Katie's POVI sat at the dimly lit corner booth of the cozy Italian restaurant, my fingers nervously tapping against the wine glass. Romeo, my best friend and confidant, slid into the seat opposite me, a concerned expression etched on his face."What's eating you up, Katie?" Romeo asked, his voice filled with genuine worry.I sighed, my eyes fixed on the flickering candle between them. "It's Cephus, Romeo. I just can't seem to get him out of my mind."Romeo leaned forward, his eyes searching for me. "You know he's our mob boss, right? It's not exactly a healthy obsession, Mar."I rolled my eyes, frustration evident in my voice. "I know, I know. But just imagine, Romeo, how incredible it would be if Cephus actually liked me back. We could be together, truly happy."Romeo chuckled, shaking his head. "You've got quite the imagination, Mar. Cephus is a powerful man, and he's got a lot on his plate. I doubt he has time for love."My eyes sparkled with determination. "That's you're wrong, R
Cephus' POV"I'm really disappointed in you, Cephus," She said, and I rolled my eyes."Why would you be disappointed in me?" I asked back, fiercely."What you did was wrong and bad, obviously. Why would you do that to your own wife?" She asked, and my eyes blinked fast. I felt confused for a moment."My wife?" I asked, and she let out a loud scoff."Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about. Do you have amnesia now? Have you forgotten that you married Katie? She is your wife for goodness sake, Cephus!" She said aloud, the veins on her neck popping up.I gasped softly, and my eyes widened. How did that suddenly escape from my mind? I hated the fact that I made myself a fool in front of her."You shouldn't have done that to your wife. No matter how she defiles you, the least you should have done was to caution her. Furthermore, If she was stubborn about the whole thing, you could have reported her to all of us" She scolded, with mixed emotions.I laughed and shook my head. "A
Cephus' POVExiting the sleek black Cadillac, I cast a lingering gaze upon the structure standing before me. The dwelling seemed a far cry from the opulence that would have embraced him had he chosen to remain within the folds of my gang. The stark contrast between his current abode and the lavish lifestyle he could have enjoyed within our ranks weighed heavily on my mind as I surveyed the unassuming facade.He was doing really well with us, a reliable and trusted member of our group. When Marcus decided to part ways with the gang, I sensed there must be a significant reason behind his choice. Marcus, being the kind of man he was, kept his reasons close to the chest, leaving me curious and somewhat surprised. Little did I anticipate finding myself in this situation, but with Romeo finding himself serving some time behind bars, I'm in need of a temporary replacement to fill the void especially since I needed to catch Felix. The unexpected turn of events has prompted me to consider the
Katie's POVI was still in the cell with Romeo. He told me some jokes and I couldn't help but laugh and smile. I guess he just wanted to make me happy since I had been depressed since morning.I didn't like the fact that I was in the cell, and he certainly noticed this. In order to spice up the mood and place a smile on my face, he told me a few jokes, and some funny and happiest moments of his life."I am jealous of you though" I said, taking my eyes down."What? Why?" He laughed, his voice surprised and confused."I mean, you seem to have lots of fun and happy moments. I am jealous because of that" I confessed and he scoffed."Oh, Come on, Katie! Everyone sure has one or two happiest moments in their lives. It is one of the vivid things an individual remembers" He said softly and I shook my head."I doubt that, I am a witness," I said quickly. "Why can't I remember any of my happy and fun moments then? Or don't I have memories? It would even be better if I don't have these memories
Katie's POV"What do you think you are doing?" I yelled angrily, with tears in my eyes.Cephus cared less though. He simply led me away to the sitting room and threw me on the couch."Ugh!" I grunted, frustrated.He let out a deep sigh, and I glared at him."Take those fucking eyes down. You dare not glare at me that way. Have you forgotten who I am? Who the fuck do you even think you are!" He barked, dangerously and a scoff ran out from my lips."Are you playing with me right now, young lady? Shouldn't you be glad that I even released you. If I really wanted to punish you, I would have you locked for many years without eating anything" He said, his eyes angry like a wolf."I didn't ask to be released" I muttered, not minding if he would yell or torture me."What?" He whispered, shaking his head."Why would you release only me? Shouldn't Romeo be forgiven too? He didn't even do anything wrong so why!" I yelled, tearfully."I see that you haven't learnt your lesson. Shouldn't you be gl
Katie's POVI stood up to leave, but I couldn't, hell, I couldn't even move my legs. Questions flooded my mind and I took one step followed by the other. Soon enough I was at the door, but my mind wasn't settled. I was curious and when I am curious, I'm like a cat, but I won't die.Turning back on my heels, Romeo rolled his eyes knowing I was not going to listen to him about going home even if it was so late at night.“What do you want?” His voice sounded so lazy, but I knew he was tired, it was just an act to keep me away. “Nice try, but I'm going anywhere.”“Do not be stubborn Mar, Cephus can be here any minute, and you know damn well that he doesn't like you to begin with.”“Cephus doesn't like anyone, isn't that obvious? He can do whatever he wants to for I care, but I want to know everything about Garret and what business you have with him.” He looked me deep in the eyes before raising his eyebrows and letting out a little laugh.“Mar you were close to leaving, I mean you only n
