Page 2 of Escape My Love

“I swear this place is making me horny.” Emma bit her lip and smiled at a shirtless guy walking by.

My gaze skipped him and moved on to Tyler across the way, looking incredibly hot in his tuxedo and just-fucked dark hair.You and me both, girl. You and me both.I exhaled. The sooner I found a way out of here, the sooner Tyler and I could have that Valentine’s Day date he’d promised. We’d made plans. Then the Mafia came calling.

After Emma and her friend got their drinks, the bartender addressed me with a slight bow of his head. “Mrs. Rossi. Another glass of Champagne?”

My heartbeat quickened. He knew me? So much for flirting with him to get some answers. “Club soda and lime, please.”

“Of course.” He tapped his ear and nodded, with his eyes zeroed in on someone behind me. “The conference will start in a few minutes. Aaron will escort you.”

I turned around to find the guy who’d brought me here. Scanning the sea of faces, I could see that Tyler had already left. “Lead the way.”

Aaron strode toward the other end of the room. His massive back seemed to get wider as he elbowed people out of the way to make room for us. The guests didn’t appear to mind; they merely held on to their drinks tighter and stepped aside. He opened the door that led to a different corridor than the one I used to get to the party. A set of stairs later, we were in a part of the building with walls paneled in a rich, embroidered fabric and furnishings that looked intricately old and expensive. More money, more power.

When we reached the tall double doors at the end of the room, Aaron bowed and pushed the doors open with both hands. The adjacent room was a sort of vestibule. Several upholstered chairs lined the walls. A round table with a huge floral arrangement on top divided the room in half. Four groups of people were scattered throughout in their fancy garb, talking in hushed voices while slanting glances to the others.

To my right, Tyler’s form stalked over to me. The lines across his forehead told me he was furious, furious and worried for me. When he was within earshot, he gripped my waist with his large hand and cradled my cheek with the other while his mouth collided with mine. His kiss was forceful and hungry. No doubt I’d be bruised later. But I didn’t care. My body reacted to any kind of connection with him. He pulled away, his eyes still shooting daggers at me.

“Do not leave my side again.”

I opened my mouth to explain that being my husband and looking this crazy hot in a tux didn’t give him the right to tell me what to do, but the laughter coming from behind me cut me off.

“You still have work to do with that one.” An old man said before turning his attention to the younger man standing beside him.

“The chase is part of the fun,” Tyler said, deadpan. He kissed my ear and whispered, “The Big 5 are meeting tonight. That’s why we’re here.”

I stared at him with wide eyes. Shit. The five crime families, the originals, were real? I had no time to ask the question because in that moment the massive mahogany door across the way swung open. Why the hell were we here?

2

No One's Ever Refused

Tyler

Holding Mia’s hand tighter than necessary, I filed into the overly ornate boardroom. Everything about this place screamed Mafia and old school. When the FBI enlisted me to go undercover as Jax Rossi’s grandson, I never imagined I’d find myself in the lion’s den this soon after infiltrating the Rossi family. With Jax’s sudden demise, the help of the FBI, and my marriage to Mia, I’d done the impossible. I’d come face-to-face with the Big 5, the century-old Criminal Society.

The thing about undercover work was that no amount of training could have prepared me for the string of unfortunate events that came after I’d agreed to take on the assignment. My first beautiful mistake had been to fall for a crew boss, Mia. Because of her, being Chase Rossi, the long-lost grandson of Jax Rossi, didn’t feel like a job.

The woman I loved more than anything in this world and my unborn baby were here tonight. If it were up to me, they would be at home, heavily guarded. But they were brought in for a very specific reason. That pissed me off, but until we knew what Rex Valentino wanted, there wasn’t much we could do.

This meeting wasn’t about pleasing the FBI. It was about my family’s survival. The problem was, I had no idea what kind of relationship Jax had with the Valentino family and the Big 5.

Everyone trickled into the room and lingered around the long mahogany table of sixteen. They all stayed cleared of the far end, where a chair with the head of a lion carved on the extra-long backrest sat regally empty. In the months I had spent with Jax before he died, I learned how big and dangerous egos could get. This Rex Valentino seemed to be the worst of them all. Looking around me, at the sourpuss faces, I’d had to guess almost everyone hadn’t come here of their own accord.

An old woman with a salt-and-pepper ballerina bun sat at the opposite end of the table. Her lips set in a thin line, she looked ready to murder someone. Her companion showed a friendlier disposition while her gaze scanned the room, as if looking for someone she knew.

“Nice. Get us here in a rush, then make us wait. I hate waiting,” Mia whispered in my ear. “Whatever this asshole is planning the answer is no.”

“Maybe we wait and find out. If he wanted to kill us, he could’ve done that a thousand times over.”

“True.”

Mia was right, of course. Whatever the fuck Rex had planned for tonight couldn’t be good for our health. I had to find a way to get her out of here sooner rather than later.

She pulled me toward the corner of the room where floor-to-ceiling bookcases lined the entire wall. Thick, old volumes filled every shelf. No room for knickknacks or family portraits. She ran her finger along a book spine with gold lettering, her eyes not really focusing on it.

“You know what’s interesting to me?” Her words were barely above a whisper. “We don’t know anyone here. But do you get the feeling they’re not surprised to see us?”

“Yeah, they may hate each other, but they all know who they are. They have to know we don’t belong.” I surveyed the room. No familiar faces here, no known names. We were in the thick of it, running blind and with no backup.

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