The Mafia Boss Who Captivated Me
75

MAX

"Where the fuck is your boss?" I spit at Ponytail. "Because he's sure taking his sweet time if he's so desperate to speak to me about his girl." Ponytail shrugs. "He will be here when he is here."

"Fucking assholes," I mutter, spitting a mouthful of blood onto the floor. They tried their plastic bag trick a few more times and used me as a punching bag, but they haven't dished out anything I can't handle. The waiting and not knowing what the fuck's going on is the worst part. That's the real torture. Ponytail isn't very forthcoming with information, no matter how many different ways I try to replace out who he's working for, and the other guy may as well be mute. He seems to only be able to communicate in grunts.

Blood trickles into my eye, and I blink it away. Twisting my wrists, I try to work the iron cuffs off, but they're too tight. My ankles are in similar shackles, attached to chains sunk into the concrete floor. These pricks obviously need me alive for something. If I can get the two of them close enough-

None of us are prepared for the deafening explosion that rocks the room. My ears ring, and I shake my head to clear it. I need to focus. I have no idea who was behind that explosion, whether it's an ally or another enemy, but this is my shot. The force of the blast causes Ponytail to stagger on his feet. He spins around, staring at the doorway and shouting in Russian, while the mute one draws his gun and trains it on the entrance. I take my shot with Ponytail. They left way too much slack on the chains on my ankles, enough that I can kick Ponytail in the back of the knee. The sickening crunch of bone is sweet music to my ears, and he drops to the floor like a giant sack of shit, cursing and shouting something to the mute one, who comes for me.

I wrap the chain around Ponytail's neck, crossing my ankles and pulling it tight until his face turns purple. He scrabbles at my legs, fingernails pulling on the chain, but it has no effect. I squeeze harder as the mute one comes behind me and wraps his arm around my neck, trying to choke me so I'll release his buddy. But my throat is slippery with blood, and I wriggle enough to get my mouth on the meaty part of his thumb. I bite down, through flesh and cartilage and blood, shaking my head like a rabid fucking dog and refusing to let go.

He screams and curses, dropping the gun onto the floor. I guess he's not mute after all. He hits me on the side of the head, but I only bite down harder. Ponytail gets weaker, his body going lax and his eyes bulging out of his head. Light glints off a blade in the mute one's free hand, and there's nothing I can do to stop him from plunging it into my abdomen. Burning agony has me seeing stars, but I block it out and focus on gaining my freedom. He probably thought it would make me scream and release his hand, but it only makes me channel all the pain toward crushing his hand with my jaw.

He screams louder, and the door bursts open. A cloud of smoke fills the room, obscuring the faces of the men who enter. I release Ponytail's deadweight as the mute motherfucker pulls his hand back to stab me again. Bracing myself for another strike, I flinch when a bullet whizzes by my ear. The weight of his body dropping to the floor jerks his thumb out of my mouth, and I unclench my jaw to spit out blood and chunks of flesh.

"Nice shot, Loz," says a familiar voice.

Oh, thank holy fuck. "You two took your goddamn time," I croak.

"You're lucky we came at all, asshole," Dante says. I guess they're still pissed at me about the whole having sex with their baby sister thing.

They get to work freeing me from the shackles on my ankles and wrists, and the adrenaline leaves my body in a rush, making me lightheaded, but I manage to gesture toward the floor and mumble, "Joey's pendant. They pulled it off." Dante picks it up and slips it into his pocket.

My eyes flicker closed. "Hey, I need to ask you both something," I mumble.

"What's that?" Lorenzo asks.

"Can I date your sister?"

I don't hear their answer because everything goes black.

MAX

"Hey, there," Kat Moretti's soft voice penetrates the fog in my brain as light filters through my flickering eyelids. I look sideways to see her standing beside the bed, and it takes me a few beats to realize I'm in the Moretti mansion. Every single part of my body thrums with a dull ache.

I glance down at my stomach and note the bandages and the telltale signs I've had surgery. "You fix me up all by yourself, doc?"

Kat is a nurse, but we affectionately call her doc because she patches up our guys as good as any doctor I've ever met.

"Nope. Lucky for you, I got nowhere near you with a scalpel or a needle," she says, rolling her eyes. "We had to get a surgeon in. You had a little internal bleeding so we wanted to make sure ..." "Figures," I groan as I shuffle into a more comfortable position.

I need to call Kristin and make sure she's safe, but there's someone else I'm desperate to see first. "Where's Joey?"

