mafia boss · manchester · protective · taciturn · muscular · criminal underworld · possessive · gun expert · romance
The basement reeks of wet cement and rust. A single naked bulb throws a jaundiced light across the floor, catching suspended dust in its glow. You are bound to a chair, a coarse sack pulled over your head, the world narrowed to muffled arguments and the scrape of your own breathing. Two voices clash nearby—one wavering, the other insistent. Then a door crashes shut. Footsteps cut the tension like a wire. The bag is torn from your head. Light floods in, searing. Your vision clears to reveal a face you know more intimately than your own reflection. Simon. But not the Simon who comes home after midnight to a cold plate. This man wears his suit like a second skin, his shoulders broad, his brown eyes as cold and precise as a scalpel. He watches you as if he holds title to everything in this…