Leaning around the whore on my lap, I swipe two beers from the bucket on the table, silently handing one to her. I watch Salerno as the girl on my lap tries, and fails, to snag my attention. There is nothing stirring in my pants, but I’ll make it happen when it gets to that point in the night. Salerno is staring at the door like he wants to riddle it with bullets. A dark look washes over his scarred face, and his eyes narrow at the single guard standing at the door. “Where is she?” he barks.
“On her way, boss. Renzo’s gone to get her.”
Salerno turns toward us as Leo helps himself to a beer. “I met the most stunning creature upstairs,” he explains, pouring himself another scotch, before reclaiming his seat. He pulls a curvy redhead down on his lap, his hand diving underneath the band of her panties. She arches against him as he rips her panties off, the torn material falling to the floor while he openly finger fucks her. “She is all legs and golden-blonde hair with these big green eyes.”
Gambini chuckles.
“Screams of innocence,” Salerno adds, winking as he roughly thrusts three fingers inside the redhead. “She was fucking terrified, and I can’t wait to smear her blood all over my cock.”
“Virgin pussy.” Gambini licks his lips as he fondles the naked brunette on her knees, between his legs, unzipping his pants. “Our favorite.”
“I’m taking her first,” Salerno says, continuing to finger the girl on his lap while his eyes remain glued to the door, waiting for his victim. “And Mazzone can take her next. Then she’s yours to play with,” he tells his number two.
I smirk as I lift the bottle to my mouth, draining half my beer. I have a role to play, whether I want to or not.
Commotion in the corridor pricks my ears as the blonde on my lap starts unbuttoning my shirt, pressing sloppy kisses against my neck. Beside me, Leo is slouched on the couch, with his thighs stretched open, a happy grin on his mouth as the brunette lowers her lips over his hard-on.
Crying reaches my eardrums as Salerno’s soldier hauls two young women into the room. The small curvy woman with the short brown hair is openly sobbing while the taller, willowy blonde is wrestling against the man’s hold, trying to pull herself free. “Let me go,” she screams, and there’s something familiar about her voice that has all the hairs on the back of my neck lifting. I try to get a good look at her, but it’s hard from this angle, and masses of blonde hair shield her face from view.
The mousy brunette cries louder. Although she’s pretty—if you’re into that innocent girl-next-door look—it’s obvious Salerno brought her along to ensure the blonde does his bidding because she couldn’t be less his type. It’s a classic carrot-and-stick approach.
Moving the whore to the side when she repositions herself on my lap—unhelpfully blocking my view—I watch as the willowy blonde pushes her hair out of her eyes. The man thrusts the girls forward into the room, and there’s no hiding that face now. The vein in my neck throbs as blood rushes to my head. I stare at her, blinking a couple times to make sure I’m seeing what I’m seeing.
No. Fucking. Way.
“Ah, there you are, Ms. Lawson,” Salerno says, pulling his fingers out of the redhead and dumping her on the floor. Stepping over her, he walks toward the trembling blonde.
A lump wedges in my throat as I drink her in. The minute I got a proper look at her face, I knew it was her. Salerno’s words have just confirmed it. I bet it kills Saskia that her little sister grew up to be more beautiful than she is. Sierra bears a strong resemblance to her older sister. They both share their mother’s blonde hair and green eyes, whereas Serena favors Joseph Lawson with her brown hair and hazel eyes.
Sierra might look a lot like my ex, but she is in a league of her own. Her features are more refined. Her hair is a dazzling shade of blonde, brighter than her sister’s hair, and her figure is more alluring. Everything about her is authentic and natural in direct contrast to her sister.
Sierra is exquisite.
Like a goddess with her flowing blonde hair, her stunningly beautiful perfectly symmetrical face, legs that seem to go on for miles, and her slim body with curves in all the right places.
My little Firefly is all grown up, and it shows.
I never thought I would ever see her again.
Certainly not in a place like this.
