Page 75 of Down the Aisle
My voice became a little unhinged with my head tilt. "Jail? For what? Tell me, what laws have I broken?" Okay, that was a rather sardonic question, given my mafia profession.
Dodging the question, he narrowed his eyes at me accusingly. "Was it you? The bodies in my backyard, was that your doing?!" He jabbed a weak finger at me with a daring step forward.
Laughing him off, I feigned innocence. "Well, it's not nice to litter, so I was merely gathering it all up for you and giving it back." There might have been an extra body or two in the pile, but not like it mattered.
His shoulders shook with his deepening scowl. "What do you even want with my bitch Eliza? How do you know her? What does she have to do with you?" he spat with a sharp tongue.
Softly clicking my tongue, I lunged at him in a blink of an eye. My arm shot out, laying across his neck. With some forceful steps, I shoved him back up against the wall, choking him withmy forearm until he went red in the face with rolling eyes. If I didn't have torturous plans for him, then I would've pressed on until his body was lifeless at my feet.
Fortunately for him, I needed him alive.
"Tsk." Releasing him with a scowl, I watched as he slumped to the ground with a coughing fit. "Say one more thing that's remotely bad about my Eliza, and I will cut your tongue out and feed it to you." Now, that was a promise, not a threat.
Jerking my leg, I land a quick kick into his stomach before taking a deep breath to keep myself collected. "You are going to regret every lash of your tongue against her, and you are definitely going to regret every time you laid a finger on her sweet body." Unable to help myself, I lashed out at him with another hard kick to the stomach.
Flipping my wrist, I checked the time with an irritated scowl. I had to head back to the house before the kids tore it down with Max, but my men weren't here yet to pick up this sack of shit.
"Eliza's not going to stay with you once she knows the truth," James strained through his dying coughs. "You better enjoy your last seconds with her before I take her back with me."
I tried to stifle my amused laugh, but it slipped out completely. "Oh, she's never going to find out, and she's never going back with you." Giving him a sorry look, I shook my head with a few tuts of my tongue. "She won't even be going to your execution." I don't think she'd appreciate me murdering her ex, no matter how much she hated him and wanted him gone.
In the blink of an eye, James lunged for my legs, hooking his arms around the back of my knees and buckling them. Caught off guard, all I could do was brace myself properly for the tumble to the ground. Landing flat on my ass, I threw my arms back to try and recover fast, but him scrambling atop of me sent me to the ground completely. He wasn't a small man by any means; height-wise, he was a few inches shorter than me, but he beatme in the muscle department by being built like a solid chunk of meat.
Anticipating a few blows to the face, I instinctively threw my arms up to guard my face. It was a good call on my end because the blows did come for a moment before I struggled back. I waited until there was an opening between his punches to strike back with my own punch to his face, causing him to reel back with a groan.
Grabbing the front of his shirt, I threw him off with a grunt of effort before scrambling at him to try and get on top to pin him down. Unfortunately, he was a tad bit faster, narrowly escaping me as he got onto his feet.
A quick scuff and James kicked a puff of dirt and gravel right into my face. "Fuck!" I seethed through gritted teeth, rubbing my eyes in an attempt to clear them. "Damn it!" I cursed under my breath when the sounds of retreating footsteps echoed through the air, along with the sight of a fading figure from my line of vision.
Scurrying to my feet, I took off after James with two left feet. Stupid fucking grit in my eyes burned like hell! What made things more frustrating was that I lost James after a few turns. Damn asshole blended into a crowd of people crossing the street, and I lost him after that.
The defeated trip home was filled with nothing but me grumbling to myself while trying to clear my stinging and aching eyes. Hopefully, one of my men could snag him before he went around and caused too much trouble.
Letting out an angry cry, I kicked at a boulder along the river, knocking it into the water with a huge splash.
I have to find him before he goes to Eliza.
Eliza can't know. She canneverknow the truth about me.
If James cracked open my vault of skeletons, then I'd be done for with Eliza. She was much too sweet to understand mylifestyle. I really didn't want to resort to forcing my hand with Eliza, but if James spilled my secrets, then I'd have no other choice.
Chapter 27
Eliza
"Eliza darling, they're justmy parents, nothing to fret over." Adam's soothing voice did little to calm my buzzing nerves.
Sighing, I lightly shrugged his hands off my body to pace around our room again. "I still would've appreciated a heads up! I want to make a good impression on them! I could've walked out with bad bedhead and in gross pajamas or just your shirt and undies if Hailee didn't say anything!" Okay, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but it wasn't out of the realm of possibility.
"Mia rosa." Adam chuckled, grabbing me by my shoulders and pulling me into a tight hug. "My parents already adore you, and they haven't met you fully yet. You have nothing to worryabout, honestly." Grasping my chin, he brought my face up into a feathery kiss. "Just be yourself. You are more than perfect to me and them."
Frowning and pouting slightly, I fisted the front of his shirt tightly. "But what if they change their minds when they actually meet me for the first time? What if they tell you I'm not enough?" The negative words hung on the tip of my tongue, ready to swing out of my mouth the next time I opened it.
The bucket of bad comments would've spilled all over if it weren't for the pointed look from Adam. "I am not opposed to taking you over my knee, little rose, so be careful with what comes out of your mouth next." It would be the only warning I'd get from him on the matter. "My parents don't get here for at least another hour or so, which leaves me plenty of time to punish you and get a little slice of cake for myself." His mischievous face leaned down closer to mine, and his lips ghosted over the edges of my trembling mouth. "On the other hand, that also means an hour of possible fun for both of us."
"B-bub, this is not the time to be thinking about—ah!" A surprised squeal squeezed out of me when Adam suddenly hiked me up and threw me backward onto the bed. "Adam! You can't—"
"Spread your legs." The depth of his soul-shattering command made sparks of excitement zip down my whole body to my sensitive areas.
