Page 19 of The Don's Prisoner

“As… enticing… as that offer is, I think I will decline. It’s bad enough that I got engaged to you before I split up with Rex, I don’t need to voluntarily cheat on him as well,” she said, and I snorted with laughter at the name of her boyfriend.

The waitress came back and placed a large wooden boat on the table that was full of all different kinds of sushi. The boat was decorated with purple orchids and ginger shaped into detailed designs that looked like tiny dragons. Then she placed a small bowl of edamame next to it and asked if we needed anything else. We asked for another round of drinks, and then she left us. I made a point this time not to flirt with her, and Victoria didn’t say a word.

I was learning what it was like to date someone. Slowly, but I was learning.

“So… you are part of the mob… what exactly do you do?” she asked, grabbing a pair of sleek black chopsticks from the ship and breaking them apart. Then, she began digging in, eating the rolls straight from the boat instead of bothering to ask for another plate. I liked that. It made her a little more down-to-earth somehow.

I debated not telling her, but if we did marry and something happened to me, she might as well know the truth. Besides, it was always better to know what you were getting into beforehand, and being married to me could potentially be quite dangerous.

I hadn’t personally witnessed any wives or families getting caught up in business feuds between groups, but I had heard stories of wives getting whacked, children going missing, and family homes being set on fire. I tended to believe those stories because I knew the men we were constantly up against, and I knew they would have no problems taking their revenge out on my wife or children if they had the chance. The trick was making sure they never had a chance.

But it didn’t mean that mistakes didn’t happen.

“At the moment, I am my father’s right-hand man. Anything he needs done that he can’t trust to someone else, I take care of,” I explained and took a sushi roll for myself. The eel ones were my favorite.

“Like what?”

“Lots of things,” I shrugged. She narrowed her eyes at me.

“Are you dodging the question on purpose to be annoying?”

“No, I just… I don’t talk about this kind of thing very often.”

She nodded and chewed on her food while she thought. She swallowed and looked me straight in the eyes like she would be able to tell if I was lying just by seeing my facial expression. That might work with most people, but I had a professional poker face.

“Have you killed anyone?”

“Yes,” I admitted without hesitation. That seemed to catch her off guard.

“Do you kill for your father… often?”

“Yes.”

She blinked and looked down at the table.

“Why?”

“I don’t know,” I said. Her eyes went wide, but she still wasn’t looking at me. “My father just gives me a name, and I take care of the rest.”

“But…” she paused and took a big swig of her drink, “that’s horrible.”

“That’s business, darling,” I told her and took another bite of sushi.

The rest of lunch was quiet after that. Maybe I had told her too much too soon about what I did. Maybe she just needed time to wrap her head around the idea that I actually killed people for a living and I had threatened her brother’s life. Maybe now she was starting to take me seriously.

Then again, maybe she was thinking about backing out of our deal.

If she did, I would be forced to kill Vito. I couldn’t make a threat like that and not kill him. But then that meant I would have to kill Victoria, and I didn’t want to do that. She didn’t deserve to die for her brother’s stupidity.

Since when did I care if someone deserved to die or not?

“Thank you for coming with me to lunch,” I said as I pulled the Lambo to a stop in the parking lot of her store. She nodded, not meeting my eyes.

“You’re welcome. Thank you for… everything,” she responded and put her hand on the door to get out.

“Wait…” I said and leaned towards her quickly before I could chicken out or before she realized what I was going to do.

She turned her head towards me in response, and I closed the distance between us. My lips met hers in a quick but full kiss, fitting together like they were made for one another. I gripped the back of her neck with my hand and parted my lips a little, swiping her bottom lip with my tongue, silently asking to be let in. She hesitated, but slowly, ever so timidly, she opened her mouth and let me kiss her properly. It shocked me so much that at first I thought I had read her signal wrong, but her tongue met mine and we kissed, long and deep.

---