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“Let you go. Last thing I want to do is keep you against your will, but I swear to you, Cecilia. I’ll do whatever it takes to make you happy and wanting to stay with me.”
I just looked at him, not sure what to think or say. “Why would you think I didn’t want to stay with you?”
“I’m not going back to the hospital. In fact, I doubt I’ll even have a private practice anymore. We’d be here most of the time. As a rule, I’m the only one who travels much into the city and I usually stay at my house, only coming here when the guys need me.” He shook his head. “Not anymore. Grim Road is a safe place. The rest of the world ain’t. I want you protected.”
“As long as I’m with you, I know I’m safe, but that’s not why I want to stay with you, Bullet.” I took a breath. “You’re the first person to make me feel like I actually matter. I’m selfish enough to not want to give that up. So, I’m holding you to your promise not to let me go.”
“Just try to get away from me.” Bullet smiled and something inside me… eased. It was like a band that had been tightening around my chest over time. I hadn’t realized it was smothering me until the pressure was gone. I took in a big gulp of air and let it out. Then I wrapped my arms around him and sobbed against his neck.
Bullet rubbed my back, murmuring softly while the dam broke. He didn’t try to hush me or stop sobbing my heart out. Once the storm had passed, he handed me some tissues. His smile was kind and so full of an emotion I was afraid to name, I wanted to cry all over again. Never had a man looked at me like Bullet did.
He leaned in, pressing his lips to mine tenderly. His tongue darted out to lick my lower lip and I opened for him. Bullet kissed me until my head was spinning before he pulled back and pressed his forehead to mine.
“I love you, Cecilia. I swear I’ll make you happy.”
“You already do, Atticus. I didn’t want to admit it to myself, but I fell in love with you the first time we talked at that café. You never treated me like a whore even though you had to know what I was.”
“Like I told you before, honey. You’re a beautiful, intelligent, wonderful woman. And now you’re all mine.”
I smiled. “I love the sound of that.”
Bullet took me to bed then. As he promised before he’d left, he spent the next two days worshiping my body. We came out for meals and for him to parade me around the common room where the club girls could see us together. Chyna was noticeably absent, and the other women kept their distance from both Bullet and Rocket. I wanted to ask, but honestly, I could give two shits as long as they stayed away from him.
* * *
“Things are startin’ to shake up, prez.” Crush had been in his office since we came back from killing the mafia men who controlled the lower Eastern seaboard. He’d been monitoring shit and keeping an eye on this section of the Italian mafia in case there was blowback.
Rocket was sprawled in a chair with Lemon sitting in his lap giving the guys hell while we watched, laughing at how disgruntled a few of them looked. It was a game they played and was amusing to no end. “Yeah? What’s up?”
“A whole lot of confusion. The underbosses tracked them to Port Palm Beach, but couldn’t find the bodies, or any trace of them from there. Looks like Blood from Bane and Scrub did their jobs right.”
“You really expected anything different?” Lemon looked amused.
“Nah.” Crush waved her off. “Just passin’ on the information. There’s a power void, though. Someone’s gonna have to step in to fill it.”
“Two guesses who that’s gonna be,” Lemon snorted.
“My bet’s on Thorn.” Mace, one of the men I’d recently met spoke up, tilting his beer bottle in Lemon’s direction. “His city. His pain in the ass.”
“Nah.” Bear waved Mace off. “Thorn might operate on the wrong side of the law sometimes, but he ain’t interested in that shit. If you ask me, it’ll be Sting from Iron Tzars.”
Lemon barked out a laugh. “I thought you were the smart one, Bear. I mean, you nominated me for VP. You had to be smart. But that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard you say. Sting don’t give a shit about that kind of stuff. Besides, he might have a hidden chapter close by, but he’s in Indiana. He can’t take over the place from Indiana.”
“Why not? Alfonso had his share of human trafficking. Sting’s all about taking that shit down. If they’ve got a chapter close by, might be in their best interest to at least look into stepping in.”
“Which he would. But he’s not interested in running the rest of Alfonso’s operation. No. If you ask me, it’ll be El Diablo. He’s already got mafia ties, of sorts, and the brains, connections, and resources to get a stranglehold on the entire region.”
“She’s got a point.” Byte had followed Crush in and leaned against the door frame. “Explains some of the moves we’ve seen. Wrath, who’s also the district attorney for the area, has been quietly moving assets and filing contracts for all kinds of shit. I don’t understand the legal shit, but it looks like there are several shipping companies with new majority shareholders that do business exclusively with companies shipping into and out of Port Palm Beach.”
“Huh.” Rocket snorted. “I bet if you look further into that, you’ll find where someone got Alfonso and DeLuca memberships to the Playground or something. My guess is, the other night was set up to make it easy for us to kill those two.”
“Makes sense. How else would two of the most powerful men in the mafia be that easily picked off?”
“Score one for the Devil, I guess.” Rocket leaned in and kissed Lemon’s cheek.
“Got a question for you, Crush.” Bullet frowned as he spoke. “How does John Mason know you and Byte?”
Crush looked uncomfortable but merely shrugged. “He’s… I guess you could call him our mentor? Raised us. Encouraged us to go into the military. I think he’s got some kind of tie with Mama and Pops at Bones, though my understanding is they don’t talk to each other.”
