Monster: Made & Broken (A Mafia Bad Boy Romance)

by Nora Ash

  “Mum, I have to go now,” I said, doing my best to suppress the lump in my throat when I looked at her for what I knew would be the last time. Physically, she had aged with grace, and despite her white hair and lacking memory, she was still the same woman who had raised me on her own and given me everything she could. She was the only person I had left in the world—and I had to leave her.

  “And I’m not going to be able to come around much anymore. I have to go away for a while.”

  She frowned at me. “You’re going?”

  “Yes. I don’t want you to worry, okay? I’m going to be all right.” With another glance at the dusky sky, I got up. Every part of my heart cried out to stay just a little bit longer, but I knew I had to go. I leaned over the table and gave her cheek a kiss, inhaling the scent of my mother one last time. Lavender and soap and something distinctly Mum. I wanted to remember it forever.

  “Goodbye, Mum.” I bit the inside of my cheek so hard I tasted blood just to hold back the tears blurring my vision as I turned and made my way to the door.

  “Wait,” she called behind me.

  My heart jolted and I turned back, a small ray of relief making its way through my depression. All I wanted was to say goodbye to her while she remembered who I was.

  “Agatha? Is that you?” Her lips spread in a surprised and delighted smile.

  I smiled back and blew her a kiss before I walked out the door and closed it behind me.

  It took a couple of minutes before I’d pulled myself together enough to walk away from my mum’s room and back down to the reception area.

  Susie looked up when I rounded the corner, offering me a comforting smile. I took it my face reflected exactly how I felt.

  “She’ll have a good day the next time you come visit, or the time after that.”

  I nodded and swallowed the stubborn lump in my throat. “Susie, I… I have to go away for a while, and I don’t know for how long but I think it might be… a very long time. I won’t be able to stop by to check on my mum. Will you please check in on her once in awhile? Just sit down and watch the birds with her? She likes that.”

  “Love, what’s going on?” Susie frowned at me, her eyes darting to my bruise again. “Are you in some kind of trouble? Do you need me to call someone? The police?”

  “No, I’m... I’m fine. I just can’t come by anymore. Please, Susie. Please promise me you’ll look after her?” I fumbled in my purse and pulled out five thousand pounds from the stolen stack of fifties. “I’ll send more, for her stay. I just need to know that she’ll be looked after. She…” I bit my lip, stopping myself before I broke down in tears.

  Susie slowly closed her hands around the money, and though her face was still drawn in a worried frown, she nodded. “You know I’ll look after her, Evelyn. But what do you want me to tell her, if she asks for you?”

  I shook my head and looked down, breathing in through my nose to calm myself. “Just that I love her, and I’ll be back as soon as I can. And…” I steeled myself to look into the other woman’s eyes, willing her to understand the importance of the next bit. “And if anyone should come asking for me, tell them you’ve never heard my name before. It’s safest that way.”

  Susie paled a bit, but nodded again. “Okay, Evelyn. Be safe.”

  I gave her a weak smile, unwilling to make a promise I wasn’t sure I could keep. “Thank you.”

  I had thought the first time I walked into the nursing home when my mother moved in was a tough day, but it was nothing in comparison to today—to leaving for the last time. It took everything I had not to lose my mind as I walked out through the sliding doors.

  The dark street outside was nearly empty, and I hurried along the pavement to get to the nearest station where I knew there’d be more people and I wouldn’t be alone. I tried my best to push down my anxiety as I turned down the small road that connected to the station a few blocks down.

  I only made it maybe twenty yards before someone grabbed me from behind, pressing a cloth into my mouth and a bag over my head.

  * * * *

  Chapter 9

  Evelyn

  I squinted at the sudden light when the bag was pulled off my head.

  I didn’t know where I was or who had taken me, and my heart hammered a terrified beat behind my ribs. Whoever it was, I knew this wasn’t going to end well for me.

  After they snatched me, I’d been thrown in the backseat of a car with my hands zip-tied behind my back. My abductor had driven for perhaps half an hour or more before he stopped and slung me over his shoulder, carrying me to this room and sat me down in a chair. There had been stairs, and I had a sickening feeling that I was back in the horrible basement where I had thought I would die. Well, perhaps that premonition would still come true.

