The Promise: Mafia Vows Two

by SR Jones

  “Yes,” we say in unison.

  She scurries off and comes back five minutes later with a pale turquoise dress. It’s also Grecian in style, and she takes Stella off to fit her into it.

  When the curtains to Stella’s changing cubicle part, and she steps out, I gasp. “Oh my God, you look stunning.”

  And she does.

  Her dress is simpler in style. No crystals, and no thigh split, but it drapes in the same way, and the sea color of the material perfectly complements Stella’s olive skin and dark hair and eyes. There is a gold brocade band under the bust, and another at the bottom of the dress, and the straps are gold too. It’s not a blingy gold, though, almost antique looking.

  “You are gorgeous,” I tell her.

  “So are you. You’re going to blow Damen away in this.”

  Her eyes fill with tears, and she wipes one away with a little laugh. “You’ve been through so much, Maya, and I’m so glad you’ve found your happy ever after.”

  “Do you want to show your brother-in-law to be?” the assistant asks, misunderstanding Alesso’s place in this.

  “I doubt he’s interested,” I say.

  “Oh, yes I am. Come on out. Let me see,” he calls from the salon.

  I feel giddy as I step out in the dress for him to see and hope he likes it. He is for all intents and purposes going to be like a brother-in-law to me when all is said and done.

  “You look beautiful, Maya. Damen will be … he’ll be really happy is what he’ll be.” He smiles at me, and I know he means it.

  “Stella, you come out too,” I say, mischief taking over. Let’s see Alesso’s reaction to Stella in her dress.

  She steps out into the salon area, her hands holding the material of the dress as she swishes it around her, almost as a small child might.

  Alesso looks at her, and I swear, if he was a tiger, and she was prey, Stella would be about to get eaten.

  “Do you like it?” she asks, her voice tremulous.

  Alesso gives her a lazy, one-sided smile, and nods slowly. “You look good enough to eat.”

  She hitches her breath and drops her eyes.

  Oh, she’s so out of her league. Not because she’s not good enough for Alesso, but because she’s a good girl. The good girl I never was, and I think Alesso is much more of a bad boy than I’d ever understood.

  “Yes, well, no eating the bridesmaids.” I make a joke, regretting poking the hornet’s nest, and lead Stella back into the changing area.

  I pull her into the recesses of the space, well away from the gauze curtains separating the changing area from the showroom floor.

  “I won’t waste my breath telling you to be careful with that one out there, because I know you like him far too much for my words to mean anything, but … please, guard your heart honey.”

  “Like you did,” she says with a shake of her head.

  “Stella, you don’t get it. This world, it’s not nice. I don’t have a lot of choice, and I think in some ways, I fit right in. But you … you’re so good.”

  She sighs and purses her lips. “I’m not as good as you or everyone else seems to think. I’m so sick of everyone thinking my life is mapped out. Oh, Stella is going to be a doctor or a lawyer. Or you know, if she screws up and doesn’t make it in those roles, she can always be a teacher. She’ll marry a nice man, and they’ll have two children and a dog. You know me. I don’t like being put in a box. It makes my anxiety spike to think I have to do something for the next twenty or thirty years. Whether that’s marriage and kids or a damn career that everyone says would be so perfect for me. I don’t like it any more than you did, Maya. And it’s my life to live, and my mistakes to make. So, I’d rather not have a lecture, thanks.”

  “Okay.” I hold my hands up and back down. I don’t want to fall out with her, and if she’s not ready to listen, no amount of warnings from me will work. I’m kind of shocked to hear she feels the same way I used to. I thought her occasional moan about her life was typical teenage and young adult angst, I suppose because to me, her life was a fairy tale. Loving parents, good grades, great future ready and waiting. It seems we never really know other people as well as we think we do.

  “Anyway, you don’t have to worry because we might be moving away soon.” She nibbles on her lip, her deep brown eyes sad.

  “What?” I cry.

  “I know,” she says, and tears glisten in her gaze. “I didn’t want to tell you until after your wedding, but my father has a job offer in Thessaloniki that he wants to take. It’s not that far away that we can’t still see one another, but it sucks that we won’t be in the same city.”

