Marrying the Mob Prince

Evie

I’m grateful for my husband.

I hadn’t written it down yet.

Thanking the man responsible for the ache in my chest felt too strange. Once we got home, Tony pulled me into the bathroom to assess the damage. He’d hissed epithets as he pressed an ice pack into my cheek and dabbed antiseptic on my wounds. After a long, cold shower I put on pajamas and headed to bed. My head pounded as moonlight sliced across Tony.

My stomach dropped.

He was in my bed.

Technically, it was his, but I was possessive over this place. He sat under the covers, shirtless. His glowing skin forced me to imagine him naked. Few women could picture the perfectly sculpted body under his clothes. The idea of sleeping next to him throttled my heart rate.

I slipped under the sheets, and Tony scooped me in his embrace. His arms were like a warm tide, pulling me to safety. I collided with him as he splayed me over his lap, his heat burning through my clothing. I lifted a hand to his sorrowful face, tracing his cheekbone. I stroked his stubbled skin, marveling at his harsh beauty, his unrelenting stare, and the current that zipped into my arm. I wanted to wipe his sadness away.

“Are you okay?”

He didn’t smile, but his stony expression softened. “I should be asking you that. Evie, how the fuck did this happen?”

I sucked in my lip. “It’s my fault.”

“Don’t make excuses for him.”

“I’m not, but…I hit him first. I punched him,” I blurted in a rush of words. “Then he smacked me and I went after him.”

“You…went after him?” he echoed hollowly. “After he hit you?”

“He said something rude.”

His head knocked the headboard. “Evie.”

“You had to be there. Believe me, he deserved it.”

“Of course he deserved it. That’s not the fucking point. You could be in the hospital with a concussion. Or worse.”

“I-I know. It was reckless.” Beyond reckless. Stupid in the extreme. “I wasn’t thinking straight.”ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

“You are so lucky I showed up when I did.”

Luckily, Tony seemed to let it go. He scooped my hand in his and brushed his lips over my aching knuckles. “These hands are too valuable to waste.”

I smiled.

His hot gaze flickered to me. “How can you be in a good mood? Or is this from gratitude again? I’m grateful he didn’t split my skull open. I’m grateful my obscenely attractive husband saved my ass.”

“It’s nice to see you worried about me. For once.”

“For once.” He laughed bitterly. “I pass out to the light of my phone watching you. Or I did, until you took out the cameras. Now I don’t sleep until I’m sure you’re in the penthouse. The windows in your workshop give me a heart attack because they’re not bulletproof, and I worry whenever you’re at the clubhouse because I don’t trust the men there.”

“You mean that? Or are you afraid someone will scratch your Porsche?”

A muscle flicked in his jaw. “If you were a car, darling, I would’ve already traded you in. Expensive and I don’t get to ride you.”

“How can such a beautiful man have so much ugliness inside him?”

He raised a brow. “That’s quite the neg. Are you a pick-up artist?”

“I’d slap you but there’s been enough of that today.” I grinned, but Tony gave me a forbidding look. “Are you mad at me?”

“A little.” His arms circled my hip, and he kissed the top of my head. “It’s hard to stay pissed at you, though. Something about black eyes on my woman kills all my rage for her.”

“Lucky me.”

“You are.”

A hint of a growl throbbed from his lips. He turned, the force of his glare and the threat of his half-naked body filling me with steam. He wanted to punish me. I could feel the urge in the hand gripping my waist.

“You think I’m a reckless asshole, don’t you? You think I went too far?”

“No. I’m just glad I’m not the only hothead.”

He made a noise of assent.

“I had it coming. Just say it.”

“That’s too cruel, even for me.” He paused for a moment, his mouth thinning, and then it burst out of him. “Why do you keep going there? Are you visiting your ex?”

“He’s not my ex.”

“Then why were you in his room?”

“Because I wanted a private conversation.” My chest swelled with nerves as we approached the topic I’d been dying to bring up. “We’re married, but you tell me nothing about yourself. It frustrates me, Tony. I don’t know what we’re doing or where we stand as a couple. You ignore me most of the time and when you don’t, we’re either fighting or fucking. I thought I could fix things between us by learning more about you. Nobody would tell me why you hate the club, so I asked Ghost.”

He blew a ragged sigh. “You couldn’t call me?”

“So you could say it’s none of my business?” I struggled to find words, my voice thick with tears. “Look, I don’t blame you for keeping it to yourself. I understand now. Ghost showed me something. There’s a video…of you and-and a few bikers. In a basement.”

