The Boss’s Runaway (Possessive Kingpins)

Kat looked flighty and nervous as she sat next to me in the car the next morning. She was wearing a pale blue dress that reached her knees, and she looked like Grace Kelly. My mother would hate it.

“So, where exactly are we going?” She asked, smoothing her hair. She seemed determined not to talk about last night, and I complied with her wishes for now. Later? We’d do more than talk.

“It’s a christening. My sister and brother-in-law have had a child.”

“Are you close to them?”

“The Lucianos have an alliance with the Songs that benefits us all. I get along adequately with them.”

She raised an eyebrow at me and then searched the glove compartment for something. I looked at her in question.

“Checking for a backup battery in case yours runs out,” she teased me. “So, they’re your friends? Sometimes you sound like a robot if my little battery skit didn’t make that clear.”

“I got it. My father taught me that a man should school his emotions or give his enemy an advantage. He wasn’t a man who spared the rod when it came to teaching.”

Her teasing smile slipped away, and I immediately missed it.

“Besides, you didn’t think I was a robot last night.”

She stiffened immediately and clapped her hands to her cheeks. “Oh, my god, don’t say that. You’ll make me red as a tomato, which won’t go with my outfit.”

She still seemed determined to ignore last night, something I had no intention of doing, but I’d let it slide for now as the church loomed in the distance.

“So, who’s going to be here?”

“My mother and sisters, a lot of Lucianos, and any other don who wants to be in favor with Vincenzo, the capo. This will be our debut as a pretend couple, so try to look as if you like me,” I tossed at her as I pulled the car into the church car park. Two SUVs carrying my security bracketed me and parked.

“I do like you,” Kat quipped.  She froze, realizing what she’d admitted. Turning in her seat, she watched me like I was a wolf about to jump on her. She had good instincts. “I mean, what’s not to like?”

“You came here, smuggled in by my uncle, in my name, to make money for my corrupt family… I can think of many things not to like,” I told her. I couldn’t help reaching out for a single hanging lock of her hair and tucking it behind her ear.

“I guess I don’t see it that way. I see it as the opposite. You didn’t ask for me to be brought here, so that’s not on you, and you didn’t send me back when you planned to.”

“Why didn’t you want to go back?” I had to know. My curiosity about this woman was growing like a forest fire in my chest. I wanted to know everything about her.

She stiffened, her earlier ease disappearing. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Maybe it matters to me.”

“It’s none of your business,” she muttered, looking torn.

I hated that downbeat look on her face. She was afraid, and I didn’t like that one bit. I wanted to find out who had made her feel that way and end them in her name.

 “Please don’t ask me. Just know I’ll owe you for the rest of my life,” she said after a long pause, her eyes finally meeting mine. The pale green was already so familiar to me.

Good, stay forever.

A sharp rap on the window prevented me from answering.  The service was starting, and people were streaming into the church—the best and most deadly of New York’s families. I had to be on my guard. Security lined the car park, and guns were invisible but very much present.

“Come on, let’s put on a big show, then the news of our engagement will spread itself,”

“You’ll do anything to get out of a blind date,” Kat murmured as I got out of the car, rounded it, and opened her door.

“You have no idea.”

I reached for her hand, and she jolted. Today, there would be touching. The pretense required it to sell the act.

Right, of course, it was. Even in my head, it sounded like a lie. Her hand in mine felt like it belonged there.