Sniping Her Mafia King

While she was at the gym, she'd gotten in a damn good workout and then made her way back to the hotel. She knocked on the door to her room and waited as Deidre grumbled on the other side of the door and undid the deadbolts. Her cousin's crankiness made her grin. She'd been like this all her life. "It's not even five, Arwen." She groaned. "Why can't you exercise at normal hours like regular people?"

"Because today I'm hoping to sign a new client and put him through the paces which means I won't get a workout in. The early bird gets the worm." She grinned as Deidre crawled back into her bed and pulled the duvet over her head complaining of how loud she was. She was humming under her breath

"How do you function without sleep?"

"I don't." Arwen countered. "I'll come back and take a nap after lunch, and I did get a couple of hours sleep before taking off to the gym."

She'd showered at the gym and so she pulled her laptop out and made her way out to the balcony and ignored the chairs, choosing to sit on the cool floor of the concrete, taking in the cool morning breeze and began checking her work emails.

The sky was a pretty mix of blues and pinks as the sun began to slowly rise and morning broke. Whisps of clouds floated in the distance and Arwen sat quietly listening to the city below waking up. She breathed deeply in and out and the ticking of a woodpecker somewhere on the treelined street played a sweet soundtrack to her trying to right her mind.

A message late the night before from Nate confirmed he'd had a good talk with Mathis about the gains he'd made while in her program made her smile. She sent him back a quick note of thanks and said they were even for her secret-keeping about the sub sandwich.

Arwen smiled at the curt email from Mathis saying he looked forward to working with her and the coach would be in touch with a contract offer.

She made a face as she noted an email from her not-so-favorite FBI agent with another warning Adrianu Cavallaro was a dangerous man, and she was putting herself and Deidre in harm's way by associating with him. He offered her his protection. She forwarded the email to his supervisor with a not-so-kindly worded request to get the man to back off or her lawyer would be in contact. She then made sure her Bellona team knew of the situation with him. Artemis hated the guy more than she did and would have a bee in her bonnet over his sudden reappearance into her life.

She continued running through her emails and reviewing her business issues. Running her own company would have been enough work for any woman. She was also a Bellona asset which meant she was doubly busy. Between both organizations and helping her cousin become a decent human being, she was swamped. She never felt overwhelmed with any of it. Everything was always in perfect balance and harmony. As much good as she did while working with people to repair their bodies, snuffing out the life of someone as she had the night before was equally as pleasurable. Give and take.

A text message popped up on her phone from Adrianu wishing her good morning. She immediately replied telling him to go f**k himself. As far as she was concerned, he'd done her dirty the night before talking as he had only to tell her to give into his rules. She knew he was ruthless, but it had been next level, even if she had absolutely expected him to pull out all the stops. He didn't like being told no. Because she had, he was going to chase.

Her phone rang and she considered she probably shouldn't have answered his text. "What do you want?"

"Why are you up at five thirty in the morning?"

"I own my own company, Mr. Cavallaro. It means I'm always working."

"You should play more."

"You should f**k off."

"Why are you so angry this morning?"

She sighed, "I can't do this today. Do you have anything important you need to discuss with me right now?"

"We could finish last night's conversation. I believe you hung up before we could finish it."

"I have s**t to do and you're distracting me from accomplishing what I need to. You're not a priority to me, Mr. Cavallaro. We're not in a relationship and I'm spending too much time focused on you instead of what is important." "Ouch."

"Don't pretend your feelings are hurt. We both know you don't have any." Arwen snapped.

"Mia cara," he started to speak, "I was simply calling to tell you -"

"You know what? Don't. I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear your crazy insanity which will make me hot and bothered and then you give me instructions to not touch myself until you give me permission. I'm done. I'm unclear why you continue to toy with me. Nothing has changed since Friday night when I said I won't obey your stupid rule. You're the kind of guy who just says the things I want to hear, and I don't need it in my life. Stop calling me." She hung up the phone. She didn't know why she was this angry with him. Perhaps it was the lack of sleep or maybe it was the s****l frustration or potentially it was the way the girls had teased her in the car. All she knew was, she was over it. She needed to stop wasting time on men who were not right for her, no matter how much they shared her kinks. As her phone rang again, she declined the call and then using a specific app installed on her phone, she opted to block his number rather than deal with him again.

She closed her eyes as fatigue hit her and leaned her head against the glass door behind her. Why was this guy so under her skin? He was only a man. Yet, as she grumbled angrily to herself over lack of boundaries, inability to make a rational decision and the desire to let him f**k her eight hundred ways to Sunday, she knew she was angrier at herself than him. He was the catalyst who was causing her two personas to collide, and it was causing a vortex of chaos. How could a female assassin who considered herself a feminist, want desperately to be dominated and ruthlessly possessed by a man who doesn't like his women to speak in public. She was losing her marbles. Or they were gone, and it was game over. Either way, for her own sanity, she needed to refocus her energy on anything other than the sexiest man she'd ever laid eyes on. At the thought she shrieked again and slapped her directly on the cold concrete. "f**k!"

