Page 22 of Mafia Boss

“What’s this?” Roxie asked, stepping into a high-rise apartment two floors down from mine. She crossed her arms at the foyer, trying to look as if this were the filthiest place she had ever lived, like she hadn’t just come from a shithole.

I shut and locked the door behind us and handed her the keys. “It’s your home now.”

She shook her head and handed me the keys back. “I’m not living here. I want to go back to my apartment. All my clothes and essentials are there.”

She tried to walk past me, but I pushed her back into the living room.

“You live here. I’ll take you shopping for new clothes this weekend. You’ll have to deal with what I have here for you right now,” I said through clenched teeth. “Now, walk into the fucking apartment, take your shoes off, and thank Ben because you wouldn’t have gotten here without him.”

She flared her nostrils. “Fuck you.”

After kicking off her shoes, she stomped to the living room and looked out the floor-to-ceiling windows toward the city. Though she tried to come off as an angry little woman, she glanced down with admiration at the city as it dazzled in the afternoon sun. She’d never experienced such a sight with Ben.

A few moments passed, and she walked back to the living room. She picked up the file I had tossed on the glass table.

“What’s this for?” she asked, flipping the file open.

There was a single piece of paper inside of it with the name of the man I hadpolitelyasked Ben to take care of. He had chickened out of what was meant to be a simple job. Now, the job got passed on to Roxie, so she could prove herself to me.

“The man you will kill,” I said.

All the blood drained from her face. She snapped the folder shut and slammed it onto the glass table. “Are you fucking insane?” she asked me, lips curling up in disgust. “I’m not killing anyone. Aren’t women in crazy fucking Mafia families not supposed to do shit? Don’t they lounge around with money as men like you ruthlessly murder people in their sleep?”

I chuckled lifelessly at her and stepped toward her. “Did you mistake me for a regular old mobster?” I asked, grabbing her by the neck and pinning her to the wall. “You should know better than that,principessa.Everyone in this family earns what they have, and all you have now is Ben’s debt piled up.”

She struggled beside me, trying to break out of my grip. “It’s notmydebt.”

“It is now,” I said, placing my foot between her legs and pushing my knee between her thighs. I moved closer to her and let my nose trail up her neck, making her shudder. “And let’s get one thing straight,Roxie. When you left my office yesterday, you were set on not being my woman. If you had decided differently, Ben would still be alive, and you wouldn’t have to work for my trust.”

With her cheeks flushed red, she clenched her jaw. “I hate you.”

I grasped her hand and placed it against the bulge in my pants. “You could’ve had this pressed against your dripping cunt every night,” I said, letting her feel my cock inside my suit pants.

After glancing down between us, she tensed and pulled her hand away.

I grabbed the gun from my waistband and rested the muzzle against the bottom of her chin. “Instead, you have this,principessa,alwaysaimed at these cute, bratty lips of yours,” I said, drawing my fingers lightly down her plum-painted lips, watching the way they moved for me.

Roxie sucked in a breath and pressed her lips together, probably so she wouldn’t say anything stupid and get herself in even more trouble. I stepped away from her, cracked a smirk, and shoved the gun back into my waistband.

“If you need me, I’m two floors up,” I said, walking to the door. Just as I was about to walk out, I turned around and looked at Roxie, who hadn’t moved an inch, fear in her eyes. “Oh, and, Roxie? I expect the job to be done by tonight.”

15

roxie

When Cristian finally left,I let out a breath and slumped my shoulders forward. Alone for the first time today after everything that had happened—from Ben to that disgusting pig Charlie, who Cristian had mutilated and left alive to suffer.

What was worse was that I found myself feeling sorrow for Ben.

He had known exactly what he was gettingus bothinto when he decided to take money from the Mafia. Now that he was gone, I had to deal with the consequences of his actions. I still felt a pain in my heart for losing the man I had spent the last few years with, but—as much as I hated to admit it—nothing more.

I’d made my decision when I took off my ring last night.

Walking around the apartment, I sucked in a sharp breath and stared down at the city below me. Never had I thought I could live somewhere like this, somewhere in the heart of Manhattan with more than one bedroom, two floors, a full kitchen, granite countertops … the list went on and on and on.

But I didn’t want to stay here for long. I wasn’t going to be in more debt to that devilish man. I’d pay my debt any way he wanted me to now and leave him for good because how could I live a life where my significant other brutally tortured people the way he had done to Charlie earlier?

Well, if they deserved it …

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