I Saved the Mafia Boss—Now I'm His Obsession. novel Chapter 27

Adriano

⫘☠︎︎⫘

I was leaning against the wall outside her apartment, trying to give her space. I’d promised her I wouldn’t interfere. But the I heard the thud against the wall, and her broken voice gasping something I couldn’t quite make out?

All bets were off.

I didn’t fucking knock, I twisted the knob and walked in like it was my property—because right then, I felt like it was. She was.

And the first thing I saw was Carlos standing over her, hands clenched around her arms, face twisted with rage.

She looked like she had been slapped, tears streaking her cheeks, chest trembling like her body didn’t know what to do. He had backed her into a corner and he hadn’t noticed me yet.

I moved without a sound.

One second, he was yelling something in her face and the next, his feet were off the ground and I had him by the throat.

I slammed him against the wall so hard the drywall cracked behind his head. His eyes bulged and he clawed at my wrist like it’d make a difference.

“You put your hands on her?” I said, “You fucking touch her?”

He tried to say something, but all I saw was spit and fear. I dragged him away from the wall and slammed him down into the floor, hard. His body folded, wheezing.

I followed him down. Knee on his chest, forearm across his throat. I leaned in until he could feel the heat of my breath.

“You don’t know what kind of man I am,” I gritted out, “But I fucking promise you, you’re about to find out.”

But then I felt her.

Madeleine.

Her small hands wrapped around my arm like she could hold me back. She was crying, screaming my name again and again.

“Adriano! Please... stop. Please.”

The fear in her voice hit me harder than any punch could. I immediately let him go and stood up. The room spun red for a second before I blinked it away, claimed myself and turned to her.

She looked so goddamn fragile in that moment I wanted to destroy the world for ever letting a man like Carlos near her.

I stepped toward her, “You okay?” my voice came out so soft that I didn't even recognize it.

She nodded, barely as her eyes shimmered with a kind of pain that made my chest twist, then she collapsed into me.

I caught her like it was instinct. My arms wrapped around her slender frame, and she pressed into me like she was trying to disappear. Her cheek found the center of my chest, her breath hiccupping as she cried, and I swore I could feel every ounce of her heartbreak soaking into my skin.

Her softness melted into my body, and for a second, nothing else mattered, nothing but the feel of her, small and warm and shaking.

Then he laughed.

That weak, wheezing laugh, the kind that made your fists twitch and your blood boil. Slow claps followed, he was mocking her, being petty. Disrespect oozing from every inch of him.

She pulled away from me, wiping her cheeks quickly, like she was ashamed of needing comfort.

“So that’s what this is, huh?” he said, “You got yourself some rich asshole now to take care of you, so why bother with broke-ass Carlos? Gotta trade up, right, Maddie?”

She shook her head, crying harder, “You cheated on me, Carlos. Don’t twist it. Don’t make it about anything else.”

She sounded like a girl trying to sound like a woman but I could hear the fracture in her voice, see the blush of humiliation creeping up her neck. She thought his filth said something about her.

My jaw locked so tight I heard something pop. I wanted to end him. Right there. Right then. Drag him by his throat to the nearest balcony and drop him off the edge just to watch him hit pavement like the trash he was. I saw it, clear as fucking day how his skull would crack open and then I could imagine the silence after.

But she was still standing beside me and she was still trembling. So I didn’t move. I just dug my nails into my own palm to remind myself I wasn’t just a weapon.

Not with her here.

Carlos stood up slowly, brushing himself off like the pathetic mutt he was, “You wanna know why I cheated, Maddie?” he sneered, “Because you made me cheat. You’re cold. Frigid. You don’t know a thing about satisfying a man. I had to look somewhere else. I had to.”

Carlos limped upright. His laugh came again and his eyes slid over to her.

“You wanna know why I fucked Nina?” he asked, “Because you are boring, Maddie. Fucking you is like fucking a corpse. You just lay there, stiff as a board.”

Madeleine flinched, visibly, and I felt her shrink beside me, retreating into herself. Her arms folded tight across her chest, head ducked like she could disappear into her own shadow.

I saw red.

Carlos kept going, “You never wore anything sexy. You never got on your knees. Always acting like sex was some chore, like I was lucky you even let me touch you.”

He stepped forward, pointing like he was proving a case, “You never made a fucking sound, not a moan, not a whimper. Just... blank, fucking pillow princess. And I’m supposed to stay loyal to that?”

She made a wounded little sound that made my fists clench so hard I thought the bones might snap. She wasn’t just embarrassed, she was ashamed because some part of her believed the poison he was spewing.

I wanted to end him. No. I wanted to shatter him but she was still here, so I stayed still for her. But inside I was already carving out the shallow grave this piece of shit would one day rot in.

Carlos tilted his head, “Now you’re with him?” He jerked his chin at me. “Think he’s gonna stick around once he figures out you’re a cold fish with a pretty face? How long until he’s out too? You think he’s gonna put up with a girl who won’t even suck his dick?”

Madeleine gasped, face going sheet-white, her hands flying up to cover her mouth.

And that was it.

The last fucking straw.

I moved in front of her before she could stop me, shielding her from him with my body. One look at my face and Carlos stumbled back like he saw something worse than death.

Because he did.

“I want you to listen to me real fucking carefully,” I said, keeping my voice controlled in the most threatening way I could. “You don’t talk about her like that, not to me, not to anyone. Ever again.”

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