"Christ," I muttered, scrubbing a palm over my face. That was a whole new level of fucked up and considering the shit I'd seen, well... fuck.
"I was seven at the time. I never forgot the sounds of her screams. I sleep much better now that my dreams are filled with his instead." Calix chuckled at Rafe’s words, tipping his lips up comically in a move so unlike the usual somber man that I studied him intently.
He was drunk off his ass. He gave me jazz fingers, his mouth making a whooshing sound to indicate Miguel had been burned alive. I couldn't say that I blamed Rafe for that crime, given I would probably do the same to avenge my mother.
"How many men have you brought?" I asked, changing the conversation and moving around the desk to study the names alongside him. Spinning suddenly to stare at the door as Dom appeared, his breath wheezing in and out of his chest, I gripped the cabinet that held my liquor.
"She's gone," he gasped. Ice filled my veins as my body froze solid. Black threatened to overtake my vision, the monster lurking beneath the surface threatening to destroy everything in its path until I had her in my arms again.
"What the fuck do you mean she's gone? You were supposed to be watching her!" I roared, getting into his face. With only inches separating us, he swallowed nervously. Seeming to realize just how monumentally he'd fucked up.
"I swear, I must have looked away for a few seconds. I've looked everywhere, Enzo. She's not here."
“Is Rebel here?” I asked, looking for the dog I felt certain Sadie wouldn’t leave behind. His confused stare brought a growl from my chest. “The dog!”
“No. The dog is gone too,” Dom admitted, backing away slowly.
"Who is missing?" Rafe asked, glancing back and forth between us. His fingers twitched at his sides, itching for the violence he could smell. Monsters smelled blood on the horizons, and even with only rumors and phone calls between us, I knew Rafe was one of the worst monsters there was.
Violence clung to him like his suit, the need to kill and maim as much a part of him as his creepy ass eyes.
"My woman," I answered. "Murphy targeted her, so she's been under Bellandi protection. It would be safe to say she's not happy about it." I shoved Dom out of my way, making for the stairs and my car. “I’ll deal with you later,” I warned him as I shouldered past.
"Call Matteo!" I called out to Dom, watching as Rafe and Calix followed me out of my office. Rafe barked orders at Calix, striding after me. Out the front doors, I made a beeline for my SUV. I didn't even blink as Rafe climbed in the passenger seat. My entire world narrowed down on finding Sadie before someone else did.
Another man I had to assume was his personal protection got in the backseat just before I hit the gas and pulled out of the parking spot.
She'd be lucky if I didn't strangle her myself when I got my hands on her.
Pulling up into the gym parking lot, I shoved my door open and raced inside without a care for what Rafe might do. The front doors flung open in my desperation to find her, but one look at Beth's shocked face and I knew without a doubt that Sadie hadn't come here. She was too smart for that, knew damn well it would be the first place I looked for her.
Spinning, I watched through the front windows as Rafe climbed from the SUV slowly, his eyes on something across the road. I hurried out the doors towards him. It had to be Sadie. Maybe he'd done more surveillance on us than I realized. And he recognized her but wouldn't make a move for fear of frightening her.
But it wasn't Sadie who commanded his attention.
The girl across the street couldn't have been over eighteen, fresh faced and smiling up at her much taller friend with the innocent smile of a child who'd had a safe life. Rafe's eyes never left her as I approached, setting a firm hand on his shoulder to draw him out of his stunned stare. Even from across the way, her deep chocolate hair shone with notes of cherry undertones in the sunlight. Her skin was a bronzed olive, contrasting her sage eyes so vividly as she turned her face to stare at us across the street.
Something was wrong with her left eye, the coloring off like she'd burst blood vessels or something, but that didn't stop Rafe from holding her eyes without shame as she studied him. Her chest rose and fell, assessing the predator lurking across the road. I wondered if she realized what kind of monster watched her.
If she knew how much danger she was in.
Her friend nudged her, hissing something to her, and the girls turned and made their way into the restaurant behind them. "Come on. She isn't here." I said, making my way to the SUV as my frustration built. I’d leave him standing on the side of the road if I had to. "Rafe!"
