Seized Mafia Bride by Mae Doyle
Lorenzo
Idon’t even think about it. Pulling my gun in the middle of the coffee shop isn’t ideal, but I don’t know who’s knocking on the window or what they could possibly want with me or Mia.
I have to protect her.
That’s the thought running through my head when I point the gun at the window.
Dane’s face falls and he takes a step back from the glass, rolling his eyes as he does. “Are you fucking kidding me right now?” He calls, his voice muffled by the glass. “Chill the fuck out, brother.”
“Brother?” Mia’s cheeks are pink and I glance at her for only a moment before putting the gun away.
“Brother and his wife,” I confirm, watching as Dane and Natalia make their way around the side of the coffee shop to the front door. He holds it for her then follows her in, both of their eyes locked on our booth as they wind their way through the tables.
“I’m Natalia,” she says, dropping down into the booth next to Mia. Mia’s eyes go wide and she scoots over, taking her coffee and plate with her. “You must be Mia.” I’m interested to see what’s going to happen, and I’m not surprised when Mia’s eyes go wide before she puts a smile on her face.
“Nice to meet you,” she says, then glances over at me.
“This is Dane’s wife,” I say, waving my hand at Natalia. “They just tied the knot a few months ago. Hell, it’s been close to a year, hasn’t it?”
“Yep. And I finally just convinced my husband that it was okay to hire a babysitter and that doing so didn’t mean that we were terrible people,” Natalia says, rolling her eyes at her husband. “You’d think that we were leaving the country for a month, not just popping out to get coffee because I had a craving.”
“I fully vetted her,” Dane assures me, sitting down next to me and taking a cup of coffee from Henry. “She’s legit. Younger than I would have liked.” He frowns at his wife, who laughs.
“She’s twenty, for God’s sake. What did you expect, that you could find an old maid to watch Jenna while we pop out for coffee? You need to relax. All of you Accardi men need to calm down.” She grins at both of us before turning her attention to Mia. “So how did you and Lorenzo meet?”
I freeze, unsure of what Dane has told his wife. Mia stutters, then glances across the table at me before looking at Natalia. “He came into my work. Met him there.”
A looking of understanding crosses Natalia’s face. “Well, that’s much more normal than how I met Dane. Are you ready to hear this one?” She grins at Mia and I finally turn to my brother.
“Care to tell me why you’re here?” I know that I sound upset, but I’m not. Not really. I was looking forward to having some time with just Mia, but I’m not angry that my brother showed up. I just want to know what he’s doing here.
“I’m serious. We were craving coffee and Natalia finally wore me down enough about getting a babysitter. I would be perfectly happy keeping Jenna locked up until she’s old enough to get married just so we can keep her safe for the rest of her life, but Natalia seemed to have an issue with that.”
I chuckle and take a sip of my coffee. “I can’t imagine why.”
Dane grins. “So, what’s up with the two of you? You’re not afraid that she’s going to decide that running away and living on the streets is preferable to living with you?”
“Not at all.” I glance over at Mia. “We’ve reached an understanding.”
“But have Damon and Taylor reached the same understanding or are you just playing with fire and hoping that you don’t run into those two assholes?” Dane’s voice is low so that his words are only for my ears, and I shiver. He’s right, and I know it, but I couldn’t handle Mia being locked up any longer.
I’ll handle anyone who tries to take her from me, but she needed some time out of the house. It was the only thing fair to her—the only thing that would keep her trusting me.
“I had to weigh how dangerous I thought it was,” I tell him. “Keeping her locked up would mean that she was safe, but we’re trying this new thing.”
“Oh, yeah? What is that?”
“Trust. Besides, you know as well as I do that I’m perfectly capable of keeping her safe. Damon and Taylor would have to be drunk or high to even dream about coming in here. Everyone knows that this coffee shop is under our protection.”
Dane eyeballs me like he wants to argue but doesn’t respond. A moment later, both of our phones vibrate with texts. We pull them at the same time, each of us curious as to who would be interrupting us right now.
“Johnny’s been busy,” I remark, reading the text. “Looks like we’re ready to do this thing.”
Dane stretches, rolling his neck to the side to crack the vertebrae. His fingers fly over the screen on his phone.
When do you want to do this? How soon?
I put my phone back in my pocket and stare at Mia while we wait on Johnny to respond. He’s taken point on this one, made sure that we have all of the information that we need to deal with these assholes all at once, so if he wants to take control over it and be in charge of timing, that’s fine with me.
I feel my phone vibrate at the same time that Dane’s lights up. Tomorrow morning.
Exhaling hard, I look across the table at Mia. She’s smiling—really smiling—her eyes lit up and her cheeks pink as she talks to Natalia. Dane’s wife looks just as happy, a huge grin on her face as the two women talk.
“They needed this,” I remark, and Dane nods, putting his phone away. “We should do this more often once we’re sure that we don’t have to worry about someone trying to take her.”
“I thought that you said that you’d stop anyone who dared try to take her from you.” Dane nudges me in the side when he speaks. “What happened to that?”
“I will. But I want her to have a normal life. With me.”
“So, not normal? You know as well as I do, Lorenzo, that being an Accardi is not normal.”
I do, but I don’t care. Mia is mine and I’ll do anything in the world to keep her safe, keep her happy, and keep her in my bed. The fact that we’ve gone from her tied up in the bathroom to sitting across the table from me at a coffee shop tells me a hell of a lot about how well this is going to work.
Most women would make a break for it again, but not my Mia. She knows that I’m the best option that she has, the only thing that can keep her safe.
And she’s not going to throw that away.
“I have to pee,” she says to Natalia. “You mind letting me out?”
Natalia glances across the table at me, her eyes wide. She knows the truth about what’s going on between Mia and me. She’s not stupid. I nod, then push Dane out of the way so that I can escort Mia to the bathroom.
“You don’t have to go with me,” she says, laughing, when I take her elbow. “I’m pretty sure that I’ve peed on my own for years now.”
“Not a problem.” Walking slowly so that I can keep an eye on everything around us, I lead her to the bathroom. A quick knock on the door shows me that nobody’s in there, and I walk right in with her, leaning down to check the stalls.
She stands, leaning against the sink, her arms crossed on her chest, one eyebrow raised. “You going to wipe my ass for me too?”
“I will if you want me to. Don’t tempt me, Mia, I never want to be away from you.” When I speak, her eyes flutter down and her breathing catches in her throat. “You know that, so don’t act surprised. You’re safe with me, and you’re also more loved than you’ve ever been in your life.”
Before I leave the bathroom, I walk to her, grab her jaw in my hand, and kiss her. Hard.
Her body responds immediately and she takes a step closer to me, pressing up against my torso. As we kiss, she reaches up, her fingers lightly tracing against my chin. When I pull back she’s gasping, her eyes wide, her fingers fluttering against my skin.
“You know that you want it,” I tell her. “All of it. Everything that I have. Don’t try to pretend that you don’t.”
Before she can answer, I spin away and leave the bathroom. Even though I wasn’t joking about not wanting to be away from her, I’m more than happy to let her have a moment alone. She’s going to need it to get her head on straight.
