Read Kissing the Killer: A Bad Boy Mafia Romance (Barone Crime Family) for Free Online Page A

gambled away a big chunk of it. I had freaked out and realized that I knew nothing about the outside world, nothing about surviving on my own.
    But I also knew nothing about this man, Brooks. Okay, yeah, he made my heart race and my pussy dripping wet, but that didn’t matter. He was a killer, a man sent to kill my family and me. He was dangerous despite what he said about wanting to keep me around.
    True, so far he’d treated me well, but how long would that last? I was taking a big risk by staying.
    But it could be a bigger risk if I ran. I stood there staring at the door, warring with myself internally again. I could leave, go out into the world, try to make it on my own. I wasn’t stupid or weak, and worse people than me made it out there.
    But I couldn’t stop thinking about what Brooks had said about people wanting to kill me. If he was telling the truth, then maybe leaving was the bigger mistake. He seemed to know what he was doing, and so far he really was the only person to help me.
    And he did save me. He’d lied to his partner back in my house that night. Originally he tried to get me to hide again, and it was only after the other man saw me that Brooks decided he was going to take me.
    Which meant that he never planned on this. Brooks wanted me here as much as I wanted to be here. He was saving me anyway though.
    I took a deep breath and stepped back. There was nothing I wanted more badly than to get out of this stranger’s apartment, away from its white walls and empty space, but I knew I couldn’t. I knew the right choice was to stay and to see what Brooks was like, to try to figure him out.
    Maybe he really did want to help me. If that was the case, then I was in more trouble than I realized.
    I sighed and went back into the bedroom. I began to root through his things, though I knew I probably shouldn’t. I figured you gave up any rights to privacy once you kidnapped a person.
    There was nothing interesting. Clothes in the closet, underwear and clothes in the dresser. Some cash, but not much, in a shoebox. There was another gun, but it wasn’t loaded.
    At the bottom of his sock drawer, I found pictures. I leafed through them, frowning. I guessed the woman in them was his mother, but I couldn’t be sure.
    Finally, I found a cell phone tucked under a book in his nightstand. I turned it on and was surprised when it got a signal.
    Without thinking, I dialed the only number I knew.
    “Lou’s Diner.”
    “Lucy?” I asked.
    “Oh hey, Emma,” she said. “What’s up?”
    Lucy was one of the girls who worked with me at the diner. I liked her and she was always nice to me, but I wouldn’t call us friends. We were friendly coworkers, and with my life the way it was, that was about as close to friendship as I really got.
    “Uh, not much. How’s it going?”
    “Oh, you know, boring as always. We never have many people in around now. Hey, are you calling out?”
    My mind moved fast. “Actually I am,” I said. “I’m going out of town for a while.”
    “Really? Where?”
    “California. Sick relative.”
    “Sorry to hear it. Want me to tell Lou for you?”
    “Yeah, if you wouldn’t mind.”
    “Can’t say he’ll keep you on if you’re gone too long.”
    “That’s okay. I get it.”
    “Okay. Well, hope everything is good with you.”
    “Thanks, Lucy. See you.”
    I hung up the phone, turned it off, and put it back.
    I sat down on the bed, staring down at my hands.
    That felt like a clean break from my old life. That job was all I had left. Maybe it would still be there when this was all over, or maybe I was really walking away from everything I’d ever known.
    The thought terrified me and excited me all at once.

    * * *
    I woke up with a start . I didn’t remember falling asleep, but I must have sometime while Brooks was still out. The television was on, and I barely remembered lying down on the couch to stare at it.
    Most of the day had passed by the time Brooks opened the door and stepped