Blood & Mistletoe: An Age-Gap Christmas Mafia Romance by Leona White

Author:Leona White [White, Leona]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2025-12-20T00:00:00+00:00

15

RILEY

Iwake up disoriented, body stiff from sleeping in an unfamiliar bed. For a moment, I forget where I am. Then the events of last night come flooding back—the car chase, the crash, the stolen vehicle, the long drive through the snow to this place Rafe calls a safehouse. I remember stumbling through the door exhausted and Rafe pointing me toward a bedroom where I collapsed onto the mattress without even taking off my shoes.

The room is sparse and cold, a twin bed with plain sheets, a nightstand with nothing on it, a single window covered by blinds that let in thin strips of gray morning light. My duffel bag sits on the floor where I dropped it last night, still packed.

I push the blankets aside and swing my legs out of bed. My muscles ache from the tension of yesterday, and I feel the bruises forming where the seatbelt caught me during the crash. I'm not fond of how achy I am, especially in the bendy parts of my body where my rumpled clothing pinched me all night. I must smell like a hog to anyone around me.

With my legs over the side of the bed, I toe off my shoes and listen. The house is pretty quiet, and so is the surround. I have no clue where this place is. I didn't pay much attention after it got dark out. We're somewhere in the Catskills, probably, and with the snowfall last night deadening every sound, I'm not sure there's even a road nearby. I don't even know if Rafe is here.

But I stand, forcing my body upright to stretch and yawn, and then stumble out the door thinking I'll see Rafe seated in the kitchen or living room. The place is small. There aren't many places he could be. And when I have a quick peek around, I don't see him anywhere. I'm alone for now.

I walk to the couch and sit down, pulling my knees to my chest, then reach for the remote on the coffee table and turn on the TV. The screen flickers to life, and I flip through channels until I find a local news station. The anchor is mid-sentence, though the volume is down, and I see the banner at the bottom of the screen.

FBI Joins Search for Missing Buffalo Woman

My stomach drops as the anchor continues what she's saying, and I click the volume button up to hear the report. "The Federal Bureau of Investigation has officially joined the search for Riley Maddox, the twenty-six-year-old bank teller who disappeared over three weeks ago. Authorities say Maddox's cell phone last pinged at a warehouse on the east side of Buffalo, a property with known ties to organized crime. FBI agents are now working alongside local law enforcement to investigate potential connections between Maddox's disappearance and ongoing criminal investigations in the area."

The screen cuts to footage of the warehouse Rafe sent me to when Marco Lombardi's body was in my trunk. But it looks different now.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.