Taken by Her Prince

He stepped close, so close. He touched my cheek with his right hand and his left pressed against my hip. I pushed my body against his and leaned my ear against his heart. I heard it thumping in his chest, slow and steady.

Of course it was slow and steady. That was Steven, never rattled.

“I can be afraid,” I said.

“Good.” He moved me back and kissed me. “Eat your food. Drink your coffee. If you need me to make you afraid, I will. But I think you can handle it.”

I nodded slowly. “Two nights from tonight.”

“That’s right.” He leaned forward, kissed my cheek. “Don’t let me down.”

“I won’t.”

He let me go and walked into the kitchen again. He picked up his mug, took a long sip, and headed down into the basement. I watched him go then turned away. I stared down at the paper bag and the coffee.

I reached forward and opened the bag.

It was a blueberry muffin. I smiled a little. I loved the muffins at the bakery, but I didn’t remember telling Steven that.

He just figured it out.

I took a bite and put the muffin back.

If he needed this, then I’d do it. At this point, I’d do anything he told me to. Because I saw him last night, I saw him risk his life for Simon, and I knew he’d risk his life for me, too. He’d risk his life doing anything he thought was necessary, and that was the kind of man I wanted in my life.

I picked up the coffee, climbed the stairs up to the roof deck, and looked out over the city for a while, thinking about how to sound scared.24StevenThe moon shone bright on the hood of my car as I stared out the windshield. It was a clear night, and I could just make out a few stars through the city’s light pollution.

I looked forward, at the grass and weeds growing in the cracks in the asphalt, at the faded white lines over the blacktop, at the patch of grass and the curb with its tiny withered tree in the very center of the lot. The building it was attached to used to be a bank, but now it was rundown and empty, the big metal and glass front door covered over in plywood with the word SUPAMAN spray painted in red across it.

“Think they’ll show?” Luca asked from the passenger seat.

“I think they will,” I said, leaning my head back. My eyes moved down to the clock. Just past midnight, almost time.

“You put a lot of trust in that girl,” Luca said, staring out the window. “Don’t get pissed off at me when I say this, but shit, Steven. Are you sure?”

I glanced at him and let out a breath. I couldn’t blame him for being worried.

“I know it seems like a lot,” I said. “But she wants this more than I do. Her father’s life is on the line, you know?”

“I get it.” He grunted and shook his head. “I’d do anything for my old man, even though he left my mom when I was just a baby, that loser fucker.”

I laughed. “Isn’t your dad in prison?”

“Yeah. Robbed a liquor store and killed a guy when shit went bad.” Luca shook his head. “I got my brains and my steady hand from my mother.”

“But you got your recklessness from your father. And your big mouth.”

Luca laughed and stretched his legs. A Glock sat in his lap, matte black and silent.

I turned my eyes back out to the parking lot.

There was nothing else around. A streetlight cast its dull yellow haze onto an empty and cracked sidewalk. The street was abandoned, and only a few cars were parked along the curb. We were in a bad neighborhood, the place good people didn’t go to, which made it the perfect cover for this sort of shit.

By the time someone called the cops, we’d be long gone.

Not like it mattered. Half the police force in Philly was on the Leone Family take. They’d turn the other way as soon as they realized I was a Capo, and if they didn’t, the Family consigliere would get me out.

Perks of being in the biggest family in the city.

Luca leaned back with a groan. He ran his fingers down the window then tapped the glass.

“I hate waiting,” he said.

“Not much longer.”

We lapsed into silence. I stared at the clock, watched the hands slip past. If Colleen did her job right, and she said she pulled it off, then they’d show up soon. As far as the Club was concerned, I was buying heroin wholesale from a supplier tonight. If they showed, they’d get to kill me, steal the money, and steal the drugs all in one fell swoop.

It would be mighty fucking tempting. If I were Mathis, I’d consider it.