Maid for the Mafia
A Gift

**SANTOS**

"The package has been deposited and is secure, Santos. ETA for arrival should put us there half an hour before midnight tomorrow," Juarez tells me.

He's standing at my office door, probably looking like a cat that's just had his cream, with his dark beady eyes aimed at the back of my head. I'm sitting behind my desk, my chair turned around to face the unshaded bay windows, but even with my back turned I know what that gremlin is thinking. His misconception is in his belief that I am unaware of what he is planning. He has been one of my men for ten years.

Ten long years of a friendship that has gone from good to over with just the appearance of a single female. A female that *tried* to *kill* me no less!

*Really Tony? Are you sure you want to do this?*

But yes. Yes I am sure. Because although at one time, I was positive that I would *never* ever be one of those males that falls all over himself for the sake of a woman - it has happened. And despite that I have known of the Red Raider for *years* - even *known* I'd more than likely face her one day - I never thought to prepare myself for any more than the task of killing the woman.

I'd seen pictures of her before. Even saw video footage of her before this. Her very first job when she was *fifteen* years old was to take out my cousin Diego Rojas, Dana's brother, and although at the time, Diego and I didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things, I knew it would be my job one day to end her. My *aunt* still hates me for not taking immediate aggressive action the way she expected. In truth, I was rather impressed with the natural born killer she seemed to represent, but I *knew* that one day it would be up to me to enact vengeance upon her. I just wasn't in any hurry to do it. She was a woman, after all.

I never could have prepared myself for the way I felt the moment I came face to face with her in real life.

*That moment?* It was not only pivotal, but it was defining.

I tried to dress it up by telling myself that I just wanted her on my team. That I *needed* her on *my* side. Tried to pretend that the strange burning sensation in my chest wasn't any more than a symptom of oncoming heartburn - but in the back of my mind, I *knew* what it was. I *feared* what it was. Even so, I might have been able to go through with it - with the murdering of her - if I hadn't decided to let my men have her first. Because *that* was what did it for me.

That was what woke the beast inside of me. A very *different* beast than I was used to concealing. It was the one thing in this world I never thought to allow myself, that this new monster seemed to crave. And it craved it from *her.* From Red. *More* than power and *more* than money, it wanted her.

In those moments before I let them have her, I permitted myself to caress her sweet body, careless of any protest she might have. The feel of her drove me toward the edge of madness. I was harder than a steel spike, and because it never even occurred to me that she might *want me* in return, I thought of it as goodbye. Because I was sure that by the time my men were done ravaging her, she would be ready to die. She might even have *begged* it of me by that point. If she had? I would have been able to tell myself that my killing her was a gift, instead of what it would have actually have been - which was murder.

So when the first man came in and climbed atop her perfect frame, spitting disgusting things in her ear, I steeled myself against the rage that I felt. Honed in on my cold stone heart, I waited for him to take the light from her eyes. When he sliced off her pants and growled out his arousal, I tried not to listen anymore. I was already preparing to deafen my ears just on the off chance that she might cry out in terror - which so far I have never seen her do.

Then, he accused her of being wet for him and I saw red. Jealousy burned inside of me and for a moment, I actually hated her. But she denied it - said that *it wasn't him that she was wet for* - and all I could think about in that one moment was that I'd never forgive myself if it was *me* she wanted and I *never* found out.

I acted without thinking when I threw that bastard into the wall and asked my question. And although, she didn't verbalize that it was *me* that she wanted, it was there in her eyes. Since that afternoon, that is all that I see when I try to sleep at night.

Now she is mine, whether she wants to be or not. She will *always* be the one thing in this world that put me on my knees. To have her in my arms and to fall asleep every night staring into those liquid blue pools of worship, is all that I want. Maybe *that* is what I should have asked her for. Instead of trying to strongarm her into becoming one of *us.* Perhaps then I would have received my coveted answer of *yes, yes Antonio, yes*.

"Santos?" Juarez breaks into my thoughts and I finally realize that I've yet to dismiss him.

"Go!" I growl out. "What the hell are you waiting for?"

"Right," Juarez chirps out, and I can practically hear the satisfied smirk in his voice. "I'll call you with updates."

All I do is nod. When the door clicks shut, I calmly stand up and beckon my drivers, Portini and Luis. They have already been briefed on what is going to happen to Juarez during his seventeen hour ride toward Eastside - when he inevitably decides to do what I strictly forbade him to and he attempts to rape my sleeping queen. Juarez doesn't know it yet, because I *never* share all of my secrets with *anyone,* but I have heard his grumbles in the dark, and I *know* what filthy things he wanted to do to my Red. I was ready to kill him for the grumblings alone, but now that I am certain I will *actually* catch him carrying out those wishes of his on *my woman*, his death will be wholly justified.

I have thought of little else since.

I say to Portini, "Luis and I will be riding two miles behind you. When Juarez does what he's going to - *I* will be the one to end him. Is that perfectly clear?" "Yes boss," Portini says with a grin and a tiny tip of his head.

*Good.*

After Red is returned to that bastard Alex and the maid her cousin Romany told about all this - finally screams my name...I might finally get *my* wish. And maybe...just maybe, there will be someone who I decide to share my throne with. And all of my secrets as well.