Page 10 of Dangerous Command

“You can find another cleaner,” I said in a playful tone. I deepened my voice, “I have faith in you, Mr. Future Boss.”

“Mads.”

My heart skipped a beat. I loved when he called me that. “What?”

“I don’t want anyone else. I want you.”

Those words shook through me. He was talking about cleaning, and yet there was so much more weight to his words. The first time I had met him, he had pulled me to the side, holding my hand as he studied me.Mads,he had said.You might make me go mad.

He was going to be the leader of a mafia one day. I had seen the horrible crimes his family had committed, all in the name of their legacy. I wasn’t going to fall for that.

But he was protective of his family, and even protective over me, sometimes. When his youngest brother had asked why I knew so much about Brackston, the city where their enemy resided, Derek had defended me.She lived there,he had said.Back the fuck up.

No one had ever cared about me like that before.

But I couldn’t be involved in a crime family anymore. My stepdad had still found me, and I couldn’t let anything happen to Mack.

“I don’t want ties to that life anymore,” I said.

“That’s what it is?” he sighed. “You disappeared because ofthat life?”

“You know what I mean.”

I glanced at Mack. He closed his comic book. “Do you think we—”

I held up a finger and shushed him. Then mouthed,Not right now. Derek didn’t know about Mack.

“What was that?” Derek asked.

“I’m cleaning for a client.”

“What are they paying you?” he asked. “I’ll double it.”

I raised a brow. I couldn’t leave my client hanging, but double the pay sounded nice, which was one of the reasons I had started working for the Adlers in the first place. They paid well because they wanted good, efficient,discreetwork. And I was happy to provide that.

But that didn’t change the fact that the Adlers were criminals.

“I told you. I can’t get involved with your family anymore,” I said. “There’s too much going on now.”

“I get it,” he said. The lack of resistance unsettled me. He wasn’t going to force me to take the job?

“What happened, though?” I asked. I needed to know.

“Gerard was killed,” he said. A bomb of emotion exploded in my chest. His father had been killed?

“Murdered?” I asked. Mack looked up from his comic book.TV show,I mouthed. Mack went back to his book.

“With Margot.”

A chill ran down my spine. “Margot?” I asked.

“His mistress.” Muro’s wife.

My heart sank; it seemed awful to die with your lover like that. I took a deep breath.

“So, you’re saying you need me to clean up their bodies, then?” I asked.

“Yeah.”