EMILYIknowI’msupposedto be focused on the task at hand, but how can I possibly be when Felix is right around the corner, careful of any need I may have?I know I’ve been working for him but never worked under him directly. Now that I am, I’m beginning to understand the man behind the Don.He’s cunning, ruthless, and trusting. He knows when to step back and when to interfere. He knows nothing about securities, so he doesn’t question, pry, or doubt.That level of freedom is petrifying and exhilarating. Wouldn’t it be for anyone?As he brings me a cup of coffee and instructs his two enforcers to remain quiet so I can focus, my mind wanders off to an incident of the past.One night, when I was studying for my SATs, my father threw a party.My mother told him to keep it quiet, and he barged into my room, ripped up my books, and told me I’d never have to study.He’d take care of me, and then my husband would care for me.The memory forever haunts my mind, for my father never asked me what
EmilyHis muscles bulge as he puts all his strength into subduing him.The man struggles, but Felix easily overpowers him.He doesn’t want to hurt him, I realize. He just wants to incapacitate him. And then it hits me – that’s why he didn’t want me to come.He didn’t want to be put in a position where he may have to kill someone for me.As Felix takes the attacker down, he pulls me to him and holds me close, inspecting me for any injuries.I melt in his embrace, feeling safe and protected.“Are you okay?” he asks, his voice full of concern.I nod, unable to find my voice. He leans in closer, his lips dangerously close to mine.I can feel the heat radiating from his body. I want him.Without a second thought, I press my lips against his, feeling an electric shock run through my body.He responds hungrily, his strong arms pulling me closer to him.But then, we hear a gunshot.“Damn it, Emily,” he hisses, grabbing my arm and pulling me away from the cars.“What did I tell you?”“I couldn
FelixWe ride in silence for a while, my hands gripping the steering wheel tightly as I race through the city streets toward our destination.Emily’s gaze never leaves me, and I know she can sense my worry and fear.Finally out of danger and sure the cops are no longer tailing us, I turn to look at Emily. She looks pale and tired.“Are you okay?” I ask gruffly, not taking my hands off the wheel.What I want to do, though, is reach out and caress the marks that the assailant left on her.She nods her head slowly, looking almost in a daze.“Yeah,” she finally manages to say. “I’m fine.”“You should have listened to me, Emily,” I say, guilt overriding my senses.She looks at me, her eyes shining with anger and frustration.“I couldn’t just stand by and watch. I had to do something.”I take a deep breath, trying to keep my emotions in check.I know that I can’t protect her all the time, but seeing her in danger like that makes me feel like a failure.“I know,” I say quietly, glancing at h
EmilyOn the entire drive back, I just had a sentence of thoughts running through my mind.“One should never fall in love with a woman from a warring family.”I stare out the window, letting the words repeat themselves. I know that’s what happened with Enzo, but it’s not necessarily true with everyone.My thoughts drift to Felix. Unbeknownst to him, this makes me his enemy.My father, Fronzo Battaglia, and Felix’s family go back a long time - and none of it is good.The rivalry between their families is legendary, especially among their children - who often take it upon themselves to continue their fathers’ feud.But I don’t want to do that. I don’t have to do that.Despite our families’ hatred, I find myself drawn to Felix.Something between us I can’t deny.He’s strong and powerful, but beyond that, I’ve seen a vulnerability in him that few others have witnessed.He’s the kind of man I dreamt of while growing up, the kind of man I thirsted for and cherished in all those romance nove
FelixLast night, I came inside and waited for Emily to follow.She took her time, and I gave her all the time she needed because it was clear that she was trying to clear her head.I know I fucked up. No matter what, I shouldn’t have let her come with us to bust Enzo and the Lucchese’s.She is convincing. She came into work daily on top of her game, and I started believing she was the mafia.But after I witnessed how we do things when betrayed, I’m reminded of my folly.Emily is not the mafia. She simply works for one.She will never understand my world, and she shouldn’t have to.From this morning, I promise I will not allow her into the intricacies of our operations.No matter how much she may try to convince me. It’s for her own good.This morning, she walks into the kitchen.I notice how tired she looks and how the bags under her eyes are more pronounced than usual.“Good morning,” I say as I sip my coffee. “Did you sleep well?”She doesn’t answer for a moment, just stares into h
Felix“Well, we were wrong,” Angelo says, his voice shaky.“We just added up the balances and compared statements from before the hack and now.”I could feel my blood boiling inside me, and all I could think was, how could this happen?How could such a thing be possible?“What’s the damage?” I ask.“Fifty million.”“How?” I ask. “How did they remove fifty million from our wallets?”My grip tightens around the armrest of my chair as I try to keep the anger and frustration at bay. But it’s hard. Fifty million is not a tiny amount, even for us.“Get all the teams on this,” I say, my voice low and dangerous.“I want to know where they transferred those funds and bring back that money.”“Boss, only one person can help,” says Angelo.“Who?” I ask.“Emily.”“No,” I tell Angelo ferociously. “Emily stays out of this. We’ve troubled her enough. After yesterday, she needs some time.”“Boss, we truly don’t know. The wallets are built on decentralized systems. We can’t identify specific individuals
