Page 11 of Paying the Mafia Don

“You will personally deliver.” He snarls. Ripping the gentleman’s mask, he’s been wearing off and throwing it away.

“That product was worth hundreds of millions of fucking dollars. You will get my shit. You will bring me the person who stole it. Because I want the motherfucker who thought he could steal my shit and get away with it. I don’t want his body. I want him. Do you understand me, Gataki?”

Now it’s my turn to stand. If this asshole was here, I’d wipe the fucking floor with him just to mop up his blood. “You don’t get to—”

My father interrupts. “The Gatakis have always stood behind our services with a one hundred percent guarantee. “We are caught a little unaware by this. But we will get on it, immediately.”

“I want the thief.”

“So do we.” My father growls before ending the call.

Theo returns. His grim face carved from stone gives us the answer before he speaks. “It’s true. All four dead. Weapons drawn.” He turns to me. “What are you thinking?”

“Someone sold us out.” I snap the obvious.

“Impossible,” Matthias argues. “These are men who have been loyal to us for years.”

“It’s possible—if we have a traitor in our midst.” My father rubs his chin; his eyes are harder than I’ve ever seen them. “Greed is a powerful motivator.” His eyes narrow. “The motivation doesn’t matter. The money doesn’t matter. What matters now is finding this malaka cutting his balls off, and shoving them down his throat. The DeLucas want him, and they can have him. But he will settle with us first.”

“I’m on it,” I say, already making plans to arrange a private flight back to the States.

He shakes his head. “You have your new wife and a young child. Let your brothers handle it.”

“Bullshit.” I rarely raise my voice or curse at him, and everyone quiets. “Am I the head of this organization or not?”

He nods. “It is done.”

Chapter 5

I’m sitting with my legs folded criss-cross apple sauce in the middle of his massive bed when Leo returns at three am. His brows lift when he spots me wide awake. “You didn’t have to wait up for me. If you wanted my cock in the middle of the night, you could have just rolled over and swallowed it.” I know he’s kidding. It took me a while to learn his humor, but we’re getting there. He waits for my snappy return, but I don’t have one.

His brows furrow, and he stalks closer to the bed. The first time I met him, he reminded me of a jungle cat. That hasn’t changed. This time instead of being predatory, he’s watchful. When he reads the room, he shifts into worried. “What’s wrong?”

I shrug, wrapping my arms around myself. “My mother called a little while ago…” He looks at the clock. Prompting me with “…and,” when I don’t continue.

“Good news, my father earned a weekend at home.”

“Bad news?”

“When he found the money I’ve been sending her, he went on a gambling binge, and she hasn’t heard from him since.” He sits back against the headboard and pulls me onto his lap. I wrap my arms around his neck because this surly gangster has become my safe place. I sniff, and my voice warbles a bit, but I continue. It’s easier now that I’m talking into the curve of his neck. “Guess who she did hear from?” He stiffens, his hand stops stroking my back with a stutter before he continues. He’s a smart man. I’m sure he’s already put it together, but I tell him anyway. “she’s heard from several creditors because apparently he’s already built up a stack of IOUs that he can’t possibly pay.”

“It’s okay. It’s only money.” He tips my chin up. “I got you.”

The words, so simple—so sincere. From a man who said he’d never care about me, yet all he does is take care of me, have me bursting into tears.

His eyes buck wide as if I just set a live grenade in his lap. If the situation didn’t have me so defeated, I would laugh hysterically. Instead I mop my face with the edge of my sleeve and kiss his cheek. “Thank you. But no, thank you.”

“Okhi.”

“Okhi,” I repeat back in the native Greek that makes him happy. He’s been teaching me the language, and he’s always thrilled when I use it. He thinks Greek is the world’s most romantic language. I don’t have the heart to tell him it’s not. Instead, I curl back up on his shoulder. My voice is whisper then but he stills to take in every word.

“I’ve always wanted what you guys have. A family that sits around encouraging, annoying, supporting, teasing—loving each other. I never had that. Never had parents who cared about me. Never had anyone willing to protect me—certainly not help me. Not until I met Rosalyn and she became my family. Now I have you all, another family. I don’t know why I keep trying to make the family I was stuck with into the family that chose me. The family that wants me—because they never did.” it was hard as hell to admit, but sitting on his lap with his strong arms wrapped around me, holding me up—makes it easier. I sniff again. “I was an inconvenience until I became convenient.” His hand wipes my cheek. I nuzzle into it and whisper. “I used to give my mom credit for not letting him sell me to strangers. But now that I have Cassie in my life. I can’t. I’d die for her. I’ve only known her for one month, and she’s my world. My family. No man would ever get that close to her.”

“To either of you…” I know he’s just being his usual over-the-top Greek possessive self, but I accept it. Accept that I have value to him.

“So, this time, I’m not jumping into the pool of hungry sharks to save them. I’m not letting my new family take on the burdens of my old. Rosalyn’s been telling me for years that just because someone is family doesn’t mean they get to rain their toxic shit all over my life whenever they feel like it.

“I like this, Rosalyn.” I shrugged. Because who didn’t? “She threatened me at the wedding.”

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