BOW DOWN: A Bad Boy Mafia Romance (Barone Crime Family) (47 page)

I
knew
she’d like the breakfast buffet.

Truth was, I had ordered it all for her. She was pregnant, and she needed to eat. She was eating for two people after all. I didn’t want to embarrass her, or look like a fucking sissy, so I’d made up that shit about wanting it all.

I smiled at her as we ate. I regaled her with stories from my mafia past, some of them pretty fucking funny, trying to keep things light.

But I could see the stress behind her expression. I knew this was taking its toll. It was a strange feeling, caring how someone else felt about what was happening around them. Normally I went through my days trying to get money and fucking over anyone who got in my way.

Now, though, I was responsible for helping her. Maybe not responsible, but she was in my charge. I had to protect her from Ernesto and his fucking thugs, and nobody else. For me, that was a strange feeling.

“And then what?” she asked.

“Well, the fucking idiot tried to jump over the fence, and ran straight into barbed wire.”

She laughed, shaking her head. “Seriously?”

“Seriously. The dog just barked and barked, and he sat up on the fence, yelling for us to help him.”

“What did you do?”

“Laughed our asses off until the dog got bored and went away.”

She cracked up, leaning back in her chair, and I loved the look on her face. For a second it was almost like we were two normal people having breakfast together, doing normal fucking shit.

But of course we weren’t normal. I was as far from normal as a human being could get.

As I finished off my plate and Cassidy tucked into hers, there was a knock at the door. She stopped in her tracks, like a deer caught in headlights.

“Relax,” I said to her. “I got it.”

“Sure. I’m fine.”

I couldn’t help but notice that she was gripping her fork so hard that her knuckles were turning white, but I didn’t say anything. I got up and walked over to the door, opening it a crack.

“What?” I asked.

“Hey there, Rafa.”

It was fucking Ernesto.

“You dragged your own old ass down here. I’m impressed.”

“You’re staying nearby. I figured I should do this myself.”

“Good for you. What do you want?”

“I want to talk to the girl.”

“No.”

“Arturo’s orders.”

“Actually, that’s a fucking lie. I spoke to him this morning, and he didn’t say shit about that.”

I savored the sour look on his face. “Listen, you little jumped-up street rat. You’re shit, you know that?”

“Fuck off, Ernesto.”

“Talk to me like that again and you’ll start a war.”

I glared at him and wanted so badly to beat his old ass down. I wanted to kill him right there in the hallway, but I spotted a few of his goons standing nearby and thought better of it.

“Go away now,” I said.

“Let me in to see the girl.”

“You’re not coming in here.”

Ernesto smiled at me. “One day, you’re going to regret this decision. Don’t for a second think that I didn’t try to do this the nice way.”

“I prefer the hard way, you old sack of dicks.”

“Bye, Rafa, you stupid cunt.”

He turned and walked off. I smiled at his goons and then shut the door.

Cassidy was staring at me, her eyes locked on mine. I could see the fear in the way she held herself.

“It’s okay,” I said. “He’s gone.”

“That was the guy? Ernesto?”

“That was him. But he knows he can’t get to you here.”

“What if he decides to knock the door down and take me anyway?”

I laughed at her, grinning hugely. “I’d love it if he tried.”

“You can’t take on his whole gang.”

“Maybe not, but I’ll make them think twice about it.”

She sighed, putting her fork down. She crossed her arms. “What are we going to do, Rafa?”

“We’re going to finish eating, maybe take a walk around campus. I don’t know. We’ll fucking kill time.”

“Not today. I mean about this situation. We can’t just keep sitting around.”

“No,” I agreed, “we can’t.”

“Tell me you have a plan.”

“I have a plan.” I sat down across from her. “You won’t like it, though.”

“Tell me.”

“I spoke with Arturo this morning. He wants information, and he doesn’t care if you have it or not.”

“How does that help?”

“We know what we need to get you out of this. If we get Arturo some information, we can exchange that for your freedom.”

