Maid For The Mafia by Alice T. Boone
Chapter One
History always had a way of repeating itself. Life in the underground had a way of reminding of you of that lesson constantly. So then, when I heard my ex-wife’s words come out of my daughter’s mouth, why was it so fucking hard to take? If I already knew the lesson, why was it so hard to swallow?
The warning signs were always the same. It was the tingle in my fingers, the involuntary clenching of my hands. This thing that made me so lethal as a teenager was a cross to bear as a man. The violence that once made me notorious was now another reminder of how far I’d fallen. If I was smarter, I would have let her walk away. Once I picked Jemma up from school, once she iced me out the entire car ride home, I would have just let her walk past me. Instead, to catch sight of her mother’s venom on her tongue, I found myself back in the position I’d come to hate.
I knew I’d blow up at her before a single word left my mouth.
But I didn’t know control anymore.
“What did you just say to me?”
Just three years ago, Jemma thought I was her entire world. Now, the teenager was barely recognizable. She dyed any memories of her mother’s red hair to black six months before, and while she had grown into my green eyes, it was hard to see much in them as they narrowed. Still, Jemma couldn’t hide her shake from a trained eye. The child I once bottle fed was now just as frightened of me as my own men. The only difference was Jemma had the benefit of knowing I’d never hurt her.
I hoped.
“Mr. O’Brian, please.” Within my tailspin, Valerie’s words hardly grazed me. “The pol—”
A single motion pulled my arm out of my housekeeper’s grip. The Polish woman had been desperate to get my attention since Jemma and I first stormed into the house, but politeness was the last thing on my mind as I drove my car off the fucking cliff. No part of me would take my eyes off Jemma’s sharp gaze.
“Say it again,” I snarled out, a voice I wished less familiar. “Say it again, Jemma. See what happens.”
When a shiver ran up her system, the teenager turned back on her heel. Whatever composure she had mustered around me vanished, and the turn of her head hid her reddening cheeks. In twenty minutes, after I crashed and tugged at the remnants of the heart in my chest, I would regret it. In twenty minutes, I’d hate myself, but it didn’t seem to matter. All I sensed now was disobedience, the danger that came with dissention.
“I hate this God damn house.”
“Watch your fuckin’ mouth!”
A new fire swallowed the guilt that usually came with the slamming of her bedroom door. My teeth sunk so hard into my tongue that my mouth filled with a sickening copper, memories of my father’s screams the only thing I could hear anymore. Every god damn interaction with Jemma seemed to remind of how shit of a parent I’d become, of the dangers that came with this lifestyle. The only thing that would keep both of us safe was the image that I could control my house. Once I lost that, there was no telling what else I would lose.
“Mr. O’Brian.”
My snarl wouldn’t shake Valerie— not yet. A hiss threatened to set the old woman on edge, but when I finally narrowed my eyes to her, they reminded me of the only reason I liked Valerie. Something had her spooked, and it wasn’t the now-familiar screams that filled the house. To Val, the safety of the house came before all else. If I had the same priorities, I might have found the strength to listen to her.
“This look like a good time, Val?”
“Mr. O’Br—”
“I said not fuckin’ now.”
Quick footwork brought me to the base of the stairs, Jemma’s cigarettes burning my nose. The entire thing just heated my blood further, and when my temperature shot, it was all I could do to peel out of my clothes. My jacket was tossed onto the railing, my tie close to follow, and I tried to narrow my vision. Compartmentalization was the only hope of peace anymore.
I’d get my temperature down.
I’d hit the gym until my fucking feet bled.
I’d shower until the numbness receded back to my bones.
Only then would I deal with the mess Jemma created.
Whatever calm that came with a plan vanished before I even made it to my office. The sound of sirens had never hit me, but maybe I was too busy choking on smoke. Now, perched at the top of my stairs and looking out onto the front of the house, it was impossible to miss the flashing lights. As if the day couldn’t get any worse, another asshole cop had tried to make their name within the station. Intimidating the great Terrance O’Brian would put a rookie on the sure-fire route to a promotion— had anyone been able to intimidate me. Police knew better than to show up at my home. Not when my daughter was here, at least.
The anger wouldn’t dull the ache in my chest. Panic whispered that I’d let myself go too far again. Valerie was dependable as the head of the staff, but she hardly ran a tight ship with shit like this. No one knew how to ask for a fucking warrant. No one knew better than to invite the fuckers in for a beer, desperate to spill my secrets and endanger my family. The only person I counted on was myself, and with my heart in my throat, I leapt into action.
At the very least, it would make me feel better to make some new meat bleed.
The layout of the foyer had a way of carrying voices. Though, it didn’t quite have the ability to fabricate them. When I reached the landing point on the stairs, that awful corner filled with memories of a life lost, every piece of me froze. A new position kept me hidden from the officers at the door. I could, however, make out the figure of the stranger who had the gull to open my door to the men who could ruin me forever.
The woman stood in front of the door, her body obstructed from the nameless officers but on full display for the animal inside my chest. Her raven hair had a red gleam to it, a dark contrast to her pale and freckled skin. Beneath the grey housekeeping uniform, her curves begged for my attention, and her toned legs seemed impossible to miss.
