by Bethany-Kris
“Melina’s sentencing. I want to go. I’ll be in the back, out of sight. I haven’t even gone to visit her. I’ve kept my head down like you wanted. I want to be there for that, Luca.”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
Mac shook his head. “If she were my wife, this wouldn’t even be a question of asking, Boss, and you know it. You would already have her out of jail.”
“And whose problem is that?” Luca asked.
“I was working on the wife thing before the arrest happened.”
“But she still isn’t your wife, Mac. And I can’t allow a man of mine to handle just any woman with the same treatment a wife would receive.”
Mac blew out a frustrated breath. “She’s—”
“I know the woman is important to you,” Luca interrupted. “You will stay in the back?”
“Head down,” Mac promised.
“Do your best to keep from being pictured.”
“Absolutely, Boss.”
Luca waved a hand in Mac’s direction, saying nothing. He didn’t need to. His actions were clear.
Dismissed.
Mac heard the click-clack of heels approaching the door, and his smile was already growing. It felt like he hadn’t smiled in weeks. Well, since Melina was taken from him.
As the door swung open, revealing his mother, Mac’s grin widened even more at her lit-up eyes. She wore a navy blue dress that fell just below her knees. Her hair was pulled up into a neat up-do, her makeup done modestly.
Cynthia looked more than ready for Sunday services.
“I thought you weren’t coming,” she said, reaching for him.
Mac let his mother pull him into a tight hug. “Of course, Ma. You invited me to church.”
And now that he was finally free with his schedule, for the most part, and wasn’t running around for Guido all the damn time, he could spend Sunday mornings with his mother in a church pew. Mac knew it made her happy when he attended, so he agreed.
Cynthia peered over Mac’s shoulder, her brow furrowing when she couldn’t find what or whom she was looking for. “Where is your girlfriend? Melina, right?”
Mac cringed, but hid it quickly enough with a smile. He knew that his sister had been singing Melina’s praises as much as she could to their mother. Victoria loved the time she had spent with Melina, and she wanted their mother to like her, too. No doubt, Cynthia had assumed her son would bring his girlfriend along.
She couldn’t think any differently.
Mac hadn’t told her about Melina’s recent troubles.
He also didn’t want his mother to worry.
“Melina had a last minute trip she had to take,” Mac said.
It wasn’t a complete lie.
Cynthia frowned, stepping back from her son. “Oh. Why?”
“Emergency stuff. We weren’t expecting it. She might be gone for a little while.”
Again, not a total lie.
Mac would lie his ass off to just about anyone, if he thought he could get away with it, but he didn’t like lying to his mother. It wasn’t right—she raised him better than that. But he didn’t think his mother would appreciate knowing about Melina’s legal problems, given she barely knew her, and already had an opinion as it was about the type of business Mac was involved in.
Some things were better left unsaid, or in his mother’s case, unknown.
“Family things?” Cynthia asked.
Mac shrugged, not giving a verbal answer. “Are you almost ready? Victoria said she would meet us at the church. You don’t want to be late, huh?”
Cynthia nodded at the reminder. “Just let me grab my purse, James.”
He chuckled as she disappeared back into the house. No matter how many times he told her to call him Mac, as he preferred, he would always be James to his mother.
Once Cynthia was back outside, Mac tucked her hand around his elbow and led her down the walkway towards his car.
“How have things been?” she asked.
Mac patted her hand. “Great, Ma.”
Okay.
That one was a total lie.
Things were awful. He was lonely as shit. And nervous as hell for Melina.
Thankfully, his mother didn’t notice his fib.
Cynthia tightened her hold on his arm.
Mac noticed her slight frown, and wondered what was going on in that head of hers. “Something wrong, Ma?”
She shook her head. “Not exactly.”
“That doesn’t sound like everything is right.”
“Well, your father has been coming around more often. And you know I don’t like to tell him to go away …”
Mac scowled nine ways to Sunday. No doubt, his deadbeat father had heard the rumors of Mac’s recent initiation into the Pivetti Cosa Nostra and wanted his little slice of the pie, if he could manage to get his useless hands on a piece.
No way.
Mac worked too fucking hard for that nonsense.
“Has he mentioned why?” Mac asked.
Cynthia shrugged. “No, but he’s been mostly sober.”
Mostly.
Mac’s irritation climbed a notch. “If he bothers you, let me know.”
Cynthia patted his arm gently. “He’s still your father, James.”
Right.
Because that made all the difference.
Not to Mac.
Head down, Mac rapped his knuckles against his knee. Knowing he was being far too jittery, and that might draw attention, he forced his nerves back and sat a little straighter in the hard courthouse chair. He rested his ankle over his knee and sat still, surveying the throng of people in the courtroom.
Straight ahead, about ten rows up, Melina sat with her lawyer. When the judge demanded she stand for final sentencing, she did as she was asked with no question.
Mac had to bite his inner cheek just to keep himself from calling out her name. He didn’t know if the lawyer had filled her in on his presence in the courtroom or not. He’d let Randy know earlier in the day that he would be there, but that he needed to stay out of sight—Luca’s orders.
It fucking killed Mac.
