Dangerous Flames (Mafia Hearts) (14 page)

“
Exactly
what I said. My opinions of you were formed long ago, Gabrielle.”

“
And
what exactly are those?” she shot back. She followed him in
where he dropped the bags onto the counter. Her arms crossed over her
breasts as she stared at him, waiting for an answer.

“
Now
is not the time,” he mumbled while averting his dark eyes down
to the floor.

“
Bad
thoughts?” she asked, not knowing how she’d respond if he
answered with a yes. Trying to grasp at some hope, she asked, “Or
something good?”

“
Seriously,
Gabi, we’ll discuss this later.”

What
a jerk! How could he make such a statement without explaining
himself? Trying to push away her anger, she flipped open cabinet
doors to scan the contents which didn’t turn out to be much of
anything to look at. She turned to him with her hands on her hips.
“You can’t do that, Mik. It’s not fair.”

He
snapped his eyes to her. “Haven’t you realized life isn’t
fair yet, Gabrielle? The world doesn’t always smell like roses
for most people. And my opinion isn’t important right now.”

Just
as she expected, even Mik thought of her as some sort of princess.
Well, damn it! Gabrielle was far from it. Somehow she’d have to
prove it to him and they happened to be in the perfect place. “I
found that out long ago, Mikolas, but you can’t say things like
that without being specific. A generic statement like that leaves
room for a lot of speculation.”

“
I’m
bringing in the rest of the food. Stay inside,” he mumbled,
turning toward the door. They hadn’t bought
a
lot
of groceries and Mik wasn’t wasting any time getting them
inside even though most wouldn’t spoil. He was doing a great
job avoiding her question. That fact didn’t sit well on Gabi’s
nerves.

Momentarily
forgetting about the task of putting away the food, she rushed
through the door. “You said we’d talk like adults but
when it came time you turned your back on me and rushed out of here.”
She bounced down the stairs after him. Heat rushed over her cheeks.
She had come here partly to prove to everyone that she was more than
some pampered female. Yet here she was acting like spoiled teenager
trying to get her way.

He
shrugged. “So be it,” he said, keeping his back to her.

But
he did care. Didn’t he? Doubt swirled inside her stomach.

As
Mik moved toward the stairs again, one of the bags ripped open,
sending the packaged food tumbling in a pile at his feet. He set the
other bag on the ground to pile as much into it as he could. “Go
back inside. I don’t want you out here.”

She
pushed some snowflakes from her hair. “Go to hell. I’m
the boss here and will do what I damned well please.”

He
let out a laugh. “Fine,” he muttered before disappearing
into the house, leaving her there with the rest of the groceries to
carry in.

She
sat down on the back of the SUV and covered her face with her hands.
Good thing she wasn’t a crier or she’d be bawling right
now. Her intentions had been good. Mik shouldn’t have been
doing all of the work himself, but she’d had a purely selfish
reason to follow him out. She’d wanted to push the conversation
further. Maybe to argue? No matter what, it had all backfired. She’d
just screwed up the truce they’d called on the way to the
store.

Now
it was time to prove herself to him. She wouldn’t whine to him
or show she was mad in the least bit. Gabrielle could do this! She’d
change Mik’s opinion of her one way or another.

She
scooped up the groceries from the ground, glancing around for Mik on
the trip inside and didn’t see him anywhere. This had to be
hard on him. Maybe giving him some space would do him some good. She
turned her focus on the job at hand as she tried to ignore the
rapidly decreasing temperature that had started creeping its way back
inside.

After
all the perishable groceries were put away, and still no sign of Mik,
she made her way to the bedroom. Besides, she needed to pack the gun.
Obviously, Mik didn’t plan on running away so what point was
there?

“
What
are you doing?” she asked as she found him rummaging through
the closet in the bedroom.

“
Looking
through this box of clothes. There is a washing machine in a shed out
back. I want to do my clothes before the weather gets worse.”

“
Will
you have time?” Through the window, she watched the snow fall.

“
Yes,”
he mumbled. He glanced up at her as he asked, “When are you
doing to put the gun away?”

“
That’s
why I’m in here. I figured if you were going to leave, you
would’ve done so before now.” She dropped the gun into
the dresser that sat across from the bed.

She
turned the heater up a tiny bit before crawling on the bed to watch
him set clean clothes on the dresser. With him being close to the
firearm sent her senses into high alert. She kept her attention fixed
on him, prepared to deal with whatever happens.

He
crawled onto the bed with her and leaned against the headboard. His
gaze locked with hers. “What do you think about us going back?”

She
looked over to the snow falling outside. “We can’t.”

“
Gabrielle,
did you decide to bring me here for a vacation or anything along
those lines?”

She
stayed turned toward the window. He was being so gentle and sweet
right now. She didn’t want to do anything to change his mood
back to the harsh one he was fully capable of having with her. This
version of Mikolas made her heart pound like a steel drum. “I’d
prefer to be here on vacation but this has nothing to do with fun.”

“
Safety?”
He trailed a finger over her hand and then dropped his hand on the
bed beside hers.

“
Yes,
but we were supposed to be out of here early this morning by the
latest.” And now they didn’t have time. She turned toward
him, melting in his soft gaze.

“
What
are we waiting for then?” He moved his hand closer to hers as
if he’d make the contact at any second.

