Safe inside the car, the driver picked up speed, tossing us back against the seats. He only slowed down and turned on the headlights when he merged into traffic a few blocks away.
“What just happened? Where the hell are we going?” The girl’s rapid fired their questions almost in unison, looking to us for answers.
Franco was not a man of many words. That was what made him so valuable. What he lacked in poise and sophistication he more than made up for in muscle. As my first in command, he went everywhere I went. Not just for protection, I could handle my own, but because his brooding personality was intimidating. Bethany leaned against his chest like she was snuggling a teddy bear. What she didn't know was that teddy bear was a grizzly in disguise, ready to attack at my command.
“Whatever it was, we want no part of it. I have a place in North Beach we can go. I promise I’ll have you back in time to make your flight tomorrow.”
There wasn’t an option being put on the table. Freddy, my driver knew the drill and wouldn’t stop until we reached the safe house.
Within a half-hour the car turned off the main road and through the gates surrounding the beachfront estate. Palm trees towered over the long driveway leading to a double car garage. The driver exited the vehicle, opened the rear car doors for us and punched the alarm code into the security panel on the door leading into the house. Franco entered first, then the girls, and I followed a few steps behind.
“Thanks, Freddy,” I tossed over my shoulder dismissing him. He knew to stay close in case I needed him but his ranking didn't give him access to the inner workings of the organization. Besides, I wanted privacy to satisfy the insatiable desire eating away at me and Franco and Bethany were already in the way.
White oak flooring covered the vast living space surrounded by a wall of glass overlooking the sandy beach. Just beyond the grass-topped dunes and sea grape bushes, waves crashed against the shore, much like the tide of fury rolling through my body. The girls took in the breathtaking view while Franco swept the rest of the house and I headed to the kitchen to handle business.
I dialed a number on an encrypted, untraceable cell phone and gave my orders to the voice on the other end. “I want them to find his fucking body in a pool of blood and make sure the evidence linking him to the robbery turns up.”
The rage that brewed within me eased slightly knowing that retribution was only moments away. I used the time alone to place a second call to check on the safety of the rest of my crew. When I received confirmation they were all secure, I popped the cork from a bottle of Tuscan red wine. I inhaled the rich scent of vanilla and berries before I returned to the other room. From around the corner, the girl’s voices echoed through the open space.
“Wow. This is an amazing place. Has he told you what he does for a living yet?” Bethany asked her.
Shit, I hoped that wouldn’t come up.
“No, we haven't exactly been talking but don’t you find it weird that there are no pictures or personal touch of any kind in here. He said this was his place… didn’t he?”
I didn’t care for the questioning tone in her voice. I needed to do damage control, the less she knew, the better.
“Would you ladies like a glass of wine?” I asked pouring four glasses before allowing them to answer, “Franco should be back any minute.”
A few minutes later Franco entered holding a large brown bag, its aroma stirred my hunger.
“I had Freddy pick up take out from the bistro on the corner,” Franco announced, pulling out the containers and placing them on the table.
“I’m famished. Brie help me grab plates,” Bethany said before they both disappeared into the kitchen.
When we are alone, Franco informed me that a member of my crew had eyes on the scene. “You might want to see this, Boss,” he said clicking the large screen television on to the local news.
The girls were serving up plates of linguine and clam sauce and refilling the glasses of wine when the breaking news alert chimed in.
This just in. We are live on the scene at the Surf Shack in South Beach Miami Florida where just a short time ago local PD and Federal Agents arrested several key players in a drug dealing ring. Sources report that a local police officer was killed in the crossfire. Local law enforcement recently investigated officer Salamar, the victim of the fatal shooting, for a possible role in an armored truck robbery. Internal Affairs cleared the officer and he returned to work just last week. Salamar was off duty at the time of the shooting, no word why he was at the scene. Officer Salamar leaves behind a wife and two young children. Stay tuned for more details as this story unfolds.
I turned off the television and finished eating in silence contemplating the likelihood of the story being a rouse or whether my judgement had been flawed.
The siren call in Brie’s voice captured my focus as they shared the details of the unbelievable story they had to tell. Giggling as girls their age did.
I was only five years older than Brie but my upbringing forced me to mature at a young age. My father had become the underboss of the Bianchi family during a time of civil upheaval between families. The war on crime saw the fall of the hierarchy with many murdered or imprisoned. The internal power struggle between turning a profit by any means and returning to a code of honor was a war that raged on, even within the ranks of our own family.
My father’s focus had always been elsewhere. Perhaps that was why I had spent the better part of the last twenty-six years trying to earn his approval.
My thoughts drifted to my mother. Her face has faded over the years but she too yearned for my father's approval, that never came. I was fifteen when she drowned under the weight of despair and took her own life. I couldn’t recall a single occasion when I heard my parents speak more than a few words to each other, let alone shared a gentle touch. A fate I would not succumb to.
Tamping down the emotions that threatened to weaken me I focused my eyes on Brie’s pink satin lips, the corners creating dimples in her blushing cheeks. The dangers of being with a man like me would eventually darken the light radiating from within her but I wanted to bask in it as long as I could. To have her warmth melt away the layers of ice built up around my heart over the years.
