Page 35 of The Bodyguard's Vow

I didn’t know what to say.

Rafa scratched his chin thoughtfully. “You aren’t sure.”

“She is everything to me,” I told him fiercely. “I will always choose her first, and if that means that you decide to kill me, I will claw my way back from all seven levels of hell to be with her.”

Rafa rolled his eyes and shook his head. “That’s love,coglione. It looks and feels different to everyone.”

Well, fuck.How had I been this stupid? Damn, I’d loved Gabriella since the moment she’d returned from New York.

“You have to stop looking at the way everyone else sees the world. As if you’re broken for seeing it differently. Somehow, you can’t understand how anyone would have the same loyalty and respect for you that you have given to them. It shouldn’t surpriseme that you didn’t think your actions would hurt me, rather than just infuriate me. But like I said…unpredictable.”

“Are you waiting for the poison to kick in and figured you’d pass the time by talking more in one conversation than you have in the decades I’ve known you?”

Rafa cracked a smile. “I’m insulted you think I would be that bush league when choosing how to eliminate you.”

I shrugged, then winced when pain shot through my chest.Fucking Snyder and this damn bullet hole.

There was a commotion out in the hall, and Rafa sighed.

“It seems my time is almost up.” He stood and moved the chair, returning to the end of the bed. “Look,fratello, the truth is, you knew I wouldn’t think you were good enough for my sister. And in some ways, I still do. But that has more to do with the life we lead than who you are and how you feel about her. If you swear that she is and always will have your love and complete loyalty, then I’ll give you my blessing.”

“Thank fuck,” I grunted, dropping my head back onto the pillow. I was really dreading having to kill my best friend for keeping me from the woman I loved. It definitely would have put a strain on my relationship with her.

“With some conditions,” Rafa added, making me mentally sigh.

When the fuck would he shut up and let me see my woman?

“I expect you to protect her with your life.”

“Agreed.”

“And marry her.”

“As soon as possible.”

Rafa’s eyes narrowed, and the Mafia King of the South was staring at me once again. “And there better be a fucking wedding before I hear about any babies.”

Shit.

The saints were on my side at that moment because I was saved from lying to Rafa—or admitting that she could already be pregnant—when Gabriella came bursting into the room.

“Mico!” she cried, racing toward my bed, tears streaming down her cheeks. I braced myself, knowing it would hurt, but I was more than happy to feel the pain if it meant she was in my arms.

She scrambled onto the bed and threw herself at me, pressing her lips frantically against mine.

I groaned from the agony radiating through my body.

“Oh, crap! Am I hurting you?” she asked tearily as she tried to back away.

“Don’t give a fuck,” I grunted, dragging her up until she was straddling me and I was sealing my mouth over hers.

A throat clearing made Gabriella jump, and I scowled at her brother when she stopped kissing me and looked at him with a sheepish smirk.

“Out,” I growled.

Gabriella giggled, and Rafa shifted awkwardly.

“I’ll come back later,” he mumbled. His wife, Vivienne, was waiting by the door, and when he turned and faced her, she shot a look at Gabriella that had them both breaking into peals of laughter.

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