Page 11 of Mafia King's Forbidden Vows

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It’s barely twenty minutes to the scheduled court session, yet my feet keep tapping endlessly against the foot mat of my car.

I could’ve said no when she invited me to come. After all, I don’t belong in a courthouse, not on the free side of it, anyway. But I said yes. I’m not just here for her. I’m here because I need to be.

Law enforcement is changing, with fresh faces stepping in, eager to prove themselves. Some of whom are ambitious, others are desperate. I need to identify both groups.

In there, I’ll sit quietly, watching, analyzing. Who looks comfortable in their three-piece suit, and who keeps adjusting their cheap tie? Who walks with the confidence of old money, and who carries the weight of a mortgage on their shoulders? The rich ones have pride and are harder to buy, but they can be swayed by the promise of power. The struggling ones? They’ll take a hand if it reaches out at the right moment.

I’ll memorize every face, every tick, filing them away for later. No one in that room would ever suspect they’re being read like an open book.

Aria thinks I’m here because of her, and in a way, I am. But I’m also laying the groundwork, mapping out the players on my game board before they even know they’re part of it.

It’s the same reason why I had accepted the Chief of Police’s invitation to Karl Abruzzi’s promotion party. I wanted to meet the cop that has been going after the mafias recently. Being meticulous requires me to stay on top of every single occurrence in and out of the mafia family.

Now I want to know what Karl has against Don Giovanni, my rival, and one of the men I loathe.

“Karl Abruzzi,” I start, and Cortez’s head snaps away from the window which he has been gazing intently out of, “What does he have against Giovanni?”

“L’Abruzzi severo e duro(The strict and tough Abruzzi),” Elio comments. “You see, Don Giovanni did some serious ‘clean up’in Paris. Killed all those high ranking government officials he was working with to allow safe passage of his drugs into the country when they suddenly bailed on him.”

It isn’t uncommon for government officials to bail even when they’re on your payroll. Although only a fool wouldn’t have noticed the signs. Still, I don’t understand what that has to do with Abruzzi.

“So what does that have to do with this Abruzzi guy?”

“The government officials ratted Giovanni out before he killed them to clear their names when things went south, so Giovanni became wanted. As a result of that, he came down here toNew York but didn’t lie low. The ruckus some of his men caused at the border a couple of months back raised all the settling dust. I mean, they killed those officials at the shipping port as well, hence our man, Abruzzi.”

Now that’s some serious shit. Don Giovanni is at least five years older than I am. He has been running his mafia for almost as long as I have, but I don’t believe I would have been as foolish as him, running away from a city where I had caused trouble straight into another round of trouble in the next city.

I scoff, “That man, Giovanni,era su una corda tesa(he was on a tightrope), and he didn’t even know it.”

I let out a whoosh of breath from my mouth and close my eyes. So this Abruzzi guy played messiah, arrested the societal menace, and got a promotion. Admittedly, he’s one of the fewcops that actually do capture bad guys, such as Giovanni. Oh, and he’s also the father of the gorgeous little lawyer girl Ialmostfucked.

My teeth clench together as I realize I have to take immediate action. I have to find a way to curtail this Abruzzi guy—he won’t stop at getting just the Giovanni-led mafia—and his fucking hot daughter along with him.

I readjust my tie and slide my sunglasses behind my ears as my Bentley Flying Spur V8 comes to a halt before the courthouse. Cortez gets out and holds the door open for me.

The minute I’m out of the car, I look up ahead of me to note the entrance of the courthouse, then accidentally lock gazes with her.

She’s looking as ravishing as the last time I saw her.

My eyes roam her body, lingering at the small ‘v’ in the center of her pretty pair of black dress pants, accentuated with pumps, and the mild swellings at her chest. I suck in a sharp breath as memories of her pink nipples come back to me…and the fact that she didn’t let me fuck her!

Her jet black hair, which I had yanked on while plunging my tongue into her mouth, was packed into a simple but helplessly attractive bun, and her eyes… those endless seas of golden brown were staring right back at me.

Despite the chiding I gave myself only a few minutes ago, my mind is starting to play tricks on me again.Fuck, if any other man tried to have her after I was only a hair’s breadth away from pounding her…

But I’m determined to stick to my principles. I begin my walk in her direction −she’s standing at the door to the courthouse.

“I see you made it,” she comments when I reach her, her tone dry.

I’m expecting her to dip her eyes and flush with embarrassment after our little meeting at the FBI headquarters, but if there’s anything I see she’s feeling right now, it’s resentment. It’s clear in her eyes and in the way she’s folded her arms tightly across her chest.

“Look, whatever happ−” She shifts her weight on her foot and starts again. I hear something about how she won’t say anything about what she heard the other day, but I don’t give her a chance. Arching a brow at her monotonously, I dip the corners of my lips and walk past her without saying so much as a word.

I can feel those perfectly lined eyes boring holes into my back, and my cock pushing painfully against my pants in response, but no matter how my body reacts and how much I think I want to part those legs and slither in between them, I will never go back on my principle.

Besides, this woman is the definition of trouble. She’s spied on me twice now, having highly classified mafia conversations.I still can’t believe I had fucking slipped for the second time around her. And in the hallway of a law enforcement agency, among all places!

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