Page 76 of Convenient Mafia Vows

Her chest is heaving with the effort of controlling her anger at me, and I hate myself for doing this to her. I asked her to trust me, and then I shoot her down the first time she asks me to trust her. It isn’t one of my finest moments.

“I—”

My phone rings in my pocket. Terry’s ringtone. He only ever calls me when it’s an emergency; it’s an unspoken rule that we keep communication to a minimum because you never know who’s listening.

“I have to answer this.” My cell phone is already in my hand, the screen unlocked.

Terry’s voice buzzes in my ear. “Don Dragonetti has had a heart attack.”

21

VICTORIA

The rideback to the Wraith is less exhilarating than the outward journey. I sense the tension through Caleb’s leathers as I hold on to him from behind: the straight spine, the taut shoulders, the clenched muscles. He didn’t confirm what Don Dragonetti’s possible death would mean to him and his family, but I guess he didn’t need to. Olivia is his only child. She would be the new head of the Dragonetti family, and it would not bode well for any of the mafia families in New York.

They might not have cemented an alliance yet, but I sense that Caleb has a lot of sentiment for Don Dragonetti. A lot of respect. His concern runs deeper than fear of Olivia holding the reins of the older man’s empire. He might never admit it, but I think he cares about him.

We don’t go to the hospital. The don is still alive, and it would be wrong to encroach on his family’s precious moments with him. Instead, we return to the Wraith, and I go straight to his apartment while Caleb holds a meeting in his office.

The news has rubbed the shine from what had been one of the best nights of my life. Eating halal food in Times Square, theshow, the motorcycle. Stopping on the roadside, just the two of us, no bodyguards, no family members, no reminders of real life.

Caleb was different somehow. Softer. Gentler. Unmasked. He was about to tell me what he wanted when he got the call about the don. He was so close… So close that my heart didn’t know whether to slow down so that I didn’t miss a word, or flutter around like an excited butterfly.

I change out of the leathers and into one of Caleb’s shirts. Make coffee. Wander up to the rooftop decking and huddle under a blanket to watch the stars.

I think about Don Dragonetti in a hospital room somewhere surrounded by people who care about him. Is he sad that his entire legacy will be left to his uncontrollable daughter? Or is he so blinded by paternal love that he can’t see the darkness ahead? I don’t know the man well, but my heart aches for him.

The sky fades to gray and then lilac, the pink of dawn rising above the horizon, and still Caleb doesn’t come back.

I head back inside, grateful that Abigail is safe with Moira and Terry, and lie down on Caleb’s bed. When I wake up, the comforter has been pulled over me, but the apartment is empty. No note. No sign that Caleb was there at all.

The apartment seems even larger when I don’t know where Caleb is. I switch on the sound system to drown out the silence, an old Fleetwood Mac album, the songs easy to listen to because everyone has grown up with them. I make more coffee and stand in front of the windows staring out at the city, but all I can think about is Don Dragonetti.

Caleb can’t keep me here indefinitely without any news. Till now, Lauren might’ve been the only person who needed to know hismovements, but I’m his wife. Okay, I’m only his wife on paper, but the nights we’ve spent together must count for something.

Caleb knows every inch of my body. He has tasted me inside and out. He was about to make this real last night on the Byway, I know he was, because two people don’t share the kind of passion that sparks between us whenever we’re together if they’re just passing through. Do they?

Danny pops into my head, and for the first time in five years, I bat the images out of the ballpark. Danny isn’t real, but Caleb is. This is more than just a one-night stand; this is what Danny and I might’ve had if only we’d found each other again, and the soreness in my breasts this morning only cements this. If this means what I think it could mean, then the universe is giving me a second chance. I just pray it isn’t messing with me this time around.

I almost blurted it out to Caleb on the Byway, but I didn’t want him to think that I was trying to trap him. I’m not Olivia Dragonetti. I’ll fight fair and square for him, but I want him to want this as much as I do with or without whatever my body is trying to tell me.

I’m about to get dressed and go down to Caleb’s office to find him when the elevator dings and the doors slide open.

“Caleb?” I run to the elevator, my pulse racing, and fail to hide my disappointment when Kyle steps out. “Oh, Kyle, what are you doing here?” My eyes instinctively drift back to the elevator, hoping that he isn’t alone.

“Caleb asked me to come and check on you.” He shakes his head as if trying to erase the words and start again. “He doesn’t want you to be lonely.”

“Where is he?”

“He’s with Terry and the twins. There’s a lot to sort out.” He shrugs, a smile that doesn’t fully materialize half-forming on his lips. “Strange considering the business we’re in, that a heart attack can throw the entire city into this kind of turmoil.”

“It was unexpected.” I peer down and realize that I’m still wearing Caleb’s shirt and holding an empty coffee cup in my hand. “I’ll go change and make coffee.”

“I’m quite capable of operating a coffee machine.” Kyle heads to the kitchen while I dash back into my room and tug on the jeans and sweater I wore last night for our date.

I can smell Caleb on my clothes. I want to feel close to him, to hold onto the memories of our first real date, to nurture the tiny nugget of hope that he was going to tell me how he feels about me. Kyle’s arrival has driven home the stark reminder that this is Caleb’s life, and that work will always take up much of his time.

Back in the kitchen, Kyle is filling two cups with steaming black coffee and buttering slices of toast. “See.” He grins at me. “I’m the domesticated brother. You drew the short straw when you got Caleb.”

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