boo, you suck.”

Adriano laughed. “Why, because I don’t want to talk about my feelings? You need to get some friends.”

Eve frowned. “I had friends. Dad took them away.”

Shit.

“Sorry,” Adriano muttered. “I just meant—”

“I know what you meant,” she interrupted. “And I didn’t mean talk about your feelings, you asshole. I meant, talk about her or whatever you plan on doing.”

“You don’t know that I’m planning anything.”

Eve didn’t bat a lash. “I don’t have to, Adriano.”

“Why?”

“Because I know you.”

“Run over to Burton’s place and grab me a fucking sub, would you?”

Adriano rolled his eyes. “Seriously?”

“Yeah,” his Capo said, “I’m hungry and busy. Drop it off at my restaurant.”

“You’re at your own restaurant, and you want me to get you a sub from another place?”

How in the hell did that make any sense?

Sometimes, Kolin’s demands were just insane.

Adriano knew the rules, though. No arguing with a Capo. You did what they said and got what they wanted, no questions asked.

Maybe he bent those rules every once in a while.

He had a dozen other things to do today, including trying to get a hold of Alessa somehow, or even get her away from her family for an hour, but the way things were going, it didn’t look good.

“Where’s Con?” Adriano asked, referring to the Capo’s little middle man who did most of the guy’s errands. “Get him to grab you food.”

“I’m asking you, Adriano,” Kolin said. “You’re coming over here anyway. Besides, Con is busy. I sent him out for something. Bring me a sub—thirty minutes. Don’t be late.”

“Burton’s?”

“Yeah.”

“Fine,” Adriano said as he unlocked the rental car.

He missed his Camaro. He’d taken it in for an oil change and then ended up having a dozen other things that needed work on. The classic muscle car was in good shape, and by the way his garage worked, he’d have back in a week, but sometimes it still needed a little work every now and then.

“And another thing …”

“What is that?”

Adriano moved to get inside the rented Lexus, but before he could close the door, glass sprayed his face. The glass was accompanied by loud pops, loud enough to hurt his ear drums. Adriano’s phone flew from his hand as he ducked down in the seat and covered his head.

More glass shattered.

More bangs followed.

Gun shots.

Lots of gun shots.

“Jesus Christ,” Adriano mumbled.

His heart was in his fucking throat. With the boss of the Outfit murdered, everyone expected there would be some issues to follow. Retaliation, for sure. Adriano’s father had warned him to keep an eye out, but apparently he was off his game today if he hadn’t noticed a car tailing him when he was doing his rounds.

He didn’t bother reaching for his gun in the glove compartment. What good would it do?

Not ten seconds after the first gun shot, tires screeched. Adriano peeked his head up just far enough to look over the steering wheel. He only saw the flash of taillights turning a corner as people started to flood the streets.

Shit.

Adriano did not need this today.

“Kid!”

Kolin’s shout reminded Adriano of his phone. He found it on the passenger seat and picked it up with a shaky hand. Willing away the shock, he put it to his ear.

“Yeah,” Adriano said, his tone hoarse.

“Dammit,” Kolin muttered, “you worried me there for a second.”

“You should be me right now,” Adriano replied, scanning the street for another car to come down with guns blazing.

“What just happened?”

“I think we both know.”

Kolin cursed severely. “Joel retaliated.”

“I think we can safely assume so, yes.”

“No blood?” the Capo asked.

“Not a drop.”

“You always were a lucky little shit.”

Despite the situation, Adriano laughed.

CHAPTER FOUR

“L
et me explain this to you again,” Joel growled. “This arrangement is decided. It might not be official, but once things are calmed down enough for me to see it through, I will. There is a solid promise of an engagement in the near future. You’re going to marry Dean Artino when I give the okay regardless of if I have to force you down the aisle on your hands and knees, begging and bleeding, Alessa. Your opinions are not important to me. I don’t give a single fuck what you want.”

Alessa tried to catch her breath, but she couldn’t. It was like someone had wrapped a wire around her throat and was pulling it with all their might.

“Joel, please,” Abriella pleaded softly. “Just give her a second to process all of this.”

“There’s nothing to fucking process, Ella,” Joel replied, his words cold and cruel.

Alessa just wished her lungs would take in air.

“I don’t want to,” Alessa finally said.

“You don’t make the decision,” Joel snapped.

Abriella flinched. “Joel, she’s only twenty. She hasn't even finished school.”

