Mafia Princess Read online

  "Claire what kind of dressing does Marc like on his salad?"

  Claire scoffed into her wine glass. Swallowing her mouthful, she smacked her lips together. "Marco hasn't eaten a salad in years, the man's diet is atrocious."

  "Aren't you meant to be the one making sure he eats healthy?" Alexis muttered under her breath. She'd never really liked Claire. Apparently when she was a baby, whenever Claire came near her Alexis would start screaming. Over the years it became obvious that Claire had the same aversion to her, though if what Alexis overheard was anything to go by then Claire's aversion was to their entire family.

  Claire was too involved in her wine to be paying attention but Carmen was all ears. While she agreed with her daughter's snide remark, she still sent Alexis a warning look. "Lex can you get a plate for the doctor. We can't send him home on an empty stomach, now can we?"

  ◆◆◆

  The rest of that first night passed without incident. Marco and Dr Lee ate. They got Marco set up in one of the spare bedrooms where Claire eventually passed out as well. The next morning Alexis thought about how it was a good thing Marco didn't need anything during the night since Claire was too drunk to have been any help to him.

  Damian woke up the next morning, a few hours later than Claire had predicted. At Alexis' insistence they had moved him into her room. He didn't say a word when he opened his eyes, just took in his surroundings, saw his cousin sitting at her desk and remembered the night before. He remembered his dad bleeding and his mum swearing. He remembered hovering in the doorway wanting to know what was going on. Then he remembered his mum giving him some chocolate milk, but it tasted weird, and then he remembered nothing.

  Alexis got up from her desk chair and made her way to Damian in the same way she would approach a scared animal. Not wanting to break the silence until he did, she just reached out to him, her arms wide. He didn't wait for her to close the distance, instead getting up from the bed and closing it himself. The cousins wrapped their arms around each other. Maybe if they held each other tight enough, for long enough, all the bad stuff that had happened in the last twelve hours, all the risks that came with their family name, maybe, just maybe, it would all go away.

  They might've been there for minutes or hours. Alexis wasn't letting go until Damian did, but when he did, she knew that it was time to take him to his dad. Gently taking his hand in hers, Alexis led Damian from her room and downstairs to the living room where his dad was resting watching morning talk shows.

  The look on Damian's face when he saw his dad, alive and more or less well, almost broke Alexis' heart. She knew exactly how that look felt because she'd felt it a dozen times before. His hand slipped from hers, and in a split second he was across the room and flying into his father's arms. Marco didn't even flinch. From where Alexis stood she could see Damian's shoulders start to shake.

  It was time for her to leave them alone.

  From what she'd gathered the night before, this was the first time that Marco had ever been injured like that. There had been a few minor scrapes and close calls, but nothing that he hadn't been able to hide. She sometimes thought that it was because her dad never sent his baby brother on any jobs that he thought were too dangerous.

  ◆◆◆

  Over the next week Alexis continued to share her room with Damian while his parents slept downstairs. Zio Marco was moving around on his own now but with a considerable limp. Damian spent his waking hours waiting on his father hand and foot. Zia Claire on the other hand spent her waking hours sipping on mimosas before noon and glasses of white wine from lunch until... well whenever she ended up passing out. On more than one occasion she'd heard her dad muttering under his breath about Zia Claire being a lush.

  All in all it was a pretty nice visit.

  Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to last.

  Damian had been having nightmares every night, it was only one and always the same. He wouldn't tell Alexis what it was about and she didn't mention that he talked in his sleep. Neither of them mentioned it to their parents.

  Alexis had started staying up until the nightmare ran its course. She would calm Damian down when he woke up, reassure him that everything was okay and then rub circles on his back until he fell asleep again. Only then would she lay down on the other side of the bed and let herself sleep.

  That night though, it was different. They'd gone to bed later than normal and had spent a few more hours talking through the early hours. Damian had just started to toss and turn and make panicked noises in his sleep. Any moment now he would start calling out for his dad.

  Out of nowhere there was a loud banging. It didn't wake Damian, but Alexis was suddenly on high alert. Shouts from outside had her flying from the bed to the window. Throwing open the curtains she instantly noticed the flashing lights. Looking down she saw they were coming from police cars on the street. They were everywhere.

  More shouting.

  More banging.

  "Zio Marco," Alexis breathed. That first night she had asked if those men were going to come after him, she'd never thought to ask if the police would be.

  Racing to the bed she shook Damian awake. He was instantly alert, his eyes wide with fear.

  "Stay quiet and stay behind me," Alexis instructed Damian who gave her a single nod of confirmation. With that she moved to the bedroom door and eased it open. The shouting was clearer now.

  "Police! Anthony Angelo we have a warrant! Open up!"

