Elena walked back into the ballroom and grabbed the first glass of champagne she saw off a passing tray and downed half of it in one go, which was not something she typically did but tonight was apparently not a typical night.
She needed to think. She needed to think fast and clearly and without panicking and she was already failing at least two of those three things.
Ten minutes. She had just ten minutes to figure out how to disappear from her own father's party without any problems, say goodbye to her best friend without actually saying goodbye, and walk back out to a man who had just killed someone and told her she was coming with him like it was a totally normal request. What had she gotten herself into?!
Great. Fine. Absolutely fine.
She spotted Sofia near the center of the room laughing at something one of the Conti brothers was saying, head thrown back, completely at ease, living her best life, completely unaware that her best friend was currently having the worst ten minutes of hers.
Elena crossed the room toward her.
Sofia noticed her before she even arrived, she always did, and her smile faded slightly when she saw Elena's face "what happened to you" she said, pulling away from the conversation she was having.
"Nothing, I'm fine" Elena said "I'm leaving though."
Sofia blinked "what? It's barely eleven—"
"I know, I just—" she exhaled "I have a headache. A bad one, it just hit me."
"You were fine twenty minutes ago Elena."
"Sofia headaches don't send a calendar warning or something—"
"Elena." Sofia grabbed her wrist and lowered her voice, eyes moving over her face with that annoying accuracy she had always had "you look pale. Like actually pale, not just tired pale. What is going on?"
And for a second, just one second, Elena almost told her. She almost grabbed Sofia by both arms and said there is a dead man somewhere in this garden and his killer is waiting for me at the gate and I don't know what's going to happen to me and I'm terrified — she almost said all of it.
Instead she hugged her and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
Sofia went still for a moment, surprised, then hugged her back "okay you're scaring me now" she said against her shoulder.
"I'm fine" Elena pulled back and smiled and it was the most convincing smile she had ever produced in her life "I'll call you tomorrow, I promise."
Sofia searched her face "you swear you're okay."
"I swear."
She was already lying and she felt terrible about it but she didn't have time to feel terrible about it right now so she brushed it away for later and squeezed Sofia's hand once and walking away before Sofia could find another reason to keep her there.
Her father was even harder.
She found him near the bar with two of his business partners, deep in conversation, the kind of conversation that involved a lot of hand gestures and low voices and would probably result in a deal being signed somewhere by Tuesday. He noticed her approaching and excused himself, stepping toward her with a slight frown.
"You're leaving?" he said, reading her immediately the way he always could when it came to business and almost never could when it came to her.
"Headache" she said "a bad one."
He studied her face "I'll have someone drive you—"
"I already have a car papa, forgotten?"
"Elena—" he called to argue.
"Papa." She kissed his cheek and squeezed his arm smiling up at him and hated herself a little bit "I'm fine papa. I'll call you in the morning."
He looked at her for a moment longer, suspicion flickering behind his eyes, and she held her breath — but then he nodded and patted her hand turning back to his conversation and that was that.
Giovanni Rossi, the man who could read a room full of businessmen like a book, completely missed the fact that his daughter was falling apart right in front of him.
She was used to that already.
The garden felt so weird to her now.
She walked the same stone path she had walked a hundred times but everything looked slightly off, like a painting someone had moved two inches to the left, familiar but completely wrong. The roses smelled the same. The fountains sounded the same. The lights from the house were the same warm gold they always were.
Everything was the same except for her.
She could see the gate from the path and she felt like running away.
Alessandro was standing beside a black car, one hand in his pocket, looking at his phone, completely relaxed, like he was waiting for a car to warm up and not like he had just turned her life upside down and given her ten minutes to process it.
He looked up when he heard her heels clicking.
His eyes moved over to her once like he was accessing her, and then he opened the car door without saying anything.
Elena stopped in front of him "I don't have any of my things" she said.
"I know."
"I'm not —I don't even have a change of clothes—"
"It will be handled" he said simply.
She looked at him "that's it? It will be handled?"
"Elena." He called her quietly but my Gid, it sounded like a warning. "get in the car or do you want me to cripple you and pick you up like a fucking thing?"
She wanted to argue. She had about fifteen arguments lined up and ready to go actually, she had been building them the whole walk over here. But she looked at his face and at the open car door in fear and at the house behind her still glowing with party lights and music and her father's laughter floating through the windows and she thought about that photograph on his phone.
She quietly got in the car.
Alessandro got in after her and closed the door. The driver pulled away from the curb and just like that the Rossi estate was behind her, getting smaller in the window, Elena kept her eyes on it until it disappeared completely around a corner, she felt like crying right now but the tears refused to fall.
Then she faced forward.
The city moved past the windows, Milan at night, streets she had grown up on, restaurants she knew, corners she had turned a thousand times on the way to places she had chosen to go.
It felt strange to be moving through it going somewhere she hadn't chosen.
She glanced at Alessandro beside her. He was looking out his own window, jaw set, one hand resting on his knee, the picture of a man with absolutely nothing on his conscience.
"How long?" she said.
He didn't look at her "we've been over this."
"I want an actual answer."
"And I gave you the only one I fucking have woman!"
She turned back to the window "you know this is kidnapping" she said, mostly to herself.
"You got in willingly kitten."
"Under duress!"
"Semantics!"
Elena let out a short breath that was almost a laugh, not because anything was funny, just because the audacity of this man was genuinely something else.
"Your name." She asked simply.
"You know that already princess." He said simply.
"If I did, I wouldn't ask you smug asshole." She shot back.
"Alessandro DeLuca, the biggest in the mob world." He said with a smirk.
Mob world? What? So she has gotten herself involved with a mafia boss or what? Wait wait! What exactly was her father doing with such people? She couldn't even say anything back to him so she stayed silent.
She pressed her fingers together in her laps and watched the city go by as she told herself very firmly that she was going to be okay.
She was going to figure this out.
She always figured things out.
Alessandro DeLuca had clearly never dealt with her before.