by Eden Butler
“So that’s why I thought maybe you’d say yes.”
“Wait, what?” I blinked, glancing at the woman when I realized I hadn’t heard anything she said. Paris was always underfoot lately, it seemed. She’d been with my folks’ restaurant since high school. Ma wasn’t crazy about her, but Paris’s grandfather and Pop had grown up together. Her working for them was always seen as a favor.
She seemed to always get red around her face anytime something didn’t go her way or when she was upset. Something must have irritated her then because the woman’s face was damn near purple.
But she recovered, blinking before she waved a hand. “I said, you seem like a worldly man. You’ve got a lot of…experience.”
“Um…okay, yeah, I guess,” I said, positioning Mateo on my other knee, away from the woman.
“And I don’t have a lot of…well. Smoke. I know you’re single. I know that you and Maggie aren’t engaged or anything like that.”
I kept my features neutral, not willing to give anything away.
She stepped forward, touching my arm, her fingernails scratching over my skin. “I haven’t had a lot of sex…”
“Umm…that sucks for you…”
“Smoke,” she said, giving me a look that told me she was lying her ass off. She knew exactly how to manipulate and seduce. “Would you fuck me?”
I’ve had a lot of women throw themselves at me. It happens when you’re in the position I’m in. Money, power, it comes with both.
But shit, I was standing in my office holding a one-year-old, and she propositioned me while I fielded articles on my almost-live-in girlfriend’s ex-husband’s company.
The fuck was happening to my life?
Paris moved her hand up my forearm and I jerked her touch off me. “No. Not gonna happen.”
“Wha…what?”
“Look, that shit might work on one of these local idiots, but it won’t on me.”
“I don’t know what you’re…”
“You wanna keep your job?” I interrupted, stunning her silent.
She nodded, tugging her top lip under her teeth like she was scared to say anything stupid.
Wise choice.
“Then I suggest you get the hell out of this office and pretend like you don’t know who the fuck I am. Understand this very clearly: I am not interested and if you keep bothering me, you’ll get fucked right out of a job. You feel me?”
“Yea…yes.”
“Good. Now go before my ma comes back here and finds out what kind of servers she’s employed.”
Paris left the office without a backward glance and I got up from my desk, moving to the window with Mateo in my arms as we watched the sidewalk outside get thick with afternoon foot traffic.
This chick, I swear.
Squirming in my arms, I adjusted the boy, shaking my head when I thought about the bullshit he’d be in for, as good looking as I knew he’d be.
“Kid, learn the lesson now,” I told him. “Women are so fucking—”
“I would not finish that sentence if I were you, Dimitri,” my mother said, walking into the office.
She watched me pace with the kid in my arms. Ma had done that so many times the past few months, I knew she was likely thinking thoughts that didn’t belong in her head.
That’s where all her nagging and harping she’d done on wanting me to make things official with Maggie had come from.
My parents loved the kid.
They loved Maggie.
They tolerated me.
Made sense they’d want me to step up and make them permanent fixtures in our lives.
My cell vibrated and I frowned, pushing Mateo to my other hip as I fished out my phone and took Ricky’s call. Ma came back to the window, watching Mrs. Jefferies and her son stretching out a banner that read “Celebrate National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, August 4.” But I noticed how she moved her head toward me, how she moved her eyebrow up like she waited to hear whatever would come out of my mouth.
“Yeah, man?”
“Boss?” Ricky was winded, like he’d just run a half marathon. “That mother fucker is going for the north dock. We got Ronaldo and Joey with their crew and Sal and Vin are coming too.”
“Mother fucker,” I breathed, my glance landing on my ma, who set a small plate of apples and crackers along with the buttered noodles on the desk for the kid, when she cleared her throat, but I was too pissed to worry about my mouth. “Call Luca. It looks like beating the shit out them did no good. It’s time that asshole starts earning his way around here that doesn’t involve him mooning over my kid sister. He’s got a fucking crew. Get ‘em busy.”
