Page 27 of Owned by the Italian Mafia Boss
Climbing the gate and grunting, I realize how weak I am. I need to work out.
At the top, I take a deep breath, already exhausted, and then look down.
Oh, this is high.
Too high.
Closing my eyes, I grip the top of the gate and swing my body down, stretching until I’m as close to the ground as possible before letting go.
Releasing my hold on the gate, I freefall and keep my knees bent so I don’t hurt myself. I grunt when I land, holding out my arms to steady myself, and I’m impressed.
I didn’t think I had it in me.
The university is a few miles away, so I decided to walk a block and call an Uber to take me the rest of the way. I have class and then a study session at the library. No one will interfere with my success.
Not even Carmine Milazzo.
Plus, I hear the Devil likes to chase, so I might as well give him something to catch.
Chapter Seven
Carmine
I don’t need to reach for her to know she isn’t there. I felt her get out of bed, but I thought she was just using the restroom. I let my guard down. I became so comfortable in bed with her, loving the feeling of having someone there to warm the usually cold and unforgiving side that I didn’t think she wouldn’t return.
Furious doesn’t begin to describe what I feel, or worse; it’s nearly nine in the morning. I never sleep in that late. Business doesn’t get done, and money doesn’t get made, but right now, I don’t care about any of that.
Where. Is. Delilah.
Throwing the covers off, I swing my legs over the bed and slip on my sweatpants, barreling out of the room and down the hall.
“Well, good morning, sunshine,” Ari greets, crunching on a piece of bacon. “Marie made a wonderful breakfast—”
“I don’t give a fuck about breakfast. Where is Delilah?”
He hides a smile as he eats, and that’s how I know he knows something.
Biting back my anger, I glance at Matias and take a deep breath. “Can you please pull up the security footage? I need to know where she is.”
“Sure. Let me get done—”
I roar into the kitchen and startle Marie. “Now!”
“All right, Carmine. I’m going. I’m going.” He places his fork down, scrambled eggs still attached, and pulls out his phone and taps the security app we have installed.
“No need for that. I know where she is.”
I run around the table and grip Ari by the back of the neck. “I don’t know what games you’re playing here, but I am getting fed up with them, Ari. Where is she?” My entire body shakes with rage, and I’m seconds away from slamming his face into the counter.
“I’ll tell you what you want to know, brother. I planned on it. You never give me a chance.”
“Because you never take the chance to tell me immediately. You like to get me angry.”
“She climbed the gate.” Matias shows me his phone, and I watch as Delilah, my clever little Sweetling, climbs the steel without any issues. “And this dumbass,” he points to his twin. “Let her out the door.”
My temper rolls through my shoulders, and I have to take a deep breath, grinding my teeth together to keep myself from killing him.
I take a step away, my chest rising and falling in dangerous pulses. I flex my fingers, staring at my injured hand, the fresh scabs across my knuckles remind me of how Delilah took care of me last night, how she tended to my wounds, and how I liked it.
