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~ Daniela's POV ~

"I'm sorry, what?"

"I don't like repeating myself."

Oh so he was in business mode.

"You want me to come and work for you?" When I repeated his words out loud, he didn't bother to respond instead just letting me mull over the sudden bomb he dropped on me.

He wanted me to work in the mafia?

"I don't understand." When I finally spoke again he turned his head to look at me letting out a sigh. "It's not hard to understand Dani."

"You want me to come and work for you? As what?" This time he gave me an incredulous look before he put his empty glass down mumbling to himself. "I thought she was smart."

My eyes widened at his words but he didn't take any notice of my offence and instead continued. "I want you to be my accountant Daniela."

"You want me to-" Before I could repeat his question again out of shock, he cut me off instead clearly having had enough of my shock and repetition.

Excuse me for showing some emotion.

"You are qualified, right?" The moment he questioned my education and whether I took my CPA exam, I narrowed my eyes at him. "Of course I'm qualified."

"I was just checking, I don't want to get into trouble." When he raised his hand in surrender before cracking a smile, I realised he was only joking. As if he even cared if he got into trouble - this wasn't Suits, he really wouldn't give a damn if I wasn't a qualified accountant. "Whatever, why do you want me to work for you? I don't know a thing about the mafia."

"I'll teach you, Grey will teach you, it's not hard to pick it up. It's just like going to work for any other business, you have to learn how it all works when you get there."

Grey? Really? That guy would sooner shoot me in the face than teach me how the mafia works.

"But why me?" When he saw the confusion on my face Carson reached his hand to take mine. "Because I trust you and I just...right now I just need someone I can trust Dani."

"Is this about what you were talking about this morning? I wasn't eavesdropping I promise, I just...overheard you." When I realised how bad it sounded I internally cringed, but he didn't even seem to care as he nodded his head.

"My previous accountant used to work for my father, I trusted him to carry on when I took over and he's been working for me for the last five years. Last night before I came home I found out he'd been stealing from me since day one."

That's why he was so angry, all that stuff he said about respect was because of this?

"But how didn't you catch him? Surely someone would have noticed." The moment I said I could tell his anger flared, even if it wasn't directed at me.

"My accountant is the one who is supposed to catch it. It was only small amounts of money and he did well to cover his tracks, but when I went missing he got complacent. He took too much and Grey noticed it."

"So where is he now?" Of course it was a stupid question, but I kind of asked it before I thought about what the answer would be.

"Dead."

"So my potential predecessor is dead? That's not exactly what I'd want to hear when you're asking me to take his job." When I said that, Carson gave me a smile. "I trust you Dani, you're not going to make the same mistake."

"Of course I would never steal from you. But what if I make a mess of it? What if I do something wrong?"

"I'll be with you beautiful, if you're ever unsure you just need to ask me." Even when he gave me his heartwarming smile, I couldn't shake that apprehensive feeling.

"But you'd be my boss, won't that change things between us?" This was honestly the biggest issue I had with his idea, our relationship was already suffering because of the mafia, I didn't want it to get worse.

"If I'm being honest, I don't know if it will change it or how, but I know it'll make it better in some ways."

"How?" I asked the question absentmindedly as I traced my finger over the tattoo of a wilting rose on the back of his hand.

"You'll be with me. Our relationship is already on the rocks, the biggest problem we have right now is that I spend too much time working. But, if you're working with me, you'll be in Long Island with me and we'll see each other a lot more."

As I listened to him I nodded my head in agreement, but before I could say something Carson quickly added one more point.

"And you'll be earning double what you'd be earning in some snotty firm in New York. So you'll get your money and your independence like you wanted and like you deserve." When I looked up at him I noticed the smile he was giving me which automatically brought my own to my lips.

"What would I have to do?"

"Quite a few jobs. Most importantly you'd be in charge of all the money, making sure what we're owed is being paid to us and you make sure we pay what we owe as well as making sure every time we pay someone it's for a good reason. You'll be responsible for checking over every deal for anything that can give us exposure or where we could make a loss and for checking if the deal is worth our time and effort."

When Carson finally paused, I stared at him in horror. "That sounds like a lot."

All he did was shrug his shoulders as he leaned back into the couch. "That's why you get paid so much."

"What about tax? You want me to-"

"Tax isn't a problem. All the accounts are set up with our money overseas, you won't have to do anything. The most you'll have to do is transfer our profits from our businesses in the US to those offshore accounts."

When I nodded my head letting out a breath, he rose an eyebrow at me as he pulled his hand out of mine. "If you don't think you can handle it Dani, you can just tell me. I'm not trying to force you into anything you don't want to do, I would never do that to you."

"It's just a lot, a lot of responsibility. If I mess it up, you'll kill me." When I said that, I expected him to get annoyed at me for assuming that but all he did was let out a laugh.

"I won't kill you Trouble. I told you, I'll be there and Grey will be there to supervise you for a while until I'm sure you're ready to handle it alone. I never expected you to know it all from day one, I know it's a huge thing."

