His Mafia Prince

(SASHA) 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

I’m beginning to come around to Tyler’s way of thinking: hospitals are to be avoided. Certainly the non-private wards, like this one I’ve been put into now.

When Tyler rakes the curtain across dramatically, like an actor making an entrance on stage, I almost smile—but after what Darla told me happened downstairs, there’s nothing funny about today at all. I don’t care if the Irish come for me. I’ll be delighted to send them all to hell. But if they’re coming for Tyler—

"Well?" he demands. "What did the doctors say?"

"I pulled a few stitches, that’s all."

"Bullshit." He grabs my chart from the foot of the bed and reads it himself, frowning. I wonder how much of it makes any sense to him—but knowing Tyler, he’s educated himself on the ins and outs of my injuries, treatment, and recovery prognosis.

"Baby," I say softly, "Come here."

The one good thing about this room is that they’ve let me move the head of the bed higher, so I’m sitting up more. They’ve also dosed me with a lot of heavy painkillers that are taking the edge off without making me dopey. So when I take Tyler into my arms and hold him tight, it only hurts a lot, not completely.

"Not so tight," he sniffs. "If you pop those fucking stitches again—"

"I won’t," I tell him. "Now, tell me what the hell that was downstairs, you threatening to kill yourself?"

He gives a scornful huff. "I didn’t mean it. Who told you about that? Darla? God, what a rat."

"You didn’t mean it? You didn’t mean to be careless with your life again?"

"I wasn’t being careless, I was playing the only card I had. And it worked."

"Let me look at you."

He sits up and I search his face. "Okay," I say at last. "I believe you. But I don’t want you ever, ever to put your life on the line like that again. You hear me? That’s not how this works, this thing between you and me."

He doesn’t give me any assurances, but it’s because he has other things on his mind.

"We have to leave," he says. Begs. "Please, Sasha. We can go chill out of town for a while, visit the coast, You can show me around all the places I have never been before, and we can get lost far away together—we can stay with Marco and his family at Lake Como, and I can get to know, meet the later family—"

He breaks off, trembling, and I hug him again. "We’ll talk about it later."

I might tolerate a different city, but I will certainly not leave the country. There’s no point arguing about it right now, though.

"I’m in no state to travel internationally. And, technically, I’m under arrest. For the moment. But we do need to figure out a place to stay when I get discharged from here."

Tyler pulls back to look at me, and I can see he thinks he’s found a tiny advantage, that he is beginning to persuade me. I want him to have that win today. He deserves it.

"And I think it will have to be out of town," I continue. "So can you do that for me?"

He nods thoughtfully. "But as soon as you’re better, and as soon as Luciano gets the charges dropped, we get out of the country."

"We can talk about it," I reiterate, and then change the subject. "Is Luigi here?"

"He is," Tyler says. Mischief lights up his eyes. "But you have another visitor, too. Someone who might need to leave in kind of a hurry, so you better see him before Luigi ."

Santino Bianchi is so bronzed and healthy-looking, his teeth just about glowing when he smiles, that I almost change my mind and decide to head west to the sunshine instead of east.

"Your time away has been productive," I tell him after he has greeted me respectfully and kissed my hand. Santino has been keeping an eye on the West Coast outfits for me, all while chasing down his own target —someone he insists can clear Giovanni Matteo’s good name for the cop killings.

"And you look as though you’ve enjoyed yourself." He grins without guardedness.

"Can’t lie, Boss; I have."

"How’s the Fed?"

"He’s learning. Thinks he’s a wolf now, though he’s still a pup." The rough affection in his voice is unmistakable.

"Don’t want to rush you, Boss, but I’ll have to get back to him soon. That detective stalker of yours is trying to put on the hard word."

"Burgess ? She’s all bark. Your wolf pup can probably take her. But you’re right, Santino. Business first."

He leans in. "I’m all ears."

It’s a long story, but he’s heard most of it before. I’ve kept Santino informed while he’s been out of the city, probably leaned on his wisdom more than I had any right to.

"...And now Tyler wants me to leave the city," I conclude. "But of course, I can’t."

"Why can’t you?"

I open my mouth to reply, but I’m so taken aback that words flee my mind. "Of course I can’t leave." I say again. "Give the Irish exactly what they want?"

"Don’t make your decisions based on what the Irish want or don’t want. They’re ghosts, after all. Aren’t they?"

At that, I give a slow smile. "They don’t know it yet. But yes. Once I have the pieces in place, I plan to deal with them."

"Excellent. Let me know if I can help in any way."

The rogue Irish mafia is the reason behind me being in the state that I am in at the moment. They went out of their way to threaten my omega’s life, not just mine. Everything that they have done has upset the order of business even for the other mafia families. In fact, Santino hates them as much as I do. Maybe more, if that’s possible.

The complete downfall of the Irish mafia has been a long time coming. But it’s coming.