Page 21 of Raphael (Belles & Mobsters 5)

Another dead soul to stain my record.

My eyes lowered back to the woman underneath me.

“Five steps and we’re out of here,” I attempted to comfort her. Her breathing was slightly erratic and fear was clear on her face. “Are you good?”

A terse nod and wide eyes met my gaze. And all the while her fingers clutched my suit. As if she needed an anchor from spiraling into this thing that happened to be my life.

The underworld where war, guns, and threats were part of an everyday life.

She’s part of it now, whether she liked it or not.

ChapterTwelve

SAILOR

Somehow I knew this day would come.

Except that after years of nothing, I became too confident. I thought the possibility of any Santos family member ever finding out about Gabriel was non-existent. How could I have been so damn stupid?

I took a deep breath in, then exhaled. I had to calm down. The hard pounding of my heart actually hurt my chest. It wouldn’t bode well for anyone if I had a heart attack. Whether from fear or this man’s affect on me, I didn’t know.

Though I had to give credit to the man. While the panic had me on the verge of losing my shit, Raphael Santos was dead calm. Black spots swam in my vision and my heart pounded against my chest, while Raphael almost looked bored as hell. Fear and panic danced through my skin. But not this man. This gorgeous specimen of a man that I detested wasn’t afraid at all.

Like a devil loving his chaos.

There was no mistaking whohewas. The man that shielded me with his body. It was a face I saw in a boy every single day. At least there was some relief in that revelation. With such a strong resemblance, there was no chance that Gabriel was my father’s son.Right?

I hoped so. Science was never my strong suit, but I had to trust my gut. It screamed that Gabriel was indeed a Santos. Their resemblance was frankly frightening. Gabriel was a mini Raphael.

“How come there are no pictures of you on the internet?” I blurted out. Okay, not very diplomatic or even the best time for the question, but it was a way to distract myself from the fact that I could die today.

He glanced at me and his mouth twitched into something resembling a half-smile.

“We have a mutual friend who wipes out all my images on the internet.” My eyebrows shot up, probably meeting my hairline at this point. Raphael Santos and I certainly didn’t have mutual friends. “Nico Morrelli,” he clarified.

A silent O formed on my lips. “I wouldn’t exactly call him a friend,” I said.

Although, he did save my ass that night.

“He’ll be heartbroken,” he teased and I shot him a narrowed look. “He likes you.”

The chaos surrounded us. The sounds of sirens traveled through the air. Whimpers. Cries.

“I’m not into mobsters,” I grumbled under my breath. It wasn’t the best time to have this conversation and made absolutely no sense. Yet, here I was entertaining him.

I thought I heard him mutter ‘Too bad’ but I couldn’t be sure.

“He’s happily married,” he retorted dryly. “Besides, he’s not the one for you.”

It was on the tip of my tongue to ask who’s the one for me then but instead, I rolled my eyes. It wasn’t smart to open that door with this man.

“So what does he do? Hide all your images on the internet?” I questioned, still curious to understand how Raphael was able to hide so efficiently.

There were shots fired in the distance. My head whipped in its direction worried about a stray bullet.

“Pretty much. It’s safer for everyone that way.”

It made sense then that the Santos family members barely ever showed up in the papers. And their images were pretty much non-existent on the internet.

---