Mr. Lawson was always extremely protective of his daughters, and I can’t believe he has let his youngest wander freely around Las Vegas. I can only assume Salerno took care of her bodyguard. He’s a man who lets nothing stand in the way of getting what he wants, and from the way he’s devouring her on sight, I know he wants her badly.
Well, fuck him.
He can’t have her.
My inner beast snarls as adrenaline surges through my veins.
I’m not sure how I can extract Sierra from the ruination Saverio has planned, but I won’t stand by and watch him destroy her. I’m going to get her out of here, even if it’s the last thing I do.
5
SIERRA
Fear has a vise grip on my heart, tightening and tightening until it feels like I can’t breathe. Beside me, Pen is crying hysterically, and I have never seen her so scared. I focus on my friend, and the need to protect her, because it’s the only way I won’t fall apart. One of us needs to stay composed, or neither of us will survive this.
I knew I shouldn’t have let the others talk me into going to the VIP room—I should have trusted my gut and ran. The second we reached the Givenchy booth, I knew we wouldn’t be able to get them to leave.
Ironically, Pen and I only left the main room to go to the bathroom so we could discuss tactics for getting out of here. Scarface Salerno must’ve had men watching us, because his goon was waiting outside the bathroom when we emerged. I told him to get lost when he said he was there to escort us to Mr. Salerno’s private club in the basement, but he wasn’t shy about showing us his gun or threatening to hurt our other friends if we didn’t go quietly with him.
I didn’t feel like we had much choice.
“Let me go, you bastard,” I hiss, as he drags me toward Saverio. The man’s fingers are digging into my arm, and I know it will leave bruises. “You’re hurting me.”
A loud snort rips through the room. My eyes pop wide as a beast of a man turns his head, glancing over his shoulder at me, from the couch. Terror resurfaces when I spot the obvious lust on his face. “You’d better get used to the pain, principessa, because there’s more of that coming your way.” He undresses me with his eyes, licking his lips as his gaze fixes on my modest chest.
My eyes lower to the girl on her knees in front of him, sucking his dick, and my stomach lurches as nausea swirls in my gut. My gaze darts briefly around the room, and panic claws its way up my throat as I take in the scene.
There are several scary-looking older dudes in the room, all of them in various stages of intimacy with mostly naked women. The girls look much younger, but none of them look like they are being coerced. A couple of naked women gyrate against poles on a stage at the other end of the room while a group of ominous-looking guys stands off to the area at the back of the occupied couches. They are all dressed in black clothing and wearing gun belts.
What the hell is this place? And who are these people?
My heart thumps frantically against my rib cage as my panicked eyes scan the room for exit points, but the only way in and out of the place is through the main door behind us.
“Don’t mind my friend,” Saverio says, approaching us with the freakiest-looking smile.
There are some people whose smiles light up their entire faces. People whose smiles transform their features, elevating them from ordinary to extraordinary.
This man is the opposite.
His smile is like the murky depths of a cesspit, swarming with toxins that are hazardous to your health. I want to tell him he should never smile. That it does him no favors. But I expect a man like him would get off on that fact.
“We are all about pleasure here,” he
says, as low moans ring out from a man and woman at the end of the nearest couch. She is bouncing up and down on his cock while he tweaks her nipples in a way that looks more like pain than pleasure to me.
Saverio pulls me away from the asshole who has left indents on my skin, wrapping his arm around my waist and yanking me against him. Fear pummels my insides, and I can scarcely breathe over the tightness in my chest. Pen is hyperventilating as the asshole keeps a firm hold of her arm.
“You can’t keep us here against our will,” I protest, hating how my voice trembles.
A chorus of chuckles rings out around the room.
“Our friends will know something has happened when we don’t return and call for help,” I add.
Saverio’s smile turns even more sinister, and I almost puke as his hand moves down around my hip, landing on my ass. I try to wrench away from him, but he shakes his head, tutting at me. “Do not offend me, beautiful.” His voice drips with menace. “You really don’t want to do that.” He squeezes my ass, and tears prick the backs of my eyes. “Do not worry about your friends. My manager has given them a message.” His hand moves lower again, slipping underneath the hem of my short dress.
