Captive of my mafia crush

Chapter 7

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“Whoa!” Christian says, catching Iris before she can fall to the ground. He holds her steady, letting her find her feet. She looks up at him apologetically with those wide blue eyes, a perfect pink blush spreading over her cheekbones.

Go d da mn it, why did she have to grow up to be so da mn pretty?

“Um,” she says, glancing down towards her legs. “This is really embarrassing – but I don’t think I can -”

Christian glances down too and realizes that her knees are shaking. He curses and wraps his right arm more completely around Iris’s shoulders before slipping his left beneath her knees, scooping her up into his arms.

She gasps a little as he lifts her into the air. “I’m so sorry,” she murmurs, “I don’t know what’s going on with me

“You’re in shock, Iris,” Christian sighs, holding her tight against his chest. “Your first gunfight, first kidnapping, first car chase?” he shrugs and smiles at her, trying to make her laugh, G od, he always used to love to make her laugh.

She cra cks a little smile.

“You’re all right, kid,” Christian murmurs. “We’ll get you taken care of. Ready?”

Iris nods and Christian strides forward.

Frankie smirks at Christian as he falls in at his side, but he doesn’t say anything as they walk towards the elevator. Nico is waiting already, holding the door.

Christian glances down at Iris as he walks, observing the way she curls against him, trusting him completely. He silently considers that Iris has always had a sweet, girlish face – but when they were kids her cheeks had been chubby with baby fat. And her blonde hair had always been cut short. Now, it’s grown out into a gorgeous honey mane that falls well below her shoulders.

She has makeup on now, too which she never wore when they were young – but Christian smiles when he thinks that Iris doesn’t need to paint beauty on like the other girls at that club do. Sweetness and innocence and joy it clings to Iris, just as it always had.

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It’s probably why she makes so much da mn money at that club. Iris probably doesn’t even know it – but people are drawn to energy like hers. Christian had recognized that energy the moment she came on stage. Even before he saw her features, he’d known it was her.

Go d dam n it, but it was bad timing for Iris to come back into his life. Even as he thinks it, though, he tightens his arms around her, because there is absolutely no way in hell he is going to let Bonetti get his hands on her- not while there is still breath in his body.

But if anyone ever found that out how much this girl means to him?

Dam n, but they’ll use her as leverage against him.

Which means he has to play this very…very cool.

Christian and Frankie step into the elevator as Nico presses the button for the penthouse. As the elevator shudders into action; Christian adjusts Iris, lifting her a little so that her head is tucked under his chin as she starts to shiver in the cold.

As the elevator rises, Christian thinks back onto this disaster of a night at the club, which he’d only gone to because Ben Bonetti is a go d da mn pe rvert who is obsessed with dancers and h ookers.

But Ben is a Bonetti – and Christian needed to make a deal, so he’d let Ben pick the spot.

Of course, that deal was in the trash now that Christian punched his lights out. He sighs, frustrated at his lack of control in that moment – but seeing Ben grab for Iris – hell, even seeing the way he’d looked at her-

Christian grits his teeth now just thinking about it.

Not that he could really blame Ben for being captivated. The way Iris moved on the stage – she danced like she was in a different world. Sometimes she even danced with her eyes closed, when she wasn’t looking deliberately out at the patrons with that insane come-get-me stare that she clearly didn’t know the power of.

Iris – she had been astonishingly se xy. She had had the kind of power on stage that brings men to their knees. But the naïve way she handled it?

Christian has to assume that Iris has no idea what she really has going on.

After all, Iris had always been cute, but she’d always been a little too chubby and dorky to ever be se xy.

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Chapter 7

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G od d amn it, did she grow into herself though.

G od da mn it.

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The elevator dings, the door popping open.

Christian takes a deep breath as he walks out of the elevator, Nico moving ahead and Frankie falling behind, as they always do, heading for the door at the end of the hall.

When Christian had seen those two guys grabbing Iris behind the bar, he’d almost been too late. He’d spent too much time negotiating with Ben, who had lain bleeding on the floor, shouting about how Christian was going to pay for this.

So, Christian had almost missed those two assholes harassing Iris until she had shouted, and then he’d instantly been moving towards the bar. He’d lost her again when the bartender had used the champagne to distract the guys-clever move there.

But when the two guys had disappeared through that curtain and down the hall, Christian had only taken a moment to give Frankie and Nico orders, and then he’d grabbed his gun, squeezing two bullets into the air, wanting the chaos it would incite.

Then he’d moved, watching Bonetti’s henchmen as they rushed down the hall with that manager. Christian hadn’t panicked, though, because he knows Iris in a way those other guys don’t.

Christian, after all, had played hours of hide-and-seek with Iris when they were kids – and he knew she always preferred to hide in a tight, dark place, rather than run. So, when he’d seen the closet halfway down the hall?

He knew instantly she was in there and ordered Nico to go get her.

But even though Christian knew, in that moment, that taking Iris was only going to cause trouble for him?

He has no choice.

He’ll gouge out the eyes of anyone that tries to hurt Iris Smith. Da mn the consequences – she’s his responsibility now. After all, he owes Damon Smith his life.

But even as he thinks it…Christian knows that this goes far beyond that childhood debt.

Frankie enters the code into the door’s lock and pushes it open, moving swiftly into the penthouse suite and

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flicking on the lights, checking the corners and calling clear as he moves into the master bedroom. Nico does the same, moving swiftly to the other rooms of the apartment as Christian kicks the door shut behind him.

“Do you think you can stand on your own

your own now?” Christian murmurs to Iris. “Or, I can just take you to the couch -”

“I can stand,” she says softly. “Or at least, I can try.”

Christian nods and slowly lowers her feet to the floor, her plastic shoes clicking on the floorboards.

Slowly, a little unstable, she straightens her legs.

“Nicely done,” he says, his voice teasing, which makes her raise her eyes to glare at him, just a little. Daisy had never liked being teased, which always made it more fun. “You’re earning your stage name today with those. wobbly legs, Bambi.”

This earns him an eye roll and a swift turn away, which brings a smile to Christian’s mouth. Iris, she’s definitely coming back to herself. She starts to walk slowly to the couch and Christian follows her, watching her look around.

“Bambi,” she murmurs, sinking into the cush ions of the expensive beige sofa and looking out the wall of windows at the very wide, very expensive view of the city. “Go d, I’m so embarrassed. If I could wipe that from your mind right now, I’d do it.”

memory

“I wouldn’t,” Christian replies easily, standing next to her. He goes still, though, when she flicks her eyes back to him and he realizes what he just said.

Because this girl clearly has…absolutely no idea how sex y she actually is.

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