Escape // Harry Styles

XVIII

                                             Alessandro POV 

My heart had been in an insane amount of pain the minute Aella walked out of my life all those years ago. Now years later she comes back and it was as if she never left. I wish I could say hating her was an option but all the hatred I had towards her vanished when I heard her voice.

I hate how forgetful and forgiving I was with her because I know that she only came to me for help because she needs my connections to kill these bastards and the minute this is all over, she's going to vanish again and as selfish as it sounds, I need her here with me, so much that im willing to drag this mission further than possible possibly risking her life. Another part of me, the hopeful part, wishes that once this is all over she'll stay for good and we can continue where we left off but I know its too much to ask for. Which is why i feel remorseful for the information im keeping from her.

I let her know the basics, that these guys were in a gang and they were dangerous mostly confirming what she already knew. Of course I in no way will continue to put her life in danger which is why I arranged for extra security for her and her unwanted guest.

I will say this now, the minute her "friend" showed up, I knew I couldn't trust her. There's something about this girl that makes me skeptical but so does everything else. At a very young age I learned to never trust anybody which is why I not only have security keeping an extra eye on her but I also have Luca pulling as much information on her as possible. There has been more than one incident where she's done something that makes me very suspicious.

Speaking of Luca, he is fucking livid with Aella being here. When she left I went on a rampage and he was there cleaning up my messes which is why he is so adamant on letting her stay. When he saw her in the room the minute we walked out he looked me straight in my eyes and sighed,

" I'm not doing it this time." I just looked at him and before I could say anything he shook his head and walked off. I know I should listen to the guy after all if it weren't for him this empire would be burned to the ground, me along with it.

While Aella and I were in the study discussing the news about her father, I knew someone was listening in, you could see the silhouette under the door. At first I knew it was not one of my men, they fear me enough to know their place, my second guess was that we had a rat among us but that soon cleared when I opened the door and her light footsteps, too light to be one of my guys, scattered off frantically. And since the only two women in this house was her and Aella, and given that Aella was with me, I knew it had to be her. At the moment the only conclusion I have on her is that she could be siding with the other gang and trying to get as much information on her as possible.

If I didn't want to hurt Aella, I would have taken her friend and tortured her until she spilled everything, or I could just shoot her and save me the exhaustion of having to torture her. But regardless, I knew Aella would go on a killing spree on my men if I touched her friend, lets just say I know this from experience and i'm not willing to test that theory again.

After Aella shared everything about her father, it all made sense. When we were younger I was more mature and had better control but Aella would constantly be getting in trouble, getting into fights, killing people because they cut her fruit in a weird shape. At that time I figured she was still acting like a child and acting out, rebelling and using her power to gain respect from her people given that she was to take the throne when she turned 18. But it never once crossed my mind that the only reason why she did what she did was to survive. Now her father, he fooled all of us. Everyone knew he was the most feared in the gang world but never once did I think he would go to the extreme of killing his own wife, the mother of his sole heir. Never did we once think he would hurt Aella either, out in public he would treat her like a queen giving her respect and his twisted definition of love. Aella was one hell of an actress fuck she still is but I know her better than that. In the presence of her father she would smile and laugh but I never once realized that it was all fake and her eyes were screaming for help.

After Aella left, he went into panic mode and I genuinely thought he was in pain for loosing his daughter. We spent months side by side trying to track Aella. Sending my people and his people to countries, cities, states, airports, anywhere we thought she might be. It's now perfectly clear that he wasn't concerned for his daughter but instead he needed his punching bag back and trained to take after him. I knew it was only a matter of time before he figured out that she was here and I was right. Aella and I had been talking in the study when one of my men came in,

"Capo, ti sta chiedendo." ( Boss, he's asking for you.)

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As I was walking down the hall my mind was spinning and my heart was jumping out of my chest. I wasn't scared of this man nor was I ever but I was terrified for Aellas safety. I knew once he found out she was here, there was no imagining what lengths he would go to have her back. Given that all these men trusted his "genuine love" for his daughter, they would side with him and give her back. Before I walked into the room I turned to the man who informed me of this call,

"No one should know about this call understood." the young boy looked at me with fearful eyes and nodded before he walked off.

I walked in the room and mentally prepared myself for what was to come.

" Luciano.."

" Alessandro my boy, is there anything I should be informed about?"

Fuck...

"Nothing that concerns you Luciano."

"When my men are invol-" I cut him off

"Your men? Need I remind you Luciano, you stepped down a while ago, these are my men now. Whatever info you are trying to pull come straight, what is it you need to know?"

He chuckled , "mai uno per chiacchiere che vedo alessandro." ( never one for small talk I see.)

He began again, "from what i've heard, you're very interested in a certain group am I wrong? Now what I also hear is that you had a couple visitors."

"Luciano, what I do with my personal life should not concern you, who I decided to let in should not be-." I was cut off

"Outsiders Alessandro! Are you fucking stupid! Non ho deciso di prendere decisioni stupide!" ( I did not step down for you to make stupid decisions.)

"No, thats where you are wrong, you stepped down because you knew the famiglia was going to drop you soon. You were unable anymore. You brought more trouble than you resolved."

"I will figure out what you are doing Alessandro-."

"Goodbye Luciano."

I have to find out who is feeding this information to Luciano. I grabbed my phone and called Luca.

" Boss."

"There's a rat. You know what to do."

"Fatto." (done.)

I ended the call Luca will take care of that he is more than capable. What I need to focus on is Aella and her safety.