Maid for the Mafia by Jaylee

I Need to Hear It

**ROMANY**

*He said keep your eyes closed, so you really should do it!*

*But what if he's hurt?*

*What if those gunshots were-*

The sound of the door unlatching on my right is so surprising that I let loose with a short scream.

"Doll?" Mickey's voice breaks through like sunshine splitting the black clouds of a storm.

"Mickey..." I whisper, relief settling my bones as I feel him climb back into the SUV and lock the door. "I heard gunshots," I say, opening my eyes, despite that he has yet to grant me permission.

My first sight of him is somewhat blurry, so I rub my eyes a little and blink a few times to focus. He's leaning back against the seat with his body angled in my direction and his legs spread wide enough for me to climb between. And *God* how I want to, but he's still wearing that look. The one that says he's closed himself off.

"Where are we?" I ask, taking a quick look out of the front and side windows to see nothing but green. We seem to be parked beneath a couple of beautifully groomed willow trees, with branches that fall like curtains all around us, and a gap for an opening at the rear of the vehicle. Beyond that though, I can see the pathway that curves toward Alex's back patio, and the man made hill that the pool is built against. "We're at the back of the estate. Where the Box is located," Mickey informs me, his face carefully blank. "Kale was overdue for a visit."

I almost smile at that. "The Box?" I remember vaguely hearing Mickey tell Tiny to place Enzo in the Box that day he tried to shoot me. "Where you were keeping Enzo?"

"That's right," Mickey says absently. "It's where we hold all the trash we collect until it's disposed of. No one that isn't intimately involved is ever allowed back here. The regular house staff are made to understand this immediately before being hired. They are warned *never* to even *accidentally* wander in this direction. Doing so is always considered a threat and is acted upon immediately by any man stationed on this side of the property. They already know what the consequences are."

"I was never *made* to understand *any* of that!" I quip sharply.

Mickey flashes a quick grin. "It was probably somewhere in that fucked up contract that you signed with Alex."

fact, I almost expressly remember him telling

sure if you had happened upon the box and been detained because of it, you would have become the exception to the rule." He loses his smile and his eyes dance around

his direction. *Matthew? Is he talking

have regained some of their vibrance with that admission and the relaxed state of his muscles tells me that the tension he was

"It was you at that restaurant that day. You're the reason Matthew called

but there's a sudden sadness in his eyes that I don't rightly understand. "He'll never hurt another

I feel cheated. "I wish I would have been allowed to

the backseat when he

and I shrug. "I'm supposed to be the maid and I think I

and carefree, lighting his face in the sexiest way imaginable and I'm suddenly reminded that he's got a girl waiting

floorboard and his cleverly polished shoes. "There's no Maldives for us after

breath and I watch his fists tighten in his lap as he studies me. "Don't do this to me, Doll. You know how

gaze alone is no small thing. His is woeful and dark, the vibrant jungle green of his irises naught but a simple thread around the black abyss of their forbearing pupils. There aren't any lines around his eyes. No crow's feet, nor smile lines. He's perfect... and try as I might I cannot think of one single reason why someone as handsome and as confident as I've known him to be - even as he probably was four years ago - would have opted for hanging back in the shadows

for instance, then maybe waltzing directly into my path. I can pretty much guarantee that if he had shown me even a fraction of what he

it is to be told that you have been the star of someone's fantasy for years, it is ultimately more magical to have a man like him - someone ruthless and powerful and so completely out of reach - swoop into your life

room.

Consider.

how I needed that back

fall erratically. "How do you feel about me? I

his knees and glare at the ground. His

that fat bastard's daughter so that you can protect me from what you've done. But I need

I can almost feel their heat. When he speaks his voice

sends me down a tunnel of mixed grief and despair. Not because he's in love with me, of course not! But because he's been one hundred and fifty percent straight with me from the very fucking beginning. I never have to wonder if he's thinking about me, never have to worry about seeing him with the new secretary or the old secretary or the waitress or the maid! And now I'm going

about me and just now... the