Seized Mafia Bride by Mae Doyle

Mia

I’m aware of the drive back home. No, not home, to Lorenzo’s house. I don’t have a home anymore, not really, not since I lost my apartment and have nowhere to go.

No, that’s not entirely true, either. I do have somewhere to go, but I honestly don’t know that it’s safe. How in the world am I supposed to trust Lorenzo when he shoots someone like that? When he’s the reason that I got hurt?

Even as those thoughts bounce around in my head, though, I’m not entirely sure that they’re true. Lorenzo isn’t the reason why I got hurt. He isn’t the reason why someone came bursting into the coffee shop and tried to kill people. As much as I want to believe that he’s the bad guy in this situation, I’m not entirely sure that that’s true.

They were there for me. I know it. I know it from the way that man wasn’t going to let me go when he was trying to pull me out of the window. He was there on a mission—to get me. Lorenzo, Dane, Natalia, all of the people in there...they would have all just been collateral damage.

I don’t know if I can live with that.

A soft moan escapes my lips as Lorenzo stops the car in his garage, but it’s not because of the stop or the way the seat belt presses into my body. Those things actually feel good, like they’re grounding me and helping me focus on what’s going on.

“Are you okay?” Lorenzo unbuckles and leans over me, brushing some hair out of my face so that he can get a better look at me. “Does it hurt that bad? I’m sure that I have something stronger here in the house that you can take if it’s that painful.”

I shake my head. “It hurts, but I’m okay,” I manage. “But someone could have died.”

“I wasn’t going to let anything happen to you,” he tells me, his eyes searching mine. “I promise you, Mia, you belong to me and you’re under my protection.”

“No.” He doesn’t get it. As smart as he is, he doesn’t get it, and I shake my head. “Not me. Someone innocent. Someone else. Someone just there to get coffee could have died. Or Natalia.” Clenching my fists at my sides, I do my best to keep from crying, but I feel the tears burning the corners of my eyes anyway.

He caresses my cheek and I hear him suck in a breath like he’s going to say something, but I don’t want to hear it right now.

“You don’t get it,” I grit out from between clenched teeth. “I’m not worried about me. I’m nothing. But what if someone good died? Someone who matters?”

God, just staying these things to him is hard. I don’t want him to know how incredibly broken I am, but I can’t help it. I’m so damaged, damaged beyond repair, but he doesn’t seem to get it. I don’t know how to make him get it.

Struggling with my seatbelt, I finally unlock it, then throw the car door open. I’m still a little lightheaded but I tell myself that I’m not going to pass out and stumble out of the car. In just a moment, Lorenzo is at my side. He reaches for me, his fingers warm on my hips as he pulls me to him.

“You have to stop this,” he tells me. His lips are right by my ear and I shiver as he speaks. His breath is warm on my skin and I freeze in place, unsure of what else he’s going to say to me. All I know is that I want to listen, want to know what he thinks is so important that I have to know it when all I want to do is run.

“You have no idea how amazing you are, Mia, but I’m going to show you. You just have to trust me, can you do that?”

“Trust you?” I wrench back from his grip, my heart pounding in my chest. “How the hell am I going to trust the man who tied me up and left me in his tub and is now treating me like his girlfriend? What is it that you really want from me, Lorenzo?”

“I want all of you.” I’m between him and the car, and even though we’re not touching right now, I swear that I can feel the heat radiating off of his body. It calls to me and I want to lean up against him, but I somehow manage to hold back. “I want you to see how incredible you are.”

“No.” Anger flares up in me. “Leaving me in the tub like that? I get that. I deserve that. That’s how I deserve to be treated. But this...girlfriend experience? With coffee shops and gossip with friends and making me feel like I’m actually worthy of something more? That’s not okay, Lorenzo. You can’t do that to me.”

He looks like I slapped him even though I haven’t moved to touch him. Before I realize what he’s doing, he moves forward, pinning me in place against the car with his hips. I can’t say that I don’t like it, but fear rises in me like a wave.

“You think that you’re worthy of being tortured but not of being loved?” When I don’t answer, he scrubs his hand across his face. “I’m sorry, Mia. I’m sorry that I played a part in you feeling like that.”

“You and everyone else,” I say, cutting him off. “You don’t need to apologize. I hate them. People don’t change.”

“You’re going to listen to what I have to say to you,” he tells me, pinning me in place with his stare. “You’re going to listen, Mia, and I’m going to tell you over and over ahead until you finally get it through your head just how much you’re worth. You’re everything. As soon as I saw you, I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to live without you.”

I don’t answer. I can’t.

“I had to have you for my own, so I took you. I kept you here, locked up so that only I could enjoy you. But I want more from you, Mia. I want a life with you, kids with you.”

No. He can’t be serious. This has to be a trick.

“I’m not the person for that,” I tell him, shaking my head. “You don’t get it, do you? You want someone worthy of your love? Keep looking.”

For a moment, Lorenzo doesn’t move. My heart slams in my chest and my palms grow clammy when I realize that he might actually listen to me. Here I am telling him over and over again that I’m not worthy of his love and he might believe me. I don’t want him to believe me.

But I believe it.

“You really feel that way?” He asks, and when I nod, he shakes his head, then picks me up, throwing me over his shoulder. Immediately the world is tipped upside down and I shriek, slamming my hand into his back.

“What the hell are you doing?” I cry, trying to worm my way out of his grip. “You can’t just do something like this! Where are you taking me?”

“I’m taking you somewhere where you can finally get it through your head that you’re much more important than you believe.” He carries me into the house and down the hall, not even slowing down at his bedroom when he kicks off his shoes.

I don’t know what he’s doing. There’s part of me that thinks I understand, thinks that I know what’s going on, but I don’t want to listen to that part of my brain.

“Don’t do this,” I beg him, even though my mind and body are screaming that I want him to continue. “Please, Lorenzo, don’t do this. You don’t want to do this. I’m not worth it.”

He puts me down on the bed so gently that I barely even bounce, then steps back to look at me, his eyes hard as he searches my face. I search his at the same time, looking for a scrap of compassion or love. Even as I look, though, I’m sure that I’m not going to find it.

And yet.

Maybe.

“You need to understand just how worth it you are,” he tells me, stripping out of his shirt. My mouth goes dry at the sight of his muscles. They twist and move as he does and I feel warmth grow between my legs.

“I’m going to do whatever it takes to show you just how worthy you really are.” He walks over to the bed, putting his hands on my thighs to pin me in place. “We have all day, Mia. All week. All month. The rest of our lives. It doesn’t matter to me what you’ve been told in the past and what you’ve told yourself, because it’s all wrong, and I’m going to prove it to you.”