Gun Moll

by Bethany-Kris

  Melina pursed her lips. “What, like pampering?”

  Mac smirked. “I do love to spoil a woman.”

  “Spoiled women are useless women, Mac.”

  “Or maybe the right man hasn’t been spoiling you, Melina. Stop being difficult, even though I know it’s terribly hard for you to even imagine being something akin to delightful and appreciative, and take my hand so we can get away from the detectives.”

  Melina took his hand. “Now what?”

  “Did she give you a cost for the day yet, Maccari?” the other detective taunted. “We’re trying to find out if her price range is out of our budgets.”

  That time, Melina barely showed any emotion to the cops’ rudeness. Mac was proud as hell. He tugged her in close and moved them down the sidewalk, further away from the detectives and their prying eyes and ears.

  Mac looked over Melina’s fingernails, letting the pad of his thumb run over her fingers. “When was the last time you had your nails done, doll?”

  “A couple of weeks.”

  “That’s a shame. A woman’s outer beauty and confidence should reflect what is inside her. Any man who gives a damn about his girl should make sure he not only tells her how gorgeous she looks, but takes special care to provide her with whatever she needs to physically feel beautiful, as well. You’ve been biting the hell out of your nails, doll. Stress, right?”

  “Possibly.”

  Mac winked. “How in the hell do you plan on leaving another set of your marks down my back with a mess like this?”

  Melina’s jaw dropped. “Mac!”

  “Well, it’s an honest concern. My treat, let’s go.”

  Mac swept Melina’s heeled feet into his hands and rested her shoes in his lap. She tossed him a curious glance, but kept quiet when he pulled her shoes off and pressed his thumbs into her ankles.

  No matter what a woman liked to say about the topic, heels were hell when they were walked in all day.

  The Asian woman buffing Melina’s fingernails down gave a sweet smile in Mac’s direction as she continued her work.

  “Good man,” the woman said, her accent thick. “Good man please woman.”

  Melina sighed, averting her eyes from Mac’s grin. “So they say.”

  “Your poor hands,” the Asian woman muttered to herself. “You treat them horrible.”

  “Lay off,” Mac told the woman. “She’s had a rough couple of weeks.”

  “You not good man then.”

  Mac cracked up, chuckling loudly. “I am.”

  “These hands say no, mister.”

  “That’s why I brought her to you.”

  The Asian woman smiled, her eyes crinkling at the edges. “Ah, good man.”

  Melina shook her head at the exchange. “You seem comfortable here.”

  Mac shrugged. “My sister spends a few hours a month between here and another salon she likes.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yes. I usually pick up the tab, depending on how much time I’ve spent with her that month. It’s like my way of giving her one-on-one attention. Now that we’re older and she’s off into her own life, we’re not as close as we were when we were younger.”

  Melina’s gaze softened briefly. “Huh.”

  “Is that a surprise or something?”

  “No, I just …”

  “Spit it out, doll.”

  Melina rolled her eyes. “It’s nothing. It just surprises me that family seems to be such a huge thing for you. Most people don’t see it the same way. Once they’re adults and out of their childhood home, they forget about where they came from and the siblings they grew up with.”

  Mac’s hands stilled in their massage of Melina’s ankles. “Family is absolutely everything, Melina. In my family, it’s even more important that my sister knows she has someone to go to other than my mother if she needs a person to talk to.”

  He had always been a cornerstone for his sister. Mac couldn’t imagine letting Victoria stumble through life on her own. Given she had no one else but their mother who still struggled to maintain her own house and home, Mac didn’t think that would be a very honorable thing to do to his sister.

  “What about your father? Aren’t most a daddy’s girl of some sort?”

  Mac had to force himself not to react to Melina’s innocent question. She didn’t know a thing about his history with his drunk father, or the way he and his sister grew up. He couldn’t expect her to, either, so he didn’t fault her for the curiosity.

  “Not for Victoria,” Mac settled on saying.

