REESE

chapter thirty seven.

Reese POV:

"No."

I laughed but the sound lacked humour. "Funny thing Alex, I don't remember asking for your permission."

A scoff.

"Do you even understand what you're asking of me?" Alex ran his hands through his hair in exasperation."I'm supposed to be okay with sending my little sister over the border into France, the fucking country we are currently at war with."

He looked at me in frustration. "Do you understand how stupid that would make me if I agreed? Your people wiped out over five hundred French soldiers, Reese. Over. Five. Hundred. And you want to go straight into their territory immediately after? Can you just pause and think about that for a minute!"

"What do you think I'm here for Alex?" I gritted out, standing up from the couch. "Do you think I came to Italy for some extended vacation? You think I wanted to leave New York? Leave my people, my soldiers, my family in the middle of a war?"

I could see Gavino, Max and Rocco deflate at the word family but I continued anyway. "I came here to win a war against the Baudelaires. I came here because the French border is within arm's reach. I came here because I thought three empires wanted to burn the French mafia to the fucking ground! So what's your problem huh, do you not want to be involved anymore?!"

"Guys please." Max begged looking at Alex and then over at me. "Sit down, we can talk about this calmly."

"You know what my problem is." Alex ignored Max as he kept his eyes on me. "You're just choosing to ignore it."

My lips curved up into a taunting smile. "Right." I laughed slowly. "You're worried about my safety." I sarcastically reiterated. "What a joke."

Alex looked at me with an unchanging expression on his face. "You can bring up the past if you want to Reese, but all I'll do is continue to apologize. I don't know how to convince you that I'm sorry, I don't know how to tell you that I care, but I do. You may be acting like everything is fine between you, Gavino, Max, Rocco and I, but I know better. You haven't forgiven us, I know that. I can see it in your eyes every time you look at me and it's my fault, I know that too. But I'm telling you right now, I don't care how much this makes you hate me, I'm not going to help you kill yourself by going into enemy territory unprepared."

"Alex!" Ana glared at her husband. "Stop it."

I balled up my fists in anger, my suppressed rage over the events that took place last night was threatening to bubble up to the surface and I was having an increasingly hard time keeping it contained.

"Why can't you just fucking support me for once in your goddamn life." I spit out, ignoring how his face fell. "Is it really that hard to do? I am asking one thing from you for the first time in twelve years!"

I took a step towards him. "You instructed Mauro and his team to research everything they could about how we could infiltrate the French border, weeks ago. I could find out the information myself but it would take me time, time I do not have. I also can't use Tommasso because he returned to France for the time being, so I'm asking you. I'm asking you to help me get over the border tonight, but you fucking refuse!"

"Your tech and soldiers slaughtered the entire invading French army Reese." Alex shook his head in disbelief. "Isn't that enough for now? Enough until we raid their entire drug supply and income? You won! You-"

"I'm taking hit after hit!" I cut him off harshly. "First they attacked us at Crossroads. My goddamn lung collapsed, I was placed in a coma and Gavino got shot two times." I pointed at Gavino who unconsciously rubbed his arm. "Then they attacked me and Carver inside his own restaurant. They shot at us again and again until we had to separate, making us run through the streets of New York covered in blood."