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Chapter Twenty-Three

Gracie

H azel is babysitting for me, and to say it feels strange to be out of the house without Bonnie is an understatement. I don’t like it. Add in the fact I’ve never been to a mall before, and every sight and sound leaves my pulse racing as my gaze flicks from one store to the next.

The marbled floors and high ceilings with extravagant lighting are not how I envisaged a mall to be.

The shops have elegant dresses in the windows; some have gold lettering above the doors, and others have fancy entrances to entice you.

Each makes me feel out of my element. I do not belong here, not at all.

“Can I suggest actually going in a store?” Massio drawls, pointing toward one of the stores. He’s clearly agitated he’s been left to escort me. The way he watches me with contempt has my nerves on edge, but I never asked for a bodyguard .

“I-I don’t know which one to go in,” I admit, hating the sound of my own voice.

He sighs heavily, then drags his hand over his shaved head.

If he wasn’t such an ass, he’d be handsome, but that coupled with the fact he doesn’t have silver streaks in his hair, wrinkles around his eyes, or slightly weathered skin has me cringing.

I’m pretty sure he feels the same way about me, given how he tends to look through me instead of at me.

“Boss said you need clothes. The women he uses tend to come back with bags from in there.” He points toward a boutique, but my spine bolts straight and anger radiates through me.

I don’t want to be one of them. I don’t want to be another pet that gets used and disposed of, to dress and act like them.

Is that what he thinks of me? Is he trying to mold me into one of those women?

I lift my chin high. “I’ll find my own store.”

He chuckles, and his eyes dance with humor, then he glances at his watch. “Can you hurry up? I’d like to do some real work today.”

“You’re an ass,” I snap, and march toward a store that looks more like a thrift store than a boutique and out of place in the glamorous mall.

After trudging through the endless shops, we finally make it back to Vinny’s house.

I want nothing more than to refer to it as my home, but it isn’t and if I’m honest, the constraints of the Mafia lifestyle never will be, not when my heart is at the ranch.

My home is nestled among the fields, where freedom lies in wait.

Where Bonnie can grow up without threats of violence and bloodshed, without manipulation and cruelty.

Just me and her.

I rub at the sting in my chest at considering being without Vinny, the one man who has somehow grasped my heart in the palms of his thick hands and cradled it to the point of awe and affection.

Only, I know it’s going be ripped from his hands and destroyed. By my own doing, no less.

The moment Bonnie’s squeal of delight fills my ears, my heart swells. This is why I’m here, it was never my choice.

It was all stolen from me the moment I agreed to the arrangement with my father.