“It’s too risky Marco, no. Now I’m going back to my lunch.” I hang up and place my phone back on the table.
“So like your grandfather.” My mother mutters.
“Well he did help raise me.” I say, picking up my coffee mug and finishing it off.
“And I clearly still ended up with your heart mama.” I smirk at her.
“Just be careful my boy, you know I don’t trust Marco. I never have.” She says as she glances around her.
With my father being killed while he was Marco’s Capo and then the aftermath of that, my mother has never settled. She always worries that something is going to go wrong despite the slight truce formed between our families now.
“I will, don’t worry.”
My phone lights up again and I see Willows name appear as a couple of texts begin coming through.?
“What’s this about a book and chilli peppers? Willow’s asking if you liked the book Alina recommended.”
My mother almost spits her drink out and her eyes go wide before she starts laughing like a crazy woman.
“That girl… She has a good sense of humour Dragna. You need to marry her before she’s snatched up from you.” She smirks knowing that will get a reaction from me.
“Like hell anyone is taking her from me.” I say as I ball my hand into a fist and my mother’s hand comes to wrap over mine, soothing me.
“She isn’t from this world mama. I can’t just ask her to marry me when she has no clue who I really am and after only a couple months of knowing her.”
“Son, you can’t tell me it isn’t a sign the first woman you have ever fallen for is as sweet and as lovely as she is, and her name is Willow for goodness sake. She has resurrected you. Shewill protect and love you. Tell her the truth my boy, I don’t think she will run. If it’s meant to be, it will be.”
I mull over the words from my mother.
Willow Tree’s are a huge part of our Russian and Serbian culture. My mother would tell me so many folklore stories of the Willow Tree and what it represents to us when I was growing up and the more my mother’s words sink in, the more I think she’s right.
I have felt resurrected since meeting Willow. She’s kick started my heart, made me feel things I didn’t know I would ever feel. Even my fucking dogs who have turned out to be anything but guard dogs around her are like putty in her hands. But if I tell her the truth about my life and she runs… I don’t even want to think about the possibility of how insane I’d become. I’d be no better than the fucking stalker she has that we still have no information on.
I thought it would be the guy my men picked up from the cafe weeks ago. Turns out he was just an ex who was so scared shitless of Mikhail and Ivan, he burst into tears when they had him in the warehouse before they even asked him a single question.
They checked his ID with Nikolai and everything came back clean. He’s a preppy kid who relies on daddy’s money who has never had a hard day in his life. A fucking wimp, so they let him go. They did give him a slight beating though for his admission about cheating on Willow and wanting to try and win her back.
It’s irking me that we still have no clue who the fuck was, or possibly still is stalking my girl. Not to mention the call Marco got about Alina in the club last night didn’t come from Lev which I found out after we had a long talk this morning. It didn’t come from any of my men, so someone is watching us and I don’t fucking like it.
“I’m going for dinner tonight at her apartment, her parents will be there. I’ll tell her soon.” I finally respond to my mother and I stand, taking her hand and helping her out of her chair.
“Let me know how it goes meeting her parents.” She says before I lean down to kiss her head goodbye.
“I will mama.”
———————————————————
“Oh, it’s you.” Alina greets me at the door of their apartment and steps aside to let me in.
“Good to see you too Alina. Hope the hangover isn’t too bad.” I say sarcastically as she rolls her eyes at me.
“I’m telling her soon by the way.” I say and my words stop Alina mid closing the door behind me.
“When?”
“Not tonight, not this week. I have things I need to ensure are in place before telling her for her own protection.”
“Like what?” She raises an eyebrow at me and places her hands on her hips.