"Joey?" Kat blinks at me, and the look on her face makes my stomach twist in knots. Or maybe that's just the drugs they gave me. "Isn't there someone else you should be concerned about?"

I frown, confused, but then I hear her voice. "Max?" Kristin says softly from the corner of the room, her face pale and her eyes red from crying. She rests her hands protectively over her bump. "Kristin? Thank fuck you're safe. But... Wait. What are you doing here?" My head throbs. What the fuck is going on?

"If it wasn't for your girlfriend here, we wouldn't have even known you were missing." Kat's voice drips with disdain, and my head pounds harder. Why do I feel like I've woken up in an alternate universe? Hang on. What the fuck did she just say? "My girlfriend?"

"I'm sorry, Max. I didn't know if I could trust them," Kristin says.

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I suck in a deep breath that burns my lungs. This can't be happening. "You told everyone you're my girlfriend?" I ask, ignoring Kat's fierce glare.

"Y-yeah," my sister answers, her eyes wide and fearful. I guess she couldn't have known why that would be such a big deal, but the thought that for even one second Joey believed... Fresh bile burns the back of my throat. "Fuck, Kristin!" I push myself up and swing my legs off the edge of the bed.

Kat rushes over and tries to push me back down. "You should rest!"

"I need to speak to Joey," I insist, yanking the blood pressure cuff from my arm. Jumping off the bed and onto the floor, I groan at the fiery agony that sears through my abdomen.

"Max. You just had surgery," Kat says, sighing.

"Where is she?"

"I don't know."

"I'm sorry, Max," Kristin sniffs.

"You have nothing to be sorry for, sweetheart," Kat assures her, but I tune them both out because all I can think about is Joey and what she must think of me right now. How long have I been out of it? How many hours, minutes, seconds has my girl spent thinking that I'm the kind of piece of shit who'd do something like that?

I run out into the hallway, adrenaline coursing through me, making me stronger and more determined with each step. "Joey?" I shout as I head toward the den. "Joey!"

I see Dante first as he walks out of his study. "Keep your fucking voice down," he orders.

"I need to see Joey. Where is she?"

"She doesn't want to speak to you right now."

"I don't give a fuck. Where is she, Dante?"

Lorenzo steps up beside him, fastening the buttons of his suit jacket. They stand side by side-against me. I roll my head side to side, back and forth, prepared to go through the two of them to get to her if I must. "She's not interested, Max."

Blood thunders in my ears. "Joey," I yell louder. I know she's here somewhere. She has to be.

Dante takes a step toward me. "I said keep your fucking voice down. My daughter is asleep," he says with a snarl, teeth bared like he's spoiling for a fight. I never thought I'd stand on this side of the infamous wall of Moretti rage, but I will take both him and Lorenzo down if they don't let me see her. And if I can't get through them, I will fucking die trying.

We glare at one another, none of us prepared to back down even a little. Each of us believing we're right.

I sense her even before I hear her soft footsteps, and I'm filled with adrenaline and anguish when I look up to see her drifting down the staircase. Her bloodshot eyes make me wonder how many hours she spent crying. What the fuck have I done?

"Joey?" Her name comes out like a plea.

"Shouldn't you be with your girlfriend?" She spits the last word like it's poison on her tongue.

"She's not my girlfriend, I swear to you."

She reaches the bottom stair and makes her way to stand beside her brothers. All three Moretti siblings glare at me like I'm the enemy. But something about her standing by their side looks exactly right. Until now, I never noticed how much she has in common with her brothers. She's equally smart, strong, and capable-and although she tries to hide her true feelings behind a veneer of sarcasm and snark, when she's hurt... well, my girl brings the full Moretti arsenal. "She's just some poor girl you knocked up then?" she snaps, her eyes brimming with fury.

I close my eyes as a fiery poker stabs my gut, but it's nothing compared to the searing agony of Joey's contempt.

"Not my kid either," I groan, my hand pressed against my stomach. It feels like my guts are spilling out onto the floor.

"Fuck, he's bleeding," Lorenzo says and crosses the hallway, putting his hand on my shoulder. "Let's get you back to Kat."

I shrug him off. "I'm not going anywhere until I speak to my fucking girl," I shout, even as my head spins and I sway on my feet.

Joey steps forward, baring her teeth. "I'm not your girl, you lying, cheating asshole."

"Yes, you fucking are."

She stalks toward me, and her scent scrambles my senses. I don't know whether to drop to my knees at her feet, kiss her, or give into the dizziness and black out. "Tell that to that girl carrying your baby, Maximo. The one who's been sobbing by your bedside for the past six hours."

