All Chapters of The Mafia’s Accountant: Chapter 11 - Chapter 17

The roar of the sports car’s engine could barely compete with the pounding of my heart as I drove through the streets of New York, the city a blur of lights that did nothing to distract me from the fire Sofia had lit inside me. That kiss back at the club, her courage facing off against Elena, the way her brown eyes challenged me even as she trembled under my touch… all of it had me on the edge of madness. No woman had ever made me feel like this—so out of control, so trapped in a game where the rules dissolved the moment she looked at me. Her words—“I’m not that easy, Marco”—were a challenge that burned in me, and damn it, I wanted to take it.I parked in front of her building, the same place where I’d almost kissed her a few nights ago, where this whirlwind had started. I got out and opened her door, my body humming with a mix of desire and anticipation. Sofia stepped out, her eyes glinting under the streetlights, but there was a wall in her gaze—a determination that intrigued me as

The air in my apartment grew thick, saturated with the stench of sweat and threat pouring off the two men in front of me. Their sinister smiles stayed fixed, like masks carved onto their rough faces, and the panic that had hit me when I first opened the door now mingled with a desperate need to stay calm.I stepped back, my hand still gripping the knob, but the taller one—the one with a scar cutting across his brow like a cruel slash—moved forward, blocking the door with his body. He shoved it closed, the sound reverberating like a hammer blow in my chest. My apartment—my refuge—had turned into a cage in an instant.My mind raced, clawing for an exit. Who were these men? Sent by Javier, seeking revenge for my father’s past? By Elena, furious after my defiance at the club? Or something else entirely—thugs drawn by the debt that chained me to Marco?I forced my voice steady, though my heartbeat was loud enough I feared they’d hear it. “Who sent you?” I demanded, summoning the same

The apartment was steeped in silence, broken only by the groans of the men sprawled on the floor, their faces battered and their bodies twisted by Marco’s fury. I remained on the sofa, wrapped in his leather jacket, his cologne mingling with the metallic stench of blood seeping into the carpet. My heart was still pounding, relief at seeing Marco burst in colliding with the terror of what had just happened.But as I looked at him—standing there with the gun in his hand, those gray eyes blazing with rage—I knew I couldn’t take any more violence. Not tonight. Not after everything.“Marco,” I said, my voice trembling but steady as I rose to my feet, legs still weak. “Let them go.”He turned toward me, brow furrowed, his jaw so tense it looked carved from stone.

The echo of the previous night still burned within me—the memory of Marco’s lips, his heat, his hands on my skin—a constant reminder of how close I’d been to giving in. But I couldn’t let myself. Nico depended on me, and the answers I needed were buried in my father’s secrets, in Aurora Holdings, and in that initial, E, that I couldn’t shake from my mind. After hours combing through the ledgers in the Vallardi mansion, I needed air, a place to think. That’s why I was here, in a discreet café on the edge of Manhattan, with a borrowed laptop and the files I’d copied onto a USB. It wasn’t the Vallardi server room, but it was the best I could manage without raising suspicion.The café smelled of espresso and fresh bread, but the atmosphere was heavy, as though the whispers of the patrons hid their own secrets. I sat at a secluded table, fingers trembling as I opened the files I’d marked. Every number was a puzzle, every transfer a clue that could lead me to the money Marco was after—or t