Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Butcher - A Mafia romance : Kabanata 31 - Kabanata 40

Fleur, I wouldn’t bother you unless it was important.Important to you…Can I please come by?You’d better be dying.His dots came and went, starting and then disappearing before his answer hit the screen. I suspect I’ll be dead when the conversation is over.That both intrigued me—and scared me.My shift starts at 7, so you better get here before then.I’ll be there soon.I sat at the round dining table and tossed my phone onto the surface. My heart beat faster than it had a moment ago, full of adrenaline and dread. There was no escape from reality. The only time I felt a reprieve was when I was in the arms of a drop-dead gorgeous man with a magical dick. When I wasn’t with him, the world was in shades of gray. Everything felt mundane and mediocre…and sad. Whenever I was alone with my thoughts, I was suffocated by my loneliness. Adrien had two brothers and sisters-in-law and nieces and nephews and parents who thought the world of him—even when he’d cheated on me. My friends were his

“Gonna go for a fourth?”He smirked at my taunt. “I’ve had enough.”The waitress took our plates then left the dessert menu behind, which he didn’t look at.“I think your friend lost money tonight.” He seemed to understand I was just teasing him rather than actually insulting him, so I continued with it.He smiled even wider. “Good. He’s an asshole.”“Your friend is an asshole?”“They’re all assholes.”“You know what they say, if everyone is an asshole, then you’re probably the asshole.”“Oh, I’m definitely an asshole,” he said. “But they’re assholes too.” He drank from his glass again, the ice cubes tilting with the angle of the glass. When it was empty, he returned it to the table and ordered another.I was surprised he didn’t ask how I was doing, why I’d gone dark for nearly a week, but that was something I liked about him. He never applied pressure to delicate matters. For a man, he had incredible intuition. For a man who could lift a car, he was awfully gentle when he needed to b

Have fun, Luca.His messages stopped.I checked my emails then went through the mail on my desk. There was an invitation for the annual gala at Luxembourg Palace, another obligation to see one another as if we didn’t see one another enough as it was. A black-tie event, one that I attended solo every year. I set it aside then went through the rest.Luca texted me again. You still seeing that same girl? The married one?Yes.He had no follow-up question to that.I worked for a couple of hours, and when I finally felt tired enough, I returned to bed. She’d made her way to the center of the bed, curled up in the blankets like a fish caught in a net. I slid in beside her and did my best not to shift the mattress too much.But it was enough, because her eyes opened, tired and dazed, and she looked at me for a long second, like this was a dream. Then her eyes filled with soft affection, like the sight of me brought inexplicable joy, and she moved into me like a child reunited with her favori

I waited downstairs, listening to her scream as she was dragged into another room and then locked behind the door with her children. Minutes later, Peter was dragged down the stairs and to the center of the living room, forced on his knees like an execution.“Wife and children are barricaded upstairs,” one of the guys said as he approached me. “No injuries.”Peter’s wrists were zip-tied behind his back. “Please don’t hurt my family.”I walked up to him, stared hard into his frightened eyes, and then hit him in the face with my fist. “Insult me like that again and see what happens.” I broke his nose, and blood splattered on me and the floor.He dared not scream, but he breathed through the pain.“You beg for your wife and your daughter, but you employ children whose mothers made the same plea.” I squatted down before him so we were eye-to-eye. “How would you feel if I dragged your daughter down here and fucked her right in front of you? And all you could do was watch?”He trembled at t

After that, I went on a few job interviews I’d set up, but I could tell by their reception of me that I had no chance of getting the positions. One was for a clerk at the courthouse, another was for an assistant at an art house, and another was an office job for an investment company.By the time I made it back home, it was evening and time for dinner, but I had no food in the apartment. I decided to head downstairs to Poppy Café to order some fondue fries and have a smoke, sitting alone while groups of friends met up together after a day at the office, having a drink and a smoke before heading home to their apartments.Bastien texted me. I’m in the neighborhood.My heart did a little dance inside my chest, and that gave me a jolt of fear. When did my happiness become so dependent on this man? When did I become so attached? I should be heartbroken over Adrien, and despite what he did, I should still miss him. But now, all my thoughts were occupied by the man who’d picked me up in a ba