Alessandro (Members From Money Book 21)

by Katie Dowe

  She got to her feet and came forward to hand him the file. She saw when he tensed as she came nearer to him. Good! She had gotten under his skin, she thought with an inward laugh. He took the file warily and scanned the contents inside it. “I will make the arrangements. You don’t have to come back to do the pickup. We will deliver the boxes at your church.”

  “Are you afraid of me?” she asked him innocently as she sat on the edge of his desk. She was wearing a white t-shirt with a denim jacket over matching denim pants and a simple sandals on her feet. Her hair was braided and wrapped around her head and she looked like a damned teenager, he thought roughly. “There is no need to be afraid, Alessandro. I am harmless. Well fairly so.” She leaned forward and touched his firm chin gently and he went still. “I sense that there is something bothering you aside from my presence and I would love to sit and talk with you. We are going to have such fun getting to know each other. I know you have put up barriers, but I am here when you are ready to talk. I promise.” Her gentle touch was almost his undoing and he could feel the desire stirring inside him! He pushed back the chair and got to his feet abruptly. “I have a meeting in a few minutes, Ms. Walker. I will see to it that you get what you want.”

  Her eyes laughed at him and she got to her feet. He stayed where he was afraid to make a move in case he reached for her.

  “Thanks, Alessandro. I will see you.” She turned to collect her things from the chair and his eyes went to her derriere, reluctantly noticing how the denim molded her shape. “Goodbye for now.” With a wave she was gone.

  He stood where he was, his eyes on the closed door. It was several minutes before he could move and he closed his eyes as the scent of her lingered in the space.

  *****

  “We have been seeing each other for two months and I am yet to be introduce to your parents,” Alec said with a note of impatience in his voice as he got up to put his pants on. “I am not after your money, Isabella, and I would like you to know that.”

  “I know.” She got up and pulled on his discarded shirt. She had come straight from work and had called and told her parents she was meeting friends. She had met Alec Lattimore the night of her party and they had hit it off immediately and had started seeing each other secretly. He did not come from money but was a third generation cop who had been invited to her party by an associate of his. He was tall and strikingly attractive with dark brown hair and beautiful grey eyes that had mesmerized her since the night she had met him. He had been up front with her from the start and had told her that he was not into dating heiresses but he liked her. She had been taken in by his honesty and had started meeting him. “Just give me some time,” she pleaded as she followed him into the kitchen. He went to the sink to pour himself some water and turned as he drank it down. His eyes narrowed as he took in her jet black hair tumbling around her face and the nakedness that was revealed by his opened shirt.

  “I am into you in a bad way, Bella, and I would hate to think that I am just someone you are having sex with because you are bored by your rich friends.”

  “That’s a hateful thing to say,” she murmured as she came up to him and wrapped her hands around his waist.

  “I don’t want to get hurt.” He put the glass away and held her close.

  “You won’t be,” she whispered.

  Chapter 5

  “Chocolate mania! Our sources at the newspaper got it on good authority that the chocolate giant: Rivera’s Chocolates donated boxes of boxes of their tasty treats to the Church of the Holy God to help in their drive for the young people to further their educations. The kids have been going door to door selling the high brand treat and have been getting a lot of sales. Our sources also told us that Jayda Walker, daughter of Pastor Walker, came up with the idea herself and went to the company to solicit their help. PR person for the company, Isabella Rivera, said she was happy that the company had gotten involved in something like that and it makes for good community involvement. Hats off to Rivera Chocolate for doing their part in helping the less fortunate!”

  “Sales have been tripled as soon as the article came out,” Isabella said as her brother put aside the magazine. “I personally called Jayda and told her thanks.”

  Alessandro looked over at his sister and nodded.

  “What’s with you?” she demanded. “Why are you behaving as if you are facing death row?”

  “I have a lot on my mind.” He folded the paper on his desk and gave her his attention. “How are you though? I understand from Mother and dad that you hardly spend any time at home. Who is he?”

  “I just turned twenty-one a month ago, Alessandro. I am entitled to live my life.” She sounded defensive but it was too late to take it back.

  “Why haven’t we met him?” he asked her with a faint smile on his lips.

  “I have no idea what you are talking about,” she told him airily as she got to her feet. “I have a meeting with Donald and some press releases to go out.” She came forward and placed a kiss on his cheek. “You need a shave, Cara.”

  “Thanks for noticing,” he said dryly as she walked off.

  “You are welcome.”

  “I still want to meet him,” he warned her as she reached the door.

  “Still don’t know what you are talking about.” She waved at him and went out closing the door behind her.

  He picked up the newspaper, his eyes fixed on her name. He had put the slip of paper with her number on it in his drawer and had told himself that he was going to get rid of it eventually. She had not tried to call him and he was shocked at the feeling of disappointment inside him. He had not been with anyone since he had been back and that was quite unusual for him. He told himself that he was just trying to sort the mess inside his head but he knew it was more than that. She had caught his attention in more ways than one.

