His Mafia Princess (Family First #1) (2 page)

Chapter Three

Alessandra was shocked awake by cold water being thrown on her. She jerked but didn’t move too much. She was tied tightly to a chair by her wrists, waist, thighs, legs, calves, and feet. They didn’t mess around with leaving any part of her body not tied. “What do you want?” She asked the question after coughing madly.

“Such a lovely thing.” A heavily accented man spoke from the shadows. “You look just like your mother.” He added, “I knew her, you know.” His accent, she was trying hard to place it. Russian maybe? “She was a beautiful woman. Graceful, elegant. She was the perfect bride, but your father got there before I did. Bastard.”

She looked down and one of her brows went up. She was sitting in a small room filled with light. Why? “So glad you are awake. You see, Alessandra, we need to have a … what is it called?” The man asked one of the men that stood in the light.

“Come to Jesus moment, sir,” the man said in a voice that screamed Russian. His accent wasn’t as cultured as the man in the dark’s was. Instead, it seemed to come straight from the streets of Russia, a place she’d gone to with her mother the year before she died.

“Yes, that’s it. You see, Alessandra, it’s time you realize your father isn’t the man you think he is. I tell you this so you understand the pain you’re very soon going to suffer. I’m sorry, dear, but he has what I want. He took Anna from me. Now I’ll take his world from him.” He paused and then added, “You, dear. You’re his entire world. For you, he would even walk away from his position as Boss.”

Anna, her mother? She didn’t understand. “My father’s an industrialist. He deals in imports and exports, and what does my mom have to do with any of this?”

“Your father and I go way back. Before he was Boss. That bastard took Anna because he knew I wanted her. He stole her not because he loved her, but so he could solidify his position and take from me the one thing I would have given my life for.”

“You loved my mother?” She was so confused.

“I did. That’s why this is going to hurt me, dear Alessandra.” She saw the shadowed man nod and one of his men moved to her side. “Now.”

The next moment there was blinding pain that raced up her legs and to her fingers and head. She heard a scream and realized it was her.

“That was just a start. You see, Alessandra, I needed just a snippet to ensure that your father knew I wasn’t playing. Have you sent that to him?” The shadow man directed his question to the man who held what looked like a cattle prod. Her side hurt as if she had been stabbed from where the huge man had touched her with the item he held.

“Yes, sir. It has been sent to him.”

“Good. War is always a good thing.”

“Why?” Alessandra’s voice was pitchy now, fear evident in her voice.

“Alessandra, are you truly that blind?” the shadow man asked. “Oh dear, you still do not understand, do you?” The man stepped forward and Alessandra gasped. She had seen photos of him hidden in her mother’s jewelry box. “Alessandra, my dear, you are the daughter of the Boss of the Italian Mafia. I am Vasily Bulova, and even now your father is preparing his men for war.”

No!
It wasn’t possible. It just wasn’t. Her father was a kind and gentle man that gave to charity. He had never so much as raised his voice to her.

“I see you are fighting the truth. That is what it is, little Alessandra. The truth. You will see when he comes for you.” There was a pause, and he smiled. “His right hand, Gregorio, left a gift on my lawn. It was quite distracting; I did enjoy that statue he left my man on.”

Gregorio? Yes, she was confident Gregorio could be dangerous, but she also knew he wasn’t a killer. She wasn’t that out of touch with what was going on around her, was she?

“He’s keen on taking you to wife and your father is going to allow it. You are far too much like your mother to be given to a piece of shit like that.”

“You are crazy.” Good lord her teeth even hurt. Spitting out her words so venomously was proof of her complete frustration. Every inch of her skin seemed super sensitized from the shock she’d received.

“No, I’m honest.”

There was a loud sound and what appeared to be a siren. “They are here.” The man withdrew and nodded again to his man.

She felt that shock again and screamed once more until the blackness swallowed her.

Chapter Four

When he heard Alessandra scream, Gregorio turned on his heel. He heard the men at his back, fighting and guns blasting. There was only one problem. There weren’t enough of the Russian’s there. Something was wrong. Without doubt.

He jumped over a banister and blocked a knife by just a hairsbreadth. He grabbed the knife and the man’s hand and jerked it, hard. Using the man’s hand, he cut his throat and then tossed him away. Nothing mattered right now besides getting to Alessandra.

Another guard came from a corner, and Gregorio wheeled and kicked him in the chest, making the man fall to the ground. He kicked him in the face, crushing his nose into his brain and killing him instantly.

He heard one of his enforcers come up behind him, knew that it was one of his because the man called Gregorio’s name. Just in time too or he would have had his head chopped off by an asshole with an ax. He came up and under the Russian and grabbed the ax, turning in one fluid movement and slicing through the man from crotch to stomach. “Nice ax. I think I will keep it,” he said to the man on the ground screaming his last dying breaths.

He went toward the door the man had been guarding and kicked it open. He could smell blood, but he had to find her.