I had never been a patient man and I couldn’t wait any longer to wrap her around me.
“Mia Bella, walk with me.”
Chapter 5
Brie
My polished toes scrunched into the softness of the white sandy beach, still dampened from the retreating tide. We walked hand in hand to a quiet refuge nestled between palm trees and the rocks jetting into the foaming waters. Silver moonbeams danced across the sky lighting our way through the darkness. The rhythmic flow of white laced waves calmed the chaos of the evening and lulled me into romantic bliss.
The dampness of the sand stung my bare legs sending shivers through my body. I curled my legs under me to sit just out of reach of the lapping waves and nestled into his muscular arms.
His voice beat in his chest like the music of the sea, “What's on your mind Mia Bella?”
“It's beautiful isn’t it?” I asked sifting tiny shells through my fingers and letting them fall back onto the sand.
“Breathtaking. Almost as much as you.” He ran his fingers through the loose strands of hair fallen from my bun. The warmth of his touch against my skin burned me from within. I wanted to allow myself to melt under him but a nagging sensation had festered in the pit of my stomach. My mind fought for control over my body. I opened my mouth to ask the questions it sought before I lost all sense of self control, but no words came out.
The stars lit up the night sky and the waves crested upon the shore. Before, I shared my body with him again I needed to know more. “Can I ask you a question?”
His lips said yes but the trail of heat his tongue left down my neck said no.
“I need to know more about you.”
His tongue continued its assault over my senses. “That's not a question.”
A small moan escaped my lips, and I shuttered fighting back the desire stirring between my legs. “That girl I was talking with, the bottle rat from the club last night, she said you’re a regular and well….” my thoughts drifted in and out like the waves against the shore, “She insinuated you weren’t a man to trust. In fact, she said you have a history of throwing away women when they are no longer fun or useful to you.” A cold draft blew over my skin when he pulled away. “Tomorrow I return to my life in Boston and you’ll soon forget about me. But I rarely do this kind of thing. I need to know what kind of man you are.”
He ran his hand down the back of my head, releasing my bun so my hair tousled and tangled in the gentle breeze. “Mia Bella, you can’t trust a woman like that, she sees dollar signs not the man. She has made her rounds. When she failed to sink her claws in me she moved on to the rest of my crew. Sometimes men just need a warm body, it's true she’s been with all of us but it's not the same with you. You intrigue me. Let me prove it, don’t let her ruin this before it even starts.”
“I’m trying not to but I don’t even know your last name, what you do for a living, where you’re from and you know nothing about me.”
“I know all I need to know for tonight and there’s not much to know about me. I'm a businessman from New York. My last name is Deluca. I come here a lot to blow off steam and tend to some operations I have running in the area. I have been with my fair share of women but never one who makes me ache for her, like you do.” He brushed his lips against mine. “I’ve done some questionable things in the past but it would take a lifetime to scratch the surface of who I am. A lifetime I could see myself giving you.”
“I'm not asking for promises. I just want to get to know you.”
“I’m a man desperate for your heat. My lips want to taste you, let me show you the man I am.”
The blue green rush of salty sea sprayed over us and I surrendered control of my body, throwing caution to the wind. His mouth fulfilled the promise, sucking and licking my every curve. His warm breath caressed every inch that made me a woman. His hands followed down my body, the salt crystals bunching under his fingers as they tortured my skin. His tongue teased below my navel before trailing back upwards. He tugged at the string of my halter watching the material fall away from my breast. He lowered, taking the mounds into the warmth of his mouth, alternating between them. His tongue twisted around my hardened nipples sending waves of pleasure through me. A pool of need built between my legs leaving me wet and begging for release.
I cupped his erection in my hand, squeezing and rubbing it to its fullness before reaching for the button holding him in. His strong hand wrapped around my wrist forcing my arm above my head. “Not yet, Mia Bella. Let me savor you.”
The quicken motion tore a gasp from my lungs but the power of him dominating my body sent wave upon wave of heat to my center. The sand shifted under the weight of my arched body giving him full access. My eyelids fluttered closed as I breathed in his tantalizing scent mixed with the briny aroma.
His tongue trailed down my stomach just below the waist of my shorts. He raised himself to kneel before me working my tight shorts down my legs. His fingers toyed with the edges of the white lace of my panties before slipping them down exposing me under the soft glow of the moonlight. A low moan vibrated against my soft folds as he licked and teased, slipping his fingers deep into the heat.
The waves of pleasure rushed in quicker with each lap of his tongue until they overlapped onto each other at the height of ecstasy. He rose from between my legs and lowered himself on top of me. The fullness of his dick plunged inside of me, our bodies slapped against each other with a raw, untamed urgency until the wave of pleasure crested again and descended through both of us.
My mind drifted in and out like the tide as we laid there catching our breath in the cold, wet sand with the moonlight pouring over us. Though my vision wavered, I was certain I would come here in my dreams and my mind would conjure the powerful image of his body over mine for weeks to come.