The fist squeezing my heart clenched. An eternity seemed to pass before Tony finally spoke.

“They abducted me. They tortured me. The end.”

“Stop that. Stop deciding what I can and can’t handle. I grew up surrounded by a bunch of jaded criminals. Nothing can scare me away.”

“It’s a long story.”

“I’m not busy.”

Again, he stayed silent for a full minute. His hands resumed their stroking of my back.

“It was a Sunday,” he forced out. “I stepped outside for a jog with Comet, my husky. An Escalade rolled up to the curb. The doors opened. Men in leather cuts spilled out and grabbed me. They shot my dog. Threw me into the car.”

How horrible.

I pictured a dog dying on the sidewalk, Tony pushed into the van, my insides clenching with every disturbing image.

“They brought me to Crash’s house. You’ve heard of him?”

I stiffened. “He’s dead.”

“Unfortunately.”

“You’d rather him alive?”

“I’d have liked to be the one to kill the bastard, but I can’t complain about how he went.”

My throat bobbed. “So…he took you captive. Then what?”

“Beat me. Starved me. Shoved me in a crawlspace.”

He listed them as though he recited items from a shopping list.

It blew my mind.

“Why you?”

“I asked myself that a lot. I didn’t understand. At first, I thought Dad had overstepped with the club. I figured they’d rough me up to send a message to my father, and release me. As weeks passed, I realized he had no intention of letting me go.” Tony’s grip bit into my waist as he spoke. “Crash had a vendetta against my cousin Michael, and I was easy pickings. The drug-addicted son of the mafia don.”

“I’m so sorry, Tony.”

He said nothing.

I was bursting with questions, but I couldn’t overwhelm him. “What happened next? Your family found you?”

“No.”

“Did your dad pay him off or were you able to escape?”

“No to both.”

I frowned, searching his blank face. “Then…how did you get out?”

“I didn’t.”

That swept through me with a biting chill. A bleak silence settled between us. Tony’s hard-eyed glare seemed to look through me, at some distant target in his past. Did he mean metaphorically? Before I asked more, a bell chimed.

Fuck.

I glowered at the wall. “Who the hell’s that?”

Tony pushed me aside and leaped off the bed. He grabbed a robe.

“Evie, I want you to stay here.”

“Why-what’s going on?”

The relentless chiming became a banging that echoed through the apartment.

He knotted the robe to his waist and blazed out of the room. The door opened and then slammed shut, reverberating through the walls.

“What are you doing here?” Tony’s gritty tone blasted inside, and an even darker voice answered him.

“We need to talk.”

Dad!

My throat closed. I ripped the sheets back and scrambled for pants, but couldn’t find any. I seized a men’s shirt from the walk-in closet, running out after I’d buttoned it.

Dad stood in the living room in full biker regalia, glowering at my husband. I rushed to greet him but stopped at the disgust curling his lip. His beetle-like eyes stripped me up and down.

“Dad, is this about Ghost? It’s my fault. I hit him first. Tony doesn’t deserve to be-” I broke off, thrown by Dad’s accusatory stare. “What?”

Tony’s arm hooked my waist. His grim features rippled with sunshine. He offered me a sudden, arresting smile.

“Sweetheart, you missed a few buttons.”

His teasing burned my cheeks before I noticed the breeze tickling my skin. I fastened the missing holes in a hurry, my fingers slipping.

“Shoot. Sorry.”

“No apology necessary.” Tony rubbed my hip, my insides jangling. “You wear the shit out of my shirts.”

Really, Tony? In front of my dad?

I clenched my mouth tighter.

“Costa.”

Tony blinked, as though he’d forgotten about my dad’s presence. “Evie, give us some privacy.”

When I didn’t move, Tony raised his voice.

“Back to bed, Evie. I’ll be there in a minute.”

Tony kissed my head. Once in the bedroom, I closed the door, but turned the handle and peeked through the crack.

“What do you want, Jett?” Tony pushed himself on the oak desk, the robe spilling across his bare chest. “Can’t you see I have my hands full with your daughter?”

My stomach churned.

Tony better be careful. My dad made it his life’s mission to scare off any man who batted eyes in my direction, including Crash.

“You fucked up big time,” Dad hissed, squaring off against him. “You put Ghost in the hospital.”

“He’s lucky that’s all I did to him.”

“That kid is connected the Mongols! Now I have to explain to his father why his son is in the ICU with a broken trachea.”

“Poor baby. Say your piece and get the fuck out.”

