Luca had not moved from the chair.
He was sitting exactly where he had dropped himself minutes ago, one leg thrown over the armrest, watching his brother with the particular expression he got when he had decided something needed to be said and was just waiting for the right moment to say it.
Alessandro poured himself another glass and did not look at him.
"Rome" Luca said finally. "Yes."
"You're taking her to Rome?"
"That's what I said, you're not deaf. Are you brother?"
Luca was quiet for a moment. "Alessandro."
"Don't. I know what you're about to say!"
"I'm just—"
"Luca I swear to God—"
"I'm just saying!" Luca sat up properly now, both feet on the floor, looking at his brother with that expression that meant he was done being casual about it. He began to speak Italian.
"Two weeks ago she was a witness you were managing. Now she's coming to Rome with you. Undercover what? On a business trip?" He paused.
"You want to explain to me how those two things are connected?"
Alessandro said nothing.
"Because from where I'm sitting" Luca continued, "it looks less like you're protecting a witness and more like you just want her close to you. And you're using Dante as an excuse at this point."
"Dante made another move" Alessandro said flatly.
Luca stared at him quietly.
"Last night" Alessandro said, turning from the window. "his men were spotted outside Giovanni Rossi's estate again. They're not looking for Giovanni, Luca. They know she's in Milan Ofcourse and they're looking for her specifically." He set his glass down. "I need to move her somewhere they're not expecting. Rome is the safest option right now."
Luca looked at him for a long moment. "That's the only reason?"
Alessandro held his gaze saying nothing.
Which was itself an answer.
Luca nodded slowly, though he wasn't convinced but had decided to let it go for now. "Okay" he said with a sigh. "Rome." He stood and stretched. "But Alessandro—"
"Go away Luca." Alessandro groaned.
"Just one thing—"
"Luca."
"She pushed you away!" Luca said, pointing at him, and Alessandro went very still. "I saw it from the hallway. She pushed you away and you stood there smirking like it didn't affect you at all but we both know it did." He looked at his brother carefully. "You like her but it's clear she doesn't! Don't force this shit!"
The office was very quiet.
"Shut up!" Alessandro ordered. "That's the end of it."
Luca stared at him for a long moment.
Then he laughed, shaking his head as he moved toward the door. "You are so far gone and you don't even see it" he muttered. "It's honestly painful to watch."
He stepped into the hallway still shaking his head.
"And admit it to yourself at least!" he called back loudly, not caring who heard. "You're not taking her to Rome for Dante! You want her near you for your own selfish reasons! Just say it!" Luca teased mercilessly.
Alessandro's jaw tightened. "LUCA."
"Okay okay I'm going, I'm going—" he raised his hands up in defeat as he chuckled.
Elena had been sitting on her bed trying very hard to think about everything when she heard them talking.
Alessandro and Luca, their voices carrying clearly through the floors and into her room as they spoke rapid Italian.
She understood every word, after all she'd been in Milan all her life.
She sat completely still on the edge of the bed and listened to Luca say it plainly and clearly and without any room for misinterpretation — you're not taking her to Rome for Dante, you want her near you, just say it — and then Alessandro's voice, tense and controlled, saying his name the way he always did when he was done with a conversation.
Her heart was doing something completely unreasonable right now and she felt like digging her nails into her chest and brink out her dang heart.
She pressed both hands flat on her knees and stared at the wall.
She had not imagined it. She had not misunderstood anything, Her Italian was perfectly fine, had been perfectly fine since Florence, and what she had just heard was Luca telling his brother in plain Italian that Alessandro DeLuca wanted her close to him.
And Alessandro had not even denied it.
What the hell!
He had told Luca to go away. But he had not said no.
Her phone suddenly rang while she was going through a lot mentally.
She looked at it blankly.
It was Sofia. She was surprised, she managed to call her before she could.
She answered without thinking. "Hey sof—"
"ELENA ROSSI!!!" Sofia called out angrily.
She held the phone away from her ear as the speaker almost made her deaf.
"Your father called my mother!" Sofia's voice was three pitches higher than normal. "He called my MOTHER Elena, asking if I knew where you were—"
"Sofia—"
"Shut it woman! And I covered for you obviously because I'm a good friend and I love you but ELENA what is going on, where are you actually, your father sounded so weird— this weirdness has been on since that party!"
"I'm fine!" Elena whined. Her voice came out slightly strange and she cleared her throat. "I promise I'm fine."
"You don't sound fine girl."
"I'm fine Sofia."
"Then why do you sound like that?"
"Like what?"
"Like someone just told you something that turned your whole brain upside down and you're about to cry—"
"Nobody told me anything" Elena said quickly. Which was technically true. She had heard it from her floor. That was different.
"Elena!"
"Sofia I need to call you back."
"Don't you dare—"
"Ten minutes I promise" she said, and ended the call.
She got up and went to the window and looked out at the courtyard and pressed her forehead against the cool glass.
Her thoughts drifted back to the office earlier. His arms on either side of her, the heat coming off him, the way her heart had gone completely haywire before she pushed him away when She thought about Adriana leaving with tears on her face and Alessandro calling her an old acquaintance who didn't know her place.
So a woman in his life didn't know her place?
She thought about what it meant to go to Rome with a man who according to his own brother wanted her close to him and had not bothered to correct that assessment.
She pressed her lips together.
She needed to be smart about this. She needed to remember who he was and what this situation was and why she was in this house in the first place and she needed to stop letting her body make decisions her brain hadn't approved.
She was going to be smart.
She was going to be completely sensible, smart and totally unaffected.
Her phone buzzed.
Sofia again. This time a voice note, forty seven seconds long, which meant it was going to be a lot of scolding.
Elena stared at it.
Then her thoughts drifted again to Alessandro not denying Lucas's accusations and felt her face go warm all over again and groaned loudly into the empty room.
"Fuck!!! No stop it!!! Stop blushing!" She slapped her cheeks with both hands.
Rome was going to be a complete and total disaster.
She already knew.
"Fuck!"