20 • 911

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A L E X

PRESENT DAY

I TOSS ON my boxer briefs while I wait for Jo to finish up in the bathroom. She does. She comes out completely naked and she keeps her eyes focused on my while she wears my dress shirt. It stops a little below her mid thigh and she looks up at me, giggling.

"Don't laugh at me." She jokes.

"I'm not laughing." I say back and I get into the bed. I gesture for her to come lie with me. But she jumps on the bed and makes herself perfectly comfortable in my arms.

"That's my girl." I tease as she throws a leg over me, which only makes me laugh harder. I fucking missed this. Her getting all territorial even when it's just the two of us. I watch as she observes the my exposed skin, where she discovers a new tattoo, one I got two years ago, accompanied by Nick. She runs her fingers on the Italian letters, reading them out loud.

"Il mio posto felice rimane lontano da me."

Meaning;
"My happy place remains away from me."

She looks up at me with teary eyes. "This is about me, isn't it?" She asks and I nod, tucking her hair behind her ear.

"You are my Happy Place, Jodie and you forever will be." I tell her and she smiles a little.

"You are my Happy Place too." She says. "We need to survive this, we have to." She says, resting her head on my chest.

"We will, baby." I kiss her hair. "We will." I say more to myself than her. Jo's favorite thing with me is the quiet. Just us, listening to each other's breaths and heartbeats, like we're doing now. This is our thing, and the fact that hasn't changed only warms my heart and makes me want to sob happily for a bit. That's what this woman does, she elicits different kinds of emotions from me. Emotions I never thought I could feel.

Her breathing becomes steady and I know she's sleeping already. I never go to sleep unguarded, I always have a weapon right next to me. It's the Mafia, you can never know who wants you killed, and you always have to be one step ahead to survive. But tonight I'm going to sleep worrying about absolutely nothing. Because this is my safe space, and I'll be fine when I wake up.

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I WAKE UP to an empty bed, and a salivating aroma coming from the kitchen. And her voice. She's on the phone, and judging from the context of the conversation, that's definitely Brittany Cole on the phone.

"Omg, omg, omg, don't keep it PG, tell me more!" Comes Brittany on the phone.

"No, nope, you tell me more, you married bitch, hey how are the twins." Jo responds, her cherry laughter filling the house.

"They're fine, they spent the night with Nick's parents, I woke up to a lot of baby videos and we've been watching them, you want me to send?

I stand to my feet, making my way towards the kitchen.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll go visit soon, I miss my little angels." Jo says back, awe and joy in her voice.

Imagine if I give us a life where we can have kids?

"Good Morning, Brittany." I say to the iPad on face time, while I wrap my arms around Jo's waist. Jo however, is smiling shyly, and I just happen to love that.

"Damn man, I didn't know you had ink." Brittany says, a stunned look on her face.

"We wouldn't want your husband to find you ogling me now, would we?" I cock my head and Jo playfully slaps my arm.

"And you're making jokes too," Brittany takes a moment before she says, "Who and you and what have you done with Alex?" She gasps and turns her attention to Jo. "Or better yet what have you done with Alex?!"

"Aren't you supposed to be marriedly fucking?" I ask her and she laughs. "I'm trying to get used to this new you, and while I'm doing that, I'm going to pretend you didn't say what you just said." She says. "And since we're all cozy and getting loved on, Alex, you are to treat her right, take her on expensive dinners and of course, fuck her properly." She winks.

"Bri! God!" Jo yells, moving away from me and checking on the food; which smells super great.

"And this is where I say goodbye and go back to—" she makes air quotes, "—Marriedly Fucking, as you phrased, goodbye Jo!" She hangs up and Jo pins me with a look and folds her arms.

"You're excessively happy." She chuckles. "It's gonna weird everyone out."

"Well they better get ready, cause we're going to the rink after this incredibly good meal."

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"NO PRACTICE TODAY then." She says when she notices the empty rink.

"It's Nick's day one after an incredible wedding ceremony, he's getting a day off, so we're all getting." I say as I look for spare skates that'll fit her feet. "Are you sure you know how to skate?" I tease and she laughs.

"Nick and Terence spend most of their spare time teaching me how to skate, you annoying man." She playfully slaps my shoulder and I laugh. "I never asked, when did you pick up hockey."

I sigh as I remember the first time I saw a hockey game. "Catalino and I went to the outskirts of Milan sometime when I was thirteen. There were some huge teenagers, I think they were a team against a team, playing on a small section of ice," I chuckle as I finally find the skates.

"You and your evil uncle at a big boys hockey game? Kind of hard to imagine." She tilts her head to the side as I help her with the skates.

"He had his good days, but in the end the bad outweighed the good." I tell her. "Anyway, he was teaching me a lesson about competition and how most people would do anything to win and others will take whatever life gives them. Good lesson though, except I was busy falling in love with the sport and he didn't take that well." I chuckle, getting my own skates on as we approach the rink. I get in first and she gets in behind me. She takes a 270 degree skate and then she turns to me.
"How'd you find yourself in America?" She asks.

"I was nineteen, my birthday was a month to go, I swore to myself that I wasn't going to spend another birthday doing the same things, learning to kill people, learning to rule, not allowed to see my mother, not eating enough, practically starved, so I stole some money from Catalino's safe and I booked a flight to America." I sigh at the memory of being a scared teenager. Back then I didn't even know how many states America had, or which one I was going to stay in. I spent the next few weeks at a small hotel in Washington DC. I stole a lot of money so I was able to feed myself, then I got a job, applied for student loans, and started college. Now it all sounds easy, but trust me, it wasn't.

