Monster: Made & Broken (A Mafia Bad Boy Romance) (17 page)

“
And who is this young man you’ve brought along to meet your old mother?” Her eyes sparkled mischievously. “The future father of my grandchildren, perhaps?”

“
Mum!” I protested, already sensing the heat gathering in my cheeks. “You can’t just harass any guy you see for grandchildren.”

“
I am Marcus Steel, Mrs. Embry,” Marcus said, his rumbling voice carrying easily across the room, though it sounded softer than usual. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. Evelyn speaks of you very fondly.”

“
She’s a good girl,” my mum agreed, completely ignoring my flustered presence. “Come here, young man. Let me get a better look at you.”

He obeyed, and even knelt down next to her chair when she motioned for him to do so.

Without shame, my mother placed both her hands on each side of his face. “And such a handsome one, too. Do you treat my little girl right? If she’s brought you to see me, she must be very keen on you. Do you feel the same about her?”

“
Mum!”
I hissed, my cheeks now in full flame. I’d forgotten how completely straightforward she could be.

Marcus put his hands over my mum’s, engulfing them completely. “I will take care of Evelyn until the day I die.”

The corners of my mum’s eyes crinkled when she gave him a sweet smile. “Good. It’s hard for her to trust—she never did get over her dad leaving, the poor child. But I think you might just be the man to change that, won’t you?”

His face, normally so serious and dark, became light and gentle when his mouth pulled up to reciprocate her smile. “Yes.”

My mum finally released his face and turned to the window again. “Come sit with me. I would like to get to know my future son-in-law.”

I stood back and watched. It was as if I looking through a kaleidoscope into an alternate dimension, where my mother and the man who had taken me in discussed the birds outside my mum’s window, recipes for raspberry jam, and the importance of a strong father figure when it came to child rearing as if they had known each other for years. All the while completely ignoring me.

It was an odd sensation, looking at the only two people in my life who had ever taken care of me and knowing that this perfect slice of life would never truly be mine. That it was a fleeting moment in time showcasing what might have been, if life had turned out differently.

And yet, even as my heart clenched with longing for what I could never have, I was still infinitely grateful that I had been given this one moment where everything was just perfect. It was more than I’d thought I could hope for since I had to give up everything to work for Brigs.

When it was time to leave, my mum pulled Marcus into a hug before she turned to me for the first time since greeting me. “Come say goodbye, Evelyn.”

I walked over and into her arms, closing my eyes to soak in the warmth when she closed them around me. It felt as good as it had when I was a kid.

“
You marry that man, love,” she said softly into my ear. “He has a good heart, behind all that pain he’s carrying. He will take care of you when I’m gone.”

“
You’re not going anywhere, Mum,” I choked into her hair. “Not now, not ever.”

“
Shh, child. I know my mind is slipping away, and it’s going to do you no good to pretend like it isn’t. Someday soon it will be completely gone, and when that happens, I want you to be with someone who will treasure you and make you as happy as you’ve made me since the day I gave birth to you. He loves you, it’s plain to see the way he looks at you when he thinks you’re not watching. And if you are brave enough to open yourself up to him, I think you’ll find love in your heart for him, too. I know you, my daughter. Don’t let fear stand in the way of your own happiness.”

“
It’s not that simple,” I whispered, doing my best to stem the tears that prickled my eyes. “We’re not together that way. There are… reasons.”

“
There are always reasons, Evelyn.” She pulled back from our embrace and cupped my face for a short moment, brushing away the single tear that had escaped my attempt at holding my emotions back. “And it’s never simple. I can tell he’s not an uncomplicated man, he has pain and darkness. But if he is as devoted to you as I believe, you let him in and don’t ever let go. Don’t throw away your chance at happiness because your father was an idiot.”

“
I’ve missed you, Mum,” I said, reaching out to squeeze her hand one last time before I straightened up.

She smiled that gentle smile of hers that had brought me through every painful moment after my dad left. “I love you, Evelyn. Always. Now, go—you have a good man waiting for you, love. And I will be here again next week.”

But she wouldn’t. We both knew that—it had been over a month since the last time she had been even remotely this clear-headed. I bent to kiss her cheek, managing to keep myself together for her sake. Crying would only make her feel bad, and that was the last thing I wanted on one of her fleetingly few good days.

“
I love you too, Mum. See you next week.”

Marcus was waiting for me outside the door, having given us some privacy to say goodbye. He didn’t say anything when he saw me brush a few stray tears away, but he put his arm around my shoulders as we walked down the hallway toward the nursing home’s exit. His warmth and the strength of his body against mine felt good—it steeled me against the onslaught of emotion warring in my own body, keeping me up like a life jacket in a tumultuous sea.

“
She is a lovely woman,” he said when we exited the building and paused in front of the visitors’ parking lot where he’d parked his Porsche.

“
Yeah. She’s everything to me.” I offered him a weak smile. “She was very fond of you.”

“
And I her.” He touched a hand to my chin, lifting my gaze to his. The fondness in his gray eyes made my heart flutter in response. “I see where you get your kindness from.”

I scoffed. “I am nothing like her. She is so sweet and so generous—she could never hurt anyone, would never let a man like Brigs ruin her sense of right and wrong.”

“
I think you might be surprised what she would do to keep the ones she loves safe. Just like you did for her—just like I will for you both.” And then he dipped his head and pressed his lips to mine.

The kiss was gentle, and yet it made my heart hammer behind my ribs and my breath whoosh out in small gasps when he broke it off much too soon.