Felix's POV"Cephus is here to collect his debts." A sick smile appeared on his face and if I wasn't scared I would have vomited everywhere. Katie, When my mother died, her life insurance policy left my father and I enough money to make ends meet. We are not rich, but we have no problems either. My father always told me we had good money. This man must have the wrong family and when he finds out the truth he will regret what he did to me. "You are wrong, we have no debt. You must have the wrong family. This is all a misunderstanding. But if you go now, we won't impose any price. ”The man just nodded and chuckled. "Cephus will be happy to fuck every hole on your body. Then when he's done with you and you're ready to kill, I'll fuck you once..."" What are you doing? Are you doing it anyway?" I looked at him with a strong heart, anger foaming in my heart. Why does this man think he has the right to say something bad, and ugly to me? Who is Cephus? "Shut up!" he growled and held me t
Katie's POVThe most dangerous person in the city is the one from whom my father borrowed some money behind my back. Why did he not go visit a bank like everyone else? In order to keep me from being sad, he lied to me and said everything was OK.I can see clearly from the large perspective that nothing is right at all. Nothing about this circumstance is acceptable. It is never acceptable to have a pistol aimed at my father's head!"Katie, I was fine, everything was fine. After that, we had a terrible storm and almost lost all of the crops. The sincerity in my father's voice indicates that he is attempting to explain things to me, and I do understand, but I am still unable to correct the falsehoods and the danger we are now in. I couldn't afford to pay."Stop talking! It's time to stop talking. With his voice resonating off the dull walls of our farmhouse, Cephus exclaims, "I'm tired of hearing your excuses." His voice is strong and demanding, as if everyone must submit to the strengt
Chapter 183Katie's POVAll I see is a blur of him as I try to get my mind and body to function so I can answer him. My legs hit the floor as he pushed me down, releasing me to walk away. His hand grips his hair as he stares at the gun in his other hand and back down to me.“No. No, it’s not true,” I whimper, tears still falling. “Don’t listen to him,” I plead, looking him straight in the eyes.“Silence,” he orders, walking over to me with his hand raised. Will he hit me? Will he hurt me?“That isn’t true!” I shoot back. “Nothing he is saying is true…”Silence ensues for a long second before Cephus speaks. “Get the ropes and tape!” he yells to Mack. I’m lying on the ground on my side when his face comes into my vision.“Was it all a lie, Katie? Was it all some fucked up lie so that you could get into my head? So you could get the inside job done and walk away unscathed?” His voice is so loud in my ears, I push away from him.“Was it?” he shouts, demanding a response, his fingers gripp
Chapter 182Katie's POV“I see it as more of a protective arrangement for both of us. There are legal protections for each of us… incentives to keep one another’s secrets.”I fixed him with what I hoped was the most vicious look I had in me. “I never went to the cops after you kidnapped me, didn’t go running to my parents begging them to find someone to break your kneecaps, and you thought you needed some other way of getting me to keep your secrets?”“It matters…” I can hear the anxiety in Mack’s voice. Something is very, very wrong.“Why does it matter? She was nothing before this whole incident and will be nothing after everything takes place. She’s clean. I know it.” Cephus sounds confident, and though I know I have done nothing wrong, if Mack convinces him I did something, I know I am as good as dead.“It matters because I know she’s not clean. After Jared called me and told me what Luccio said, I did a little digging on her and found some shit out.”Horror fills my mind. What i
Chapter 181Katie's POV“I was seven or eight, in a regular primary school not far from here.” His right hand moved, grasping for his phone, then he left it alone and pulled my hand he was still holding onto his knee, placing both of his hands over it. If the ring I was wearing was digging in, he didn’t give any sign. “It might surprise you to hear this, Katie, but I was not the best of children.”“Shocking revelation.”“I was always targeting kids a bit younger, a bit smaller. The ones I knew wouldn’t be able to give me any shit in return. Except this one time, there was this kid—Billy Burke, I remember his name vividly—and he did give me shit. He told me he wanted me to stop pushing him around and trying to scare him, and no he wasn’t going to give me his lunch money, by the way. I’d never run into this situation before when I was running this scam, so I panicked a bit. I hit him in the face. Told me to his parents.”I didn’t know what to say to this. It took me all too quickly b
