When I eventually pulled back into the driveway of my mansion at quarter to midnight from speeding to escape the thunderstorm that seemed to have settled itself along the coast of Italy and was sending sparks of purple lightning across the sky above my home. Looking out of the window of my car I looked to the house and noticed that the lights of the home had been mostly shut off and lamp light glowed from the the living room, and one of the far East bedrooms. Aria's. There were other rooms that wouldn't ever be dark in my house but I had found it interesting that Aria who had no reason to have any bond to me at all had remained up.
She was too good a woman for me to pure for the kind of man that I was. How long would it be before she went to her family and begged to have the marriage nullified, how many times would I come home with blood on my hands or on my clothing before she realized I was nothing but a cold hearted killer. I was the Don of the most powerful Mafia in the world, and I took no prisoners, and never allowed anyone to even question my power or authority. Aria had seen me shoot a man for insulting her, and her family. I struggled to tell her how I felt about anything except through kissing her, and now fucking her. I wasn't a good man, and I knew it. I just didn't think she saw it.
Parking I got out of the car and walked towards the front door of my home which as I opened a brown and white flash slammed into me, and wrapped around my middle. I'd have pulled a knife or a gun had I not known it was Aria, then I noticed the exchanged looks between Lino and Carmilla, both confused, and I wanted to know why.
"What is it?" I demand as Aria placed her face into my chest.
"She's been on the couch crying, and we didn't want to disturb her," Carmilla says, and the same aggravated worry shot through me.
"Why the fuck not, your job is to keep her from feeling distressed, and make her feel safe," I snap while putting an arm around Aria's tiny frame, which was when I felt the dampness on my shirt, and the shaking of her body.
"Boss, she asked for you," Lino said and I turned my attention from Aria to my personal bodyguard.
"Calling me was an option, I would have come back here," I say glowering at the two people I'd entrusted Aria with for less then a day, and in that time she'd laid on the couch and cried.
Lifting her into my arms I carried her upstairs and down the hallway my steps long and echoing slightly on the hardwood floors as I stared down at Aria who was still clung to me.
"It's not Carmilla, or Lino's fault," Aria says looking up at me and I stare back at her taking in her beauty, and the red blotches on her face from the salt of her tears.
"Then what caused you to cry Arianna?" I ask and she looks away an embarrassed expression on her face as I lay her down on her bed and went to let go of her but she insisted on holding my arm, on not letting me go.
"I'm afraid of thunderstorms," she mumbles not meeting my eyes as she answered my question. She looked like she expected me to laugh, to make fun of her for it but I simply tugged my arm free much to her dismay before wrapping her in a blanket and lifting her into my arms.
"Then I have a solution," I say turning and carrying her back out of the room across the house without a word until I got to my door and pushed it open with the toe of my shoe. I then wordlessly carried her to my bed and lay her there on the pillow I never used before crossing the room to shut the door.
Under Aria's gaze I then disappeared into my closet and picked out a pair of comfy pants to wear instead of just in boxers like I would if she wasn't in my bed fully dressed. Reemerging after a moment I walked to the bed and slipped under my covers before pulling Arianna to me.
I had no words, I wouldn't have been able to say anything if I did. I wanted her to be safe with me and saying anything would ruin that I'd done the gesture at all.
"You didn't have to do this," she whispers next to me, "and you need to apologize to Carmilla and Lino for how you spoke to them," Aria adds with a stern look though being cocooned in a blanket didn't help at all to make her anything but mildly annoyed in appearance.
"I'm their Don, they have to listen to me, and Lino, and Carmilla are my staff. I still trust them, though I wish they asked how they could have helped," I say without much emotion in my voice, and not from my lack of caring, more that I hadn't had any wish to be awake much longer, and I wasn't willing to get into it with Aria.
"For me will you please at least talk to them about what to do in the future, which would be to play a noise that cancels out the thunder, or get you," she says and I hum in response.
"Why do I fix your fear?" I ask knowing that I hadn't ever felt consoled or comforted by anyone. Ever no one was meant to comfort a boy in the world I grew up in. You were either strong, and would make a good made man, or weak and a waste to the Familia. So now here I was two decades after my father had first beat me to make me strong. He'd told my siblings and I that reliance was a weakness, and yet the irony of it was it took my siblings and I to kill him and take over everything he'd ever done.
