Page 14 of Mafia Boss

“Our car won’t make it out of the city,” he said. “We can dump this when we get far enough to be free, Roxie. Don’t worry about it, just get in.”

My eyes widened as Ben pushed me into the car. “What the fuck do you mean, don’t worry about it?” I asked.

Everything was happening so quickly, and I really couldn’t stay here. They’d kill me or torture me for Ben. Cristian had made that perfectly clear.

“He’s going to kill us! You’re asking me to leave the state I grew up in, leave my entire life behind, for what?”

Ben started the car, and I didn’t know why the hell I was still sitting in it. I should’ve gotten out and left. I despised every bit of him.

“Roxie, he wanted me to kill someone with a family,” Ben said, speeding out of the lot in our shiny, brand-new, stolen SUV.

“Then, fucking kill them!” I said, then immediately clamped my lips together.

What was that, and where the fuck did it come from?I never wanted anyone to die, to be killed. The words had come from fear … fear of not wanting to die and never ever experiencing the life I wanted. It had come from not wanting to be in debt anymore. It had come from wanting to see Cristian again.

Ben looked over at me with wide eyes and shook his head. “I’m going to ignore what you just fucking said. We’re leaving, Roxie. And you’re staying with me until the fucking end. I’m not letting you go.”

10

cristian

“Sir,”Giovanni said, hurrying into my office.

I stared at my watch, knowing that Ben should’ve been back here by now, and cleared my throat. After Roxie had left this morning, I’d been fucking furious about everything that went down. She should’ve dumped Ben as soon as she found out that he had taken her money. She should’ve been here, sitting across from me, with those rosy-red cheeks and half-blonde, half-brunette dyed hair cascading down her back.

“What?” I asked, eyes flickering up to him from a file Alessandro had sent over this morning about my family in Boston, who had ties to the child trafficking ring involving the shittiest families in the US. “Is Ben here?”

“Antonio and Piero went to Ben’s house to find him, like you’d asked,” Giovanni said. He looked nervous, sweating almost. He swallowed hard and looked at his feet. “They’re dead now.”

I raised my brows. “They’re what?”

“And their car is gone. It had some of our shipment for Tuesday in it.”

I slammed my open palm against the table. “They’re fucking dead, and Ben took the fucking car?” I stood up and grabbed my gun from the desk, tucking it away into the back of my waistband. “Is that what you’re fucking telling me?”

“Yes, sir.”

Flaring my nostrils, I tugged him closer by the collar. “I want everyone out looking for them. They’re not getting out of this fucking city. Post at every fucking exit, every tunnel, every bridge.”

After I shoved him away, he gave me a curt nod, hurried out the door, and started gathering the other guards, who ended up dispersing through the club, heading toward the exits. I slammed my door shut and walked to the windows, pacing beside them and growling to myself.

They had fucking fled town with my shit. Neither one of them would get away with this. Ben would pay with his life, and Roxie … I might’ve been nice to her, but now that she was gone with him, she’d pay too.

She’d be mine. I owned her now—really and truly owned her.

I balled my hands into fists and shook my head. Did she think she’d get away from me? I’d find her anywhere she went, would search everywhere to know where she was. She’d never be away from me again.

After I waited ten minutes for something, Giovanni knocked on my door.

“They’re en route out of the city,” he said.

“Follow them,” I said through clenched teeth, grabbing my keys from the desk. “Meet me at the building outside the city where we do business. Blindfold them. Don’t let them know where the fuck they’re going. I want them to fear for their fucking lives.”

Giovanni nodded and disappeared into the hallway. Roxie had told me to take everything from her if I wanted her, and that was what I was going to do. Roxie was about to be mine, whether she wanted to be or not.

11

roxie

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