No Strings Attached

CHAPTER 17

Alessio hums, his eyes on the almost empty glass of whisky.

"Oh Lea's here, bye boys," Issy chirps up, pinching my cheek before running as fast as her heels will allow her to greet Azalea.

"Is there a point to us being here?" I ask in a bored tone, sitting down at a chair in our table. "You tell me, you're the fucking Don," Alessio yawns, taking a seat beside me.

"A hundred bucks Anastasia is here," he suddenly says, "She's not going to be here," I scowl.

"It's been a month, she's bound to hit soon," Alessio shrugs, shooting down the rest of his whisky.

"And surrounded by so many people it's the perf- oh hello," he cuts himself off as he looks down, his tone becoming more friendly.

I look down at what he's looking at and am amused to see a kid standing up using Alessio's leg as support.

He looks no older than a year, much too young to be wandering around alone, especially among this group of people.

"Where's your Mommy, kid?" Alessio asks, and I smile at how soft his tone becomes. The boy giggles and claps his hands, his little suit sliding over his hands.

Alessio laughs as he pulls the kids sleeves up, clapping along with him.

The boy giggles again and sways lightly, causing Alessio to put a steady hand on the kid's side. "Watch yourself there buddy," he says softly, resting a steady hand on his back as the kid continues to hang on tightly to my brothers pants.

"Fucking hell Samuel," I hear someone mutter, and I turn to see a flustered girl walking over to us and swoop up with child. The boy squeals and his chubby hands tangle in her hair, pulling at it as she winces and delicately removes her son's hands.

"I'm so sorry he was bothering you," she says politely, and I don't miss the way Alessio's eyes light up when she speaks to him.

"He wasn't bothering us at all, was he Enzo?" Alessio smiles warmly, not giving me time to reply before he stands up and offers his hand to the girl, "Alessio De Santis," he says kindly, grinning as the girl blushes.

"Izaria Verity," the girl replies, shaking Alessio's hand, "And this is my son Samuel," she smiles, looking affectionately at the boy in her arms.

"We've already met, haven't we Sammy?" Alessio winks at Izaria as he gently shakes Samuel's hand. The boy squeals in excitement and claps his hands together, his soft eyes fixated on my brother.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" a drawling American accent grits out, and I immediately stand up as I recognise it to be Ryan Walker's.

He walks over to us and Alessio's eyes narrow as he watches Izaria's body stiffen, her arm coming up to shelter Samuel's face as she watches the angry man.

"Samuel was just bothering these people, I was simply getting him," she says in a pleasant voice, her eyes glaring at Walker. His eyes rake down her body and her smile falters for a moment.

"My fault, really Walker," Alessio says coldly, "I was just making conversation with Izaria," he defends the girl as Walker places a stiff arm around her.

Samuel's little smile falls as he sees his father, burying his face into his Mother's shoulder as he clings on tightly to her dress.

"She should know better than that," Walker growls, and I clear my throat, "We have more people to meet, we'll talk later," I say coldly, wanting to leave and spare Izaria from anymore of this. We're obviously just making things worse for the poor girl.