Ma jerked her eyes at me, whispering a quick, “Dimitri, watch your mouth around the baby!” resting her hands on her hips as she gave me a look I knew was a clear warning.
My face warmed as I waved her off, my temper surging when I thought about Mickey inching in on another one of my shipments. “Who’s watching Dino?”
“Lanzo,” Ricky said between breaths.
“That fucker. I don’t like him. He blows shit left and right. He’s fucking…”
Ma took two steps toward me, looking like she was ready to smack me across the head. I exhaled, followed her gaze from the kid to me and back again, then lifted my free hand, giving her a one-finger surrender.
Her features relaxed as I walked to the closet where I kept my extra pistols and several vests. It was also where I housed shit I needed on the off chance that Ma or my pop would ever agree to go to the shooting range with me. They never had, but I always held out hope.
“Rick, hang on,” I said, moving my cell to the desk to dig into the closet. There were a few boxes of copy paper in front of the small black lock boxes that held the nine and the smaller container that had what I was looking for. I grabbed it, turning to sit Mateo onto my desk before I ripped open the container and pulled out a pair of muffs and slipped them over the kid’s ears.
He moved his head, testing the weight, then blinked up at me shooting back the smile I gave him before he reached up, wanting to be held. I shrugged, shooting a wink at my mother. “Happy?” Then I grabbed the phone. “Rick, you tell that mother fucker if he steps even a toe out of line…you know what? Fuck that…fuck that asshole…”
There wasn’t much that shook me anymore.
I’d seen grown men topple with a swift kick to the knee.
I’d seen my father’s entire face shake when a judge sent my kid brother to jail for something everyone in that courtroom knew he didn’t do.
I’d seen women offer me things I’d never give them and try to take from me things I’d never offer.
But nothing shook me, deep down like this kid who wasn’t mine but had planted himself right in my fucking heart.
“Get the fuck out of here.”
The earmuffs were gone. So was my Ma, but the curse was necessary. Besides, from the look he gave me, saying “Mama” like he knew exactly who the woman was when I showed him Maggie’s picture on my cell, had me shook.
“Who the hell told you, you could talk?” I held up my phone, swiping to the next picture, this one of Maggie on her own, laughing at something Toni said. She didn’t know I took that picture, but it was a good one. Fucking gorgeous as always.
The kid pointed at the screen, his smile wide and he said clear as day, “Mama.”
“Holy shit!”
I jumped from the sofa, digging into the pantry to grab one of the old cells I kept charged for emergencies and moved back to the sofa, pulling up another picture of Maggie, this one with her holding Mateo.
“Who is this?” I asked him, pointing to the screen.
Once again, the kid stared at the screen and pointed, the smile on his gummy mouth was massive. Fuck me if the kid wasn’t the cutest damn thing I’d ever seen. I inched back, this time holding up my phone to catch the whole thing in case he said it again. Maggie would lose it if she didn’t get to see this shit for herself, so I made sure I fired off a text the s
econd I hit end on the video.
“Mama. Mama. Mama,” he said, laughing before he picked up the cell and brought it straight for his mouth.
“Don’t get cocky now,” I said, laughing at the boy as I took the cell from him, using the emergency phone to send the video to my cell and send off the clip to Maggie.
He wasn’t done, reaching for my phone after I’d sent her the video, and continued saying the word, each time seeming to surprise himself when he spotted Maggie’s picture and got the name right. When he looked up at me and I nodded, not correcting him, the kid laughed, looking pleased and surprised at the same time.
“What can I say, man? Shit happens.”
Twenty minutes later, the kid yawned, scrubbing his fat fist against his eyes, and I got the hint.
“Alright. I got you.”
He came to me when I grabbed him in a one-armed grip, moving us both to the sofa as I relaxed against the cushion.