Chapter 6
Brie
One Year Later...
I looked around the small campus studio apartment I called home for the past ten months and could hardly contain the tears that welled up in my eyes. I had spent a good part of the past four years with my face buried in textbooks. With graduation behind me, everything I had worked so hard for was close to paying off. I spent countless nights cramming over Econ and Financial Statistics, kept awake by endless bitter cups of coffee. I had written my last essay, crammed for my last test and graduated top of my class from the University of Boston. I was ready to put the years of hard work behind me and focus on the future, although I didn’t quite know what that was. My job prospects had all fallen through and in less than a week, the college expected me to move.
The rapping on the door pulled me from my sullen mood as I hurdled over the half packed boxes to unlock it.
“You’re not ready. I want to be notice-me-late not miss the whole party.” Bethany breezed passed me.
“It’s a Kappa Sigma party it’s not ending anytime soon. Besides, I’m almost ready, I just want to change my shirt.” I rummaged through a few boxes looking for something other than the baggy t-shirt that hung off my shoulders.
“Of course, you’d be wearing jeans, you can’t even humor me by attempting to dress up?” Bethany asked forcing me to sit on the edge of the bed to work her magic on my face with the make-up she carried in her purse.
“Do you remember last time I let you squeeze me into a dress?” There was no point in fighting her, she was the type of girl who always got her way.
“Yup, and it was the best summer of our lives.” Bethany froze, makeup brush mid streak across my face, and sighed, “Well, at the time. Who would have guessed that smooth talking hunk would have become so obsessed with you? I’m sorry I pushed him on you.”
“You didn’t push him on me. Truth is, I wanted him the moment I saw him and even though I wish things turned out differently, the experience made me stronger. Those few nights were mind blowing and I learned to accept my own desires. Thank god or I never would have taken a chance with a man like Cal.”
There was truth in every word. While those few days were exhilarating, my summer fling with Angelo Deluca was short lived. He promised me nothing, and I asked for nothing in return but I was left feeling empty, wanting something more. I longed for a man strong enough to handle my independence and passionate enough to ignite my soul on fire. I had no illusions he was that man. I ended our relationship, and that’s when I realized he was fucking insane.
My phone rang at all hours of the night and when I hit ignore, it continued to ring for hours on end. Even with the phone silenced I couldn’t sleep knowing there would be a dozen threatening messages, each one scarier than the last. My skin crawled thinking about how he knew my every move. Angelo became my worst nightmare, stalking me until I lost myself to fear. One month into my Senior year, my grades plummeted, and I was on the verge of academic suspension and a nervous breakdown. Until I met Cal and just as fast the calls and text stopped.
I took a self-defense class and followed every step I learned. I changed my phone number and switched up my routine; I took different routes to class and even worked alternating schedules. Yet even after all these months I couldn’t shake the sensation he was watching me. I came home from class last week to find pictures missing and the smell of his cologne in the air. My body trembled at the thought of him lurking out there, somewhere.
But I was stronger than he thought and I would not give him the satisfaction of breaking me. I worked hard to get my life back on track and with Cal by my side I had everything. He could not take that from me.
“I wish you weren’t leaving so soon.” The thought of being separated from everyone I’ve grown closest too over the past few years weighed on my heart. Bethany and I were polar opposites but were inseparable since our freshman year; we worked together, studied together and until this pas
t term, roomed together. Now she was about to embark on a three-month hiatus through Europe on her parent’s dime and I was returning home.
“I’ll miss you terribly but I’m so excited! Are you sure you won’t change your mind about going back to New Hampshire? I assumed you’d be moving in with Cal.”
“The thought crossed my mind, but he hasn’t asked.” Our plan was to suffer through the summer apart while I looked for a job. The idea was terrifying. Over the past ten months Cal had become the very air I breathed and I couldn’t imagine my life without him. His smoking hot body commanded attention but it was his arctic blue eyes that held it, I could see his soul the first time I looked into them. But it was his voice I loved the most, it had a way of wrapping around your heart and freezing you in place.
“Well you’re not gone yet there’s still time. If you’re going to insist on jeans, you should at least wear something that shows off the girls.” She tossed me a low-cut top in a shade of yellow too bright for my mood, “Wear this one.”
“Bethany James do you know something I don’t?”
“Nope,” she said popping the p as a sly smile tugged at her lips, “But if he puts a ring on it you better say yes!”
I laughed at her dancing around like Beyoncé.
The thought of Cal proposing never even crossed my mind and now there it was front and center.
“I’d be stupid not to and I’m not stupid.”
We walked, arm and arm, across campus for the last time. “I can’t believe this is the last college party we’ll ever attend. Please try to have fun tonight!”
Frat parties always made my skin crawl. I preferred to blend in with the crowd but not Bethany. She was a typical over sexed co-ed and loved the attention. She was only five feet tall but her curves were in all the right places. Her flawless skin and blue eyes only magnified her natural beauty. While my favorite pair of skin-tight jeans accentuated my best feature.
Resurrection (The Vendetta Series Book 1) Page 3
