Fire and blood (Book2 of Wolves of Milano)

2. The Firestation

Driving down the road in a part of town she has never seen before, Grazia realizes that her life is one of privilege. Even growing up, they have always lived in the upper scale part of town. And the mansion her parents left her is four times bigger than the quaint little house Allegra calls home. Not that there's anything wrong with this house, it’s just so damn small. And she is realistic enough to know that even this house is not cheap on the market, nothing really is in Milano. It’s just a different kind of suburb, the ‘not so rich’, but still situated well enough to afford a house with a garden.

Stopping at the curb, she digs her phone out of her purse to call Allegra. But looking up, she can see her running towards her car. The driveway is short and the girl reaches her in a few moments. She slips into the passenger seat and buckles herself in fast. She seems to be in a hurry today? It’s not like Grazia couldn’t have waited a few minutes.

“Just drive. I’ll explain later.” Allegra breathes out a sigh.

“Good morning to you, too.” Grazia muses and smiles at her. “Something wrong?”

“I’m sorry.” Allegra sighs again. “Good morning… Dad’s having a fit and mother locked herself in the library. I just wanted to get out of the house fast. I hate to listen to them quarrel.”

“Your house has a library?” Grazia asks to divert her thoughts and she is interested to know where they could possibly have fit a library in that small house?

“Yeah. The house is not as small as it looks from the street. It has a living room, a library, the kitchen and my parents' suite downstairs. The upper floor is all mine, except Alessio’s room.” Allegra answers.

“Wow. Who would have thought?” Grazia smirks. She really doesn’t know anything about this part of town. “And you get the whole floor?”

“I do pay rent to my parents for the three rooms.” Allegra smiles. “Where in Milano could I get a three room apartment for 300 Euro a month?”

“You have a point there, but why are they charging you rent? You’re still a student.” Grazia asks and she wonders about the situation at hand.

“It’s voluntary.” Allegra laughs. “They indulged me with my fashion obsession through high school. Now that I have a good paying job, the rent is a way of paying them back.”

“I see. Clever.” Grazia laughs. New things are to be learned about her friend. Allegra is hiding a lot behind her flawless facade. She is not so carefree as she plays it. “Give me the directions to the Fire station, please. We have men to ogle.”

“Sure. Thank you for getting me in a good mood again.” Allegra laughs, too and points her in the right direction.  

Parking in one of the two designated visitors parking spots, Grazia gets a pang of nerves, but she pushes it down fast. She will not fangirl over a guy! She is a professional manager and she deals with good looking guys every day. The small pep talk she gives herself flows down the drain as soon as she lays her eyes on Allegra’s brother. The guy is gorgeous to die for! And he does look as good in real life. Damn! Those photos were not filtered at all! How on Earth can he walk down the street and not cause an accident?

“Alessio!” Allegra yells from the big bay door and her brother turns around to face them. Grazia is hit with a pair of blue eyes that make her knees weak.

“What?” He gestures to his sister. “I can’t get away from you now? Not even at work?”

“Come over here, please.” Allegra smiles at him and he walks slowly over to them. His smile widens when he takes Grazia in and he is ready to ignore his little sister. A player if she ever saw one, but damn, is he hot!

“How can I refuse, if you bring such beauty to our station?” Even his voice changes to more seductive. Oh, calm down! He doesn’t need to know that you have a crush on him, Grazia reminds herself. But that voice makes her skin crawl in a good way.

“Hi.” She says out loud and is immensely relieved that her voice didn’t shake. “I’m Grazia Pietro.”

“Oh! The model agency owner. I knew the name, but I adore the face.” He smiles brightly at her and she gets to experience the charm firsthand. He’s got the same power of seduction that his sister wields so effortlessly. Damn! Grazia, you’re going down!

“We have an idea we want to present to the Commissioner.” Allegra tells him. “Could you get us in to see him? Please!”

“What’s in it for me?” Alessio smirks at his sister, but his eyes travel all over Grazia. She can feel the cares even though he is not touching her.

“You get to play the model again and you get to make some money.” Grazia smiles at him.

“Let’s hear it first.” Alessio surprises them and he steps aside so they can enter the huge garage that houses the fire trucks.

“Have you heard of the calendar that the Australian Firefighters do each year? We want to make one like that, here in Milano.” Grazia explains her idea.

“With puppies and kittens and all?” A tall blond guy asks her and she notices for the first time that they have an audience of about 15 guys. How on Earth did she miss all the testosterone around her?

“Yes. The works. I even have connections at the ZOO and we could shoot there with some more exotic animals.” She answers and the conversation really takes off after that. Suddenly they are taken inside to a room that looks like a mix of a living room and a bar’s playroom with table football and pinball machines. All the guys have something to say and she hears some really good suggestions from the gorgeous men around her. They all look good and she needs to be careful not to drool openly. 