  His words came out lame and disinterested, but the heat of resentment trailed close behind in his tone. Melina cocked a brow at him. Clearly, she had heard it, too, but thankfully, she didn’t call him out on the slip.

  “So,” Melina drawled.

  “Hmm?”

  Mac had gone back to rubbing her ankles and calves, which took up a great deal of his attention. The silky feel of her smooth skin under his palms was a surefire way to get his cock hard and his mind in a less than innocent place.

  Kind of like where it was right now.

  “Mac,” Melina said.

  His head popped up fast. “Have I told you how much I like your legs?”

  “Yes. I think you called them beautiful once.”

  “You need to be told again. Especially when you’re wearing a dress. Sexy as sin.”

  The lady on the other side of the table giggled, but kept her head down on her work. Mac didn’t miss the way Melina’s fingers twitched, or how her thighs momentarily tightened.

  “Not the place or time, Mac,” Melina said, heat coloring her words.

  “The place is relative, doll. And any time is a damn good time for that.”

  Melina pressed her lips together like she was holding something back. Mac simply smiled at her non-response and went back to rubbing the kinks from her legs.

  “It was kind of lucky that we ran into each other today, wasn’t it?” Melina asked after a moment.

  “If you want to say that.”

  Mac wasn’t a liar, after all.

  “How would you say it?” Melina asked.

  Sighing, Mac took his time to put Melina’s heels back on and drop her feet on the floor. He leaned back in the chair and said, “I told you that I would be around and keeping an eye on things. What did you think that would involve, Melina?”

  It took a couple of seconds, but Mac watched the realization come to Melina’s pretty features. Anger skipped over her furrowing brow as she regarded him through thick lashes.

  “You’ve been following me?” she asked sharply.

  The Asian woman made an “oh” sound under her breath, but never once looked up from her work. Mac, despite being amused at the woman’s enjoyment over her customers, paid her little mind. Melina was more important at the moment.

  “Chill out, doll.”

  “I told you that—”

  “You wanted time and space. Everything that happened—it was a lot,” Mac said, choosing his words carefully. “I was letting you take what you needed, but there’s a lot of shit at play between the pigs that have been trailing you and the other side that’s watching you, too.”

  Melina’s shoulders stiffened. “The mo—”

  “Careful,” he warned.

  Mac thoroughly believed Melina was born to be a mobster’s girl, even if she didn’t know it. The woman could handle a gun, kept a calm head in bad situations, and wasn’t afraid to get a little dirty.

  That had “gun moll” written all over it.

  But she had a lot of learning to do in the world of mafia.

  A lot.

  “They’re following me, too?”

  “They are,” Mac confirmed. “Guido has had Vin checking up on your place, but there’s been some other activity I noticed by people I don’t recognize as well.”

  “How do they even know where I live?”

  “As long as a person has money, nothing is unreachable,” Mac answered simply.

&nb
sp; “Jesus.”

  “I was giving you what you asked for, Melina, but we have an image to maintain, too. We told them one thing, and we can’t appear as another thing. Okay? So, yeah, I’ve been around. I made sure it would be noticed that I was coming and going from your new apartment building. I made a trip to the center one day when you were working with the kids, but you never noticed me. I stayed out of your way.”

  Melina sucked in a hard breath. “The kids? My new place?”

  “Yes.”

  “How do you know about those things?”

  Mac cringed at the edge in Melina’s voice. It was sharper than a goddamn razor and it would probably cut deeper than one, too. “That morning you left my place …”

  “What about it?”

  “I trailed you.”

  Melina’s expression fell dark before she blanked completely. Slowly, she turned in her seat to face the Asian woman instead of Mac while her nails were being buffed and readied.

  “Miss?” the woman asked.

  “Yes?”

  “He’s idiot.”

  Melina didn’t even smile. “Yes, he is an idiot.”

  “But he’s idiot with good taste because he pick you.”

