Page 30 of The Mafia’s Girlfriend

I winced, walking on. Mafia. At least it wasn’t the cartel. I’d be dead already. Those mafia men had to dick around with drama and mind games, but the cartel didn’t play like that.

“I just heard that you took it upon yourself to pick a fight with Orsen fucking Martinez?”

I grunted. “Word travels fast.”

“Don’t give me that shit!” he roared. “I just told you not to mess with them. With anyone other than who I have you matched with.”

I scowled, wondering how in the hell he could’ve heard that news so fast. It just happened. He had to have more eyes and ears out and about, always spying, and it made me wonder again who the hell Jimmy was. Who he worked for and where his loyalties lie.

“I’ve been telling you, Luke. Stay in your own fucking lane.”

I ground my teeth, feeling the ache of a hit that Orsen managed to land there.

“Fight the fights I arrange for you. Nothing more.”

“That wasn’t a scheduled fight,” I argued. “It just happened.”

“The fuck it did! Why? Why the hell did you have to fight him?”

I wasn’t getting into any sort of an explanation about Emma. She wasn’t mine to defend. If anything, she served as another reminder of how I couldn’t try to save everyone. I had to harden my heart.

Annoyance rose within me. “It doesn’t matter. I had my reasons.” Before he could rant again, I added, “This just proves that I can handle it, though.”

“Did you attack him to make a fucking point? Huh?”

It had crossed my mind, but I only got involved to spare Emma a worse fate.

I couldn’t answer though, because I’d only gone to that club to talk with Ben. He was probably too drunk to remember anything or that we’d talked, but I showed up with the intention of setting up my own connections.

Could I actually go rogue? Could I fight without Jimmy’s representation to earn more?

With this call, I couldn’t be sure if I should trust him at all anymore. My ability to trust others was already pretty shitty, but I’d leaned on Jimmy’s guidance for years. As I debated my answer, I couldn’t ignore my gut instinct that I should be more careful with him and what I should say.

I felt like this was a warning I had to heed.

If Jimmy was keeping my best interests in mind, why wouldn’t he want me to advance at all?

If he didn’t pose a threat, why wouldn’t he be more upfront about details?

I couldn’t pinpoint why I wanted to be guarded with him, but I would watch what I said and did from here on out.

“You almost killed that bastard. Not Orsen, but whoever he was with,” he groused. “For fuck’s sake. You don’t want to make a fucking point like that.”

I didn’t, actually. If that man died from my actions, whoever he belonged with would come after me.

I sighed, feeling like I couldn’t take on any more weight on my shoulders. “There was a woman—”

“Oh the love of— Are you shitting me? You got that mad over a piece of ass?”

“She’s not—”

He cursed some more, not giving me a chance to explain what I didn’t even fully understand. My association with Emma wasn’t a simple scenario to dissect. I knew I couldn’t have her, but I couldn’t shut off my concern about her either. Nor my willingness to let her kiss me like that.

“That fight was over a woman? Come on, Luke. You’re smarter than that.”

I wished I could say that I was.

I couldn’t trust Jimmy, and I couldn’t trust myself either—not around Emma.