Page 111 of My Mafia Queen

I click my tongue and shake my head.

“It’s not about trusting her. I need to learn more about her. And then I need to know if anyone’s using her to fuck with me. Too much of this shit revolves around her, and while I’m convinced she has nothing to do with it, I don’t like that people are using her.”

He sucks in a strained breath.

“Okay. Then things are good,” he says, lowering himself into an armchair.

Our eyes connect.

“You seem relieved,” I say.

“I am.”

The silence thickens in the room.

“I don’t want anything bad to happen,” he says after staring blankly at the coffee table.

“That’s not up to us,” I mutter. “We can only do our best. Everything else is a matter of fate.”

He says nothing.

“Speaking of fate…” I continue. “What happened to that woman?”

He lifts his gaze to me.

“Which one?”

A smile tickles my lips.

“Which one?”

He laughs, and then he doesn’t.

“I broke up with her.”

“Why? You didn’t like her?”

“I did. That’s why I broke up with her. I didn’t want this life for her.”

His confession makes me freeze.

“No offense, Boss.”

“No offense taken. What did she say?”

He breathes a sad chuckle.

“She didn’t like it. And she cursed me. She said she wanted me dead. I said her wish would be granted sooner or later. I haven’t heard from her since.”

Neither of us smiles.

What he says stands true for him and me and every other man living this life. It comes with a horrible price, and sooner or later, we’ll all be paying it.

I wish I had something nice to say, but I’m at a loss for words, so I push out of my seat and head toward the exit, digging inside my jacket and looking for a cigarette.

“I’m upstairs if anyone is looking for me,” I say before pushing through the door and walking away.

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