EmilyHis words ring through my head, and beyond that, I hear nothing.Everything comes down to family.If he had known I was a Battaglia, I would never have been allowed into his inner circle.What we share, whatever that is, would crumble to dust.I feel numb. Like an athlete in ice water, slowly losing grasp of all warmth, turning robotic, letting the body take over.He and I, at this moment, seem to be over.And I can never tell him why.What should I do?I should tell him the truth now and hope he lets it go. Hope he forgives me. I imagine his reaction.What would happen if I came out clean?A gun to my head?A change of heart?An apology for his beliefs?A swift get the fuck out?Right now, I can’t deal with this.I take a deep breath and watch him closely.I try to remember every inch of his face for that dreadful day when I would no longer be in the same room with him.For when he finally bids me a traitor and forever wishes me goodbye. If good at all.His phone rings.He pick
FelixEmily has asked for an hour to think, and we’re supposed to reconvene in the room then. I, however, don’t leave her side.“Aldo,” I say to one of the young guns, which I am yet to initiate.If he continues doing a job this well, I anticipate he’ll be in sooner than he knows it.“Go over to that café around the corner and pick up a cream cheese and ham bagel with a fruit salad on the side for Emily. For the rest of us, just get whatever you find to eat that seems good. Bring back a dozen coffees,black, with sugar and creamers. Everyone is tired.”He nods, and I can tell he’s terrified and excited I spoke to him. I smile. For these young kids for them, everything is do-or-die.Angelo is back within minutes. I don’t know how much he threatened them, but the coffee was fresh, and I know every employee was deployed to make the sandwiches fresh.I hand the bagel to Emily. She barely looks up from the computer screen as she takes a bite hungrily.“Mm,” she says, relishing the food.A l
AlexanderA year have passed since the end of the war between my family and the Saconne family. Everyone was at peace. The Romano family was prospering with the added territory of the Saconnes we had divided amongst the other three great families.We were in good times now. Aryana had given birth to our son and he was adorable. He had my gray eyes, which I had also gotten from my father and Aryana’s golden-brown hair. I can still remember the day she went into labor. I had been so afraid and uncertain of what to do. Give me a gun or a knife, and I could kill anyone you wanted to, but give me a pregnant Aryana who was in labor? I was lost.I could still remember the emotions that threatened to overflow when an exhausted but overjoyed Aryana placed our son in my arms for the first time. Despite how wrinkly skin, he was beautiful.After recuperating, Aryana completed her master’s degree in Psychology. It had been a little bit difficult to see her stress over completing projects before de
“I was unconscious for two weeks?” Alexander was astonished, but I ignored his question because I just needed to tell him about my feelings in case this was all temporary.“And seeing how you would never wake up, I was lonely and scared, and I thought about all the times we had spent together, and I realized that I had fallen in love with you, but I didn’t know why I couldn’t say it, and then I regretted it and-,”Dry lips blocked the rest of my words from coming out. I didn’t hesitate to kiss back. It was amazing! I didn’t care that his lips were parched or that he hadn’t brushed his teeth in two weeks. I only watched him kissing me back, something he could do because he was awake!We slowly drifted apart.“Hi,” I whispered, afraid I would start rambling again.“Hi.” He said back to me. We stared deeply at each other, cataloging our features as if afraid we would forget with time.“I missed you.”“I missed you too.”I smiled widely, the first smile I had given in two weeks, and leane
AryanaTwo weeks.Two weeks had passed since Tony and Marcelo returned with an unconscious Alexander, covered in his blood. It’s been two weeks since Alexander promised me everything would be all right, since he promised he would come back. Technically, he didn’t lie. He did come back. Just not the way I had expected. It’s been two weeks since I last heard his voice, Since Alexander was last conscious.I missed him. I missed his voice. I missed his smiles and his grins. I missed seeing his gray eyes. I forgot how warm his embrace was. I missed the feeling of his lips on my body. I missed everything.To think that his last words to me had been to reassure and comfort me, and I couldn’t even tell him that I loved him. That was right. In watching over his prone body for the past two weeks, I came to the realization that I did, in fact, love Alexander. I couldn’t believe it had taken him falling into a coma for me to realize my feelings.How had I been so blind? Why had I continued to dou
