Maggie - Mafia Romance
Maggie – Mafia Romance
“Stop screaming!” Ben yelled at me, his throat veins bulging.
I was screaming? His dark eyes flashed and he turned lethal looking. I was . I covered my mouth.
“Get your head down. Now!”
Oh God. My throat hurt. I crunched forward and clenched my eyes shut. I’m not sure if watching what was happening in front of us or not watching gave me more anxiety. Because now I was being thrown around against the dash and the side door like crazy without knowing why.
What sounded an awful lot like bullets slammed into our car as we swerved in a full circle.
“Ben?” I screamed. I wanted to peek up to make sure he was okay, but I was too scared. “Ben?!”
“We’re okay,” he yelled back at me. “I promise. Keep your head down.”
He shot us into reverse going what felt like eighty miles per hour.
“Oh my God, oh my God,” I muttered over and over, holding a hand to my chest.
We came to a sudden stop. An eerie silence settled.
“Ben?” I called out again. Tears sprang to my eyes. “Oh my God, are you okay?”
“All good.” He sounded way too calm. “Just breathe, Jinx.” The center council opened up and he pulled something out.
The sound of more gunshots filled the air, but this time, they were coming from inside the car. Ben was shooting at someone.
Tears pricked the back of my eyes. How the hell was this happening right now?
He slammed on the gas again when I wasn’t expecting it, and my head hit the dash, hard. Ringing filled my ears, and my forehead pounded with pain. I reached up and felt stickiness coating my fingers.
When I pulled my hand away, a cloud of confusion settled in my head. Why were my fingers coated with crimson paint? I wasn’t painting?
My breathing went ragged as gray spots bled into my vision from the outside in, threatening to take me under.
_______
“Maggie!” Someone was yelling at me. And… slapping my face?
My eyes fluttered open to see Ben’s scruffy jaw. He was crouched over top of me, holding my body, leaning against the dirty and damaged Escalade.
I shot up to a sitting position. Oh God. My head . Everything started spinning. I scrambled out of his lap, away from his warmth. My knees wobbled as I held myself against the car and vomited on the pavement.
He came up behind me and my whole body flinched. “You’re okay,” he said in a soothing voice.
“I’m okay? What the fuck? We were just shot at!” I whirled on him. “What the hell just… You just–” The words died in my throat, because the world was spinning around me again. I grasped blindly for the car to stop from falling to the cracked cement. The next thing I knew, Ben’s steady hands wrapped around my upper arms and he was spinning me around so my back was to his front just in time for me to vomit on the ground again.
He grabbed up my hair and used his other heavy hand to rub my back. “Breathe,” he said in that calming, deep tone of his. How the hell was he so steady when my entire body was a trembling mess?
“Did that seriously just happen?” My eyes darted around, not able to focus on anything, and my airways seemed to be closing off. “Ben?” My voice came out shaky and panicked. “I…” I wheezed for air, “I can’t….”
He grabbed my chin and pulled my eyes to his dark ones.
“Yes, you can.” He brushed my hair back with his other hand. “Fight your mind and breathe, Maggie. Focus on me. Block everything else out. You’re okay. Say it. I’m okay .”
My throat clogged with emotion. “Am I?” I practically whimpered out.
His jaw clenched. His rough hand traveled to my cheek and he inspected my eyes. “Minor concussion probably, but you’re okay. I promise. I’ve got you. Just do one thing for me.”
“Wh-what?” My legs were shaking so hard and I couldn’t manage to make them stop.
He licked his lips and his hands dropped to my hips, holding me still. I never wanted him to take his hands off me again. “Breathe,” he drawled.
After a couple breaths, his eyes were wandering beyond me. His jaw clicked and he went to pull away from me.
I grabbed his hands desperately. “No, don’t leave me.” I wasn’t above begging. “Please.” I knew I sounded like a scared little kid, but I didn’t care.
He looked torn. “I have to go over to that car. Can you stay here for me?”
I clutched his forearm with a death grip. “Don’t leave me.”
He ran his tongue over his teeth in his closed mouth, like he was debating what to do.
“You’re seriously going to leave me here?!” I desperately cried, my fear giving way to anger.
His face gave nothing away. He looked stone-cold, void of any and all emotion. I went to shove his chest, but he grabbed my elbow to stop me.
“Be careful with that wrist, woman.” He gave me a hard, disapproving look. “It has the strength of a toothpick right now.” He gently put my arm down by my side and then his chest heaved with a deep breath as he looked across the abandoned parking lot. “Okay, you’re coming with me.” His dark eyes settled back on me and he palmed my face. We were standing so close that our chests were almost flush together. “I won’t let anything happen to you, got it? Here.” He handed me the gun. “Just in case. You know what to do, just like how we practiced at the range. Okay?”
I nodded hurriedly and took the gun with shaky hands.
“Don't make me regret this,” he mumbled more to himself than me as he stalked forward.
I clung to him like a shadow as we made our way across the parking lot to where a car was smashed up against the side of an old factory building.
“You might want to look away,” Ben advised.
I couldn’t look away even if I wanted to.
In a show of brute strength, he yanked the smashed car door open and then pulled two bodies from the car. He dumped the limp guys carelessly on the cement.
“Are they… Are they dead?” I squeaked out.
“Nope. Still breathing,” Ben said casually. “I shot the tires out and they crashed.”
He pulled handcuffs out of his back pocket and began tieing them up while muttering things to Coleson through his earpiece.
One of the guys groaned.
I automatically shifted.
“Maggie!” Ben’s forceful tone cut through the air. I looked up to see him staring at me with wide, pissed-off eyes. “Put that down! We’re not the fuckin’ mafia! Jesus.” His hands went to his hair.
“Oh.” I jumped back, realizing what I was doing. “Right.” I aimed the gun away.
A second later, he tore the gun from my grip.
“You’re done.”
“Sorry.” My shoulders went up to my ears. “I got scared,” I said weakly.
“Maybe take it easy on the mafia romances ‘til you remember everyone’s innocent until proven guilty in the court of law, yeah?”
Biting my lip, I nodded. “You’re probably right.”
“Probably?” He blew out an exasperated breath, then ushered me to follow him.