  No more Stella shopping outings. Yes, we can still have long chats on the phone, but it’s not the same as seeing one another regularly. Some days, it feels like I’m losing everyone.

  “You could stay.” I nudge her. “You’re an adult now, after all. Don’t have to go where your parents go.”

  “And where would I live?” She laughs. “I can barely afford to rent a one room dump, and I don’t want to live somewhere I won’t feel safe, not after what happened.”

  “You could live with us,” I say before I can stop myself. Oh Lord, what have I done? I see with the way her eyes light up that she loves the idea. “I mean, I’d have to talk to Damen, but maybe … you know; it would be fun. Besties living together.”

  I trail off because it would be awesome to have her there, but it worries me I’ll be placing her directly in the path of a man I’m more and more convinced isn’t particularly nice. Oh, he’s been good to me ever since he decided to accept Damen and me as an item, but Alesso is hard. Damen is hard too, I suppose, but he isn’t … casual in his hardness. Alesso has this nonchalant, friendly air about him, and it hides his dark soul. Makes him seem like a normal, nice, handsome guy, and he’s anything but. I don’t want Stella making the same wrong assumptions I did about him at first.

  “Talk to Damen, and I’ll float the idea by my parents, but they might not go for it.” She shrugs. “And … I do have another reason to stay. I’ve been offered a job.”

  “Oooh, doing what?” I’m confused, because I honestly thought, despite what she’s just said, that she’d eventually be going to university and studying something seriously difficult like law or medicine. She’s done the traveling thing, and I suppose I saw her time now as all about getting ready for her safe future, the one she seemingly doesn’t want.

  “I sent in a paper I wrote about the financial crisis in Greece and the role of the super-rich in avoiding their taxes, to The Herald, and they offered me an internship. Paid. The money isn’t amazing, but this is something I think I’d love to do.”

  “Be a reporter?” I’m shocked if I’m honest. Stella isn’t the sort of hard-nosed person I’d imagine getting to the bottom of some big story, then again, maybe her polite, classy ways and her beauty will be what helps her fool people into talking to her. “I mean, I know you did the school paper thing, and you loved that, but I honestly didn’t know it was something you wanted to do for a career.”

  “Neither did I, to be honest. I like to write, though, the odd bits and pieces. Some of it is political, and some of it is personal. I’ve been running a blog, under a pseudonym, and I’ve had a lot of views and interaction. One day, I saw a competition open for young aspiring journalists. I sent the piece in on a whim, under my own name, when I saw the competition in my father’s Sunday paper, and I won. It is an amazing opportunity, and if it doesn’t work out for me, and isn’t something I enjoy, well nothing lost. The internship is only for six months, with a further six if both myself and the paper want to extend.”

  “Let me talk to Damen, see what he says.” With mixed emotions about the idea of Stella living with us, I step into the changing room and put my jeans and sweater back on.

  We head out of the changing rooms, and Alesso falls into step with us, quickening his pace and opening the door of the store for us, before we get to it.

  “Such a gentlem
an,” Stella says, then ruins her flirtatious tone by going beetroot red.

  “He’s no gentleman,” I snap at her.

  “Maya.” Stella’s scandalized tone makes me smile, despite my irritation at her worshiping a man I think is dangerous. “Don’t be so rude.”

  “She’s not wrong, though,” Alesso adds. “I’m not.”

  “Well, you always seem like one to me,” she says firmly.

  We’ve reached the car, and Alesso moves between Stella and I, bracketing her against the car door.

  Her eyes widen as he leans in close.

  “Baby girl, appearances can be deceptive. I’m not a nice man, and the fact you don’t recognize as much worries me about how you’ll cope out in the big, bad world. There are a lot of wolves out there, and you’ll be a lamb to the slaughter if you can’t recognize them. Take Costas, for example.”

  “What about him?” she asks, swallowing hard.

  She’s uncomfortable, I can see it all over her face, so I try to push past Alesso, and get the door open, but he holds me back with one arm without even looking at me.

