Page 55 of Mob Boss's Second Chance

“You think you can stand here, high out of your fucking mind, and throw accusations?” My voice drops to a dangerous whisper. “You forget who you’re talking to, Anthony.”

His nostrils flare, his chest rising and falling in quick succession. He’s angry and reckless, but he’s not stupid. He knows I don’t make empty threats.

“You’re not going to pull that shit. You can challenge my authority and the way I handle things, but if you call my father a betrayer, I will take you down faster than you can breathe.”

“You don’t get it,” he growls, his grip on the blade flexing.

“No,” I cut him off sharply. “You don’t.”

My tone is ice, lethal in its restraint. “You think you can handle things your way? Go rogue, put a target on all of us because you can’t get your damn head straight?” I shake my head, disgust curling in my gut. “That’s not how this works.”

I lean in, my gaze locking onto his with an unflinching warning. “You ever pull this shit again-disrespect me, question my leadership, or drag our family name through the mud because you can’t keep yourself in check—I will put you down myself.”

For a long moment, neither of us moves.

The tension crackles like a live wire, but I see it—the flicker of uncertainty in his eyes, the split-second doubt that wasn’t there before.

Good.

“Clean things up here,” I say, exhaling and taking a step back. “I don’t want the cops to catch a whiff, so you’re going to take care of that man, too. And I didn’t say kill him,” I add, “or I won’t be covering up for you.”

As I walk out the door, I look back and see my bloody footprints. I stepped in his blood. Disgust turns to bile, but I shove it down as I close the door behind me, heading out of the club.

Now I have two things to take care of.

Chapter Seventeen

Natalie

The apartment feels stranger than usual when I let myself in—or rather, I feel goosebumps on my arms as I walk through the hallway, heading to the kitchen.

It’s been a week since the incident in the kitchen, and I still don’t feel safe.

No one has tried to corner me again, but I notice the difference. The way they look at me now. Their gazes linger too long, carrying something unspoken yet heavy.

It makes my skin crawl.

I should quit.

I’ve been telling myself this for the past few days, but I’ve been holdingback for some reason.

Ethan. He’s been absent. I think I’ve been lingering because I want to see him—I want answers. But it’s starting to look like I might never get them, and I don’t think I can stay here any longer.

It’s not just Ethan and the men, though.

I put my thoughts aside until I’m in the kitchen, and the door is firmly locked behind me.

“Anthony.” The name slips out of my mouth like it’s desperate to be heard.

With Ethan absent, his cousin has taken to stumbling into the house every night, drenched in alcohol and draped in a different blonde. Anthony has always been reckless, but this feels different. It feels like a switch inside him has been flipped, and with it, the entire balance of the house has shifted.

I set the grocery bag down on the counter and exhale, steeling myself.

“You’re never going to do it if you keep thinking about it, Natalie,” I mutter.

I haven’t told Danielle about the assault. Partly because I don’t want her to bring up her warnings about Ethan, but mostly because saying it out loud makes it too real.

And maybe, just maybe, I don’t want to admit to myself that I fell for a man who… never really saw me at all.

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