  But once my my pupils got accustomed to the light, I noticed it was brighter and less orange than that basement had been, and there were no stains on the walls. The stench of blood and human decay was also absent.

  I had an odd moment of relief, as if my upgraded cell meant that perhaps things weren’t as bad as I’d thought—until I finally spotted my captor.

  Marcus stood in front of me, arms folded across his wide chest and his handsome face drawn into dark, angry lines.

  “Mmph!” My panicked cry was muffled by the cloth in my mouth as I jolted backward in my seat in an attempt to get away from him. Flashes of the blood spraying around him as he descended on Leo like a feral beast flashed in my mind’s eye, and any relief I may have felt vanished in a rush of panic-fueled adrenaline.

  “We need to talk,” he said, his voice as grim as his face. Unfazed by my flinch when he reached out toward me, he pulled the cloth from my mouth and tossed it on the floor. “I suggest you cooperate.”

  I nodded shakily without taking my eyes off of him. Though he was clearly very, very angry, the ferocity I’d seen in his gaze the moment our eyes locked in Brigs’ basement wasn’t there now, and whatever else might happen, I knew my best chance of survival was to not provoke it to reappear.

  “What did Brigs want from me?”

  “A-a pen drive,” I whispered.

  His eyes widened for a moment and then narrowed to slits. “Did you get it?”

  I nodded again.

  Marcus’ lips flattened for a moment. “How?”

  The shame that filled me surprised me. He had me tied up and at his mercy, and was possibly going to kill me before the night was through—and I still felt guilty for what I’d done? Clearly, something was very wrong with me.

  “Your nephew’s birthdate. You—it was obvious he means a lot to you, and I figured…”

  His eyes glowed with fury at my revelation, and I shrank back in the chair, terrified he’d lose control again.

  “Did you steal anything else?”

  “Money,” I confessed, the shame returning with force. “T-ten thousand pounds. B-but I have five of them in my purse, you c-can have them back.”

  Marcus arched an eyebrow at me. “Brigs told you to steal money from me, along with the pen drive?”

  “No, I… I needed it. And I’d already stolen the pen drive, so…” My attempt at an explanation died under his stare.

  He rolled his shoulders as if to work out his anger and began to pace in front of me. I was somewhat relieved that I no longer had his burning eyes glued to my face and slumped back in the chair. I was more exhausted than I’d ever been in my life.

  “How long have you been in Brigs’ employ?”

  “A year and a half.” Had it really been that long? A year and a half of fear and self-hatred.

  “A faithful employee,” he gritted out, and I shrank back under another of his glares. “And certainly very valuable, if you could fool me like you did. Why did they harm you?”

  “I broke the pen drive,” I whispered, no longer able to meet his gaze. I lowered it to my feet. One of my shoes had come off while I struggled against him as he carried me to his car, but at least my ankles weren’t tied up this time
.

  “You broke it?”

  “I… after we… I wanted to know why Brigs wanted it so bad. If he was going to hurt you somehow. So I… I watched it, and I… couldn’t make myself do it. I couldn’t give it to him after I saw… So I broke it.”

  “You saw the video?”

  “Yes.” Too late I realized that admitting to being the only person to see what was on the pen drive was the stupidest thing I could have done. Looking back up, I backtracked, “But I didn’t tell Gerald what was on it, that’s why Leo tortured me. Please, Marcus, don’t hurt me. Y-you don’t have anything to fear from me, I promise. I’ll leave London, Brigs won’t find me. I won’t tell a soul.”

  If he was affected by my frantic begging, his expression didn’t betray it. He simply stared at me in silence for a few long moments, his face still twisted in anger. Then, without a word, he turned around and left the room.

  What now? I sank back into the chair, spent and terrified.

  Marcus came back through the door about ten minutes later, but the sight of the tub of steaming water in his hands and the towel over his shoulder didn’t exactly provide me with any more clues as to his plans for me. When he pulled a knife and cut my wrists free before he knelt down in front of me, placing the tub by his side, my confusion was complete.

