CHAPTER 26

Atlas’ POV.

I paced the room back and forth repeatedly, we had made it back to the compound in Italy safely and with no trouble at all, making me a much happier man. I had guided Aleara inside, and much to my surprise she hadn’t even hinted at objecting in any manner.

I had taken her up to my room, telling her she could rest there whilst I worked, but in truth, I hadn’t left her side since those delicate eyes of hers had fluttered shut. My mind was racing a million miles a minute, what had the Russians wanted from her?

My mafia is stable, right? Everything was as it should be, fitting perfectly into place like one of those one-thousand-piece jigsaw puzzles. Aleara was like that one last piece, the one you wait for so long to find, only to hold your breath wondering if the tiny details will be a match to all the others around, and when that piece does fit, well, you step back and look at everything you’ve created. All the time and the effort, the spent money, and the success you’ve worked for. Setting your heart at ease. My mafia had everything, drugs, alcohol, weaponry, numbers, I really couldn’t ask for more materialistic goods to be at my disposal. So why hadn’t the Russians gone for my supplies, they needed some of their own, instead they took my ‘party date’, a girl of no specialty to the mafia world or heritage, she was just a girl from a night club.

Unfortunately, as Jay had reminded me on several occasions whilst flying back, we might never know the answer to all the anxieties in my mind because we had blasted those Russian scum full of bullets.

“Boss,” I turned around to look over my shoulder at Jay who was sitting in my armchair, legs crossed over each other, and smoking a joint.

“What?” I replied, briefly snapping my head back to look at Aleara, making sure she was still okay.

“You’re tense and sweating, what’s on your mind?” Jay shifted to sit upright as I made my way and took a seat in the armchair next to him, mirroring his seating position.

“I still can’t get over it, what those scum did to her,” I took in a breath and rubbed my forehead, trying to comprehend the whole situation and not only what had happened to Aleara, but what was going to happen to my mafia as a result of all of this.

“This is going to sound really brutal, but Atlas, what’s done is done. Its happened and now the best thing we can do is plan for what will happen next,” Jay gave me a short side eye before continuing, “you know as well as I do, that in this world, people from across the globe get tortured on a daily basis for information, unluckily, yesterday that was Aleara,” I huffed, it was true, people in every mafia were kidnapped by another everyday and tortured. It was within the job description to happen. But Aleara wasn’t like my mafia men, she was new and delicate to the ways of gun violence and torture. It was an unfair playing field.

“I’ve seen the bruises, when I was helping her onto the plane, I saw where they electrocuted her, it’s a war crime and I won’t stand for it,” I hissed back, grabbing a bottle of Campari and two glasses from the side table, pouring two drinks.

“Hey now, I didn’t say we had to stand for it,” Jay clinked his glass with mine before we both took sips, him grinning slightly, I followed.

“Now that’s what I like to hear,” I took another swig from the glass and let out of low laugh.

“What are you thinking boss?” Jay questioned as I sighed, looking up at the roof, thinking, so many options.

“Well, we could do anything you know, if you think about it, we are the strongest mafia power not only in Europe but in the entire world. I say we throw a party,” I said, a plan brewing in my mind.

“A party?” Jay asked, slightly amused.

“Yes, you heard correct, and I plan on inviting everyone I possibly can. Now as we know, the Russians we wiped out were only a small portion of the mafia, meaning that there are a lot more of them out there, and I want them all gone. We will send out invites to every mafia cartel in Europe, maybe Australia as well, and they will all watch as we annihilate the Russian mafia out of existence,”

“That’ll send a clear message not to fuck around with you or to torture anyone here,” Jay scoffed, chuckling to himself a slight bit.

“We need a venue though; do you know anywhere?” I asked, it needed to be massive, of course there would be a limit as to how many people from each mafia could attend, I didn’t need to be overthrown by bodyguards at my own planned assassination party.

“It’s a simple decision and we can easily use the place too, Miramare Castle, its big enough and fancy enough to hold the guests and perform one of the greatest, most cunning assassinations of all time,” It was perfect. That would be where we got our justice, and I wanted everyone to witness it firsthand to know that you don’t get to kidnap anyone in my mafia, but especially Aleara, and get away with it lightly.

“When Aleara wakes up, I’ll discuss it with her, take her out to dinner or something to at least try and make up for the shit I’ve caused her in the past few days,” I sighed, running my hands through my head as I thought, a feeling boiling inside of me that I wasn’t familiar with, guilt. I felt bad and it was unfamiliar, uncomfortable.

“My, my, who is this? Your changing Atas, apologizing, thinking about how you’ve made another person feel,” Jay let out another laughing joking with me, it set my teeth on edge, my blood boiled.

