Saved Mafia Bride by Mae Doyle
Gavin
“What the fuck was that?” Lorenzo eyeballs me as I hang up my phone and put it face-down on the bar. After Clara hung up on me I tried to call her back but her phone went to voicemail.
That shit pisses me off. You wanted my help, you reached out for me for help, and when I try to get in touch with you so that I can keep you from spiraling through a world of shit, you don’t answer my fucking call. I drain my whiskey and slam the glass down on the bar, motioning to the bartender to bring me another.
He comes right over, pours me the glass, then eyeballs me. “Do I know you? That’s a gnarly scar,” he tells me, pointing to his own face like I don’t know exactly what the fuck he’s talking about. His eyes trace my face and I glare at him.
“You don’t know me,” I tell him, “so fuck off, and leave the bottle.”
His eyes widen and he sets the bottle on the bar, backing away to the other side. When he’s gone I take my whiskey and slam it back before pouring another shot for both me and Lorenzo. This is the good shit and we should definitely take our time drinking it, but I don’t want to right now.
I want to know what the fuck Clara is doing right now. I don’t like the fact that she was looking for Scott and that she was asking questions. I heard the panic in her voice when I told her that he was gone, and I don’t like that, but I also don’t like that I can’t get in touch with her now.
“Jesus, what the fuck crawled up your ass?” Lorenzo eyeballs me like I’m a lion about to attack. “Seriously, Gavin, you’re never in a shit mood like this. Someone piss in your corn flakes or something? Who was that?”
“A girl. Clara.” I trace my fingers around the top of my glass. It would taste good but I’m beginning to think that I might have to head out of here and deal with something else. I want to find her, but I’m supposed to get out of town this afternoon.
“I’ve just never seen you this twisted up about a girl before,” he remarks.
“She’s not just a girl.” Sighing, I push back from the bar, then pull some bills from my wallet and toss them next to my glass. The bottle is still sitting right there, and I motion to the waiter, who scurries back over to us.
“Sir? What can I do for you?”
“I need the cap,” I say, picking up the bottle and holding out my hand. He searches for it on the bar and then hands it to me, watching as I put it on the bottle.
“I’m sorry, but you’re not authorized to take alcohol from the premises,” he says. He sounds brave, but when I look at him, it’s obvious that he’s a hair’s breadth away from literally shitting his pants.
“What’s your name?” I ask him, turning and leaning closer to him.
He swallows hard. “Trae.”
“Trae. Listen, if you want to keep your head on your body then you’ll shut the fuck up and go back to serving drinks to assholes at the bar. If you want to discuss how I’m not supposed to take this alcohol with me then I’m more than happy to show you exactly what the prick who gave me this scar thought that he was going to be able to do to me.”
Trae’s eyes widen and I swear that I can smell the fear radiating off of him. Swallowing hard, he nods, then glances at Lorenzo, and hurries to get as far away from the two of us as possible.
“You’re a ray of fucking sunshine,” Lorenzo remarks, standing up to join me. “Tell me who exactly is going to get to enjoy your incredible personality now?”
“I have to find this girl,” I tell him, leading the way outside. It’s warmer than I would have thought that it would be and we pause in the shade under the bar’s awning. “I can’t leave town until I know for sure that she’s okay.”
What I don’t tell Lorenzo is that I can’t leave town until I have Clara for my own. She needs someone to take care of her and make sure that she’s safe, and that person is me. I’m not leaving and going home until I have her by my side.
“Okay.” He rubs his hands together. “I have some shit to do this evening with Mia, but I’m game to help you do some hunting. What do you know about her?”
“Her name is Clara, she bakes, and she was going to work with Scott at the Lucas’s new bakery that unfortunately isn’t going to open now.” I tick the three things off on my fingers. “That’s it.”
“You’re not going to make this easy, are you? Okay, what are your thoughts on how to hunt her down?”
“She didn’t pick up my call when I tried to get in touch with her just now, so she’s pissed. Desperate. She’s probably looking for another job right now, and probably close to the bakery because she won’t be thinking clearly. We can spend all afternoon trying to hunt her down or we can make it easy on ourselves and go straight to the source.”
“Break into the bakery and get the files that Scott had in there on who he was hiring?” Lorenzo grins at me when I nod. “That sounds like a hell of a lot of fun.”
We drive over to the bakery, the whiskey in the backseat for later, and I lead the way to the door. It’s obvious that nobody is around and the door is locked when I yank on it.
“Crowbar or breaking the window?” I ask Lorenzo, who’s standing with his back to the building keeping an eye out for anyone who might wander by and wonder what we’re doing.
“Just do the fucking window,” he says calmly. “I don’t feel like dicking around with a lock when the Lucas brothers are dead and gone.”
One brick later and I’m reaching in through the window to unlock the door. It opens easily and we step inside, flicking on the light to see what we’re working with. The bakery looks normal, like it’s all ready for opening tomorrow, but there aren’t any ingredients sitting around, no cash box, and the room is eerily empty.
“There’s a back room,” I say, walking around the counter and opening the door directly behind it. Huge ovens fill the wall on one side of the room, but the other is made into an office, complete with a desk and a filing cabinet. “Bingo,” I mutter, walking over and yanking the top drawer open.
It’s empty. So is the second, the third, and the fourth.
“What the fuck?” Turning around, I slide my hands across the empty desk, then open the top drawer. There are four files inside and I pull them out, flipping through until I find the one with Clara’s name scrawled across the tab.
“You find your girl?” Lorenzo appears in the doorway and I hold the file up in response. “Good. Bring it with you and let’s go. Mia just texted and said she’s not feeling great, so you’re on your own. I’ll drop you off at your car.”
“Sounds good,” I say, but I’m already reading the file to learn more about my girl.
Clara Rhodes. She’s younger than me, only twenty-two, but that doesn’t bother me. In fact, I love it. I find her address and tap the paper before flipping the notebook shut and getting in Lorenzo’s car.
What she doesn’t realize, but will soon, is that I won’t stop at anything to get the things that I want. I thought that I might be able to go just go back home without her, but that’s just not going to happen. When she called me, it was like something clicked inside of me and now I have to have her.
I’ll find her after Lorenzo drops me off, and then I’ll make sure that she doesn’t need my help.
Then I’ll take her back home with me. My cock hardens at the thought of Clara relying only on me, turning to me for help.
This is going to be fun.
