He Took His Childhood Friend Away, So I Came Back a Mafia Heiress novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: Morning After the Table

I woke at six with the light gray in the window and the bed empty beside me.

For one cold second I thought I had dreamed him.

Then I heard a small click from the kitchen, and another.

I put on his shirt and went to the doorway.

Rocco stood at my stove in his shorts, with both bandaged hands out, touching each knob with a knuckle.

One, two, three, four, five, six.

"They're off," I said.

He jumped.

"I know." He didn't turn around. "I know they are. It's the one thing I can't stop."

"Then don't stop."

I crossed the kitchen and put my arms around his waist from behind, and laid my cheek between his shoulder blades.

He went very still, and then his shoulders came down.

"Tomorrow," I said, "I'll check them with you. Tonight you'll check them and then you'll come back to bed."

"Tomorrow," he said, and I knew he meant it.

My phone rang on the table.

It was Pasquale's nephew, shouting.

"Signora, the port. They've blocked the gate."

We were there in twenty minutes.

A flatbed truck had been driven across the main gate and left there with its engine off.

Behind it were thirty men in dark jackets, and behind them sat a line of my own trucks, three hundred of them, stopped nose to tail all the way back to the highway.

Half the faces were Santoro drivers I had known since I was twelve.

Rocco saw them and made a sound.

"Those two taught me to drive," he said. "They held my father's coffin."

"Nunzio called them in the night."

"I know."

He didn't sound angry.

He sounded tired and sure.

We got out of the car.

A heavy man in a camel coat stood in front of the flatbed.

← Chapter 16 · All chapters · Chapter 18 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend