Kelly's POV:
I drifted in and out of consciousness during the journey back to the mansion, never remaining awake long enough to fully understand what was happening around me before darkness threatened to pull me under again, leaving me suspended somewhere between reality and exhaustion while pain settled deep inside my skull and wrapped itself around every thought I attempted to hold onto. The movement beneath me told me I was being carried, the steady rhythm of footsteps occasionally breaking through the fog in my mind, and although I couldn't open my eyes properly for more than a few seconds at a time, there was something strangely grounding about the firm hold keeping me secure against a broad chest.
Every time I tried to force myself awake, my head throbbed so violently that I immediately regretted it, but eventually the muffled sounds around me became clearer until I could distinguish voices, the low rumble of men speaking over one another and the unmistakable sound of Adam complaining about something that probably wasn't important.
"You'd think after all these years people would stop trying to kill the boss's problems for him," Adam muttered somewhere nearby, sounding irritated enough to be genuine despite the sarcasm threaded through his tone. "It creates paperwork, and I hate paperwork almost as much as I hate ugly suits."
"You hate paperwork because you can't spell," Derrick replied without missing a beat, his voice carrying the dry patience of a man who had endured this exact argument a hundred times before.
"I can spell."
"You absolutely cannot."
"I can spell enough."
"That isn't the same thing."
Despite the pain clouding my thoughts, despite the exhaustion weighing heavily over me, I realised with some confusion that the familiar bickering made something inside my chest loosen slightly because it sounded normal in a situation that was anything but normal. It sounded like the mansion, like the strange routine I had unwillingly fallen into during the weeks I spent trapped there, and somehow I found comfort in the familiarity of two grown men arguing like children while surrounded by bloodshed and violence.
The warmth beneath me shifted slightly and I finally managed to open my eyes enough to realise exactly where I was.
Cade was carrying me.
My head rested against him while one arm remained secured beneath my knees and the other supported my back with an ease that suggested my weight meant absolutely nothing to him, and the first thing that struck me through the haze of pain was how carefully he was holding me despite the severity written across every line of his face.
I stared at him.
He noticed almost immediately.
"You awake?" he asked without looking down at me.
His tone remained neutral, controlled and measured in the way it always was, but I couldn't ignore the fact that he adjusted his grip almost instantly when I shifted uncomfortably against him.
"I think so," I whispered, my voice sounding weak even to my own ears.
"You've got a concussion," he replied calmly. "Try not to think too hard."
I blinked slowly before swallowing through the dryness in my throat. "Did... did you find me?"
Something shifted in his jaw.
"You think anyone else would've cleaned up that mess?"
The answer should have irritated me.
It should have frustrated me that even now, after everything that had happened, he couldn't simply say yes.
YOU ARE READING
My mafia love
RomansaFINISHED BUT EDITING !! Kelly was taken without explanation-locked inside a world she doesn't understand, by a man she can't escape and no one to come to her rescue. Cade moves in shadows where power is bought in blood and loyalty is never question...