“Alessandra.” Her name came from his lips when he saw her slumped over in a chair sitting in shadows. He saw the blood running from her nose and shouted for his men to clear the way. Using the ax, he cut her bindings and pulled her into his arms. When she lifted one of her arms, he saw three large, ugly marks he knew too well. Cattle prod burn marks.

He was shocked to find how well she fit into his arms and how right she felt. No, he had no time for that. He shook his head to clear his thoughts and started up the stairs with Alessandra held tightly in his arms.

“There are no more guards,” his right-hand man said.

“Shit, that’s not good. Did you find Vasily?”

“No, he’s nowhere to be found. His sons aren’t here either. There were far too few of his men here. These men were just here to get killed.”

“It was a declaration. A statement of war,” Gregorio said bluntly, voicing what they all knew to be the truth.

“Taking the Boss’s daughter and hurting her, absolutely. Is she alive?” the man asked as they walked out surrounded by their men, chaos and dead bodies left in their wake.

“Yes. Call Dr. Reeves and tell him we are bringing her into Mercy General.”

“Yes, sir.” The man pulled out his phone to do just that.

The men piled into SUVs that littered the grounds of the Russian Boss’s home. He sat in the backseat with Alessandra held tightly. He didn’t like the color of her face, and the fact that she hadn’t opened her eyes was another,
oh shit,
sort of feeling. He looked to his second, Tony, and said, “Does her father know we have her?”

“Yes, sir. He is aware. Is it time?” Of course, Tony would know what Gregorio had planned. They had grown up together, fucked the same women, and drank the same booze. They were tighter than brothers.

“Not yet. Not with her like this. I want her to be fully healed and accepting of her life when I do this. I want her to know I want her as mine, far more than anything else.”

Tony nodded. “Good idea. That and I’m sure the Boss has ordered additional men from across the country to come in.”

“He has. I know he has people coming from Nevada and Texas. The Devil's Own motorcycle club and Sinners of Hell are on their way.”

“They are tough. Those bastards look for a fight everywhere they go.”

“That they do, and they are also mine,” Gregorio murmured and looked down at Alessandra once more. “Why the cattle prod?” he asked aloud.

“So she wasn’t harmed too badly. From what our guys found out before this, the eldest son of Vasily wants her. He wishes to marry her, to hell with her father and her blood. He lusts after her like a dog in heat.”

Gregorio felt the growl rumbling in his chest and shook his head. “He’s a dead man. I will carve his eyes out first.”

“Figured as much.”

“She can never know how hard I am. That I want to marry her for position, power, and her body.”

Tony let out a guffawing laugh and shook his head. “Boss, I think you are about to learn how to have other emotions inside of you. Either that or you’re going to kill the little birdie you hold right now. She’s soft, always has been. She’s sheltered and always has been. I don’t know if she will make a good wife for a Boss. For the head of this Family.”

Gregorio turned his icy blue eyes Tony’s way. Through clenched teeth, he said, “You say another bad thing about her, and I will pull your fucking spine out through your mouth, blood brother or not.” Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck. Had he just said that to his oldest and dearest friend? To the man he trusted his life with? Fucking hell he had. He could see the shock on Tony’s face.

“Alright, Boss. You just made my point,” Tony said and then looked up. “The hospital. We are here. Ready?”

“Put men all around. I want no fewer than three men with eyes on her at once. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir.” Tony got out of the back of the SUV at the emergency entrance and held the door for Gregorio.

Everything from there went faster than he cared for, including how fast her fucking father got there and ordered him to roam the halls for protection.

Chapter Five

When she opened her eyes, every inch of her body hurt. She heard a steady beeping sound and a slight whirring which had her utterly confused. She lifted a hand and frowned at it. On the back of her hand was an IV line. Why?

“You’re awake.” She heard her father, Giovanni. “Thank God.” He was there in a moment, his face now in her vision.

“Daddy? Why am I in the hospital?” She now realized where she was. The sounds and smells were the dead giveaways.

“What do you remember, baby?” Her dad asked and then looked at someone who stood near the door, at least Les thought he was there. “Go get the doctor. She’s awake.”

“Yes, sir.” The man was out the door in a second, so he had been at the door after all.

Answering her father’s earlier question, she said, “I think I was losing at golf.” She rubbed her hand over her forehead and closed her eyes in confusion. “No, there was something else.” Pain. That was what she remembered. Overwhelming and instantaneous pain. She had to remember what that
something
was.

The door opened once more. She heard someone other than her father move quickly and the soft snick of a sound that had her frowning. It sounded like a gun cocking, something she had been trying to learn to use at her father’s insistence. She attempted to lean up and look, but her father put his hand on her shoulder to keep her against the bed.

She saw the doctor then. “Dr. Reeves?” He was their family physician, had been for as long as she could recall. Why was he here? She couldn’t remember him practicing anywhere other than in private practice.

“Hello, Alessandra. How are you feeling?” he asked as he looked into her eyes with a small flashlight that had her wincing at first. “You are reacting well. I was worried.”

“Why?” she asked in confusion.

