Maid for the Mafia

**ROMANY**

I wait ten minutes before stepping back into the house through the third story patio and wandering down the dark hall. All is quiet and after listening for a second at Anna's door, I continue toward the stairs.noveldrama

I am passing the vacant bedroom - the bedroom that was supposed to be mine - when I'm suddenly grabbed from behind and dragged backward into the shadows.

Immediately my heart rate kicks up as I think about the threat Ruiz taunted me with up on the sun deck. His confession that he had originally planned to throw me to my death pushing a healthy dose of fear into my blood. I instantly fight, my immobilised body struggling for movement as the heavy arm trusses around my waist and arms. My legs go kicking, a scream rising in my throat only to be cut off by a thick hand that bands over my lips tightly enough to bruise my jaw.

I'm on the verge of passing out from the panic when a familiar set of lips caresses the shell of my ear and whispers, "It's me babygirl. Hush. It's just me."

*Oh my God.*

*Tiny!!*

My body goes limp, my scream turning to a moan as my captor sets me gently on my feet only to step past me and secure the door locks. I fall back toward the bed, my heart still pounding feverishly even as my eyes trail up the colorful dragon tattoos I can see that wind around the base of his neck. He's in all black, wearing what looks like some kind of tactical suit and he looks positively devastating.

"Tiny!" I whisper, warmth flooding over me when he spins around and I see that it's really him. "You came for me. How..."

He smirks, flashing his half dimpled smile, the dark of his deep brown eyes glinting off the sparse moonlight that slices through the unshaded window.

"Babygirl," he murmurs, his gaze falling over me with a dark, possessive hunger that lights my panties on fire. "Did you think I wouldn't come? That I wouldn't follow you?" He prowls toward me slowly and I drop down on the bed behind me, keeping myself seated upright even though the sight of him has my core pulsing with the need to lie back. Tiny loses his smile, a cold ruthlessness creeping over his face on his approach. He whispers, "Tell me that you didn't leave us for Santos. Please-" his jaw tics "-tell me that what I saw this afternoon was just some game you were running on Ruiz."

*Tell him what?*

*Oh my silly, sexy fucking dragon.*

I almost want to taunt him, because despite that I hate a domineering Damien, a jealous Tiny is just about the hottest thing I've ever seen. "Come here," I choke out when he's only a few feet away from me.

He shakes his head, stopping himself when he's half a foot from the bed. I let out a strangled growl and reach out for his belt, yanking him toward me until I'm able to tumble him down on the bed beside me.

He hits his back with a muted thud and I eagerly straddle him, reaching forward to wind my hands in his hair and slam my lips down on his.

"You came," I rasp as quietly as the sudden clench of my chest will allow, groaning into his mouth when he opens up for me, his hands clamping down over my hips so that he can pin me to his rapidly hardening girth. "I knew you would!"

"Fuck," Tiny hisses, knocking the air from my lungs as he rolls me beneath him and buries his face in my hair. "What are you doing here? Your cousin-"

"I know!" I whisper. "She's why I'm here. I traded myself for her."

"Why-" he starts to say, cutting off when footsteps sound outside the bedroom door. Slow and steady, the clap of sandals on wood pause just beyond the wall. "Shit," I mouth, listening intently.

I don't know who it is, so when Tiny untangles himself from my arms, pushing up onto his feet and creeping toward the door as silently as a ninja, I say nothing. He places a hand over the lock, and slips a knife out of his belt, waiting for any sign of movement. “No!” I hiss, shaking my head vehemently, but the fool ignores me. So, I leap up, making an obscene amount of noise until I hear the swift rapping of a thick fist on the door. Tiny glares at me, but I shove behind me and away from the door as I say, "Yes?"

"Romany?" Santos voice calls back. "Is that you?"

The handle on the door jiggles and I breathe a sigh of relief, spinning around to find Tiny gone.

*What the fuck?*

*Where'd he go?*

*He couldn't have left... could he have?*

My heart burns at the thought and I scan the space, my eyes going straight for the closet at the other end of the room. I wonder for a moment if he slipped inside and *if* he did, how without my hearing a motherfucken thing.

"Romany!" Santos calls out again, and the lock on the door begins to turn.

*Shit.*

I stand back when the damn thing suddenly bursts open and Santos files into the room, his eyes scanning the space before falling back on me. "You're alone," he says, his eyebrows drawing together in confusion. "When I heard Ruiz scuffling around in his room above me, I came straight up to check on you." He sighs, his attention still piqued as he moves toward the bathroom and my face burns with worry as he checks the bathroom and then the other side of the bed. "I could have sworn..." he trails off, his face crumpling. "But... you're alone," he declares, disappointed.

That's when it dawns on me...

*He was hoping I was locked in here with Ruby.*

*That's actually a little sad.*

Souring my lips, I glare at him. "No thanks to you. You sent me off with your psycho cousin!"

Santos flashes me a smile, closing the bedroom door and sending my heart stuttering into my throat as I begin to back toward the closet just in case Tiny is inside. *He has to be, right?*

*Unless he somehow slipped out the window...*

"Are you angry about that?" Santos asks, surveying the rumpled bedding with a quirk

of an eyebrow. "I thought you agreed to play him, no?"

I glare. “Yes. But that was before I knew he intended to *throw* me from the fucking roof!!!"

Santos' jaw clenches then he snarls, "He fucking - what? Did he-"

But that's all he gets out before the closet suddenly flies open at my back and I'm thrown out of the way as Tiny launches toward Santos, his knife glinting in the moonlight.

*Fuck!*