Page 95 of Falling for the Grumpy Bad Boy

“I don’t know, and I don’t want to. Are they still in it? Probably. Nothing like what it used to be, but the businesses still run and sometimes shit has to get handled. I don’t ask and they don’t tell. It’s a mutual respect. I’m not running to the cops to blab about their business and they’re not telling me anything that could get me in trouble for knowing.”

“Do you have rival families that come after you?”

I smiled. “Nah, nothing like that. It’s not the old school New York style of things anymore.”

She shook her head. “That’s wild. I’m sorry you have to carry around that kind of baggage.”

“Don’t pity me, Clem. I made my peace with it a long time ago. I chose the right path for myself and for my mother, who has completely clean hands and is living her own life now. A safe one. She talks to the family but she’s out of the business.”

“But family is still family,” she said softly. “Those men tonight, they all genuinely seemed to want to see you be successful.”

I nodded, surprised by her insight. “They’re proud of me. I did what none of them could do. I got out and saved myself from a life of constant violence and fear.”

Clementine inched closer to me on the couch. “You make so much more sense now,” she said.

“Damn,” I said, managing a smile. “I prefer to be dark and mysterious.”

She giggled. “I had no idea I was sparring with a mob boss’s son. I might have been a little more cautious.”

“No, you wouldn’t have. You would spar with me if I was holding a butcher’s knife. Hell, you have poked at me while I’ve held a knife.”

She grinned.

Without thinking, I reached for her, dragging her close and pressing my lips to hers. She tasted like champagne, and for the first time all night, I felt like I could breathe again.