Page 63 of Mafia And Maid

“But you’re marrying her…”

“No,” he says firmly. “It was just a dinner for us to meet and see if we would get along. It was all set up before you were hired. If I’d remembered about it, I would have called it all off. Because you’re the only one I want to get to know now.”

I’m silent for a few moments. “I felt invisible tonight,” I confess, my voice barely above a whisper. “Like I didn’t matter. Like I was watching from the sidelines.”

His eyes soften, and when he reaches for me again, he puts his hands around my face in a gentle grip.

“Rosa, you’re not invisible to me...”

Tears prick at the corners of my eyes, although I try to blink them away. I don't want to cry in front of him.

“I’m so sorry I made you feel like you didn’t matter,” he murmurs in a gentle tone. “That’s the last thing I ever wanted.”

I nod, grateful for his explanation and believing what he says.

And that should be an end to it—we should be able to go back to getting to know one another.

But what happens next means there’s only one option left open to me—and that’s to quit.

CHAPTER 16

ROSA

The piece of paper feels heavy in my hand.

And each step forward feels like my feet are tied to lead bricks. But I keep on walking.

This is the right thing to do.

This is theonlything to do.

I thought things were back on track after that awful Sheena dinner.

A bitter laugh chokes at my throat.

Sheena—if only someone like her was the cause of my worries now.

The day after the dinner party with Sheena’s family, my mind started working overtime. And I haven’t been able to think about anything else since.

Because the worst thing happened.

I spotted one of Grayden’s men, Kane, staring at me from his car as I waited for the bus.

Just the thought of the sly smirk on his face sends an icy chill rushing down my spine.

It’s happened again and again over the past week—Kane’s balding head and leering eyes catching my gaze in the supermarket, hislooming figure watching me from across the street as a cigarette lights his face. Nausea sweeps through me at the memory.

If they’ve found me, then it’s only a matter of time until they find Ethan.

And I can’t let that happen.

I won’t let that happen.

I can’t stay here anymore.

They can’t protect me—despite how desperately I wish they could. Despite the flutter in my stomach whenever I catch Camillo’s eyes roaming my body in the kitchen. Despite the memory of him calling me gorgeous.

I remember the way his gaze held mine after he took me out for dinner, how his heat surrounded me, how his sandalwood scent filled my senses. He’d been so damn close.