“Then we don’t fight her. We just do it,”Ryder argues.
“She almost choked your ass out in the hallway,” Gage chuckles, “Even though you fucking liked it.”
“Leo.” I look up at the sound of my name and see Micah standing just inside the living room; he jerks his head and disappears back toward her office.
I stand up from the couch and follow him. Evander and Mateo are both sitting there when I push open the office door, much to my surprise. I didn’t even hear them come in. Alessa smiles softly and gestures to a chair in front of the desk; I sit beside Evander with Mateo at his other side. She’s handling all this in stride, but I can see the stress in her tight shoulders. I hate that she even has to deal with this. She has a war breathing down her neck and a stalker.
“What’s up?” I ask, looking at everyone’s grim faces.
“We want to give you a chance to bow out of being a Perez heir,” Evander says quietly.
“You don’t want me to be?”
Alessa shakes her head. “That’s not what he means.” She leans her arms on the desk. “What happens next puts everyone’s ass on the line.”
“So, you’re going to war with her?” I ask Evander.
He nods. “We are.”
I look at Alessa. “You’re pulling out all cards, huh?” I ask angrily. “Using this newfound alliance to get them killed too?”
“She gave us a choice,” Mateo answers, leaning forward. “It’s the least we can do after what Father did to her.”
“That I still don’t know about.” I swipe my hand through my hair, pissed. “I don’t know about any of this because no one will fucking tell me.”
“We don’t either, Leo,” Evander says evenly, leveling me with a look to shut up. “This is what alliances do. We don’t need to know everything.”
“So, you just trust her at her word? This is a death sentence.” I don’t know why I’m getting so worked up. I guess everything from the past week is just to a boiling point. I’m scared to death for my brothers and my newfound family that I can’t process this. I also can’t help but be pissed at Alessa for involving them.
“I called them here to protect you, Leo, not to go to war with me,” Alessa says in a deadly tone that I know too well.“This was their decision. You can either sit there and blame me or shut up and listen.”
I take a long look at her after she delivers that ultimatum, knowing I have to make a decision that could make or break what I’m building with her. The decision she’s telling me to make means either in or out; there’s no in-between. It’s either stay and potentially watch them all die or run back to North Carolina. I look into her blue eyes and make my decision. “I’m listening.”
She rolls her shoulders back, trying to relieve some tension. I can’t tell if that was the answer she wanted or not. “I'm not going to bore you with all the history, so I’ll give you as much as I can.” I nod. “The Italians and the Russians have a long-standing feud that goes back for generations ever since Italians took over their power here. My dad kept the peace by allowing them certain avenues for illegal cash; theirs was heroin. He even allowed them to use our port to bring the product in.” She rubs her temples, and that’s when I realize how exhausted she looks. “Viktor’s mindset is a woman should never hold any power, so when I was named Dad’s successor instead of Micah, he made it his mission to make me look weak in front of the other families at every opportunity.”
“By stepping in to take over the cocaine game from you was his way of saying he was done following you,” I summarize for her. I might not know everything, but I’m not stupid.
“Exactly,” Micah breaks in, leaning against the table behind Alessa. “He knew what he was doing.”
“If I don’t do something, he will work to tear down everything my father and many generations before him worked so hard to build here. I can’t allow that.” She crosses her arms back on the desk. “I would never put your brothers in danger on purpose, Leo. Or you,” she finishes softly, and I can see how much it’s wearing on her that I’ll be in the middle. “I’m not going anywhere, Alessa,” I assure her.
“I don’t want you to, but Leo, you need to understand peoplewilldie, and there’s no way to avoid it.” And there it is. The implicationthat people will die is finally said out loud. I look at her and realize one of those people could be her, Gage, or one of my brothers.
“We’re giving you an option.” Evander finally looks at me, and I can see this is tearing him up too. “Stay with us or go back home to your mom without a mention of you to put a target on your back.”
“You want me to run?” I ask, looking between Evander, Mateo, and Alessa. “Just forget everything that I’ve found here?”
“We want you to make it out of this alive,” Alessa says vehemently. “We grew up knowing this was the direction our lives were going to take. Your life can take a different direction, where you stay alive.”
I can’t imagine a life where you knew at a young age you would probably die bloody in a war that started long before you were born. Even though it was just mom and me, I had a damn good childhood filled with love and laughter. Evander and Mateo grew up with a tyrant as a father and a spineless mother that wouldn’t stand up for them. Alessa’s dad seemed to do everything he could for her, but he still raised her as a criminal. A criminal that is now
pleading with me to save my ass. No way in hell I’m leaving.
“I’m not fucking running,” I say, looking around the room at all their faces. Everyone holds the same sadness in Alessa’s eyes except Micah. I can never get a read on him, and I’m not even sure he’s happy I’m around.
Alessa straightens up, and I can see the mask slamming into place. “Okay,” she nods, “then you need to be prepared. I know you know how to shoot, but Gage will show you how to use all the weapons at our disposal. Over the next several days, this place will be crawling with more guards.” She turns to Micah. “Can you bring the other guys in?”
Micah squeezes her shoulder before doing as she asks. She doesn’t even look at me when we’re waiting for them to pile in. Ryder and Dex take up their spots at her back; Gage, Holden, and Micah sit on the couch she has set to the side of the desk. She’s squared her shoulders, and all trace of sadness in her eyes is gone, and I realize this is the ice queen they joke about. One where she has to hide her emotions, so she doesn’t look weak, even in front of us. Somethingtells me I’ll see her more than ever instead of the soft Alessa I’ve gotten used to.
