Mafia's Final Play (Mafia's Obsession #3) - Summer Cooper Page 0,30

because his mouth covered hers as the passion grew into flames between them. She’d think about it all tomorrow. For now, all she could think about was him.

The next few days were taken up with installing the new security gate, bringing in more wood, and watching films on Netflix. She watched an entire series in one sitting some days. Sometimes, if it wasn’t too cold out, Matteo would walk around the property with her, just for the exercise.

They used a virtual private network to hide their location when they were online, a really good one that cost a pretty penny or a dozen, so she was able to talk to Trina sometimes, even if she wasn’t allowed to tell her where they were. It was nice to hear another voice, but still, the worries over her condition she kept to herself. Trina might tell Matteo, and she wasn’t ready to bring that subject up again.

She’d bought a kit at the store the last time she was in town, a kit that promised she would have one perfectly crocheted hat when she was finished, and she worked on that while she watched television. It wasn’t the perfect example shown in the picture, and she’d had to watch some videos online to find out exactly what one of the stitches was, but she got through it.

When she’d seen the kit, she thought it might improve her fine motor skills, and keep her arms moving. The whole thing was an attempt to stave off what she saw as a threat to her whole life. If she could just keep her balance, her range of motion, she could beat the disease. Marie knew it didn’t work like that, but there wasn’t much else she knew to do.

Matteo often asked her what was troubling her, he knew something was, but she didn’t want to talk about it. They were playing rummy, watching the snow fall outside of the kitchen windows when he brought it up again.

“What’s troubling you, Marie? You keep brushing me off, but you sigh a lot for a woman that’s got nothing on her mind.” He placed a card on the pile that she needed to make a trio of threes, so she took it and put the trio down, which left her with one card.

“I want to see a doctor. I think maybe I have a pinched nerve in my neck, something like that.” She finally admitted something, though it wasn’t exactly what her problem was. Well, not what her fears were.

“Does it hurt?” he asked, his brows knitted together as he leaned towards her? “Maybe some ice, or heat, would help?”

“No, it doesn’t hurt. My arm just keeps going… numb.” She looked down at her remaining card, afraid he’d see the truth in her eyes.

“Oh, okay. Well, I’m sure there’s a doctor in town that can have a look at you.” He pulled a card from the pile and looked at what was in his hand. “It sounds like a trapped nerve to me, if it’s going numb.”

“Yeah,” she answered and felt stupid because that was all she could think to say. She sighed again and stared out of the window while he decided what to do with his cards. Her free hand came up to touch the necklace he’d given her. It was so special to her and touching it brought her a lot of comfort.

“You’re a really sweet man for such a tough guy, Matteo.” She changed the subject entirely and looked back at him as he put down a four that she didn’t need. She reached for another card and threw it away.

“What do you mean?” he murmured absently as he stared at the long line of cards and then looked at the one card that remained in her hand. She could tell he was wondering if he should take the cards he needed and hope she didn’t throw her last card and go out, or whether he should leave the cards and hope for something better. It was all chance, much like their lives now. And even in a game of chance, he weighed every option, keenly aware that she was on the brink of winning. It was the same way he approached life. Was the choice he had to make worth the risk?

His eyes came up to her, comically narrowed into slits of suspicion before he made his move. He took three cards from the pile and laid down a trio, which left him with