Bought Mafia Bride by Mae Doyle

Dane

Choosing a wedding dress in the safety of my condo will keep Natalia occupied for the rest of the afternoon. What she doesn’t seem to realize is that I want to make her happy and that I need to keep her safe. From the moment I saw her, already eighteen and finally legal, I knew that I wasn’t ever going to let her out of my sight.

She’s everything that I’ve ever wanted in a woman and I’m never letting her go. The way she chews on her lower lip when she watches me is enough to make me ready to fuck her right then and there. She’s smart, witty, and makes me smile, which is more than I can say for any other woman I’ve met.

In my car, I call my cousin, who picks up on the first ring. “The Bonannos are coming to town,” I tell him. “What do you have on who else the Jacobson brothers may be involved with?”

“I have a lot,” he tells me, his voice excited. “Some that will surprise you, some that won’t. Looks like Natalia’s dad is in deep with them.”

“Yeah, I know that one,” I tell him, with a sigh. Fuck, she took it hard when she learned the truth about her dad, but there wasn’t any way to sugarcoat it for her. She has to know the truth about who he is so that she’s okay with me doing what needs to be done. Someone like him, someone who’s always looking for a new way to get power without actually having to work for it, is dangerous.

He needs to be put down.

“Also, looks like Steve is on the move. He would normally be at the office, but he’s on his way out of town, so I’m keeping an eye on that.”

“Send me everything,” I tell him, stopped at a red light. “And let Lorenzo know. If Steve is on the move then he’s up to something and we need to figure out what the hell it is.”

“You got it.”

He hangs up and a moment later my screen lights up with a map. Thanks to the app we all have installed, I can see where Steve is going and I watch him for a moment before turning right and heading in that direction. He obviously has something shady to do or he wouldn’t be heading out of town like this.

From what I’ve seen, our wonderful mayor likes to keep everything in the public eye so that people know what kind of good work he’s doing. For him to head out of town like this tells me that he wants to keep something private.

But what?

My car eats up the miles and when I see him stop at some new construction out of town, I feel my heart leap in my throat. When I pull into the parking lot, I pull in next to Lorenzo and Johnny, both of who are out and already watching the building. Joining them, I lean against the back of Lorenzo’s car, taking the binoculars when he offers them for me to get a better look.

“Talk to me,” I say, holding them to my eyes.

“Looks like he came all the way out here to meet some woman,” Lorenzo tells me. “Helms is here, as is Mark. Natalia’s father got here a short while ago, so it’s a real meeting of the minds in there.”

“Why the fuck would they all be meeting?” Johnny takes my binoculars when I hand them to him. “That’s a strange group of people to be hanging out together.”

“Not really,” I say, thinking fast. “Steve and Mark are involved with the Wicked Bastards, and we know that Natalia’s father is, too. The woman could be the leader.”

Johnny scoffs. “Of a motorcycle gang?”

I nod. “She’s probably the mother of the next president, who’s still a little young to get the respect he needs to run the club. Sounds like she’s been pulling strings from the sidelines for a while to try to get things to fall in place for her baby boy.”

“Fucking hell.” Lorenzo scrubs his hand over his face and stares at the building.

From where the three of us are standing, we can see straight into the sides, but the people inside must be meeting farther in since we can’t see them. The framework of the building is all there and there are huge stacks of materials in the parking lot to finish everything, but nobody’s working today.

Probably so these assholes can meet without being disturbed.

“How are we going to handle this?” Johnny asks. He’s frustrated, I can tell. His fingers keep stroking the grip of his gun like he’s going to suddenly pull it and go tearing into the building to take care of some shit.

“We’re waiting for the rest of the family to come down,” I tell the two of them. “I talked to Salvatore right before I came here, and they’re on their way. I don’t think he was going to let us handle everything on our own because he wants to be the one to finish it.”

“Makes sense, but we get the mayor.” Lorenzo rubs his hands together in anticipation. “They can take the Wicked Bastards, but we clean up our own town.”

“I get the dad,” I say. “Natalia belongs to me, but if he’s working with shitheads like this then I’m sure that he’s planning something once he gets the rest of the money.”

“So don’t pay him.” Johnny glances at me before looking back at the building. He’s stopped stroking his grip but is now resting his hand on it like he simply can’t wait to pull it and go running in.

“Oh, I don’t plan on giving that asshole one more cent,” I say. “I’m taking everything from him, starting with Natalia.” Just thinking about her makes me hard. I want to be home fucking her right now, but I have some shit to take care of here first, and there’s just no way to avoid it.

“Good.” Lorenzo nods, his face serious. “How soon do you think the Bonannos are going to be here?”

I don’t have any idea, but just then my phone vibrates and I pull it out, tapping on the screen to wake it up. There’s a single text from Salvatore. Three words.

On our way.

“They’re headed here now,” I say, “so we better figure out how the hell we’re going to take care of these assholes without causing a huge problem in town. You know that people actually like Steve as their mayor.”

“Who will take his job?” Johnny looks back and forth between Lorenzo and me. “We have to make sure that it’s the right person so that we don’t end up with this type of problem again.”

“It will be someone on council,” I say, thinking hard about how the succession will work. “So that means that we just need to make sure that it’s the right person. That’s your job,” I say to Johnny. He’s so fucking smart and has all the contacts that we need to get shit figured out without too much headache.

“I’m on it. How long do I have to find the right person?”

Lorenzo laughs at that, but there isn’t any humor in the sound. “If the Bonannos are on their way and we’re going to take care of this as soon as possible? Not a hell of a lot of time. We’ll probably get this shit taken care of tomorrow and then get Dane here married.”

“Just figure it out by tonight,” I tell our cousin. “Then pay whoever you pick a little visit to let them know that they need to be prepared. The last thing we want is for people to think that they can fight over this. It’s our decision who takes Steve’s place, got it?”

Johnny nods and I turn, walking to my car. “I’ll let you know when the Bonannos are in town,” I say, opening my door. “We’ll need firepower.”

“We have that,” Lorenzo says, “and I doubt that they’ll come unprepared.”

“I doubt it, too,” I say, but the last thing that I want is to get caught with our pants down. I’ve got a few errands to run. You guys keep me up to date on anything that changes.”

Slipping into my car, I pull my phone from my pocket and check in on Natalia. She’s in the living room, a huge grin on her face, clutching a dress to her chest. That was fast, but if she likes it and she’s happy to wear it, then I don’t care how quickly she chose it.

As long as it’s not as ugly as the one she was trying on before, I’m fine with it. The last thing I wanted was for her to be unhappy on our wedding day. She’s going to be an Accardi, and she’s going to love it.

Turning up the radio, I leave the parking lot and head back to town. I have some errands to take care of and I want to make sure that I’m home with Natalia at a decent time.

I’m so busy paying attention to the road and the song on the radio that I don’t hear the warning beep from my phone.