She looked up as Deidre padded onto the patio and passed her phone over. "What?"

"Addy's calling my phone for you. I'm too tired to play secretary."

"Are you kidding me?" She grabbed the phone. "Have you lost your mind?"

"You blocked my number."

"Because I'm done. I don't want to talk to you any longer."

He was quiet for a moment. "Arwen, this feels very much like the games girls play in high school and college. Hot cold. Hot cold. I will ask you one last time, do you mean what you say? Are we done?"

Her heart skipped a beat at his words, and she felt the underlying tension behind them. "Yes, we are done."

"So be it. Goodbye, Arwen."

The phone went dead, and she felt a tear edge the corner of her eye before rolling in a fat ball down her cheek. She wiped it away furiously and then stood up and nodded firmly as she gasped for a breath while she leaned over the rail. This was what she wanted. Most of her girlfriends were all in their thirties now, with significant others who didn't diminish their shine. They were loved for being strong, fierce, and independent and would never be expected to sit and look pretty while their partner insulted them. "Everything okay?" Deidre's voice cut into her thoughts.

"Yes. Perfect. I finally got a monkey off my back," she gave a half-smile.

"Arwen, I know you like him. Why are you so against him? Is it the mafia thing?" Deidre made a face as she plopped down beside her on a chair, "I mean it's come in handy."

"Shut up," she nudged her with her knee. "It's his stupid mafia rules. Women should be seen not heard."

"I can't believe he actually said that. He always encourages me to talk to him. Like did he really say it?"

"Not in those words but pretty much."

"Knowing how much you like to twist up words, what was his exact verbiage? Like exactly."

"Something to the effect of I cannot shoot my mouth off again in front of his men or in public because it would be a sign of disrespect and would taint his image." Arwen sunk back down and slapped the concrete, "I mean it's barbaric. He can say what he wants to disrespect me, but I can't speak back?"

"I'd be pissed off if he were rude to me and I had promised to hold my tongue. When was he rude? What did he say?"

Arwen looked at her, "what do you mean?"

"Well, clearly, he was rude or disrespectful to you and you put him in his place, which would warrant him having to make the rule about you disrespecting him again in public. What was it he said which pissed you off?"

Arwen had a recollection of a recent mission where the word flummoxed had gotten brought up. She scratched her temple and recalled every single encounter they'd had. He'd told her he wanted her. Teased her a bit. Had been more than crude on more than one occasion, yet, if she thought about, the crude comments had always been for her ears only.

"I don't remember," she said quietly as she picked at a string from the bottom of her shorts. "He did yell at me once for wearing a sports bra on the street in Vegas."

"He yelled at you?" Deidre's eyes bugged. "I can't picture him yelling. He's too cool."

She paused, "well, it wasn't a yell. It was more of an order. Jesse said he was staking a claim."

Deidre giggled at her words, "It's your choice, though. He doesn't get a say in what you wear. You were probably a bit ruder to him than he was you though."

She felt a headache coming on. "Maybe," she made a face. "It doesn't matter though. He doesn't get to be a jackass to me, and I have to take it."

"Well what else did he do to make you feel you had to teach him a lesson?"

"Dee, why does it matter?"

"Humor me. What did he say to make you lose your s**t in front of people? Did he call you fat, stupid, ugly? Tell you, you should be at home in the kitchen making pasta and bread for his dinner which you should serve him with his vino, a cigar, and a blowjob?" She ducked away from Arwen's slap. "What did he say to make you respond in a way which clearly made him feel you were disrespecting him, in front of people who mattered?"

She paused, "he asked me why I didn't want to go out with him. I gave him a list. I wasn't quiet about it. The windows of his limo were down thus clearly the men inside must have heard him."

Deidre scoffed, "how bad was the list?"

"Might have suggested he goes through enough women he might have an STD."

She laughed, "ouch."

"Also accused him of treating women like possessions and tossing them like trash."

Deidre made a face, "how long was the list?"

"Five reasons." She pursed her lips and looked away.

"You insulted and berated him in front of his guys to make him back off. He must have lost his frigging mind. Did he freak out?"

She kept her gaze averted, "no, I stormed off and he calmly followed me because he was worried, I was opening the clinic alone."

"Oh my god," Deidre laughed openly at her. "So, when did he disrespect you so much, you had to lose it with him."

