Page 28 of The Boss
“I wish I knew what to say.” Ellie looks worried behind me in the mirror. Mia next to her looks as defeated as I feel. We all look ridiculous in our normal clothes and remaining circus make up. I managed to drag out the reception for hours, as long as I could, but it’s over now. The limo is waiting.
“Congratulations. To. Me.”
“Well, it’s not over yet, you can take your crazy up to 11 now, right? You’ll be at his house, in his space?” Mia tries.
I nod, “I will, but it’ll all be much harder now. Annulments, divorces, they’re just not done in our world.”
“True,” Ellie says. “I did try, I begged Mark to pull all his strings, look for other partnership options, he has contacts in Boston, and New York. We actually got in a huge fight over it,” she sniffs and I give her a small smile in the mirror.
I watched like a hawk today, carefully noting all the people who came up and greeted my new husband. The senator was not among them. He even avoided the receiving line, sending Ellie to congratulate us by herself. He is not like Ellie’s dad and uncle, who pretend to be businessmen in their communities. Quinn does zero pretending. So it figures a prominent US Senator can’t be seen with a known killer.
She goes on, “He made some calls, but the crux of it is that no one wants anywhere near Skulls Quinn.”
I laugh, “I understand the feeling.”
Mia touches my arm, “At least he’s not hideous in person. Today with his face clean shaven he looked almost…normal?”
Hot.
He looked hot. Not in a cover model way. And the hot pink pants and suspenders over his crisp white shirt looked all wrong. But there’s an underlying current in him and around him. It’s scary. In fact, I should probably get myself checked out with a shrink because would anyone in their right mind be drawn to that? I am. He’s hot in a I’m-the-most-powerful-man-in-any-room-at-any-time kind of way.
And what the hell was that kiss?
I prepared for something weird or bad. I mean, he’s a madman who decapitates people. I thought at worst he might do some licking or biting. At best, I was expecting his kiss to be quick, formal, and cold.
But everything about that kiss was warm.
I swear I even heard him groan at the end. Like, he liked it? Does that mean he likes me? Not possible. The fake me I’ve shown him is unbearable. I suppose there is the packaging. Just like I’m sitting here almost blushing about his hotness on the outside, maybe he’s been imagining me naked with duct tape over my whiny mouth.
I gulp.
“Damn it, guys, what if he wants bloody sheets? Our fathers have both made jokes about it but Quinn doesn’t react, he just ignores them,” they both just grimace at me. “Right. My odds are not great.”
Ellie treads lightly, “You’ve actually talked to him, we haven’t. Does he seem like the type to…”
“Rape you?” Mia rips the bandaid right off the conversation.
“Ugh! I don’t know! I mean, my virginity is legend at this point. And he is a mafia don, he’s going to want to stake his claim. He honestly hasn’t seemed interested enough to force me. He hasn’t copped any feels or stared at my cleavage or anything.”
“Good! Then just keep wearing weird clothes and keep yourself covered and maybe he won’t go there,” Mia helps me slip on my jacket as Ellie zips up the last of my carry on bags.
I just don’t know. There’s so much I don’t know about the man, his family, the house, the dogs, the beheading. It’s too much.
My throat is scratchy and tears well up, “Remember when I was griping about marrying Bosco and having boring, slow missionary sex the rest of my life?”
“Hey,” my best friend puts her hands on my shoulders and stretches to her full height. “Listen, whatever happens tonight, you can get through it. You will get through it. You are way too strong and have worked way too hard and too long to get spooked now.” I start to sigh but she grips me harder and leans down a tiny bit so we’re eye to eye. “If he gets mean, use your hours of training and kick him in the balls. Use knives, hide a gun up your skirt. Hell, actually shoot him if you need to! All the things I’d be too terrified to do because I have never prepared like you have. Because you trained to be a don, Luna. You may not be the boss here but youarea boss. No more crying.”
“You’re right,” I say but I don’t believe it. She glares at me. “You’re right.” My confidence builds as I keep nodding. “I can. I can do this.”
“You can do this!” Mia agrees.
She looks me up and down. I’m wearing a horrible bright yellow suit that makes me look like a low-budget airline flight attendant. “Grab your weird dog and your weird little hat and scarf and go annoy the shit out of your new husband. By the end of the flight he’ll insist you have your own wing of the house.”
“I did call himPooh Bear,” I admit. We laugh. We hug. We stifle our tears. We’re used to living far apart already but this all feels so different. So final.
In a dreamlike state, I grab Marlon and walk him on his leash out to the limo, as two of Quinn’s men, not Papa’s, grab my bags and follow me out. I put on my show, walking like I have something stuck up my ass, smirking under huge sunglasses. I pause to let my new pet pee on the little square cut out in the concrete and look at the limo a few feet away. The sight of it grips something in my chest. With the garish circus balloons and ribbons covering the bumper and “Just married” scrawled on the back window, it makes me feel…
Sad.
