Hero: A Bad Boy Mafia Romance by Lara Swann Read Free Book Online Page B

Five
    Lottie
     
    I stayed longer than I should have after he left, staring at the open doorway while those words circled in my head, like birds of prey pecking at my spinning mind.
    Be realistic here - what are you going to achieve by yourself?
    It was unlikely that Jorge or Alfonso would send anyone to come and check out this place out, but that didn’t mean I should stick around. It had been a stroke of luck that the battered guys who’d shown up to Jorge’s makeshift HQ had let enough slip for me to work out where they’d been - and of course, when it was on my way home anyway…
    I couldn’t tell whether it had been my ever-present desire to help those in need, or the thought of how pissed Jorge would be if he knew, that had made me slip into that abandoned building. I hoped it was the former.
    And then when I’d realized just who the Italian scum they’d set upon was - not that he was actually Italian, but it didn’t surprise me that they hadn’t distinguished - everything had shifted. The guy who’d caught my eye at that stupid negotiation. Jason, he’d said his name was.
    I’d watched from the edge as he sat intently in the center of it all - seeing everything and everyone, giving the impression he was in control of the whole thing. It wasn’t like I knew anything about it - and mob deals were the last thing I wanted to be involved in - but despite the sleazy nature of that meeting, he’d seemed professional. Which was certainly not a word I would have applied to this business. It didn’t fit Jorge. Or Alfonso. Or anyone I knew, for that matter.
    He’d been playing everyone, and he’d done it well enough that they thought they’d won - I was pretty certain of that.
    And it wasn’t even that consummate skill that had held my attention - just because he was good at it, didn’t change my disdain for the mob he represented. No, it had been the feeling that he didn’t fit - that there was something far more complex underneath that smooth appearance. Something disturbingly familiar.
    I gathered my kit back together in irritation and slipped out of the building as my thoughts twisted together, that day crashing into what I’d seen of him tonight.
    He’d surprised me. Unnerved me. Just by being there - with those masked green eyes and a closed expression that slipped, only momentarily, when he was caught off guard. It made me want to catch him that way.
    To unravel him and see what he kept hidden from the world.
    Which had made me a damn idiot.
    I’d always had trouble keeping my mouth shut, but I knew well enough to keep certain things to myself. At least, I’d thought I did - as it turns out, a few pointed questions from an intriguing guy and I’ll reveal all.
    I took a deep breath as I neared my parents house, seeing the familiar lights left on for me despite the late hour. I wished they wouldn’t do that - we didn’t need whatever it added to the bills. But I also knew that they had so few ways to look out for me that I couldn’t bring myself to mention it.
    And secretly, I let it warm my heart. After the nights I spent with Jorge’s gang, it was my little reminder that I was home . I was safe.
    When I finally got in, I slipped off my worn and stained-yet-again clothes and headed straight for the shower.
    I only ever gave myself a few minutes, but it was amazing what the cleansing warmth did for my body and soul - especially after a night like this.
    That was what it took to detach myself enough to think properly, and I sighed as I slipped on my nightgown, then flopped onto my small single-sized bed and replayed my reckless stupidity.
    He was a mobster. The dangerous right-hand-man of a notorious crime family.
    Everything I stood against.
    And I hadn’t thought twice about telling him my name, where I lived, and…
    My eyes flicked to the corner of my bed, my heart thumping faster in the same way it always did while my hand inched down, moving without conscious thought to the small gap