  His phone rang just then and his heart picked up thinking it was her! But it was a voice from his past. “We need to talk.”

  *****

  Domenico Ricci was his cousin by his mother’s side and they had gotten close when he had been living in Italy. He had severed all ties to him and the others when he had come back to the states and was not really comfortable hearing from him. It reminded him too much of what he had almost been caught up into!

  “This is a nice place!” Domenico said in approval as he looked around the elegant and sweeping grounds of the club. It was late afternoon and the August evening was long with the brilliant sun still high in the sky. Alessandro had requested drinks to be brought outdoors to them and had chosen a table that afforded them some privacy.

  “It’s good to see you,” Alessandro said automatically as he sipped his aperitif.

  “No, it’s not!” the sharply dressed attractive swarthy man said with a laugh as he leaned back against the comfortable lounge chair and eyed his younger cousin. “You are wondering why on earth I am here.”

  “Why are you here?” Alessandro asked him bluntly.

  Domenico sipped his whiskey appreciatively and looked around the place. He could see rich men lounging on chairs and several on the tennis court. It screamed money but in a subtle way. “I have to lay low for a little bit. I am afraid I have gotten myself into a bit of a fix.”

  “What fix?”

  “Remember Niccolo Russo?”

  “The son of mafia king pin, Giovanni Russo?”

  “The same.” Domenico nodded. “It seems there were some misunderstanding about territory and I might have roughed him up a bit.”

  Alessandro leaned forward, his movement tensed. “A bit?”

  “Okay, I beat him so badly that he is now in the hospital.” Domenico drank down his whiskey and grimaced as it hit his stomach. “I have a price on my head so I had to bail. I need a place to crash for a few days until I decide what to do.”

  “The first place they are going to come looking is where I am, Domenico,” Alessandro said grimly wanting to hit the man in the face for being so stupid!

  “I figured
that out so I was thinking about that little cabin that you were always talking about. And I am going to need some cash. I had to run and leave everything behind.”

  “I am not getting mixed up in something like that, Dom,” he told the man coldly. “Russo has long reach and I have my family to think about.”

  “He thinks I have gone to Mexico.”

  “And you don’t think he is smart enough to figure out that you are in the states?”

  “By that time I will have figured something out.” Domenico leaned forward. “I kind of would like to stay alive, cousin, and I need your help doing so. Three weeks max and I promise to be out of your hair by then. I will not even get in touch with Aunt Katarina if you don’t want that, neither Cousin Isabella.”

  “Leave them out of it!” Alessandro said sharply.

  “I will as long as you help me out.”

  “Fine.” Alessandro felt the helpless fury tumbling through him at the position he was caught in. “The minute this starts turning I will not hesitate to boot you out.”

  “Deal.” He signaled for another whiskey. “I am in your debt.”

  *****

  “Hi,” Jayda said softly as he answered the phone.

  “I am busy,” he said abruptly even though his heart was hammering inside his chest.

  “I just called to say a huge thank you, Alessandro,” she said unfazed by his rudeness. It had been a week since the chocolate drive and it had been a tremendous success. “The kids are putting together a thank you basket to be delivered to your office. I was thinking that I would be the one to deliver it and see you at the same time.”

  “Look, Ms. Walker-”

  “It’s Jayda. You are going to be the man in my life so I think it’s time you started calling me by my first name.”

  There was silence for a little bit and Jayda smiled as she pictured the look on his beautiful face. She had no idea where she had gotten the courage from to be so forward with such a beautiful and powerful man but the intense attraction she was feeling for him had given her the added boost.

  “I have to go,” he said roughly.

  “I need to see you. How about having dinner with me on Sunday? I come in from church at two so I am thinking about five. How about it?”

  “No.” He hung up on her before he weakened and told her yes.

  Jayda sighed and stretched her legs out in front of her. She was going to have to find a way to get to him. She had decided to wait on him to call her but obviously he was never going to do that. It would have to be up to her! She glanced at the watch on her wrist and realized that she had to get going. She had a party in the next hour and she need to go and get set up. Time for Alessandro Rivera much later!

  *****

  “I am sorry I am late! I had back to back to meetings-” Isabella stopped as she saw the look on his face. “Alec?”

  He got up from where he had been sitting in the darkened section of his living room and approached her. She saw the blood on his shirt and felt her heart turned right over. “Mama Mia! Are you hurt?”

  “My partner’s blood,” he told her with a tortured expression on his handsome face as he looked from her to his hands.

  “Alec,” Isabella went to get a towel and wetting it beneath the tap she took his hands and wiped the blood off. “How is he?”

  “Critical. He has a wife and two kids.” He stood there motionless as she continued to wipe his hands. He had been home for the past couple of hours after being at the hospital for what seemed like a year and had come home and sat right there in the living room not moving, his mind replaying back everything that had happened and what he could have done differently.

  “How about something to drink?” Isabella felt sick to the stomach as she wondered what she would have done if it had been him! She had fallen in love with him quickly and easily and was trying to find a way to tell her family about him.