  “I know you used to flirt with him when you were a kid. You’d come to the house sometimes with Maya, and I used to think that girl has no clue who she’s messing around with. Even then, I knew Costas was wrong. You didn’t see it.” He leans in close and brushes a strand of hair out of her eyes. “Open your eyes, Stella. I’ll teach you to shoot, and even self-defense if you want. But you need street smarts. You’ve managed to gain the attention of some unsavory characters within our world, and you’ve got to be more aware how nasty people can be.”

  She nods and swallows, and I hate the tears forming in her eyes. I hate Alesso a little in this moment too.

  He brushes his thumb over one of her eyes, collecting the moisture, and then he does the most fucked up thing I’ve ever seen. He lifts his thumb to his mouth and sucks it.

  Stella gasps, and her already rosy cheeks deepen to a shade bordering on damson. Her pupils dilate, and Alesso sighs. “You’re too beautiful to not understand just how bad some men can be.”

  “God, stop being so melodramatic, Alesso!” I finally shove him out of the way and open the door, hustling Stella into the back of the car.

  Alesso is fucking weird. To think I thought Markos was the strange one, Damen was the hard one, and this weirdo was the nice guy. I shoot daggers at him as I push past to climb into the car.

  I sit by my best friend, and only when Alesso is upfront and the music is blaring do I whisper to her, “Told you so. Best to leave him well alone.”

  She turns to me, and her eyes are alight. Oh, fuck, don’t tell me she found the whole weird interlude somehow erotic?

  Man, I’m not the only one with issues in this car.

  When I get back to the house, I go straightaway to see Damen, who is sipping coffee in the kitchen. I’ve been weighing up telling him about the whole Alesso and Stella’s strangeness, but decide against it. What can he do? And anyway, it will only go against me when I say what I need to next. I swallow and ask him about Stella maybe moving in.

  “Oh, no way.” The voice at the door startles me, and I turn to see Alesso leaning against the doorjamb, legs crossed at the ankles, arms over his chest. “Nope. Not happening.”

  “What? I’d have thought you’d quite like her here, the way you’ve been looking at her,” I challenge. “You’d get to mess with her head whenever you wanted.”

  He narrows his eyes and pushes off from the door.

  “I was trying to show her the world can be fucked up.”

  “If she’s here, you can be the big bad wolf and protect her yourself.”

  “No. Not here in the house.” He glares at Damen. “It’s too complicated. Yes, she’s hot, and I wouldn’t mind a fuck, but I don’t want to live with the girl.”

  “You are such a pig sometimes, Alesso,” I shout at him.

  “Guys.” Damen rubs his forehead. “Tone it the fuck down, some of us have a headache. How about she lives in the garage buildings we’re converting?” Damen offers.

  Alesso’s frown deepens. “What, in a unit full of Special Forces men? I think fucking not. Christ, imagine Andrius’ guys around the pool watching her in the summer when she’s sunbathing.”

  “Ah.” I laugh at his words, because he’s such a cliché. “I get it now. You don’t want her, but you don’t want anyone else to have her.”

  Alesso unfurls his arms, pinches the bridge of his nose, and fixes me with his blue gaze. “It has nothing to do with how I personally feel. I just think it’s a disaster waiting to happen putting a young girl into a housing situation with a lot of older, battle-scarred, horny, single men.”

  “When he puts it like that, Maya, he’s not wrong.” Damen sighs.

  “I promised her.” I pout, hoping to sway my husband, but I can tell from the set of his jaw that his mind is made up.

  “If she can’t find somewhere to live she can afford, and that’s safe, she’ll have to go to Thessaloniki with her parents, and that means I won’t see my best friend anymore, and my best friend won’t be able to take up the amazing job she’s been offered.”

  “She’s moving?” Alesso seems at least a little bit bothered by this news.

  “Yes. Well, she is if she can’t find somewhere safe here, and she can’t afford the rent on anything decent on her own.”

  “What job?” Damen asks the more pertinent question.

  “An amazing opportunity, she’s been offered a job at the city newspaper as a paid intern.”

  Alesso makes this odd sound in the back of his throat, and I turn to see him trying to cover up a snorted laugh.

