Page 109 of Tempting My Mafia Monster

He rubbed his face with his hand and looked away. He stood up and slung his bag over his shoulder. I jumped up, too. “Comin’ here was a mistake. I shouldn’t have involved you. I can find Sean on my own.”

“But I am involved. I already am. My family has already been looking for Sean since the fight, and we are getting close. We have a few leads.”

“Why are they lookin’ for him?”

“Because I want him dead. I want to give him the most agonising, gruesome death imaginable, the one he deserves.”

That made him tilt his head, regarding me in a whole new light. My lips curled into a slight smirk as his eyes squinted again.

“What did he do to you? Did he hurt you?” His voice was clipped, tight with barely controlled anger, and it made me smile even wider. There he was. My monster. My Maddox. “Why are you smilin’?”

I shook my head. “He didn’t hurt me. Thanks to you. You kept me safe. But he hurt you. Again and again. Everything he did to you since you were a boy, and before that. He took away your family. He made you his killer. And then he took you away from me. That’s why I want him dead.”

Desire and tension burned in our gazes, and Maddox stepped closer. I craned my neck to hold his dark gaze as it dropped to my lips, then slowly crawled back to my eyes.

“I told you all of that?”

I nodded, loving and breathing in the heat and raw power of him. I finally felt alive again.

“Why?” Those black lashes fell over burning coals. We weren’t touching, yet I could feel him everywhere as he whispered, “Who are you, Soraya Buccini?”

I smiled sweetly. “Your Little Monster.”

The air crackled between us, our lips inches apart. Then the doors burst open, and Maddox stepped back. I’d never wanted to hurt my overprotective brother more than in that moment.

“You okay?” Gio asked, glaring between us as he, Alessio, Olivia and Lili re-entered the room.

“I’m fine,” I gritted. “Five minutes wasn’t a legally binding contract, Gio.”

Lili mouthed her apologies over his shoulder, saying she had tried to distract him for as long as she could. He glanced back at her when he saw me staring, and she immediately stopped her animated gesturing and gave him an innocent smile. He turned back suspiciously, focusing on Maddox.

“You want to leave? There is a car out front.”

I peered over at Maddox, and our gazes tangled. Then he looked at Gio. “I’ll stay.”

I tried to hide my glee by pressing my lips together.

Gio huffed. “Fine. Follow me, and I’ll catch you up on what we know about Sean’s possible whereabouts.”

He walked out of the room, and Maddox immediately followed, but not before he gave me one more lingering look that made my toes curl with memories of what that look meant.

Olivia shut the door behind them, then spun around as Lili raced over to me, unable to hide her excitement and squealing. I whacked her hands away from me when Olivia narrowed her eyes at us.

“Right.” Olivia pointed her finger at me accusingly. “I just did you a favour. So fess up. You two are going to tell me what the hell is going on before I lose my mind or Gio has a heart attack.”

I sighed and dropped onto the sofa, patting the space beside me. They both sat down, and I told them everything, well, nearly everything. I left out the part where Monster had tried to kill me when I was first dumped in his bunker, and I didn’t go into too much detail about our sex life, though that’s all Lili seemed interested in hearing.

“Holy Mother Madonna,” Liv breathed, staring at me through her parted fingers, which covered her face. “Raya… why didn’t you say something sooner?”

“I thought he was dead. What would have been the point in upsetting Gio and Sani?”

“So that’s why you’ve been struggling so much? You’ve been grieving him?”

“Si,” I admitted quietly. “I’m sorry for making you worry.”

She let out a breath and looked at Lili. “And you knew?”

She nodded. “A little. Not all of it. But I knew about Maddox. Are you mad that I kept it a secret?”