He turned to his man, nodding to him. "Follow her. I want her name," he growled. His security looked like he might argue, but one stern glare from Rafe was all it took to send the man scurrying across the street.
"You can't touch her, Rafe," I warned. "Matteo won't tolerate it, and we both know she's young. Too young for the way you looked at her."
He was silent as he climbed into the passenger side of the SUV, staring at the restaurant as I drove back toward the club. The shrill ring of his phone filled the silence, and he answered the call. "Yeah? Got it." He ended the call and looked at me, repeating what he’d learned. "They found your Sadie. A block away from Indulgence in a coffee shop eating a scone. They have eyes on her, but Matteo told Calix you'd want to deal with her yourself." I heaved out a sigh of relief.
She was alive. She was safe.
That should have been what mattered, but I'd spank her ass for putting herself at risk that way. Sadie wasn't naïve. She understood the danger. She was just too desperate for a moment of freedom to care enough to exercise caution.
"Please tell me you understand that you can't take that girl, Rafe," I murmured, watching his jaw harden.
"Do you often tell one another not to claim your women? Why is it you think I will tolerate your interference?" he asked, danger glinting in his expression as he turned his face to mine. I recognized the look for what it was: the complete primal need to claim what belonged to him in his mind and a warning to back off that I’d need to heed if I knew what was good for me.
"It's different. She's too young."
"I'll discuss it with Matteo, and we'll work out an arrangement. I've no interest in rape, Enzo. Particularly raping a girl who has not yet become a woman. But we monsters can be patient, can we not?" he asked. His eyebrow raised, daring me to deny the truth.
Matteo waited twelve years. Ryker waited four. Lino waited close to a lifetime.
How long would Rafael Ibarra wait to take the woman he saw as his?
I didn't suspect it would be long, given the way he stared at his phone and waited for updates from his man.
"Isa," he said finally after his phone dinged with a text. "Her friend calls her Isa."
Rage and relief battled inside of me at the sight of Sadie sitting inside the cafe. She was absolutely aware of the eyes on her as one of the guys watched her from across the shop, but she never moved to so much as stand. She wasn't stupid enough to think she could evade us for long. What she'd done had been done knowing that her freedom would be temporary.
I tried to muster up a trace of sympathy for whatever must have been warring inside her to make her do something so drastic for such little return. But all I could remember was the feeling of blind fear that pulsed through me with every second that I spent questioning if Murphy's men had found her yet.
I couldn't fault her entirely. She'd stayed close enough to Indulgence where, even on his bravest of days, Murphy would never wander near. She'd known the location offered her safety. I had to appreciate that even while she rebelled against me and my place in her life; she did it as safely as possible.
Much like when Samara had called Yavin when she needed a break and it wasn't safe, Sadie exercised her freedom in a way that wasn't entirely oblivious to the danger breathing down her neck. Given her arguments that she could take care of herself, it surprised me she would exercise such caution.
Her eyes met mine as I stormed inside. Standing in the doorway, I didn't close the distance between us. I couldn't trust myself to touch her with the way need and fury consumed me. Apparently, fucking her hadn't been enough to show her where she belonged.
I'd have to remind her.
She stood, tossing her coffee cup into the trash as she closed the distance between us, and Rebel followed on her heels, looking sheepish where her human didn’t bother. Sadie didn’t speak a word as she stepped into the cool Chicago air. She turned back toward the club, ignoring me as Rebel and I trailed behind her. The employees looked at us in shock as she made her way up to my office with a self-indulgent smile on her face.
It wasn't until I closed the door behind me and sealed us inside my office that my breath caught in my lungs and pulled my chest tight. She bent down to pet Rebel quickly as the dog curled up next to my desk, before she stood and made for the couch on the other side of the office.
"I think we need to have a talk," I said when she picked up a bike magazine off the small table in front of her, where some of the guys hung out when I was feeling generous.
She dropped it with a sigh, leaning back into the cushions and staring at me. "Look Enzo, we both know that I am always going to do exactly what I want to do. You or your shitty substitutes won't stop me."
"You put yourself at risk!" I shouted, staring her down with my hands on my hips as my heart pounded in my chest. Blood roared in my veins with the need to convince her of how foolish it had been. "For what?"