"You really think Grey would do that? He hates me." Almost instantly Carson responded in a much colder tone than before. "Grey answers to me, if I tell him to do it then he'll do it."

That was one thing I knew would eventually become a problem for me, the way he commands things. His friends were used to separating him from being a friend and a boss but I wasn't so sure I could do that.

He was my boyfriend, it was different.

"If I agreed, you can't do that with me."

"Do what?"

"Turn your emotions off when we're talking about work and you can't just be a jerk when you feel like it because you're my boss. I'm still your girlfriend." The entire time I spoke he kept his eyes trained on the floor ahead of him before he finally turned his head to look at me.

"I know that and I'll try but...I'm still getting used to having a girlfriend Dani, I'm not used to being so soft and open with someone."

"I know and I'm not trying to rush you into become the worlds best boyfriend. I'm just saying, I don't think I'll like it if you're a jerk to me when you're in your office and then when we get home you're back to being you."

"How do you know that's not the true me? And that when I'm here with you I'm being someone else, someone who I'm not." This time it sounded like his words were coming from somewhere else, like it was a debate he'd been having within himself.

I could see the frown on his face as he spoke, clearly trying to deal with the conflicting thoughts in his head. Reaching my hand out I placed my hand on his cheek to turn his face towards me, stroking his cheek as I spoke.

"Because I met you when you were away from the mafia. I spent time with you when it was just us away from the world. I think you have two separate sides to you, you just never used this one as much. But it was always there."

For a moment he just held my stare, leaning into my touch as we sat there until he turned his face to press a kiss to my palm breaking our stare.

"Come here." When he reached his hand out to me, I stared at it reluctantly causing him to smile as if he knew exactly what was going through my head. "I know you haven't forgiven me, don't worry."

"It's not funny." I gave him my best attempt at a glare before I shuffled across the couch allowing him to pull me onto his lap pressing his chest against mine.

"I'm going to make it up to you my queen, no matter how long it takes I'm going to show you just how much I love you and how sorry I am."

Averting my gaze away from his eyes, I focused on the gold chain he was wearing with some kind of emblem on. It looked like a cross, but the there was another line going through it. I recognised it as one of the tattoos that he had on his wrist, he said it was the symbol of his mafia.

I felt his eyes on me as I reached my hand out, tracing my finger over the pendant of his chain. "You made me hate you so much Carson. I was even going to leave you once I found a job and I had the money."

When he didn't say anything for a while after my confession, I gathered the courage to look at him only to see a broken expression on his face. He looked hurt, but he also looked so defeated, like he was losing the battle he'd fought so hard to win.

"You hated me that much?" When I heard the hurt in his voice, I reluctantly nodded my head trying to push down the guilt that I was feeling. I was angry sure, but I didn't want to hurt him.

I loved him.

"I'm sorry." When I mumbled the words his eyes met mine and he shook his head, leaning forward to rest his forehead against mine. "You never have to apologise to me, none of this was your fault my beautiful."

"I love you Carson." When I said those words for the first time in two weeks he let out a breath closing his eyes as he tightened his grip on me as if he was afraid to ever let me go.

Maybe it seemed toxic to some people for me to say I hated him while he was gone and now I love him. But I never did stop loving him, I hated him for what he was doing and I was still angry about that.

But I loved him, I don't think anything could change that.

We stayed like that for a while neither of us saying anything else as he hugged me, refusing to let me go - not that I wanted him to. We only finally moved when Grey called him to talk about something to do with their business not that I was paying much attention. Instead I took the time to think over his offer about working for him.

There were pros and cons to it, the biggest con for me was that I didn't want it to negatively impact our relationship. But then, if our relationship wasn't strong enough to stand us working together, was it going to last? It was already suffering anyway, at the rate we were going at it was going to be over pretty soon if we didn't change things.

Carson was right when he said he would be busy working, even if I found a job somewhere in New York I would spend my time there and he would be in Long Island. To me it felt like our relationship would just deteriorate faster if we weren't together, especially because we fell in love after spending so long locked in a room together.

"You look deep in thought." When Carson used his thumb and his forefinger to lift my chin shifting my gaze away from his chain and to his face, I nodded my head. "I was thinking about what you said, about working with you."

"What do you think about it?"

"I have some reservations about it, but I can't stop thinking about how we could spend more time together. It's only been two weeks and we've already had a huge...blip in our relationship because you were gone." When I cracked a small smile to show that I wasn't trying to start another argument, Carson only nodded his head.

"Part of me wanted to ask you to come and stay at the house over the last two weeks, but I also knew I wasn't in the right frame of mind. How I spoke to you yesterday in our room was exactly how I'd been for those entire two weeks."

"We'd end up spending more time there, wouldn't we? If I worked with you?" He nodded to confirm the answer to my question before he explained. "I used to spend a lot of my time there, sometimes I hardly ever came home here to Manhattan unless it was to see my family maybe for a weekend."