  “W-what are you doing?”

  He didn’t answer me, and I flinched when he grabbed my shoe-free ankle in one hand. But he was strong and held on, and I didn’t dare fight him.

  Once I stopped moving, he carefully peeled off my sock and tossed it next to me, and I saw patches of blood on it. I peered down at my now bare foot and grimaced. It was filthy, and judging by the throbbing pain in my soles, I could hazard a guess how badly cut it was.

  Marcus continued to my other foot, pulling both the shoe and equally blood-stained sock off it.

  At the sight of their condition he made a dismayed sound deep in his throat and then proceeded to pull the tub in front of me so he could dip both my feet in the water.

  “Ow,” I whimpered when the heat closed around my wounds. I tried to pull my feet back, but Marcus held on. He looked like he wasn’t even remotely straining to keep me still.

  “What are you doing? It hurts!”

  “It’s saltwater,” he said, not bothering to look up from the tub. “You’ll get an infection.”

  I blinked, stunned when it finally dawned on me what he was doing. He was… cleaning my wounds? Slowly, I stopped struggling as the initial pain faded and just watched the large man who had hunkered down in front of me to care for my cut feet.

  Did this mean he wasn’t going to hurt me? I couldn’t imagine anyone in the mafia world caring for the wounds of someone they were going to murder anyway, and the first tendrils of relief flooded me.

  Once he seemed satisfied that I wasn’t going to try and escape the foot bath, Marcus let go of my right foot and grabbed the left one, easily lifting it up to balance on his knee so he could inspect the sole. He dug a hand into one pocket and produced a couple of bandages, a small metal pot, and a pair of tweezers. Then, with a firm grip on my ankle, he began plucking small shards of glass from my damaged foot.

  I winced and whimpered all the way through, and had to steel myself to not kick him when he pulled at some of the deeper splinters, but the salve he rubbed on after was soothing and his fingers impossibly gentle while he covered the wounds with a bandage.

  After he was done with my second foot, he wiped his salve-covered hands in his pants and finally looked back up at me.

  “Thank you,” I said softly. “You didn’t have to do that.”

  He didn’t respond, his face still disturbingly grim—an expression that completely contradicted the gentleness with which he’d tended to my damaged feet.

  But despite his persistent anger with me, the fact that he had taken care of my wounds made something inside of me click into place. I might have seen him brutally slaughter another human being, but as I looked down at him from my perch on the chair, I knew he wouldn’t hurt me.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t want to lie to you, or steal. Brigs… I owe him a lot of money, so I…”

  “You’re a honey trap,” he said calmly, though his expression never changed.

  “Yeah.”

  “You’ve done this before.”

  I opened my mouth to protest, but I doubted he cared about the differences between what I’d done in the past and what I’d done to him. “I didn’t want to do it to you too,” I said softly. “I know you probably don’t believe me, but… if I hadn’t, Brigs would have hurt me.”

  “He hurt you anyway,” he said, letting his eyes linger on my swollen eye.

  “Is that why you killed him?” I don’t know what made me brave enough to ask, but the words tumbled out of my mouth before I could reconsider.

  Marcus looked at me for a long moment, but he didn’t reply. Instead he said, “You put yourself in harm’s way to protect me and my family. I am grateful. But I can’t let you leave. I hope you understand that.”

  I gaped at him, caught between shock that he said he was grateful to me and worry over what he meant by not being able to let me leave. “Why not?”

  “You saw what was on the video. I can’t risk Brigs or anyone else catching you again,” Marcus said as he got up from his kneeling position. He began to pace back and forth in the small cell like a lion in a cage.

  “I promise, I won’t ever use it against you. I won’t tell anyone. Just let me leave, please,” I begged him. “I won’t ever return to England.”

  “Perhaps you are telling the truth. Perhaps not. But that doesn’t make the threat to my family any less. Brigs could find you. Or someone else could. We have many enemies and no room to take chances.”