I hated putting him to sleep so early, but Maggie’s cleaning was running over and the kid was tired, likely thanks to my Ma stuffing him with butter noodles.
He crashed on the sofa and not for the first time, I reminded myself that I had to get a hustle on bringing all of Maggie and Mateo’s shit to my place. They were only partially moved in here, having left most of their stuff at her old apartment, claiming she didn’t want to leave Vi without any furniture, even though I’d already offered to replace what Maggie took.
My cell jerked to life with a text and I thumbed the message open, breathing a little easier when Rick’s update told me no one had been hurt cleaning out the north dock. Mickey would have to be dealt with and fast, before he got too full of himself and thought he was doing something other than being a pain in my ass.
He made Dino bleed. He’d ignored the lesson I’d tried to teach him. This shit was personal now.
I wasn’t a don. I didn’t have a syndicate, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t above handling shit when I needed to. I reminded myself there was more than business I needed to protect now.
This was what I wanted to avoid.
Entanglements.
Complications.
Shit that could get hurt because of me.
Mateo snored, his low, soft breathing evening out as his body relaxed. He’d fallen asleep with his fingers locked around my crucifix, something that had become a habit for the kid.
Something, I was surprised to admit, I started to like.
It felt…good.
Maggie, and this kid, they were everything to me.
“Fuck,” I said to the empty room, wincing when my voice made the kid jerk in his sleep. I eased down onto the cushions, pressing a kiss to his head before I got up, going to the bar in my kitchen, needing a drink.
The television in front of me played a repeat of an old Mayweather fight, but I wasn’t paying attention. Then, the door creaked, the metal hinges whining open. The worry over Maggie I’d felt since she told me about this Reynolds asshole vanished when I spotted her smile and those bright, wide eyes as she looked up at me.
“He said my name?” That smile broad and fucking beautiful. “I…knew it was coming, but…oh, Smoke…” She stepped inside, touching my chest as she passed me, her voice dipping when she spotted Mateo asleep on the sofa. “My mijo…” She was on her knees, hand stretched toward him, fingers in his hair before I had the door shut.
“Yeah. It was wild.”
Maggie turned toward me, her smile not lowering.
It did something to me I couldn’t ignore, seeing her like that. All that pride, how beautiful she looked when she watched her kid beaming the way she did.
I tried like hell not to sound like a mooning asshole when I spoke. “He just pointed right at your picture and out it came. ‘Mama’ over and over like he’d been saying that shit forever.”
She stood, straightening her skirt, her mouth curved as she laughed. She flipped all that thick hair from her shoulder and I caught the sweet scent of her perfume, and I touched her neck, reaching down to kiss her.
“You want a drink?” I didn’t wait for her to answer and moved to my kitchen, being quiet as I pulled out a bottle of wine and poured two glasses.
“Sure, this is worth celebrating.” She nodded a thanks, taking the glass as she leaned against my island.
“This kid, I swear, bella, he’s good for a laugh.”
I inhaled, taking in her scent again, a low grunting noise moving from my throat. “I missed you. I always miss you when you’re gone.”
“I was at the dentist.”
I shook my head, feeling pathetic but still kissed my girl anyway, just a small brush of our lips, then took a drink, watching her. Maggie’s pink tongue slipped past her open mouth, and she moved it along her bottom lip. It was a small tease, the hint of wetness left behind on that full bottom lip, filling my head with shit I wanted to do to her that would probably make her blush. Couldn’t help it. She had that effect on me.
I moved forward, crowding her, forcing her back until she was against the wall. I had her caged with my hands around her, my mouth hovering over hers, just inches away, ready to take everything I wanted.
When I reached for her, my gaze soaking up the twitch moving her lips and Maggie pushed on my chest.
“What are you doing …” she started, eyes closing when I touched her face.
“Look at me,” I told her, awed by how deep my voice sounded, by what she could do to me.
She opened her eyes, swallowing, moving her fingers to my hand. “You…you want me right here?”