"Do you want me to work with you?" When I asked him that he gave me an amused smile shaking his head. "Do you think I would have asked you if I didn't want you to?"

"But this morning when Grey was saying all that stuff about not trusting me to do some work for you, you could have told me then that you wanted me to work for you."

"I wasn't even paying attention Dani, I was thinking about who was stealing from me and I planned to ask you when we were alone. But, I know I should have stopped him when he said all that stuff, I'm so sorry-"

Almost instantly I cut him off, shaking my head at him.

"No you don't have to say sorry, I handled it myself. You don't have to stick up for me every time someone doubts me Carson. I can do it myself." My words caused a smirk to tug at his perfect kissable lips as he nodded his head, bringing his face in closer to mine.

"I have no doubt about that but you're still my girl, so I'm going to do it anyway." He mumbled his words against my lips before he kissed me, pulling me in tighter to him.

The entire time he was kissing me, I had the same words repeating through my head - 'I'm still mad at him, I'm still mad at him', but in the end I still kissed him back.

I'm weak, I know.

I was only human after all, plus if anyone ever kissed him they'd know why I couldn't stop. Of course, no woman would ever dare kiss him now that he was with me, unless they wanted me to kick them in the most painful place ever.

Chloe did.

Well.......just be quiet.

"So what do you think? Are you up for the risk?" When he finally pulled away he kept his face close to mine waiting for my response.

"Okay." When I gave him my answer a smile stretched across his face causing me to give him one of my own, which faltered very quickly.

"I'm still mad at you Carson. This isn't going to change anything, you still owe me a better apology."

"I know."

"And you're sleeping in the guest room tonight and tomorrow night and the night after that." Even though I could tell he really wasn't happy with this, he nodded his head.

"Fine, whatever. Dani, there's one more thing I need to talk to you about. I should have done this when we first came back but I've just been so busy."

"What is it?"

"You need to take the oath."

I guess I should have remembered that it was a thing, I don't know why it completely slipped my mind. But now that I was officially going to work for them, it was more important than when I was just his girlfriend.

"Okay. What do I need to do?"

"I told you once it's a whole ceremony. Our top members will need to be present, they all sign a piece of paper with their names and then the leader and the new recruit merge their blood on the paper. Then we burn it."

"Well what's the point of burning it?" When he heard my question he cracked a smile. "To symbolise that it's an eternal bond."

So I'm going to be bonded to him for eternity? Is it bad that I like the sound of that?

"When do we need to do it?"

"Soon. I just need to find time, but we'll do it."

<<<<<<< >>>>>>> <<<<<<<<

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure Carson."

Be patient.

"But did you check?"

"I did check."

Don't kill him, you love him, don't kill him.

"And you saw it?"

"Yes Carson, I saw it."

Forget love, don't kill him otherwise his men will kill you and we don't want to die.

"So you're absolutely sure that-"

"Oh for goodness sake! Carson I'm bloated and tired and there's a tampon inside me right now so there's no space for anything else anyway." When I finally lost my cool, I turned to glare at him in the elevator while he let out a loud laugh nodding his head.

"Okay, I got it." I rolled my eyes as he continued to laugh next to me before he pulled me into his arms when I sent him another glare. "You just look so good in this dress."

Of course I knew that.

"Well, even if I wasn't still on my period, I wouldn't let you anywhere near me anyway. You're still being punished." With that I pushed his hands away from me taking a step away from him as I smoothed out the skirt of my black skater dress.

It was simple and elegant, but it still showed enough cleavage and leg to get him all worked up the moment he saw me.

So it was perfect. The whole point was to remind him of what he was ignoring for two weeks.

"So I'm allowed to kiss you but we can't go further than that? Where's the logic in that?"

"I choose what you can and cannot do." When I gave him a smirk, he narrowed his eyes at me causing my smirk to widen as the doors opened revealing the underground parking lot.

"Oh sorry, boss." Giving him one last smirk as his expression morphed into a glare, I stepped out of the elevator the sound of my heels clicking on the concrete floor following me.

It was funny really, because the moment I saw him in that suit this morning, I knew that I was going to give in to him as soon as my period finished and my bloating was reduced and I felt better in myself, but it was fun playing with him.

Moments later I felt him come up next to me as we walked through the parking lot towards his car for my first day working as his accountant. It was actually only the next morning after I agreed to it, but apparently Carson was desperate for me to start straight away.

He hadn't even told anyone so I guess that conversation would be fun.

The excruciatingly long drive to the house in Long Island was made a tiny bit easier when Carson stopped to pick me up a coffee making sure to get my order exactly how I told him I liked it.

This is what I meant when I said it was fun playing with him - he was doing everything I wanted and I didn't even have to ask.

"Stay by my side for now, no one knows your new position yet so just be careful. There's a lot more people here than you saw last time."