"And how did your birthday go?" She asks and I pull her closely.

"Let's say I spent it learning how to skate." She chuckles. "And not exactly the best experience considering the fact that I kept falling on my ass."

"You're doing great now though, I love watching you play, even when we were apart." She says and that warms my fucking heart. "You do it almost perfectly, with precision and perfection, it's beautiful to watch, I always want them to put the camera on you."

"Thank you." It comes out shyly, but I mean it. And then I change the subject. "Ever heard from your Mom since you left El Paso?"

She straightens a little, but then she settles. "No, she watched me leave and she decided to stay with someone that treats her like shit, I love my mother, but leaving El Paso is one of the best decisions I've ever made, not taking that back, ever."

"And what's another best decision?" I raise a brow at her and she pushes me and skates away.

"Now you just want your ego fed." She teases.

We skate for a while, playing and teasing each other as we go on. I watch as she twirls around, feeling super free, laughing, smiling, giggling, all forms of warm feelings. She's riding high on adrenaline, muttering something about finally understanding why I love playing hockey.

I don't know how long we skate, but I know her legs get tired and she leans on me for support. We come out of the rink and we sit on the bench. It's cold and she has sweaters on, but it doesn't stop me from wrapping my arms around her and pulling her closer to my chest, my nose in her pomegranate scented hair.

"Do you think it was Catalino?" She asks and I know she's talking about the gunshot.

"How about you don't worry about that because Andreas is working on that right now." I tell her at the same time I hear footsteps behind us. I don't even need to think to know who it is. 

"Indeed I am."

Andreas.

Jo and I turn to see Andreas in his usual attire. A three piece suit.

"Miss Henning." He approaches Jo and smiles at her. Jo however, smiles back, awkwardly and I manage a snort.

"You'll scare the shit out of her with all your courtesy and organization." I snort again and Jo moves backwards until she leans right into my arms.

"It's nice to see you again, Andreas, ruining my 'me' time with your brother of course." Jo says to Andreas, who I can see is thrilled at the way she addresses him.

"I'll cut to the chase, I have a clue who your shooter is."

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"AN ASSOCIATE OF Vincenzo?" I bark and Jo reaches under the table to rub her hand on my thigh.

After Andreas chose my time with Jo to drop his info bomb, we took an Uber to a bar where Jo and Bri used to work when I first met her, a bar where most hockey fans gather together. It looks so different now and I wish we were here on different circumstances.

What Andreas is saying is simple, I killed Vincenzo to send a message and I got one instead. The love of my life bleeding out and undergoing surgery.

"Milan is in a state of unrest, the Cosa Nostra are wondering if you're capable enough to be their Underboss, or if you're losing your touch because of a certain woman." His gaze flickers to Jo and back to me.

"Andreas I'm going to need you to elaborate." Jo's hand flexes on my thigh.

"They're not entirely okay with your divorce, even though it's been finalized, they say it's because you and I quote 'ran to the States' that you are neglecting your mafia duties as Underboss."

"And what is your opinion on that?" I ask him and his eyes flicker to Jo's once again, and then back to me.

"You've handled it well for the past four years, you just need to do better, but you can't stop the inevitable."

Do I like the Mafia? Not so much. I'm I their leader? unfortunately yes, do I like leading? Yes. Do I regret killing Vincenzo, not so much, I need to free my Mamma and I need to prove that Catalino is guilty for my father's death. I need to give my father the justice he deserves. The old Milan residents always talked about him when I was little, how good he was and how his spirit was probably watching over us. I'm not perfect, no one in the Cosa Nostra is, we're all sinners waiting to spend the afterlife in hell. And now Vincenzo's death brings more curses than blessings. I bet my Papa is disappointed in me already, and I bet he doesn't agree with my idea of revenge, but it was the only way. Vincenzo was a power play, his death resulted in a lot of change in loyalties in the Cosa Nostra, more people coming to my side of the ship. But it also cost me something, the human part of my conscience.

Right now, Jo, Mamma, Andreas and my hockey family here in Seattle are the closest things to humanity.

Andreas Continues.

"One suffering because of lack of attention." I take that in, with Jo's hand still rubbing my thigh. "But you're a smart man, my brother, you'll fix it, you always do."

And then my phone beeps with an email from the NHL board. My agent usually handles all this emails and paperwork, but for some reason I don't get why it came to me. And that's when I do something stupid, like open it and try to read the fucking read. I obviously can't and then My Agent, Nadia, attacks my phone with so many voice messages all at once. I practically feel my soul crushing as I tap the messages app, tapping play on one of the voice messages.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Shit. Fuck.

"What's that?" Jo asks and I know she's trying to place the muffled words from Nadia's voice message.

Andreas cocks his head to the side with a raised brow, probably wondering what the fuck is going on.

I can't think straight. I'm unable to speak, almost unable to fucking breathe.

The breaking news sound on the large TV in the bar gets their attention,  should be their answer.

And so I rise to my feet and I bolt.

Away from her.
Away from Andreas.
Away from everyone.

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A/N

Oh no, oh no, oh no.
I promise y'all Alex will have his HEA!! At least I hope.....

Quick guess what happened?!!!

See you next update!!


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