Ciao, Amore [Carlos Sainz]

Catorce

Alessandra woke up to empty bed and her heart sunk in her chest. She hoped that Carlos sleeping peacefully will be the first thing she'll see after waking up, but he propably had a lot of fires to put out. Sergio Junior and Carlota were also gone, though it didn't concern her much. She was sure they were safe. There was no one within these walls that wished them. Suddenly, she remembered about Sergio's wedding ring, so without any minute of laziness she slipped from under the blankets. Alessandra was happy she had some small task that she could focus on nevertheless she was curious how the situation looked in the house after events from previous evening. She felt a bit better comparing to yesterday, though it didn't change the fact she was anxious about what will happen next. Pastor wasn't a god. He was human like all of them, so he could be killed. On the other hand, Alessandra had a feeling that what Maldonado presented was just a mere fragment of his power. The South wasn't weak, but it lacked resources and Sergio's plan with gaining allies couldn't be continued from obvious reasons.

Once she put some comfortable clothes on and fixed her hair into a decent state Alessandra left Carlos' room, heading to Sergio's office in other part of the mansion. As she walked through corridors they seemed colder and emptier than usual. Most of crew members where either in the infirmary or were cleaning the mess outside, but the silence was making an impression on her as if everybody died long time ago. Alessandra took a deep breath when she found herself under wooden door, leading to Sergio's office. She felt like she was spying on someone all over again, though she kept reminding herself that Sergio asked to do this. She wasn't doing anything wrong, it was just a friendly favour. Maybe she was afraid of seeing something that wasn't meant for her eyes. The Mexican was heavily hurt, so he might forgot about some documents lying on his desk. Regardlessly, Alessandra reached for the handle and pushed the door open for her. She stepped inside the stuffy room, approaching Sergio's desk right away. She didn't even look around. She just ran up to furniture, determined to find the wedding ring. She saw nothing on the desk that was perfectly tidy and every little thing was put in order. Next Alessandra lowered herself to the level drawers were on. There was four of them and Sergio didn't specify in which one he might left the ring. She checked three on the left, but didn't find anything apart from documents, photos and folders. Next she switched to the right. The last drawer had a lock with a key already inside. Alessandra twisted the key, opening the drawer with one swift move. Her eyes immediately noticed golden piece of metal, lying on some folders. She smiled to herself as she took Sergio's wedding ring into her fingers. She was about to close the drawer, but another thing caught her attention. The folders that the ring was lying on had an inscription New Orleans printed in red and official stamp of all crews, the sun with four bigger rays resembling directions of the world like the four crews. Such stamp meant that whatever was inside was of highest importance and only leaders of crews could look inside. Alessandra found it weird that Sergio was looking for something in city of Louisiana. It belonged to the East, but since they were gone the crew rulling Canada was first in line. And if it was something against Pastor Maldonado, Sergio would never hide it from others.

Alessandra swallowed hard as her old habits tried to take over her. She was so curious what was inside, but in the same time she wanted to stay loyal to the South. Sergio sent her here, because he trusted her. For the sake of this bond she shut the drawer closed, before she could see anything else. She left Sergio's office in rush, locking her fingers around his wedding ring. She took the stairs to run downstairs and then go straight to the infirmary. In the main hall works was underway to clean it up. The blood was being washed off and main entrance repared. Everything was slowly getting normal, at least in the house. Once in the infirmary Alessandra already knew where to go, but she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw an empty bed in the place where Sergio was resting during the night. The air hitched in her throat as she thought about the worst thing possible. "Don't worry. He felt better, so he took Carola and the kids for a walk around the house". A warm voice with familiar Brazilian accent calmed her down. Alessandra turned her head to see Pietro smiling at her. "You're awake!". She exclaimed in relief, while approaching his bed. "I'm fine, though that wound in my side is a real bitch". He complained, one of his hands travelling to white dressing. "Been there. Keep it clean and everything will be fine". Pietro chuckled. "Yeah, I don't think Carlos would carry me to the hospital if I needed help". He noticed jokingly. "Unlikely, yes. But I'm glad you're okay". She confessed. "Me too. Enzo got pretty scared yesterday. I wonder if he won't want to come back to Brazil after all of this". Pietro's face expression saddened. "Don't worry about it now. Focus on your recovery and then you both will think about it. Decisions made in emotions are no good". She adviced him. "Gracias señorita [Thank you, miss]". He replied, his Spanish making Alessandra giggle. "I wish to talk with you longer, señor, but I need to give that to our boss". She said, showing Pietro the wedding ring. "I'm not going anywhere anyway". He shrugged. Before she left, Alessandra patted his foot in response. "Stop joking around, Fittipaldi". She responded, but in reality she was happy to see him in a good mood.