Nodding my head, one of my hands gripped his while I held my purse on my arm and my coffee cup in that hand. I walked next to him through the front doors into the same entry hall as last time when we saw those French people.

As we stepped inside the first thing I noticed on my left was what seemed like a huge meeting room with maybe twelve or thirteen men sitting around it - all of whom were dressed in fancy suits like Carson. They seemed to be having a meeting but I couldn't see anything on the table past the man sitting at the head of the table nearest to the door.

My eyes drifted around the table as I looked at all the men who were sitting there listening intently to whatever was being said when one of the men with a direct view of me locked eyes with me. Just as his lips curled up into a smirk when he caught me staring, Carson he tugged on my hand leading towards the stairs.

"What were those men doing?" As we reached the top of the stairs I followed Carson down the familiar hallway towards his office.

"A debrief."

"A what?"

"A debrief. They had a...thing last night, they were going over what happened."

A thing.

I had to resist the urge to roll my eyes at his words when we passed some of his men who nodded in Carson's direction, their eyes never meeting mine. Finally we reached the door to his office and like last time he went and sat behind his desk while I sat on the black leather couch putting my purse down on the floor.

A few minutes passed while he messaged away on his phone and I just sat there, doing nothing.

"So..." When he heard my awkward attempt at starting a conversation, he lifted his eyes away from his phone and towards me.

"So...be quiet and let me sort this out." When he repeated my 'so' in a mocking tone, I narrowed my eyes at him. But unfortunately before I could remind him that he was still on my bad side, the doors to his office opened revealing my arch nemesis who noticed my presence immediately.

"Why the hell is she here?"

"Why the hell are you here?"

I was brave, I know.

"I work here you little-"

"Grey." When Carson jumped in with his usual warning tone, both Grey and I turned to look at him to see that he wasn't even paying any attention to us.

"You know, considering how childish you are, I'm surprised you've survived this long as Carson's underboss."

I'm super freaking brave. Or maybe just super freaking stupid.

"Considering your history with McKnight I'm surprised someone hasn't put a bullet in your head yet."

"That's enough! Both of you stop acting like children, and you, I told you not to speak to her like that again." When Carson suddenly stood up, his glare was mostly focused on Grey who was glaring straight back.

"Why is she here?" Anyone could hear the anger he was clearly trying to bite back in his tone when he addressed his boss.

"She's our new accountant and you're going to be taking care of her today, I have some business with Hollande to deal with."

Oh Mr French man.

"Absolutely not, to both of those things. She's not working here and I'm not spending a minute alone with her." As he said that Grey glanced over at me while I just sat there sipping on the last bit of my lukewarm latte, looking at the view of the backyard through the window.

It looked different in the daylight, more peaceful. But still huge as hell.

Hey look there's a duck in the fountain.

"I didn't ask you, it's an order Grey." When I heard Carson respond in a cold tone, and I mean cold as hell, I turned my head to see both of them having some kind of stare down.

"Fine." When Grey very clearly forced the word out of his mouth, he turned to look at me with his harsh glare. "Come on."

The moment I realised I was going to be alone with him, I suddenly regretted how I spoke to him. Grey didn't wait for me to get up and follow him when he left the room, leaving me to glance over at Carson apprehensively.

"You'll be fine. Just text me if you need me."

Nodding my head, I clutched my coffee cup in my hand and my purse in the other as I followed Grey out of the room and down the hallway where he stopped at another door.

"Is this my office?" When I spoke in an unsure tone, he opened the door stepping inside. The moment I went to follow him he turned to give me another glare causing me to stop dead in my tracks outside the door.

"It's mine."

Maybe he had porn on his computer that he didn't want me to see.

Yeah, I'm sure that's it.

I waited there for a moment while he wandered about his office picking up some files, a flash drive and a set of keys before he finally came back out.

"That's yours." When he gestured to the door across from his, he held the keys out to me. Quickly sliding my purse down to my elbow, I took the keys in my free hand. Before I awkwardly and more importantly, nervously, tried to open the door. Usually I knew how to use a key, but when I had him right next to me and my purse was weighing my hand down, I suddenly forgot.

"I don't have time for this." When he shifted the other items to his left hand, he snatched the key from my hand and I quickly stepped to the side as he unlocked the door, pushing it open. The second the door opened the smell of alcohol invaded my senses causing me to step back scrunching up my nose.

It looked like someone had a water fight in the that room, everything was drenched but unfortunately it was in alcohol, not water. Not to mention the fact everything had been smashed to pieces.

Somehow Grey became even more angry as he stared at the state of the office in front of him, letting out a string of profanities aimed at their previous accountant. "At least he's freaking dead."

A couple of moments passed as we stared at the trashed office. It seemed like a basic office, nowhere near as luxurious as Carson's or Grey's. It seemed like an old guy's office which was now trashed.

A dead old guy.

"Um..." When I awkwardly made a sound to remind him I was there, he turned to look at me clenching his jaw as he glanced back at the office.

"You can come and work in my office today, I'll have someone fix this."

