Page 53 of The Mafia’s Girlfriend

She didn’t stir as I entered the room.

No one else was down here, and that worried me more. She’d been shoved aside, out cold. If she wasn’t covered with a guard, that had to mean something, right? Or maybe they’d drugged her so well that they knew she wouldn’t be going anywhere.

Her clothes seemed intact, and as I patted her cheek, I saw that she was breathing fine.

“Krista.” I patted her cheek harder, concerned with how deeply she was out. “Krista.”

Nothing. They had to have drugged her with something potent. I hauled her into my arms and carried her out, more worried about losing Emma in this place.

I didn’t belong here, an outsider looking in, but I knew what this place represented. Money. The filthy rich. They could rise above any standard obstacles in life to get what they wanted—including hard drugs. If they could do this to Krista, I worried as I took her out an unguarded exit from the basement level, they could do it to Emma too.

Questions wracked my mind as I carried Krista past people making out, a couple fucking against the fence. No one stopped me as I set the sleeping woman in the backseat of Emma’s car. Not a single thing slowed me from entering back the way I’d come, either, slipping in that basement door.

How did Emma know the Marcheses?

Why did they take Krista and drug her?

What the fuck was going on here?

From the moment I saw Emma, I knew she would be trouble in my life. With the events of this night, I was getting suckered into the belief that she was worth it all. Emma simply clicked with me. She fit with me, and I knew I couldn’t walk away now. I wouldn’t. I meant it when I said I wanted to get to know her. I wanted to familiarize myself with every detail about her. I wanted to explore with her and learn what she liked and how I could annoy her. I looked forward to cutting some slack and letting her encroach on my privacy too.

But what trouble was she bringing into my life? What was I really walking into here?

I hurried through the hallway upstairs in the party house. Stuck with a tunnel-vision approach to finding her, I tuned out everything else. The noise of the party. The people fucking in a team effort in the bedrooms. That couple seeming to race in snorting up coke.

I concentrated on finding Emma, worried with every moment that I couldn’t locate her.

I’d just found her. I’d just relented to the idea of keeping her with me. To make her mine.

And I’d be damned if I lost her already.

Chapter 20

Emma

“I’ve missed seeing you at home, Emmalina.”

I exhaled through my nose, refusing to let Antonio see how much he bothered me. How much he scared me. I hated the way he said my name, that nasally, whiny emphasis on the na at the end.

“What a shame,” I replied dryly.

“It is.” He didn’t move, standing with his hands clasped behind his back. It was a power move, trying to look mighty and in control. He was in control. I knew he was. But I didn’t have to react like a submissive woman.

“It is a shame that I’ve been deprived of seeing my bride.”

“Future bride.” I wouldn’t back down. “We’re not officially engaged yet.”

He arched one brow, seeming amused as a slow, ugly smile covered his face.

“Are you waiting for a romantic proposal, you stupid, silly bitch?”

One of the guards behind him laughed.

“No.”

He kept goading me. “Are you wanting some grand gesture of love?” he mocked.

“I want you to leave me alone.”