Saving the Mafia Boss (BOOK 2)

CHAPTER 16

Alessandro

I feel myself fading from reality. Here nothing makes sense. I know that time is passing but I don't know how much. I must have been here for days, perhaps a couple of weeks but it has felt eternal. I can feel my sanity slipping. How did she do this? How? Ten years and here I am suffering for a few days. I chuckle humorlessly.

"Alessandro fucking Santos the Mafia boss....Ruthless man...Heartless beast? Ha!Pathetic."

People know who I am, they respect and most importantly they fear me. I am a symbol of power but here I sit in a dark room tied to a chair and losing my will to fight. I haven't been fed properly and I most certainly have not been sleeping correctly and it is taking a toll on my body. I feel my strength diminishing, my energy depleting and my awareness fading. How Amber? How did you do this? I feel myself on the brink of tears. I want her. I need her. I need to look into her golden eyes and to hear her wonderful voice, I need to feel her soft hands graze my face and to witness her smile. Any angel would be envious of her.

"Bella, I hope you're thinking of me. You're my strength. You are the only thing keeping me alive. I admire you now more than ever. You are stronger than any man I have ever met, stronger than any man I have trained, stronger than Axel, than Maddox, Vince, Max, Marcos, Nico and...much stronger than me.

I look up quickly as soon as I hear footsteps coming toward the room. Heels. Alicia. That bitch. She opens the door and rushes in. This time she leaves the lights off.

"Alessandro, I'm not supposed to be here so I have to be quick. I regret everything and if you wish to kill me...I won't put up any resistance. I-I just wanted to let you know that they should be getting your location soon, that is if they haven't already. Please, hold on. They're coming for you. Just...stay strong. I'm...sorry...again." I hear her voice cracking at the end. I don't care how much remorse she feels, she's a dead piece of shit. She opens the door and shuts it again, leaving me enveloped in the silence and dark once more.

I sigh as I get caught up on my thoughts yet again. What more is there for me to do? Had Alicia been honest? I should know better than to believe a traitor but another part of me wants to hold onto the sliver of hope I now have. I smile. Amber has changed me, I have no doubt that this hope I feel is thanks to her. Being the man that I am it's required that I be heartless or at least act as if I am, however she has made me see things in a different way. I remember once reading about yin and Yang. To be truthful I don't remember much but what stuck to me is the concept of good complementing the bad and how there is bad in the good but also good on the bad. I am the bad and Amber is the good. I honestly can't see the bad in her. Perhaps her past? The truly remarkable thing though, is that now I can see the good inside of me. She saw it before I did and she made sure that I was able to notice it, she worked hard to make me believe it. I smile as I think of one of our many conversations.

"I am a bad man bella but you still manage to believe I am good. I don't think I will ever understand it."

"You are not a bad man. You had no choice in the life you were born into and you always do what is necessary to stop the people who are truly evil..."

Those were a few hectic days. I remember how things were suddenly wrong, then they were better than ever only to go back to being wrong. I enjoyed parts of it though. I got to know more about her, that was the first time she completely opened up to me about her past and it was the first time I talked about my own to someone other than Nico and Marcos. The best part of it was the fact that her actions only proved to me that she truly does love me. She had every reason to be afraid of me and to want to stay away but she didn't. She got past her fear, she stayed, she thought I was worth the struggle. She wanted me as much as I wanted her and it was the best feeling to know she could care for someone like me. I need her. More than ever. I sigh as the familiar dark thoughts come to mind.