Page 24 of Diavolo

His mouth curved upward, but the smile didn't quite reach his eyes. "For now, you do not need to understand anything beyond these four simple truths.Uno.You are under my protection.Due.The Mancinis and their men will never touch you again.Tre.You work for me now.Quattro. Forget your worries, and life will be good."

To Elyse's surprise, Alessandro didn't sound like he was mansplaining. His statements sounded more like subtle threats. There seemed to be an underlying message tucked behind his words.Don't ask any more fucking questions, and be content with what I've given you.She’d need to proceed with more tact in the future.

In the blink of an eye, Alessandro's intimidating countenance shifted back to his usual teasing, smirking self. He walked over to grab her suitcases. She eyed him questioningly.

"Come," he commanded, "allow me to escort you to your new room. You have made your wishes clear. I will not be botheringyou anymore. From now on, our partnership will be as clinical and sterile as your heart desires."

Two months slipped by in a stretch of listlessness. The first snow of December began to fall, blanketing the surrounding mountains and valley of Crans-Montana in a realm of white.

Alessandro Vitale proved to be a man of his word. During this time, he didn't visit Elyse again at night. In fact, he didn't make an appearance at all. Not even to seek her out as his physician. Alessandro became a peripheral shadow. Intangible, unavailable, and full of mystery. It felt like Alessandro had forgotten about her altogether.

On the rare occasions when her employer was home, he locked himself up in his study. Whenever Elyse chanced by the room, she could hear him through the door. He was usually on the phone, growling at someone in rapid-fire Italian. Most of the time, however, he was gone. According to Malina, Alessandro was "out running errands with his associates," which Elyse interpreted to be code for shady criminal activities.

Elyse convinced herself that their arrangement was ideal. Best to keep a low profile. Stay out of each other's way. No need to rock the boat when waters were calm. On the surface, it wasn't hard to appreciate the quietness of her new routine. Malina and her competent staff saw to all of Elyse's needs. She ate well. She slept well. The chalet was beautiful. Crans-Montana was a scenic mountain paradise. She was living in a fucking winter wonderland. There were only a few minor problems. As a surgeon who once thrived in a high-pressure career with seventy-hour work weeks, Elyse soon came to realize that shewasn't well equipped to deal with the mind-numbing idleness of being a patient-less physician.

An irrational fear of Stefano started creeping back as well. Over the past two months, Stefano had only messaged Elyse a few times to confirm her payments to him, but he didn't call or harass her about anything else. Surely, Stefano must have figured out that she had left New York by now? Her former boogeyman's uncharacteristic graciousness was unsettling. Mikey wasstillmissing. It all felt so bizarre. Every time Elyse's anxiety spiked over Stefano and Mikey, however, her mind would wander back tothe four simple truthsthat Alessandro had imparted to her.

The Mancinis and their men will never touch you again.

Alessandro claimed that she was under his care now. Was this why Stefano hadn't tried to find her in Switzerland? At present, Elyse didn't know how to answer this question, so she tried to keep busy and focus on her blessings. She continued collecting paychecks and paying offPapá'sdebt. She got around to canceling her apartment lease with her landlord back in New York. She checked in with the nurses at the specialized care center where her father was being kept on life support. For better or worse, nothing had changed with him. Her father's condition was stable.

She then went on to set up a workstation in her bedroom and ordered some basic medical equipment and supplies. Elyse reached out to Mr. Schmid to procure copies of Alessandro's medical records and history. It didn't take long for her to work through these tasks, though, and she soon found herself with nothing to do yet again.

Across these empty hours in her days, Elyse began to dream and plan for a new future. An idyllic future without men like Stefano or Alessandro looming over her every thought and every move. Freedom, true freedom, became a possibility.

Carefully, Elyse calculated the exact cost of this freedom. If she stayed under Alessandro's employment for approximately two more years, then she'd be able to save enough to pay off every cent of her father's debts and build up a small nest egg to, maybe, fund a fresh start in a new city back in the States. This was, of course, assuming that she'd be able to continue working for Alessandro for the next two years. Who knew what the bastard had planned for her down the line?

The uncertainty of her situation prompted Elyse to plan for a means to escape as well. Her cushy new life as a patient-less physician could be snatched away in an instant. Alessandro held all the power, and she wielded none. She hated this imbalance. It made her feel helpless and entirely dependent on his good graces.

Alessandro promised that he would never harm her. Elyse didn't want to test him on this matter, though. In the past, Mikey had landed more than a few bruises on her body, and Stefano's threats still haunted her dreams. She refused to relax her guard around Alessandro. Men of the mafia were hardly known for keeping promises, and they were definitely known for their abysmal treatment of women.

Paranoia continued to simmer away. She tried to ignore it and, instead, hope for the best while planning for the worst. This needed to be her new mantra. With caution on her mind, Elyse spent hours exploring every inch of the chalet. She learned where all of the main exits were located. She discovered where Nils kept the keys to the Benz. She memorized the names, faces, duties, and schedules of the household staff. Elyse knew when everyone arrived at work and left to go home.

Additionally, she studied the public transit routes that could take her out of Crans-Montana and back to the Zurich Airport. Elyse withdrew a bit of cash from her checking account and hidsmall stashes around her bedroom. Just in case she needed to take off at a moment's notice.

Around this time, she attempted to cozy up to Malina and Nils and a few other staff members, striving to learn more about Alessandro'sother reasonsalong with hisfavor to an old friend. Everyone always kept their responses polite and accommodating, but they were tight-lipped as fuck. Elyse sensed that Malina and Nils knew better than to double-cross their boss over a nobody like her.

In this slow and lethargic manner, Elyse's days and nights ambled on. It wasn't a bad life. She could easily adjust to such a leisurely pace for two more years. If Alessandro was willing to pay her obscene amounts of money for doing nothing, she'd be a fool to walk away.

Her peace was soon to be disrupted, though.

One evening in mid-December, a knock sounded at Elyse's bedroom door. She was barely dressed, braless, in an old Columbia T-shirt and her underwear, but Elyse assumed it was Malina. Nowadays, it was always Malina.

"Come in," she said pleasantly.

Sitting cross-legged on her bed, Elyse waited for Malina to walk in. But it wasn't the apple-cheeked housekeeper who entered her bedroom.

"Good evening, Dr. Romero."

Elyse's eyebrows rose at the sight of Alessandro. Handsome and beautiful as ever, his commanding presence stole her breath away. She hated being so affected by him.

"Good evening, Mr. Vitale," she managed to greet him calmly even though her thoughts felt chaotic. "What can I do for you?"

The left corner of his mouth tilted up. "It has been a while since we last spoke. Have you been well?"

"I'm doing wonderfully," she answered. "Thank you for asking."

Alessandro's brown and blue-gray eyes flashed with a hint of annoyance, but the emotion disappeared so quickly that Elyse wondered if she'd imagined it. His expression became impassive once more. "I am here to tell you that we will be leaving for a trip in a few days."

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