  “What if…” I looked up, an odd bolt of hope spreading in my stomach. It was an insane idea—he was a killer, and he had every reason not to want anything more to do with me, but… “What if we made a deal? You protect me from Brigs, and in return I stay with you.”

  He stopped his pacing, arching an eyebrow at me, and I grimaced.

  “Not here, not like a prisoner. In your flat. I’ll… be your companion. I’ll make your food, do your laundry… share your bed.”

  His brows furrowed as he stared me down, and some of my enthusiasm withered under his gray gaze.

  “Okay,” he said after what felt like several long minutes, surprising me.

  “Yeah?” I asked, relief slowly starting to seep through my battered body. It might technically be prostitution, but it didn’t feel like it. Not with him.

  “On one condition,” he continued, leveling me with an inscrutable stare. “You agree to have my child.”

  * * * *

  Chapter 10

  Evelyn

  “Your child?” I repeated, not entirely sure I’d heard him right. “I… what? Why?”

  “I want a family,” he said without a hint of emotion in his voice, as if that was all the explanation needed.

  I gaped up at him, too stunned to even argue the insanity in his premise. If he thought I was going to agree to this, he was nuts. Sure, I was inexplicably happy enough to spend the foreseeable future as his pretend-girlfriend until Brigs was no longer a threat to either of us, but a baby? Nuh-uh. Not going to happen.

  But… I could always pretend like I agreed. I was on birth control, after all. All I’d need was to find an excuse to get him to take me by my flat and I’d have three months’ supply of baby-nixing pills at my disposal.

  And what was the alternative? Spend the next few weeks in this cell?

  “Okay,” I said, my voice a bit shaky even though I knew I wasn’t planning on following through with this part of our deal. Saying the words out loud still felt scary. “Okay, I’ll have your baby.”

  * * *

  The car ride to Marcus’ flat passed in silence, like it had the last time we took this journey together. Only this time, the electric silence in the car wasn’t so much sexual tension
as it was… I didn’t even know what the hell it was. I glanced at Marcus by my side, whose focus was purely on the road ahead of us. The moment I’d agreed to his crazy arrangement, it was as if a switch flipped behind his dark gaze and most of the resentment disappeared. He had even carried me to the car so I wouldn’t have to walk on my bandaged feet.

  For all intents and purposes, Marcus seemed to be completely over my betrayal and everything that had followed.

  I wasn’t anywhere near over any of the things that had happened in the past day, but as I sat with my head leaned against the car window and watched the darkened city rush past us, I felt inexplicably calm. Whatever else Marcus was, there was not a bone in my body that didn’t believe he could keep me safe from Brigs. He might be a thousand times more terrifying than Gerald Brigs, but in the depths of my soul I knew he wasn’t going to unleash the terrifying darkness he carried around on me. In fact, sitting next to him as we drove through the dark streets made me feel more safe than I had in a very long time.

  I frowned into the darkness. I’d seen him literally shred another human being, seen the all-consuming rage in his eyes where no shred of humanity remained. Not to mention, he basically wanted to use me as a broodmare—not something a sane guy would suggest. But still… it felt better than I could put into words knowing that no one would hurt me ever again, as long as Marcus was around.

  When he pulled into the parking basement underneath the fancy high-rise his penthouse was located in some twenty minutes later, I had given up trying to sort through any of the day’s events. I was too exhausted, both physically and emotionally, to even begin processing everything, and when Marcus walked around to the passenger side and picked me up as if I was no heavier than a child, I simply rested my head against his arm and let him carry me to the elevator.

  He didn’t put me down until we were inside his flat, easily disposing of me on the kitchen island before he shrugged out of his woolen coat and headed over to look into the fridge.

  I looked around the familiar space and let my hands slide over the countertop. It seemed like an eternity ago he had had me up against this very counter. The memory of his lips on my throat sent a ghost of warmth through my battered body. I had been able to lose myself completely in the sensation of joining with him then, and right now, forgetting about everything for a couple of hours seemed like the perfect idea. Tomorrow was plenty early enough to start thinking again.