Michelle Antonelli

Contents Title Title Copyright 1. Michelle 2. Philippe 3. Michelle 4. Philippe 5. Michelle 6. Philippe 7. Michelle 8. Philippe 9. Michelle 10. Philippe 11. Michelle 12. Philippe 13. Michelle 14. Philippe 15. Michelle 16. Philippe 17. Michelle 18. Philippe 19. Michelle Epilogue NEWSLETTER Join the ARC Team! Michelle Antonelli: A Dark Mafia Romance Brutal Attachments, 4 Michelle Antonelli: A Dark Mafia Romance Brutal Attachments, 4 Z.Z. Brulant Copyright © 2023 LFD Romance Books ALL RIGHTS RESERVED No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including information storage and retrieval systems, without the written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. 1. Michelle Lightning flashed. Thunder shook the sky. I walked up the steps of the cabin, unlocked the door, and stepped inside, right before the rain began coming down furiously. Before I had a chance to take off my coat and boots, Joey was all over me, scratching and clawing at my jeans with his tail wagging excitedly. I smiled, then reached down and picked him up. The smile disappeared from my face as I felt a slight strain in my back. With his tail still wagging, he hungrily licked my cheeks. I couldn't help laughing. “You're such a big boy, aren't you?” I said. “And you're only 10 months. I don't know if I'm going to be able to handle you in a year or two.” I flicked on the lights and walked down the hallway toward the kitchen. As much as I enjoyed cradling him in my arms, I knew that wasn’t going to be possible for much longer. Maybe that was something I should have considered when I decided to buy a Mastiff puppy. The breeder had warned me about how big they could get. That didn't bother me at the time. He was just so cute and cuddly. It was still hard to imagine that he would one day turn into a massive 175 lb beast. Or possibly even bigger. Thunder boomed. Joey started barking and nearly jumped out of my arms. I couldn't blame him for being startled by the storm. But he would have to get used to the scary sounds sooner or later. It looked like we would be spending at least the next few months up here, if not longer. Once I made it into the kitchen, I put him back down on the floor and poured food into his bowl. While he devoured the mix of chicken and kibbles, I sat down and looked out the window. In the distance, I heard the sound of a tree being struck by lightning and crashing to the ground. A shiver went down my spine. I'd spent so much of my life in big cities, mostly Manhattan and Boston, that I would probably never feel completely comfortable out here deep in the wilderness. And yet I couldn't help marveling at the power and force of nature. I smiled as I watched Joey's tail wagging while he continued cleaning out his bowl. My phone beeped several times. My body froze. My eyes opened wide. Joey's tail stopped wagging. He turned around looking at me, licking his lips. I pulled my phone out of my pants and stared at the screen. One of the security cameras, which I had set up about a mile down the road, had been activated. That meant that either a car, an animal, or a human being had gone past it. Because of the darkness and rain, I wasn't able to see anything. Yet I wasn't going to trust my own eyes. The system had much better vision than I did. I was certain that there was something in the area. There were all sorts of wild animals up here: turkeys, coyotes, foxes, deer. And of course, the most dangerous were black bears and mountain lions. As far as they were concerned, I was much more worried about Joey ever coming into contact with them, than I was concerned for my own safety. While I was no expert on wild animal behavior I felt certain that there wouldn't be many of them out during such a violent storm. So if it wasn’t an animal, what could have set off the alarm? I slowly rotated the camera around 360°. But I still couldn't see anything. That didn't make me feel any better. There was something out there. I got up from the kitchen table and grabbed my sniper rifle off the wall. I went out onto the front porch, my eye staring through the gunsight which had a heat sensor that was able to detect movement up to a mile away. I scanned the forest in front of me. The rain was still coming down angrily. Thunder growled in the sky. After a few minutes, I lowered the gun and sighed in frustration. I went back inside the cabin and closed the door behind me. I walked slowly back into the kitchen, shaking my head, mumbling to myself, wondering if I'd made a mistake by trying to seek refuge up here in the mountains. I'd figured that this would be the best place to hide out until Vincenzo recovered from his gunshot wound and until the blood bath in Manhattan finally ended. But perhaps it wasn't going to be that simple. Perhaps there wouldn't be an end to the bloodshed as long as Vinny and I were still alive. I didn't like the feeling of being hunted. I hated running away from danger. I much preferred to run straight toward it. I knew that in most encounters I would have in this mafia underworld, I would be greatly underestimated by my male adversaries. I would be the underdog. I would be considered an outsider who wasn’t worthy of respect, even though I had been born into this just like everybody else. Even though I had more advanced, specialized skills than the majority of