<h4>Chapter 310: Chapter 310 : ckmail</h4>


    *Giovani*


    I kept my face as nk as possible as Alessandro stared me down.


    “What are you talking about? I thought we were past this bullshit.”


    “You know exactly what I’m talking about. You think of me like I’m just some stupid kid, but I’m not. I’m going to prove to you just how dangerous I am.”


    I felt my jaw clench as anger coursed through me at his disrespect. This was it. I was finally going to beat the shit out of this idiot. I expected to see fear on his face as I stepped toward him, but all he did was look at me with his stupid cocky-ass grin and pull his phone out of his pocket. I was two seconds from grabbing him by the cor when he shoved his phone in my face, and then I knew exactly why he was so sure this time.


    There on the screen was a picture of me with one hand on Olivia’s ass and the other tangled in her hair. It was slightly blurry, but it was obvious that we were locked in the type of kiss that promised a lot more would happen when we got home.


    Shit.


    He had finally managed to get real proof. I felt my face go pale, but I refused to let the little shit win. Instead of immediately bowing to his wants, I turned away from him and took a deep breath while walking toward my mini-bar.


    I could practically feel the fury rolling off him as I kept my back turned. He hadn’t expected it to go down like this. I wondered what he had expected. Surely he hadn’t thought I would just cower and give him whatever he wanted? I was the fucking Don of a “family business” so feared that even the Russians didn’t dare confront us in broad daylight. They had resorted to kidnapping an innocent college girl rather than deal with us head-on.


    No, Alessandro was sorely mistaken if he thought he could control me, especially now that it was obvious that some way or another, Olivia and I were going to have to tell people about us. I continued to make Alessandro wait by slowly pouring myself a ss of American whiskey, then carefully cing two ice cubes inside.


    “You know, they say the best way to drink whiskey is straight, but I think adding two cubes makes it go down so much smoother.”


    I was just taunting him at this point; refusing to turn around and acknowledge his proof. I took a long sip of my drink, grimacing slightly at the taste. No matter how much ice I put in, American whiskey never went down quite as smooth as I expected. Finally, I turned back to Alessandro.


    “So what exactly do you want? You realize the only reason I’ve even given you the position you have now was because I wanted you to leave me and Olivia alone.”


    Looking at his smug grin, I wanted nothing more than to reach out and grab him by the throat. But I knew this was a delicate situation. If I could cate him just enough to convince him to keep his mouth shut, maybe I could get Olivia to be morefortable with the idea of people knowing about us before it became necessary to tell everyone else in thepound.


    “You know exactly what the fuck I want,” he said, his muscles bulging with his pent-up anger. “I want more power. Make me your second inmand. And then when the timees, move the fuck over so I can be Don. And since I’ve got a lot of reasons to show this picture to Dahlia and hardly any reason not to, I want some money too. You know how hard it is for me to lie to family,” he said thest bit with a sarcastic sneer.


    “Alessandro,” I tried to say calmly, even though my body was screaming for a fight, “surely you realize that I’ve given you as much power as I can without putting us at risk. You’re inexperienced as hell.”


    “Shut the fuck up!” His face was red with rage. “You don’t know anything about me or my experience. Just shut the fuck up and give me something permanent, or else I leave this room and immediately go find Dahlia. I know Olivia would never forgive you for destroying her rtionship with her best friend.”


    He was more unhinged than I had initially realized. Anyone this willing to tantly ckmail me had lost their sense of self-preservation. The second I had a chance, I would get my revenge on this whiny little punk. But now was not the time. For now, I needed to y it cool. I just needed to be able to talk to Olivia before he left this room and started running his mouth.


    “Alright, fine. I’ll do some thinking, and I’ll find a permanent position for you, something that people will respect.”


    “And the money?”


    I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes. He sounded like a spoiled, whiny child. I knew that James would be ashamed of him for acting like this. He was out of control.


    “Are you that strapped for cash? Fine. I’ll make sure an extra few thousand a month finds its way into your ount. Happy?”


    He looked slightly deted, like he wasn’t sure exactly what to do with himself now that his demands had been mostly met. This was the exact type of inexperience that I meant, but he wasn’t self-aware enough to realize that. He really thought that he could handle interrogating the Russians on his own? He couldn’t even sessfully ckmail his own cousin.


    “Don’t think I’m just going to walk away and forget about this,” he managed to choke out.


    “I wouldn’t dream of it,” I said ndly and opened the door for him.


    I knew the calmer I behaved, the more furious he would be. He expected me to fly off the handle, and although I wanted to for sure, I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. At the end of the day, he did have something he could hold over my head. Now I realized that it was all this was ever about. Ever since he had confronted me about his “right” to be the Don, I should have known that he would stop at nothing to try to force his way in, even if that meant using his own cousin and the woman he supposedly cared about as cannon fodder.


    He stormed out of my room, and I shut the door quietly behind him. As much as I wanted to continue to y it cool, I was five seconds away from totally losing my shit. I turned back to the drink in my hand and downed the rest of it in one gulp. How the fuck was I going to break this news to Olivia? The one thing she had asked from me was to keep our rtionship a secret, and now I was going to have to tell her that I had failed her. And the worst part was I had a full day of work ahead of me, so there was no chance I could talk with her untilte that night. I didn’t know how I would possibly be able to focus knowing that at any moment, Alessandro might decide to loop her in on his little ckmail plot.


    I checked my watch and noted I needed to be in the meeting room in fifteen minutes. It only took five minutes to walk over there. I decided to pour just one more drink. That would help keep me from strangling the first person who looked at me wrong.


    ***


    *Olivia*


    It had been a long day of spending time with Dahlia, and as much as I was so d to have her back, I was looking forward to having a little alone time before bed. I had never kept something from Dahlia before, but now that I had such a big secret, every time we were together it was exhausting. I always had to be thinking on my toes to make sure I didn’t let something slip.


