Page 18 of Mafia’s Dirty Secret

“You mean that Mafia guy? I think his name’s Matthew,” Karen said softly, just as pleased to pass on information as Lydia was.

“I think it’s Matteo,” Lydia said smugly before she carried on. “I heard he was super rich and very handsome.”

“I saw him at the café with that Marie Hebert. I always knew she’d end up getting into some kind of trouble.” Karen’s previously happy tone now dripped with venom. “Her mother was trouble and she will be too. She’ll end up the same way if she keeps hanging out with that guy.”

“Oh, that’s really too bad. He’s damaged goods now. I wouldn’t touch anything that came into contact with Marie Hebert.”

Marie couldn’t help but frown, but she stayed put. She didn’t want either of the two harpies to know she had heard them.

“So, what’s this about Mafia ties? Is he bringing in drugs or something?” Karen prompted.

“I heard it’s gambling more than drugs.”

“Well, we like our gambling down here, don’t we?” Karen snorted and must have realized the time because she quickly said she had to go. “I have to pick up Bryanny from school. I’ll see you soon, Lydia. Stay away from crime bosses!”

Lydia chuckled as her friend left, but Marie frowned even more. Crime boss? She knew he was rich, that was blatantly obvious, but a crime boss? Mafia even?

Her mother’s warning her whole life came back to her now. Stay away from Mafia men, Ruby had warned. Marie had always rolled her eyes at her mother’s warnings. Not because it wasn’t good advice, but because of where they lived. How would she ever come near a man in the Mafia stuck out here in the back of nowhere? Yet, Lydia and Karen had both said that Matteo was in the Mafia, or was some kind of crime boss, at least.

Marie thought it over as she hid from Lydia. When the other woman went to the front of the one-story library, Marie moved deeper into the rows of books until she was hidden well in the back. If Matteo was in the Mafia, did it change how she felt about him?

She didn’t know what love was, but she knew he made her heart race and her stomach turn into a knot every time she thought about him or went near him. Was that love? And if so, did the news that he might be in a criminal organization change that?

She leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes.

A smile spread over her face. The news changed her thoughts about him, but rather than scare her, it thrilled her. She’d been a good girl her entire life, and it got her nowhere. She was an outcast in the town, her own mother hated her, and the only friend she had was a woman that was paid by the state to care for her mother. Being good brought fuck all to her life.

Matteo, on the other hand, had brought passion, love, pleasure. He brought her promises that she knew he’d die to keep, even if he hadn’t made those proclamations. She knew him to be a man’s man, maybe even a little old-fashioned in his ideas on gender roles. She knew that from the way he held out her chair for her when she’d come into the café, and how he would order for them both.

Matteo was also a man of his word. If he said he would be somewhere, he was there. If he promised her something, he did whatever it took to make it happen. He might not be a saint, that smug smirk of his told her he was well-convinced of his own abilities in many fields, but he was… honest.

That might not be the right word, she decided, if he was involved in criminal activities. Whatever the right word was, she didn’t care, she finally decided. He was good to her, he wanted her, and she wanted him. She wasn’t a saint either, she just didn’t have a choice about whether to be good or not. Her own sense of what was right and wrong made her stay with her mother, despite the abuse she’d taken from the woman.

He’d given her a new phone the third week they knew each other. They often exchanged texts and she called him when her mother was asleep. Every day he’d send at least two texts, one to say good morning and one to say goodnight. No matter what, she got those texts every day, and it made her feel special for the first time in her life.

That probably should have her worried, but Marie wasn’t. Matteo had given her far more than a phone. He’d given her hope. She knew she had a purpose, a reason to live, her mother needed her, but he gave her hope that there was so much more than that.

She picked up a couple of more books on the new release stand and went to check out. She didn’t know which books she’d picked exactly, but she wasn’t worried. In the boring hours of the day, she’d read anything to pass the time.

“Is that all, Marie?” the pretty librarian asked with an awkward smile. Her name tag said Jennifer, and she had light brown hair and pretty blue eyes. She was new to the town, so she’d been nice to Marie at first. Today, however, a strange tightness had shown up around her eyes when Marie walked into the building. Marie knew someone had whispered vile things to the young woman. Things that were probably true if they were about her mother.

Fuck, Marie thought. Now even the librarian cringed at the sight of her. That was just… perfect.

“Yes, Jennifer. Thanks.” Marie handed over her library card and got out of the building as quickly as she could. She didn’t want the young woman to see the way her hands shook and how much she was fighting back tears.

“I hate this place,” she said out loud, even though she didn’t mean to. “I hate this place, and the people, and most of all, I hate the fact that my mother made me a pariah in this awful town!”

These were things she wanted to talk to someone about, anyone if it meant she could just get it all out. She’d considered going to see a counselor, but she didn’t think she was necessarily depressed or anything. She just felt… trapped. She always had been, until Matteo came along, that is.

She drove home with the memory of his breath on her skin, the way his fingers had slid down her neck, how it felt to press down into him to tantalize her. If her mother was asleep, she’d text him, she decided. Or maybe she’d call him.

She thought about the tattoos she’d seen on him. She liked them, liked the rebellion that had spurred him into getting the ink. He wasn’t exactly like the bikers she’d known in the town. They all seemed, sort of, well, dirty to her. Matteo was clean, right down to his perfect fingernails.

He was dangerous, he could break her heart, or he could break her, and that didn’t frighten her at all; in fact, it excited her. That was living: taking risks, hoping for the best, and waiting to see what came of the chance taken. That was the kind of life she wanted. She wanted intrigue, romance, and passion.

She was tired of being good. She was tired of always being safe. For once in her life, she wanted to know what it felt like to be more than just alive.

She turned the car off and walked into the house. There was a smell. That smell. She rolled her eyes into her head, but it wasn’t frustration. It was reality setting in. This would be her life until her mother’s illness came to an end. And there was only one way that would happen.