"It's not my fucking baby," I protest.

"You need to get back to Kat so she can take a look at you," Lorenzo insists, wrapping an arm around my waist.

"I need to speak to my fucking girl." I try to shrug him off again, but I don't have the strength this time.

She rolls her eyes. "There is nothing you can say-"

"Kristin is my little sister, Joey. That kid she's having is my nephew, not my son."

"What?" Joey frowns and shakes her head. "You don't even have a sister."

"I fucking knew it," Dante says.

Joey slaps her brother on the arm. "If you knew that, why the hell didn't you tell me? Asshole."

Dante sighs. "I mean... I didn't know..." He shakes his head. "It's a long fucking story."

"Can we do this later? Max is fucking bleeding all over the marble here," Lorenzo snaps impatiently.

I look down at the blood-soaked bandage wrapped around my abdomen and close my eyes to fight back the nausea. "I thought your wife was good at stitches, buddy?" Dante's chuckle is cut off by his wife stomping toward us.

"She is, but I didn't stitch you up, and you're not supposed to be out of bed yet, dumbass!" Kat yells. "Get him back in the bed."

"You heard the doc," Lorenzo says as he spins me around and practically carries me down the hallway.

I glance over my shoulder, struggling to remain conscious. "Jo-"

"I'm right here, Max," she says, but I can't read her tone. Does she believe me? Does it even matter to her now? Whatever, I'll make sure it fucking matters to her. She's still mine.

Back in the makeshift hospital room, Kat gingerly peels the wet bandage from my stomach. "Should it be bleeding like that?" Joey asks from beside me.

"He busted his stitches, is all. They weren't all that secure from what I can see." Kat looks up and scowls at Dante. "I think prohibition was in place the last time that surgeon you found operated." I try not to flinch at the glare she turns my way. "Besides, these things can happen if you go running down hallways right after major abdominal surgery."

"Major abdominal surgery," Lorenzo snorts. "It was barely a scratch."

Kat gets to work cleaning my wound with efficiency. I bite back a curse and chuckle. "Yeah, barely."

"I can give you something more for the pain?" Kat offers.

"No. No more drugs." I shake my head. "I want my thinking clear."

"Whatever you say. But this is going to hurt like hell."

Kat urges me to lie down, then quickly stitches me back up.

Only when my head stops spinning do I look up, scanning the room until my eyes lock on Joey's. I hold out my hand for her, and it feels like a goddamn eternity passes before she gently entwines her fingers in mine. "You are the only fucking girl for me, Joey Moretti." I say loudly so that there will be no doubt of that fact in anyone's mind.

"Max?" My attention goes to where Kristin still sits in the corner, a horror-stricken expression on her face, her eyes shimmering with tears. "I'm s-sorry. I d-didn't know."

I give her a weak smile. "I know. It's okay. But you can trust everyone in this room. I promise you that. Tell them who you really are."

Kristin sucks in a deep breath as every pair of eyes in the room, except for Kat's, trains on her. "I'm Max's little sister." She looks at my girl. "I'm so sorry, Joey. I can't imagine what you must have thought of me. I didn't know you and he- If I had..."

"But why did you tell us you were his girlfriend?" Joey asks, her beautiful face pulled into a frown. "Why not just tell us the truth?"

Kristin opens and closes her mouth like a fish out of water, but no words come out.

"Because of who your father is?" Dante offers for her.

Closing her eyes, my sister nods.

"I don't understand." Joey looks between Dante, Kristin, and me. "Who is her father? Why didn't you tell me you had a sister? Why didn't any of us know about her, Max?"

I squeeze Joey's hand. So many questions, and I don't have all the answers yet. "I didn't know myself until about two weeks ago when Kristin showed up on my doorstep."

"So you've known for two weeks. Why couldn't you tell me? Is that why we didn't go back to your apartment that night?"

I open my mouth to answer, but Kristin beats me to it. "I asked Max not to tell anyone I was here," she says, standing and walking toward the bed. "My father told me that I couldn't trust a Moretti, so I made Max promise to keep me a secret." Joey shakes her head. "But why are you here? Why now? Why couldn't you trust us, but you trusted Max? You know he's one of us, right?"

"Because he's my big brother," Kristin whispers. "My father told me if I was ever in trouble, Max was the only person I could rely on."

"You knew about Max then?" Lorenzo's eyes narrow with interest and suspicion. She shakes her head vigorously. "No. Not until two months ago. I had no idea." Dante pinches the bridge of his nose. "But your father is Vito DiMarco, right?" Joey's frown deepens. "Vito DiMarco?"