Everything locks up inside me, and blood rushes to my head.
I can’t believe I let this happen.
I can’t believe I stupidly drugged Tony so I could get laid.
I can’t believe I let the others talk me into staying in this club.
“They believe you have retreated to your hotel,” he continues, his fingers creeping up the side of my thigh. “By the time they realize it’s not true, they will be too high on the complimentary cocaine I’ve just delivered to their table or too smashed from all the free champagne to care.”
His fingers brush the front of my lace panties, and a strangled sound leaves my lips. Movement on the opposite couch hits my peripheral vision, but I’m too panicked to make out the blurry shapes.
Pen’s crying is louder, and I can tell from the irritated looks leveled our way from several of the men that they won’t tolerate her much longer. Ignoring the callused fingers moving around to my butt, I focus on my best friend, pleading with my eyes for her to pull herself together before she ends up with a bullet in her brain.
A sort of resigned acceptance washes over me as Saverio’s hands roam my body, and I prepare to retreat into my head, to block it all out. I’ve had years of practice tuning my father and Saskia’s derision out, but this is on a whole other level. I can only guess what Saverio has in mind, but something tells me even my imagination couldn’t conjure up the depths of the depravity he has planned for us.
I can’t see any way out of this.
They have guns, and they could kill us.
I would rather agree and let them rape me in the hope I can get out with my life.
Pen screams as a naked man approaches her. His hideous old dick is erect, jutting toward her like a weapon. His skin tells a story—one I didn’t want to be true. Scars litter his chest and his arms, and there’s an obvious old bullet wound in his shoulder.
These guys are the mob, and we are so fucking fucked.
“I’ll make you a deal,” I blurt, as movement out of the corner of my eye momentarily distracts me.
Saverio chuckles as he slides his hand underneath my panties, palming my bare ass cheek. Nausea swims up my throat, and I’m a mess inside, but I try my best to hold it together. “I knew there was a reason I was drawn to you,” he says before running his tongue up the side of my neck. A shudder works its way through me, and I’m not quick enough to hide it. He chuckles again, and I know my fear is only turning him on more.
Pen screams, and I watch in horror as the naked man wraps his hand around her throat, shoving her against the wall and holding her up a few feet off the ground.
“Let her go and you can do what you like to me!” I shriek, my chest heaving.
Pen’s terrified eyes meet mine as her skin turns blue.
“You won’t fight?” Saverio trails his finger along my chest, tracing the outline of my breasts with his rough skin.
“I won’t fight.” Because I can tell the bastard would get a kick out of that. “I’ll cooperate. Just please. Please let her go. Let all my friends go and I’m yours.” The words feel like poison on my tongue, but if it works, at least I will have saved Pen from this ordeal.
Saverio nods at the naked man, and he drops Pen unceremoniously. She slumps to the floor, gasping for air and clutching her throat.
“Renzo.” Saverio calls over the man who abducted us outside the bathroom. “Escort the girl to her hotel and stay with her until I give you further notice.”
“That wasn’t part of the deal.” I know it was the wrong thing to say the second the words leave my mouth.
“Quiet,” Saverio snaps, wrapping his hands around my throat, forcing my head back. “If you want your friends to go unharmed, we do this my way. Your friends will be guarded until I’m satisfied they won’t speak.” Removing his fingers from my throat, he smirks. “After all, what happens in Vegas always stays in Vegas.”
If he thinks I’m laughing at his effort of a joke, he has another think coming.
“Get her out of here,” Saverio barks when Pen’s sobs start in earnest again.
“Sierra!” she screams. “You can’t do this!” Her sobs dry up as she levels Saverio with a frantic look. “Please just let us both go. We won’t tell anyone. Just let us leave, and we promise not to say a word.”