"I can just sit somewhere else-"

"No. It's private, no one else can hear this. Come on." After he closed the door he gestured for me to follow him, taking his phone out to send a text message to someone.

When I tell you I was nervous as hell...

"Close the door." He didn't even glance in my direction when he said those words sitting down at his desk. When I just stood awkwardly by the door while he started looking through his papers, he eventually looked up at me.

"Sit down." Letting out a breath, I walked over to his desk taking a seat on one of the chairs across from him.

"You have a laptop?" Nodding my head, I took out my MacBook from my purse as he handed me the flash drive which I plugged into my laptop.

"Try not to lose that, it gives you access to a secure server where we keep all our records of our business."

"That's kind of risky isn't it? What if I left it on the bus and someone-"

"You don't take the bus and it's got a thumb print scanner."

"A what now?" When I gave him a weird look he let out a sigh and turned my laptop to face him. I watched as he tugged on the flash drive to open it up, revealing a finger print scanner.

"Give me your hand." When I very reluctantly reached my hand out to him, he gently took it and placed my thumb on the scanner, doing something on the laptop before he asked me to take it off and put it back on.

We did that twice more before he eventually gave me back the laptop, this time there was a window open with different tabs for different kinds of records.

"Get up."

"No." When I very quickly refused, he rolled his eyes before he stood up coming around to my side of the table. "Stand up."

After a few seconds of holding his stare, I reluctantly stood up which allowed him to pick my chair up taking it around to the other side of his desk.

"Why are you doing that? I prefer being over here."

"I prefer you being over there too but if I'm in my office I might as well do my work, I can't just sit on the couch with you all day to see what you're doing."

Well.

For the next hour, Grey sat with me and showed me how to use the flash drive, showing me everything from their current open business deals to individual client records that showed what the clients had bought from Carson's mafia, what they owe and what they've paid.

"This will take you to our main bank accounts, apart from one in the US, they're all offshore."

No taxes, right.

"Carson said I would need to transfer the money from your businesses to those offshore accounts."

Nodding his head to confirm what I said, he turned his attention back to my laptop.

"So what you'll have to do is go into the business accounts, for example this club." As he spoke he clicked on an account for one of their clubs in New York, showing me their financial records.

"Take the revenue and deduct the cost of the goods to get the gross profit as well as any other operating expenses. But, you don't deduct tax, we don't pay that. Whatever number you're left with for that month, you transfer it to the offshore account and you leave the manager of the club to pay the operating expenses, you don't have to do that."

"Can I ask you a question?" Glancing over at me he nodded his head as he picked up his phone to reply to a text he received. "How do you get away with not paying taxes?"

"For one we're good at hiding it. But, we have friends in the IRS, so if we're ever suspected of anything they make sure it goes away."

I nodded my head at that, not really knowing what else to say to him as he continued to do something on his phone for another few minutes before he put it down.

"You ready to learn about our clients?"

And just like that another few hours passed by while I took notes as Grey, surprisingly very patiently, tried to teach me about each type of client they had - who was more important, who I shouldn't deal with on my own and who I should watch out for.

Apparently every client was different, they all liked different forms of communication, they all reacted differently to being told they need to pay up and some of them took a lot of pressure pay up at all.

Not to mention, they're all criminals. These people were buying products like drugs and weapons and they were paying for the services of the mafia.

And I was going to be calling them to tell them that they owed us money.

Imagine me calling some angry Italian man to tell him that he owed us 50,000 dollars for the assassination we carried out for him while I was sitting at home in my onesie and bunny slippers, because that's the reality of my life.

"So I can't call him?" When I looked away from the Italian name I'd just written down in my notebook and over at Grey, I noticed he was busy looking at his own computer appearing to be reading an email.

"No you can, but you need to tell me first." This time he look at me when I spoke again. "But why can't you just call him?"

"Because you're the accountant."

"But I don't want him to start abusing me over the phone." When he heard my whiny response he turned to look at me cracking a smile. "I'm sure with that mouth of yours you'll just say something equally as abusive right back to him."

Despite the smile that threatened to cross my lips I shook my head at his words, adding a note next to the man's name that I had to let Grey know before I called him.

"Why are you so freaking weird?" This time when I looked up at him, he was glaring at my different pastel highlighters that were covering his desk.

"I'm not weird, I just like stationery, plus colour coordination helps to keep me organised. You don't want me to make a mistake now do you?"

Before he could come up with whatever snarky reply he had, someone knocked on his door catching his attention. He glanced over at me next to him before he called the person in, using a much colder tone than he was using previously with me.

When the man came into the room, his eyes landed on me as confusion flashed through them before he very quickly focused his attention on Grey.

"I need to talk to you about that..." When his words trailed off, Grey followed his gaze to me before he let out a sigh. "Go."

"But I-"

"Just go downstairs to that room in the basement, I'll come and get you when I'm done."

