Page 10 of Mafia Shade's Reluctant Bride
Instead, I said, “Let me think about it.”
Luca whooped like he’d already won.
I ended the call and stared at the road ahead, gripping the wheel so hard my knuckles turned white.
Maria. Could I really do this? Did I have a choice?
This was insane.
Marrying Maria?
I wasn’t in the business of romance. I learned my lesson three months ago in a darkened club with a woman who made me forget—just for a moment—who I was. The way she looked at me before she knew my name? Like I was just a man. Like I was Lorenzo and not SHADE.
And then Dante called out my name. He wasn’t aware of her presence, but it changed everything. His voice rang out like a death sentence.
“Shade, we have a problem with the Russos.”
I didn’t even have time to turn before I felt her body tense. She took in a sharp inhale, and then the slow, paralyzing horror crept into her expression.
“Shade?” she’d whispered, her fingers slipping away from mine.
And then, she ran.
I called after her. I didn’t even care who saw. I followed her out of the club, out onto the street, but she was gone before I could get to her. I had lost her in the crowd at the club that night, and all I knew was her name, ROSE, just her name before she disappeared—like a ghost.
For three months, I had gone back to the same spot and same barstool—a damn fool chasing a shadow. But she never returned.
At the sound of my name, she fled like I was a monster.
And maybe I was.
Now, here I was a week after I’d spoken to Luca, after sleepless nights and pondering repeatedly, about to offer my last name to Maria, of all people. It was a practical decision and a solution to a mutual problem.
Nothing more.
I gritted my teeth and drove.
Maria’s house—Luca’s house—stood just as I remembered it. Five years. Five damn years since I set foot here and cut myself off from my old life and everything that once mattered. I would want to say I left because I cared about them too much to have them mixed up in my new world, but a part of me knew that was not the entire truth.
Luca and I had only stayed in touch online, both too stubborn to bridge the distance. I never wanted to cross lines with their father, so I stayed away, even when their father declared war on Shade.
I had let the old man scream, threaten, and curse my name. I never retaliated or struck back because they were family, even when he didn’t know. Because Maria—
I killed the thought before it could form.
Luca greeted me at the door, grinning like an idiot. “You look like a man walking to his execution.”
“I feel like one.”
“You’ll survive.” He clapped me on the shoulder. Pointing at a door upstairs, “She’s waiting in her room. Try not to mess this up in the first five minutes, yeah?”
I ignored him and took the stairs two at a time. The door was slightly open, enough for me to see her standing by the window, arms crossed, a frown pressed into her lips.
Five years.
And she still had that fire in her eyes and held herself like she owned the world. But there was something different now. She turned at the sound of my footsteps, sharp brown eyes locking onto mine.
“Well, well. The lost and found finally returns.”
