Page 7 of Little Deer
Alessio is the UnderBoss, the heir to be the new Don, but that doesn’t mean I or Zeno just fade into the background. We have our own roles and part of that is making sure that people understand that we are still in charge. We are still as dangerous as our father or brother. Thankfully our men all know this, but it never hurts to remind them in case they think to forget it and betray us.
I step under the spray and let it wash away the dirt, grime, blood, and any other bodily fluids that came from Lucy through my clothes and onto my skin. It makes my gut clench justthinking about her in that state, trying so hard to communicate with me but not being able to. Who knows what her brothers or father told her. My guess is that it’s nothing good, and she’s going to be freaking the hell out when she finally comes out from under the drugs.
And while she may not trust me, at least she might recognize me enough to not freak out as much, and I want to be there when she wakes up.
I finish my shower, climb out, and wrap a towel around my waist, just in time for the bathroom door to open and Alonzo storms inside, a dark, angry scowl on his face. “I’d say I might have been naked, but something tells me you wouldn’t care,” I remark mildly, grabbing another towel to dry my hair.
“Nothing I haven’t seen before,” Alonzo huffs.
“Mhmmm.” Alonzo and I have always been open with each other, and on more than one occasion we’ve spent the night sharing a woman, or in a few cases, women. I’ll always think of those years fondly, but we’ve since grown up and away from the wilds of our youth. “So what are you doing in here? Rori still barring you from going in to talk to her?”
Alonzo’s jaw clenches. “Yes,” he grits out harshly. “She has Hades outside the door, and any time anyone gets close, not just me, he growls at them in warning. I tried to call him off, but he ignored me.”
“I thought Rori was pissed that you were doing that. You know, maybe if you didn’t try to control her dog, she’d be a lot more receptive to whatever this wooing courtship ritual the two of you have.”
He glares at me. “I’m not doing that bullshit,” he snaps. “What I don’t understand is why the fuck she won’t talk to me. And I don’t fucking like that she knows whoever these chamelon people are and is planning on talking to them. It’s fuckingbullshit. She should let us handle this and trust us to deal with it properly.”
I give him a bland stare as I toss aside the towel I’m using on my hair. “Do you even hear yourself?”
He flips me off. “We don’t involve women in this shit.”
I scoff. “You might be able to spin that to make yourself believe it, but no one actually feels that way in every day life. Your own sister is involved in this shit up to her ears. I get it, you want her, and as much as you don’t want to admit it to yourself, she’s been helpful. She is also capable of taking care of herself.”
“I never said she wasn’t, but she’s not mafia either and?—”
“Fuck off with that bullshit,” I admonish him sternly. “You’re making up excuses and you know it. I get it. I do. Fuck, I’ve been watching Nico, Alessio, and Lazaro all lose their shit to protect their women to the point that it’s nauseating. You’re doing the same shit and you need to realize that Rori isn’t like them. She puts herself in harms way every fucking day when she works and she’s been fine. You either trust her or you don’t and you’re going to lose her when this is all over. She’ll walk the hell away and not think of you again.”
His face darkens at my warning. Instead of answering me, he curses, turns, and stalks out. The door slams. Yeah, I have a feeling there are going to be a lot of slamming doors around here for a while until this all is finally settled. Hopefully sooner than later. Though, something tells me that even when this is over, whatever is going on with Rori and Alonzo isn’t going to be easily settled.
Right now, though, my only thought is to get back to Lucy quickly to make sure she’s alright. I get dressed, tossing the destroyed suit into the laundry hamper on my way out.
When I head back down the hall, I see Hades sitting outside, ever the guard dog, and while he doesn’t growl at me right away, he does stare me down the closer and closer I get. When I’mfinally too close for him to be happy about, he bares his teeth and snarls.
I stop a safe distance away and smile at him. “Guarding your Mistress, are you, Hades?” Hades just continues growling, but at least he doesn’t move from his seated position. I really don’t fancy getting bit today. “Do me a favor, would you? The next time Alonzo is an overprotective ass to your mama, you give him a good chomp on the ass to straighten him out, eh? Maybe it will get him moving faster on giving you a new papa, yes?” Hades growl increases, though I can’t tell if that’s an agreement or a hell no.
Considering how much Alonzo has annoyed Rori, I’m personally thinking it’s the latter. The dog probably doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life listening to those two fighting all the time.
Hell, none of us want to listen to that either.
Before I can start to worry that Hades is about to try and have a go at me, the door opens and Rori gives a quick command, quieting him. And just like that, he turns into a sweet looking puppy as he turns to nudge his nose against Rori’s hand for a head scratch. Spoiled pup.
Before I can say anything, I see the grim look on Rori’s face. “What’s wrong?” I demand, stepping closer. Thankfully Hades doesn’t take that as a sign of aggression and just watches me.
Rori hesitates, but then says, “We figured out what she meant by the milk drugged comment.Hermilk is drugged. As in the breast milk that was leaking out and soaking her shirt. And all that blood? The doctor examined her and said that she’s given birth in the last four to six weeks, and she’s still in the portion where she’s bleeding to clean her uterus out.”
Everything in me goes utterly still at what Rori has said that’s sinking in. “Fuck,” I hiss as I quickly pull out my phone. Aureliopicks up right away. “We need someone to get to her apartment and collect her sister. Now.”
“Why?” Aurelio asks, but I can hear movement in the background, which means at least a few people are still with him. “What is wrong?”
“She recently had a baby is what the doctor said. And if the baby wasn’t with her, then there’s a chance that the De Lucas don’t know of his existence yet. We need to get a couple of people over there to get them. Quickly. I’ll take Zeno with me to collect them. Get Nico to send out for anything baby related we might need.”
Aurelio lets out a low curse. He barks out orders in Italian and I hear Zeno yelling out that he’ll meet me out front with the car. “Urso, get the address of her apartment to them right now,” Aurelio orders his youngest son. “Who is with her now?”
“Rori, Sofia, and the doctor are all here, along with Hades.” I look back at Rori. “Is she awake?”
She shakes her head. “She came to just enough for us to get her into the shower and cleaned up, but then she passed out again. Make sure that when the guys pick things up they get a breast pump. When she wakes up, she’s going to want to get that milk out of her as soon as possible. Especially if she’s worried about passing any drugs on to her baby. The doctor said it’ll be out of her system in twenty four hours, but I have a feeling that won’t matter to her.”
I nod and relay the information to Aurelio. “I’ll be down in a couple minutes, and we’ll go,” I add before hanging up. I look back at Rori. “Thanks. I’ll be back.”
