บททั้งหมดของ Indebted to the Mafia King: บทที่ 91 - บทที่ 100

EleniMama doesn’t like the news I’ve fallen in love with Dante, judging by the lecture that follows. Still, I sit politely and listen to every word, smiling at the sheer joy of having a mother to scold me again. After that, we talk over police procedurals, her favorite show and how to watch them, for a few hours, catching up on everything we haven’t had time for in our last few calls. Gianna shows up because I forgot we made lunch plans, and unlike Dante, Mama took to her instantly. Before an hour passes, she has Gianna in the kitchen with her hair pulled back, walking her through the steps of properly seasoning lamb for gyros. I sit at the kitchen island, correcting Gianna’s technique when Mama isn’t fast enough. She smacks my hand away when I try to steal a bite of pita, and for a moment, I think I know what it was like to be Christos when we were kids. She means the smack, but so much affection sparkles in her gaze that I know I have nothing to worry about. My heart squeezes. I

DanteThe next morning, Eleni lies splayed across my chest, her naked shoulders peeking above the blanket. Her hand lays open, and the ring I picked out for her glitters on her finger. I smile. It was time. Being “just a girlfriend” in this life put her in so much more danger. At least, that’s what I told Tony and the other guys. But who the fuck was I kidding? The birds are singing, the sun is shining, and my fiancée is drooling a little. My ribs hurt with how full my heart is.Or with the weight said fiancée is putting on my still only mostly healed bullet wound. But I’ll let El wake up in her own time. I brush a few curls back off her face.She wakes up with a snort and blinks up at me in total confusion for a second. Then, she touches the corner of her mouth where the drool was coming from and turns bright red.“It’s okay!” I try to say before she can freak out.She buries her head beneath the pillow. “Forget the proposal. I’m moving to Alaska.”I roll over top of her, caging her

DanteI stand on the porch of my safe house upstate, fidgeting with my watch. When Eleni told me she mentioned Christos to Mama, I nearly stopped breathing. I expected demands for answers about why I killed her son. I didn’t expect tearful requests for his last words, college stories, and to leave from the airstrip upstate when she returned to Greece a few days later. I can just see the two of them through the trees, standing in front of the half-hidden grave. Eleni holds Mama, and both of them shake. For the first time in a week, I can actually forget about Camila. I stand on the edge of a towering, personal grief, knowing I was the one who caused it. Still, I’m never really sure if I regret shooting Christos. I miss the devil-may-care freshman, the once-in-a-generation running back, the bastard who made me laugh and carved a line through parties with me. I fucking hate the memory of the taste of his blood, the gunpowder that stained my hands for what felt like weeks after. But the

DanteI check the cylinder on my second pistol—full—and slide it back into place with a click. Adrenaline courses through my veins as I put my eye to the sniper sight Tony set up on the apartment roof across from the Russian warehouse Cal showed us.“We’re trusting Cal Duncan?” Tony asks.“You got another fucking option?” I reply.His sharp sigh behind me tells me I’ve already won. I knew I was going to. If we give the Russians more than twenty-four hours, we look weak. But we don’t know shit about their operations, other than this warehouse. Assuming Cal was telling the truth. And if I’m being honest, I think Cal’s more likely to give us the warehouse of another syndicate, on the off chance he lied, so at least I don’t have the deaths of civilians to worry about. I lean back from the sight.Tony stands behind me, along with Seb and three other capos. Seb’s just about vibrating out of his skin, being taken on an all-capo mission. Tony said it wasn’t a good idea, but his induction is n

EleniI flip a page in my textbook, but the words blur in front of my eyes. Dante’s out raiding his only lead on the Russians right now, trying to get any kind of thread that’ll lead us to their boss. I helped clean up at Piacere as long as I could, but eventually, after the week with Mama and the emotional stress, I had to call it a night. I was hoping I’d get in a little studying so I could actually be ready when classes started in a few weeks, instead of waiting until things got crazier and crossing my fingers, but reading is proving harder than I hoped.Ben, the son of Thano’s capo who saved me during exams, leans into the doorframe. “How’s it going?”“Like shit.” I lean back in my chair. “Thanks for taking me home anyway. At least this way I’m not doing a shit job with broken glass.”He chuckles. “It’s my job, somehow. Heard you’re leaving school, though. Going all in on the life?”“Going to the Tandon Institute, actually.” I close my textbook and hold it up so he can see the ver