Having found out the truth, there was no point in delaying matters. The only reason why Tom had been so successful in beating us down was because of Alfonso. Without Alfonso, what power did Tom have? Tom was already in a tight corner, and seeing how desperate he was to have sent Alfonso to kidnap Aryana, I could sense the end of this pointless war coming to a head.“I should kill you for your betrayal and send you on your way to meet my father, where you will spend your afterlife begging him for forgiveness, but I won’t. Not yet. What you’re going to do now is, you are going to tell Tom that you have Aryana, and he should meet you where we tell you to say. Do you understand?”The resignation was written all over Alfonso’s face. He knew he was done for. He had sealed his fate the day he decided to betray my family.“Are you sure it’ll be fine?” Aryana pulled me aside and asked. “What if he-”“Nothing will happen, I promise you.” I comforted her. “This will be the end, and we’ll finally
AlexanderWhy? I couldn’t believe it. I almost hadn’t wanted to believe it when Felice had taunted the knowledge in my face while kneeling on my feet moments before his death. Seeing my enemy at my feet greatly irritated me, laughing like a mad person instead of cowering and begging like I had wanted him to.Nonetheless, the information struck me like a bolt of lightning. A traitor in our midst had supplied the Saconnes with information about our trade routes so they would know where to hit. The traitor was also responsible for reporting my father’s location. Because of him, my father died. I was filled with rage. We had welcomed that traitor into our midst and had treated him like our family, and he repaid us like this?What pained me the most was who the most likely suspect could be. Marcelo and Tony had discussed this when I told them. We went over different possibilities and clues we could have missed.For the traitor to be reporting my father’s whereabouts meant he was high up in
My eyes widened in surprise.Elio Saconne was one of the brothers of Tom Saconne, the Don of the Saconne family. Marcelo had explained a little about the dynamics of the mafia families. Tom Saconne was the oldest of three brothers. After him were his two younger brothers, Elio and Felice Saconne. Despite how impulsive Tom appeared, it was a known fact that he doted on his brothers though I had doubts on whether he actually doted on them or if it was simply that he let them do whatever they wanted, precisely because he didn’t care about them.Alexander killing Elio meant a ray of sunshine for the Romano family as the war finally turned in their favor. It also told that Alexander was proving himself to his family members. Killing Elio was equivalent to cutting off a limb of the Saconnes. It was good news. I allowed myself to drag my eyes over Alexander and observe his features, spotting no happiness or pride in his feat. It had been quite a long time since I last saw him.I barely see A
AryanaWatching how the men under the Romano family cheered for Alexander settled the unease that had appeared ever since Marcelo told me what was happening. I was aware that this didn’t mean that they had forgiven Alexander. It meant that they would give him a chance to prove himself. I wondered if we hadn’t slept together or if I had allowed him to go back to grab a condom from his car back then, would this have happened? There would have been no need for Alexander to go into hiding. He would have stayed here with his family. His father probably wouldn’t have died, and these men wouldn’t have doubted Alexander’s loyalty to his family.I wished they wouldn’t be harsh on Alexander as it hadn’t been his fault. It wasn’t as if he had wanted to leave. He had argued with his father, but in the end, he’d had no choice but to obey his father’s orders. But I knew that wasn’t how the mafia operated.I watched in curiosity as they went on to perform the ceremony that would mark Alexander as th
“How are your injuries? I heard they’re better.” I changed the topic. I didn’t want to immerse myself in my longing for my father.“It’s getting better. You need not worry.” He patted my shoulder.“I know you need time to think about handling what will happen in a few minutes. I’m sure Tony told you about the displeasure of our men.”My eyebrows slightly furrowed at the words ‘our men,’ but he continued speaking before I could contemplate it. I decided that it must have been a blunder. After all, he was an old family member who served on my father’s side. It must have been a blunder.“I only came to tell you that I am here. I watched you grow from a baby to the man you are. You have my support.”I smiled, thankful for his support. He again gripped my shoulder, momentarily tightening his hold on me before letting go with another smile, exiting the study, and leaving me back to my thoughts.I let my mind wander as the time the men under the Romano banner would arrive slowly grew closer.
AlexanderReturning to Manhattan filled me with so many emotions. Memories of my father slammed strain me with so much force that I stopped in my tracks, earning glances from Tony, Marcello, and Aryana. I waved their concern away and stepped into the building that once housed my father, and meters in arms had arrived this morning to drive Aryana and me back to Manhattan. The ride back had been tense and quiet. The atmosphere between Aryana and me was strained. Since I told her I loved her last night and she didn’t reply, we didn’t know how to act in each other's presence. Even though I said she didn’t need to say it back, it didn’t mean I hadn’t been hurt. I couldn’t understand why she couldn’t say it back.Didn’t she love me? Had I read her emotions wrong? It was clear that she had feelings for me. Was it that her feelings for me were not as deep as mine, or was it too early for her? I scoffed bitterly to myself. It didn’t matter what. I couldn’t force her to return her feelings for