Library
Maghanap
Home / Mafia / After Hours Service / Chapter Fifty-Four

Share

Chapter Fifty-Four

Author: Anne Kingston
last update Petsa ng paglalathala: 2026-10-21 07:57:51

The gods of veterinary medicine must have chosen to take pity on my distracted mental state, because the rest of the shift was quiet. I scooped up Pickles and made the brief walk to my house from the clinic.

I fed Pickles. He ate with the focused urgency of a creature who had been suffering terribly. I stood in the kitchen and watched him and thought about how I had no way to know if Antonio was eating. If he was sleeping. If he was standing in a room somewhere, alive, thinking about me. If he
Patuloy na basahin ang aklat na ito nang libre
I-scan ang code upang i-download ang App
Nakaraang Kabanata Susunod na kabanata
Locked Chapter

Pinakabagong kabanata

  • After Hours Service   Chapter Seventy-Four

    We returned to our own table. The candle was still burning, the wine still waiting, the menus still untouched. Antonio sat down across from me and was quiet for a moment, his thumb tracing the stem of his glass.“I’m sorry,” he said.“For what?”“For the interruption. For bringing business into our evening. For letting you sit at a table while two men discussed whether someone lives or dies.”I reached across the table and took his hand. His fingers curled around mine, the ink on his knuckles dark against my skin. “Antonio, I don’t need you to shield me from the reality of your world. I know it better than most. I chose to join that table. You asked me, and I said yes. I don’t regret it.”He looked up. “No?”“No.” I turned his hand over in mine, tracing the lines of his palm with my thumb. “Watching you negotiate with another Don was illuminating.”“Illuminating?”“I mean it. I’ve heard stories about you for years. The reputation, the whispers, the way people go quiet when your name c

  • After Hours Service   Chapter Seventy-Three

    The older Don’s table was larger than ours, set with crystal and silver that caught the candlelight. His two associates shifted to make room, their expressions carefully neutral. One of them pulled out a chair for me, and I sat between Antonio and Don Enzo with the distinct awareness that I was now the only person at this table who hadn’t potentially ordered someone’s death.Don Enzo poured wine into fresh glasses himself, a gesture of hospitality that felt deliberate. “So, Ms. Hooper. Antonio tells me nothing, which means I must extract information directly from the source. What do you do?”“I’m a veterinarian.”His eyebrows rose. “A veterinarian. How unexpected.” He glanced at Antonio. “You didn’t tell me you were courting a doctor.”“I don’t recall you asking,” Antonio said, and Don Enzo laughed.“He’s right. I didn’t.” The older Don turned back to me. “What kind of veterinary practice?”“Emergency. After-hours clinic. The kind of cases that can’t wait until morning.”“Ah. So you’r

  • After Hours Service   Chapter Seventy-Two

    The black sedan pulled up outside my home at seven minutes past eight, and I was already waiting by the window with Pickles perched on the windowsill like a judgmental gargoyle. He blinked slowly at the car below, then at me, then back at the car, his expression suggesting he found the entire enterprise of human courtship beneath his dignity.I’d spent forty minutes getting ready. Forty minutes I would never get back, which had involved two outfit changes, a minor crisis involving my eyeliner, and a conversation with my cat about whether the emerald dress was too much. Pickles had stared at me with open contempt, which I chose to interpret as approval.I grabbed my clutch, told Pickles he was in charge, and went outside. Antonio leaned against the car in a charcoal suit that fit him like a confession waiting to be extracted. The collar of his shirt was open, no tie, and his amber eyes tracked me from the doorway to the curb with the kind of attention that made the air between us thick

  • After Hours Service   Chapter Seventy-One

    “You don’t need to announce it.”“I like watching you brace for it.”“I don’t brace.”“You always brace. Just slightly. Right here.” His thumb brushed the corner of my mouth. “You hold your breath.”I was holding my breath right now. I let it out, and he kissed me. This time, there was no long shift to exhaust me. No patient arriving at the clinic. No protocol to discuss, no confession to absorb. Just his mouth on mine, warm and unhurried, his hand sliding into the loose hair at the back of my neck.I kissed him back. My hands found the hem of his sweater and pulled it upward. He broke the kiss just long enough to let me pull it over his head, and then his mouth was on mine again, and his hands were pulling my flour-streaked shirt free from my waistband.We made it to the bedroom in stages. A kiss against the kitchen doorframe. His mouth on my neck while I fumbled with the button of his pants in the hallway. My shirt landing somewhere on the floor outside the bathroom door. By the tim

  • After Hours Service   Chapter Seventy

    Antonio settled onto the stool with the ease of a man accustomed to issuing orders from a position of authority. He folded his arms on the counter and watched me.“Encouragement,” he said. “I can do that.”“Encouragement. Not criticism. Not suggestions. Not helpful tips about how your grandmother would have done it.”“My grandmother would have done it with a wood-fired oven and a rosary. I won’t bring her into this.”“Good.”He watched me pull the chicken from the refrigerator. I could feel his attention like a physical thing, warm and steady, and it made my hands slightly more careful than they would have been otherwise.“You’re very focused,” he said.“I’m trying not to burn your dinner.”“The way you’re holding that knife suggests you’ve done this before.”“I’m a veterinarian. I dissect things for a living. The principle is similar.”“The principle is nothing alike, and I’m not criticizing. I’m impressed.”I placed the cutlets in the hot oil, and the kitchen filled with the sound o

  • After Hours Service   Chapter Sixty-Nine

    I woke to the sound of Pickles staging a coup on my pillow. He’d planted himself squarely in the center of it, his considerable orange bulk pressing my head sideways at an angle that would require a chiropractor if I let it continue much longer. His eyes were closed, his paws tucked beneath his chest, and his expression suggested he’d conquered this territory hours ago and had no intention of relinquishing it.I pushed him gently sideways. He yielded approximately two inches and resumed snoring.The bedroom was dim, the curtains drawn against the afternoon light. I’d slept hard. Deep, dreamless, the kind of sleep that resets something fundamental in the nervous system. When I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood, my body felt loose and rested in a way I hadn’t experienced in weeks.The hallway was quiet. The kitchen, when I reached it, was spotless.I stood in the doorway for a moment, taking it in. Every surface wiped down. Counters clear. The sink empty. The dish rack be

Higit pang Kabanata

Maaari mong magustuhan

Galugarin at basahin ang magagandang nobela
Libreng basahin ang magagandang nobela sa GoodNovel app. I-download ang mga librong gusto mo at basahin kahit saan at anumang oras.
Libreng basahin ang mga aklat sa app
I-scan ang code para mabasa sa App
DMCA.com Protection Status