Desolation (New Rochelle Mafia #1)

30. CHAPTER 30

CHAPTER 30

ELODIE

D rake and I have come a long way in the last month. He has let me do everything at my own pace, which I love. I haven’t felt one bit of pressure from him, ever. The therapy with Vanessa is helping too. I don’t have to hold onto those feelings that I felt with Dominic, and I’ll be damned if I let it mess up what I have with Drake.

I have never felt so safe in my life as I do now. I think that has been a major reason why I’ve been able to work through so much on therapy so far. I’m not living in a constant state of fight or flight. Sure we haven’t dealt with Dominic and Aiden yet, but I don’t worry about my daily safety anymore.

Gwen comes often and we have become fast friends, as close as sisters. I’ve seen her and Marco exchange some heated glances lately and I am now texting her about it.

Me: Soooooo, what’s up with you and Marco? I saw that look you two were giving each other in the hall the other day.

Gwen: Hmm? I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Me: Uh huh. Spill it woman!!!!

Gwen: We may or may not have gone out the other night. And one thing may or may not have led to another and I may or may not have had the best sex of my life lol

Me: You and your “may or may not have”. You may as well just say allegedly. You spend too much time at the office.

Gwen: Yeah, Evan said as much the other day and when Marco picked me up to drive me home, he asked me out and I said yes. So here we are.

Me: So when is the next date?

Gwen: Not sure. He said they think they are getting close to the big event and he doesn’t want to make a plan and have to break it.

Hmmm, Drake hasn’t said anything to me. I’m gonna have to check in with him and see what’s going on. I wonder if they got some new information.

Me: When did he tell you that?

Gwen: Just about an hour ago when we were texting.

Ah, ok that makes sense. Drake hasn’t made it home from school yet. I’m sure he will tell me when he gets home. Me, Reba, and Gwen have been gathering supplies for when things finally go down. Online orders of course since Reba and I are still on house arrest for the time being.

Drake hates it when I call it house arrest. “It’s for your safety, not to control you,” he said with a sigh.

I get it, but I am definitely getting sick of being locked in here. I’m ready to do something. Anything.

Telling Gwen I’ll talk to her later, I slip my phone into my pocket just as Drake walks through the door.

Wrapping my arms around his waist, I hug him. It’s pretty boring without him here during the day. I haven’t been able to take pictures either so I’ve been finding busy work to do for the warehouse.

“Any news?” I ask.

“Actually, yeah, we heard they are setting the date and time in the next forty-eight hours so we are all on high alert so we can move out quickly. I won’t be going to work or school the next couple days. Have you ladies gotten everything together that you need?” he asks.

“I think so? We have clothes, mostly just a sweat suit for everyone for now and some t-shirts. We don’t know what any of them will have, but we decided if it was us we would want to be covered as much as possible and warm. We have hygiene kits for everyone, first aid supplies in packs for the doctors and other volunteers. Snacks, water, and a few other things like that. I think we are set to go on everything. I just wish it would get here because I’m going stir crazy being cooped up. Which seems really miniscule compared to what they are all going through right now,” I say with a sigh, feeling guilty for complaining .

“Hey, don’t do that,” he says with a frown. “You went through your own trauma too, for an entire year. Then you came straight here and had to be forced to stay in for your own safety. Yet again, trapped somewhere and not able to leave. I get it and you have every right to be frustrated.”

He’s right, of course, but still. “I know, but I still feel like they are so much worse off.”

“Come on, let’s go talk to my dad and brother and see what’s going on,” he says, squeezing my hand.

I love that he lets me just feel my feelings, and as long as I’m not being too hard on myself, he lets it go. It helps me be able to deal with them better and not dwell too much on the hard stuff. I can work through that in therapy with Vanessa.

As we walk hand in hand down the hall, I marvel at how much my life has changed. The feeling of safety I have, the love I feel from Drake and his family. I will fight tooth and nail to keep it.

Just like I’m going to fight tooth and nail for the people we are going to rescue from Dominic. Vanessa told me not to get too caught up in the feeling, but when I think about what we are going to do, it fills me with so much satisfaction knowing that Dominic isn’t going to be able to complete this heinous plan of his. We are going to take it from him just like he took so much from me.

We get to Gio’s office and Drake knocks softly. Anthony opens the door and motions us in. “We just got the time. Tomorrow night at seven.”

My body starts to buzz with nervousness and excitement. It’s finally here. No more hiding. We are going to rescue those women, and finish this finally once and for all. My head comes up and I look around the room at the three men who freed me, who saved me from my parents and then Dominic.

My eyes tear up, and gulping back a sob, I go around the room and hug them all. “Thank you all, so much. For saving me, and now for saving all these women. No matter what happens, I will be grateful to you for the rest of my life.”

Gio says, “Don’t thank us yet. We still gotta get through this safely. There’s a lot of planning to do now that we know the time and date. We would like you to sit in on the meeting too, if you feel comfortable. We want to keep you posted on all the things that are happening. I know you’ll be worried about Drake and we will be worried about you and Reba. So we want to make sure everyone is on the same page.”

