Maid for the Mafia

**MICKEY**

Rolling toward Midtown in the back of a Bentley speaks in a way that has shop owners on the main drag stepping outside to glare at the street. The fact that it has probably been a while since Enzo *personally* wandered into his own territory is *not* lost on me. First of all, he's dead, and despite that his family knows it, thanks to the little gift basket Alex and Damien made of him, these locals do not. So, I imagine they think we're him and *he* obviously wasn't very popular among the smaller business owners.

"I'd roll down the window if I knew it was safe," I grumble, glaring back at a thickly muscled youngster on the side of the road, despite that he can't possibly see beyond the black of the glass. "But I think I saw a pitchfork."

"They probably believe we're here to tax them," Alex snickers. "As if we'd bother with such things."

Tilting my head toward my cousin, I say, "Tell me again, what *exactly* the problem is."

He chuckles, "Hookers on strike."

"Hookers?"

"Dancers. Strippers. Same thing."

"It most definitely is *not* the same thing, and your thinking it is - *might* just be the entire problem," I inform, flicking a piece of lint off the seat. "But... I will say this. I've never heard of exotic dancers refusing to dance. Either Enzo was truly special, or the new manager you put in charge is changing things in a way they reject."

"Oh! Do you think? Why thank you, Club Guru, how unfortunate that I didn't bring my notepad and I can't jot all of your fascinating teachings down."

Laughing darkly, my eyebrows hike up. "None of my 'hookers' have ever declined to work."

His head swings my way. "They certainly haven't. Not a one of them."

I don't miss the double meaning behind his words and despite that they slightly anger me, I smile. "Don't get upset with me just because your little attack didn't work the way you wanted it to."

His jaw clenches, telling me precisely what I need to know. This asshole *did* in fact manipulate Romany into professing her love to him with the express purpose of sending me into a flying rage. I already knew as much, but the uncharacteristic way he's allowing his emotions to rule him is somewhat entertaining.

Especially because... he claims not to have any.

"She loves me too, you know," I can't help but say.

He smiles joylessly. "Well how cheap of her."

"She didn't tell me, but she did *show* me and that is all I'll ever need."

"How cheap of *you."*

My phone buzzes just as we turn the final corner onto Main Street and the three story onyx building that is the Midtown Club comes into focus.

"I wonder how she's feeling about you now, in the face of your fiancée," Alex says snidely, letting me know he watched Ana arrive.

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I want to tell him that she's *not* my fiancée, that I've decided *against* marrying the only living Romano heir, but I don't. I'm not going to give him any more of a leg up than he already has just having Romany under contract. Instead, while I read the text I just received from Tiny, I say, "Probably better than you will be once Ruby finally makes it home."

"*If* she makes it," Alex replies, almost too quietly and God help me, I flinch.

Studying him with a careful eye, I try to picture him sabotaging Ruby's retrieval for his own selfish reasons, but I can't. No. He wouldn't. All bullshit aside, Alex and Ruby have spent too many years having each others' backs. There's no way he would jeopardize her rescue. It has to be something else.

"You say that like you know something," I comment, watching his eyes.

In true Alex form, he doesn't give anything away, simply shrugs at me carelessly. He sighs, "I only know what I would do, if I had one of our enemy's most notorious killers locked away in *my* mansion... and it wouldn't be leave for vacation with them still alive."

My gaze narrows, barely aware that the Bentley has just pulled into the garage that leads under the club. "So you think he killed her before he left."

Alex finally looks at me. "Either that or... my little Red Raider has decided to switch sides."

"No," I snort. "You're wrong about that. Ruby's no traitor."

"No... she's not," Alex supplies. "But she might decide to be... given the right motivation. And I have a hunch that she'll do whatever she needs to just to make *sure* that Romany is safe."

"But he doesn't have Romany."

"No. He doesn't. But he *does* have people inside my fucking house. He *did* anyway, and given that I just murdered his cousin, and he still has yet to so much as threaten me, I'm inclined to believe that he *still* does."

Swallowing something that feels like a rock in my throat, I think about what Romany said to me in the SUV and suddenly I'm more than a little pissed that I agreed to come out with this asshole.

*He has spies here...*noveldrama

She wasn't talking about Stella when she said that and she's been watching her phone like a basehead waiting for her connect. I've known she was hiding *something,* but I honestly couldn't figure out what. My head is in my pants half the time that she's around.

There's definitely something I've been missing in the way she's been acting. She behaves as if she's saying goodbye half the time. As if... she might be leaving.

*Fucken Ruby. I hope Alex isn't right about this.*

"When's Romany's birthday?" Alex asks so suddenly that I almost don't know what to say.

"Uhhhh-April fifteenth," I say absently, shooting off a bunch of text to Tiny, basically telling him to watch his back for *Ruby,* just in case.

Alex chuckles, "I knew you would know."

Maybe the person that Romany has been in confidence with has been Ruby. Maybe Ruby plans to meet her somewhere. Or maybe I should have just found someone to break into Romany's phone to see.

*Could Santos possibly be threatening Romany?*

*Could he be the one that she has been texting all along?*