Mira woke up with a throbbing headache, the self control she tried to have last night having completely disappeared once she'd kissed Adrian.

She rolled over in his bed, his hair tousled messily as he let out small snores. It was never her intention to act out the way she had last night, to basically confess to him, but she didn't regret it.

She'd been used a number of times before, another body to curb some ones lustful appetite, but she didn't feel that way with Adrian. Nothing about the way he talked to her, looked at her, or even touched her had been lustful in the slightest. No, he was gentle, his actions driven by passion.

He was the only man to ever treat her like that, to make her feel like an actual person rather than an object.

Last night he told her things would never work between them, and with their current situation, he might've been right, but they wouldn't know unless they tried. Maybe, things would somehow all work out, and they'd be able to escape this mess together.

Mira carefully slipped out of bed, making sure not to stir him.

She made her way into the living room, planting a gentle kiss on Pickle's head before moving onto the kitchen. Adrian was always the one going out of his way to take care of her, and she wanted to do something nice for him. She was no gourmet chef by any means, but had learned from her mom how to make a dangerous stack of chocolate chip pancakes.

She hummed to herself as she pulled out a skillet and managed to find some pancake mix and chocolate chips in the cupboards. She poured the mixture into a bowl, adding a cup of water and some eggs before whisking them in circular motions. Once the batter was mixed, she went ahead and added an abundance of chocolate chips, stirring them in.

She placed the skillet onto the stove and turned the burner on, letting it heat up before pouring in some of the mixture. She turned around to grab some milk from the fridge, jumping a bit when she saw Adrian had managed to slide into one of the barstools, his eyes fixed on her.

"Fuck, you scared me," She placed her hand on her chest. "Were you just going to sit there and watch me like some creep?" She asked, Adrian's lips curving upwards in a childish grin.

"Well you seemed so focused, I didn't wanna kill your mojo." He teased, making Mira's cheeks flush red.

"Right. Anyways, do you like chocolate chip pancakes?" She questioned, Adrian scrunching up his face.

"Never had them before, but if you're making them, they can't be too bad."

"Well, I wouldn't get too ahead of yourself, I once set off the fire alarms because I forgot to put water in my craft mac and cheese cup." She snorted, although she was biting back a smile at the comment. She grabbed a spatula and flipped the pancake over, nearly drooling over the way the chocolate melted into the fluffy flour around it. She repeated the process several times until she had four big, fluffy chocolate pancakes, melting some extra chocolate chips in the microwave before drizzly it on top.

She let out a huff, taking a step back to admire her work. Damn she was good.

She scooped up the two plates, sliding one in front of Adrian, and taking the other for herself as she took a seat in the stool next to him.

"Bon appetite," She stated proudly, watching as Adrian forked a piece into his mouth, eagerly awaiting his reaction. His eyes went wide as he chewed and swallowed.

"Mira . . ." He shook his head, like he was at a loss for words. "These . . . taste like pancakes." He finished anticlimactically, Mira wacking  him across the side of his head in response.

"Fine, don't ever ask me to cook for you again," She huffed, rolling her eyes. He laughed, forking a piece of pancake and raising it to her lips.

"I was kidding, they're amazing," He waved the fork in front of her lips, which she pressed tightly together stubbornly. She narrowed her eyes at him before reluctantly biting the piece off his fork.

"You're so beautiful, you know, even when you're pissed off," Adrian rested his cheek in his palm, looking over at her with puppy dog eyes.

"If you think you can sweet talk me out of being mad at you, you're 100% right, but it won't be so easy the second time," She stated, inhaling a bite of her own pancake. Adrian gave her a lopsided grin, knowing he won this time.

He opened his mouth, about to say something, when he was cut off by the ring of his phone. He frowned as he looked at the contact, before standing up and walking into the living room, pacing back and forth as he conversed with the person on the other end of the line.

Mira tried to pick up on bits and pieces of their conversation, but only being able to hear Adrian's responses didn't give her much help. Finally, he let out a long sigh and shoved the phone back into his pocket.