    Sometimes I almost wanted to just tell her about Giovani, but then I remembered that she didn’t see him the way I did. To her, he was an older man who could never be anything more than a great protector. She would never understand how I could even want to be with someone his age, and I was sure she would hate me for it. At first I had been terrified that what I had with Giovani would affect my mom’s job, but now I realized that my fear extended to myself as well. What if Dahlia insisted that I go back to the States? My heart broke at the thought of never seeing Gio again. What we had was so much more than just some Italian fling.


    I shed my clothes and rummaged through my drawer for some pajamas. At first I pulled out some old sweatpants that I’d had since high school, but then I thought about the fact that Gio mighte visit me tonight. He was so much more experienced than I was. Thest thing I wanted was for him to see me in a pair of sweats that said ‘senior’ across the butt.


    I shoved the sweatpants to the back of my drawer and instead pulled out a littlecy nightie that I had found while shopping with Dahlia not long beforeing here. Initially, I hadn’t nned on buying it, but it had been Dahlia who encouraged me, saying, “When else are you going to have the chance to sleep with so many Italian men?” I chuckled to myself at the memory. If only she had known which Italian man I would be sleeping with, she probably wouldn’t have pushed me so hard.


    I pulled the nightie on and stared at myself in the mirror. It framed my breasts in ckce and my nipples clearly peaked through the sheer fabric. It fell just below my hips, just barely covering me up. When I turned around, I could see that my ass was basically fully out.


    The thought of Gio seeing me in this was enough to make butterflies flutter in my stomach and elsewhere. I wondered if he would rip it off of me, or if he would rather I leave it on while he fucked me. I felt my face flush as I heard a quiet knock at my door. I felt like I had summoned Giovani with my dirty thoughts.


    “Come in,” I called, just loudly enough that he could hear me.


    He was looking away from me as he came in, then shut the door quietly behind him. When he turned around, I expected to see his eyes immediately ze over with lust. I was fully prepared for him to damn near attack me.


    I wasn’t at all prepared to see his face looking pale and serious. Suddenly, I felt ashamed for assuming that he would want to just have sex with me. I crossed my arms in a pathetic attempt to cover myself.


    At my movement, he seemed to register that I was damn near naked. He swallowed loudly and looked me up and down. His eyes lingered on my chest, hungrily taking in what I had on disy. He seemed to shake his head slightly, as if to clear it.


    “Um, wow, you look... amazing,” he mumbled, seemingly at a loss for words.


    “Thanks, is–is something wrong? Did I do something wrong?” I couldn’t help but feel like he hade here to scold me or something. I hated how meek I sounded, but the thought of him being angry with me made me want to curl up and cry.


    “What? No, baby, you could never do anything wrong.” He rushed over to me and gathered me in his arms. My nearly naked breasts were pressed against him, but he ignored them so that he couldfort me.


    I immediately felt better.


    ‘This is why I love this man,’ I thought to myself. ‘He knows exactly what I need.’


    I let myself fall limp against him, just taking in his scent and warmth. I knew he was strong, but I still marveled at his biceps and forearms as they pressed against me. This wasn’t a man who just cared about looking strong. He had the type of strength that came from a lifetime of hard work.


    Finally, I dared to look up into his eyes. He stared down at me, seemingly waiting for me to let him know that I was okay. Although I could still see concern in his eyes, the tight lines around his mouth had rxed a bit. I knew that this embrace was helping him as much as it was helping me.


    “What’s wrong?” I asked, my voice stronger now that I knew it wasn’t because of me that he hade in so upset.


    He took a deep breath, and I felt truly scared. This must be bad if he was so reluctant to tell me.


    “Alessandro has a picture of us together. It... doesn’t make us look like we’re just friends.”


    I wanted to throw up. We had worked so hard to keep this a secret. How was it possible that Alessandro had found out? My fear turned to rage. How dare Alessandro do this! How dare he mess with us like this!


    “I can’t believe this!” I shouted, realizing I had been too loud when Giovani leaned away from me slightly. “I hate him.”


    “I know. I do too.” He rubbed small circles on my back while I processed what this meant for us.


    “Do you think he’ll really make this a problem?” I asked, hoping that maybe Alessandro was just bluffing.


    Giovani looked away for a moment, seeming to think through what he wanted to say. He looked back to me, then leaned down to kiss me gently on the cheek.


    “Yes, I do,” he said sadly. “Maybe not right now, but sooner orter, Alessandro is going to use this to get what he wants. And what he wants is nothing less than total control.”


    I couldn’t think of what else to say, I simply nodded and then copsed back into his arms.


    “I’m so sorry, my sweet Olivia,” he murmured into my ear while his hands rubbed up and down my back. “I know you didn’t want this.”


    After a while, he pulled away. As much as I wanted to cry, I knew I needed to hold it in until he left. I could tell he already felt horrible about this, and watching me devolve into tears would only make him feel worse. I was determined not to let that happen. I had to be strong for him.


    “We will figure this out together, baby. Don’t let it worry you too much,” he said.


    He gave me onest kiss and then left as quietly as he hade in. I turned to look at myself in the mirror. So much for wearing sexy pajamas. I ripped the nightie off and threw it across the room. Fuck Alessandro and his selfish behavior. I was so frustrated I just wanted to scream.


    I yanked my sweatpants back out of the drawer, grabbing a T-shirt, and pulled them on before flinging myself across the bed. I didn’t know how I would possibly manage to sleep, but I had to at least try. I wished now more than ever that I could ask Dahlia for advice. She had always been the one that I turned to when I didn’t know what to do, but in this issue, I was totally alone.


    And with that thought, the tears that I had been hiding from Gio finally began to fall.