“Which charity did you pick?” A new voice sounds over the chatter and all men turn really quiet all the sudden. The new guy is a bit older but he is looking mighty fine. She would take him for December even without the Santa hat.

“Allegra suggested that we could donate half of the proceeds to rebuilding Sicily after the fires this summer.” Grazia tells him with a smile.

“Wonderful! We’re in.” The man laughs. “If you don’t get enough volunteers, just tell me and I can make it mandatory.”

“That sounds too close to abuse of the office, Commissioner.” Alessio winks at the guy.

“It's for a good cause, so you’ll do it.” The Commissioner orders. “Back to work. And you, young ladies are coming with me. I need more details.”

The Commissioner turned around and walked away at a fast pace, so Grazia grabbed Allegra’s hand and dragged her behind him. They can’t lose this opportunity just because they dragged their feet and didn’t run after the guy fast enough.

“Damn! Even the boss looks fine. Did I just fall down the rabbit hole into Wonderland?” Grazia mutters to Allegra. “Do you think he would agree to be Mr. December?”

“We can talk about it, but I’m not wearing a Santa hat.” His booming voice reaches her ears and all she gets from Allegra is snickering. The girl shakes with quiet laughter.

“Thank you for this opportunity.” Grazia tells the Commissioner.

“You’re welcome, dear. I am always prepared to work with anyone that presents a good cause.” He tells her. “I’m Domenico Mutti. You don’t have to address me with my title, because you’re not my employee.” 

“I’m Grazia Pietro, I run the Pietro modeling agency and my lovely coworker Allegra Totzzi.” Grazia introduces them with a smile.

“I thought you looked familiar. You’re Lorenzo and Graziella’s daughter!” Domenico exclaims. “I went to school with your father.”

“Really? We have to get together and talk about it.” She smiles widely. A friend of her father’s and she didn’t know? She never met him, because he is a charismatic man and she would have remembered him. “I miss them so much.”

“We will. Let’s talk business now. Tell me about this calendar thing.” He smiles back.

“So. The general idea comes from the Australian Firefighters…” Grazia starts her pitch and she pulls out her own copy of the original calendar. She explains her plan in detail and he listens intently and even asks a few good questions. The meeting draggs well into the day and she is tired and exhausted when it’s finally over. But they do have an agreement and she can arrange the sites and a photographer and he will work out a schedule for the firemen that want to cooperate.

“The whole ‘force them to do it’ was just a joke.” Domenico laughs. “I’ll put up a list on the board and we’ll have the volunteers by the end of the day. I think you will have enough for two calendars.”

“I hope so.” Grazia smiles at him. “I’ll call you tomorrow with the update.”

“Good. It was nice seeing you two.” He nods and takes a sharp breath in. “Do you still have your father’s bike collection?”

“Em… yes. Why?” Grazia is confused, because it is just so random and has nothing to do with anything right now.

“If you ever plan to sell any, let me know.” Domenico tells her.

“That was weird.” Grazia says to Allegra in the car.

“About the bikes?” She wonders and laughs. “The guys at the station are bike fanatics. Not all of them, but I’m surprised the Commissioner is.”

“Yeah. He looks way too serious for something like that.” Grazia answers. “But maybe that’s just how he is at work. He might be totally different in private.”

“I didn’t think he would be on board that fast. I thought we would have to convince him to do it.” Allegra admits to her. “But I’m happy. We can go on to the next stage.”

“This will be so much fun. I can’t wait!” Grazia exclaims.

“And you have something to talk about with Alessio. Bikes are his passion.” Allegra smiles.

“Thanks for the clue. I get my tongue tied around him.” Grazia tells her. “I have no idea why, but he does something to me that I can’t explain.”

“Hmm.” Is all the response she gets from Allegra and she has the feeling that her friend is not telling her everything. There is something going on, besides the problems in her family and the weird disappearance of her cousin. She wonders what it is that Allegra knows and is not sharing. Maybe they need a girls night out and she can get things out of Allegra that way? She needs more info on Alessio and getting his sister drunk is a sure way to get it.

But, whatever it is, it will have to wait. She needs to devise a plan to get to Alessio on his own time. They were swarmed at the station and she didn’t even get his number. She needs a new excuse to come by the station and see him again. Maybe Allegra’s bike idea is not so far-fetched after all. Does she dare to take one of the bikes for a ride? She hasn’t been on a bike since her father’s death. It was just too painful for her to even go see the garage. She pays a mechanic to come by every month and look the bikes over and clean them.