When his tone left no room for arguments I nodded my head, putting the lid on my pen as I picked up my phone, leaving the rest of my things there. Just as I reached the door to leave, the man who came in stepped aside to let me pass just as Grey spoke again.

"Daniela, don't speak to anyone. Just go straight downstairs."

Nodding my head, I spared him one last glance before I left his office closing the door behind myself. At first I thought about going to see Carson and I even walked to his door but then I heard him screaming and cursing at someone, maybe on the phone or in person but I decided against bothering him.

Letting out a nervous breath, I gripped my phone in my hand as I made my way down the hallway and down the stairs, trying to ignore the glances I was getting from some of the men I passed.

Thankfully without any problems I managed to make it downstairs to their chill out room where I waited for around an hour. I took some time to look around the room to pass some time, I watched an episode of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air on their TV and I played some Tetris on my phone before I eventually gave in to my urge to pee.

I was also hungry as hell.

Letting out a yawn, I stood up from the couch fixing my dress and my skirt before I opened the door, stepping into the quiet hallway of the basement. The room I was in was down a hallway with rooms I think were private for only Carson and his friends to use, but the rest of the basement was free for any of his men to use.

Like he said that's where they trained and stored their weapons and from the way he phrased his sentence, I'm guessing they did some other questionable things down here too.

Making my way down the hallway, I went to round the corner to head towards the stairs to the ground floor but I suddenly crashed into a hard chest instead. Before I could stumble back and break a heel, a pair of hands shot out to stop me.

"Sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going." I mumbled the words as I took a step back, smoothing my dress down before I lifted my eyes to see the same man from the debrief as Carson called it.

"Did you like what you saw this morning?" When he gave me a smirk, I found myself absolutely speechless at how forward and sudden he was. "Uhm..."

"I'm just kidding, don't worry. You're the boss's girl, right?"

Somehow I was still speechless, only because now I didn't know if I was allowed to answer that or not.

"I..."

"You're not?" When he gave me a confused frown I took a step away from him, just as he continued speaking. "That's good, when I saw you with him this morning I kind of felt bad for you - since he's been with Chloe so much recently. So what are you to him anyway? His cousin or something?"

From the smirk on his face he knew exactly what I was, and he knew exactly why he was randomly throwing in that information.

"He was with Chloe?"

"Yeah, they've been spending a lot of time in his office recently. We've all been strictly instructed never to disturb them." When he gave me the same smirk from earlier, I shook my head at him stepping around him as I walked towards the stairs.

It wasn't true, it couldn't have been true. He wouldn't do that.

"Maybe if you're done with him you can come back to me, I can show you a good time baby."

The second I heard his words I suddenly stopped in my tracks the sound of his laugher causing my anger to spike. When I turned around to face him again his eyes followed me as I walked back towards him with only one intention.

The second I was close enough, catching him by surprise I placed my hand on his shoulder, lifting my knee to drive it into his area. The moment my knee made contact with him, he hunched over letting out a groan allowing me to speak directly into his ear as I gripped onto his hair.

"You can tell her if she pulls something like this again, she'll be the one in pain." With that I stamped my heel of my stiletto down onto his foot for emphasis and because it was such a bad bitch move.

I had to do it before my sudden burst of confidence and anger shattered completely.

I didn't give him a chance to react to that, only because I knew he wouldn't have given a damn if he hurt me. This time as I headed back upstairs, I moved much quicker to get away from the groaning mafia man behind me.

As expected by the time I made it to the first floor where the offices were, my heart was racing and my nerves were going crazy.

What if he came back to kill me? What if he followed me?

Glancing back behind me at the stairs, I turned back to look where I was going only to run into a hard chest for the second time in minutes. The contact instantly made me flinch back, my eyes moving up to meet Grey's concerned ones.

"Did something happen?"

When he looked behind me, I followed his gaze to see no one there which only confused him even more.

"I..." Licking my lips nervously I tried to look anywhere else but him, but the commanding tone he used on me after that had me rushing to get the words out.

"Answer me."

"I was waiting for you downstairs then I got up to pee and then I crashed into a guy I saw earlier in some debrief and he told me Carson has been spending all his time with Chloe recently and that they didn't want to be disturbed and then he told me I could come back to him when I was done with Carson so I kneed him in the balls and stamped on his foot and maybe threatened Chloe at the same time but-"

"Woah, just calm the hell down." When he suddenly cut me off, his frown only deepened as he looked at me before he suddenly grabbed my hand pulling me back towards his office.

The second he slammed the door shut he turned to face me with a furious glare. "I told you not to speak to anyone."

Hold the hell up, he's mad at me?

"I didn't! She sent him to me to tell me that stuff and-"

"And you freaking walk away, you don't stay and listen to it."

Of course he would take her side, even after what she did.

"I tried, but then he said that last bit and it just got to me. You know what, maybe instead of having a go at me you should be telling her not to start this in the first place."

"I don't give a damn about her, you could have gotten hurt Dani. It's not high school, anyone of these men could shoot you before you even blink an eye."