"Well," Arwen made a face, "he didn't but -"

"Okay, I'm going to say this, and I need you to remember we are blood and I love you more than anyone else alive on this planet so don't punch me like you do everyone else." She was laughing as she said it. Arwen turned to look at her, "what?"

"You and the girls you call your best friends are hotheads. You all throw punches first, ask questions later. If I had to count the number of times you've come home from dancing with them at a club covered in bruises from defending whichever one of you were insulted that night, I'd run out of fingers and toes. I get you all love martial arts and fighting and s**t but, sometimes all you girls do is fight in the name of feminism. Addy didn't hide from you who he was. He's been blunt, straight forward and even helpful. He hasn't lied yet, well, you haven't said anything to suggest he's a liar like Trace was. In fact, based on what you just said, considering you know he's a mob boss, the fact you insulted him in front of everyone and he cut you slack and still asked you to dinner speaks volumes. If you were rude for the sake of being rude and he was simply setting ground rules for you not to do it in the future, I think this one is on you."

Deidre stood up from the chair and grumbled about why they were sitting in the cold when there were warm chairs inside. "Arwen, you were so worried about being able to defend yourself you forgot he was never on the offensive." She took her phone from Arwen's palm and shook her head.

Arwen was certain her jaw was sitting on her floor of the balcony from the words her young cousin had just spouted before disappearing into the hotel room. The desire to argue with her was strong but instead she sat there and pondered her words. Had she really been the one to be offensive?

The more she considered it, the more she realized from the minute she had seen him across the room in the Vegas underground, she had felt the need to attack him like a cornered, spitting kitten and she had at every turn. The way he looked at her had unnerved her and she had responded the way she knew how, by fighting.

Adrianu Cavallaro more than most would have significant reasons to downplay who he was or what he did for a living and yet, he hadn't danced around anything. He had been far more forthright than she had expected from a man in his line of work and absolutely far more revealing than she had been. He was a mob boss, but she was a Bellona sniper.

As she sat there staring at the sun coming up over the buildings, she felt unease in her chest. Before she'd even gone to Vegas with Jesse, Artemis had given her the heads up of Luca Cavallaro's sudden interest in s*x trafficking and given how the man always had his guards up his a*s, she would likely need a sniper to take him out. She had known from day one she was going to kill his father. It was why she had balked when Jesse had identified him to her.

Admittedly, it was why she was still wanting to stay clear of him. He was too close to a job she had performed and had almost been the job. If Bellona ordered a hit on him, she'd be the one to do it, though now he'd rescued a crate of women and was losing his mind with worry over a second crate, Bellona now considered him an asset, even if he had no idea.

What would he say if he knew she'd not only shot his father and his bodyguard but had put a bullet just past his cheek? While Jesse had said it buzzed her ear, it had been meant to appear like a shot for him and it was far closer to him than her.

Since she'd fired the shot at him, she hadn't been the same. He was under her skin like a splinter, and it was infecting her. While he had been flirty and flat-out telling her his interest, she had put up wall after wall because she had killed his family. The man who said family was everything and protected hers had been victim to her sniper skills.

This is what it boiled down to. Any relationship she ever indulged in would involve lying. It was part of being a Bellona Agent. She wasn't Jesse or Isabella or Clara Draxton. She didn't live at the top of the hierarchy. Like Cat who could never let Tuva know about her side-gig, whoever Arwen wanted to be as her life-partner would never be privy to her work as an assassin. It meant she was already starting any relationship with a lie.

She could live with it. What she couldn't get her heart to look past was looking into his eyes every single day and hearing him talk about la Famiglia and knowing she had ripped his apart with a single bullet. Her actions had plunged him into a role he had been born to perform but not intending to take yet.

At the crux of it all, this was why she had been reacting the way she had been. She was stupidly, foolishly attracted to a mark, a target and it was assassin training one-oh-one to never show emotion during a job. She had. From the minute she'd laid eyes on the man in Vegas, she was drawn to him in a way which far outshone the attraction she'd had for any other man.

Thus, she had gone offensive, striking out at every turn. She could scream from the rooftops his demands for respect and silence were misogynistic and barbaric but, in the end, he had not once given her any reason to fight. She had started and ended all the fights, especially the ones in public and in front of his men. If she had been in public with Artemis and had said the things to her, she had said to Addy, she'd be dead.

Her observant cousin had hit the nail on the head and in doing so reminded her of the truth of who she was. Arwen Beddoe was an agent of the Bellona Collective. Adrianu Cavallaro was a target, an assignment and her subconscious had been telling her to step back. It was time she listened to what her brain had been telling her all along. She forced her memories of Saturday night as far to the back of her mind as she could. What's done is done. It was time to move on.