  Mac grinned when Melina passed him a burning glare.

  “That’s just about the one thing he’s got going for him right now,” Melina muttered.

  Hey, Mac would take it.

  Mac sipped from a to-go cup of hot coffee and leaned against the window of the salon. Across the street, the unmarked police car sat running with the two fools from earlier inside. The detectives chatted back and forth while watching the business and Mac.

  He understood Melina’s annoyance at the fuckers. They were like blood-sucking mosquitos that a person wanted to swat with their hand and kill, but could never quite catch in time before the pain of the bite.

  Bastards.

  In his pocket, Mac’s phone rang. He answered the call on the second ring.

  “Mac here.”

  “Soldato,” Guido greeted.

  Mac frowned. “Skip. What’s up?”

  “Just checking in to make sure you’re ready for tonight.”

  “Of course.”

  “Good. You know, Anthony will be at the dinner as well.”

  Mac’s irritation level climbed higher. “Is that so?”

  “Sì. Tonight is the perfect time for you to try to acquaint yourself with the Capo and perhaps some of his men. Use the old Maccari charm. Your father knows how to use it well enough when he isn’t drunk off his ass. I’m sure you’ll be even better at it.”

  Mac’s jaw clenched so hard his molars ached. Obviously, his Capo was still on the kick of ridding his rival in the Pivetti Cosa Nostra. Mac had very little interest in being involved in Guido’s plans for Anthony, but it didn’t seem like he was going to be given a choice in the matter.

  “I’ll see what I can do,” Mac finally said.

  “Good, good. And your girl? How is she?”

  “Well.”

  Mac could practically see the leer that Guido was wearing when the Capo replied, “I look forward to seeing her again. Any woman who can aim and shoot like that one has got to be a wild thing in the sack. Broads like those are hard to find nowadays.”

  Respect.

  Mac chanted the word over and over to keep from barking at his Capo to shut his disgusting fucking mouth. Jealousy was an awful, terrible monster. He was finding that the more people looked at Melina like she was a piece of meat, and the more words people said about her, the worse his jealousy got.

  He didn’t want other people looking at his girl like that.

  Except she wasn’t his at all.

  “Melina will be her usual self at the dinner, Skip,” Mac forced out.

  “Perfect. Tonight, then. Pivetti mansion at seven. Do not be late, Mac, or you won’t like what happens.”

  “Seven it is.”

  Guido hung up the call without another word.

  More frustrated than ever, Mac shoved the phone back into his pocket. He couldn’t help but check on Melina, just to be sure she was still enjoying herself inside the salon. After she finished getting her nails done, he had made sure to add that she was to have whatever else she wanted added to the tab, including her hair and makeup.

  Mac knew that Melina was going to be pissed off to the heavens when she found out that she had unwillingly been invited to a dinner at the Pivetti boss’s home later that night. He sincerely hoped a day of pampering would soften her up just enough to get her to agree.

  Well, it wasn’t even a matter of Melina agreeing or not. She had to go. Mac simply preferred to have the nicer side of Melina come along, rather than her angry side.

  Not that an angry Melina wasn’t a fun one.

  Mac liked that, too.

  Dammit.

  Pushing those thoughts away, Mac caught the unmarked police car in his sights again. One detective nodded to the other one before getting out of the car. The fool started a trek down the street towards the coffee shop. It was noon and that place was packed, so it wasn’t likely that the detective would be back anytime soon. The other detective rested back in the passenger seat and closed his eyes.

  Lazy asshole.

  Mac grinned, an idea setting in and refusing to let go. As much as he believed in turning the other cheek and being the bigger person, he figured the two detectives needed a lesson in humility.

  For five minutes, Mac watched the detective in the car until the guy’s mouth popped open in what looked to be a snore. Sleeping on the job. Lazy, indeed. These fools could use a lesson or two from a Cosa Nostra Capo on what happens when a man falls asleep during a scheme.

