Hot for Hostage

by Maggie Evans

“Do you want to go make out in the back room of the shelter?” Like an idiot, I choked on my beer and had to cough into my elbow to recover.

Tip #37: When a mafia boss claims you as his, embrace it. Revel in it.

“We’re grabbing more drinks,” I yelled to them, using the first excuse I could think of. “Sure you are,” Ryan called back dryly.

“Sadie, I’ve got more important things on my mind than that damn seed.

I froze with my fingers wrapped around him. He sounded way too proud of himself for that one.

“It can mess with a man’s self-esteem to hear a woman laugh when she’s handling his equipment,” he said dryly.

I’d definitely woken up in worse spots after a night spent hanging out with my Happy Tails Haven family.

Gladys had regaled everyone with stories about the shelter—acting like she hadn’t threatened to murder Davian in cold blood an hour earlier.

I smiled, picturing Davian showing up at our Thursday night bowling league and hanging out with my friends.

Internally, I breathed a sigh of relief. If there was one thing I couldn’t turn a blind eye to in his world, it was puppy murdering.

There’s only one girl I’m interested in, and she only recently dipped her toes into the life of crime.”

You’re disgustingly sweet—when you don’t think I’m engaged, of course—and

you’re loyal as hell to those you care about. I saw it with Bear, Mr. Sanders, Gladys. The list goes on.”

Disgustingly’ sweet?” “Painfully so.” Davian nodded with a solemn face. “It’s giving me cavities.”

He flashed a devilish grin. “Sweetheart, you didn’t take me hostage because I’m nice.”

I was bound to achieve my goal to stop jumping him in public one of these days.

“I’m here to get my girl, but I understand she’s a package deal.”

“… You want to adopt Bear?” I asked, struggling to wrap my mind around that. “I want us to adopt Bear,”

“That’s… Wow. That’s big. But that might be hard on him to move between homes, and my housing doesn’t allow dogs⁠—” “It’s a good thing you’re not going back to that shithole, then.”

“I think it’s my turn to take you hostage. Move in with me?”

Well, then. My body had no business getting hot all over at those words.

And Gladys would have a field day with this.

“Bear doesn’t sleep in our bed.” I frowned. “But he has nightmares, Dav.”

“Bear’s the only pet,” he said. “No others. I’m sorry, Sadie, but we can’t have the compound turning into a zoo. It’s too risky with my work.”

“Let’s make it official, then I’m taking you out for ice cream,” he said, lowering his voice. I blinked. Ice cream for breakfast? He really did know me better than I thought.

“I already called him. He’s making an exception for his favorite customer.”

“Making celebration plans before you even asked me? Someone was confident.”

“Bruno’s was my backup plan in case you needed more convincing. I’m not opposed to bribery.”

When I accidentally started down the path to a life of crime, I’d never expected to end up in my hostage’s arms—let alone falling for him.

Davian Reed’s Guide to Tricking Your Hostage-Taker into Spending the Rest of Her Life with You,

Tip #1: Include her furry bodyguard in the proposal.

And we’d adopted six more dogs. Six.

At first, Sadie claimed we were only fostering a few—including Bear’s best bud, Mr. Woofkins—while Happy Tails Haven was getting much-needed renovations.

Then construction finished, but all the dogs seemed happy to sta...

She’d outsmarted me on a technicality. I shouldn’t have found it as hot as I did.

And the kicker was my donation had funded the renovations, so I only had myself to blame.

Walter’s children were thriving in little pots around the house—thanks to the gardeners keeping Sadie away from them.

Sadie had a habit of accidentally getting involved with our jobs, walking in on deals in my office, and having a sixth sense for whenever I put someone in the shed—the inside of which had been wallpapered pink without my knowledge.

Sadie’s self-defense training with Vince had gone so well that Sadie persuaded more of my men to teach her their specialties, too.

but we drew the line at weapons training.

As cute as Sadie would look with a pink gun, the world just wasn’t ready for it. Neither was my blood pressure.

Her place by my side had been cemented after news of Zain and Murdock’s foiled abductions spread through the underground—even earning Sa...

I didn’t bother correcting that rumor. It work...

And despite my plans, I’d let Zain live, after all. Mostly because Sadie had made it her personal mission to “mend fences” with the Ali brothers, and she would’ve no...

It took one look from me for the boys to play along with her wishes, but I drew the line at Sadie inviting them both to Thanksgiving.

It was a confusing time for my reputation.

The hellhound proved a worthy guard dog, and they escaped unscathed long enough to hide and call me. I made sure that was the last attack anyone attempted.

Last month, she hosted a wedding between Bear and a Samoyed named Cookie in our backyard. I’d never participated in anything more ridiculous in my life—and

but the hellhound had let me know early on that Sadie was his owner and he’d only listen to my commands if he wanted to. He rarely wanted to.

She talked me into hand-feeding her grapes