  He nodded and stood right there as she went to pour the drink and came back to give it to him. She led him back to the sofa and made him sit. She sat on the floor in front of him and looked up at him. His grey eyes met hers as he drank the liquor down.

  “It could have been you.” She gripped his hands tightly as he held the glass between them. “It could have been you and one day I am going to have to face the fact that you are out there and something will happen-“

  “You understand that I cannot think of something like that right now?” he asked her tensely. “Joe and I have been partners since I came out of the academy two years ago and he has taught me so much. He might die, Bella, and I am here wondering what his wife and kids are going through. I cannot think of myself right now.”

  “I am sorry,” she whispered. “I love you.”

  “And yet you have never allowed me to meet your family.” He got up abruptly and moved to the window. “I keep replaying the day over and over in my mind. We had coffee and donuts.” He smiled grimly at that before continuing. “I told him about you and he said I should not be so intimidated by your vast wealth and that when love is in the mix then money or lack of it should not matter. Then we got a call about a robbery and that was it.”

  She had come up behind him and wrapped her hands around his waist. “I am staying the night.”

  “No.” He held himself stiffly and for the first time since she had been involved with him she felt the distance. “You need to go home. I am going back to the hospital and then to the precinct. Go home to your family, Bella, and give me a few days.”

  She released him and turned him to face her. “What are you saying?”

  “I need some time alone.”

  “Are you breaking up with me?” she asked him incredulously.

  “Are we really in a relationship?”

  She stepped back as if he had struck her. “I cannot believe you said that to me, Alec. I love you.”

  He reached out and cupped her cheek gently. “I love you too, but I need time.”

  Isabella pulled away from him and without a word she grabbed her things and headed for the door. Alec stared at the door and with a ragged sigh he braced his head against the window as his entire world crashed down around him!

  *****

  He knocked on the door discreetly for a moment before pushing it open and going in. He found her curled up on her ridiculously princess style bed that had not changed since she was a teenager. Her room was decorated in bold splashes of different shades of red and green, her two favorite colors. His parents had called and said she had been holed up in her room since she had come home last evening and they were worried about her.

  She did not turn around when he sat on the bed. Her long dark hair made shadows on her ruffled pillows and she was still but he knew she was not sleeping. “Whatever it is we can fix it. Just tell me his name.”

  She did not respond and he sat there for a minute in silence before he spoke again. “Bella, please talk to me.” He reached out and touched her arm. “Who is the jerk who caused this?”

  “I wish he was a jerk.” Her tone was wooden but she finally turned to him. He brushed back the tendrils of hair from her beautiful face and tensed as he saw the tears. “We met at my birthday party and we have been seeing each other.” She captured his hand and held it. “He has been asking to meet my family and I keep putting him off. I wanted to be sure.”

  “Who is he?”

  She pulled away and eased up on her pillows. “He is a cop,” she said almost defensively.

  He looked at her for a moment as if considering what to say.

  “He is not into me for my money, Alessandro, so please don’t go there.”

  “I was not going to say anything about that,” he told her quietly. “What happened?”

  She told him jerkily. “He is hurting and does not want me to be with him.”

  “Maybe you should have insisted.” He paused. “Don’t bite my head off but are you sure this is something you want?”

  “You mean because he is a cop with a civil servant salary?”
/>
  “No, because you are twenty-one, Bella, and you are just starting out. Maybe it is not love but a crush for a man in uniform.”

  “How stupid do you think I am?”

  “You are very smart-”

  “I know the difference between a crush and being in love, Alessandro! I had a crush on Jimmy when I was in high school and it faded in the space of a week. I have never met anyone like Alec. He treats me like a regular person and does not allow my wealth to intimidate him.”

  “I am sorry.” He took her hands in his. “Give him a little space and then go bang on his door.”

  “Thank you.” She peered at him beneath her lashes. “What do you think Mother and Dad will say?”

  “I am sure they will be happy for you.” He lifted her hands and kissed her fingers. “I just want you to be happy.”

  “I want the same for you.”

  “It’s going to take some time.”

  *****

  Her heart tripped inside her chest as she saw him. She had been hoping that she would run into him. She had planned a party for one of Isabella’s friends which was being held at one of Kane Takahashi’s restaurant. It was one of those parties that had all the elements of being just a regular party. She had tried to persuade the woman to add some upbeat songs and something more to the menu but she had refused and her hands had been tied. She had also been looking around for Isabella but she had been told that the girl was a little under the weather. She had just finished tying up things when she saw him sitting at the bar. She had not spoken to him in three weeks and had been too busy to try and find some way to meet with him. Taking a deep breath she walked over to the bar. “A martini please,” she told the bartender. She saw him stiffen as he brought the glass to his lips. “Hi, Alessandro.”

  He turned to her then and his dark eyes took in the figure hugging black dress she was wearing. She had done something different to her hair and it was in some sort of curls cascading over her shoulders. “Ms. Walker.” He nodded briefly.

  “Thank you.” She accepted the drink and stirred the straw into it. “How are you?”