Nodding, I say, “Sounds good to me. Let me go grab Reba. Conference room?”

Gio and Anthony both nod and I get up to go find Reba.

I find her in the kitchen. “Hey, meeting in the conference room. We finally got the information we’ve been waiting for and Gio wants to get us all together to finalize the plan.”

She looks nervous. I know that they found something out about Aiden being involved in what happened years ago during the attempted takeover, but Reba hasn’t wanted to talk about it yet. “You okay?” I ask sitting next to her on one of the stools.

“No. Not really. All these old feelings are coming up. I know I haven’t said anything yet about what we found out, but Aiden is the one who shot Eddie. The goal was to take out Gio’s right hand, and in the chaos that was happening it was Aiden who made the shot, though no one knew it until they found one of Dominic’s men recently and they got it all out of him. Tony and Eddie’s deaths were both calculated for Gio to be the one to take over and then make Aiden his right hand so that they could get information all these years,” she says.

Holy fuck. Talk about the long game. Dominic’s father is a bastard. To take out Gio’s father and his right hand man at the same time is diabolical. Dominic would never be smart enough to think of that. Which is most likely why Aiden has been working with him. Aiden probably thinks of Dominic as an easy mark. With Dominic trying so hard to be in control of things, this was a perfect opportunity for Aiden to really fuck Gio over.

I rub Reba’s back as we sit for a while in silence, both of us lost in our own thoughts on what the Petrucci Familia is responsible for.

“I know it isn’t going to bring Eddie back, but we’re going to get retribution for what they have done. We are going to save those women too. Doing that is going to give us some of that power back that we’ve lost. They won’t have control over us any more. It’s almost over and then we can heal and move on,” I say fiercely.

“I have watched you go from a scared little girl to a strong woman, Elodie. I’m so proud of you, and I’m so glad you have Drake. I know I tried to warn you away because I was afraid of what may happen, and bad things did happen, but not because of him. All this time, I have wrongfully blamed Gio for not protecting Eddie well enough back then. But it wasn’t his fault,” she says softly.

“You need to tell him. You need to tell him you forgive him and that you wrongfully blamed him and apologize. I know you all were friends then and you still are but there are a lot of things that need to be said. I think you should say them before we all go into this tomorrow. Just in case,” I tell her.

She looks at me with tears in her eyes and says, “You’re right. You are. I’ll do it after the meeting, though I don’t really know what to say,” she says with a small laugh. “Hey Gio, I’m sorry I’ve been such a complete ass to you all these years.”

“You know, Gio opened his home to us when we needed it. I don’t think he’s holding a grudge. In fact I think it’s the exact opposite of that,” I say cryptically.

She looks at me in question but I just shake my head. That isn’t a conversation she is going to want to have right now. But when he thinks no one is looking, Gio looks at Reba with longing in his eyes. I don’t know what kind of friendship they all had when they were younger, but I don’t think there was a time where it was just friends for Gio. I know he met Drake and Anthony’s mother not long after all that, and that he did love her. But Drake told me it was more that they were content with each other and comfortable. Not a big sweeping love, but a quiet one.

Makes me wonder if he wasn’t also in love with Reba and could never say.

“Well, we should probably get to the conference room for the meeting,” I say standing.

When we get to the conference room everyone is waiting. Gio sits at the head of the long table, every bit the Mafia Don that he is, face serious, suit immaculate. Anthony on the right and Drake on the left, like bookends. All blond and blue eyed Italian yumminess. Geez Elodie, get it together. Reba looks as gobsmacked as I am to see them like this. Everything is usually so casual. Seeing them in full form like this, makes goosebumps raise on my arms. It’s easy to forget how deadly these guys can all be when I mostly just see the sweet and caring side of them. But none of that is visible right now. Every single person in this room is taut with barely hidden violence crawling under their skin.

Marco sits on Anthony’s right, followed by Louis, and then Reba takes the next seat. To Drake’s left is Zeke, then Eren, and I take the seat next to Eren.

Gio clears his throat. “The date is tomorrow at seven pm. We have all the crews ready on standby. Everyone needs to gather their team and let them know. I want everyone loaded with every weapon you can fit as well as your vests. No one is to be without a vest. Including the ladies. Especially them. I know they aren’t going to the main warehouse but that doesn’t mean Dominic won’t send his men looking for them, knowing we are there.”

Drake looks down the table at me, an expression in his eyes that I can’t quite read. I see Gio glance briefly at Reba as well. I honestly hadn’t thought of that. But it’s not like Dominic knows where the second location is. Aiden isn’t even aware of the location. Nervousness slides through my body.

Nope. Just breathe Elodie. You got this. It’s going to end tomorrow night. No more needing to be afraid and hopefully Dominic will be dead and it will all be over.

Looking around the room at these faces that have become dear to me, I shiver. I don’t want to lose a single one of them.

Gio, the father I never had. Anthony, the best big brother. Louis, jokester and getaway driver extraordinaire. Zeke and Eren, my saviors. They better all make it out of there alive or I don’t know what I will do.