Page 19 of Fractured Devotion

It was a clash of realities—the love that Massimo saw in Alex against the ruthlessness I had witnessed earlier. Where he saw a man broken by love, I saw another tyrant marred from the harsh reality of a woman, changed for the worse—a woman he no longer saw the same. The path I had walked was stained with blood, and I was too far gone to believe in the absolution love purported to offer.

“You’re wrong, little sister. I don’t know what happened when the two of you bumped into each other, but take into consideration it had been a shock. Lord knows I’ve had a hard time reconciling the woman standing before me as my sister. Surely you understand that everything changed him…”—he paused—“Angel of Mercy.”

His words, though true, stung like I’d walked into a hornet’s nest. I’d be foolish to think I was the only one altered by the events of the last year. My eyes closed, and I willed my heart to slow its pace. My mind flashed to my twin, and I fought back the tears I could feel building behind my closed lids.

“Please, Massimo… this is not the place.” Massimo’s presence was grounding in a way I didn’t expect.

“I know, Piccolo.” His fingers were gentle but insistent beneath my chin, urging my eyes to meet his. “Come back to us. Our family is not complete without you. My children deserve to know their aunt.”

“When this is over,” I whispered, but the resolve in my voice belied the uncertainty in my heart. My eyes flickered past him, catching the approach of Andrei and Aleski. I stepped away, severing the comforting connection with Massimo. “I have to end this—end him.”

Massimo’s gaze followed mine, understanding the unsaid between us as the two Russian men closed in with determined strides.

“I know. But you are not alone,” he whispered, turning to face the new arrivals with a composed front.

“Ella, go to the room and wait for me.” Andrei jerked his head toward the exit, “Go now.” His command was terse, leaving no room for argument.

I took a deep breath, allowing it to fill me with the courage I needed. Nodding, I acquiesced without a word, slipping away from the scene that was about to unfold.

“Mr. Anastasi, I would say it was a pleasure talking with you, but it wasn’t.” I forced my voice to carry a note of irritation. As I glanced back, his dark eyes flickered with something akin to recognition. In that brief look, he conveyed an understanding that I desperately needed. I was in the midst of a performance where the stakes were life and death, and even the slightest misstep could be catastrophic.

I’d just stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for my floor when the man who’d consumed the majority of my thoughts despite wanting the opposite snicked shut the doors, and the metal cage began its ascent to the upper floors. We stared at one another like he was the lion and I was his prey. My eyes followed his hand movement as he slammed the emergency button, halting the elevator’s rise.

“What are you doing here?” I backed into the corner as if the small distance between us would protect me from him.

“Did you think I’d just let you go, let you walk back into the devil’s lair?”

“It’s not your choice.”

Alex’s proximity was a force I had forgotten, his demanding stature unavoidable, insistent.

“You’re right… it’s not. But I’m not going to stand by and let you do this alone anymore.” His presence loomed the past pain and present danger billowing off him in waves that made it hard to breathe. “I lost you once, Carmela… and I nearly died. I know I messed up earlier.” His admission was raw, the gesture of running fingers through his hair a signal of his frustration, his vulnerability. “But seeing you, hearing the things you think you’ve become… I didn’t handle it well.”

He was so close now, his hands on the cold metal of the elevator wall boxing me in, his body a barricade.

“I know you’ve had to do things to stay alive—and it’s changed you. I’m changed, too. We aren’t the same people we were before. But what hasn’t changed is how much I love you. Time, distance… not even death could alter that. Tell me you don’t love me, Carmela, and I’ll step out of this elevator and accept your death wish is unchangeable—a fate I will despise but support because of the love coursing through my body.”

“And if I can’t?” The words were barely a whisper, a confession of my own inability to renounce what my heart refused to abandon.

“Can’t what?” His breath was a caress across my skin.

“Tell you I don’t love you.”

“Then we’ll fight this together.” His words were a vow.

Could I let Alex, the very person for who I waged this relentless crusade, join me in this tumultuous fight? My pulse thundered, a drumbeat of fear and desire. Despite the uncertainty that I deserved such loyalty, one truth cut through the chaos—my love for Alex was as deep and permanent as ever. Compelled by that love, I rose to the balls of my feet and pressed my lips to his, a declaration—an end and a beginning, all at once.

“Together,” he murmured against my mouth.

The sound of the elevator suddenly moving jolted us apart. Alex stepped back, his eyes scanning my frame with raw emotion.

The elevator’s confining space was thick with the weight of fears I needed to voice.

“Are you going to be able to handle me being with Andrei? There are things I have to endure to get him to trust me.”

Alex’s reaction was visceral, a grimace crossing his features, eyes closing briefly as if to block out the image.

“I know, and I can’t promise I won’t lose my shit and take Andrei out, knowing he’s the one touching you… but I’ll try. We need to wrap this up fast, Carmela. We bought some time with Ryker’s injury, but his part was small in a bigger scheme.”

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