Page 124 of Vows of a Mobster

“I’m not sure how we could do this without starting a war. My brothers and cousin would come after you. And Giovanni, I couldn’t even blame him after everything that happened.”

“Let’s just worry about the two of us for now,” he suggested. “If a day or week or a month goes by and you decide I’m not for you, then no need to start shit with our families. If you decide you really want me, then I’ll fight them all for us.”

“You might not want me,” I uttered, shaken by his words.

“I have wanted you for my wife for the past seven years. There are no reservations or doubts on my end.”

God, if there was an inch of my heart that didn’t belong to him by now, it definitely belonged to him now.

Forty-Five

Declan

Where in the fuck is she?

I waited for Marissa in the hospital parking lot. She called over thirty minutes ago, trying to lose the men Mateo put on her to keep her safe. It bothered me that it was her cousin keeping her safe. I wanted to be the one to keep her safe. She was mine. But I knew Marissa was close with her cousin and brothers. I had to tread lightly to ensure I didn’t lose her before we even got started.

When I watched Marissa drive away in her car last night, it was the first time in seven years, I felt whole. She had been my missing piece. She was right though! Her family and my family have been at war for years. The odds were against us. I firmly believed that the Italians and the Irish could co-exist, there was plenty of business to go around, but some of the damn people were so deeply ingrained with the hate and resistance to work with anyone else.

I pulled my phone out again and scrolled through the email my brother sent me. The Jeep belonged to Brianna Bernadotte. This couldn’t be a coincidence. Mateo’s woman was Brianna too. She never told me her last name but it was too much of a coincidence.

Was all this some kind of set up?I couldn’t help but wonder.

Right at the time that Brianna was searching for my family, Marissa reached out for the first time. How many times did she refuse to talk to me before I gave up? Marissa’s timing was suspicious. I’d have to keep a close eye on her, although it didn’t dismiss that I still wanted her. If she was working with Mateo trying to bring my family down, I’d have to destroy the woman I craved more than life itself. It didn’t sit well with me, but I couldn’t let her destroy my family.

And Brianna Bernadotte. That beauty would be destroyed right along with Marissa.

Marissa’s BMW came into view. She sped into the parking lot coming to a screeching halt in a parking spot. I’d have to talk to her about safe driving. She’s always been a reckless driver. No sooner had she parked, she came out of the car and rushed towards me.

“I’m sorry,” she started apologizing. “That took longer than I anticipated.”

“No problem.”

“Is everything okay?” Marissa might have been a woman but I was no fool to think she was naive or innocent. Her father was the head of a family before Mateo took over. She knew how our world operated, and although Mateo was head of the family for most of her life, her father ran certain dealings. I would bet my bank account she saw certain shit that no normal person should have seen. And she understood that family always came first.

“Yes. Let’s do this.”

She took my hand, intertwined our fingers together and we walked into the hospital. Dr. Guzman was already waiting for us.

“There you are,” he greeted us. “Another family member to test.”

“Umm, actually this is a friend. Unrelated, but here's to hoping for a miracle.”

He nodded. “I hear Emma had a rough day after treatment yesterday.”

“Yes, it was bad,” Marissa mumbled, her shoulders slumped. “There was nothing we could do to make it easier for her.”

“I know it’s hard to watch,” he patted her gently on her hand. “The children are amazingly resilient though.” Marissa didn’t look convinced, and her eyes glimmered with unshed tears. “And how is mother holding up?”

“I don’t know how she didn’t lose her shit. She knew how to make Emma comfortable and held her all day, till she was fast asleep.”

“Just make sure she is taking care of herself too. We can’t have the mother getting sick on us.”

The doctor turned his attention to me. “Ready?”

“Lead the way, doctor.”

“Excellent,” he started walking, Marissa and I fell into step with him. “We’ll do a quick swab. If you are a match, we’ll need you to come back. Depending on the type of match, we will either have to do a surgical procedure to withdraw liquid marrow from the back of your pelvic bone or donate stem cells. The latter process doesn’t require surgical procedure but we will need to see you daily to receive injections of a drug called filgrastim for a total of five days. It will increase the number of platelets in your bloodstream. We have to collect about five thousand for the transplant. Then, through a process called apheresis, your blood will be removed through a needle in one arm and passed through a machine that separates out the blood-forming cells. The remaining blood will be returned to you through the other arm. In Emma’s case they will be frozen until injected after her chemotherapy. You, as a donor, will need shots daily. Sometimes even twice a day to generate enough platelets for Emma.”