“My God. She isn’t even going to need her education, Ella. Don’t you get that? Dean isn’t looking for an intelligent wife. He doesn’t want someone who will work outside of the home. What he wants and needs is a woman who will know her place¸ birth him a few kids …”

Alessa didn’t hear what her brother said after that. Her mind tuned him out.

Birth him a few kids …

Fucking hell.

No.

“Anyone else,” Alessa said, her voice pitching high.

Joel didn’t flicker with emotion. “I’ve made my choice.”

“Anyone else, Joel. I will marry any other man but that one, please.”

Abriella crossed the apartment’s small living room and caught her sister’s hand in hers. She squeezed tight, giving Alessa silent support.

“I need to get things in order,” Joel said. “This is just one way to do that. I want to align myself with the best families so that we don’t have to be concerned with whatever Riley Conti might have planned for us. This is about keeping control of the Outfit with Terrance dead. Understand that, Alessa. It has nothing to do with what you want or don’t, for that matter. It’s business, nothing more.”

Great. Alessa was business. The only good thing about this was that the engagement wasn’t an official thing. Alessa wasn’t Dean’s fiancée just yet. But Joel was promising she would be—
soon
.

“Daddy won’t let you do this to me,” Alessa said. “He won’t, Joel.”

Joel barked out a laugh. “You think?”

“Alessa, don’t,” Abriella whispered in warning.

She knew Abriella’s words had nothing to do with Alessa fighting with Joel. No, Alessa knew Abriella was telling her not to beg, not to fight.

Alessa didn’t relent. “Daddy won’t let you do this to me. Granddaddy is dead, Joel. Daddy might have let him make all the calls where the Outfit and we were concerned, but you don’t have the fucking power. You don’t have anything. I won’t do it. I won’t marry him. I won’t ever marry him.”

Joel shrugged like Alessa’s words were nothing but water rolling off his back. “You’re wrong.”

“I am not and you know it.”

Abriella kept holding onto Alessa’s hand, refusing to let go. “Alessa, stop.”

“No,” Alessa barked. “He should realize he’s just a fucking made man without Terrance backing him. And that means nothing. You’re not the boss. There is no boss, Joel! Nothing, Joel, you’re fucking noth—”

“Haven’t you ever thought about why I’m so much older than you?” Joel asked, unaffected.

Alessa blinked, confused. “What does that have to do with any of this?”

“A lot.”

“Joel!” Abriella hissed.

“No, let’s tell her, Ella,” Joel said.

Abriella straightened beside her sister. “It’s not important. Just give her a few days to calm down.”

“Tell me what?” Alessa asked.

Joel grinned a wicked sight. “The bastard I really am. The whore our mother is.”

“
What
?”

Abriella winced. “Joel, that’s a bit … harsh. Have a little respect. She’s still your fucking mother.”

“Maybe so, but call a whore a whore.” Joel pulled his wallet out from the back of his slacks, opened it up, and pulled out a folded piece of paper. As he smoothed out the creases of the paper, he said, “You see, Terrance would have forced Peter to join the Outfit one way or the other. Peter is just … weak. He’s too fucking weak. He doesn’t have it in him.

“But our mother?” Joel asked, smiling coldly. “She came from good stock—a proper
Mafioso famiglia
. When her father demanded she marry, that’s exactly what she did. Sara didn’t say a thing, she just picked out a dress and walked down the aisle.”

Alessa knew all of this. She didn’t know why her brother was rehashing events of the past that meant nothing. Their mother Sara had been the youngest daughter of the former Outfit boss before Terrance had taken over. Sara’s father died shortly before his sixty-sixth birthday after a fight with lung cancer.

“There was a little more to it than that, Joel,” Abriella said.

“Well, I’m getting to that,” Joel replied.

Alessa wet her dry lips, still feeling like she couldn’t breathe. “Like what?”

Joel laughed. “Like the fact she chose a yellow dress that would hide the bump underneath it.”

“She was pregnant when she got married?” Alessa asked.

“Yes,” Abriella confirmed quietly. “Not very far along.”

“With Joel.”

“Yes.”

Joel waved the paper high. “Didn’t you ever wonder why there were eight years between Sara’s first child and her second?”

“No,” Alessa admitted.

She just figured her mother and father didn’t want more children until later in life.

“Peter hated her,” Joel said. “Despised her. But she was his … out, so to speak.”

Alessa’s brow furrowed. “His out?”

“To the Outfit. Peter didn’t want an
in
to the family, Alessa, he wanted out.”