Chapter 180Katie's POVEven when it gets worked out in the end, it sucks for long-term relationships.”It had to be even harder to find someone you could enter into the sort of long-term relationship most people were especially keen on with. Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised Cephus had jumped at the chance to get me on board as a future wife.And speaking of my future husband, I had half-expected he wouldn’t be there when I returned. Then when I saw him sitting on the couch in front of the TV where he’d been when I ran out to get in Caroline’s car—where he’d probably slept for all I knew, he’d gone out the night before and hadn’t been back before I admitted defeat and crawled to bed—I half-expected to spot Angel somewhere in the room in the next moment. She didn’t have anything further to add to her roster of manipulations for the moment: we were alone.“What was your day like?” asked Cephus without looking at me. I let my bag slip by degrees from my fingers, frozen in place by the p
Chapter 179Katie's POV“Cephus isn’t supposed to be a part of this side of things, he can’t do it… and I doubt you’re in a position to ask your mother for assistance. Caroline is an ideal choice.”I didn’t like it, but she was right. I couldn’t go about this the wrong way if I ever wanted to be on Cephus’s good side. I didn’t want to go about it the wrong way. And while I was surrounded by Cephus’s family I needed to make connections unless I wanted to be treated the same way I was on my own. Caroline seemed like the safest option there so far.“If you’re sure I won’t be inconveniencing you,” I told Caroline. “I could use the help. I don’t have much experience with the whole wedding business, that much is for sure.”Caroline broke out in a little golf clap of delight. There might actually be some benefit in spending trying to absorb as much as I could of her elegance. “I’m so pleased to help. Now, I was thinking, I have the whole of tomorrow afternoon off work, so that would be a g
Chapter 178Katie's POVI sat up with a gasp.It was just like the morning before when I had woken to unexpected voices. But this time I was in a strange bed again, and at least one of those voices didn’t seem familiar at all.I’d learned my lesson from the day before. I couldn’t get myself into the single bathroom in the apartment, but I pulled on a proper outfit, brushed out my hair, and cleaned my face thoroughly with some wipes. I didn’t dare put on makeup without a full mirror, but I was young and fresh enough that I could probably get away without it.Once I was decent, I made a quick and quiet tidy of my room and then stepped up to the door for a bit of strategic eavesdropping before I joined the action.A childish female voice was doing most of the talking. “She’ll need someone to guide her through the process.”Cephus’s voice sounded both amused and exasperated. “Someone who has never been even close to getting married before?”“You know exactly what Caroline means.” The thi
Chapter 177Katie's POVI kept trying to convince myself that what I was craving was the worst craving anyone had ever had, including anything that had been thought up by a brain on pregnancy. But it was ridiculous to be so worried about whether I did or didn’t sleep with him when I was already making myself vulnerable to him, right? Or was this just how I was convincing myself to go along with wherever my lust took me?I don’t think about looking at my plate. Then when Cephus abruptly slid his chair backwards and stood, I startled like a tiny animal that could run away if provoked further. I knew damn well I couldn’t run.Cephus came to my side and put his hand out for mine, drawing me to my feet when I complied.“You have sauce on you,” he said and pointed it out on my shirt—his fingertip pressing slightly into my breast in a way that was, I’m sure, entirely necessary.I looked down at his hand there. Well, I’d managed to at least try to eat something.I thrust my chest forward in
Chapter 176Katie's POV“Madonna and child.” Cephus folded his arms and leaned back; it felt like an acknowledgment that I’d landed a hit, but I didn’t have any idea how. I’d just been trying to give a voice to my frustrations. “So you know a little bit about art, then.”“I think that’s kind of something I picked up through pop culture actually,” I said. I was hoping to screw with him while I seemed to have an advantage, and he did appear to deflate a little in response. “You’d be more eager to get a leg over if I was the kind of girl who t art and how to engage with you because I have any desire to ‘get a leg over’. And I have no intention of scorning you because you lack cultural polish. I assure you that I will be able to provide for you sexually in every way you might require.”“What kind of statement is that? Trust me, I’m a sexy beast, even though from the way I behave you would expect pretty much any Arctic land to be less frigid than I am?”“Do you want me to provide referen
Chapter 175Katie's POV“Am I supposed to believe you are shy?”I was so startled by Cephus's Voice that here I dropped the capsicum I’d been fidgeting with. It rolled across the bench, and Cephus caught it with one hand while he continued dicing its unlucky sibling with the other.“I guess you wouldn’t,” I admitted, “but if any situation was going to make me feel that way… I mean, we’ve gone from you having me dragged out If bed to trying to cook with me?”“You’ve got to roll with the challenges life presents you sometimes, Katie,” said Cephus, rolling the second capsicum into the path of his knife.“Are you talking about me here or you?”“Both of us, for once.” His expression visibly dulled. It struck me then just how much more animated he had become since we had first met. It was just a handful of hours but there was someone behind the mafia man front he was slowly letting me see, whether by choice or unconsciously I did not know.It bothered disappearing again. It was messing wi