ONE
LEXI
Wildcat: Hiya, Handsome! You’ve been quiet the last few days, just checking in on you!
I’ve deleted the same message at least ten times over the last twenty-four hours, each time too afraid of sounding desperate.
It’s not normally this way. Usually, I’m the one on the receiving end of the nonstop messages from clingy men who have nothing better to do than message their favorite cam girl.
Yep. This is definitely a first for me.
When I started my account, I did it as an act of rebellion.
But it’s grown into more than that over the years.
An escape.
Something I have complete control over.
Something that’s just for me and has nothing to do with the family I was born into.
Now, I want to make something perfectly clear. I love my mom and brother more than anything in this world. But I don’t love living my life in constant danger because I happened to be born into one of the largest Mafia families in the country.
And the bonus is, if for some reason I had to start over away from the family, I would have savings of my own and wouldn’t have to rely on Cruz or our mom.
I tap my thumbs against my phone screen and sigh.
I’m pathetic.
That’s the only word I can think of to describe a twenty-seven-year-old woman who has had exactly two crushes in her life.
My brother’s best friend.
And a stranger on the internet who I don’t even know what he looks like.
I groan and throw my phone onto the comforter beside me.
I need a life.
Shoving myself off the edge of the bed, I go in search of my temporary roommate.
My brother and sister-in-law are on their honeymoon, which means I’m babysitting my favorite—only—nephew.
Mr. Whiskers, formerly Asshole, is the sweetest orange boy to ever exist, except for when it comes to his Mafia boss owner, whom he regularly bullies.
I find him sunning himself on the couch, his body stretched out in a position I fail to see as comfortable, but he’s perfectly content.
Perching beside him, I give him a quick pat and pull my laptop toward me, tapping it to life.
My emails pop up, and my chest tightens when I see the subject line of the top one.
Mafia Matchmaker
You have a partial match!
After seeing how head over heels in love Cruz and Riley are, I decided it was time to give it a shot. What’s the worst that could happen?
Cruz made sure I wouldn’t end up at the altar with a stranger the same way he and Riley did, which makes it more like a dating site than a one-way ticket to an arranged marriage.