  Her heart felt like it was trying to beat its way out of her chest. She didn't dare look back at Damian now.

  "Carmen, get the kids." Her dad came rushing from her parent’s bedroom, her mum hot on his heels. "I'm coming, I'm coming! Hold your horses!" He made quick work of the locks, only hesitating on the last one to look over his shoulder and up at the landing. Alexis stared back at him, barely registering that her mum had made it to her and Damian, pulling them both against her.

  Then he undid the last lock.

  The door burst open nearly knocking him over.

  Men in uniforms and vests rushed through the open doorway. Guns drawn. Alexis hoped they had the safety on.

  "Where's Marco Angelo?" a man with a moustache wearing dress pants and a button up shirt under his vest asked her dad.

  "Where's your warrant?" he asked in return.

  As if anticipating the question, the man was already pulling out a folded piece of paper from his back pocket.

  While her dad and the man had their standoff, the other police officers spread through the house. At least a dozen of them had come through the front door, most of them dispersed through the rooms on the ground floor but three started climbing the stairs. Her mum immediately pulled herself and Damian behind her, backing them all into the corner of the landing.

  Did she really think the officers were going to hurt them?

  One of them broke off from the other two who kept going up the hall, checking each bedroom as they went. The one who stayed back gestured down the stairs.

  "Ma’am, please take the children downstairs."

  Until the officer spoke Alexis hadn't been able to tell if they were men or women due to their bulky equipment and the masks and fabric covering their faces. They didn't need to be told twice and followed the female officer's request.

  "Where's my dad?" Damian whispered to her as they made their way down the stairs. Alexis merely shrugged, not wanting to give any information to the police before they discovered it themselves. If she had to guess though, Zio Marco was still passed out in bed. He'd had to take some strong painkillers the night before.

  Tony watched as his wife herded Alexis and Damian to the couch. She didn't let go of the children, and she never stopped watching the officers as they searched the house. They both knew it wouldn't take them long to find Marco. If they had been honest with themselves from the beginning, this moment was coming as soon as he showed up at their front door. Tony loved his baby brother, but he wasn't meant for this life.

  The problem with Mar
co was that he always tried so hard to keep up with his older brothers. All of them followed in their father's footsteps, and as the eldest, it fell to Tony to take up the mantle of Mafioso should their father step down or die. The girls were never expected to stay in the Family business. The boys though, it was expected of them. It was a path that Marco should never have been forced to walk.

  "What is it exactly that you suspect my brother of doing, Detective Smith?"

  "I think the shorter answer is what we don't suspect him of being involved in Mr Angelo. Now please, take a seat with your family."

  He resisted the urge to spit at the detective’s feet. It wasn't the first time this house had been subject to a police raid. It was however the first time that Alexis had been home when it happened, and for that he was angry. His bambina shouldn't have to witness this.

  On the other hand, maybe it was good that she was seeing this, the bad side of the Family business. He'd noticed how interested she was becoming in his work and everything that went along with it. He'd tried his best to shield her over the years from the worst of it, but perhaps it was time that she saw it. It might squash whatever desires she was having to follow in his footsteps.

  Not that he'd ever allow that to happen to begin with.

  "Detective! We've found him!"

  Five minutes. It had taken them five minutes to find his baby brother, still in bed and dead to the world. They probably searched every nook and cranny on the way. There were only so many rooms down that hallway.

  ◆◆◆

  Alexis could do nothing but listen as Zio Marco woke from his drug induced slumber and started swearing. It sounded like Zia Claire managed to wake up quickly, and her subsequent screaming probably hurt the neighbour's dog's ears.

  Damian tried to leap from the couch to his parents yells but was held back by Alexis and her mum. It broke her heart to do it. Alexis knew that if she was in his position, all she would want to do was run to her parents, to do everything she could to protect them. She also knew that there was nothing that could be done now.

  She heard the detective reading Zio Marco his rights, only interrupted by Zia Claire's abuse once. One of the other officers must have restrained her after that.

  Zio Marco was then frogmarched down the hall and into the living room. His face was grim and his shoulders pushed back. It looked like he was trying his best not to limp. He truly had the Angelo pride.

  Alexis' eyes started to sting and she realised that they were filling with tears. She didn't notice when she reached up to wipe away the tears running down her cheek, that she had also let go of Damian.

  Taking his chance, Damian burst from between his cousin and aunt and ran for his dad. Ducking around the officers in front, Damian wrapped his arms around his dad's waist, burying his tear stained face into his belly. It was then that Alexis saw her uncle truly break. His arms strained behind his back against the cuffs, his entire body yearning to embrace his son.