She was quiet for a second, chewing her lip and staring at the window. “We can’t,” she said finally.

“What are you talking about?”

“We can’t help them, Rafa. We can’t do that to the Spiders.”

“Fuck the Spiders. I don’t give a fuck about them.”

“I do. I care about them, and I care about the women in this city.”

I sighed. “Cassidy, we can’t help anyone if we’re dead.”

“True, but we’re not worth anything compared to the Spiders.”

“The Spiders are my fucking enemy.”

“Are they?” She stood up. “I’m not so sure. You’re not involved in human trafficking, are you?”

“No,” he said, “I’m not.”

“Then they aren’t your enemy.”

“The mafia is my fucking family. I may not agree with everything, but I’m loyal. I don’t go against my family.”

“Your family is wrong, and you know it.” She paced toward the living room. “I can’t give them up.”

“We don’t need to give them up. We just need something.”

She sighed, shaking her head. I got up and moved toward her.

“I don’t even know how to contact them.”

“You contacted them before. You can do it again.”

She bit her lip. “They messaged me.”

I paused. “When?”

“Recently.” She looked at me. “But you knew that, didn’t you?”

“I suspected it.”

“They offered me protection. I turned them down.”

I nodded, not surprised. The Spiders would definitely want to protect someone like her.

What surprised me was that she had chosen me over them. She seemed to think that the Spiders were good guys and that my people were all bad. She didn’t really know the Spiders, and yet she still had chosen me.

Maybe she realized that I was the only person who gave a fuck about her in all this. The Spiders would probably ship her off to China and hide her in some fucking rat’s nest. They didn’t give a fuck about her.

“If we can contact them again, maybe we can explain. They can give us something.”

She frowned. “What do you mean?”

“We tell the Spiders what we need. They feed us information. We give it to my bosses.”

“Wouldn’t that be lying?”

“Who the fuck cares? The Spiders could lie, or they could give us something real. Either way, we need something.”

She stared at me. “Why are you doing all of this?”

“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “You’re carrying my baby.”

“Maybe, but I wasn’t before.”

“True.” I walked over to her, getting closer. She took a step back. “Maybe I’m tired of all the violence for no reason. Maybe I want a reason.”

“Why am I your reason?”

“You know why.”

“Because you want to sleep with me.”

“That’s a big part of it.” I got closer to her, inches away. I took her by the small of her back and pulled her roughly against me.

“You just want to keep fucking me.”

“You’re damn right I do,” I whispered in her ear.

And then I kissed her hard. She kissed me back, our lips moving together as my hands held her against my body.

Desire erupted through my skin. Everything disappeared except for Cassidy and her perfect body pressed against mine. I could feel my cock getting harder and harder as we kissed.

Slowly, she pulled back and looked at me. “I don’t know what to do,” she said.

“Trust me. You’re right. The Spiders aren’t my personal enemy. If we do this right, we don’t have to fuck them over.”

“Okay,” she said. “I’ll trust you.”

“Good.” I went to kiss her again, but she squirmed her way out of my grip.

“Let me get my laptop from my bag,” she said.

“We can do that later.”

She smiled, shaking her head. “Let’s do it now before I change my mind.”

She disappeared into the bedroom and I was left there with a hard dick and some serious frustration.

Which I fucking loved. I could handle a little teasing.

Mostly because I knew I was going to get what I wanted in the end.

I
slowly got
my laptop from my bag, willing myself to calm down. My pussy was soaking wet and I was breathing deeply. I wanted to go out there and get down on my knees until he gave me exactly what I wanted.

Instead, I had to get myself under control. Things were getting difficult, and I couldn’t let myself get too distracted.

I didn’t want to destroy the Spiders. Rafa clearly didn’t care either way. He seemed mostly motivated by keeping me alive and getting in my panties, which I definitely wasn’t complaining about.

I trusted him the most of anyone. I couldn’t explain it, but I was drawn to him. Even though the Spiders were doing good work in the city and he worked for violent thugs, I knew Rafa cared about me. Underneath all that bravado and swagger, he definitely cared.