Everyone who entered my house was personally vetted, and a stranger like this was unheard of.
I was smart enough to know better.
“Jak masz na imię?”
Her voice came like a song, the polish language never before sounding so angelic. While it may have been enough to soothe the snarl building in my chest, it wouldn’t untie the knot in my stomach. Apart from Valerie, all of my current staff had come directly recommended from the Russians, a group who had a tendency to keep to their own.
“Your boss,” a male voice demanded, defeat peeking beneath the surface of his words. “We need to speak with your boss.”
“Your boss?”
“Terrance O’Brian.”
“Oh, Mr. O’Brian.”
“Yes!”
The panic that bubbled through my throat settled back to my stomach when I watched her close the door another inch. Before the officers had a chance to speak to her, the dark-haired woman started off on another foreign soliloquy. Her hands moved fluidly through the air, as though the officers on the other side of the door could see, and her song was only cut short when one man raised his voice.
“Your boss!”
“Mr. O’Brian.”
“Where is Mr. O’Brian?”
“Not—” Another slurry of polish slipped out of her lips before she settled on the phrase she wanted. “Not home.”
When quiet settled over the house again, instinct pressed my body against the wall. I could make out the gentle scuffle of the cops at the door. One partner tried to soothe the other, but I caught the annoyance even from the opposite side of the door. It only took a moment of muttering before they announced their decision to leave and come back another day, uttering out a quick plea for the nameless woman to tell me they had stopped by. Not that it would matter. Before they said their goodbyes, the woman was already waving them out the door and slamming it close behind them.
Now, a new type of threat settled in the back of my mind. We were alone now, and I was locked in the foyer with the stranger and her growing grin. The woman raised herself onto her toes as she snuck a peek through a nearby window, the slightest sound of victory leaving her lips.
“See? I told you I know how to handle— oh.”
When her head tilted towards me, the glimmer of satisfaction vanished. Another flash of history ran through her dark eyes, and the woman straightened her spine as she turned to face me. The predator in my chest snarled in a new kind of excitement, and I dared another step forward.
Her jaw tightened slightly, loosening only when she moved to brush a hair out of her eye. “I heard you shouting and I thought I would just—”
“Selina!”
Even as Val rushed into the foyer, I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. Selina’s name danced along my tongue, desperate to come out with the moan it deserved. Anger mixed with a sick satisfaction, a new type of lust emerging when her cheeks tinted in front of me. Another tingle through my system, another tightening of my fist, another wave of something I couldn’t quite understand. Dark eyes locked with my own, and as Val prattled on beside me, I tried to remember what it was like to have a head above water.
“Mr. O’Brian, I’m still training her.” When my body tensed, my fists clenched, Val jerked into action. “Selina, I told you not to—-”
Val wouldn’t dare to question me as my fingers laced around Selina’s forearm. Even if she had, that hope vanished once I slammed the door to my study shut. Once more, I found myself alone with the raven-haired woman. The only difference was this time, she was in front of me, avoiding eye contact as I pressed her back against the oak door.
End this.Remind this house who you are.
“I don’t know what the hell you’re playing at, but it will not be in my god damn house.”
Her brow knitted together as she finally turned to face me. Confusion washed through her dark eyes, but fear was nowhere to be seen. “You think I’m playing at something?”
“I don’t repeat myself.”
Her lips twisted into a soft smile. “Mr. O’Brian, I was just trying to—”
Another snarl earned her silence, my fingers bruising her skin. “You understand me?”
“Yes.”
Normally, I loved that shake. I had built an entire career from feeding off that shiver of fear. To feel the tremble beneath my hands now only seemed to awaken a different emotion. Her gaze remained on me, and while her body betrayed her, Selina’s eyes remained the same. Haunting, searching, waiting for something my gut knew I could never give her. My hands were off her in a second, switching instead to the door on either side of her head. Touching her was only going to blur the lines further, and I couldn’t risk that again.
Not when I was already drunk on this power, this anger, this heat.
“You never open that door again.”
When the words wouldn’t come, a soft tongue darted out to moisten her lips. “Yes, sir.”
Another shiver ran along my spine, another tightening that wouldn’t let me breathe.
“And I don’t wanna hear another word out of your fuckin’ mouth so long as you work for me,” I snarled, earning another nod. “You’ve got a real simple job here, Selina. Don’t fuck this up for all of us because you’re too stupid to do it right.”
The spark in her chest almost caught fire— had her eyes not dropped to the ground, at least. Under my gaze, Selina straightened her back again, her hands dropping to her side. I didn’t catch her new composure until she lifted her eyes to meet my own. All emotion dropped from her face, and just like that, Selina stole away the only warmth I’d been able to find all day.
“Understood, Mr. O’Brian,” she stated simply, a step forward challenging my position. If the scent of her shampoo hadn’t choked me, hadn’t brought forth fantasies I’d worked so hard to keep dormant, I might have been able to give her the challenge she was searching for. Instead, I took a careful step back and allowed the woman to open the door to the study. “Next time,” she started, throwing a careful glance over her shoulder, “I’ll just let them hang around that truck of yours.”