  Keeping one eye on the sleeping detective in the car, Mac strolled across the street. He casually tossed his hands into his slack’s pockets as he rounded the back of the vehicle. Checking to be sure the other cop wasn’t coming back down the sidewalk, and the other idiot was still sleeping, Mac pulled a pocketknife from his pants.

  When a gun couldn’t be carried, a knife was just as good.

  The street was quiet, even with the few people strolling on past. No one ever paid anyone else any attention on the streets of New York. It was almost like an unspoken rule that people needed to mind their own damn business.

  Bending down, Mac left a two-foot long scratch across the back of the trunk with the tip of his knife. Then, as he strolled past the car to cross the street again, he stuck the blade into the tire and jerked the hilt a bit to let the air out. When he pulled the knife from the tire, the air hissed as the tire began to deflate slowly.

  Smirking at the sight of the sleeping fool in the passenger seat, Mac quickly crossed the road again. In this part of town, businesses didn’t have cameras on the outside. Most of them didn’t even have them on the inside.

  Mac took his place leaning against the window again. It took a whole fifteen minutes before the other cop returned. Instantly, the fool must have known something was wrong, given the way the car was leaning hard to the left.

  The detective found the scratched trunk and the slashed tire. Mac watched, entirely amused, as the two detectives shouted at one another. Then, the cop that had gone to the coffee shop looked across the street. His eyes found Mac’s instantly, narrowing with angry understanding.

  Suspecting and proving were two different things.

  Mac smirked, lifted his cup of coffee as an acknowledgment, and then disappeared back into the salon.

  How’s that for an option, boys?

  “Beautiful,” Mac appraised.

  Melina smiled coyly as Mac ran his fingers through her blown out waves. Three hours later, and she now sported cherry red and deep violet highlights throughout her dark chocolate hair. It wasn’t a combination he would have thought of, but it looked damn good on her.

  “Thank you for not arguing too much about the pampering,” Mac said.

  Melina shrugged. “It’s not usually my style to let a man spend money on me like this, but I have a
feeling you would have tied to me to a chair.”

  “Maybe.”

  “Thank you. It was nice.”

  “You’re welcome. Like I said, men who care about their women should show them.”

  “Their women, huh?”

  Mac chuckled. “I know. Don’t bite my fucking head off. I’m just saying. Besides, what man spends half of an afternoon in a salon with a woman if he’s not interested in her, right? It was a good show for the detectives, if nothing else. And if anyone else happened to be following you today, then they probably got the message, too.”

  “Is that the only reason why you did this?”

  “No,” Mac admitted.

  Melina huffed. “You’re trying to get me into bed again.”

  “No on that front, too, doll.” Mac ticked two fingers under her chin. “And not that I have to point it out, but we both know if I wanted to get you in bed, you would already be there.”

  Goddamn, she tried to hide her shiver, but she couldn’t. Mac took that as a battle won and left it alone.

  “Why do this, then?” Melina asked quietly.

  “I told you that I wanted to know you, Melina. I’ve given you two weeks to get your thoughts in order. Sometimes women like you need a good shove to get you out of your crazy head. Maybe that had a little bit to do with it.”

  “But not all.”

  “No, not all,” Mac confessed, blowing out a heavy breath. “We have one more thing to do this afternoon.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yes, you need a new dress.”

  Melina’s brow furrowed. “Why?”

  “To go with your new hair and your beautiful face, doll. Something sexy as sin to show off your legs and curves when I take you to dinner tonight at Luca Pivetti’s mansion.”

  The rebuttal and denial was on the tip of Melina’s tongue. Mac could see her argument and refusal forming right before his eyes.

  “Before you start,” Mac said, lifting a single brow to keep Melina quiet, “… this is not an option, Melina. This is a formal invitation. Remember those rules I told you about?”

  With a tight jaw and a heated glare, Melina nodded. “Yes.”

  “This is one of them. You never shun a Don, babe. Let’s go pick you out a dress.”