Saved by the Mafia

"Tail that girl and get me her address!" I want her. She looks abused, dumped, and broken, but I will make sure she becomes my baby under my rules. When eighteen-year-old Evelyn Adair gets caught up running from her past, her path crosses with that of infamous Mafia leader Slater Lucci. The gangster is instantly taken with Evelyn and can't seem to steer clear of her. But will this put her in more danger than she was in before? ----- Slater Lucci's POV I was bored. I stood by the front bumper of my Cadillac, watching my guys in the windows of the apartment building next to me as they combed through the third floor. I pulled a cigarette from my coat pocket and lit it, taking a long drag before pushing my hair out of my face. I should have known Maddox wouldn’t be here. The p***y had probably crossed four state lines by now. He would’ve left New York at the first sign that I caught wind that he f****d me over. Peter came barreling out of the building, angry as he kicked a metal trash can across the sideway. I eyed him. “He’s not there, boss.” He spat through clenched teeth. Peter was my right hand man. He was every bit as ruthless, calculating, and cold as I was— and that was what made him reliable. He looked a bit too much like he’s father for my liking— the same light brown hair and overexcited brown eyes, but I managed to overlook it most days. I hit my cigarette again, looking out over the street ahead of me and listening to the sounds of the city. “We’ll find him.” The piercing scream of a girl caught my ear, and I found myself looking around for it curiously. That’s when I noticed her. A young girl, no older than eighteen or nineteen, was running down the street in a panic. A very obviously drunk older man was running after her, and despite his drunken stupor, he managed to catch up to her, landing on her back. Her head hit the concrete with a sick thud. I wasn’t sure why I did it. I didn’t normally care. But before I knew what I was doing, I had crossed the distance between me and the man who was still struggling to pin the sobbing girl to the ground. And my gun was out of my shoulder holster, c****d, and pointed straight at his skull. He looked up at me when he heard the metal click. He was an unattractive old man. He had brown hair with a pretty bad receding hairline, an unkempt beard that was starting to turn white in places. He was overweight and probably four times the size of the tiny blonde he had pinned beneath him. “Whoa, whoa!” He croaked out. “Who the f**k are you?” My face remained cold and emotionless. “Get up.” The man raised his hands up in surrender and stood up, the poor girl underneath him gasping for air and rolling over on her back. My jaw ticked as I eyed the old man. “Now get lost.” The man turned around and ran pathetically down the street from which he came, and I leaned down to offer the girl my hand. When I helped her to her feet, I realized she was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen. Her white-blonde hair fell in loose waves down her back, and her warm, honey-colored eyes sat center in a face that belonged to a porcelain doll. Small button nose, full peach-colored lips. She was a tiny little thing— I was probably a foot taller than her, and she couldn’t have weighed more than a hundred pounds. Her skinny legs shook in her rain boots as she looked up at me. She’d taken a pretty severe beating recently, though. Despite her beautiful face, one of her eyes was a deep purple and slightly swollen, and her top lip was plump and had a small cut on it. Yellowing bruises were faintly visible along the length of her jaw, and by the way she was babying her left wrist, I figured that was injured too. Why did I care? I scoffed mentally. “You good?” I asked her, lighting myself another smoke. She nodded her head quickly. “Y-yeah. Thank you.” “What’s your name?” I asked her. I wasn’t sure why— I just needed to know. “Um. Evelyn. But everyone calls me Evie.” I took a drag on my cigarette. “You should go back home, Evie.” She nodded and took a few steps back before turning around and briskly walking back towards wherever she came from, her eyes scanning the alleyway behind her. I glanced over my shoulder. “Peter.” “Yeah, boss?” “Tail that girl. Make sure she gets home. And get me her address.” “10-4.” What I was doing was very out of character for me. I didn’t show interest in people unless they held monetary value with the Mafia. I knew that the little blonde held no interest for my job. So why was I breaking all of my own rules?