ALESSANDRO: Book 3 of The De Luca Brothers Series [COMPLETED]

27:

The ropes tied around my wrists snap, I slip the small blade back into my sleeve as I work on the knot around my waist, before moving to the ones around my ankles. I stand up abruptly and untie Leone from his seat, making sure to not speak, mainly because there's nothing to say. What am I supposed to do? Tell him everything's going to be okay? Since it isn't. If it's really true about Elena being his mother, then this could destroy the gang if they find out.

He stands up in a daze, a lot on his mind as I'm already walking to the door removing two grips from the depths of my frizzy hair. I crouch down, pick-locking the lock with ease whilst trying to figure out how to get that latch open. An idea sparks in my head as I turn around to look at Alessandro's shoes. Trainers.

"Do you have a removable insole on those?"

He looks at me with utter confusion, "Uh, yeah, why?"

"Let me see," I usher.

He gives me a bewildered look before slowly slipping off his expensive shoes. I pick them up and hold my breath in exaggeration, noticing from the corner of my eye how he rolls his. I take out the insole and pass him the shoe, "Put it back on."

He nods and does as he's told whilst watching me curiously. I slip the insole through the gap of the door beneath the latch before lifting it up, pulling the edge of the door to open it.

I glance at Alessandro and raise my brows in question. He nods for me to continue; I slip the small sleeve blade into my grasp before peeling left and right outside the doorway.

A long, dank and damp hallway is illuminated with poor quality lights, casting a yellow and dingy glow to the walkway. Doors like mine align either side of the walls, some muttering and moaning can be heard through each; pained, sickly. God knows what's happening in each of them. The floors are carpeted and the wallpaper is pealing- however I recognise these walls from anywhere.

"Tilia's Hotel," I mumble.

"Huh?"

"This is an abandoned hotel outside the city... a perfect place for them to set up base. These latches are newer, they added them themselves," I whisper.

"Ok," he nods. "We need to go."

"Wait," I stop him and indicate the noise. "Do you think they're ours?"

Leone nods, "Yes. Yes I do."

"Can we get them?"

"Not now, too dangerous," he closes his eyes as if hurting before opening them again. "We'll come back."

"I know we will," I say as I quietly shut the door and put the latch on, pocketing he insole in my dad's jacket. "Let's go"

We take the stairs leading down, staying silent and slow, like shadows, sticking to the walls and keeping low. We reach the landing of the stairs where there is a door probably leading to more hotel rooms; a large, faded number '1' is painted on the side of it.

My heart clenches at the sight.

"One more level," I whisper, rounding them stairs only to bump into Russian wifey from hell.

Her eyes widen in shock and so do mine for a split second as I stare into her deep blues; a large welt puffs up her cheek and I can tell she's been crying. Her eyes darken and she reels back her arm to punch me, only Leone is quicker and lands a kick to her side. She tumbles down the concrete stairs and we hastily follow, as she hits the bottom with a sickening thud I'm their not even a second later, straddling her and pressing my knife to her throat.

"Zoe?" Comes her choked voice, staring up the stairs in surprise. "Zoe, you shouldn't be here."

"Mamma told me to find you," a little girl from the top of the stairs says. "W-what are they doing?"

"Nothing child, go back to mamma okay?" Wifey says calmly with a fake smile. "Just tell her I'm busy."

"O-okay," Zoe nods hesitantly, giving me a scared look before skipping away.

I press the knife harder on her throat, "Why didn't you get help?"

"I don't need help," she hisses as she readjusts my body, pushing me off-balance before flipping me over, manoeuvring the knife out of my grasp in one fluid motion.

Leone wraps his arm around her throat and hauls her off of me, only she jabs the knife into his forearm- he cries out. She twists his bloodied arm from her neck and flips him over her hip, sending him crashing to the floor just as I send a kick flying into her skull.

She miraculously ducks and catches my leg, twisting it that I fall to the floor in a pained heap. Alessandro removes the weapon and slashes her stomach, yet she jumps away and goes to knee him; he knocks the leg off course with his good fore-arm before plunging the knife in her stomach. She gasps and staggers backwards, letting out a small grunt as she takes out the small blade from her abdomen, holding onto the wound in utter pain. She curses us in a different language, not Russian but French.

"You're French?" I ask in amazement.

All she does is spit at us and smirks as she hears running footsteps from above, "Tick tock."

I land a heavy boot into her chest, she falls down the stairs again with a shout; Leone runs down the next flight and I follow afterwards; the muscled woman lies there unconscious, blood seeping out. We round the corner and make it to the bottom floor, '0' painted boldly next to the door. Instead of carrying on through the door, I turn to the fire exit and push the doors open, running out into the car park where multiple cars are parked.

I go to the closest vehicle, a black old truck and smash my elbow through the glass window, unlocking the car from inside meanwhile Leone rolls the heavy and full bin in front of the doors.

I slip into the driver's seat ducking beneath the dash looking for the appropriate wires, before hot wiring the vehicle into life. Leone slides into the passengers seat, slams the door shut as I pull out of the car park and head full speed back towards the city.

We sit in silence until he breaks it, "How did you know about this hotel?"

I bite my lip and focus on driving, "When my dad first died and my mother was moving us to the city, we stayed there."

"I could tell you felt pained, why?"

"It brought back memories I didn't like."

"Such as?"

"It was the first time I kill a person," I respond quietly. "He was harassing my mother, Talia's husband. So I got my butterfly knife and slit his throat whilst he lie on top of her."

He keeps quiet.

"When the police found the body, Talia said it was her who did it out of self defence. She said he tried to rape her- but in private thanked me. Turns out he was abusing her for years and was too scared to do anything, so whilst I saved her, she saved us too."

"So you saved your mum?"

"Yea," I swallow the lump in my throat. "Then she ditched me with my aunt and left me all alone for all these years before conveniently coming back into my life when I'm old enough to provide."

"Do you want to see them?"

"No," I sniff. "Never again."