Mine: a Dark Mafia Romance

by Paula Cox

  Even though he had told her to be quiet, Cliff couldn’t help but feel a swell of pride. Even in the face of danger, Liana’s sharp tongue refused to take cover. Just another reason she needed to survive. She had a bright future ahead of her. If she died, all Cliff would have was pain.

  Colin did not appreciate the comment. His smirk dropped into a flat line, eyes hardening on her.

  “I was going to let you decide who dies,” Colin muttered, “but I think I’d rather just get you out of the way. You’re pissing me off.”

  “Don’t you dare,” Cliff snarled. “If you touch her, there won’t be a place on earth too far for me to find you and rip your spleen out with my bare hands.”

  “I love it when you talk dirty to me,” Colin said huskily, giggling like a maniac. Or like a fool.

  Cliff had truly had about enough of this. It was time for the backup plan. He’d slipped his hand into his pocket the moment Colin came into the room, and now he pressed the button on the side.

  He just had to keep Colin talking.

  “I’m serious, Colin.” Cliff caught the other man’s gaze. “What do you want? Do you want money? Power? What?”

  Colin snickered. “Any man who settles for so little as money or power doesn’t deserve it,” he replied.

  “Then?”

  Colin shrugged, waving the gun at them. “All I want is for one of you to die.”

  Colin was suddenly tackled to the ground, the gun slipping from his hand and sliding a foot away. Peter scrambled for it at the same time as Cliff dove. Cliff was too far away. Peter was engaged in a tousle with Colin, and couldn’t get a grip on it.

  Colin snatched the gun back in his fist and, in the next second, a shot rang through the atrium.

  Liana screamed, covering her mouth with her hands in shock. Cliff felt the blood drain from his face.

  Peter was still.

  Cliff had asked Peter to come out to the house and keep an eye on them from the outside and to come in if Cliff called for him. But Cliff hadn’t realized it would end like this. He was outraged. Another good man lost to Colin’s insanity.

  Where would it end?

  With a noisy groan, Colin shifted Peter’s slumped body off of him and rose to his feet. “Well,” he said, brushing off his suit. “That didn’t quite go as planned.”

  Cliff adjusted his body so that he was now directly in front of Liana. He couldn’t change what had happened to Peter, but he could protect her.

  “On your feet,” Colin said, jerking the gun at them. “Both of you.”

  Cliff shook his head. “No.”

  “Come on, Cliff,” Colin said with an exasperated sigh. “Don’t make this harder than it has to be.”

  Liana’s hands fisted in the back of Cliff’s shirt. He had to protect her.

  “Why do you want us to stand up?”

  Colin rolled his eyes. “You’re being dramatic, Cliff.” He jerked the gun again. “Get up. I’m walking you out to your car.”

  “You are?” Cliff asked, eyes wide.

  “Of course. I’m a gentleman.”

  Cliff slowly rose to his feet. Liana stood too, clinging to him the whole time.

  “I’m confused,” Cliff said.

  “I hope you’re not always this slow,” Colin retorted. “I’m letting you go.”

  “I got that part,” Cliff snarled.

  Colin came up beside them and began ushering them through to the hallway. “I think you made a wonderful choice of sacrifice and therefore I’m letting you go.”

  Cliff’s blood went cold. What kind of psychopath accepted sacrifices? What kind of psychopath could be so cheery after killing a man?

  He put one foot in front of the other and began to make his way toward the front door. They needed to get out of there. He didn’t have time to question Colin’s sanity. He had clearly underestimated the man already, and it had cost a man his life.

  The outdoors looked just as cheery and bright as it had when Cliff and Liana first drove up. The SUV was parked exactly where he left it, all the tires intact. Cliff had almost expected this to be another joke.

  “Alright then, folks,” Colin said, pointing his gun from them to the car. “Get in. And be sure to buckle up those seatbelts. Safety first, and all that.”

  “You’re just letting us go?” Liana questioned, her voice shaky.

  “And wishing you well!” Colin said. “I’ll leave you alone now. I’ve had my fun.”

  Cliff found that hard to believe. Nevertheless, he got into the SUV and drove out of there as fast as he could, kicking up gravel and dust without a care for the car.

  Chapter 22

  “That was without a doubt the strangest and most horrible thing that has ever happened to me.”

  Liana’s words hung in the air. The silence in the SUV was stifling, but neither of them had been able to say anything for the first few miles back to the safe house. That was where Liana assumed they were going, anyway. Though Colin had said he’d leave them alone, she doubted Cliff believed that any more than she did.

  “I wish I could say I’ve seen stranger,” Cliff replied.

  Liana wished he could too. Not because she wanted him to have gone through some crazy shit, but because she knew he already had. Her blood ran cold.

  “What do we do now?” she asked.

  Cliff sighed, gripping the wheel and furrowing his brow. “I haven’t quite figured that out yet. If you have any calls to make, make them now. I can drive around for a bit.”

  Liana jumped at the opportunity to turn her phone back on. It immediately dinged with missed notifications, including several missed calls from Janelle. Though not really in the mood to talk to anyone after her ordeal, Liana craved the normalcy she knew she would find in the call.

  Janelle answered right away. “Hey! Where the hell have you been? If you tell me you’ve been cooped up with Cliff having a days-long fuck-a-thon I will be jealous but supportive.”

  Liana chuckled nervously. “Something like that,” she said. “What did I miss?”

  “Do you remember Hermana? That venue we looked at?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “The owner called me last night and said he’s had some more interest in it. He wanted to give us a heads up.”

  “Shit,” Liana muttered. “Did he say when he needed a decision by?”

  “All he said was the sooner the better,” Janelle replied. “You and Mr. Beefcake should think about it and get back to me.”

  “We will,” Liana affirmed. “We’re just dealing with a couple things right now, but I’ll call you call you back as soon as I know. If he sells the place, he sells it.”

  Even saying that, Liana knew it wouldn’t be so easy to let the club go. Though she’d suggested they look at other places, she’d really been struck by it from the beginning. And now that it was in danger of slipping from her grasp, Liana wanted it badly.

  But was now the time? What if neither she nor Cliff was alive to run it anymore?

  “Sure thing, chicken wing,” Janelle replied. “Give Clifford my love.”

  “Will do. Bye.”

  Liana hung up the phone and turned to Cliff. “Janelle says hello.”

  “Is that all she said?” he asked. “You sounded kind of distressed.”

  Liana frowned. “The club we went to look at has had more interest. The owner needs to know pretty darn quick if we want it.”

  “Hmm.”

  Liana waited, but Cliff still said nothing.

  “Hmm?” she pressed. “Is that a good hmm? A bad hmm? A neutral hmm?”

  Cliff rolled his shoulders, eyes still on the road.

  “I’m not really sure myself,” he replied. “I liked the club. I just don’t know if now’s a good time.”

  Liana laughed. “I had the same thought. It’s hard enough dealing with a homicidal maniac on our tail without having to make real estate decisions.”

  “I also think being in the city is too exposed,” Cliff said. “We need to keep o
ur heads down until we get this figured out, and we can’t do that if we’re meeting with the club owner and signing contracts.”

  “Solid point,” Liana said with a sigh. “I feel like nothing is going to go right until we fix the Colin situation. I don’t want to get my hopes up anyway. I’ll call Janelle back.”

  Cliff rested his hand over hers. “I wouldn’t,” he said. “Like you said, if it goes, it goes. Otherwise, let’s leave it open.” He smiled. “Who knows? Maybe we can get this sorted out faster than either of us thinks.”

  Liana laughed. “I hope so, but nothing’s really been going to plan.” She dropped her phone into her lap and squeezed Cliff’s hand. Holding his hand was more comforting than he likely knew.

  “I’m sorry,” Cliff said after a moment.

  Liana squeezed again. “What? What for?”

  “For all of this. For Colin. If it weren’t for me, none of this would be happening to you.”

  Liana looked over at him, studying the worried lines of his face. “Cliff,” she said softly. “I wouldn’t trade any of this. It brought me to you.”

  He sighed. “I just wish I knew what I did as a kid to make him hate me so much. His family moved him away when I was thirteen or so. I never saw him after.”

  “Why’d they move?”

  “The details are a bit fuzzy. I think it had something to do with Colin’s mental state.”

  “Pfft.” Liana chuckled. “Checks out.”

  Cliff smiled at her. “Is there anything that could quench your sense of humor?”

  “Not a thing in the world,” she replied, lapping up his attention. “But tell me about Colin and his mental state. This could be helpful.”

  They pulled into the driveway of the safe house, and Cliff released her hand to turn the engine off. They both got out, and he walked around the front of the SUV to meet her, slinging his arm over her shoulder.

  “I think he had a nervous breakdown or something,” Cliff said. “Nobody ever told me anything, but I heard some of the adults talking about it at the time.”

  “But why’d he move?”

  “I think there was a mental facility upstate his parents wanted to check him into.”

  “Ah.” Liana rested her head on Cliff’s arm as he unlocked the front door. She pretended they were married and that they’d just come home from having a nice dinner in the city. It was date night, and after they got inside Cliff would sweep her into his arms and take her to bed on a pile of rose petals. Even though she’d told him she didn’t want that, she couldn't’ deny he hadn’t put a few ideas in her head.

  But it wasn’t date night. It wasn’t even night. The grass was dewy, not yet burned off by the morning sun. The air had a crispness to it that sent her huddling closer to Cliff, but he certainly didn’t pick her up in his arms.

