Page 19 of The Mobster's Angel

The way he says my name makes my whole body freeze. Even if he wasn’t holding me, I don’t think I’d be capable of moving.

“I’ve never killed anyone who wasn’t already involved in this life. There are rules. I don’t break those rules—ever—and neither do any of my men.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

He shakes his head. “No. And this is why I barely spoke to you for a whole year. I fucking know you’re too good for all this. You’re too good for me. But I… I can’t help myself. I’m in love with you.”

One word.

One word and four little letters.

But the meaning behind that word would take a thousand words to describe.

“You don’t mean that,” I tell him. “You can’t mean it. I’ve only ever loved one person in my life, Grams. And Grams devoted her life to me. She worked so hard to give me what my parents couldn’t. They died when I was nine, and she was the only one there.”

He shakes his head. “I’ve only ever loved one person in my life, and that person is you. I want to devote my life to you. I want to give you everything you could ever need. Every desire.” He pulls me in close to him, wrapping his arms around me and locking me against him. “All of… my past. I’d give it all up for you if that’s what you wanted. Just let me prove it.”

How can I do that to him?

You shouldn’t have to change everything about you for someone else.

Love or not, it’s not fair.

CHAPTERNINE

Jack

“No,”she says, and my heart sinks.

No?

I can feel myself losing her. I try to hold her tighter, but she’s like sand slipping through my fingers.

This is exactly what I feared.

She is too good for me.

I knew it the first day I saw her. But I can’t lose her, not after last night. That changed everything.

And if I have to change everything to be with her, then it’s just something I’m going to have to do.

“I’ll change.”

“No,” she says again, and this time it’s like a knife.

“I have to. There is no other option. I can’t let you walk away. Not now. Do you think I could ever handle knowing you were with someone else?”

The thought of someone else touching her makes my blood run cold. Another man being this close to her. Another man kissing her, holding her, fucking her. I see red in the corner of my eyes just thinking about it.

I’d have to kill him.

But that would just hurt her.

And I swore I would never, ever hurt her.

This is the only way I can keep her with me forever.

She shakes her head. “You shouldn’t have to change. I don’t want to change you.”

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