Chapter 129 Enemy To Enemy
GIOVANNI’S POV
After the guards escorted her away, I dressed up and left for the one place I knew I would find him.
The club was exactly the kind of place Alessio loved. It was expensive, exclusive, and filled with beautiful people who had more money than sense.
The bass pounded through my chest as I pushed past the velvet ropes, ignoring the protests of the doorman who clearly recognized me and wisely stepped aside.
I found Alessio in the VIP section, surrounded by women and champagne, looking entirely too pleased with himself.
"Gio!" He stood when he saw me, his smile was bright but his eyes wary. "Didn't expect to see you here. Come, join us! I have this amazing-"
I scowled at him. “I want to see you outside. Now.”
His smile faltered. "What's this about?"
"You know exactly what this is about."I snapped.
Alessio's jaw tightened, but he waved off his companions and followed me to a private office in the back of the club.
The moment the door closed, I rounded on him.
"You sent a woman to my house. To 'help me relax.'" I took a step closer. "Explain. Right now."
He shrugged. "I was trying to help you."
"Help me?" My laugh was bitter. "By sending a prostitute? That's your idea of help?"
"By trying to get you to move on!" Alessio's calm facade cracked. "Gio, it's been months. Almost a year of you obsessing over this girl who clearly doesn't want to be found.”
He moved closer, his eyes narrowing on me. “You're destroying yourself. Not eating, not sleeping, turning down opportunities because you're too distracted-"
"That's not your concern." I growled.
"It is when you're my friend!" Alessio moved closer, his expression intense. "I care about you. And I can't stand watching you waste away over someone who's gone. So yes, I sent someone to remind you that there are other women in the world. That you could move on if you'd just let yourself."
My jaw tightened. "I don't want to move on."
"Why not?" Alessio threw up his hands. "She's pregnant with your child, fine. We'll find her eventually, make sure the kid is taken care of. But you don't need to pine after her like some lovesick teenager.”
He jabbed a finger at my chest. “You're Giovanni De Santis. You could have any woman you want."
"I want her." The words came out before I could stop him. "Only her."
"Then you're a fool." Alessio's expression hardened. "She's made her choice. She ran from you, Gio. She'd rather be out there alone than with you. What does that tell you?"
"It tells me I fucked up so badly she felt she had no other option." I stepped into his space, making him take a step back. "And I will spend the rest of my life making that right. What I won't do is let my so-called friends interfere with finding her."
He scoffed and rolled his eyes. "I'm trying to save you from yourself."
"I don't need saving. I need Arya and our child." I moved toward the door. "Stay out of it, Alessio. I'm warning you. Don't send anyone else. Don't try to 'help' me move on. Just. Stay. Out. Of. It."
He shook his head. "You're making a mistake, Giovanni."
"It's my mistake to make."
I left him standing there, his face flushed with anger and something that might have been hurt.
I couldn't care about anyone's feelings except the two people I was desperately trying to find.
The moment I stepped out of the club, I sucked in a sharp breath and raked my fingers through my hair.
“Fuck.” I whispered, walking towards my car.
There was no way I could return to my house after what just happened. I needed some sort of distraction to purge myself off the fix Alessio had put me in.
The Vitale mansion felt less hostile than it had on my first visit. The guards still watched me carefully, but they waved me through without incident.
I was halfway to the main entrance when someone stepped into my path.
Marco.
"What are you doing here?" His voice was cold, his stance aggressive.
I was bent on ignoring him. "I have a meeting with your boss. Move."
"Robert's busy." He snapped.
"Then he can tell me that himself." I moved to step around him.
Marco blocked me. "You need to stop coming here. Stop pretending you care about finding Arya when we all know you just want to drag her back to your prison."
My jaw clenched. It seemed everyone was bent on pissing me off today.
"You don't know anything about what I want." I snapped.
"Don't I?" Marco's expression was full of contempt. "You locked her up. Treated her like garbage. And now you think you deserve to find her? To meet your child? You don't deserve either of them."
Every word was a knife, cutting deep because they were true.
"Maybe not," I said quietly. "But I'm going to find them anyway. And there's nothing you can do to stop me."
"We'll see about that." Marco stepped closer, his hand moving toward his jacket.
In one smooth motion, I grabbed his wrist, twisted, and had him face-down on the ground with his arm pinned behind his back.
"Don't," I said calmly, pressing my knee into his back. "I'm trying very hard to keep this alliance civil. But if you pull a weapon on me, that ends. Understood?"
Marco struggled, but I had leverage and training he clearly lacked.
"Understood?" I repeated, applying more pressure.
"Yes," he spat. "Understood."
I released him and stepped back just as the front door opened.
Robert Vitale walked out, his wife Lucia beside him.
"Giovanni." Robert's tone was pleasant, almost friendly. "I see you've met some resistance."
I shrugged "Nothing I couldn't handle."
Lucia smiled, though it didn't quite reach her eyes. "Please, come inside. We have updates on the search."
Marco scrambled to his feet, his face flushed. But he said nothing, just glared at me with pure hatred.
Robert extended his hand to me. "Shall we?"
I shook it, the gesture as fake as Lucia's smile. But we were playing a game here, maintaining appearances of an alliance that benefited us both.
"After you."
I followed them inside, and when I glanced back, Marco was gone.
But I could still feel his hatred like a physical presence.
The enemy of my enemy might be my ally.
But that didn't mean either of us had forgotten what the other was.
And when we finally found Arya, I had a feeling this fragile alliance would shatter like glass.