Mafia Runner

Chapter Twenty-One

I had posted two chapters today--make sure you saw chapter 20 :)

21.

"Are you sure I can't convince you to stay with me?" Lucian looked at me pointedly from the corner of his eye.

The closer we approached my house, the more his question was beginning to sound tempting.

He'd been repeating it for over half-an-hour since we got off the plane. At first, I had scoffed, refusing to entertain the possibility of staying with Lucian at his family's house. The less I saw of Gabriele, the better. The man was an asshole. An even bigger one than my own father.

I had no intention of putting myself through unnecessary hell by staying there.

And yet, the more he began asking it, the more I started thinking that maybe it wasn't such a bad idea. I didn't know if I wanted to face Nick and my parents. It was going to be a headache and I had to pretend I actually felt sympathy for what happened to Marcello.

"I'm sure you could convince me," I mumbled sourly as I hunched in the passenger seat of his car. Outside was a meager fifteen degrees. My thin coat hardly protected me from the frigid air. "Your heated leather seats are a nice touch, but you need something a bit more to sway me."

His hand then landed on my inner thigh and I flinched. I stared wide-eyed out the window after I realized what I'd done.

Oh...shit.

He wasn't going to take that lightly.

Lucian guffawed and tightened his hold on my leg. "I hope you flinched because my hands were cold, Afton."

"Freezing," I clarified through my teeth.

Silence stretched and anyone could tell Lucian was dwelling in his dark contemplations.

As soon as the plane had touched down in New Jersey, it had been fascinating to watch how fast Lucian had tensed and replaced his underboss persona. Dressed in his usual dark pants and dignified sports coat, Lucian was back to his Romano underboss role.

It was a good thing I had been able to see underneath the mask in Florida; otherwise, his impassiveness would have unnerved me.

"You said you weren't angry over what happened last night," Lucian murmured darkly.

I took his hand on my thigh and curled my fingers around the cold appendage. It really was cold. Lucian always seemed to have poor circulation, even when we had been in Florida. "It was a knee-jerk reaction, Lucian. I'm sorry."

I held his hand as we continued down the road.

While I claimed I wasn't upset over last night, my mentality was still a bit leery about our physical relationship. It would pass, I knew it would. Lucian had made me feel good, but it had come at the price of a few frayed threads of trust.

Looking out the window, I noticed that New Jersey had received more snow since we left. It reminded me explicitly of California and how it would be unaffected by the winter season.

I wouldn't go back there, I couldn't. I wanted to stay here for my family, for Tony and Emily, and most importantly, for Lucian. There was something heavy in the air here and I knew I would need to be here to help bring some semblance of peace.

Suddenly, I stiffened, squinting my eyes in disbelief.

"What the... fuck?" I abandoned my clutch on Lucian's hand in order to lean forward in my seat. Coming in the opposite direction was a black Mercedes, a familiar fucking Mercedes. "That's my car!"