Seeing Melina in a drab gray suit, hands cuffed and simple white, slip-on shoes with no laces killed Mac. Her hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail at the nape of her neck, and her face was clean of any makeup.
The girl was still goddamn beautiful.
But it was killing him.
All over again, Mac started rapping his knuckles to keep his attention diverted on something other than the swirling mass of emotions beginning to compound inside his chest. Maybe Luca had been right. Maybe Mac shouldn’t have come here today, seeing as how he could barely fucking keep control of his anger and sadness.
Mac heard the sentence come down in the background of his thoughts.
“Two hundred and ten days to be served consecutively in the jail, time already served reducing the sentence to one hundred seventy-five days.”
Mac did the math in his head.
A little over five and a half months.
His chest constricted as the gravel banged down, serving the judge’s words as final.
Mac caught sight of Melina’s profile as the bailiff approached, and she turned to speak with her lawyer. He stood, because other people were beginning to move for the next case to be heard, and he couldn’t see Melina anymore.
Standing was the wrong thing to do.
Seeing her made him feel bad all over.
She was frowning, her lips moving as she spoke quickly to Randy.
Pain. Sadness. Desperation.
Mac couldn’t stop himself, he was already moving forward into the side aisle, approaching Melina from behind the railing separating the floor from the viewing area.
“Doll,” Mac called out.
Melina didn’t hear him. She held her hand up to the bailiff, asking for just a moment as Randy shrugged in response.
“Melina,” Mac said, louder the second time.
Finally, sh
e turned. All that pressure and pain in his chest suddenly deflated in an instant. The very moment her eyes met his.
He could see relief there.
And confusion.
Mac’s hand met the wooden rail, and he was reaching over it towards Melina with his other. Despite the bailiff telling him to step back, and moving towards Melina, she reached out to Mac with her shaking, shackled hands.
The second her skin touched his, he was okay.
And he hoped she was, too.
“I love you, doll,” he murmured.
Melina nodded. “I love you.”
“Take a step back,” the bailiff ordered again.
Mac ignored the man, tugging on Melina so that she was just close enough for him to lean forward and catch her lips with his own. The kiss didn’t last long, but it was enough for him to hear murmurs around them, and see the flash of a camera going off.
He cursed silently.
Already, he could see the headlines.
Suspected Mobster Kisses Hooker Girlfriend Goodbye.
Fuck them.
Mac would take Luca’s anger when it came.
Melina was far more important.
She would always be.
“I love you,” he told her again, holding her gaze strong. “I’m sorry, doll.”
Mac didn’t have to explain what he was apologizing for; Melina had to know. His distance, not being able to come and see her, and the next few months she would be alone without him.
All of it.
He was so goddamn sorry for those things.
“I will be waiting to pick you up wherever you are, the day you get out,” Mac promised.
Melina swallowed hard. “Promise?”
“With everything I am.”
And he was nothing, if not a man of his word.
Mac squeezed her hand tight.
“You have to let me go,” Melina whispered.
Mac did, but his whole body ached the second she was gone from his reach.
“Wherever you are,” he repeated, “I will be there.”
Melina smirked.
Cocky to the very bitter end, he knew.
Mac didn’t want this woman any other way.
“You better be, Mac.”
Bethany-Kris is a Canadian author, lover of much, and mother to three very young sons, one cat, and two dogs. A small town in Eastern Canada where she was born and raised is where she has always called home. With her boys under her feet, a snuggling cat, barking dogs, and a spouse calling over his shoulder, she is nearly always writing something ... when she can find the time.
Find Bethany-Kris at:
Her website www.bethanykris.com,
or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bethanykriswrites,
on her blog at www.bethanykris.blogspot.ca,
or on Twitter - @BethanyKris.
Sign up to Bethany-Kris’s New Release Newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/bf9lzD
A proud Alumna of the University of Central Florida and Florida State University, Erin Ashley Tanner writes stories featuring fierce females and the men who love them.
Prior to journeying into the world of contemporary romance, Erin wrote paranormal romance for Evernight Publishing. Her debut novel, Goddess of Legend released in October 2013, was the first in her Demi-God Daughters paranormal romance series. The follow up, Goddess by Chance was released in November 2014.
Dirty Little Secrets, a sexy contemporary romance was published by Samhain Publishing in July 2015. Her next release with Samhain, Devious Little Lies is scheduled for release in June 2016.
Find Erin at:
Her website: www.erinashleytanner.wix.com/erinashleytanner,
on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ErinAshleyTanner,
or her Twitter: https://twitter.com/ErinTheAuthor.
Copyright © 2016 by Bethany-Kris and Erin Ashely Tanner. All Rights Reserved.
WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted material is illegal and punishable by law. No parts of this work may be reproduced, copied, used, or printed without expressed written consent from the publisher/author. Exceptions are made for brief excerpts used in reviews.
eISBN 13: 978-1-988197-11-1
Editor: Nina S. Gooden
Proofreaders: Eli P., Tracy A. & Sheila K.
Cover Artwork © Jay Aheer
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, organizations, corporations, locales and so forth are a product of the author’s imagination, or if real, used fictitiously. Any resemblance to a person, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