Why else risk so much for someone? He had to care. I had to believe that.

I went back into the other room, my laptop tucked under my arm.

“Come on,” he said. “Let’s go somewhere else.”

“Where?”

“Another room. Make it harder for them to figure out that it’s us.”

“Okay. Lead the way.”

We headed out the door and back into the maze of hallways. I stuck close to Rafa as we went down a floor and followed a few long halls, ignoring the stares of the staff. I felt like we were being watched by a thousand eyes, and we probably were. There were cameras everywhere, although I couldn’t spot any. There was no way the mafia wasn’t surveilling their own mansion.

We finally stopped in front of a bland door. Rafa took his key card from his pocket and swiped. The door clicked open and we walked inside.

The room was completely barren. It looked like it had been an apartment at one point, but they were probably doing construction on it, or possibly getting new furniture.

“This will work,” he said. “Can you get Wi-Fi?”

“Let me see.” I sat down on the floor and crossed my legs. I opened my laptop lid and booted it up. Rafa leaned up against the window, his arms crossed, and watched me.

The computer booted up and connected to the internet with no problem. “Got it,” I said.

“Okay then. Do your thing.”

I paused and then laughed. “What do you mean?”

“Get the Spiders to contact you.”

“I didn’t do anything last time. They just took over my computer.”

“What were you doing when they took it over?”

“I was searching for them,” I admitted.

“There you go. Search for them.”

“Aren’t we being watched right now?”

“Not in here. They’re remodeling this room, and the surveillance stuff is turned off.”

I nodded. That explained why he had decided to come here instead of staying back at our room.

“Does that mean they’re watching and listening to us?”

“No,” he said. “It means if we do this in our room, they’ll know where to find us right away. But here we’ll have some time before they come looking.”

“I see,” I said, feeling nervous. “Are you sure this is safe?”

“Nothing we’re doing is safe,” he said, grinning at me. “But don’t worry. I’m here to protect you.”

“That’s very soothing.”

“You’re welcome. Now get searching.”

I sighed and started typing. If I was going to do this, I might as well get it over with. I could sit around and argue and worry all day long, but that wouldn’t help.

We needed to do something. I couldn’t sit around in the room and wait for Rafa to somehow save me. I needed a task, a job to complete. I hated being passive in all of this; that simply wasn’t my personality. I was a journalist, and as a journalist I was constantly checking out the world, searching and learning. That was just how I existed.

But so far, I’d been too afraid to do anything. I’d been following along, doing what needed to be done, but not taking any big actions on my own. It was time to change that. I had made the decision to go with Rafa, and to follow through with the pregnancy, but now I needed to take a little responsibility.

I began to search for the Spiders just like I had that night. I wasn’t really interested in what I was finding, more in the act of doing the search. I hoped that the Spiders were monitoring searches for their name and would spot me trying to contact them.

Ten minutes slipped by. Rafa disappeared at one point and came back a couple minutes later with a bottle of whisky and a glass. He drank while he watched me type.

Frustration mounted. The first time I did this, they contacted me within a few minutes of searching. As the minutes slipped by, I began to wonder if they would even notice me.

Maybe they didn’t want to talk. I was sure they knew where I was. Maybe they saw me as a traitor and wouldn’t want to communicate.

After twenty minutes, Rafa began to pace. “Maybe this isn’t going to work,” he said.

“We have no other choice. It’ll work.”

“Fucking hell. I hate this technology shit.”

“Technology isn’t to blame. People are always people, tech or no tech.”

He laughed at that. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t blame technology for people being shitty.”

He smirked and returned to pacing. I kept typing away, digging deeper and deeper, trying to find any seeds of the Spiders.

And suddenly, just like last time, my computer screen went black. A green cursor was blinking in the top right corner, and a message scrolled across the top as someone somewhere typed to me.

“We know where you are. You turned us down.”

I looked over at Rafa. “It’s them.”

He walked over and crouched behind me. “Okay. Let’s talk.”