“What’s wrong with you? He’s a member of my club!”

I’d never seen Dad lose control over his voice. He sounded hoarse. Tony was the opposite, his rich tones filling the office.

“Well, maybe you should keep a tighter leash on him. Seems to me like you should be more upset about him smacking around your girl, but you people don’t give a shit about your own flesh and blood.”

“Where I’m from, deals are honored. Not spat on at the first opportunity!” Flecks of spit flew through the air from his shouting. “Your cousin wants peace, but you want to mess up what’s mine!”

“I guess we’re in the same position. I’ve been through Evie’s tax records, and boy. Even my grandma can hide assets. Are you stupid or just bad at being a criminal?”

“What does that have to do with you?”

“Everything,” he snarled. “Don’t come into my house, uninvited, and lie to my face. You’re laundering diamonds through my wife’s business. I’m on the board of five different charities. I’m fucked if the IRS decided to take a closer look.”

“No idea what you mean. Evie’s taxes are her problem.”

“Don’t play dumb. I want nothing to do with your business. Neither does Evie.”

What were they talking about?

“And I know about the jewelry you stole from her.” Tony’s voice dipped into a quiet, trembling snarl. “You will give them back. Every last ring. Or I’ll put more bikers in the hospital. Lord knows, there’s enough in this city to keep me busy for a while.”

I gasped.

He’s crazy.

“Are you threatening this alliance over my daughter and a few pieces of gold?”

“Evie is my wife.”

“She started this mess with Ghost. She admitted it!”

“I don’t care if she tap-danced on his mother’s grave. Nobody touches my wife. I have the right to kill anyone who does. In fact, every time one of you upsets her, I’ll go after you, your businesses, your members. She’s mine. Get that through your fucking head. I decide what to do with her, where she sleeps, what she eats, and how I will fuck her.”

I ground my teeth together.

I appreciated him backing me up, but he didn’t have to throw our sex life in my dad’s face.

“Vinn will kill you!” Dad stepped toward an unflinching Tony. “I’ll take Evie away!”

I swallowed an outburst.

How dare they treat me like an object? I had thoughts. Feelings. Dreams. None of which Dad seemed to acknowledge, considering he’d sold me to Tony.

“She does not belong to you anymore.”

“If I ask, she’ll come back to me!”

Tony chuckled nastily. “Even if she misses your cage in Chelsea, I am never letting her go.”

The door burst open.

Dad flew from the office. His angry footsteps stomped to the front door, chased by Tony’s condescending “bye.” I huddled on the bed as Tony reentered the room. His feet strolled into my vision until he stopped, the robe hanging inches from me. He faced me with a somber expression.

“How much of that did you hear?”

“All of it.”

He threaded fingers through my hair. “Don’t worry about it.”

I pushed his hand aside. I was more than a little pissed with him, but that was nothing new. “You can’t talk about me like I’m a piece of meat. Especially to my father.”

Tony raked his dark locks, the sleeves riding up his muscled forearms.

“It’s just an act, Evie.”

I don’t care. “If you ever want in my pants, you’ll stop being an arrogant prick.”

“You sure you don’t enjoy my arrogant prick?”

This fucking man.

My contempt for him didn’t prevent his ruggedly handsome face from sending a flicker of heat through my chest. My gaze wandered over his wicked mouth, to the soul-deep eyes that flared with amber. He was so beautiful, so cruel and cunning, his body so strong.

I weakened around him.

I was curious about him.

Every moment with Tony unpeeled a darker layer, and I was desperate to uncover them all. He’d risked his life for me. He supported my business. Threatened my father to defend me. He’d done more for me than my own family, which was a bitter pill to swallow.

What was going on with him?

Tony swept past me to the kitchen, piling frozen peas on his purpled knuckles. A flicker of the insane adrenaline rush from earlier twinged my chest.

I approached him like an animal in the wild, not wanting to give him a reason to bolt, but Tony wasn’t in a hurry to leave. I reached inside his robe, palms gliding over his chest hair. I pressed down, over the broad panes of muscle. His eyes glazed over in a fog, but he didn’t pull away. His steady heartbeat bumped my skin.

“Did you mean what you said to my father?”

He raised his head, unblinking. “No half measures.”

“You’ll get yourself killed for a wife you don’t even want.”

“You’re mine.” He abandoned the ice to grasp my hand. A chill engulfed my swollen knuckles. “I’ll always protect what’s mine.”

A dark thrill rippled across my body at those untamed words.

I’d stopped craving the man.

I wanted the monster.