Mira spun around in her stool, looking at him expectantly.

"That was Giovanni, the bosses want you and I to accompany their men on Wednesdays operation. He said they didn't specify why, but even if they did, I'm sure they wouldn't tell us. With that being said, there is always the chance of the operation going south or the possibility that Leo will have the Bonnano family working to interfere with the operation. If either of those things happen, I don't want you to be a sitting duck waiting to get your brains blown out, so we're going to train these next two days. Although it's not much time, it'll be enough to better prepare you."

Mira nodded, knowing it was probably best even though the thought of training with Adrian for two days straight made her muscles sore.

A loud knock sounded from the door, Mira and Adrian's eyes both darting towards the noise. Adrian's brows furrowed as he reached under the couch and pulled out a gun, holding it at his side as he cautiously walked over to the door.

How was it that all these mafia men could just pull guns out of their ass whenever they needed?

He cracked the door open, peering outside, before letting it swing open, Matteo barging in and making his way over to Mira.

"Adrian, why didn't you tell me the bella signora was back?" Matteo quickly turned to face Mira, taking her hand into his and placing a gentle kiss just below her wrist. She smiled, wiggling her brows at Adrian after Matteo's endearing gesture.

"This man knows the way to a woman's heart,"she said, enjoying the annoyed expression that crossed his features as he let out a grunt. Jealousy at its finest.

"Jeez, were you planning on shooting me dead with that thing?" Matteo asked, gesturing towards the gun still in Adrian's firm grasp. He let out a shrug.

"Depends if you keep pissing me off."

Matteo let out a low chuckle, helping himself to a forkful of Adrian's remaining pancakes.

"I heard about the shit with the Bonnano family," he said as he chewed, chocolate smeared in the corners of his mouth.

"Shits crazy," he looked over at Mira. "But don't worry, I never doubted you for a second Bella signora."

Mira rolled her eyes at his blunt attempt at flattery. Even if it pained her to admit, there was no proof she didn't kill her father, and quite frankly, she appeared out of nowhere, a total outsider. Everything added up painfully perfectly, likely just how Leo had planned. Just the thought of him made her fists itch to slam into his face. Clever fucker.

"Right, thank you for your loyalty Matteo," she replied sarcastically.

"Anyways, why the hell are you here?" Adrian walked over to the couch, slipping the gun beneath the cushion, before flopping down on top of it.

"Boss is sending me and a few others on the Lucchese operation in a few days, wanted to know your thoughts on the situation." He exclaimed. Adrian shrugged, pulling a cigarette pack from his pocket and lighting one.

"I feel like it's really fucking sketchy," he brought the bud to his lips.

Matteo rubbed his chin, nodding in agreement.

"Yeah, I've never been a fan of those Lucchese bastards, but I guess we're on the same side now, aye?"

Adrian blew smoke into the air.

"Honestly, I think the Lucchese is the least of our worries. Mira was able to get us access to a lot of highly restricted Bonnano files, and this Leonardo kid is bad news. He has a reputation for being unnecessarily violent, a bit mentally unstable. Still, it seemed his father tried to hide those things from the lower ranking members of the family."

Mentally unstable, huh? That was an understatement

"So what your saying is we need to be on high alert?" Matteo asked, and Adrian let out a low laugh.

"No Matteo, I need your men to be ready to blow chunks if those fuckers show up." His expression darkened, sending chills down Mira's spine. It amazed her how quickly he could go from being sweet and playful to so dark and serious.

Matteo grinned, cracking his knuckles.

"Will do. Well, I just wanted to stop by and greet the miss, but I'll make sure my men are ready to go. I'll see you two on Wednesday," Matteo offered them a small wave as he left.

"You didn't tell me about what you found in the files on my dad's phone," Mira stated as the door closed shut behind Matteo. Adrian shrugged, taking another hit of the cigarette.

"You already have enough on your plate, no need to increase that burden." He frowned. "Plus, we already knew Leo was fucked in the head. But not only is he messed up in the head, he's smart too, and that's what worries me the most."