LEFT BEHIND

Chapter 37

Andrea was stressed. She paced back and forth in her room rummaging through her brain for any way out of the situation she had gotten stuck in.

Alessandro would know she was alive. He already hated the American mafia but would he hate them more if he knew Andrea was in charge? He could start a war. Surely she would win and they both knew that but hate had driven people to do stupid things.

Hate had driven her mother to killing her father. Hate had driven her brother's to make her hate herself. Hate had driven Sofia to have Liam killed. Hate was a powerful emotion. It was strong enough to fill you up and swallow you whole. There was no escaping hate. Once you let it in it would consume you. It would control you.

Andrea wanted to hate her brother's. She wanted to hate them so bad. They deserved her hate. But she couldn't. No matter how much she disliked them she couldn't bring herself to hate them. She found it easier to hate herself. It was easier for her to take the blame than to hate them.

Once you hated yourself it was almost impossible to stop. As much as she wanted to say she knew she wasn't at fault for her father's death there was always that voice. That small voice chirping in her ear telling her she was the problem. She was the reason. She was the reason her brother's grew up without a mother or a father. So was it even fair for her to hate them? Was it fair for her to blame them when she was the cause? She so badly wanted to say yes but she couldn't. For 9 years Andrea had been told she was the reason. A decade of trauma couldn't be undone in a couple of years.

Andrea let out a groan of frustration flopping back onto her bed rubbing her eyes. She was exhausted. Suddenly her phone started ringing. She picked it up with another groan before putting it to her ear.

"Talk," she said coldly making the guard on the other side gulp in fear. Andrea wasn't in the mood for conversation.

"All of Sofia's men have been taken care of." The guard said as his voice trembled with fear.

"Good make sure there are no survivors and clean up the bodies. Send a couple back to Sofia as a warning." Andrea said but just as she was a out to hang up she stopped putting the phone back to her ear. "Actually just send her six heads." She said coldy making the guard quickly comply and end the phone call.

Andrea had never forgotten the head of the six guards Sofia had sent her. She had been sending monthly payments to their families anonymously as a way to make up for it. But It never would. You simply couldn't put a price on human life.

Meanwhile Alessandro was panicking. His youngest brother's had been kidnapped then he had been sent a random location. Safe to say he was terrified. He had only checked his phone three hours after Leo had sent a signal immediately sending his thoughts into overdrive. Alessandro had spiraled down to the deepest depths of his brain. He was sinking into pools of darkness and he wouldn't be able to surface until he had his brothers back.

The Romano brother's had lost enough. They didn't need any more death.

Alessandro drove like a mad man through the streets of America. Emilio sat in the passenger seat just as scared as Alessandro. The American mafia was powerful. If they wanted to they could destroy the Italian mafia. The American mafia had always been powerful but in the last five years their power had skyrocketed.

As for why they hadn't even touched the Italians the brothers didn't know why. They were always on edge waiting for the Americans to strike. It made no sense. They were strong enough to do alot of damage so why hadn't they done anything. The Italians hadn't heard as much as a peep from the Americans in five years. That alone terrified them.

Alessandro drove into a large parking lot as he had been instructed to go to the very top. He failed to understand why the Americans were just returning his brothers but he figured it obviously was some sort of trick. Perhaps they were chipped. Maybe they had some sort of mic. God knows. But it was definitely strange that the Americans were simply handing them over.