Despite the fact he was still clearly furious, his tone softened as he said the last part stepping towards me as he continued.

"Next time, you walk away and you come straight to me, okay? I'll deal with it."

Nodding my head, I watched as he finally walked back over to his desk where everything was exactly how it was when I left an hour ago.

"Am I going to get in trouble for hitting him?" The words left my mouth before I could realise how stupid they sounded while Grey unexpectedly let out a laugh, shaking his head. "I told you it's not high school, just tell me, how hard did you hit him?"

"Hard enough." I shrugged my shoulders as I walked back over to my chair next to him. All he did was nod his head in approval as he took out his phone putting it on the desk while I opened my laptop up again.

"I'm sorry it took so long, something came up and I-"

"It's okay. I know you don't really want to do this with me, so I appreciate it." When cut him off I gave him a small smile and he held my stare for a moment before he nodded his head. "Open your stupid notebook, we have more clients to go through."

"But what about lunch? And I still need to pee."

<<<<<<< >>>>>>> <<<<<<<<

"Is there something you want to talk to me about?"

When I heard Carson's amused tone I glanced over at him as he drove before shaking my head. We were currently on the way back to Manhattan pretty late in the evening since Carson had work to do but we decided to go home since it was only my first day working with him.

I knew eventually we'd pretty much start living in Long Island, at least during week days, but I didn't want to do that straight away. Plus, I didn't have any clothes there.

"Are you sure? Because I had an interesting talk with Grey earlier."

"I can't believe you find it funny." When I turned my head to look at him he glanced over at me as he let out a laugh. "You really kicked him in the balls?"

"I'll do worse to you if you don't leave me alone." Of course he didn't take my threat seriously. We both knew he could snap me in half if he wanted to.

The only reason I managed to kick him in the balls that one time was because he let me.

"Dani what he said was-"

"I don't care, I don't want to talk about it."

I knew it wasn't true, only because he promised he would never cheat on me. But, it didn't mean that it wasn't true once upon a time. She was his bed buddy after all, I wouldn't be surprised if he did give everyone an order not to disturb them in his office.

It didn't help that at the time I was so insecure in my body with all the bloating and water retention that came with my period every month.

This time he didn't push me to talk, instead he turned up the music as we drove through the streets of Manhattan back to his building. For the rest of the journey, right up until the elevator neither of us said a word.

It was only when we were back in that same stupid elevator like this morning when Carson suddenly pushed me up against the wall, pressing himself against me to stop me from moving away.

I did everything I could to try and get him to let go, but eventually he had me pinned perfectly against the wall with my hands by my sides and his legs between mine so that I couldn't kick him.

"Look at me." His commanding tone cut through the silence prompting me to begrudgingly lift my eyes to meet his.

"I'm only going to tell you this once so listen carefully. You're my girl, no one else. When I'm not with you, I'm not with anyone else. I don't want anyone else and I won't touch anyone else. It's you and only you, do you understand?"

He held my stare for a moment, waiting for me to respond just as the elevator doors opened behind him. The second I made an attempt to push him away to go into his penthouse, he pushed me up against the wall even harder than before.

"I asked you a damn question and I don't like repeating myself."

"But he said you gave them orders not to disturb you."

"I don't give a damn what he said. Let me tell you something since you're so freaking intent on knowing everything. When I was with her, before I met you, I also did things with countless other women at the same time and yes I did it in my office but there was never any orders for my men not to disturb me. I didn't give a crap if anyone saw it because I didn't care about any of the women. They meant nothing to me Daniela."

This time when I didn't say anything he let go of one my hands to tilt my face to look up at him again.

"I only love you Dani, you're my queen."

"Fine." Despite the fact my heart swelled at what he said, I muttered the single word causing his chest rumbled as he laughed, bringing his face in closer to mine. "Fine? I'm sure you can do better than that my beautiful."

"I love you too." When I muttered the words, he let out another laugh as he pressed his lips to mine. "You want me to cook you dinner tonight Trouble?"

"Well I wasn't going to do it if that's what you mean."

With that I finally pushed him away, making my way into the penthouse leaving him in the elevator.

<<<<<<< >>>>>> <<<<<<<<

"Babe?"

When I heard Carson's voice in the master bedroom I let out a sigh, spitting the toothpaste out of my mouth before I spoke. "What?"

"Can I come in?" Rolling my eyes at his soft tone I mumbled an 'okay' before I put the brush in the holder and rinsed my mouth. Keeping my eyes on myself in the mirror I was aware of him coming into the bathroom as I applied my moisturiser to my face.

"I got you something."

"What?" Still without looking at him I continued with my night time skin care routine while he came up next to me. "Are you going to look at me?"

"No." From the corner of my eye in the reflection in the mirror I saw him smirk at me in amusement. "No? Damn you're really making this hard for me."

"How do you think I felt during those two weeks that you disappeared?"

