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ALESSANDRO

“ A lessandro.”

Red velvet … black silk …

“Aless.”

Ivory skin, sweat soaked leather…

“Alessandro Gabriele!” Adriano’s voice rarely rises above a casual tenor. “Wake up, jackass.” He’s got one eyebrow raised, giving me what I like to call his consigliere look of disdain.

I snap back to the present, shaking my head to clear away the images from last night.

“Sorry. Just tired.”

“You’ve been drifting for days. Where’d you go just now?”

I almost laugh out loud. If I told him, he’d probably call me a fool, a sucker, a lovestruck idiot. Or he’d tell Ciro and Ero and let them go nuts making fun of my fetishes. “Just thinking about something.”

“Someone, more like.”

“ Stai zitta , shut your mouth.”

Adriano sighs out half a laugh, shaking his head. He looks over the itinerary on the desk for a few seconds before speaking again. “You know, it’s okay for you to care about someone.”

“I’m well aware of that.” My grating tone would suggest otherwise.

“Even if you don’t entirely trust them,” he finishes.

“You never trust anyone.” I feel my lips pull in a smile as I say it, and he gives me another flat stare. “Neither do I.”

Adriano's always been extra suspicious of anyone outside the family, and even some of the family.

Including the women I’ve brought over for one-night stands in the past.

None of them got under my skin like Isabella.

Or have me so distracted that I daydream about them when I’m supposed to be strategizing. Adriano’s right to be worried.

“It’s all booked. We’ll decide when to strike as soon as we get back to NewYork.”

“What?”

“I’ve been telling you that we’re ready to move. The men are just waiting for you.”

“Oh. Right.” I rub my temples, shaking my head. “I’m acting like a fool.”

Adriano sighs, leaning back in his chair crossing his legs. “A little. You need to make a decision. Tell her that it’s over.”

“I'm considering asking her to come with me.”

“You're kidding.” He sits up, glaring at me. “Of course you're not kidding. I should have seen this coming.”

“She's not what I expected, Adriano. We can trust her. She's more like me than anyone I've met. And we've opened up to each other.”

“That’s exactly why you should be so much more wary!” he protests, getting abnormally worked up. “If she’s as brazen and pigheaded as you are, that could be a real problem for us.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

“And you've told her who you are?”

“I think she’s aware.”

“You think? So how's this conversation gonna go? ‘Hey, Isabella. We've had a great couple of weeks together, getting to barely know each other, stranded, banging constantly. But, by the way, I'm a mob boss. Would you like to come back to my compound in another country in the middle of a war that I'm fighting with my best friend from childhood?’”

It sounds ridiculous, of course.

It also makes me immediately furious. I slam my fist down on the table.

“Adriano, I get it okay. It's complicated. But what's not complicated in my life? What’s ever been easy?”

“That’s far from the issue. Complicated is one thing, this is dragging an outsider into a life-threatening situation. Something you just recently told me you didn't want to do.”

“Well, things have changed.”

“How?”

“I…” The words catch in my throat. It’s one thing to say it to her, another to confess it out loud to my brother.

“Oh. I didn’t…” Adriano swallows, looking a little thrown off. “You don’t have to say it.”

He backs down immediately, a strange expression settling on his bold features.

His mouth opens and closes a few times before he says, “You know, we want you to be happy, brother.”

It’s quiet, tentative. And a strange sentiment, to hear him put it to words that way. We’ve never been overly sentimental, rarely addressing matters of the heart. We’re men, and Diamante men at that.

Not to mention we’ve been battling enemies and taking over territories for the better part of fifteen years together. There’s never been a question of whether my brothers have my back.

But the fact that they want me to find love, or contentedness…

What a normal, mundane thing. Yet so meaningful.

“When has my happiness ever mattered?”

“It matters to us. You raised us. Taught us how to live, how to fight. You deserve to find a partner, someone to share the burdens of life with.”

He’s not hassling me or giving me shit for spending time with her.

“Then what should I do?” I’m curious where his new line of thought is going.

“Lay it all on the table. You owe her that if she’s going to choose us.”

Us.

That’s the crux, right there. Because she won’t just be choosing me.

She’ll be choosing to join the family.

If she throws it back in my face and storms out, I’ll have to live with it.

My heart stutters at the thought. But that's what my entire life has been: risks and heartbreak. I'm just gonna have to be honest with her.

And I'll have to accept the consequences if she refuses.