Desolation (New Rochelle Mafia #1)

7. CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 7

DRAKE

W ell, this is gonna be fun. Elodie and Reba are both watching me intently, waiting to see what I have to say. I don’t even know where to start. I say as much out loud. Reba says, “Start at the beginning. All the way back. “

Standing, I start pacing. Elodie is watching me and I realize my pacing is making her have to move her head too much. Pulling the chair out, I turn it to face away from her and straddle it so that the back of the chair is a barrier of sorts. “Do you remember a long time ago in elementary school when I first started going to school here?”

She nods.

“You had dropped your books, well actually someone ran into you and instead of helping you they just kept going,” I said.

“As I recall you never helped me either. Just stood there, staring like I had three heads,” she says wryly.

“Yeah, I’m sorry about that. I sorta fell in love with you at that moment and I was frozen. I’m sorry,” I spit out quickly. Oh shit. Did I just say that?

Her eyes widen, then she flinches. Maybe I need to let her rest a little first. I open my mouth to say that and she immediately says, “Don’t you dare, you owe me an explanation and I want it all, now.”

Swallowing, I continue, “Anyway, when you put your books in your bag I saw you wince, like you were in pain. I have been following you when I can ever since, or having our men follow you. I realize that makes me sound like a stalker, though that’s not what I was doing.” That’s exactly what I was doing though.

Elodie is staring at me in shock. “Wait, so the blond hair this morning, was it you?”

I nod. “The only thing I haven’t been able to do is keep you safe at home, and that’s how I figured out that’s where you were getting hurt. Unfortunately, my father never let me do anything up till now. I only had circumstantial evidence of what was happening. No real proof. We aren’t even supposed to be in your neighborhood at all because it belongs to the Petrucci Familia. ”

“So my parents’ dealer Dominic actually does work for the mafia? I always suspected,” Elodie says with a shudder, the fear evident on her face.

“Wait, Dominic is who your parents actually buy the drugs from? Like he’s the one that delivers them and everything?” I ask.

She nods. “For a long time now.”

Hearing a gasp from one of the men, I motion for him to go tell my dad. He closes the door quietly behind him as he goes. This is not a good development. “El, Dominic is the Petrucci Familia heir.”

Her look of utter shock sends fear and anger coursing through my body. She had no idea.

This changes everything. Why the fuck is the heir to the Petrucci Familia delivering drugs like a petty drug dealer? I’ll have to think about that later. I need to get the rest of my story out.

“We can come back to that. Let me finish telling you the story,” I say.

She nods again.

“I’ve been silently watching you, waiting for the day I could tell you how I feel or hoping it would happen naturally, only it hasn’t and I got impatient since I’ve been away at college,” I say.

“So you decided to make friends today? Just randomly?” she asks.

“Yeah, honestly, I was a little worried that you’d seen me this morning, so first I wanted to be sure you hadn’t. Then I just couldn’t help myself. This evening at the diner, I decided to just go for it,” I say. “I’m in there a lot when you aren’t around visiting Reba. ”

Reba watches Elodie’s face crumple. “Sweet Pea, it isn’t like that. Remember I told you I was friends with Gio? Well, I was in a similar situation when I was your age. Gio helped me get away, him and our other friend Eddie. I came here. Eddie and I fell in love. A few years later he was killed when someone tried to take over when Gio’s father, Tony, still ran the Familia. This was always my safe place, and I knew it could be for you too. Crazy as it sounds, Drake does love you. He just has a real dumb way of showing it,” she says, giving Drake some mean side eye.

The pain in Elodie’s face eases some, but not all the way. This did some damage to her trust in Reba. She is probably one of the few people El thought she could trust and because of me that’s broken.

“Then why were you telling me to stay away from him?” she asks.

“Honestly, I don’t want you to go through what I did. But that doesn’t change the way Drake feels and I just want you to be sure about what you are doing,” Reba says. “Just because he helps you doesn’t mean you have to be anything more than friends.”

Elodie turns her gaze back to me, “Continue.”

“Tonight Reba texted me to let me know that she was driving you home. I usually have one of my men follow you home on the nights you walk. When Reba takes you she always lets me know so I can tell them it’s ok to go. But I had a weird feeling all night. I couldn’t shake it. So when she texted me I was already in the car on my way there. When I drove by your house, I saw the tail end of them beating you and you crawling your way up the stairs.” Stopping, I catch my breath.

Swallowing the lump in my throat I close my eyes, trying to block that vision from my head. The memories of her crawling across the floor away from her own parents will haunt me for the rest of my life.

“After that I called my dad, he sent men, and you know the rest,” I say.

“So let me repeat this to see if I have this right. You fell in love with me eight years ago. You never said anything, just stalked me this whole time, or had your men stalk me. You also got information from the one person besides Ms. Bates that I trust. Wait, was Ms. Bates in on this too?” she asks, eyes wide with surprise.

Wincing, I nod my head. “Not in the way you think though. She did let me supply the money for the camera you have been using, and it doesn’t belong to the school. It’s yours to keep.”

El just sits there looking at me. I can’t read a thing on her face, but by her body language I know she isn’t happy at all.

“I need a little while to think about everything you said,” she tells me.

Nodding, I stand. “If you need anything, anything at all, we will get it for you. But please stay here while you get better. Please,” I tell her.

El shrugs her shoulders. This is not going the way I hoped it would. Honestly, I don’t know why I thought it would. If she wasn’t so beat up she would probably be running screaming. I’ve been stalking her all this time. No matter if it was to protect her. That’s insane.

But I don’t care. She will be mine. She is mine.

She just needs to come around to it, and I will do everything I can to get her there.