Filed to story: Sold to The Possessive Mafia Boss Book (Xavier & Jane) Free Online >>
“They got in my way. Would have lived if they’d stepped aside.” His grin widens as he lunges for me, his hands reaching for my gun. “And because I enjoy killing people.”
I pull the trigger just as he reaches me. I keep pulling the trigger until all I can hear is clicking. I look down. My attacker is on the floor, looking shocked, red blooming across his chest.
“You shot me,” he says. “No one ever shoots me.” His eyes glaze over a moment later.
The realization of what I’ve just done — defended my life in the most final way possible — begins to sink in, and with it, a tumult of emotions: fear, relief, but also a profound isolation.
My hands, still trembling, lower the gun. I drop it, and it lands with a soft thud on the carpet, its presence suddenly abhorrent to me.
In desperate need of connection, of reassurance, I reach for Matteo’s phone, the lifeline to Xavier, only to find the screen shattered, a casualty of the gunfire.
Panic clenches my heart — the phone was my only means of contacting Xavier, of letting him know I’m still here, still alive. I’m suddenly acutely aware of my isolation, cut off not just from Xavier, but from any immediate help.
The silence of the villa is suffocating, and without the phone, it feels even more tomb-like. I’m alone, truly alone, with the weight of what’s happened pressing down on me.
The fear that had been a sharp, hot presence during the confrontation morphs into something colder, a dread of what comes next.
How long before the killer’s associates come looking for him? How long until Xavier realizes something is wrong? Do I go try to find a phone or stay here?
Time stretches out, elastic and unending. I move away from the scene, unable to bear the sight of the man’s lifeless body any longer, my mind racing with what to do next.
I find myself pacing, a futile attempt to burn off the adrenaline and fear still coursing through my veins.
Eventually, I settle in a corner far from the windows, the most defensible position I can find, and wait. I force myself to pick the gun back up, just in case. I watch the driveway, waiting to see if a car approaches.
Twilight approaches, enveloping the villa in a shroud of uncertainty and fear. Each shadow feels like an intruder, each silence a threat lying in wait.
My heart races with a mixture of dread and anticipation, longing for Xavier’s return yet fearing he might not make it back.
And then, finally, when the tension has wound me tight as a spring, when the silence has become a presence in its own right, there’s the sound of a car engine, a noise so desperately hoped for yet feared, it sends my heart into overdrive.
Footsteps approach the villa, rapid and determined, and for a moment, terror grips me anew — what if it’s not Xavier?
Then, his voice, calling out for me, breaks the spell of fear. “Jane? Jane, where are you?” The relief in his voice upon finding me safe is palpable.
I step out from my makeshift sanctuary, my eyes finding his in the dim light. “Xavier!” I rush into his arms, the fear and tension of the day melting away in his embrace.
He holds me tight, as if trying to shield me from the world itself.
I’m caught in a torrent of relief and despair, my body shaking with sobs. “I thought I was going to die,” I admit, the words torn from the deepest part of my soul.
He holds me tighter, his presence a solid promise against the chaos. “You’re so strong, Jane. You survived. You did what you had to do,” he reassures me, his words a lifeline in the tumult of my emotions.
But I can’t shake the feeling of weakness, of vulnerability that clings to me like a second skin. “I’m not strong. I was terrified. I’m still terrified,” I confess, the admission a whisper against his chest.
Xavier pulls back slightly, his eyes searching mine with an intensity that burns. “Listen to me, Jane. You are the strongest person I know. Surviving this, defending yourself when I wasn’t here to protect you—that takes a strength many don’t possess. Never doubt that.”
“I heard him taunt you. I feared the worst when the line cut out.”
“I had to kill him,” I whisper, the gravity of what I’ve done settling in. “I was terrified, Xavier. But then I remembered what you said about being strong.”
He cups my face in his hands, his gaze intense. “You were right, Jane. About making your own choices, about being your own protector. I should have trusted you more. You killed a man today. A man who was going to hurt you. He had to die. You did the right thing, my tesoro.”
Xavier’s POV
“You ever stayed anywhere less than five stars?” Jane asks, plucking at the peeling wallpaper. “Must be quite the comedown for the billionaire to be in a roach motel like this.”
I lock the bedroom door, then wedge a chair under the handle. “They took cash and accepted the fake names without asking any questions. It’s perfect.”
Her eyes, wide and shadowed with the kind of fear no one should ever know, meet mine. I see the terror still flicking around the edges. It’s my world that’s done this to her, my battles that have drawn her into the line of fire.
But I also see the resolve and strength there. I feel nothing but pride for her. The hitman fired at the spot I told her to hide. If she’d listened to me, she’d be dead. Time I start listening to her.
Jane meets my gaze. “Are you hunting my father?” she asks out of nowhere.
I sit on the edge of the bed. It creaks alarmingly under my weight. “What makes you ask that?”
“Well? Are you?”
“I don’t give a shit about your father. The only time he enters my mind is when I think of him hurting you. Then I want to rip his spine from his body but you told me to leave him alone so I did. I am trying to learn to listen.”
She stares at me without blinking. “You’re sure?”
“Did someone say something to you?”
“He called me. Said he had intel that could put you away and that was why you married me, to find him.”