“I’m not changing,” I stood up and brought my gaze out the window before sending him a dangerous side eye, “and besides, she’s not just another person,”

“Ahhhh, no, she’s certainly not just another person my dear brother, she’s a lady, and you actually fancy her,” I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand on edge, my hands were becoming clammy as
this conversation deepened between us.

“And?” I sighed, “theoretically, purely theoretically, say that I did fancy her. What would you do about it? Because let me remind you that there is nothing you can do or say that will override my authority here in this mafia. If you dare to question me brother, I am still the cold and ruthless mafia boss that everyone knows me as, and I can put a bullet through your brain if I really want to,”

“Did I say that I was questioning you?” Jay took another sip of his drink and suddenly I felt my face go bright red. He had merely brought up the subject.

“This doesn’t seem too theoretical to me Atlas,” he stood up also and set himself next to me, gazing out the window to look at the Italian coastline and the waves crashing against the shore.

“I’m just taking her out to dinner, that’s all, so what if I apologize, I’m still a gentleman,” I shifted my suit collar and adjusted the jacket as Jay continued to press the topic even though I was quite happy to be done discussing it.

“That you are,” Jay nodded and patted me on the back before making his way to the door and swinging it open before looking back at me, “I could help set you two up you know, for real this time,
not just for business,” I let out of degrading scoff.

“Please, you can’t even set yourself up with anyone for longer than a night,” and with that he took his que and left the room silently.

I looked back at Aleara who stirred in her sleep, eventually slowly and uncertainly opening her eyes to look up at me, standing there and watching her. And now this was awkward.

“You and I, dinner tonight,” I nodded firmly, as she blinked a few times, still waking up.

After a considerable amount of time, she answered her reply, “yeah sure, it’s been three days since I’ve had anything,” she let out a weak and awkward laugh, my heart sank, and I couldn’t even help it.
….

I buttoned up my suit jacket and tied my shoelaces tightly, grabbing out three guns and slipping them into the inside lining of my suit. I took a glance at myself in the mirror before heading out the door and down the corridor to Aleara’s door. I knocked three times before hearing a faint ‘come in’. Opening the door my jaw dropped, she was stunning. A dark blue dress, her hair curled, and make up done. My eyes fell to her bruises on her arm where my heart again plummeted into next week. She looked uncomfortable and hugged her shoulders, attempting to hide them, her feet shifting on the ground and her eyes darting everywhere other than mine.

“Did you, um, want to take my jacket?” I offered as she gave a brief and almost unreadable nod. I handed it over to her and awkwardly cleared my throat before offering to take her hand. Hesitantly she did, and we made our way out towards the car.

We drove for around forty minutes, the whole time, silence burdened the both of us as Aleara merely stared out of the window and watched the road as it flew behind us, driving at a dangerously fast pace was one of my many not so legal talents.

Again, I cleared an uncomfortable lump in the back of my throat, taking my eyes off the road to look at her resting her head against the window.

“It’s a nice sunset,” I stated blankly, awkwardly, nodding to myself.

“Yeah, I guess,” She muttered back at me. I pressed my lips together and brought my gaze back to the double white line in the middle of the road.

“Were there nice sunsets in America?” I asked, scraping the bottom of the barrel for conversational starters. She just shrugged and continued to face away from me.

“I guess they were nice,” she finally answered. I sighed and pulled the car over swiftly; this got her attention and her eyes to meet mine.

“If you don’t feel up to this we can go back, this isn’t a business deal or anything like that, so we don’t have to go to dinner,” I told her, heavily under the impression that this dinner was more like a chore to her and to be honest, after all she’s been through, I wouldn’t even be offended that she didn’t want to go out.

“You’re not doing this for business,” her furrowed brows indicated confusion. I shifted in my seat uncomfortably.

“Not this time, no,” I replied shortly.

“Then why would you take me out to dinner just because you can?” she questioned, emphasizing the ‘you’ as if I was incapable of doing nice things for people.

“Because” I sighed, now slightly offended, “I actually feel bad for what happened with the Russians and I believe I owe you an explanation at the least,”

She looked taken aback.

“Yeah then, I guess we can continue on,” she nodded as I pulled back out onto the highway.

Shit I had dug myself a hole, no; a grave, now I had to explain to her what had happened and why.

That was never easy, and I had never been good at communicating in a positive manner with anyone, no matter what the topic.

Taking a deep breath in, I pulled into a parking lot and looked forward at the restaurant, the crashing waves on the shoreline were my only source of comfort at the minute, tonight I was an open book.

No bodyguards, no mafia guidelines, nothing. I was an average man tonight, taking a beautiful girl on somewhat of a date and I was terrified.