Page 71 of A New Days Don

“H-how?” She stammers, clearly confused about how I could possibly know what she’s been doing on her time off. Silly girl.

A lump forms in my throat, and I force it down with a thick swallow. Here it is. The question I have been dreading from her, but one that deserves an honest answer. Yet the lines are so blurred with where I stand in the mafia ever since I killed Fabio.

My voice softens as I take her in, “I am the son of the deceased Don of the Vegas mafia.”

That is good enough.

“Our future Don,” Ren grunts from behind me, but before I can turn to put a bullet through his leg, Mila looks at me with pure fear.

No.

Don’t fear me.

My chest aches as she stumbles away from me, not to her car, but closer to the building.

“Mila,” my voice is stern, leaving no room for arguing.

“You’ve been stalking me?” She whispers so quietly I have almost missed it. Keeping my face neutral, I nod. “That’s… That’s how you ended up at my Jiu Jitsu class.”

I nod again as she puts the pieces together, waiting for her to try something stupid like run from me. I won’t let her go this time. Not into that goddamn building and further from where she belongs—at my side.

“That’s how you found me while I was interviewing people.” She stumbles again, this time nearly falling, but I don’t let her. My hand wraps around her slender wrist and pulls her to me, her body moulding perfectly with mine. Mila fights against me before she rips herself out of my grip. It takes everything in me not to snap and retaliate. She isn’t one of my men.

“You are safe with me,” I tell her, and she laughs at me. A warning growl rumbles through my chest, and she looks at me incredulously. As if hearing how far removed I am from humanity and her morals and ethics is shocking.

Maybe it is. But she doesn’t have to fear that side of me.

“There’s no such thing.” Mila’s head shakes as if what I said was the most unbelievable thing.

She’s wrong.

Everything in this world will have to go through me before they bring harm to her.

In that moment, it is as if this godforsaken world is calling me out on my mental oath to Mila and making me prove how far I will go to ensure she never has to fear for her safety again.

The air stills around us as a loud blast emanates from inside the house. The force of the blast pushes Mila into me, her eyes widening and her mouth opening, but I can’t hear a thing over the incessant ringing in my ears. I turn us, wrapping my body around her as wood splinters and glass shatters from the house, spraying my back.

I grunt as a piece of glass embeds itself into my tricep. I don’t let the pinch of pain stop me from keeping myself securely against Mila to take any more shrapnel that flies our way. With my hand over her head, she looks up at me with panicked, dilated pupils.

The hushed, soothing whisper escapes me, surprising her as much as me, “I’ve got you. You’re alright.”

There is another blast, and Mila yelps, her hands fisting my dress shirt beneath the suit jacket. Heat begins to lick the back of my neck as flames crawl from the house, reaching for us.

“We have to go.” I tell her over the loud roar, and she shakes her head before stepping out from behind me, cradled in my chest, “Mila!”

Watching the fire burn wildly behind her, like calling to like. The blaze knows a kindred spirit as it licks out towards her. As if it knows she was born from destruction.

It's beautiful and terrifying all by the same token.

The heat of the flames burns against my skin, rejecting me as I push through the billowing warmth to get to Mila. Her body sinks into me as I pull her from the fire that is now swallowing the old building whole. We rush off together, leaving her cruiser to burn with the rest of the building. I open the passenger door to my car and guide her body in as gently as I can before securing her seat belt. Despite her staring blindly at the building, her body reacts to my nearness. Her breath hitches, and her skin pebbles with goosebumps. If we were anywhere else, the temptation to lick each one may have been too much to hold back.

“Wait!” She tries to get out, and I growl a low warning. Mila’s cerulean eyes meet mine pleadingly. The look takes my breath away, pressing its claws into my chest almost painfully so. A look that damn near brings me to my knees, and I know whatever she needs I will make happen, so long as it doesn’t result in her being injured or killed.

“My cruiser. We need to save it. They don’t know I came out here, and if they find out I was running an investigation while suspended, I’ll be fired.”

I look over my shoulder to see the area my men have long since vacated, her cruiser wrapped in the flames from the explosion.

Fuck. There is no saving that.