Tempted By The Mafia Boss

CHAPTER EIGHT

Mimi

This is night four of me getting to the club and looking around for Salvatore.

It’s getting to the point now where I’m going crazy from his avoidance of me.

I hate feeling weak, and what I hate even more is feeling like I’ve done something wrong when part of me yearns for understanding.

And shit, because I know what Salvatore is like, I’m worried.

What makes me worry all the more was yesterday when I saw Nick he looked at me like he was trying to avoid talking to me for too long. That was a dead giveaway that there was something up with the guys, because he didn’t act like that on the regular.

On the regular I would have called Salvatore to see if he was okay but I knew better than to call if he wasn’t calling me. So I sent a text and guess what? No response.

Fuck… get it together girl. The worst fucking thing that could happen to me right now is catching him with someone else.

I’ve never walked the halls of The Dark Odyssey before and felt such a roil of tension. Not even when I was with Gabe. Everything feels like it’s just boiled into one to screw with me.

I don’t know if he’s mad at me or mad at the situation. It could be both.

Tonight I’ve decided to head up to his private lounge and wait. It wouldn’t be like him at all to miss four nights of work. None of them do that. Gabe isn’t here as much as he used to be because Charlotte is pregnant. That’s understandable.

It is and every time I think back to my own situation I try not to feel a certain kind of way when I see the love and attention he gives his pregnant wife. I try in the same breath not to feel anything for the past.

I step out of the elevator and my gaze lands on Salvatore walking down the corridor.

My heart lifts, skipping several beats and I rush forward. I call to him just as he’s going through the double doors leading up to his lounge but my voice is swallowed up in the loud music.

I pass by a couple pressed against the wall having sex and rush through the doors that are about to sway shut.

“Salvatore!” I call him. My voice is more audible now. In here the music is funneled down to a low volume and it’s pretty much the same all the way up.

He stops at the top of the stairs on hearing me but he doesn’t turn around.

That doesn’t stop me from going to him.

It’s only when I get to him that he turns and I see his face.

I see his face and I gasp.

He has two black eyes and bruises to his left cheek.

“Salvatore, what the hell happened?” The words fly from my mouth and my heart squeezes.

He tilts his head to the side and a lock of his hair falls over his eye.

That was a foolish question and I should know it was foolish to ask. I know this man. The only way his face could look like that is if he allowed someone close enough to him to get that damn close.

There’s only, literally a handful of people in this world who would qualify for that.

But I can narrow it down to one single person.

“Babygirl, you know better than to ask questions you don’t want to hear the answer to,” he answers through gritted teeth.

I don’t know whether I should breathe fire or scream.

“Salvatore I begged you not to do anything,” I wince.

“Like fuck Mimi,” he snaps and the vein in his neck pulses against his skin. “Fucking hell. Don’t fucking talk to me right now if you’re going to tell me shit like that. You drop a fucking bomb on me and expect me to sit down and scratch my ass on it.”

Darkness flashes in his eyes and a chill runs through me. I’ve never seen him look so mad.

Never, and not at me.

“I didn’t expect you to beat him up,” I throw back.

He shakes his head. “Yeah, of course not. You know why? Because I’ve grown soft and you forget who I am and what the fuck I am. Mimi I’m a fucking mobster. Not one of the fucking girls you share your worries with. I’m not this friend you think I am. I’m not that and that’s the mistake you made.”

I stare at him, studying the rage in his expression but also the hurt. I know without him saying that it’s all a mixture of everything and yes, he is mad at me.

He’s mad as fuck that I told him I couldn’t be with him.

And, yes he is mad at the situation.

“I’m sorry,” I say.

“Don’t be. Nothing for you to be sorry for.”

“Please tell me you didn’t hurt him.”

“Left him alive,” he answers with an air of menace in his tone.

“You didn’t tell him… did you?” I’m afraid of the answer to that more.

“No precious Gabriel doesn’t know shit.”

“Precious?” I counter. “What the fuck is the matter with you? Why would you say that to me?”

He leans close to me like he wants me to see him fully, how serious he is.

“You picked him, Mimi. Not me,” he states with emphasis. “If we’re such good friends babygirl, you would have always known how I felt about you.”

He moves back and that chill that ran down my spine moments ago scatters across my body.

Truth is truth and no one can refute that.

He’s right and I can’t refute any part of the accusation.

All I can do is watch him as he turns and walks away from me.

Part of me did know how he felt about me.

So why didn’t I do anything about it? Why would I have known something like that and go after Gabe instead?

Maybe I… I don’t know. Anything I think now is going to feel like I’m just making up excuses. But damn it, I cling to the excuse I always find and it’s always about her. Mom.

Always.

Maybe I was more fucked up than I realized even from back then and never wanted to get close to anybody too precious to me. Like her.

Everyone thinks that my mother had an accident, but I’ve carried the secret of the truth very few people know.

Everyone else thinks she fell off the balcony at home and drowned in the pool. I would have believed it too if I hadn’t found the suicide note.

Maybe the part of me that would have been able to do the logical thing and go for the guy who always held my heart died that day when I realized mom’s death wasn’t an accident.

She left the world and left me.

Left me without saying goodbye.

It was me who found her dead in the pool too.