Page 2 of Soulmate of the Mafia King
I met Killian’s gaze. “Why are you doing this? Because it’s not for me.”
“I’m doing it for my best friend,” he answered simply.
“Consider your proposal heard.” I rolled my eyes and stood.
This time, he didn’t stop me. As I strode back to my seat, my frustration mounted. Tom had confessed a few worries that Killian would always see Tom as his second, and I’d believedhim on principle, but I’d just seen it in action for the first time. Killian thought Tom was being stupid, so he went behind Tom’s back to try to fix it. It reminded me of when Mom and I used to decorate Dad’s birthday cake, back before we even left the mafia, and every time I didn’t do something the way she wanted, she’d come behind me and “clean it up.” That was stupid shit, like strawberries being placed evenly, and it made me feel about six inches tall. I couldn’t imagine how Tom felt when Killian tried to run his criminal enterprise.
I dropped back into my seat gracelessly enough that Tom jumped. I froze. No time to pretend to be asleep.
He rubbed sleep out of his eyes and peered at me. “All good?” he asked.
“Just had to go to the bathroom.” I stroked a few curls out of his eyes and smiled the best I could.
He studied me for a long moment, and I thought I was caught, but then he just wound an arm around my waist and dozed off on my shoulder. I breathed a sigh of relief. He looked so sweet like this, unworried like he almost never was.
Tauntingly, Killian’s warning that I was taking Tom’s life in my hands came back to me. A small, dark part of me wondered if Tom’s safety was an out I could take without seeming cowardly.
But I’d always know the truth. Any out made me weak. I wasn’t a princess.
CHAPTER 2
TOMMASO
Someone jiggled my shoulder, and I looked up to find the flight attendant.
“Sir?” she said. “You asked me to wake you ten minutes before we began our descent. The rest of the plane will be woken then.”
I thanked her and disentangled myself from a sleeping Paige. Had we talked about something? I vaguely remembered her frowning. But it could’ve just been a dream, and I needed to pull myself together before we landed. Mostafa would meet us on the airstrip, and we had to move quickly in case we’d popped up on any radar. These men needed a boss.
Ten minutes later, I’d splashed some water on my face, changed my rumpled shirt, and overall looked as much like someone you could rely on as a man could be expected to after a thirteen-hour flight. The men around me woke slowly, and Paige talked me through the descent like always. I had to shut my eyes. We hit a patch of turbulence on the way down, and the plane’s wheels skidded on the bumpy tarmac. But, finally, we landed, and I was first out the door.
Because I had to meet Mostafa, of course. Not because I didn’t want to paint someone else’s plane with my puke.
Seeing the airstrip didn’t really help. The jumbo jet’s landing gear barely fit on the crumbling asphalt, and there was one hangar in sight, lit by a single lightbulb. But the freezing air did. This far outside the city, I could only barely smell the acrid stench of Cairo, and the desert night perked me right up. Paige rubbed my back in small circles.
True to his word, Mostafa appeared out of the darkness mere moments after I disembarked.
“Gamal?” he said. “Where is Gamal? Show me my son.”
The first group of men poured off the plane. I shrugged Paige’s hand off, shot her an apologetic look, and barked a few orders to begin offloading as quickly as possible. I’d rented a house out here, nearer to Zahur’s palace than the hotel Paige would be staying at, and as long as we got all our supplies there, we’d be all right.
“I was promised my son,” Mostafa demanded.
I slung an arm over his shoulders and led him a few steps away. “You were promised your son for taking down Zahur, and I’m pretty damn sure he’s sitting pretty in that palace of his right now. Does that sound like he’s been taken down to you?”
Mostafa sputtered. “You mean to tell me you have returned him to his home soil, but not to me, until you win? What if you fail?”
I squeezed him tighter until I was sure his bones ached just a little. “I don’t know of any reason why we would fail. Do you?”
A look flashed through Mostafa’s eyes in the desert night. My stomach churned. He looked worried.
“Do you?” I repeated.
He shook his head, and the look disappeared. My stomach settled. Mostafa had been a worrier the whole time I’d known him. It was probably nothing.
“Then, a gesture of goodwill.” I pulled out my phone and texted Stan to bring out Gamal with the next group. Then, Iwaited with my arm around Mostafa’s shoulders so he didn’t try anything stupid.
Paige stood a bit away from the flood of men unloading crate after crate of weapons, ammo, body armor, and everything else I imagined we might need. Her hair glowed in the dim light, and my chest squeezed. Maybe next time I’d convince Killian to bring Sera, even if she just stayed in a nice hotel downtown. Paige needed the company. I didn’t like seeing her alone.
