Page 6 of Accidentally Kidnapping the Mafia Boss
“Stay.” My chest tightens. She mustn’t go. She hasn’t agreed to marry me yet. She hasn’t fallen in love with me. I barely know anything about her, but that there’s some secret about her and her brother, and my heart is already tattered and bleeding that she’s going to be out of reach.
Millie turns her head, and for a long second I’m convinced she’ll sit back down, or come with me to the table.
Then she has bolted away in the crowd, her short height meaning she’s immediately swallowed up.
Little Cinderella, running out of the party without leaving so much as I slipper to trace her by.
Thankfully, it’s the twenty-first Century. I’m going to find out everything there is to know about Millie. Watch her, protect her, discover all her secrets.
Slowly, I make my way back to Richmond.
“Sorry-sorry-sorry-sorry.” I sit down and smile charmingly, though every instinct in me screams that this is irrelevant. She is the only thing that matters. Millie.
“Very young, isn’t she?” Richmond’s lip curls. “Your bit of skirt more important than?—”
I have my gun pointed at the other mafia boss’ head before he can finish his remark. Around us there’s the click of safeties as every man draws.
Anger pulses through me.
“You will not disrespect her,” I grind out. She is too young for me, and a sheen of oily guilt makes my temper burn hotter. “And you will take that back or it will be the last thing you say, the Syndicate be damned.”
Richmond tilts his chin up, and views me appraisingly for a few long seconds, and I think about the war I might have just started.
“I take it back.” He nods slowly. “My apologies.”
Blood still pounds around my body, but I lower my gun, and everyone else follows suit.
There’s a short silence, then Richmond’s mouth quirks up. “You’ll fit in with the London Mafia Syndicate exceedingly well. Let’s talk about a long-term deal.”
Feck, I didn’t expect that.
As we thrash out the details, Richmond’s noticeably warmer towards me, but all I can think about is Millie. And how to make hermine.
3
FINN
Now
“It’s a good thing I love you.”
She’s not saying that to me, but feck… If she was, I’d reply that I love her too, more than anything in the world. I love her with the lusty energy of Irish grass and the deep intensity of the stormy sea, despite having barely met her. Apparently when you meet your soulmate, you just know.
“This is for the best,” she tells me. Or Noah. “You’ll see.”
Easing myself back, I slide to the side and ensure my face isn’t lit by the streetlights as I make myself comfortable.
“You’ve been gambling so much, I’m surprised you’re still employed.”
And yeah, she’s right. Her brother has been a problem. Though, to be fair, I’ve been a touch distracted myself recently. And it happens that I have some sympathy with obsessions that are unhealthy.
“I’m sorry that your job is going to be at risk since you’re not turning up for work tomorrow. I’ll phone the pub and explain. Maybe they’ll understand?”
I consider interrupting her. There are a number of points that she’s very wrong on, and that she thinks I’m her brother is not even the most significant.
She thinks she has kidnapped someone who doesn’t want to be here, and that she has to save her brother. When in fact, I’m all too eager to be with her, and I’ve dealt with her brother.
Ever since I first saw her across the bar in one of the many Kilburn pubs I own, I’ve been compelled to find out everything about her. Following her hasn’t been enough. Befriending her brother, who is a decent guy with a gambling addiction and a lot to learn. Checking on her at her work at the hospital. I’ve been looking for a way to get further into her life, and what she doesn’t know is that we were going to talk tonight, and she’d have come home with me, even if she hadn’t made this reckless move.
