Page 76 of Texting My Mafia Boss

I sob quietly, tears sliding down my cheeks. He walks around the bed and pulls me into a hug. I cling to him tightly, sobbing as the raw emotion punches out of me.

He brushes the tears from my cheeks, still with blood clinging to him, yet his eyes are soft.

“She called me mommy,” I murmur.

“She did?” He’s still smiling.

“I’m not sure she even remembers. I was shocked after I hit that man. Stupid?—”

“You’renotstupid,” he says fiercely.

“She snapped me out of it.”

“That’s because she knows,” he says huskily. “You could be her?—”

I throw myself at him for a passionate kiss. He catches me, kissing me hard at first. I feel the need in him rise up, his focus honing in on me. He softens the kiss a moment later, undoubtedly aware of his sleeping daughter.

I step back slightly, placing my hand on his rock-hard chest. “You can’t say things like that,” I murmur. “This is a stressful time. Life and death… we still have to be smart.”

“You’re the mature one,” he says, kissing me on the cheek gently. “And you’re right. When this is done…” He glances at his daughter, then leans close, whispering in my ear. “When the man responsible for your parents’ deaths is dead,thenwe can choose what life we want to have.”

I swallow, knowing a different woman would be disgusted, scared. But I’m filled with vengeance… and a desperate need to move on, to be somebody else. Could I be his woman and a parental figure to Sylvie?

Standing on my tiptoes, I whisper, “Where do you stand on that? What’s the next step? I heard you on the phone.”

He moves to my ear again. “I’ve taken steps. They should work.”

“Should?” I ask anxiously.

“If they don’t, I’ve got men waiting in the forest. They’ll come for you. They’ll take you someplace safe.”

“Where will you be?” I ask.

He pulls away, looks at me, his eyes getting that intense, primal look he had when the vault first opened, when I told Sylvie not to look and stepped over the dead bodies, when a piece of me screamed I shouldn’t be here, near him. He’s too hot. Too dangerous.

I don’t have to ask.

If his plan doesn’t work, he’ll be dead.

CHAPTER 28

ETTORE

“How’s the shoulder?” I ask, driving away from the safe house, nodding at my trusted men placed around the perimeter.

Mark laughs savagely. “What shoulder?”

“Damn right,” I grunt.

“We should take more time, Ettore. You know that.”

“If we give him time, he’ll scramble for support. Invent more excuses. He needs to die.”

“This is about your girl.”

“Are you fucking surprised?” I snap, slamming my hand on the steering wheel. “It’s one thing to try tomarryher, for fuck’s sake, but to send men to?—”

“Not her. Your nanny.”