Page 63 of Tempting My Mafia Monster

“I love you,” I mumbled into his mouth, tasting the salt from my tears. The warmth of blood soaked my fingers. “I love you, Maddox.”

He closed his eyes as if the confession had pained him more than the knife in his flesh.

“Time,” a soldier shouted, and two of them approached. Monster pulled something from his cargo trouser pocket and pressed it into my hands, still wrapped around the knife. They grabbed Monster by the arms, dragging him back off the knife and away from me. He went without a fight, without a last look in my direction, as I dropped to my knees on the cold, dirty floor.

He was gone, and I couldn’t breathe. I hunched over, hyperventilating, trying to find air as the bloodstained knife slipped to the floor with a clatter. All that remained were folded pieces of paper, smeared with his blood.

“Fuck,” Nolan growled when he spotted the knife on the floor, quickly grabbing it. “What did you do?”

He dug his nails into my arm, forcing me back to my feet. I had nothing left to fight him with as he dragged me down the corridor behind the other soldiers towards the arena, swearing under his breath and wiping the knife clean on his shirt.

In the middle of the warehouse, a brutally lit rectangle of cracked concrete served as the stage for the fight, and above it, running the full perimeter, were the gantries. Steel walkways bolted to the walls fifteen feet up, accessible by staircases at either end, so the rival families didn’t have to pass through each other’s space. Irish soldiers and Oscar lined the left gantry, and familiar faces I’d known all my life were on the right. Surrounded by twenty Buccini soldiers, my oldest brother, Giovanni, stood in the middle, with my cousin, Max, and Alessio’s consigliere, Fabricio, on either side. Arianna was under Gio’s arm as tears already streamed down her face, knowing her husband was about to fight to keep her safe from Sean.

My eyes met Gio’s across the arena as Nolan pulled me up the stairs to join the Irish. The concern and anger on his face at the state‌ of how I must have looked made my knees buckle. He had no idea it was because of heartbreak.

“She had this on her.” Nolan handed Oscar the knife.

“Of course she did,” Oscar sniggered, lifting one side of his suit jacket and slipping it inside. “Nolan, check in with Boss. Go.”

Nolan dipped his head and walked back down the stairs, leaving me with Oscar and some other Irish soldiers.

I wiped my eyes, more for my family’s benefit, and placed my trembling hands on the metal railing. Santino and Alessio were missing. So were Maddox and Sean. I looked to the third gantry between the two families and sucked in a breath. There were the Bratva, looking far too relaxed, standing with cigars between their lips in pristine suits. Every one of them looked like an ice sculpture cut from the finest diamond. Cold, brutal and beautiful. Pale skin, dark hair and ruthless eyes.

If my brother won tonight, I’d have no choice but to marry one of them. And Maddox would be dead. Buried six feet under, along with my heart. Bile rose faster than I could suppress it. I twisted and vomited through the cracks in the steel balcony.

“Keep doin’ more of that, and the Russians won’t want you anyway,” Oscar chuckled, grabbing my arm and yanking me back around. “You’ll need a stronger stomach for what’s about to happen, woman. Stand still and be silent. You pretend to be good at that, remember?”

“One day, I will make necklaces from your veins,” I hissed, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand.

He glanced at me, surprised. Then he smiled, shaking his head. “It’s always the quiet ones.”

Letting Go

She loves me?

How was that possible? What was there to love?

Yet the words kept replaying in my mind.

I love you.

When was the last time anyone had said those words to me? My parents, perhaps, when I was a boy. Though I didn’t let myself remember much from before.

I love you, Maddox.

My boots pounded the concrete floor as the soldiers dragged me down the corridor towards the arena. There was no noise this time. No cheers from a bloodthirsty crowd or blaring music, which was helping to keep the violence locked inside for a little longer. But it was also making those words louder. The soldiers were talking, but I couldn’t hear a word they said.

I was fixated on only one thing. She loves me.

Even after seeing and knowing the horror of who I was, even when I was about to kill her brother for taking mine, she still loved me. Despite what I was capable of, she loved me anyway.

I dipped my pounding head as the soldiers pressed my back against the wall outside the doors to the arena. Blood was dripping down my side from her kiss of death, soaking into the waistband of my trousers, and I could feel the sluggish warmth spreading across my skin. But the pain barely registered. Raw Mercy was keeping it at bay, deluding me about the severity of the situation. All I felt was the liquid violence burning my veins and demanding an outlet.

Sean wanted brutality tonight. He wanted me completely unhinged. And my body wanted it too, vibrating with the urge to destroy someone. My head spun. I clutched at it, heart thudding, fighting the poison’s grip as it spread through my system with every passing second. Focus. Fight. Kill Santino Buccini. My brother’s murderer.

Raya’s brother.

The guilt was a sharp stab in the chest, but it dissolved quicker than it had come. I squeezed my eyes shut tighter as the concrete walls warped around me and the aggression pounded against my skull.