SWNOVELS Chapter 30 (Aliyana)
The light from the sensors blinds me but I remain crouched behind the tree, waiting for Salvatore to walk past and signal a clear
coast. He tilts his head, and I rush down the driveway, keeping to the wall as Matteo and Cal turn the corner. 2 soldiers show up
on my right and I duck down, just in time.
After the wedding today, I was glad Papa was angry with me, and didn’t bat an eyelash when I said I was going to tell Matteo to
get me home.
The reception was the one place I wasn’t allowed as it was the Catelli’s property and Marco didn’t want me there. He was trying
to punish me, for the very thing he unknowingly helped me save, twice.
Tonight’s decision thus became easier, when defying Papa's orders didn’t consist of lying to his face.
I wait as my leg starts to burn from the uncomfortable position it is currently in. The guards move like clockwork. It isn’t a brain
teaser to figure out that they are going to the guardhouse to check the surveillance and then have a smoke. I wait for them to
enter and I keep to my haunches.
Once I get to the gate, I remain behind the bush of trees. Papa is leaving for DC tonight. He told me after announcing that Guilia
and Leonardo will leave for their honeymoon straight after the reception.
Today is exactly one week after my world came tumbling down as Marco confessed his love for me minutes after Camilla
confessed hers and sweetened it with a baby in the oven. She didn’t show today, and I want to believe it is because she is
homesick but I have no proof, and Michel neither. Camilla was living with Xander, and that was all he knew.
It is passing eight as the black BMW drives in and I rush out. The soldier, Tike Malone comes only for the evening shift. But he is
like clockwork. Which makes it easy for me as I rush out. I run down the road, my phone lighting up just in time with Michel's
name. The cold air bites through the cracks of my thin sweat shirt.
“That was easy enough,” I say moving closer toward the car, phone on speaker.
“We should get you a doppelganger,” Gabriel yells from the car.
“We should, maybe one that would stay locked up for days,” I muse, with a wistfulness, as I say back into the phone shaking my
head as I rush down the road. I see them parked in the 4 door ML and I run toward it. The bright Victorian style mansion they are
parked in front of are full of cars. And the noise could be heard all the way down the driveway as I near them. Which is a sign
that whoever’s party it is, the place is blasting. The front door is pushed open, and I grab the top edge of the car door and hop in.
I put my phone on the small section in-between the heated seats as Gabriel ends the call. Reversing out, he puts the car in drive
as I clip on my seatbelt.
“Thanks for organizing the jet, I just spoke to Rosco, he said he’ll meet us in Liston Hills.” I stare at Gabriel, and his eyes light up
in a way that has my stomach knotting at the thought of what we would be doing tonight. Yes, tonight our lives are going to
change drastically.
“Anytime Liya, though we should find out what the fuck is going on first with Mero before we move him,” He voices loud earning
him negative points for bringing it up. Because questioning Mero is not going to be easy and beating a friend up would suck.
“What did you two get up to while I was trying to escape Fortnox?”
“We stopped by that new strip joint in town. Saw your father’s guy. That old man that drives your ass to school when Di Salvo is
MIA.” Michel points out from the back. I can smell the different cologne. Michel wears faint, but strong scents, and Gabriel always
goes for a softer scent, Dunhill blue. Which he has worn since he was 15.
“Jere?”
“Yeah, we offered to get him a drink but he didn't want to socialize with us young ones,” Michel carries on as Gabriel chuckles
keeping his eyes on the road.
The smell of his cologne is constant in the car but not overbearing.
It is just there.
But that could just be my imagination making something out of nothing, like the moments I catch him looking at Kylie, thinking he
might be thinking of what it would be like to kiss her lips. Gabriel has never seemed like the type who would go for someone like
Kylie. But I see the way he watches her.
Or the times when Salvatore has walked into my house and found me painting, and his eyes showed me places I might've
considered entering if it wasn’t for the fact that the Catelli brothers have both been the end of the arrow of my affections. Cupid
has not taken a kind liking toward me when it comes to love. And both times have ended with a Catelli playing the leading role.
I should admit as I look at Gabriel driving while Michel begins ironing out our plan that with Marco it was love, a mild feeling of
wanting something that just couldn’t be mine even though it was given to me on a platter. When it came to Leonardo it was just
infatuation. A sense of wanting something I knew would never be mine.
Sometimes we are drawn to the things we cannot reach. I think with both of them I fell, too hard for the idea of what could be and
forgot what was.
Which was nothing in Leonardo’s case, and in Marco’s, it was a young girl having foolish thoughts, believing that he, of all could
love a woman like me. Because even though he has confessed his love, that love comes with a price, of someone else’s life.
The heat from the car is low enough that my ass is warm and my legs are not jittering.
“I can’t believe that guy Jere didn’t want to hang with us. Can’t get over that shit.”
“You were trying to hump his girl,” Gabriel informs Michel as he accelerates and I take the paper Mero hands to me.
“I was trying to sit nicely. I'm a big man.” Michel defends, which is true.
He is huge. His muscles look fake but I know they are real. I heard last month he started training for his first cage fight. I always
thought Mero would be the fighter since he was always training, not Michel. There is a lot of money involved in the underground
rings, and one business that is shared amongst Bratva, Irishman, and the Famiglia.
I was going to watch it with Papa and Filippo. They even put money on Michel saying that he was going to win. I didn't doubt it
one bit.
“Big or not, you were all over that girl. Couldn't blame you, that ass looked tight, you should work on your game though,”
Gabriel’s strait-laced tone has me smiling. The map in my hand shows a red line, I see faintly in the cars dim lights.
“Tight ass, nice big boobs, fuck, can't believe that bitch is his wife.” Michel makes a sound of frustration and I laugh. I have seen
Lynnette; she is a mother of two boys but at 35-years-old, she looks way better than most of the girls on campus.
“Not as tight as Rissa,” Gabriel says as Michel and I make gagging noises.
Teresa Palmer aka Rissa is Gabriel's girlfriend from Campus. She's a 2nd year in Actuary Science. Blue eyes, carrot red hair,
sweet smile, and as he so nicely put it, great ass.
Gabriel is young and has a good four years or more before his family would consider marrying him off and even then, he is a
man so he can date whoever he pleases. Fidelity is like winning the full lottery in our world, far too rare to even consider it.
Though it exists in some marriages.
“How long do you think it will take to get Mero out of there?”
“Without any hitches, I say 20 minutes max. Once he gets to the plane we can get him to Barfa in an hour without anyone
seeing. Sabastian Delroy will be the one driving, apparently the guy is a really good driver.” Michel says all seriousness.
“And I hope you are wrapping it before you tapping Rissa. Don't want your uncle ringing someone's neck ‘cause his nephew got
a red head pregnant, that man scares the fuck out of me,” Michel says.
“Always,” Gabriel answers loud and clear.
“Are we almost ready to go?” I ask seeing him drive straight and not turn on to the highway.
His smile is slow, I can taste the glee in the air.
It is infectious.
“As ready as we can, considering we are about to piss off a lot of people.”