“I need your help,” I typed.

“We know.”

“Tell them we need information,” Rafa said.

I typed his message.

“We won’t talk with Rafa Allegri. We will only talk with you.”

I paused and then looked at him. “Spooky.”

“They’re bluffing. Tell them I’m not around.”

I typed that message. They responded a minute later.

“We don’t trust Rafa, and we believe you are lying. Lie to us again and this is finished.”

He laughed softly. “Okay then. Tell them you won’t talk without me.”

I frowned at him. “Rafa, I think you should go.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“No. Let me talk to them. I understand what needs to be done.”

He looked at me silently for a second and then sighed, shaking his head. “Okay. This goes against my fucking nature, but I’ll let you handle this.” He stood up. “I’ll be back in soon.”

“Thank you.”

He nodded and then left the room.

I felt like I was alone for the first time in a long time, though it hadn’t even been a day yet.

I typed, “He’s gone.”

“We know you trust him, but he is the enemy.”

“He’s not my enemy. Please, the mafia thinks I have information on you people. If I can give them something, they might spare my life.”

“Why would we give you information?”

“To save me. It doesn’t have to be true.”

“Why would we save you?”

I stared at that for a second. “Because Dasha would have wanted you to.”

There was a long pause, and for a second I thought I had lost them. Fear began to build in my chest.

But then a message came.

“Yes, she would have. She was an idealist, and now she is gone.”

“Give me something. Help me.”

“We will help, but we will want your help in return.”

“What do you want?”

“Nothing from you. We want Rafa Allegri’s help.”

“I thought you didn’t trust him.”

“We don’t. We trust you to make him follow through.”

“Okay. I will try. What do you want?”

“Nothing yet. We will tell you when we need it.”

“Fine. Please hurry.”

“Come to the drop point we mentioned before tomorrow. You will find what you need there.”

I wracked my brain for a second before remembering what they had said during the first conversation. They wanted me to go to the corner of South Wales and Arch streets.

“Okay. I remember.”

“Goodbye, Cassidy, and good luck.”

My screen returned to normal.

I stared at it for a second, my mind running circles around itself.

I was sure that the Spiders were monitoring their searches, or at least they were monitoring me. Which meant they were probably more powerful than we realized, if they could pick that sort of data out of the storm that was all the internet traffic. They had some serious internet skills.

I closed my laptop lid and got up. I opened the door and found Rafa leaning up against the wall right outside.

“Well?” he asked.

“They agreed to give us something,” I said.

He grinned. “Great. You’re one sexy piece of ass. You know that?”

“Don’t get too excited. They want something in exchange.”

“Of course they do. What is it?”

“They want you to do them a favor.”

He frowned. “What favor?”

“They didn’t specify.”

“I assume you told them to fuck off.”

“I told them you’d be more than happy.”

He sighed, grumbling. “Of course you did.”

“I didn’t have a choice.”

“It’s fine. What did they give you?”

“We have to go get it. They gave me an address.”

“Fucking hell,” he said. “This gets worse and worse.”

“What’s wrong?”

“We’ll be exposed. This could be a trap.”

“I don’t think it is.”

“Maybe, but it still could be.” He started walking, and I quickly caught up. “We’ll figure it out.”

“I did the best I could,” I said.

He stopped and let me run right into him. He grabbed my hips and kissed me on the lips. “You did good, kid.”

“Shut up.” I pushed him back, smiling. “You jerk.”

“Come on. Let’s go celebrate.”

“Celebrate what?”

“You kicking ass.”

“I do kick ass, don’t I?”

He laughed and took me by the hand, dragging me behind him.

I felt good. I felt like I had done something worthwhile. I wasn’t just sitting around waiting for Rafa to save me; I was making deals and getting involved.

I wasn’t just dead weight. I wasn’t just a burden.

I smiled to myself, excited beyond what I would have guessed.

Mostly because I knew exactly how he wanted to celebrate, and it was what I’d been thinking about since I first met him.