Page 16 of Mafia Boss

But my core was suddenly pulsing wildly at the thought of Cristian rolling up his sleeves, shoving himself between my legs, and filling me like I had been thinking about every night since I had met him.

After what seemed like a thirty-minute drive, the SUV stopped. The guards pulled me out, dragging my feet on the gravel and into a room. The room was freezing and made all the little hairs on my arms stand up.

I didn’t know how many men were here, but I could tell that there were at least several of them.

They pushed me onto my knees, and I tried to hold my tears in.

Why is this happening? Why did I listen to Ben?

Now, I would pay for it with my life.

Through my blindfold, I could see Ben’s faint outline fall next to me. Tears raced down my cheeks. Cristian hadn’t ever seen me cry before, and I had hoped that it would stay that way … but I couldn’t stop myself from crying in front of him for this.

The door opened, and I listened to Cristian’s footsteps. He took a deep breath, and I pressed my lips together.

What will he think of me after this? How will he kill me? Quickly, so I don’t feel pain? Or slowly, so I pay for everything that Ben has done?

“Take them off,” he said in his thick Italian accent.

Someone ripped off my blindfold, the bright lights blinding me. When my eyes finally adjusted, I gazed over at Cristian, who stood a few feet away with a gun in his hand. He stared at me with a clenched jaw and shook his head in disappointment. I gazed at the ground, unable to keep his intense stare. I felt like he saw right through me with it, like he knew every single one of my thoughts, could feel my pain … yet he didn’t care.

“Stand,” he said.

We stumbled to our feet, and I swallowed hard, unsure of what he would do next.

“Look at him,principessa,” Cristian demanded.

I swallowed hard, brow furrowed, and glanced over at Ben, the man who had mademebetray the cruelest Manhattan Mafia boss, the man who once had my heart, the man who had gotten me into this mess.

“What do you see in him?”

What does he want me to say? That I see nothing? That I see a weak man?

“Charm … love … adoration …” he said each word tensely.

I gazed back at Cristian, begging with my teary eyes not to make me do this. “Please …”

He clutched the gun harder in his hand, his jaw tense. “Look at him and tell me what you fucking see, Roxie.”

Hesitantly, I gazed back at Ben. “I see the man I once loved.”

“What else do you see?” he asked me.

Ben gazed at me, his lips quivering. Though I despised him for putting us into debt, we had spent so much time together, had so many good memories of the past three years. “I see us riding the carousel horses on the boardwalk, running down the beach with the sand in our toes, lying under the stars, and—”

He pulled the trigger, and a bullet went straight through Ben’s head. My eyes widened, and I let out a piercing scream, backing away from him. Blood splattered everywhere, Ben’s body smacking hard against the ground, a puddle of thick red blood forming under him.

Cristian curled a hand around the back of my head, dragging me closer to Ben’s body, and forced me to look at him. “What do you see now,principessa?”

I parted my lips, tears streaming down my face.Oh my God … oh my God …

He was going to kill me like that too. He was going to leave me in a puddle of my own blood, and nobody would ever find me again.

He pushed me closer to him, his grip never loosening. “What do you fucking see?”

“I … I see … a dead man.”

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