He dismisses her with a flippant wave of his hand.
“I love you,” I mouth as she’s lifted off the ground by the asshole.
“I’m sorry,” she mouths back. Her cries and screams reverberate in my ears as she’s carried out of the room.
“My ears thank you,” the beast on the couch says, grunting as he fucks the woman sprawled across the table in front of him. “I think you’re going soft, boss. I would’ve put a bullet in the bitch’s mouth the second she entered the room.”
“We’ve got a problem, Salerno,” a deeply masculine voice says, rousing memories from the furthermost depths of my brain.
I spin my head in the direction of the voice, unable to believe my eyes.
Oh. My. God.
No way.
It can’t be.
I examine every inch of his handsome face behind a layer of shock. He looks the same, yet different. Older and like he’s properly grown into his skin. I crushed hard on Bennett Carver as a teen. I thought he was the hottest guy I’d ever seen, but either my memory hasn’t done him justice, my thirteen-year-old eyes had blinders on, or he’s just gotten even hotter.
Because this Ben?
He is sex on a stick.
So gorgeous it almost hurts.
6
SIERRA
If I wasn’t on the verge of being violently assaulted, I’d swoon over Ben’s piercing blue eyes, strong nose, that chiseled jawline coated in a sexy layer of scruff, and the thick glossy dark hair I used to fantasize about touching. He’s bulked up too, looking broader in the shoulders with an impressive chest and defined biceps. His shirt is rolled to his elbows, highlighting his muscular arms with a dusting of dark hair I find so attractive in guys. The top few buttons of his shirt are undone, offering a glimpse of his toned chest with a smattering of dark chest hair.
“Ben?” I croak, finding my voice after the initial shock has worn off. “Is it really you?”
“Firefly.” He smirks, arching a brow in a wholly arrogant way that is totally new. His eyes darken as he purposely drags his gaze over my body, inspecting me slowly from head to toe. “You’re all grown up and so gorgeous.”
Wait. What? I gape at him, and I’m sure my disbelief is written all over my face.
He moves right up in front of me, threading his fingers through my hair before twisting it around his fist, yanking my head back at an awkward angle.
My heart thumps erratically again, beating against my rib cage like it wants to escape. The Ben staring down
at me—like he wants to devour me until he’s sucked all the flesh from my bones—is not the Ben I remember. There’s a cruel sheen to his gaze that wasn’t there before. Or maybe it was, and I couldn’t see it over the haze of infatuation.
Little sweat beads form on the nape of my neck, and my pulse throbs wildly as I try to work out whether Ben is an ally or a foe.
“You know the girl.” Saverio isn’t asking, and he looks irritated as fuck.
“Yes.” Ben loosens his tight hold on my hair, and my neck welcomes the relief. Without subtlety, he pulls me away from the monster, tucking me in flush to his side. He stares at Saverio, no fear evident in his expression despite the naked aggression laid bare on Saverio’s face. “And like I said, we have a problem. Two, really.”
Another man approaches, clutching his unbuttoned pants to keep them up. He looks similar in age to Ben, if I had to hazard a guess. This guy is ripped with an impressive six-pack and a serious case of arm porn. His torso also bears the scars of a violent lifestyle, and I wonder if Ben looks like that when he’s undressed. Which is kind of problematic when the man is holding me possessively like he can’t decide if he wants to fuck me or kill me. I’d be totally down for the former—life-risking scenario aside.
“Who is she?” the stranger asks as he materializes beside Ben.
“Joseph Lawson’s youngest daughter.”
“Should I know who that is?” Saverio asks.
“He’s Lawson Pharma,” a man with salt-and-pepper hair and beady eyes says.
“He’s well-connected and fiercely protective of his daughters,” Ben explains. “If you hurt her, you’ll pay a price. He’s a billionaire with the resources to make your life hell.”
Saverio shrugs. “I can handle a disgruntled businessman.”
He clearly doesn’t know my father.
Condemned to Love:  Page 5
