Conquered by the Mafia Boss

God, how pathetic am I?

When I get home, I put the money and the groceries next to each other on the kitchen table so that I can feel shitty about myself the whole day. I’m listless around the apartment. I consider cleaning up a little, but he told me not to touch his things.

Hours later I hear the scrape of a key and a lock being turned, and I’m almost happy to see Jack stumble in the apartment.

“Hey,” he says in a low voice.

He walks into the living room and sinks into the couch beside me with a sharp sigh, and then I look at his face. There’s a huge, ugly red mark on the side of his face, and his hands are cracked with dry blood.

“Oh my God, what happened?”

“Ran into a little trouble.”

I stand up abruptly, heading straight for the freezer where I dig out a bag of frozen peas. He slips out of his shoes and throws his jacket on a nearby chair as if everything’s normal.

“What the hell happened?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

I sit back down next to him, feeling strangely diminished beside him, and then I hold the bag of peas to his face.

Jack hisses slightly as the cold comes in contact with his raw wounds, and then a slow sigh leaves his mouth.

“That looks really bad,” I say in a high voice.

He frowns and makes a dismissive gesture with his hand. “Will you stop with the dramatics? Johnny needed something done.”

I try to figure out why Jack’s wounds bother me so much, and then it hits me.

I’m nothing without him.

The MC won’t let me back in, and Johnny sure as shit won’t take care of me. He’s all I’ve got.Content protected by Nôv/el(D)rama.Org.

Oh fuck.

“What’s the matter with you?”

My mood blackens and I feel my chest tightening as though my body is trying to suffocate itself. He puts his hand over the one holding the frozen peas to his face. The pressure in my head is about to explode, and the soft voice Jack uses makes it even worse.

“Nothing,” I say in a thick voice.

I slide my hand out from under his and then I stand up, walking slowly to the kitchen. Breathe. Calm down. I take a seat at the table, out of his sight, but those crumpled bills sit right in the middle, staring me in the face.

And I blubber like a fucking baby.

I clamp my hands over my mouth to stifle the noise, but it’s too late. The scrape of Jack’s feet alerts me to his presence.

“Look,” he begins in a softer voice. “You’re going to have to get used to seeing me hurt. I can’t come home to you crying like this.”

“You don’t understand.”

His face loosens and he takes another few steps forward. His hand lies heavily on my shoulder. “I don’t understand how a girl who grew up in the MC could get like this. I thought you’d be tougher.”

I’m not tough at all.

“It’s been a really bad day.”

I want to smack the smirk from his face. He tries to sober his expression and touches my arm.

I wrench it away from him. “Could you just leave me alone?”

I don’t look at his face. I only see the hand clenched at his side and his wavering legs. He hesitates, clenching and unclenching his hand. Then he pulls out a chair and sits down next to me, touching my hair and face. It almost feels sweet.

“Just tell me, Beatrice.”

Oh God.

I wipe my face and stare at the kitchen table. “I just-I was stiffed at the grocery store down the block.”

“You were what?”

He grabs my shoulder and leans in, all amusement gone from his face.

“They shorted me about forty dollars.”

“So why the hell didn’t you go back to complain?”

Shame creeps in from the frustration in his voice. I think of the three guys harassing me on the street and my paralyzing fear preventing me from marching right through them.

“There were a few guys on the corner giving me a hard time.” I bite my tongue from revealing any more. The last thing I want is him flying off the handle because some dumbass on the street corner called me a cow.

His voice hardens. “What did they say?”

“Nothing.”

“Don’t lie to me, Beatrice.”

“They were hitting on me and being assholes about it.”

The bag of peas hits the table with a hard thump and Jack stands up from the chair, grabbing my hand. I follow the pressure, anxiety leaping inside me when I see the darkness on his face.

“Come on.”

The keys scrape across the wood as he grabs them from the table and nearly yanks me down the hall. I dig my heels in and he whirls around.

“Wait- What are you doing?”

“Going to the fucking grocery store to break some goddamn heads.”