Page 144 of Mafia And Maid
Rosa stirs beside me. Blinking back sleep from my eyes, hand tightening around her waist, I try to keep her nestled in my arms as I reach down for my phone. But the screen staring back at me is blank. “What the fuck?”
The ringing continues, and Rosa looks at the other nightstand, confusion knitting her brows. Because her phone vibrates against the polished wood surface, the screen lighting up.
I loosen my grip on her as she scrambles across the bed to reach it. “Hello?” Her words are a groggy, barely-there whisper.
At four in the morning, her sleep-laced voice is a new kind of drug. My fingers tingle to touch her skin. I’ve made it my personal mission to make sure Rosa knows just what she does to me at all hours. To see herself through my eyes every fucking chance I get. Watching her break before my eyes shredded me in a way I don’t want to admit. Any icebetween us thawed in an instant, and I was left on my knees ready to pay whatever price was needed to save her.
I want to show her that I’m not the brute I’ve made myself into, despite every instinct telling me otherwise. I don’t want her looking at me like that again. I rub at my chest, the hollow feeling yet to dissipate.
A sharp gasp snaps my attention back to her.
The smooth sheet gathers at her waist, exposing my T-shirt she threw on before we fell asleep last night. The sight of her in my clothing nearly undoes me, but I zero in on the tremble of her hand.
“Rosa?”
The phone hits the bed, and she gives me her back, inching toward the edge of the mattress.
“What’s wrong?”
Silently, she stands.
I jump out of bed, my feet tangling in the sheets. “Shit,” I mutter as I stumble toward her. Gently, I tug her toward me, watching her shoulders shake in a silent sob. “Rosa, what happened? Who was that?”
“My mother.”
“Did something happen?”
She nods. The tears rim her eyes, but she doesn’t shed them as she looks up at me. “I have to go home.”
“What?”
“I have to. My dad—I just…” She doesn’t get a full sentence out.
“Something happened with your dad?”
“He passed away.”
I freeze. From the bits and pieces of her home life she’s shared over the months, her relationship with her parents is still a mystery to me. It’s a hard topic for her to broach. A sea of conflictions that leaves me wondering if she even knows herself. Numbly, she walks toward the ensuite.
“When do you need us to leave?”
“Tomorrow afternoon. My mother said to come then.”
“Okay,” I nod.
“Wait,us?”
“Where you go, I go,” I say in a strong voice.
“I—”
“I’m not going to let you deal with this alone, Rosa. And I’ll make sure while we’re there, my men discreetly monitor your family’s mansion and the immediate vicinity to make sure that you and Ethan are safe from Grayden.” Her body is framed by the light of the bathroom, but even shadowed as it is, I can tell she’s gnawing on her lip. I step closer, kicking the sheet from my feet. I tower over her, tilting her chin up. “And I’ll be by your side. You have me to support and protect you. All of us will.”
“Thank you,” she whispers.
“Not needed. I’ll take care of everything on our end.” She doesn’t move, her mind elsewhere. I know that look. I know that feeling eating her alive. I brush her lips, breaking the spell her thoughts have on her. “It’ll be okay.”
And she gives the smallest nod as she turns from me.