Page 27 of The Mafia King's Stolen Fiancée

“You know who I am, Vivienne.”

“Do I? Because I don’t recall any conversations involving that I just overheard.”

Rafa watched me with an unreadable expression and waited. After a tense minute, when I still hadn’t spoken, he said, “Ask me,cara.”

I didn’t want to, but I needed to know who Rafa really was before I got into this any deeper with him. Although, I was afraid it might be too late since I already couldn’t picture my life without him in it. But I couldn’t make any decisions until I knew the truth.

“Was Chet right?” I squeezed my eyes shut as I clarified, “Are you in the Mafia?”

The silence stretched like a noose tightening around my throat. Then he finally exhaled. “Yes. Although, we don’t really refer to ourselves that way.”

I swallowed hard, my mind racing. It was one thing to hear Chet’s accusation…but another to have Rafa confirm it.

And with that confirmation, there was no escaping the truth. The man I’d fallen in love with had been hiding a huge secret from me. An important detail that could potentially rip apart the dreams I’d only just started to allow myself to hope for.

A barrage of little things that I hadn’t thought much of rattled through my brain…like what his men called him. “You’re the boss, aren’t you?”

“No.” At my quirked brow, he explained, "Not technically. My cousin Nic is the head of the Family. I’m his underboss or right hand for our branches in the south. I’m the one who makes sure things run the way they should for him down here. I handle problems before they reach him, make sure the money flows, and keep people in line. The southern territories are all my domain, but the Georgia branch is completely under my leadership, whereas I haveCapo di Provinciaswho oversee the others.”

At my confused expression, he clarified further. “Basically someone who is the head of a certain territory, but answers to a higher authority.”

That makes sense. But should it? What did it say about me if the man I loved being in the Mafia made sense?

Although the Mafia wasn’t talked about as much in Tennessee as the local motorcycle clubs were, something I’d heard in passing several times niggled in my brain. It took me a moment to recall what it was, and my breath hitched. “You’re the King of the South.”

His gaze never wavered. “That’s what some people call me, yes.”

I’d heard rumors about the “King of the South,” the cold-hearted, dispassionate killer who ruled this area for the DeLuca Crime Family. I hadn’t believed the stories. I thought they were just fiction, like the boogeyman. But here he was, the monster, standing before me in the flesh.

I blinked several times and shook my head, trying to clear it of all the conflicting information. My Rafa was a ruthless Mafia ruler. A killer with bloodied hands. When people spoke of him, their voices were laced with fear.

With my mind spinning, I struggled to reconcile the man standing before me with the terrifying figure whispered about in hushed conversations.

Had he been pretending with me? Was that who he really was?

Was the guy who’d been so gentle with me a lie?

“I don’t understand.” I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples. “How can you be…himand still be the man I thought I knew?” I whispered, letting my lids drift back up to observe his reaction.

Rafa took a slow step forward, his gaze locked on mine. “Nothing has changed, Vivienne. You’ve discovered another piece of me. But I’m still the man you’ve gotten to know over the past week. The man who’s been taking care of you. The one who craves you with every breath I take.”

“But how can you be both?” I pleaded, desperate to understand.

“There are many sides to every person, Vivienne.People…the world…they aren’t black and white. I live my life in the gray and the shadows. But you’re special,cara. You get a side of me that nobody else does. Not even my mother or sisters.”

My breath caught in my throat at his confession. I’d seen how much Rafa loved his little sister, but I was afraid to hope that he was hinting that he loved me too.

Did I even want him to love me anymore?

My heart pounded as if shouting at me and forcing me to admit that no matter what I’d just learned about Rafa, I still wanted that. Desperately.

“It wasn’t all a lie?” I asked, my voice trembling.

“None of it was.” His hands fisted at his sides, making me wonder if he was doing that to resist the urge to reach for me again. “My role in the Family is a big part of me. It’s the world I grew up in and shaped the man I’ve become.” This time, he put his hand out and captured mine, pressing it over his heart. “But the most important part of me, the one in here, that’s the man you know.”

His words were beautiful and spoken with so much sincerity that I wished I could just accept this new reality and forget about my inner turmoil. But it wasn’t simple, and I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to reconcile my Rafa with a merciless killer.

Pain ripped through my chest as my heart broke in half. I squeezed my eyes shut to keep the moisture gathering in them from spilling over. But a few tears escaped and slid down my cheeks. “I can’t…I don’t know…maybe I should just go.”

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