Maybe I was being a little harsh, but I was still mad and coming into the bedroom earlier after dinner made me even more mad when I remembered what had happened in there two nights ago.

He had this ability to make me forget, to lure me into his trap every time and make me fall in love with him all over again. But when I came in here alone since he was sleeping in the guest room, I remembered it all over again.

"I'm sorry Dani."

"Can you just hurry up? I'm tired, I want to go to sleep." Finally when I turned to face him, I tried to push aside my emotions when I saw the guilty expression on his face along with the sadness in his eyes.

I hated him being sad. As much as he hurt me, I loved him too much to feel any kind of satisfaction from the guilt and sadness he was feeling.

"Here." When he held out a box to me I tentatively took it from him, looking down at the iconic blue coloured box with a white ribbon tied on a bow on top. Without a word I opened it, taking the lid off before I took the smaller ring box out, opening it to reveal a ring inside.

The sight of it almost instantly took my breath away. It really was beautiful.

"It's an infinity symbol."

"I know what it is." When my words came out a lot harsher than intended he only let out a laugh as I took it out of the box. "It's 18k white gold and those are diamonds."

"Carson this is too much. I can't take it." When I shook my head putting it back into the box, his hands instantly shot out to stop me.

"No, it's not. I owe you way more than this."

Did the money not even mean a thing to him?

"This would have cost you too much money Carson."

"Please Dani. I have no clue what I'm doing in this relationship right now, this is the only thing I know how to do right." When I just frowned at him even though he was clearly trying to make me feel better, his own frown formed on his face.

"You can't just throw your money at me and expect me to forgive you."

"I know that-"

"Just take it back." When I finally just put box on the counter next to me, Carson let out a sigh while I tried to walk past him. "Dani."

Shaking my head I tried to get past him again although he still refused to let me move. "You have no clue how I felt during those two weeks, you can't just buy my forgiveness."

"Then tell me. Sit with me and tell me." When he said those words my movements faltered he moved in closer to me allowing me to smell the intoxicating scent of his cologne. "Just tell me."

I don't know why he wanted me to say it. Maybe he thought that I'd feel better if he felt guilty but that's not what I wanted either.

Honestly at that point I wasn't even sure what I wanted anymore. I hated being mad at him but also felt this thing inside of me telling me that I couldn't just forgive him that easily.

"Come on." As he tugged on my hand he picked up the Tiffany gift box as he guided me into the bedroom allowing me to sit down on the ottoman bench at the end of his bed before he sat next to me.

"Tell me."

"Why?" When I gave him a frustrated glare he didn't even seem fazed by it in the slightest. "If you tell me then I'll know what I put you through and you can start to forgive me. You can't if I don't even know what I did to you."

"You know what you did."

"Not everything." When he didn't back down I let out a sigh, turning to look out the huge window across from the bed before I spoke. "I don't know what you want me to say. I cried all the time, I felt lonely and lost. I felt like you betrayed me, you promised you'd be with me and you weren't. I thought you didn't love me."

"I do." Turning my head to look at him I nodded my head when I saw the guilty frown on his face. "I know you do Carson, but that day when you hung up on me I thought you didn't. Then Fox came here and I realised you told him not to tell me anything."

"I don't know why I did that. Dani I wasn't in my right state of mind, I was so...lost. I thought if he didn't say anything to you it would be better, but I just made it worse."

Nodding my head in agreement I looked away from him again, thinking back to those two weeks I had to spend without him. In my heart I understood where he was coming from and as much as I was hurt by what he did, I also knew he was busy.

I couldn't just expect him to change his entire life because of me. Even if he did try to do his best to fit me in, it was inevitable that his first few weeks back would have been chaos.

"I'm not mad that you were busy Carson, I'm mad that you shut me out. You could have just told me you were busy and that you'd try to come back soon. But instead you ignored me and then came back and called me a bitch."

"I-"

"I know what happened, you found out someone was stealing from you and you took your anger out on me." When I cut him off repeating his words from the other day along with my own input he just looked away from me.

"I don't know how I'm supposed to make it up to you. You won't take the ring and I'm guessing you won't take anything else from me."

Well...

"Maybe I'll take it, only because I really do love it. But Carson you can't just buy me back, if you can't tell by now that money isn't my goal in life then you clearly don't know me."

But could you really blame me? That ring was so beautiful.

"No I know that. But I've never done this before, apologising to a girl, I mean. I don't know what to do."

"Show me you love me. Don't just keep buying me gifts because any rich guy can do that." When my voice softened and I gave him a small smile he nodded his head, reaching out to pull me closer to him. "I'm so sorry Dani."

All I could do was nod my head before I rested my forehead on his shoulder, taking the gift box from his hand at the same time.

There was no way I was letting him take that ring back.

What did you guys think of this chapter?

Also, I'm so screwed 😭 I keep thinking of all these ideas for my next book and I'm still trying to finish this one and I have 3 essays to write for university 😩I'm obsessed I think I need help.