Page 21 of Convenient Mafia Vows

“Where is he?”

“If I knew the answer, I wouldn’t ask you to look for him.”

I end the call and walk around the desk to face Victoria. Before I can speak, her shoulders slump, and tears collect on her bottom lashes. “Thank you. I’m worried that he’s gotten himself into serious trouble.”

The prick doesn’t deserve her worry, but I keep this to myself. When I find him, I’ll pay him to disappear until this is all over. I can’t have him making this difficult for us, and it’s too late to start over, not when Olivia will go out of her way to prove that I’m not legally married.

“Does he know about us?”

She blinks back the tears like she doesn’t understand the question. “Us?”

“Us, Victoria. You and me. Our contract that you agreed to earlier. Are you still together?”

“Together?”

How else can I put it? “Do you live together? Is he going to sell his story to the press and try to swindle me for a couple million bucks?”

“I…” She shakes her head. “Mason wouldn’t do anything like that.”

“You’re sure about that, are you?” It comes across way harsher than I intended, and I instantly regret it when she backs away from me.

“It’s fine. I get it.”

Her tone is cold, and I want warm Victoria back. I want the woman in the black dress who kissed me with her eyes closed. The woman who appeared in my dream with her legs spread wide and her butt in the air, ripe and wet, just waiting for me to fuck her.

“You’ve changed your mind because you don’t want any trouble.” She swallows hard. “Maybe you should’ve thought about that before you got involved with Olivia Dragon-face and dragged me into it. I thought that you were a man of your word, Caleb Murray. I guess we were both wrong.”

The disappointment in her voice cuts straight through my chest and slices me open. No one ever questions my authenticity—I say I’m going to do something, I do it, no matter the consequences because I’m generally three steps ahead of everyone else, and the consequences are what I make them.

She goes to walk away, and I grab her arm, but she flinches away from me as if stung, staring at her arm still clad in the puffer jacket. “Wait. Look, I wasn’t expecting you to show up with a kid. I don’t want her to be involved in this. It’s, well, let’s just say that this is no environment for a kid.”

“Too late, Caleb. She just got kicked out of kindergarten, and I need the money to send her to a different school.”

“She got kicked out of kindergarten?” I’m waiting for the punchline that doesn’t come. “How is that even possible?”

“Why do you care?” She sucks in a deep breath and releases it slowly. “Don’t worry about it. It’s not your problem.”

She’s right, it isn’t my problem, so, why am I so reluctant to let her go?

“I want to help,” I find myself saying.

I’m so close to her that I can smell the sweet lime and coconut scent of her shampoo. Without realizing what I’m doing, I take a lock of her hair and rub it between my fingers, stopping myself before I raise it to my nose like some kind of pervert with a hair fetish.

“How much do you need?” My voice is husky again.

“I don’t need anything from you, Mr. Murray.”

She straightens her spine, and I catch a glimpse of the fighter in her. Not the woman who jumped into a fight to save her loser brother, but the woman who is determined to succeed no matter what life throws at her. And it’s obvious it’s throwing some stinking shit her way right now, shit that I have no intentions of adding to.

“I’ll find another way to fund Abigail’s education.”

She tries to sidestep around me, and I block her path, backing her up against the wall.

Instinct kicks in, and I place my hands on the wall either side of her head, my face so close to hers that I can feel her warm breath on my cheek. She doesn’t fight it. Instead, her eyes lock onto mine, and I’m reminded again of Sandy’s eyes with the green and amber flecks sparking out from dilated pupils.

Sandy…

The name is on the tip of my tongue, and I swallow it before it can escape. I don’t know why, but I don’t want Victoria to knowabout Sandy. She’s already met Olivia, and I’ve already slid a few feet down the slippery slope in her estimation without calling her by another woman’s name.

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