In Bed with the Mafia

Anna's POV.

Wake up stupid, Wake up stupid!

I groaned, raising a heavy hand, as I searched blindly for my phone. My eyes were still tightly shut, as my hands rummaged through the confines of my bedside table. Finally, my fingertips felt cold metal and grabbed it. I held the phone in front of my face, and finally opened my eyes. 6am.

I groaned again, like the sleep depraved lady that I was and slammed my head into the pillow. I could have sworn that I had slept only thirty minutes earlier. There was no greater evidence of the love-hate relationship between Sunday nights and Monday mornings, than the urge to get just a few more minutes of sleep. I turned off the annoying alarm, and swung my legs off the bed. I released a deep breath and summoned enough energy to get off the bed. I looked at the sticky note on my wall and read it out loud: You have to keep working hard until you become a billionaire, or at least marry one.

My phone chimed, and I was reminded that I was never going to marry a billionaire, but that didn't matter much. I picked up the phone and read the text from Aiden Smith, my boyfriend.

Aiden: Wakey, wakey, pumpkin.

He had done this everyday for the past five years. He was easily the sweetest thing that's ever happened to me. Think of it as all of your favorite flavors packaged into one man. My phone chimed again, and a new text appeared.

Aiden: Don't make me come get you.

I'm up. I replied

I smiled like the love-crazed girl that I was, and dumped the phone on the bed. He might not be a billionaire, but he's the sweetest thing that's ever happened to me. I said that before and repeating it wasn't a mistake. I got ready for what I knew would be another hectic day at work. After eight hours of having to listen to my boss nag about the silliest little things, I got off work—tired as usual.

Routine. I got a cab back home and dragged my tired feet up the stairs wishing Aiden was around to give me a massage or feet rub. I stopped dead in my tracks as I reached my door. My blood immediately ran cold and my hair stood on end. Something was terribly wrong. I had this nasty curse of noticing the tiniest details. I'm what you might call paranoid—my past made sure of that.

I had hung a tiny piece of thread on the door hinges when I left, but now, it wasn't at the exact spot where I left it. What was strange wasn't the fact that it was moved, it was the fact that someone took the time to return the thread after entering my house. My mind raced a series of possibilities: had my past finally caught up with me? Who could it be? Dad? Liam?

It certainly wasn't Aiden, he had my keys, but didn't have the patience to return the thread. For fuck sake, he hadn't even noticed the thread after dating me for five years. Aiden was like a baby, he could hardly take care of himself or do his own laundry. He couldn't make his own food. He was literally a big baby. I dug my hands into my bag and brought out the only weapon I was allowed to carry as a law abiding citizen that I now was: pepper spray. Whoever it was was going to get it!

I opened the door as gently as I could, then shut it as quietly as possible. The light suddenly went on, but so did my knees into the groin of the closest man and the pepper spray into his eyes.

“Sur—prise…” Everyone's shout died out like a man falling off a cliff and to his definite demise. Almost immediately, I realized what I had just done.

“Oh my God, Aiden. I'm so sorry. You were out of town, I wasn't expecting you any time soon,” I blurted out, as I dropped to one knee and patted his back with one hand.

“I'm good, I'm good,” he groaned, raising his thumb. He was still in a crouching position and it was obvious that he was anything but good. He finally summoned enough strength to stand straight. His face had gone red and the veins on his neck still popped. “Happy birthday, love,” he managed to say.

Shit, I forgot my birthday—again. Five years, and I still wasn't used to my birthday.

I feigned a gasp. “I thought you forgot,” I said, hitting him gently on the shoulder.

“How could I? You mean the world to me.”

I struggled to contain the butterflies that suddenly sprung up in my belly, hoping my intestinal acids snuffed out the life from them. Those little bugs that made my heart flutter and my innards vibrate like a powered blender.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” I blurted out, wrapping my arms around him. Guilt stung at my conscience, but I shoved it aside. Every time he painstakingly planned for my birthday, I felt a pang of hurt in my heart. He put all his effort and sincerity into it every year and it wasn't even my real birthday. It hurt that I had to lie, but I had no other choice.

“And who are all these people? I've never seen them before," I queried, as I failed to register one familiar face.

“Um, random people…um…”

“You don't know them either do you?” If there was anything I knew about Aiden, it was his inability to socialize, which I found really strange for a human resource manager.

“Um…no, you don't have any friends, I don't have any friends. I had to rent some—just for the night. I promise they'll be out in a few minutes.”

They better be. I was always so uncomfortable with strangers and crowds. A knife could spring up from anywhere, or perhaps a gunshot. Bottomline, it wasn't safe with people around.

True to his words, after a couple of minutes, the guests all left one after the other and now it was just the two of us. What next!? What would someone who was actually celebrating her birthday do?

Aiden flopped on the chair beside me and for a moment simply gazed into empty space. His hands found mine and he gave it a gentle squeeze.

“You know, when I first got here, I never thought I'd find love...”

I braced myself for the story of how his ex had shattered his heart and left him thinking he'd never be able to love again. I had heard that story a thousand times, and every sign that I showed to tell him I hated hearing about his story just flew over his head.

Suddenly, he dropped to one knee. His gaze remained glued to mine—unwavering.

What was he doing?

I felt my heartbeat quicken at the possibilities. Slowly, he dipped his hand into his pocket. Oh my God! It was finally happening.

He brought out a small box and held it in front of me. A smile tugged at the edges of his lips, while my mind ran riot. He opened the box, revealing an expensive diamond ring.

Do they pay human resource managers high enough to afford this?

“This was given to me by my mother and now, I'm giving it to you because I can't imagine life with anyone else but you. Will you do me the honor of being my wife?”

“Yes!” I squealed, trying desperately to contain my joy. I had told my dad that I'd have a normal life, he had refuted it telling me normal was never made for the McClain's. Guess who was wrong?I had a mental image of him groaning and writhing in pain when he hears the news of my marriage.

What could possibly go wrong?

I had barely completed the thought when three masked men burst in through the door.

Shit! I jinxed it.