Page 30 of Mafia King’s Dangerous Vow

“So is my career.”

He absorbs that instead of arguing. “I know.”

“Do you?”

“Yes.” The answer comes too fast. Too certain. “I’m working on it,” he says.

I stop pretending to care about the rice. “Working on what?”

“Security protocols. Transportation. Site coverage.” He nods toward the study. “You’ll work from here temporarily. Then we transition you back into meetings once everything’s secure.”

I blink at him. “You already moved half my studio into your office.”

“It seemed practical.”

“It seemed…very mafia.”

“Very mafia,” he repeats, almost amused. “You object to the setup?”

“I object to the fact your men dismantled my office like a hostage extraction.” I pause. “But the monitor placement was surprisingly thoughtful.”

“I know you need more space. This is only temporary.”

Wanting to believe him is its own kind of humiliation. “How long?”

“A few days. Maybe a week.”

It is not freedom. But it’s movement.

“I didn’t realize how terrified I was,” I admit quietly.

He stops eating. “Of what?”

“That this arrangement would swallow my life.”

He doesn’t answer immediately. That tells me more than he probably means it to. “You’ll keep your work.”

I hate how badly I needed to hear this. Because work means income. Accounts in my name. Clients who know how to find me. A version of myself that still exists outside this marriage.

If I ever get to Mark—if I ever get him back—I’ll need more than desperation and adrenaline to disappear with him.

I’ll need options.

“You’re thinking too hard again,” Aleksander says quietly.

I set the fork down. “Occupational hazard.”

“You’re going to hate the security protocols,” he says with the calm of a man familiar with violence.

“I’ll tolerate armed supervision if it means keeping my business.”

“You might have to.”

I make a sound that is neither agreement nor dissent. “Most mafia husbands would probably just buy their wife a Birkin and call it a day.”

He considers that. “There’s a two-year waitlist for that.”

“I’m not even going to examine how you know that.” I laugh.