“Oh. I’m so sorry.”
She felt guilty now for complaining about her parents. It probably just reminded him of the family he’d lost.
“It was thirteen years ago, so it’s not a fresh wound or anything.”
“Still, it must be hard not to have them around.”
Connor nodded. “It is. Technically, the only family I have left is Owen and Declan. They’re my cousins. And their mom is my aunt, of course, but I don’t see her much since she lives in a retirement home. Really, I’ve come to think of the mafia as my family over the years. Some of those men are like brothers to me. I’d do just about anything for them.”
Alessia felt a pang of longing. She’d always wanted to belong somewhere and never really had. Not in her family or in the Italian mafia.
The doorbell ringing interrupted their conversation, and she checked on the dinner as Connor answered the door. It was perfect, the cheese melted and the sauce bubbly. She pulled it out of the oven just as Connor returned to the kitchen with a man she’d never seen before.
His head was shaved bald and he had a red goatee. He was stocky and wore a diamond stud in one ear. When he saw Alessia, she could tell that he knew who she was by the shocked expression on his face.
“Let me introduce you,” Connor said, his smirk telling her that he noticed his friend’s shock as well. “Alessia, this is Ollie, a part of my crew.”
She understood what that meant. She might not have been familiar with the exact hierarchy of the Irish mafia, but the capos in her father’s criminal organization had street crews that they were responsible for. Those guys reported to the capos, who then reported to her father. She assumed it was similar with this group.
“Hi,” she said, amused as he shook off the shock. “I just finished making dinner. There’s plenty, if you’d like to stay.”
“Uh, no thanks. I was just dropping off…”
He trailed off and looked at Connor, as if he was unsure how much to say in front of her.
“Ollie runs our casino, and he brings me the profits.”
He put an envelope on the counter by the coffee pot. A small frown came to Ollie’s face, but he smiled when he met her eyes again.
“I have to admit, I’m surprised to see you here,” he said.
She wasn’t sure if she should tell him the truth, but Connor cut in again. “Alessia is helping us out.”
Ollie’s eyebrows popped. “Sharing information?”
“Yep.”
“Well, lucky us.” Ollie said. He turned to Connor. “And you. You held out on me the other night.”
Connor rolled his eyes. “What can I say? A man likes to keep some things a mystery.”
Ollie laughed as Connor led him to the door, and Alessia just shook her head, not sure exactly what they were talking about. But she was glad to have finally met someone in the Irish mafia that didn’t immediately look at her with suspicion.
Maybe, if she played her cards right, she’d be able to carve out a place of belonging here.
14
CONNOR
Alessia was a hell of a cook. He had three helpings of the eggplant parmesan, and he was glad that Ollie didn’t stick around. More for him.
After dinner, he had more business to attend to, so he left Alessia at the house while he headed to the clubhouse of the motorcycle club. He’d received a phone call earlier today letting him know that the weapons shipment had finally arrived.
The clubhouse was located in one the few neutral zones in the city, not controlled by the IrishorItalian mafia. It was in a windowless building with a steel door that was always guarded by a prospective member. They were expecting him, so he was admitted immediately.
The inside of the clubhouse looked a lot like the living room of a frat house. There was a bar along one wall with just about any alcohol you could think of. But aside from the stool at the bar, the seating wasn’t typical of a bar. There were couches and easy chairs, lots of comfortable options. Pizza boxes sat open on all the tables, and the TVs hanging on the walls played a cage match. There was a pool table in the center of the room, and there was a game going on while a couple of women in leather pants and tube tops watched.
Connor spotted Bull sprawled out on a couch, a bottle of beer in his hand as he cheered on one of the fighters on the TV screen. When he saw Connor approaching, he got professional, standing and holding out his hand.