  “Seriously?” Damen fixes me with his dark stare, and he almost looks … disappointed?

  “What?”

  “I thought you understood things now, Maya. Who and what you are. Who we all are?”

  “Erm … I do.”

  “So why would you think I’d be remotely okay with letting a junior reporter live here and sniff around?”

  My temper flares, but I bite it back, determined to stop going off on a tantrum every time I get pissed at Damen.

  “It’s Stella, babe.” I think that should say it all.

  “I don’t care who the hell it is—no one gets to live here if they’re working as a journalist.”

  He says the word journalist as if he’s said slug.

  “It’s a noble profession,” I tell him.

  Alesso snorts again.

  “We wouldn’t have known about all sorts of corruption and shady deals our governments have made over the years without journalists, would we?” I challenge him.

  Alesso merely raises his eyebrows as his normally pretty face twists into a sneer.

  Fucker.

  “Yes, you’re right. They do investigate all kinds of corruption, so by all means, let us invite one to live in our home.” Damen rolls his eyes at me. “Where illegal shit happens all the time. She’s not staying here—end of discussion.”

  Shit. I know there is no arguing with him when he’s this determined. Damen gives in to me and what I want a lot, but when it comes to the business, or my safety, there’s no moving him. I could cry at the thought of telling Stella she’ll have to leave, but I also know Damen is right. It would be dangerous having her stay here. I trust her, she’s my best friend, but a journalist? In a house full of cartel members? Not going to work.

  “Why don’t we let her have our apartment in the city?” Alesso asks Damen.

  “She can’t afford a swanky place in Kolonaki; are you mad?” I huff.

  “She can if we let her stay rent-free,” Alesso says. He looks at Damen. “It needs someone to keep it looked after. She’d be safe there, what with the security we have installed in the damn place, and the fact there’s a doorman on the entrance, and we’d have a house sitter, until we decide what to do with it.”

  He grins then, pleased with himself clearly. “It’s a win-win situation.”

  Damen shrugs. “Fi
ne by me.”

  “Really?” I ask, looking between them both.

  Damen gives a dip of his head and smiles at me. “Really. Now come here and thank me properly.”

  Alesso makes a disgusted groaning noise and walks away, pulling the door closed behind him as I sink into my husband’s embrace, relishing the familiar scent of him as he kisses me.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Damen

  I’ve been out of the hospital for over a month now, and the contractors we hired were as good as Alesso’s contact said, because the three apartments in one of the older garage blocks are ready for the Spetsnaz guys to move into.

  We’re building a compound here, and we need to. I haven’t told Maya, not sure yet if I should or not, but I’ve had some disturbing intel. The slug, Yannis Pappas, has indeed retreated, and it seems as if the Nyx are done with him for now, but he’s been seen with Spiros. What the younger Pappas and Maya’s ex-father are cooking up together, I have no idea. I never thought the threat would go away, but I had hoped it would die down for a good long while.

  I still don’t think Yannis will make a move at the moment. He’s metaphorically licking his wounds, but the fact he’s meeting with Spiros at all has me on edge. Both Yannis and Costas have been loose cannons for a long time. Costas because he was frankly a drug addict with no self-control, and Yannis because he’s a sociopath. Where other men rightly fear us, Yannis seems to enjoy baiting us. He’s like a kid poking a hornet’s nest. He pokes, we stir; he backs off, then comes at us again when we’ve calmed down. I’m not fooled into thinking he’ll leave well enough alone.

  I’m a patient man. In the military, I spent days on end in a hole in the ground, watching and waiting for the perfect moment. I can watch and wait with these fuckers for as long as it takes for the right moment to get them when they least expect it.

  As long as Maya is safe, I’m happy; and she never steps foot outside this front door without her guards.

  So…we build our little army, and we live as if we’re under siege. This is our life now.

  Today, the ex-Navy Seal that Alesso has recruited into our little gang, Nicholas Brademas, or Cole as he goes by, is coming in to talk with me and Alesso. Markos is watching over my wife and making sure she’s safe as she goes about her business.