"Because with you I'm safe, nothing will hurt me when I'm with you," Aria says and I simply move her hair to cup the side of her face.
"That's because I am the man I am," I say, "there is little good in me, and somehow you have it all to yourself".
She nodded slowly though her expression didn't seem completely believing like she thought I hadn't noticed something about myself.
What hadn't I noticed, I was me, and fairly self aware.
"I don't think that's true, but I won't protest," Aria says resting her face against my chest right over my heart. A soft smile grazed her lips as she lay there breathing in and out, right before a loud crack sounded outside as lightning and thunder shook the sky. Her small frame wrapped tighter around me like it was an instinct and I held her closer not that it was really possible because of how we were laying.
"Alessio, why are you and Matteo so close when Antonio was born after you not Matteo?" Aria asks as another lightning strike cracks across the sky outside.
"Antonio and I are close, all of the Salvatorini Family are. Just Matteo had always been the one father thought would be the weakest. Matteo and I are so close because he and I were the ones Father liked to pick to beat, the bastard and the weakling," I say bitterly as I stared at the ceiling.
"Aren't you and Matteo the most powerful men in Italy?" Aria points out and I nod.
"Yes, but our world demands that of us, we have to be, as Consigliere, and Underboss my brother ensures that the Familia is controlled by our family. It's been our dynasty for two hundred years after all," I say glancing back at my Fiancé.
"And our world demands just as much willingness of me to be subservient to you as it does for you to be the Don of the Familia," Aria says.
"I know, and in public is still must be that way, but here in this house when it is just us. Leniency is allowed," I say noticing Aria's eyes light up at my words.
I intended to remain the man of honour that I was, I may have been the most brutal of the Salvatorini Family but I was also the noblest of my brothers. Antonio though was definitely the most relaxed of us, he was the family's stability and it showed when his other five siblings were who we were.
"What about around Lino, and Carmilla?" she asks and I pause.
"That's the middle ground, we have to keep how we behave cautious but we can still be ourselves. They are bound to see us together around the house. But with my Capo's and Underbosses we keep the traditional image," I say, "but you never have to worry about me taking you whenever I please, like in other arranged marriages," I muse as Aria rolled onto me and considering that she was thirty kilos lighter then me I barely noticed.
"Is that why you have final say in the unions of your soldiers?" Aria asks and I nod.
"Every Familia deals with things differently, but I require that a higher ranked Made Member agree to the wedding going forwards, and it changes over time, I'd have certain traditions thrown out if I could," I admit and once again Aria makes a noise of acknowledgment.
"Women get used in this world as bargaining chips for their families," Aria says almost as if she'd spoken a thought that had weighed heavy on her, and I had a suspicion of if she thought she'd been one.
"I didn't say yes to marrying you for my benefit Arianna, if that's what you're wondering," I say negating that I'd be the Don of all Familia's, as a part of the deal between my Familia and her's which I suspected had been apart of the Tommaso's intrusion on the territory. I wasn't bothered by the Valentino's I'd openly wanted to meet with them once more before the wedding to discuss simply having them keep their territory while neutral and Tommaso territory would become apart of Salvatorini controlled areas.
Daniele had been someone I longed to put an end too. One of my Capo's could become the regent of that area and I wouldn't even question their loyalty to me. The Tommaso Familia was also known for being the most reclusive but they were also mass exporting drugs out of the country and I would have loved to put an end to it, along with the fact Aria was cousins with Daniele was a sore spot for me.
I couldn't hide that I would be taking over Italy from Aria forever but I could about what happened to Daniele.
"To some degree you had to, it unified Valentino with Salvatorini. That means peace with my Familia," Aria says softly and I nod.
"I guess that's true," I exhale, "now go to sleep, you need sleep".
The smile that followed made me regret that I would be keeping my plans a secret from Aria, but for the sake of my personal desires that was the best choice, especially for the area I wished to hold dominion over.
That's the chapter completed I'm proud of myself for completing this. Comment your thoughts, and vote and share. Anyways
Peace✌️