Page 74 of Demanding Mob Boss

I lift my foot and set it on his leg. He puts the gold chain around my ankle and then closes the clasp. He looks up at me. "How does that feel?"

Pulling my foot off of him, I shake my leg a little. "I can barely feel it." I bend down and run my finger all the way around my skin between my ankle and the jewelry. "It's very smooth."

"Never take it off and I'll always know where you are."

"According to the jeweler, unless I know the key sequence, I couldn't if I wanted to."

I can see Cian having an internal argument with himself, but he takes the anklet off, shows me how to open and close the clasp before putting it back on me. Knowing I can take it off settles the anxious butterflies that had started fluttering inside me. It's not that I don't want him to know where I am, but not being able to remove it would make me obsess over having it on.

It wouldn't be pretty.

Knowing I can means I don't have to.

Chapter 24

ANNA

Working in Jimmy's office is better today because I'm not doing it under the emotional storm cloud I was yesterday. I still miss Cian and I want to be where he can see me. Where I can feel his eyes on me.

I don't care if that's normal, oremotionally stable. For the first time since my mom died, I feel like I have a person again. I've always been grateful for Ini and then Mrs. Hart's friendship, but it's not the same.

With Cian, I feelseen. All the time. And I crave that feeling.

Regardless, I know I can't drag my friends into the dynamics of my relationship with Cian. Maybe if I asked them if they minded the cameras, but I know they will. And if I tell them that it makes me feel safe to have him watch me, they might join my aunt and uncle's bandwagon of getting meprofessional help.

They sent me to therapist after therapist while I lived with them and when the doctors couldn't fix the way my brain works, they said I wasn't trying hard enough. I know my brain is wired differently than most people's but so is Cian's. And he doesn't mind that I'm different.

He wasn’t angry that I got overwhelmed at the hospital. He doesn't treat me like I'm broken because the world gets to be too much for me.

Before him, the only people who treated me like I was a fully functioning human were Ini and Mrs. Hart. Which is why I won't risk losing that with them either.

So, when I get home, I move the camera in our apartment to a spot at the head of my bed. Even when I have my blanket tent over me, he can watch and the angle won't allow him to see any part of the room that Ini might be in.

Getting the camera out of Mrs. Hart's apartment will be trickier. She takes a walk every day that the elevator is working, but that's during the day. When I'm at work. I'm mulling that problem over when I get a text from Cian.

Cian:You moved the camera.

Me:I told you I would.

Cian:I'll watch you sleep tonight.

Me:Blushing smiley face emoji.

Me:I don’t know how to move Mrs. Hart's camera without taking time off from work.

Cian:I'll take care of it.

Me:Without scaring her.

Cian:Devil emoji.

Me:I mean it, Cian.

Cian:I already turned it off. Tommy is installing cameras in the halls of your floor and hers as well as the stairwell and elevator.

I'll take Mobsters Who Listen for five hundred, Alex.

His willingness to accommodate me makes me smile, but part of me is worried. Cian's solution sounds like a lot, but will still leave long swaths of time he can't see me, that I'll know his eyes won't be on me. The anklet calms me. He always knows where I am, but it's not the same.

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