  One officer stepped forward as if to pull Damian away, but a look from Detective Smith stopped him in his tracks. The detective stepped forward himself and whispered in Marco's ear, who gave a sharp nod in response.

  Marco did his best to move smoothly towards the closet armchair, which was made even more difficult by the ten-year-old attached to his abdomen. Eventually Damian realised what was happening and helped his dad sit down and stood in front of him.

  "Damo, I need you to listen to me very carefully, okay? I love you, son. More than anything, I love you. Your mum likes to think she's tough, but she's going to need you, alright? Be strong for me bambino, be strong for her." Damian just wrapped his arms around his dad's neck.

  "I love you too, daddy."

  Alexis could feel her heart shattering just watching the exchange. Imagining herself and her dad in their places was just too easy.

  "Alexis."

  She locked eyes with her uncle, not expecting him to address her at all.

  "Look after my boy okay?"

  She could only nod and wonder at the cruel twist the morning had taken. Damian had no sooner woken up from one nightmare to be faced with another one that was all too real.

  Chapter 2

  A vibration against her thigh pulled Alexis from her memories. Two weeks after her uncle had been arrested a number of things started. His trial for one. Damian started year five, for two. And thirdly, she started high school.

  Damian only stayed at school for a total of three hours before his mum was called to pick him up.

  Alexis had lasted even less time than that. The first kid who mentioned her uncle in some derogatory way got a bloody nose for his trouble. She didn't wait to hear whatever smartass thing his friend had to say, she just kept swinging. She was suspended for a week. The kid who taunted her got no punishment, but she had sent a clear message. It didn't matter that her parents banned her from fighting at school for those kinds of reasons.

  Very few were brave or stupid enough to try the same thing again.

  Damian had ended up going back to school after a few days. The principle had stepped in and called an assembly for the whole year group, informing them that whatever happened with a student's parents was not to be used as fodder for schoolyard rumours and bullying.

  Alexis had known even then that Zio Marco had done something illegal and gotten caught. That was his fault. No one loved him any more or less because of it, except maybe Zia Claire. Damian shouldn't be paying for his crimes though.

  Looking around subtly, she made sure that none of the teachers scattered throughout the gymnasium were looking at or near her before pulling out her phone.

  8.42 - Try and checkout the guy in front of me to the left, so hot!!! Jessica.

  Jessica was Alexis' most fashion orientated friend. She also knew a hot guy when she saw on. Truth be told, their year group was severely lacking in the hot guy department. Looking around the gymnasium where her friends sat scattered, separated into their different houses and years, Alexis finally found Jessica’s dirty blonde, perfectly curled hair. Barely.

  She was on the aisle, two houses over. Alexis leaned forward to try and get a look at the people around Jess. In front, to the left.

  He was tall. Maybe. It was hard to tell for two reasons. The first being that he was sitting down and the second, just because she could tell that he was taller than Jess didn’t actually mean anything. Jess stood at a tiny five feet two inches. Alexis had ten-year old cousins taller than Jess. Then again, Alexis herself was only five foot eight so there was a good chance he was taller than her. She liked tall guys.

  Leaning forward bit by bit, Alexis tried to get a glimpse at the possibly tall, brunette’s face. Now if the guy blocking her view of the new guy could also lean forward, she’d have a clear-ish view of the right side of his face. A cough off to her right caught Alexis’ attention. Glancing to the side, she sat up straight and gave the tired looking teacher one of her classic guilty smiles.

  Finally, the assembly came to an end and they were dismissed. Picking up her chair, Alexis tried lingering in the foyer but Mrs Rauser, the Head of the Math Department, old and royal pain in the ass, narrowed her steely gaze on Alexis.

  Talking to Jessica could wait.

  Dropping the chair off inside her homeroom, Alexis grabbed the books she'd left in there for her second period class and started across the school. There were plenty of faces that she hadn't seen since the end of the previous year, most of which she couldn't say she had actually missed. The majority of her class mates were nice enough, but they'd never stay friends once they graduated. The only thing holding most of these friendships together was this academic hell which they were all stuck in.

  Someone much taller than Alexis, dropped their arm around her shoulders. Looking up at one of the only people who would willingly invade her personal space, Alexis smiled at Seth. He was six feet tall, blonde and still carried some baby fat. He was cute.

  "Meet me in our spot at lunch?" He made it sound like a question, but she
knew better. It was a demand and Alexis just rolled her eyes.

  "Lex, it's good to see you. You too Seth, it's been like three whole days since you've annoyed me. How you been?" she mocked.

  "You know, all that sarcasm of yours is going to get you in trouble one day," his brown eyes narrowing playfully at her.

  "Haven't you heard? I live for trouble." It was the joking boast of someone who'd watched too much television over the summer holidays.