Page 75 of Mistletoe in the Mafia

“Were you planning on following me inside in the first place?” Madelyn asks, laughing. “Anyway, no. Stay here, caveman. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

My lips thin and a part of me wants to argue but I also don’t want to be too overbearing. It could end up pushing her away.

“Fine. Just be careful, okay?”

I know she thinks I’m being overprotective. But the Specter is still running loose, and he’s got his eye on us both. I can’t risk her getting hurt. I watch her leave and soon get distracted by Joshua telling me about one of his exes that he’s sure is a stalker. He’s able to distract me and it isn’t until about twenty minutes pass that I start to wonder where Madelyn is.

“She should be back by now,” I say out loud, pulling my phone out to text her.

“I’m sure she’s fine,” Joshua tells me. “You need to chill out, Dom. Nothing’s going to happen to her here. Security’s tight.”

He has no idea who I’m dealing with. If the Specter really wanted to, he could get in here without any problem. I dial the number of one of the bodyguards I hired a couple of daysago. After the threats made, I wasn’t going to take any chances. They’ve been trailing Madelyn everywhere since.

“Where is she?” I ask in a low tone once he picks up.

“Sir. I watched her head in the direction of the bathroom twenty minutes ago. But she still hasn’t reappeared,” he informs me calmly.

My heart starts to thud in my chest. Something’s not right.

“Go and make sure she’s still in there. Just knock on the bathroom door and call for her,” I order.

He does as I asked and I stay on the line with my heart racing, waiting for confirmation that she’s okay. The bodyguard, Rufus, calls out for her from outside. He does so twice and she doesn’t reply. I listen as he asks another woman to enter and check for Madelyn.

“Sir,” he says a couple of painful minutes later, “she’s not in here.”

A second is all it takes for my heart to drop.

“Find her. Fucking find her now!” I growl.

I hang up and check the tracking device I installed on her phone a week ago. It’s still showing that her location is in the building.

Where the hell are you, baby?

I hope with everything in me that Specter hasn’t gotten to her.

CHAPTER 20

Madelyn

Iwas exiting the bathroom when someone grabbed me from behind, locking my arms behind my back. I tried to scream, but whoever it is also managed to cover my mouth. He or she was strong enough to drag me despite me kicking and screaming the entire way. Fear races through my heart as I’m pulled into a narrow hallway. The person behind me opens a door and then pushes me inside.

The door shuts behind them with a click. My jaw tightens and I whirl around to face my assailant. My heart skips several beats as I do, out of shock more than anything else. The person standing in front of me is an older man, in his sixties maybe. He’s wearing a black hood over his head, long enough to cover his forehead as well. I stare into cold black eyes, but what’s even more frightening are the scars running across the side of his face—burn scars. His face is completely disfigured, the scars stretching close to his mouth and left eye. He has a short white beard that really ups his scary persona.

But even more worrying is that his eyes feel familiar somehow. But I can’t place it. There’s no way I would have ever forgotten meeting someone like him, though.

“W-who are you? What do you want from me?” I ask with a glare.

“Actually, Madelyn, this isn’t about what I want, but about what I’m going to give you.”

When he speaks, his voice is at a low, scary timbre that sends a shiver down my spine. He has a slight British accent.

“I don’t… I don’t understand. How do you know my name? Why did you drag me in here?”

“For some privacy, of course. We have a couple of things to talk about before Dominic finds us.”

My mouth dries. “You know Dominic?”

“I know a lot of things,” he says creepily.

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