His Tesoro: An Arranged Marriage Age Gap Mafia Romance (Empire of Royals Book 1)
His Tesoro: Chapter 34

I’d spent all night trying to make up my mind.

My hand had been on her doorknob twice before I turned back.

Even though Sofiya and I had been together all day, it somehow wasn’t enough. I wanted to be beside her in bed, our naked bodies pressed together. I wanted the taste of her sweetness on my lips, the feel of her skin against mine. I wanted to push inside her, to feel her pussy squeeze my cock as she moaned in pleasure.

It had been too long since I’d fucked someone. That had to be the reason for my current mental state. But even as that thought raced through my head, I knew it wasn’t right. The truth was slowly making itself known.

I liked Sofiya. She was fun to be around. Her quick sense of humor, sassy mutterings under her breath, and brilliant smile did something to me.

It made me feel out of control, and I didn’t like it.

So when Romeo called me before sunrise, I was already awake. And now I was staring at a burning truck, courtesy of the Albanians. Each lick of the flames fueled my rage.

“How the fuck did they learn about this transport?” I asked Romeo.

“Bianchi is missing,” he said. “The only ones who knew about this were the inner circle, the driver, Bruno, and Bianchi. The driver and Bruno are dead.”

“How would they even get to him?” I hissed. It didn’t make sense that Bianchi was an informant for the Albanians. He was a young kid, loyal to the Family. When his father died of a heart attack a few years back, I had made sure his mother and sister were provided for. How could I have missed that he was a traitor?

“I don’t know,” Romeo said, exhaustion heavy in his voice. “But now Arben has half a million in weapons.”

The first of the sun’s rays broke over the horizon, bathing the world in red.

“They know Bianchi can’t continue being an informant after this, which means they either made a misstep in exposing him, or we have a rat infestation,” I said.

Romeo nodded. “You want to set up decoy trails?”

“With next week’s drug run. And”—My jaw clenched, unwilling to speak the words—“I’ll ask Rustik to provide us men as well. We’ll have more eyes on the decoy transits that way.” The Albanians had proven to be more cunning than I’d anticipated, and I wouldn’t make the mistake again. But the idea of asking the Pakhan for help, particularly after knowing how he treated Sofiya, was like ash in my mouth.

The alliance was doing what I needed it to do—keeping us from having to fight a war on two fronts. Now that we had peace with the Russians, we could focus our energy on the Albanians.

But I was still tempted to tell Rustik to go fuck himself. He didn’t deserve to breathe air after how he’d treated his daughter.

“I guess you have to get some benefit out of being married,” Romeo muttered.

I swung my head towards my second-in-command, who immediately realized his mistake. He raised his hands in front of him in a placating gesture.

“I don’t mean anything against your wife, fratello.”

“This is not the day to fucking test me,” I said. “Get this cleaned up so we can fucking go.”

I rubbed at my chest even though I knew the strange tightness wouldn’t dissipate until I was back with Sofiya. One of my soldiers had betrayed me. A vital shipment of weapons was gone. Arben was making me look like a fool. But what I was angriest about was that it had pulled me away from my wife. I wouldn’t get to see her get up this morning, looking all messy and rumpled. And for that, the Albanians needed to die.