Page 84 of Mob Queen

“What are you sorry for?” Rome asks. I slowly look over to him and shake my head. He has a soft spot for the girl, and that has the possibility of being even more dangerous.

“I’ve caused you too much trouble. I should leave.”

“You’ll do no such thing,” Rome says with edge.

The girl looks at him and he offers a small smile.

Seriously, Rome?

“Do you want to collect your clothes?” I ask, snapping them out of giving each other googly eyes.

“My friend can have them if she ever returns. I hope she’s okay.”

I really don’t give a shit about her friend. “I’ll arrange for one of the men to take you to the store to buy more clothes. You’ll soon outgrow the ones you bought when you first arrived. I’ll also have the doctor come to the house and ?” I wave my hand over her stomach. “You also need to make sure you’re okay.”

“I have no money.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Rome says.

For fuck’s sake, he’s gotta stop getting hard over this girl. “That’s all, Elena, you can leave.”

Quietly she stands and heads toward the door, but she stops and swings around to me. “I know you owe me nothing, but I owe you my life. Thank you.”

I don’t reply, instead I lift my mug and sip on my coffee. Elena silently leaves, closing the door behind her. “You,” I say and point at Rome once she’s gone. “You can’t tap that.”

“What?” he says in a higher pitch. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You’re getting a fucking hard-on for the girl. She’s a liability.”

“Fuck off, Frank,” he says as he stands and paces back and forth in front of our desks. “It’s not like that.”

“She’s not even eighteen and you’re twenty-four, that’s six years in case you can’t count.”

“It’s not like that,” he says as he rakes his hand through his hair.

“What’s it like then?”

“What does it matter how old she is? How old is the politician? He’s gotta be in his thirties, and you’re twenty-six.” He stops pacing and squares up to me.

“What I’m hearing is that you do like the girl.”

There’s a long moment of an awkward silence between us. Rome drops his gaze and comes to lean on my desk. I sit back in my seat and wait for his reply. “I don’t know what it is, Frank. But I feel like I have to protect her from everyone.”

“Is it because she’s pregnant?”

“I don’t know,” he earnestly replies. “I can’t honestly tell you what it is. The moment I saw her, I felt my entire body change. I want...”

“What do you want?”

Rome runs his hand over his chiseled chin and intakes a sharp breath. “I want her.”

“Want as in to fuck, or want as in to fuck on a permanent basis?” Please let it be the first. Rome’s awkward silence screams the answer. “I see.” Fuck. “This might be a problem.”

“I know.”

“Are you claiming her?”

“All I know is I don’t want her hurt, at all.”

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