I stared up at him, my mother’s words replaying in my mind as I saw the gentleness in his gaze as he looked at me.

Was there any way we could make this work? He was still part of a crime family, still everything I’d promised myself I would stay far, far away from the moment I was free from Brigs. His world was danger and darkness at every turn.

And if I let myself fall for the promise of love—of baring my soul to him and having his in return—and he then ended up pushing me away… I wouldn’t survive it. This time, my mother wouldn’t be there to pick up the pieces, and I knew that if I opened my heart to Marcus and he left me I would never be whole again.

But was I truly whole now? When everything in me yearned for that sweet pull between us and all I wanted was to give in?

“
Can we go for a short walk? Before we drive back?” I asked, finally making a decision. It made my stomach churn with anxiety, but also elation.

“
If you wish,” he said. Once again he wrapped an arm around my shoulders, and once again the sensation of security set in.

I saw him nodding at a man standing discreetly off to the side of the entrance to the nursing home and was momentarily distracted from my nervousness. “Is that one of the guards you talked about?” I asked, keeping my voice low so as not to attract attention.

Marcus nodded as he led me across the street toward a small park we’d passed on the way here.

“
Thank you,” I said as we walked the couple of blocks along the quiet road. “For making sure she is safe. And for taking me here today. She doesn’t have many good days anymore.”

“
I am glad you let me meet her,” he said. “I wish I could have introduced you to my mother, as well. I think you would have liked her.”

“
Would she have liked me?” I asked, suddenly feeling weirdly nervous if I would have been what his mother wanted for him.

“
Yes,” he said, and I could hear a rare smile in his voice even without looking up at him to confirm. “She would have liked you very much.”

“
And your brothers? You think they… approve?” I thought back to the surprise in all three men’s faces when Marcus had declared me his fiancée, and frowned when I thought about the twins’ comments about the probability of him abducting a bride.

He shrugged. “I think so. If not, they will.”

“
You just know that, huh?”

“
Yes.” He didn’t elaborate, and I didn’t want to push. Instead I focused on the cool winter air and the smell of soil as we entered the park through the wrought iron gates. Marcus released my shoulders and instead offered his arm, and I rested my hand on it as we slowly strolled along the path.

It was a typical English winter, cold but not freezing, and the ground was wet from last night’s rain. As the bushes and trees closed around us, I could almost ignore the sounds of cars coming from the street outside the park—could almost pretend like it was just me and Marcus in all the world.

“
Marcus, I… was wondering…”
Here goes nothing.
“
If we… if we did end up together, how would it work? With your dad and your job and… I don’t want to be involved with the mafia, and that’s your life. Your family.”

He glanced down at me, but the sky was starting to darken and I couldn’t make out the expression in his eyes. “You won’t be involved. Mira isn’t.”

“
That’s not how it works for me,” I said softly. “I’ll know what you do every day when you leave. I’ll know that you hurt people. That you
kill.
I… I’ve had enough of that to last a lifetime. I don’t want any more violence in my life, or fear that someone like Brigs might try to hurt us because of what you do.”

“
What do you want?” he asked.

I sighed. “Peace. I’ve done so many horrible things while working for Brigs. I just want peace. I want to plant my own veggie patch and sell produce at farmer’s markets and make raspberry jam with you. To wake up in the morning and not wonder if my husband has killed someone while I slept, and how long their family will mourn.” It wasn’t until I stopped talking I realized I’d said I wanted it—with him.

Marcus stopped on the path, and I stopped with him, looking up at him and knowing that I was hoping for the impossible. He was a mafia son, he was born into the violence I was so desperate to escape. But then his hand brushed away a stray lock of hair that had stuck to my cheek, and a reflection of the city lights finally let me see his eyes. There was as much tenderness in them as there was in his touch, and my heart fluttered with renewed hope.

“
Evelyn—”

His voice cut out as a dark-clad figure stepped out from behind the bushes just a few yards further down the path, and even before I’d fully realized what was going on, Marcus let out a furious roar and leapt forward, pushing me behind him.

A deafening gunshot rang through the air and Marcus’ forward momentum came to an abrupt halt. He dropped to the ground on his knees with a low groan, clutching at his side. And I screamed.

The man still holding a gun slowly turned from Marcus, his outstretched arm now pointing at me.

Time froze as I stared at the barrel. There was nothing I could do to escape it, nowhere I could hide. My heart pounded in my chest and all I could think about was that I didn’t want to die.

The gunman’s trigger finger flexed, but the next shot that rang through the park wasn’t his. Marcus had managed to pull a weapon from inside his long wool coat and fired it the second before our attacker, hitting him in the leg.

The man bellowed, his finger slipping on the trigger as yet another shot fired—this time from his gun. But it didn’t hit me. The blast from Marcus’ gun managed to divert his focus, and his bullet fired off to the side and into Marcus’ chest.

This time, the sound that escaped Marcus’ lips was only a soft gasp as he collapsed on the ground, no longer moving.

A pool of red bloomed on the front of his coat.

* * * *

Chapter 19

Evelyn

“
Marcus! No, no,
no!”
I cried as I threw myself by his side, only faintly aware that our attacker had given up on finishing the job and instead limped further into the park as fast as he could. It was a good thing too, because all I cared about then and there was Marcus. I fumbled for my phone and called 999 with shaky fingers, all the while pressing my left hand against the wound through his woolen coat.

“
Emergency central, which department do you need?”
an operator asked.