Page 112 of Tempting My Mafia Monster

“Right.”

“It’s cute,” Soraya said, resting her hand on the armrest of my chair. She was so close. I could smell her, almost feel her. Don’t fucking look at her, or you might do another stupid thing, like kiss her, and end up with a bullet to the brain. She moved back when I ignored her, and I hated that. What the hell was wrong with me?

“Shall we get back to the meeting?” Gio asked, leaning back in his chair. “I’ll send these names to Max and see if he can track any of them down. But what about these men?”

He opened a file and slid a photo across his desk. I picked it up and held my breath. It was Nolan and Malachi.

“We already know their names, but we haven’t been able to trace them. We saw Nolan at the fight, but now he’s vanished into thin air.”

I threw the picture back onto the desk. “That’s because they’re dead. I killed them both.”

“What?” Soraya gasped beside me, forcing me to look into her wide, shocked eyes. “When?”

“I killed Malachi months ago. And Nolan last week.”

She blinked at me, her lips parting. I couldn’t help but stare at them.

“Are you okay, Raya?” Gio asked, his voice dropping to a softer tone I’d never heard before. He looked concerned as he stared at his sister. I frowned, unsure why this information would bother her.

“Yeah,” she finally said, standing up and brushing her dress down her body. “I’m fine. I’ve just remembered I said I’d check on Mamma.”

“Okay,” Gio said, nodding. She looked down at me with an unreadable expression, then left the room in a rush. Gio huffed, running his hand through his hair. “I know you say you’ve lost your memory, but try to be careful about what you say around her.”

My eyebrows tensed. “What did I say?”

“Raya was writing to Malachi while he was in prison, without us knowing. For over a year. They were in some weird pen-pal relationship, and she was heartbroken when he was released from prison and never came to meet her. He’s the reason she was kidnapped by McKenna. She put herself in a vulnerable position to try to find him.”

The familiar surge of my heart racing and blood boiling made me clench my fists and focus on breathing. Except this was a different rage. It felt more like jealousy at the thought of her caring enough about a prick like Malachi to put herself in danger, to even be talking to that asshole for over a year. Did she love him? Why did I even care?

It’s a good thing I already killed him.

The intrusive thought didn’t calm me.

“When we got her home, we told her who he really was and what he’d done. He’d obviously been hiding it from her. She hates him now, but I imagine hearing that another man she once cared about is dead might be a bit of a shock.”

Another man.

I exhaled slowly, but it didn’t help. Taking them by surprise, I stood up and left the room. When the signs were there, I knew I didn’t have long before my darkness took over, so I didn’t stick around to explain my exit. I raced down the stairs of the mansion, breathing hard and trying to focus on finding an exit. Or a gym. A gym would be better.

The brown-haired young woman who’d been there this morning emerged from the kitchen doorway. Giovanni’s daughter. She paused when she saw me, her eyes widening with fear.

“Gym?” I growled, even though I was trying my best not to scare her.

She lifted her arm and pointed over my shoulder. “Second door on the right.”

I marched towards it.

“You’ll need the code. 6903,” she shouted behind me.

The numbers on the keypad swam in a red haze as I clumsily fumbled with the code. The blacked-out glass door slid open, and the air-conditioned room welcomed me into a freezing silence. I hunched over and grabbed my knees, fighting the urge to hurt someone or destroy something. I couldn’t even remember what had triggered me. I just wanted to fight.

Lifting my head, I spotted the punching bag hanging in the corner. I ripped my shirt off and headed for it. After twenty minutes of battering a leather bag of sand, my knuckles were red-raw, cracked and bleeding. But I didn’t stop. I kept going and going.

Soft, hesitant hands found my shoulders. It reminded me of every tap Sean had given me before he shoved me into a ring to kill for him. Seeing only red, I spun around, kicking out to sweep him off his feet, then dived on top of him.

“Maddox, it’s me. It’s Soraya.”

I blinked rapidly, sweat dripping off my nose onto smooth olive skin as wide, doe-like eyes of molten gold stared up at me. It took too long for me to realise I was straddling her waist, with her wrists pinned above her head. The horror slammed into me, and I scrambled off her.