Page 14 of Demanding Mob Boss

"There are several employees that could be described that way."

"He said youmadea job for her. In your office."

"Technically it is in Connor's office." For now.

"Why did you hire her?"

I don't know how to answer that. Not without worrying my mother. Though she already seems concerned.

Still, I shrug.

"Oh, boyo. Tell me this isn't like Helen."

Helen was a girl I went to school with. She had a nice smile, not as nice as Anna's, but it sparked something inside me. Just a tiny ember of pleasant emotion. Since that was more than I felt around anyone else, it was something I needed time with her to understand. My attention freaked her out and my father paid for her family to relocate. He refused to tell me where.

"Anna likes me staring at her."

My mother's eyes widen. They're the same blue as mine, but where mine reflect nothing but the cold-hearted killer I am, hers are always filled with emotion. Right now they are shining with worry.

Before she can voice her concerns, I add, "She stares at me too."

"A woman looking at you doesn't mean she's experiencing the same level of…" Ma lets her voice trail off.

But I know what she's going to say. Obsession.

Her and my father thought I was obsessed with Helen. I wasn't. I was determined to understand what made her different. I didn't get the chance before she was gone.

Obsession might be the right word for Anna though. She sparks a hell of a lot more than an ember of feeling. Being around her is like having a whole fucking inferno inside. I need to know where she is. All the time.

I need to see her, to know she's safe, even when she's in the same building as me, but especially when she's not.

I'm a sociopath, not a fool, so I don't say any of this to Ma.

I tell my mom the one thing I can say I know won't worry her. "Anna will stand for ten minutes, or longer, just looking at me if no one interrupts her."

"She does?" Ma asks, sounding uncertain, but looking hopeful.

Normally I wouldn't bother to try to convince someone, not even my mom, but that hope pulls at something inside me. "Ask Connor, Ma. He'll tell you." But he'd better not tell her that I pulled a knife on him the last time he was the one to interrupt Anna.

Done with the conversation, I go back to eating my favorite dinner.

Anna is mine and I will claim her. No one is going to stand in the way of that, not my men and not my family.

I leave Malone with Ma when I go to meet Lachlan and the rest of the crew assigned to tonight's operation.

Finn drives into the underground parking garage below our apartment safehouse. This parking level is off limits to anyone but me and my men, sealed off from the rest of the garage with a soundproof steel gate. There are no security cameras on this level or pointed toward the entrance to it.

The apartment safehouse above is fully soundproofed with a dumbwaiter that goes to the furnace room in the basement. We've got an incinerator there that takes care of evidence. The other apartments that used to have access to the dumbwaiter have been renovated and the access bricked up. We own the building and only mob members have apartments, but even so, we're cautious.

When I get out of the car, Lachlan and the soldiers are already waiting. Good. He assigns the team leads we agreed on.

"I want them alive," I tell my men. "I can't get information out of a dead dealer."

"We can rough 'em up, though, right boss?" one of the soldiers asks.

"You're not inviting them to a fucking tea party. Yes, you take them with force."

"You get all of their product too," Lachlan says, my underboss's tone steel hard. "And their money."

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