Do
it! Make the contact and change everything between us.
Damn he made her crazy. Trying to keep her attention on their
conversation instead of the yearning swirling inside of her, she
said, “Can you just trust that I have a reason to stay here a
little longer?”

He
stared down at their hands for a minute. When he looked back at her,
a mischievous smile turned up the corners of his mouth. “Only
under one condition.”

Gabrielle
didn’t like conditions. People either wanted to do something or
they didn’t. “What?” she asked.

“
We
used to be friends, Gabi.” His hand moved closer to hers. One
more inch before they’d be touching. “And I miss the
relationship we had. If we stay here I want to let go off the
hostility and get to know each other again as friends.”

Friends.
Could she put such a limit on her love for him? She didn’t
think it was possible, but she’d rather have him in her life as
a friend than nothing. She slowly nodded. “We can do that.”
Way better than the constant fighting of who had control.

“
So
you’ll be able to treat this more like a vacation for us?”
The corners of his mouth rose in a half smile.

“
I
think I can.”

“
Great.”
He gently squeezed her hand for only a second but left her yearning
for more. “I’m going to do the laundry. Need anything
washed?”

She
pointed to the clothes she’d discarded from her bag the night
before. “Those right over there.” Laundry wasn’t
her priority because she’d brought enough clothes, but she did
need him out of the house for a little while, giving her some
privacy.

She
waited until the front door clicked shut behind him before slipping
her cell out of her bag to call her mother to let her know that Gabi
hadn’t left the cabin yet. Biting on her bottom lip, she
pressed the number one button and watched the window until the
‘connecting’ icon changed to ‘no service’.
She moved to the other side of the cabin and tried to call again,
reaching the same result.

Tossing
the phone on the bed, she decided she needed to stop worrying. Her
father happened to be the Don of a big Mafia family. He was probably
busy trying to sort his mess out instead of concerning himself of her
whereabouts. Plus, he certainly had bodyguards to keep him safe. And
she was here, developing a friendship with Mikolas. Gabrielle leaned
back on the pillows and let the slow smile turn into a grin.

Chapter Eight

Not
looking at both sides of every situation was normal for Mikolas too.
With the way his mind worked and how easily he became distracted, it
was a miracle he had made it through the police academy and then been
hired on by Enrico Medini.
Keep
this up, Mikolas Russo, you won’t have time to get Gabrielle
before you’re buried in a cemetery somewhere.

Mikolas
shivered. The snow fell quicker and Mikolas estimated that the ground
would be white and frozen over within an hour or two tops. It was
cold. Too cold in his opinion, in the laundry room. No heat blew from
the vents and shivers ran through his body. If only he had chosen to
wear something other than the basketball shorts he’d found in
the box at the bottom of the closet. But no, he had picked the least
warm clothes he could find.

He
decided to move around to keep warm. The room was small, only big
enough to hold the washing machine, dryer, and a row of cupboards.
This was a Mafia vacation spot, probably not a good idea to go
snooping. Who knew what was hidden in there, but Mikolas needed to do
something to keep his mind off the woman waiting inside the house for
him. His gut screamed for him to mind his own business but his
curiosity won out.

“
This
should be interesting,” he said aloud, just to hear a new sound
other than the swooshing water inside the washing machine behind him.
Any colder and the pipes would freeze too. Good thing he’d
thought about washing clothes now and hadn’t put it off longer.
If luck chose his side today, the dryer would warm the place up a
little.

He
yanked the first set of cupboard doors open. Empty. He opened the
second one. Homemade canned fruit and veggies probably prepared by
Maura. He shut the cupboard and looked into the next one. Boxes lined
the shelves.

He
pulled several boxes down from the shelf, scanned the contents and
put them back. So far nothing but household items. After trying
another box, his lips turned up in a grin.
Books.
He set the box on the floor and flopped into the folding chair he’d
found tucked between the washer and dryer.

He
withdrew each paperback one-by-one. Frowning at the horror books, he
dropped them quickly into the box. With his own life being the
reality that most of that genre being based on, he never read those.
Every other type brought an escape from the nightmares his career
trapped him in. Mikolas even looked forward to read all of the
others… even the romances. Reading had turned into his dirty
little secret. Well, maybe the staff at his favorite bookstore since
he spent a hundred dollars or so every month. Books were his escape
from the gruesome life he led.

Any
member of the Family would laugh if they knew that the fictional
worlds printed on sheets of paper provided his escape, but thinking
about his job sent the reminder that he held even more secrets from
Gabi crashing into his brain. The more he thought about her, the more
he realized that even though he loved her, she really didn’t
know all the secrets about the man he’d become and the reason
why he’d suggested staying at the cabin in order to reestablish
a friendship with every intention to move it beyond the limits. She
wanted a glamorous life. Mikolas didn’t fit in that category.
Would she accept the kind of lifestyle he could give her?

He
could go back inside the warm cabin but was afraid to. As things
looked at the moment, he didn’t feel like talking to her. He
was afraid if he did, he’d tell her how much he loved her and
then it would be over. Done. Zero hope of whatever good was to come
of this. He hoped this little plan of his didn’t backfire. Even
being here, which Enrico must not know of, could get him in trouble
with the Family. And if Enrico found out he’s here with Gabi?
Mikolas might as well cut his own beloved member off and toss the
bloody thing to the lions himself to save Enrico the trouble. Just
the thought of it made him cross his legs.