Page 31 of The One Night Match (Mafia Matchmaker #1)
THIRTY-ONE
RILEY
I ’d almost forgotten what it was like living life as a pawn in someone else’s game.
The years I spent at college and then living my own life feel like a distant memory as Lexi clutches my hand like her life depends on it. We’re crowded on the floor of the town car, where Ben told us to hide, and my stomach hasn’t stopped rioting since the first hit.
I’m vaguely aware of the blood dripping down my face, but I can’t register pain, not while my body is in this state of fight-or-flight.
Lexi clutches her other wrist to her chest, the appendage already swollen, but she’s in the same mode I am. Waiting for the threat, ready to fight if we have to.
There’s a short commotion outside, and I hold the pepper spray from my purse toward the door, ready to do whatever it takes to protect us, even if it feels menial and ridiculous compared to a gun, but when the door swings open, my entire body hunches as relief slams into me.
A choked sob tears from my throat a moment before I throw myself into Cruz’s arms, locking my body around his without conscious thought.
“You’re okay, Riley. I’ve got you, you’re okay,” he murmurs softly, holding me as tight as I am him.
Carefully, he lifts me from the car, making way for Colten to wrap Lexi in his embrace and showing me what I hadn’t noticed until right now—his very obvious attraction to his best friend’s sister.
The way he relaxes when she’s safe in his arms, the same way Cruz did when I was in his, is all the evidence I need, and I make a note to ask her about it the next time we’re alone. Although I have a feeling it’ll be awhile before Cruz lets me out of his sight.
I bury my face in his throat, sucking in his scent to calm my rioting emotions.
“You’re safe now, Kitten. Nothing is going to hurt you. Not ever again,” he promises, never allowing his grip on me to slip, and I realize we must look a real sight with me bleeding all over the ruthless-looking man in an all-black suit.
“I’m so sorry, Mr. De Luca. They came out of nowhere. There was nothing I could do to avoid them,” Ben says from beside us, and I lift my head to look him over.
He, like me, seems to have hit his head, but apart from that, he’s unscathed. I open my mouth to tell him it’s not his fault, but I don’t get a chance.
Cruz lifts an arm from around me, still holding me with the other, and wraps it around the older man, tugging him into our embrace. “You got my wife and sister out of there. You saved them. You have nothing to apologize for.”
He looks ready to argue when Colten lifts a rattled Lexi from the car, her position mirroring mine as she grips onto him for dear life.
“He needs a raise,” Colten grunts.
“Agreed. I’ll talk to the accountant once everyone has been seen by a doctor.” Cruz nods, and I can’t help but smile against his shoulder.
To the rest of the world, he might be a scary motherfucker, but to the people closest to him, Cruz De Luca is the complete opposite, and if I weren’t already falling for him, I sure as hell would be now.
“ Y ou’re being ridiculous,” I groan as Cruz paces up and down the length of the bedroom.
Lexi is perched on the bed beside me after flat out refusing to get into the bed her brother defiles me in. Her words, not mine. But once I assured her the sheets were changed this morning, she seemed to settle enough to allow Colten to put her down, something he was very hesitant to do.
“Keeping you safe is not ridiculous,” he growls, his steps never faltering as his best friend drags the chair from the corner to the edge of the bed, sitting right beside Lexi as if any space between them causes him physical pain.
Oh boy, if she doesn’t know he’s into her, she’s about to get a rude shock.
“An armed guard surrounding the house is, though,” I argue.
“We don’t know who we can trust right now. It’s just a precaution.”
I sigh and carefully push myself off the bed. The more time that passes since the accident, the more my body hurts, but I try to keep it from my features, knowing that seeing me in pain is only going to set him off more.
“Get back in bed, Riley.” He steps toward me, trying to corral me back toward the bed, but I wrap my arms around him instead.
The change in his body is immediate, the tension falling away as he gently returns my hug.
“I know you were scared today, Cruz. I was scared as well. Terrified. But you know what I kept telling myself the whole time?” I murmur against his chest, waiting for him to shake his head before I continue.
“I kept telling myself that you wouldn’t let anyone hurt us. I knew you would come, and you did.”
He tightens his hold on me, and I let him despite the sharp pain in my muscles. He needs this, and if I’m honest with myself, so do I.
“I didn’t think I knew fear until Colten burst into my office to tell me what had happened.” He presses a kiss to the top of my head, his lips lingering on my hair for long moments. “I’m going to be a little overbearing for a while. I’m sorry.”
“I understand. But a small army is overkill. Okay? Let’s just keep it to a few extra guards until we know there’s an actual threat.”
He’s quiet for long seconds before he nods slowly. “Fine.”
I smirk against him, weirdly exhilarated by the fact that he listened to my opinion.
That he took what I had to say and my reasoning and respected me enough not to count them out immediately.
My parents could never. If Mom ever got it in her mind to suggest a different way for Dad to do business, I hate to think of the argument that would follow.
Magda appears in the doorway, her dark eyes worried as she takes in the four of us. Her gray hair is pulled into its usual neat ponytail, but the evidence of her stress is the flyaways from running her fingers through it over and over again.
“The doctor’s here, Cruz.”
“Thank you, Magda,” he says softly as he lifts me into his arms and deposits me back in my spot on the bed, taking care to pull the blankets over my lap.
Mr. Whiskers meows loudly as he walks in with the doctor, jumping up onto the bed and climbing into my lap without hesitation.
He lets out another loud cry, only stopping when I run my fingers through his soft fur. “We’re okay, buddy,” I tell him softly.
“I see the nurse arrived before me.” A man in his forties chuckles. His light blue eyes show his amusement as he moves closer to us. “Cats are good like that, knowing when the people they like are sick or injured.”
“Explains why he didn’t give a fuck when you were shot last year,” Colten laughs from the other side of the bed, and I snort out the most unflattering laugh of my life.
“We’re coming to an understanding,” Cruz mutters, but doesn’t try to pat Mr. Whiskers. Probably for the best, given their past interactions I’ve been privy to.
“Check Lexi first. I think her wrist is broken,” I say, looking over at the way she’s still holding it against her chest.
“It’s fine. Nothing some ibuprofen won’t fix.”
“Let him do his job, Wildcat,” Colten murmurs so softly I would have missed it if I weren’t overly invested in the two of them.
She huffs out an irritated breath before nodding, and I drag Cruz to sit on the edge of the bed with me, unwilling to have any space between us unless absolutely necessary.
“Does she know he’s obsessed with her?” I ask quietly while they’re distracted by the doctor.
“Nope.” Cruz smirks. “But I have a feeling she’s about to.”