Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 96742 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96742 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
I’m just his pet project, the pathetic, loser girl he picked up off the street.
I don’t know where I’d be without Evander, and that’s kind of the problem.
There’s too much between us. Too much money, too much obligation. I want to feel his mouth on mine again, but I also don’t want to feel like I owe him anything.
Not after living under the thumb of a controlling, abusive bastard for so long already.
It’s a tricky line to walk and I thought we had it all figured out by just—not.
Not sleeping together. Not even speaking to each other.
And then Evander decides to show up in the break room out of absolutely nowhere, gets down on his knees, and makes me come like I’ve never come before—at least since that first night.
What the hell does he want from me? And what the heck do I need from him?
“All right, look, I’m not going to pretend like I understand whatever crazy weird thing you have going down with Evander freaking Kazan, okay?” Ophelia’s smile is genuine and warm, and it reminds me why I like her. She embraced me from day one and has been so helpful getting me up to speed at the diner and basically helping me learn how to be independent for the first time in my life. “But the thing is, my father basically worships that family, you know? He has this old-school idea about loyalty and all that crap.”
I raise my eyebrows. “Why would he be loyal to Evander anyway? Everyone acts like he’s some kind of king, but I don’t get it. Nobody’s explained to me what he does for a living.”
Ophelia laughs quietly, but her smile fades. “You’re not joking, are you?”
“Not even a little bit. Is he in consulting or something? Was he a local politician?”
“Sort of a combination of the two.” Ophelia chews her lip for a moment. “You’ve seen The Godfather, right?”
I shrug. “Sure. Marlon Brando. Offer you can’t refuse.”
“Exactly. Evander runs a family like that.”
“Like… what?” My eyebrows slowly raise. “The Corleone family?” Ophelia just stares at me as I slowly put the pieces together.
The money. The cars. The big, dangerous-looking men that always seem to hang around him. The way people bow and scrape and act all deferential whenever he’s in the room.
I have to be the dumbest girl alive.
I should’ve seen it right away, and I am utterly mortified that I missed it—probably because I figured the chances of running into another man in a crime family are way too miniscule.
“You’re fucking kidding me,” I whisper sharply. “He’s in the freaking mafia?”
“Greek version of it. They don’t call it a mafia, that’s an Italian thing. They’re just the Kazan family, and Evander sits at the head of it. Wow, I seriously can’t believe you don’t know this.”
I shove myself to my feet, heart racing. I pace back and forth, mind doing a million miles an hour as I look back on all our interactions, and suddenly it’s so obvious.
“This can’t be real,” I say softly, more to myself than anyone else, but it all makes sense.
Evander’s that kind of guy. Sharp, intense, demanding, dangerous. I’ve met men like him before, I was married to a man like that, and I should’ve seen it.
But I was blinded by the glamour and the excitement and the heady newness of starting my life over.
And by my overwhelming desperation.
No wonder he thinks he can protect me.
The guy’s got dozens of hired thugs that do his bidding.
“I let a freaking Greek mobster go down on me,” I hiss at Ophelia and she cracks up, head thrown back.
“Yeah, you did,” she says, grinning massively. “I really thought you knew and just—I don’t know, didn’t care? But Evander’s a big deal, hon. The biggest of the big deals, at least in this city.”
I groan and pull at my hair. I ruined a business deal with the dockworkers’ union. I threw money at him. I slept with him, and put my life in his hands, and holy shit, I should be so freaking dead right now.
How can I be this stupid?
“I should go into hiding or something,” I say and sit back down next to Ophelia, feeling jittery and scared.
“Why? He likes you. Yeah, I know, he’s a big terrifying mob boss, but still.”
“Sorry, are you encouraging my freaky weird relationship with Evander right now?”
Ophelia shrugs. “Ever since he started coming here, Dad says business has never been better. All the Greek guys want to do whatever the boss does, you know? Follow him around and gain his favor? Which means we’re busier than ever.”
I give her a flat stare. “Wow, that’s brutal. You want me to get involved with Evander because it helps your dad’s business.”
“Hey, what can I say? I’m a practical girl.”
I lean my head back against the brick wall and sigh. “You and your family have been so good to me. I don’t want to make any trouble for you guys, you know, if things go bad with me and him.”