Page 29 of Mafia Star

Derik sneers at me before turning his glare on Marco.

“What’re you doing here, anyway?”

Marco shrugs.

“I figured it’s close to ten. Your evening was probably going to be over soon, so I decided to take Beth home.”

“Beth? Her name’s Liz.”

Derik’s the one who speaks, but I can tell Steve’s thinking the same thing.

“Marco calls me that. He’s the only one.”

Steve looks like he’s locking that little nugget away for later.

“Are you ready, piccolina?”

Marco’s voice is barely more than a whisper against my ear. I nod before I step forward to hug my brother.

“I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” I give him a pointed stare. “It was nice meeting you, Chasity. Goodnight, Derik.”

Rude. I know. But I don’t give a fuck. I turn toward the door, and Marco wraps his arm around my waist. I move to do the same for good measure, but his arm adjusts, so I’m forced to hold mine higher. It’s awkward since I’m shorter, but it still makes us look like a couple. He nods to Anton and Sergei, who are now at the door. I mouth “thanks.”

There’s a town car waiting for us, so I slide in first. Marco walks around to the street side door and gets in. The driver closes mine, and I notice the privacy glass is up. The car pulls away from the curb, but neither Marco nor I have given the driver an address or directions. When I look over at Marco, I realize he must already know it and told his driver before he walked in. His family probably ran an extensive background on all of mine. Did he already know I belonged to the club? Fuck. That’s embarrassing.

“Marco, I’m sorry I made you go in there. I told Misha why you’d be showing up. I know they’ll be talking about it, but I figured they would, anyway. I didn’t want him to give you any shit.”

“I know. He pointed you out, even though I’d already spotted you.”

“You had? I didn’t think I’d be easy to see.”

“I will always find you, Beth.”

“Thank you, Daddy.”

I can’t believe I just said that. He might call me piccolina wherever and whenever he wants. But Daddy is supposed to be just at the club. Not the real world. He picks me up and settles me on his lap just like he did last night when we sat on the sofa.

“You can call me that whenever you want, Beth. I think you felt really uncomfortable all night. And now that you’re with me, you feel safe. That’s why you said it.”

“It is. But you know I’m not a little, right?”

He chuckles.

“Nothing about that teddy last night or the way you rode me makes me think you’re a little.”

“You let me be in control for a little bit. Or at least, you let me think I was. You took over just like you said you would.”

“Does that bother you?”

“No. I thought it was— just right.”

“What were you really going to say because I think it was a fuck ton more than ‘just right?’”

“Really good.”

“Beth.”

“What?”

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