Page 99 of Bad Medicine

I’d have rather been there myself, watching her. Touching her. Making sure no one else even so much as looked at her.

But I couldn’t let Enzo down; he’d left me in charge of his empire, and I meant to prove that I could do it.

To Enzo and to myself.

First, there were fights to manage—but I had passed the majority of that off to Massimo lately. Seemed like spending my Thursday nights down in the pit wasn’t really my thing anymore—as well as all the bars and nightclubs, the restaurant, the strip club, and the day spa. I had laughed my ass off when Enzo told me he was opening a spa where rich women would go to get waxed and buffed and shit, but fuck if it wasn’t profitable as hell.

And that was before I countedA Taste of Edenand all the shit Lexi was managing.

A million balls in the air, making sure everything was running smoothly, and I couldn’t help but feel like I was dropping every single one of them.

I was already in a terrible mood, ready to throw hands at the very next person to piss me off, when the call from Benny came in.

Rage like I had never felt surged through my veins as I remembered hearing Benny’s words.

Jasper was missing.

But buried under that rage was an endless cavern of fear, just waiting for me to fall into it and never surface again.

Somehow, that Russian fuck had pulled a fast one on me, and it might just cost me everything.

Because how could I ever look Mia in the eye again if I didn’t get her son back?

I had promised her I’d protect them and at the first test of my ability to do that, I failed.

Jerking the wheel, I turned into my neighborhood, my car’s heavy back end pulling me around the corner in a stuttering half-circle before I was able to right it, fishtailing along the road like a chase scene in a bad action flick.

Except I was alone on the road, and the only thing chasing me was the voracious demon that was my complete and utter failure.

Skidding to a halt in front of my house, the front tires of my Chevelle halfway up the sidewalk, I threw my door open, the continued downpour soaking me in an instant.

I didn’t care in the least because in that same moment, my front door opened, and there she was, as though she had been waiting for me. Mia was silhouetted in the doorway by the lights in the house, but I’d know her body anywhere; I’d memorized it as sure as my own.

Someone inside flicked on the porch light, painting her in a mild yellow glow, and as our eyes met across the yard, I could see her every emotion playing out on her beautiful face—every worst-case scenario and horrific ending she’d cooked up in the time it had taken me to get to her—and my heart shriveled.

She’d never forgive me.

I stood there, at the bottom of my driveway, staring up at Mia, begging, pleading with her to see, to understand that I could make this right.

I needed her to believe that I could.

Because without that, without Mia and Jasper in my life, I just didn’t know what the fuck I was gonna do.

So I stood there, the rain pouring down and soaking me to the bone, and waited for the judgment of the woman that I now knew I loved more than my own life.

Every second that ticked by carved another hunk out of my battered soul, but still, I refused to move.

I had to know that she wanted me to.

Mia stepped to the edge of the porch, her hesitant steps moving her much too slowly, but I refused to rush her. Her mouth parted, lower lip trembling, as a soft sob escaped her.

“Rocco.”

And then we were moving, both of us unable to wait a moment longer. She flew to me, racing across the driveway as I rushed to her, and we collided in a frenzy of kisses and rain. Mia wrapped herself around me, her warm thighs seeming to know their place was around my waist and finding it effortlessly. One hand on her ass, the other around her back, I held on to her like she was the very air I needed to breathe.

“I’m sorry,” I gasped out, unable to put how I was feeling into better words. I felt like it was all my fault; like if we hadn’t taken those drugs from Gregor, he’d never have gone looking for retribution. I hated knowing that Mia was hurting, hated the fact that Jasper wasn’t here, with her.

With us.