Signed To The Mafia King - Chapter 65: Chapter 65

ALINA
I hated this.
I hated that we had to do it.
I hated that we couldn’t tell her the plan. I hated that I had to be the one to sit in front of Valerie and ask her if she was willing to walk back into hell.
But there was no other way. Luca and I had come up with a plan while driving back home. And we knew it would work. We hoped it would.
She sat across from me, her hands fisted on the armrests of the chair like she was preparing for an impact. She looked like she had that moment before Riot slapped her outside the club.
I didn’t waste time. It was better to quickly rip the band aid off. “What do you think about getting your son back if you go back home?”
Her lips clenched painfully as she bit it. “I want him back.” Her voice was shaking with fear. “But if I go back there, Riot will kill me.”
I swallowed. “You don’t know that for sure.”
She laughed dryly, looking away. “Yes, I do.”
Luca stood against the wall, silent. Watching. He looked like an angel of war. I liked having him behind me though I would never admit to it.
I leaned forward, pressing my palms together. I knew Luca had been suspicious earlier, I had heard the question in his voice though I refused to answer it. He had wanted to know why I wanted to save Valerie so much. “Do you remember me, Valerie?”
She frowned, her brows pulling together. “What?”
I licked my lips and tried again. “Do you remember what happened fifteen years ago?”
For a second, there was nothing. Then she looked angry and raw.
I sat back, stunned by the anger on her beautiful face. “You mean when your father ordered the execution of my father?” Her tone was cold enough to cut. “Yeah, I remember, but I don’t care. I just want my son back.”
I clenched my jaw. What the hell was she talking about? Her father had done wrong. “This isn't a penance.”
She laughed again bitterly. “Right.”
“My father…” I paused, but forced myself to continue. “Your father was stealing. He was selling information about the Costa family in exchange for money.”
Her glare hardened, hate shooting like lasers from her eyes. “And who told him to do that?”
I opened my mouth, but she didn’t give me a chance to respond.
“Your father,” she spat. “Your father told him to worm his way into those families and get information for him. And then he got mad when he found out my father was selling it back. He shouldn’t have done it if he couldn’t take it.”
My head felt rubbery suddenly, almost detached, like there was an empty space where my thoughts should be. I could hear it ringing.
I wanted to argue. I wanted to tell her it wasn’t true. That my father would never do something like that.
That my father was perfect, but I couldn’t say that.
Because my father had been in the Mafia. And sometimes, people in the Mafia did things that weren’t right.
Who was to say he hadn’t?
The words sat heavy in my throat, choking me, but before I could speak, Luca’s hand came down on my shoulder. A firm, silent warning.
I swallowed back everything I wanted to say.
Valerie didn’t break eye contact, her expression was still marked by fury.
I exhaled and stood. “Get dressed. We’re meeting Daniel in less than twenty minutes.”
She didn’t move. I could feel her hateful eyes on me till I stepped out of the door.
Luca was behind me.
I walked blindly, barely seeing where I was going. My thoughts were too loud, too tangled.
If my father had men who gathered information from other families, then it made sense why he had an entire diary filled with secrets about every major Mafia.
It hadn’t just been strategy, the diary had been leverage. Insurance. He had known things about them, probably things they didn’t even know he knew. That was how he had stayed ahead for so long.
And Valerie’s father?
He had become a burden when my father found out he was also selling out information on the Costa Mafia.
I pushed the thought away. There was no time for that now. I needed to get ready.
I changed quickly, pulling on dark jeans and a fitted top, yanking my hair back into a low ponytail. The whole time, my mind kept circling the same thought.
Was I doing this out of guilt? Did I feel responsible for what happened to Valerie’s family all those years ago?
No. That wasn’t it.
Valerie deserved to have someone stand up for her. Our history had nothing to do with it.
I grabbed my bag as I headed to the door. I needed a gun, I thought to myself as I walked to the door. Maybe Luca could get me one.
I had barely stepped out when Luca blocked my way. “Let me take this meeting,” he said.
Was he crazy? I didn't even bother looking at him. “No.”
I tried to step around him, but he moved with me, cutting off my path. “Alina.”
I typed a text to Pietro. “I said no.”
He plucked the phone from my hand. “You don’t have to be there.”
“Yes, I do.” I shoved past him, but he grabbed my wrist, stopping me mid-step.
I glared up at him. “Move.”
“No.”
We stared at each other, tension crackling between us.
I yanked my arm free, but he didn’t back down. “You’re too emotional right now.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not.”
My fists clenched. “Luca…”
“You’re thinking about what Valerie said.”
I wasn’t. Not anymore. I had blocked the thoughts away.
“She got into your head, and if you go into that meeting feeling guilty, you’ll say something you shouldn’t. You’ll give us away.”
I shook my head. I knew that was not good for the plan we had come up with, there was no way I would do that. “That’s not…”
He stepped closer, lowering his voice. “You’re not thinking straight. I know you.”
I lifted my leg and bang! I stomped down on his feet. Who was he to tell me how I was feeling? “I am thinking straight.”
“Really? Then why are you shaking?”
I paused. I hadn’t realized it, but my hands were shaking at my sides. I told myself it was because I was angry at Luca, and not because I was guilty for something that had happened years ago.
Luca sighed. “Let me handle it.”
I looked at him, at the set of his jaw, the determination in his eyes. He wasn’t asking. He was telling me. Anger flared in my chest.
He thought I was weak. That I couldn’t handle it.
I shoved him, hard. He barely moved, but his expression darkened. He caught my wrist again, his grip hard, but not painful. “I don’t want you ruining this, Alina.”
“I wouldn’t.”
“You would,” he said, voice dropping lower. “Because you’re too caught up in whatever you’re feeling right now.”
I yanked my hand free again, breathing hard.
I hated that he was right.
Hated that he knew me well enough to see it.
Silence stretched between us, thick with tension. My pulse was hammering, my body hot with frustration.
Luca exhaled, then nodded. “Okay. We can go now.”
I blinked. Just like that? “I can go now?”
“Yes.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Why the sudden change?”
He smirked slightly. “I want you to be angry. Not guilty.”
I stared at him.
Realization dawned slowly, then all at once.
He had pushed me on purpose. Had made me fight him, made me focus on my anger instead of Valerie’s words.
I rolled my eyes. “You’re ridiculous.”
“But I’m right.”
I didn’t answer. Because he was right.
Was I doing this out of guilt?
No.
I squared my shoulders, pushing everything else aside.
Valerie deserved justice.
Our past had nothing to do with it.