Maggie went quiet when I nodded, closing her mouth as though that one gesture and whatever she saw in my face said enough to keep her silent.
I moved her chin up, holding her still, readying to take her lips, to take everything she’d let me have. I kissed her, teeth grazing her lips like I nibbled at fine, decadent chocolate. “Get this straight, bella. I always want you. Every second of every day.”
She made a small noise, half-gasp, half-moan when I kissed her again, then Maggie gripped my collar, like she needed to hang on to me or she’d float away completely. “Smoke…you’re… you’re killing me.”
I took her face in both hands now, my forehead to hers as I inhaled her sweet, rich scent. “I love you, bella and I promise…I’ll make it good for you. Always.”
We moved together, mouth and tongue, teeth and touches, coming at each other in a flash. The noises she made were sweet. I picked her up, sliding her skirt up her thighs, gripping her, groaning when she untucked my shirt, when she pressed against me and I felt all that heat, all that wetness ready and waiting for me.
And then…just like that, someone hammered their fists against my door. I jerked a glare at the intrusion, moving her away from me, pushing down her skirt, nodding her toward the kid without a single word.
“Smoke…” she tried.
I moved my head, ignoring the low curses she whispered when I pulled my nine from my ankle holster and gripped the door handle, looking out of the peep hole.
“Relax,” I told her, as she grabbed a sleeping Mateo, and I pulled the door open, my gun gripped in my hand to let Ricky inside.
My gut knotted when I spotted the blood on the front of his shirt and over the towel he used to clean his hand.
“Boss,” he said, out of breath with his face bruised and bloody. “They got Vin and…” He went quiet when Maggie moved to my side, rocking her boy when the kid started to cry.
“Go clean up,” I told Ricky, nodding him toward the back of my apartment as Maggie’s gaze landed on his shirt and the blood from whatever injury the man had underneath it dripping on my wood floors. “I’ll be there in a minute.”
He moved down the hallway, out of sight, and I stuffed my gun in my waistband, grabbing the door when Maggie reached for it. “Bella…”
“It’s…okay…” she said, still rocking the baby. She glanced at the floor, to the small puddle Rick made, her eyebrows up and complexion pale. “I’ll put him to bed.”
/>
“This isn’t…this is part of keeping everyone safe…” When she only nodded, not looking at my face, I stopped her, pulling her against my chest, my mouth against her ear. “This won’t touch you. I promise. I’ll keep you safe.”
“I…hope you’re right,” she said, pulling away from me. There were tears wetting her eyes, making them shine against the overhead light. I hated that I’d put that fear in her beautiful eyes.
“I promise…I’ll keep you safe. Even if it’s for the best…”
“For the best?” She moved away, curling an arm around the kid, like she wanted to keep him as far away from me as possible. “Toni told me about you and your ‘it’s for the best’ scenarios. What you did to her and Luca…God…”
“Toni…”
“Don’t, please,” she said, stopping any excuse I might have for how I’d handled that situation. There was no reasoning. No explaining that would make sense to anyone but myself.
“I was trying to protect my family,” I told her, ignoring her small protest when I reached for her face, holding her head still. “You and Mateo, just like Toni, you’re my family too.”
“That’s not tonight’s discussion.” She glanced to the hall, then down at the blood on the floor. “Go see to your man.” Then Maggie left the room, walking into the back toward the bedroom, and everything got quiet. Everything got still and for once in my life, I hated the silence.
11
Maggie
Only twice in my life had I ever gotten flowers.
Once, the girls in Alejandro’s office had given me flowers the day of our engagement. It was their idea, not his, and something I hadn’t expected.
The other time, Alejandro himself had managed a large bouquet of long stem, blood red roses for our first-year wedding anniversary. It was the last time I remember us ever being happy.
But the bouquet in my arms was unexpected. It was large, likely the largest I’d ever seen and the flowers were ornate and expensive.
