Page 110 of Tempting My Mafia Monster

“No.” Liv shook her head. “I’m relieved Raya had someone to talk to. I wish you had come to me, but I understand why you didn’t.”

“Please don’t say anything to Gio,” I begged. She threw her hands over her face again and groaned. “I need more time with Maddox. I think he might get his memories back, or at least still feel something for me. If Gio finds out now, I have no idea what he might do. He might send Maddox away.”

Liv shook her head. “Don’t do this to me, Raya. You know I can’t keep secrets from Gio.”

“Just give me a few days. Help me spend time with Maddox. Then I’ll tell Gio. Or Maddox won’t remember and will have made it clear he wants nothing to do with me, so I won’t need to tell him. Let’s not rock the boat until there’s a need to.”

“And none of us are wearing life jackets,” Lili added. We both frowned at her.

“What does that even mean?” Liv chuckled.

“That if this boat decides to sink, we are all going under.” We both blinked at her. Lili threw out her arms, her green eyes wide. “The Russian Heir? Or have you both forgotten that Raya is promised to him to save this family from war?”

Shit.

“Oddio! You actually forgot about him, didn’t you?”

I let out an apologetic groan and winced. “I saw Maddox and forgot other men existed.”

“Well, I hate to be the bearer of a shitstorm,” Liv said, leaning forward. “But Lili is right. You agreed to marry Aleksandr.”

“That was before!” I cried, standing and walking towards the window. “Before I knew Maddox existed, and again before I knew he was still alive. How can I marry him now?”

“I understand that, Raya, but the Russians won’t. If we back out of this marriage alliance—”

“I know,” I groaned, tugging at the hair on my scalp. “This family is at war with the Bratva, and we will lose.”

Silence settled over the room, heavy enough to suffocate. We were all mulling over the same impossible truth. I felt torn. How was this fair? How was I supposed to choose between the man I loved and the people I’d die to protect?

My family had always come first. Always. That was our family motto. Family first. That was something Maddox and I understood about each other without ever needing to say it. We’d both sacrifice anything for the people we loved.

Maybe that was the tragedy of us.

Maddox losing his memories was fate’s cruel way of making that choice for me. Perhaps our story was always destined to end after the bunker. We were never meant to be together forever. We saved each other so that we could let each other go.

But if that were true, why did it hurt so damn much?

Even if I kept my word, how the hell was I supposed to stay away from him when he was living under my roof? How was I supposed to walk past him every day, pretending my heart didn’t belong to a man who didn’t remember taking it?

My head told me that letting him leave when he wanted to would have been better for everyone. But my heart… my stupid, hopeful heart was beating only because he chose to stay.

Get Out

Istared at the digital maps, red crosses marking the areas of Ireland the Italians had already searched. They’d covered a lot of ground in a short time, which made me question how thoroughly their men were working. McKenna was a clever fucker. He’d know by now they were hunting him, and he’d never be in any of these places because they were all too obvious. At the heart of that psychopath was a coward. He wouldn’t stand and defend his ground. He’d run. He’d hide behind his men and his allies. Let them die for him before he ever faced his enemies.

“What makes you think he’s in Ireland at all?” I asked, picking up a tablet showing images of a familiar landscape. My family’s estate. The farmhouse was run-down and long abandoned. The well was at the edge of the screen. There were the rolling hills the bunkers hid beneath. My nostrils flared.

There was a gentle knock on the door, and we all turned to see Soraya. My heart did that weird thing again at the sight of those curls, hazel eyes and pouty lips. Too fuckin’ pretty, especially in that white dress that showed off every curve of her body.

Her eyes found mine first, as if it were natural to search for me in every room she walked into, and I couldn’t look away.

This woman I didn’t remember had the power to get me into a fuckload of trouble if I let her.

When I wasn’t repulsed or instantly triggered when she threw herself on my lap and wrapped herself around me like I was her lifeline, I knew I was in trouble. When I realised that hugging me was what she needed, it completely fucked with my head, but I still didn’t want to push her away. And when she finally let go, I was surprised by how much I hated the sudden distance.

I tried to leave. I did. How could I do what I came here to do if she kept looking at me as if I were the moon holding up her sky? But when she begged me to stay, the eejit I was, agreed.

“I thought I might help,” she mumbled, her warm voice capable of melting ice.