Escaping The Mafia King

Hope woke up to the rays of sunshine warming her face through the blinds. Her head still pounded, but at least she didn't feel
like she was fighting to stay alive. Varys was asleep at the foot of her bed, his arms used as pillows as he gently snored. With his
hair all messed up, he went from the hot mafia boss to the cute boyfriend from so long ago. Well, cute soon-to-be-husband now.
She didn't want to wake him so she forced her body to calm itself as much as possible as she just watched him sleep. The day
before's proceedings was a huge nightmare by this point and she had problems figuring out what was real and what wasn't.
The door to her room opened a tall, very handsome, doctor stepped in. His salt-and-pepper hair only added to his appeal. He
smiled at Hope with his oh so perfect teeth. "I'm glad to see you are awake, and not likely to try to sing to me the periodic table
this time."
She didn't remember that. "I did that?"
He chuckled at her. "You did a lot more than that, Ms. Hope. You've been in and out of it for three days now. I'm glad to see you
and your partner in crime doing so much better. I was worried for a bit."
Hope smiled down at Varys again. "He stayed with me with me the whole time?"
"Oh, yes, he did. But I wasn't talking about that one. I was talking about the man known just as Max. Now that you're awake, he'll
be requesting to see you. I have to admit, I was a bit surprised to see him come out of this sooner than you did. But I'm relieved
you're both going to make a full recovery. You can even go home tonight."
Home.
Strange how that single word had changed into so many things in such a short course of time. No longer was home going to be a
prison for her where her tormentor lived. No longer would she fear returning to it, or dread spending time in it. Home was going
to be a place of love, even if it was with another mafia boss.
She frowned to herself. Would history just play out the same way again? She knew Varys wasn't that kind of man, didn't she? But
she'd thought she'd known Ethan at the time. Things had started out good for them, until one day they were not. Could such a
thing happen again?
"Did you not want to see him yet?"
"No, it's okay. Send him in. I'm sure Varys will just sleep through it." She combed her fingers through his hair and smiled at the
softness. She could do that all day and never grow tired of the action.

"As you wish." The doctor turned and left and a moment later Max strode through the door.
Hope swallowed as she saw all the bandages. She'd done this to him. If she'd never got involved, he would have been safe.
"Hello," she whispered.
"Hey, I see what you're doing. And I'm not going to have that. Stop blaming yourself. It was my own fault for running after a pretty
girl that caught my fancy. I don't want to hear any blame coming from you. This isn't your fault, it's not even Varys fault." He
glanced over at the sleeping man. "Though I'd like to blame him. I gotta admit, I was wrong about him."
"What about?" Hope pulled her covers just a bit tighter around herself.
"He really loves you, Hope. Not to say I didn't, I did, I still do, but I want what's best for you. As much as I hate to admit this,
that's him. Besides, I've got a top secret mission of my own to go accomplish. Can you put off your wedding till I return?"
"You want me to delay my wedding? What for?"
"I'm going to go get your bridesmaid and the man to give you away. If they're out there anywhere, leave it to me to find them. You
just focus on healing up in the meantime."
Hope looked him up from top to bottom. "You look way worse off than me, Max."
He grinned. "I was worried you'd forgotten my name, Hope. But I promise you, I'm getting them back, and we're all going to be
there at your wedding. Those assholes had to have left evidence of where they were taking the others, and I'll find it." He
gestured with a thumb at the sleeping Varys. "And this guy is footing the bill. Gotta save up to get my office and your uncle's
coffeeshop back together again, going to put fucking insurance on it this time around."
Varys groaned from his place and opened one eye. "If you can do what you said within a week, you can have the money to
rebuild the whole thing. If you're later than that, you get half of it. I want to be married by this time next week."
Max chuckled. "You're not giving me a lot of time there, man."
Varys shrugged as he stretched before smirking at the other man. "You're the fancy private investigator right? This is right up
your alley? So, prove it. Find out what happened to them, and get back by our wedding. If you don't, you're going to miss it,
because I'm marrying this woman so the whole world knows she's mine."

Hope flushed as the heat climbed to her cheeks. It was one thing for Varys to say that kind of thing in private to her. But it was an
entirely different matter when it was in front of Max. "Good luck," she whispered to him. She was not quite able to meet his eyes,
but that was okay. She knew he'd understand.
"See you in a week, Hope," Max agreed as he strode out of the room in perfect confidence.
In fact he was so confident, Hope believed that he really could do what he said.
"Now," Varys mumbled as he leaned closer to her.
"Now?" Hope parroted as his eyes settled on her lips.
"You're not drugged anymore, right? You will remember all of this?"
Hope nodded. "Clear-headed as I can be, why?"
Varys grinned and pulled the side rail of her bed down as he peeled back the sheets. "Because now I'm going to spend some
time with you, woman."
Hope wasn't given a chance to respond before the soft heated kisses began.