Page 4 of Mafia Captor

Ashely

Later todayI’ll be throwing a wedding for my boss Nikolaos Bachman—a man I thought I might be in love with, so yeah, I’m a little down. I’m allowing myself to have one of those “lay on the bed and scroll through my phone” afternoons, choosing to ignore the cleaning I could be doing.

The Bachmans are a powerful mafia family living in a hidden village in New York. I mean, like everybody knows about them, but still. There are protocols in place to keep them elusive. One of their hard and fast rules?

No personal social media accounts.

So when I find one of Reece’s secret accounts under her maiden name, of course I settle in for a deep dive, two-hour binge of all her photos. She’s married to Bryant, my ex-boss and long-term crush. I was his personal assistant before he met her, his right-hand woman, helping him run all aspects of his successful tech company.

I’m not just doing some light stalking for the sake of it. I want to know what I’m missing out on. I want to see their love, feel it, live vicariously through their photos if just for a moment, to give me some hope that one day, I too might find love.

Bryant and Reece standing on the sundeck of the family yacht, the Aphrodite, gliding through the Adriatic Sea. There’s a gorgeous rose-colored sunset behind them, spanning the background of the photo, but my eye goes to the way he’s wrapped his hands around her waist. Like she belongs to him, like he wants to hold her like that forever, her back pressed against his chest, her hands resting on his.

Another photo, the two of them kissing in front of the arched doorway of one of the family’s castles, again, his hands wrapped around her waist, her arms casually tossed around his neck. And the last one she posted…

The two of them headed to the family’s private island in Greece, the Parish. He’s scooped her up in his arms, carrying her like she weighs nothing. The smile on his face makes my stomach churn with jealousy.

I think I can count on one hand the number of times I saw him smile before Reece.

It’s clear from the photos—they were meant to be together. I wish them all the best. I just also wish I could make someone smile like that.

I allow myself one pitiful sigh. Time to swipe the screen and get back to the last-minute emails I need to sort through. Before I can leave the app, an ad pops up. It’s a pink heart with white swirling font inside.

Dare to Date: A dating website for young professionals.

Hmm…

I have to admit, I’m more than a little intrigued. I’m downright tempted. Those happy couple pics I just scrolled through have my ovaries throbbing. I’m not getting any younger. Maybe it’s time to take matters into my own hands and stop waiting for the man behind me in the grocery line to magically fall in love with me.

I’ve never, ever, tried online dating before. I rarely try new things, or date, so of course I haven’t dipped my toes into meeting strangers through a website. When was the last time I went out with a man? A memory of a blind date with an undergraduate wearing filmy glasses and having a habit of nervously glancing down at my cleavage every thirty seconds flashes through my mind. How long ago was that?

A year?

The little pink heart dances across my screen, begging me to reach out a fingertip and tap it.

Maybe it’s time.

After all, I’ve got to do something to end this habit of falling in love with my bosses.

Did I let the lines of coworker and boss blur a little bit over those years? Sure. Can you blame me? Bryant Bachman was rich, gorgeous, and decisive. Was he always the professional, never showing any interest in me in that way? Sure.

I still found myself crushing on him.

Stupid, right? Not as silly as what I did next. No longer able to bear the pain of watching Bryant shower attention and devotion on his new love, I did the mature thing. I quit. But I didn’t leave the Bachman family.

Bryant passed me off to another single brother looking for a personal assistant, Nikolaos “The Beast” Bachman. An even hotter man who—get this—has his own castle for a home. So yeah, I pulled the idiot card once more and fell for him too. You’re familiar with the story by now. He fell in love—spoiler alert, not with me—but with Charlie, the sweetest woman in the world, someone so kind and generous I don’t even have it in me to be jealous of her. I’m thrilled for her. But now I’m in the same predicament I was in before, brokenhearted and discarded.

Oh, and I was asked to plan Nikolaos and Charlie’s wedding. Cake knife in the heart, right? I can handle it, though. At least I think I can… I just have to make it through this reception and then I can break the news to the happy couple.

I’m quitting.

I’ll still put my all into this day—I always keep my commitments—but afterward? I’m going to allow myself to fall into bed and cry myself to sleep. Oh, who am I kidding? I’m not one to cry. I’ll probably end up cleaning. The grout in my bathroom tile could use a going over.

Is this really what my life has come to? Planning other people’s weddings and cleaning for fun? Now a little cupid cavorts across the screen, offering me ten percent off my new online dating profile. My shiny plum fingernail hovers over the heart. What’s the worst that could happen if I click it?

A look at the time tells me I have ten minutes before I need to go. Hover, hover… and… click.

I glance up at my reflection in the mirror. I see a cute girl, pretty, even, but her eyes are sad. What’s that Einstein quote my psychology professor always used? The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Time to change it up.

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