Page 60 of My Sweetest Temptation

“I have a favor to ask you,” Mya began, her eyes shining.

I raised an eyebrow. “Okay?”

“We’re short-staffed for the fundraiser event next week, and I was wondering if you could help out by working as a server for the evening.”

I thought for a moment, a faint smile playing on my lips. “What’s in it for me?” I teased.

“Well, you’ll receive a ten-dollar increase, not including tips,” she revealed with a grin.

My eyes widened in surprise. “Ten dollars?”

Mya nodded eagerly. “Plus, it’s for a good cause,” she added.

“All right, you have me convinced,” I agreed with a light chuckle.

Mya’s face broke out into a wide smile. “Awesome! You’re a lifesaver, Winter. I knew I could count on you,” she said.

“No problem at all. Just let me know the details, and I’ll be there.”

“I’ll send you all the information later today. Thanks again, Winter,” she said before walking out of the room.

What the hell did I just sign up for?

I took a deliberate drag of my cigar, savoring the bitter taste before blowing smoke into the air, trying to calm my frayed nerves. “The Puppet Master is crawling through our territories like a fucking rat.”

“He’s been provoking chaos in other territories as well,” Marco, the New York mafia capo, replied. “Shipments are vanishing, our men are disappearing, and our influence is waning daily.”

“Whoever this bastard is, he’s got eyes everywhere,” I said in frustration. “He knows our every move before we make it. It’s as if he’s always one step ahead.”

“If he’s infiltrating our operations, it won’t be long before he takes us down one by one. Do you have any leads yet?”

“No. But if he takes one of us down, it won’t be long before he does it to the others. Our only chance is to work together.”

“I say we pool our resources and find out who we’re dealing with,” Marco offered.

Bringing the cigar to my mouth, I inhaled slowly and released a cloud of smoke into the air before I replied. “We need to bait him, lure him into a trap. If we can make him believe he has the upper hand, we can catch him off guard.”

“And how do you propose we do that?”

“We create a diversion,” I replied, taking a hit of my cigar, the smoke swirling around me like a mist.

“Too risky,” Marco said. “If we do that, we expose our vulnerabilities. After losing ground already, we can’t afford to take that chance.”

My mind raced as I consider the only other possibility. “What if we each stage a fake shipment? We could leak the information to the right people in our territories and let it slip that we’re moving a significant amount of cash or product.”

“I like the sound of that,” Marco added with a dangerous grin. “We’ll make sure he knows who’s in charge.”

At that moment, a unified front was formed, and our commitment to eliminating the threat was sealed. Now we just had to wait.

The evening sun dipped below the horizon and cast long shadows across the garden of Eden, as my mother called it. I sat on one of the balconies of my mansion, nursing a glass of whiskey. After my phone call with Marco, I came directly here. I needed some time alone to clear my head and gather my thoughts to plan our next move.

The warm amber liquid swirled as I raised the glass to my lips, only to be interrupted by a nudge on my hand—my faithful Rottweiler, his obsidian eyes staring right at me. I chuckled and ruffled the fur on his head.

Again, I raised the glass to my lips, and my thoughts drifted from the meeting to Winter. Her image floated before me, her delicate features illuminated by the fading light. She was breathtakingly beautiful, like an angel sent from heaven to torment me. I remembered the coldness in my voice when I had lashed out at her. Yet now, as I sat alone with only the whispers of the evening breeze and my dog for company, I couldn’t shake the image of her soft smile when she first walked into the club and the warmth that radiated from her.

The whiskey burned in my throat, a bitter reminder of the darkness within me. How could someone so pure and innocent provoke such conflicting emotions within me? I felt a twinge of guilt for the fear I had instilled in her. Winter had awakened something within me, a feeling I couldn’t quite name. While lifting the glass to my lips once more, I made a silent vow to keep her at a distance to protect her from the darkness that consumed me. But deep down, I knew she had already begun unraveling the walls around my heart. I was falling for her, and what that could mean fucking terrified me.

I was the mafia king, a man with blood and death on his hands. There was no room for error. One mistake could have serious consequences, including death.

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