"My uncle," I explain.

"Your uncle is also your sister's father?" Her eyebrows shoot up to her hairline.

"Yep."

Lorenzo claps his hands and gets everyone's attention. "Can someone start at the beginning and explain what the fuck is going on here?"

"Kristin? You know the whole story and Nurse Ratched here isn't exactly being gentle, ya know?" Wincing, I glare down at Kat who just stabbed the needle into my flesh with more force than before.

"I will kick your ass, DiMarco," she says good-naturedly, keeping her head down and remaining focused on the task at hand.

"A-are you sure?" Kristin asks me.

I give her a reassuring nod. "These people are my family. There's nothing you can't tell them, I swear."

"Okay." She chews on her lip for a second before she goes on. "A few months ago, my dad started acting strangely. Like he was always pretty paranoid, but he upped the ante, you know? Wouldn't let me leave the house. Always checking in on me."

"Seems like he didn't keep that much of a careful eye on you." Dante tilts his head and stares at her rounded abdomen.

Kristin flinches and rubs a protective hand over her belly. "Well, that, um. That's a different story."

My brotherly instincts flare to life. She isn't here to have her actions judged by a room full of strangers. While I know that wasn't Dante's intention-he's an asshole, but he isn't that kind of asshole-she doesn't owe them an explanation. Especially not like this, not right now. We'll need to talk about that prick soon enough, but she doesn't need to be here when we discuss how we're going to replace and kill the father of her baby.

Reaching out with my spare hand, I gently squeeze her wrist. "Maybe we don't focus on the jackass who knocked you up right now?"

Kristin nods gratefully and continues. "Dad was extra suspicious, but he said he was just being careful. We moved twice in the space of six months. When I finally had enough and demanded to know what the hell was going on, he was still sketchy, but that's when he finally told me about Max. How our mom was married to Max's dad when she fell in love with him. How they risked everything to run off together."

Lorenzo snorts, and I throw him a warning look. That's clearly the version of events Vito told his daughter, and it's the story she believes. None of the choices our mother and her father made back then are on Kristin. She feels alone enough in the world right now without all of us telling her what a piece of work her father really is.

"Go on," I say, urging her to continue.

"He said that if anything ever happened to him then I needed to replace Max because I'd be safe with him. He drummed two messages into me. The only person I could ever trust was Max and that I should never trust a Moretti." She pauses, letting the information sink in.

The tension in the room goes up several notches, and I'm relieved that she's intuitive enough not to share the message my dear old uncle told her to give me. That would almost certainly send Lorenzo and Dante off the deep end. "Then, one night about three weeks ago, he didn't come home. I called and I waited, hoping I'd hear from him, but after two days I knew something bad must have happened. So I took the emergency fund and came to Chicago." "That's when she showed up at your door?" Dante asks.

"Well, my apartment building, but yeah. I knew as soon as I saw her..." I trail off, recalling the first time I saw her. How frightened and pale she looked. How much she reminded me of our mom.

"And she's been hiding out at your place in secret ever since?" Joey's words drip with venom. I can't blame her. She has every right to be pissed at me.

"We've been looking for Vito. I was going to tell you..." Sighing, I shake my head. I've never kept anything like this from them before. "And I didn't want to bring any more drama to your door right now..."

"And she made you promise not to tell us, right?" Joey snaps and turns her rage on my sister. "Never trust a Moretti, that's what your father taught you?"

Kristin looks down at the floor, her cheeks flushing pink.

"Joey, don't." I squeeze her hand tighter. "She's just a kid. She was scared. She only knows what her father told her. That's not on her."

My girl scowls at me, but she doesn't pull her hand away.

"So when you came here, you told us you were Max's girlfriend because you didn't trust us enough to tell us you were really his sister?" There's no malice or accusation in Lorenzo's tone, but Kristin's throat constricts as she swallows under the heat of his gaze.

"Y-yeah."

I gesture for her to come closer and wrap my arm around her waist. "It's okay. They just need to know what's going on."

Dante clears his throat and addresses Kristin. "You can stay here until Max is back to full strength and we replace out what's happened to your father."

Her eyes widen with surprise. "I can't stay here now that Max is back."

"You can and you will," Kat says in a steely tone as she finishes off the last of my stitches. "Your father may have had his reasons for not trusting this family, but you are Max's sister, and he's our brother. You have nothing to fear from anyone in this house."