Page 23 of Ruthless Mafia Heir

"What does that mean? I don’t— I don’t get it, Blake. You keep talking like there’s something I’m missing, and I can never put the pieces together. What is that restaurant? Is it a front for something?"

I fall silent. I can’t give her details. That much, I know for sure. She can’t know the ins and outs of the truth of my father’s business, the weapons we sell across the city, the businesses we roll that money through to clean it up. She’s clearly principled, and she’ll do whatever she can to distance herself from people who are involved in stuff like that.

Or expose us. And I’m not willing to take that risk.

"It is," I reply evenly. She’s not going to believe me if I try to spin her anything else. She's already close enough as it is, and there’s no point giving her reason to delve any deeper.

"For what?"

"It's better that you don’t know."

I can see how frustrated she is as she finishes her drink and glances out the window to the streets outside. Up here, they seem so far away, as though the people who crowd them are nothing more than pieces being moved around a board.

"I don’t know what the hell you’re involved with, Blake," she tells me softly as she stares down. "But I... I know I don’t want to be involved with it."

"You’re not. You’re not involved with any part of it. You work for the restaurant, that’s it. Nothing more, nothing less."

She lifts her gaze up to meet mine. "You’re not going to let me leave the restaurant, are you?"

"You need that job," I remind her.

She smiles slightly. "I could find a new one, if I wanted."

"And do you want to?"

She falls silent for a second again. It’s clear she doesn’t have an answer for that.

I fear, for a moment, that I’ve exposed more than I should have. This woman, after all, is still new to me. As much as I’ve obsessed over her and discovered so much about her, I don’t know if I can trust her.

But the feel of us together like that, it’s still burning through my system, demanding and commanding and impossible to ignore. There’s no way I can pretend I don’t notice it. If telling her some small piece of the truth is going to keep her around, then that’s what I’ll do.

"You should get some rest," I tell her. "I have a spare bedroom here you can sleep in—"

"I’ll just get a cab back to my dorm room."

I shoot her a look. "It’s late. And besides, don’t you have an early shift at the restaurant tomorrow? I can drive you over there."

She sighs, conceding the point.

"Yeah, okay. But I... I want to sleep alone tonight, Blake. All of this, it’s... it’s so much for me to wrap my head around, I—"

"That’s fine," I reply, cutting her off, though, underneath it all, I’m a little disappointed. I’d hoped that she might want to sleep next to me. Something about the thought of her like that, so vulnerable, so close to me, sets off a rush of excitement in my chest.

I take the glass from her and lead her to the spare bedroom, which overlooks a swimming pool at the back of the apartment block. She glances around the place and lets out a small chuckle.

"I think I grew up in an apartment smaller than this entire room," she remarks. I manage to smile. I appreciate her attempt to lighten the mood, especially in the face of everything I just told her.

"You ever need a place to stay, you know it’s always here," I promise her. She turns to me, cocking an eyebrow.

"Oh yeah? And you’re not going to go demanding any unscrupulous rent from me, are you?"

I grin. My mind floods with the possibilities, everything I could do to her if I wanted her to pay her bills on time.

"You should get some rest," I reply before I can stray too far down that path. If I let myself linger on it for too much longer, I’m going to be tempted to fuck her again, and she’s made it clear that’s not where her head is at right now.

Before I can stop myself, I lean forward and plant a kiss on her forehead. There’s no intent behind it, nothing sexual, at least. She’s the first person I’ve talked to about any of this stuff in a long time, the first person I’ve wanted to trust in longer than I would care to admit. And I... I don’t know where that leaves us. I don’t know if she’s going to see me the same way, if I can even trust her with everything I’ve said.

But, right now, it doesn’t matter. She tenses slightly when I touch her, but when I pull back, there’s a slight smile on her face.

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