  “I’ve got to call some people,” Cliff said once they got inside.

  “How come you’re allowed to call but I’m not?” Liana asked.

  He smiled and patted her head affectionately. “Because my line is secure and yours is some crappy phone contract you’re probably paying way too much for.”

  “Fair enough,” Liana replied. “I’m going to start making us some breakfast then.”

  Cliff smiled. “Can’t wait.”

  ***

  “I still can’t believe it,” Ellis said. “It’s been nearly a month, and I still can’t believe it.”

  Cliff looked over his shoulder at Liana, who was teetering precariously next to the coffee table. “Me neither,” he replied. “It’s one thing hearing about it…”

  “And another thing finding the body,” Ellis replied.

  The moment Cliff got in the door on that day, three weeks ago, he had called Ellis and Amos to tell them about Peter’s death and to keep looking into Colin. Ellis had involved the police at that point, though the mansion had come up clean as a whistle. Colin was gone.

  But now they had the first trace of Colin they’d seen in weeks, and it wasn’t even Colin. The police had found Peter’s body.

  “How are you guys holding up over there?” Ellis asked.

  A loud thump caused Cliff to return his attention to Liana, now sprawled on the floor. “Liana has taken up yoga,” he said. “And we’ve watched almost every episode of Friends ever.”

  “Sounds kind of relaxing, actually,” Ellis commented. “Think you’ve got another room in that house spare?”

  Cliff chuckled. If Ellis only knew about how loud and frequent Liana and Cliff’s sex was, he wouldn’t have asked.

  “I would invite you,” Cliff said, “but then who would be my contact in the city?”

  “Fair enough.” Ellis sighed. “Though it’s been a gong-show since getting the precinct involved. Everybody’s chewing at the bit to catch this guy, but nobody has any ideas.”

  “That’s what Amos told me last time I checked in,” Cliff replied. “He’s basically scrubbed himself off the earth.”

  “Do you think maybe it’s over?”

  Cliff stretched his feet out in front of him, relaxing further in his chair. “Maybe, but I don’t want to get too complacent.”

  “Probably a smart move.” A phone rang in the background. “Well, I guess I better go,” Ellis said. “I’ll call you if I have any more updates.”

  “Thanks,” Cliff replied.

  He tossed the phone onto the table beside him and rubbed his hands over his eyes.

  “You should really try this,” Liana said. “It’ll help sort out the tension in your muscles.”

  Cliff eyed her quizzically. “You sure about that? You did just fall on your ass.”

  Liana laughed, stepping toward him and sinking down into his lap. The tight material of her shorts emphasized the firmness of her ass, and Cliff’s groin stirred. All it took was her being slightly near him.

  “I may have fallen on my ass,” Liana said sweetly. “But I did so in such a Zen state of mind that I barely felt it.”

  “Oh really?” Cliff asked, breaking out into a mischievous grin.

  Liana recognized the look in his eyes and tried to stand up, but he pulled her tightly down. It was too late for her to escape.

  Chapter 23

  “I’m curious,” Cliff purred into Liana’s ear. “How much punishment can you take while you’re in a ‘Zen’ state of mind?”

  Liana struggled against his arms, which were wrapped around her like steel bands. Not that she really wanted to escape. And, if she did escape, it would only be so he could catch her again. She loved these games they played.

  “I don’t know,” Liana replied breathlessly. “Try me.”

  His rumbling laugh sent a shiver down her spine. Liana knew better than to challenge Cliff unless she could take what he was going to dole out. Today she was pushing her own boundaries, curious to see what he would come up with.

  Cliff’s lips made a hot trail along her throat, all the way down to the crook of her neck. He nipped, harder than usual, and Liana flinched. She also moaned.

  “I’ve been watching you do yoga all goddamn morning,” Cliff said. “And do you know what it’s done to me?”

  “I can guess.”

  Liana wiggled her hips as much as his grip allowed, which wasn’t much. Nonetheless, she was rewarded with a primal growl as her butt ground against his hardening cock. Liana’s breaths came shallow and fast. She closed her eyes and leaned back into Cliff’s chest as he began to slide his hand along her breasts, her collarbone, and finally up to her neck. He closed his fingers around her throat and squeezed—not enough to hurt her or cut off her breathing, but just enough that she knew he meant business.

  His breath blasted against her ear. Liana whimpered, anxious for him to give her the pleasure she so desperately desired.

  Cliff laughed. “You’re impatient.”

  “I want you,” she replied.

  His teeth latched onto her earlobe, and the hand he’d been using to hold her in place roughly pulled up her top and the sports bra underneath, baring
her breasts. He rolled one of her sensitive nipples between his fingers, pinching and pulling while she writhed against his lap.

  “You didn’t say the magic word, Liana,” Cliff growled. He moved to the other nipple, giving it the same treatment.