“I was worried because of the electrical shock used on you through the cattle prods.” The doctor spoke as he adjusted the bed so she was semi-sitting. Then he moved to the foot of the bed.

That fast, it hit her, what happened. She recalled every single word the man had said to her and bit back a sob of pain. She looked at her father and then around the room. Seeing several men there with dress suits on had her realizing the truth.

“You have burns on your side. They will heal. I’m afraid you will have scars, however. Your father can get you in with a plastic surgeon, but I advise against it,” Dr. Reeves said.

She didn’t care about the scars. She looked back at her father, the physical pain nowhere near the emotional pain she was feeling right then. It wasn’t possible. Her father, the man she had grown up with, couldn’t be a Mafia boss. “Daddy?” She whispered that singular word with pain.

Her father looked up at the doctor and then the men. He nodded. “Give us a few minutes please.” She heard the quiet objection from one of the men, but her father shook his head and said, “Now.”

She heard the door closing and when she looked at her father, she saw the sadness in his eyes. When he spoke, however, it was horrifying and heartbreaking to her. “Please tell me that man was lying?”

“I wish I could.” She could see the strain in her father’s eyes now. “I never wanted you to know about this life. I’ve done all I could to keep you safe and out of this life. I want you to know that I love you, Alessandra. You are my world since your mother died.” She saw the sorrow on her father’s face. “I loved your mom more than life itself. I would have traded my life for hers if I could have.” She heard the sincerity in his voice as he spoke. “The man that took you, he and I have been fighting since before you were born.”

“He said you stole mom from him?”

“He did meet your mother first. His family had a cattle ranch, which is why I think he used the prod on you. Anyway, that’s neither here nor there. She was given a choice, and she made it. She chose me. He was too much of a man-whore for her to accept. He wanted lovers after they were married, and your mother deserved so much more than that.”

She could remember her father doting on her mother. He would have done anything for her, and he loved her greatly.

“He and I have been at odds since then,” her father said.

“He said you were a mafia boss. Is that correct?” Cut to the chase, she had to.

“He is right.” Her father had zero apologies in his voice when he made that confirmation. “I am the head of the Italian Mafia. It’s a title I’ve held for many years, since my father before me.”

“Grandpa?” She needed to shift how she saw her life as she looked back on it, because she never believed her grandfather was anything but a loving old man.

“And you are my heir. There are any number of men that would want you because of who you are, which is why you have always had guards. I never believed, however, that anyone could harm you. You see we live by a code. The women and children are off limits. The Irish would never have harmed you, just Vasily and that’s only because you are my daughter. He’s grown bold and for that, I will destroy him.”

“You are talking about killing a man, and you have no remorse whatsoever.” She was horrified. The kind, gentle, and loving man she had grown up with—the man who had cried along with her at her mother’s funeral—was now discussing the death of another man. What was worse was that he was talking like he was discussing what they would eat that night.

“I’m talking about wiping all of them out. Taking you dictated a War Call. The Irish are with us on this. We are going to band together to wipe out the Russians. The Irish Boss sent his twin daughters into hiding so they can be protected. They are as innocent as you are in this.”

“And after?” She was shocked those words came from her mouth.

“After, the Irish will again be our enemy. They have their parts of the world, and we have ours.”

“The world?” No, that wasn’t possible, was it?

“Yes, the world. This is bigger than the United States. This is why I have to travel as much as I do. This is why I have phone calls at all hours of the night. I have people I trust heading up the families outside of where we live, but the one I’m grooming to take over for me is here, my right-hand man.”

“Who is it?”

“Gregorio Bosco.” He told her without pause. “He’s the one who saved you.”

Gregorio, the man she had been obsessing over for some years, was her father’s number one? How? “And now that I know?”

“Now you are to be protected even closer. I will not allow you to be hurt again.”

“And if I asked you not to go to war? If I asked you to keep innocents from dying?”

“Not happening. I love you, Alessandra. However, they messed up when they took you.” She heard the anger in her father’s voice and winced.

“People are going to die because of me?” She was crying. Who wouldn’t?

“No, sweetheart, not because of you, but because of this bastard who broke the rules.”

Rules. She snorted. It was a laugh to her that he was talking about rules when everything about his business was a lie. He was talking about rules when he likely had every law enforcement agency in the world looking to take him down and lock him up. “What about the police?”

“We do what we have to in order to stay out of their crosshairs. No one has anything on us that could bring us down.”

“And when that happens?”

“It won’t.” Her father said this with absolute confidence.

“I need time.” She pulled her hand from her father’s and shook her head. “I want to be alone. Can I go home?”

“I will ask Dr. Reeves if he will release you. I’m sorry you had to find out the way you did. I never, ever wanted that, baby,” he said before walking out of her hospital room.

Alessandra began to cry harder. She couldn’t believe her whole life had been a lie. Her father hurt people for a living. How could she even think to stay with him?

Her mind was in utter chaos and as soon as Dr. Reeves walked back in, she was thankful a nurse was with him with some clothes for her. She didn’t speak. She simply got dressed and then with help got into the wheelchair that would take her down to the car.