Page 36 of The Mafia’s Girlfriend

She smirked. “Don’t call me a liar.”

“Why are you back here?”

She licked her lips, looking anywhere but at me. “I like flowers.”

“I didn’t ask you if you did.”

“Well.” She shrugged and gestured at the row of roses that ran parallel to this path. “It’s a garden, and it has flowers. I like flowers so it’s perfectly justifiable that I’d want to be in a garden.”

“Liar.”

She scrunched her face. “Nothing of what I just said was a lie.”

“But you’ll admit in not so many words that you have lied to me.”

She crossed her arms. “I don’t answer to you.”

I snorted. “So you lied.”

“Look, forget I said anything. I wanted to talk to you about... about that night at the club. Where you, um, helped me out.”

I tilted my head to the side. “What’s there to talk about?”

“The man you fought—” She froze at the sound of a twig snapping from the other garden path. Cringing again, she brushed past me, knocking into my arm with her haste to leave. “Never mind.”

I stayed right where I was, watching as someone tracked her. The person on the other side of the mazelike area followed the direction Emma went. I registered the sound of their footsteps.

Someone was following her.

I chased after her, snagging her hand and stopping her. Touching her skin shocked me. Making contact seemed so forbidden, but I didn’t let go. She whipped around, glaring at me, and that pinned me in place. Those blue-green orbs so full of fire and sass. And fear.

“Em—”

She reached up to cover my mouth. “Shut up,” she hissed, clearly annoyed.

I moved my head, dodging her hand. “Is someone following you?” I whispered.

Just like that, a streak of defensive energy filled me. I had a chronic problem of wanting to be everyone’s hero, but with her, something about her being distress made my protective instincts flare too hot. The thought of someone pursuing her didn’t sit right with me.

“What’s it to you?” she sassed.

I tightened my hold on her hand. “Tell me.”

She furrowed her brow. “I don’t get you. You tell me to go away. You act like—” She huffed out a breath and shook her head. “You helped me get away from a situation at the club, twice. You pretend to care about my well-being. Then you ignore me for days and treat me like I’m a pest.”

“Because you don’t listen. I told you to back off.”

“You. Don’t. Tell. Me. What. To. Do.”

I stepped closer, wishing I could shake sense into her. I didn’t need her to challenge my hero complex.

“Is someone after you?” I thought back to how adamant she was that someone broke into her condo when she first arrived. Perhaps more danger was tagging along with her all this time.

“No.” She frowned, looking past me, then cringed. Tucking closer to me, she kept her focus on whoever was on that other path.

Panic emanated from her.

“Yes,” she whispered.