"Freedom! Something I doubt you know much about, since apparently the cock and balls swinging between your legs mean you're magically able to protect yourself and me."
Tugging the Glock from my holster, I slammed it down onto the coffee table and leaned toward her. "That is why I can magically protect us. I find it hard to believe that you carry a pistol in your booty shorts and sports bra while you prance around the gym and preen for any fucking asshole who wants to stare at your ass."
She drew in a huff of disbelieving breath, leaning into my space until her face nearly touched mine. "Jealous much, Lorenzo?" she taunted, a smile gracing those lips that I wanted to own. That I wanted to consume for myself and make sure that nobody else ever so much as looked at again. Slipping her fingers under my hand, she drew the Glock away from my grip. I allowed it, despite the uncertainty that I felt over her touching a loaded weapon. Accidents with guns were too quick, and even I couldn't protect her from her own recklessness. "Easy," I soothed her, worry filling me as her small hand wrapped around the gun that was too big for her. But she managed just fine, letting her pointer finger caress the trigger like something out of a wet dream.
She raised it, and something in the motion was more familiar than I'd have expected. She was comfortable with the gun in her hand, the feeling of the cool metal against her skin.
"I dated a cop once, you know," she admitted, and even the vague reference of another man who'd been inside her made me murderous all over again. Her other hand pressed the magazine ejector, setting the magazine itself onto the table with a thump. She racked the slide back, glancing into the chamber, and inspected it with her finger to be sure it wasn't loaded. Then she racked it back five times in a row to be safe, and my dick twitched in my pants. She smirked as she removed the slide, pulling out the spring and the barrel in rapid succession. "So give me a gun to protect myself, and I'll be on my way." She set the frame on the table finally, getting back into my face one last time with arrogance dancing in her eyes.
The tip of my nose touched hers briefly as I leaned in, bringing my hand up to grab her around the back of her head. My lips brushed against hers, a subtle reminder of the chemistry between us as I spoke. "You'd shoot me with it."
The soft skin of her mouth against mine felt like the sweetest caress as it tipped into a smile. She didn't deny the truth in my statement, just kept her honey eyes trained on mine bravely. Like I wasn't a murderer who could kill her with the hand so close to her neck, like I was more than just a ruthless mercenary who could easily snap her neck before she could blink.
Sadie stared my raging beast in the face and dared me to punish her, reminding me at every turn that she wasn't the kind of woman I could just boss around and expect compliance. She'd challenge me. She'd push me past my limits, and the moment I stopped expecting that from her, she'd act out just to remind me who she was.
Temptation sent by the devil himself to trap better men into being wrapped around her finger.
It was a good thing I wasn't a better man.
Crashing my lips onto hers, I shoved all my rage and possession into that kiss as I stepped over the coffee table and refused to separate my mouth from her. We fused together, one and the same as I shoved her onto her back on the couch. I only pulled back long enough to rip her shirt over her head, exposing all that tawny skin I loved so much. "You seem to have forgotten who owns this body," I growled. "You put it in danger." I flipped her to her stomach, using a hand and all the strength in my arm to hold her down at her shoulders. She bucked against me as I pulled her jeans and underwear down her thighs to bare her ass to me. "I will never tolerate you putting this fucking ass at risk."
My palm gripped it, kneading the mound of flesh while Sadie yelled her protest into the cushion. "You fucking asshole!"
"That's not very nice," I murmured, drawing a hand back to smack it against her sharply. The sound cracked through the office, her muscled ass only bouncing slightly with the force of the blow, even as her skin reddened underneath my palm.
"I will gut you," she growled as a second blow came down on her other cheek.
"I know you have a thing for sets of five," I uttered, some of my anger abating at the sound of her enraged shriek that the cushion only slightly muffled. I was grateful for the mostly empty club downstairs and the lack of paying customers, because I knew anyone near the stairs would hear her scream when the third blow landed on her already swollen and burning ass. Two more followed, her body remaining taut as she tried to push back against my hand.
Slipping my hand between her thighs, I grinned at the feel and sight of her wetness coating her thighs. Sadie could claim to want independence. She could claim to want freedom from me.
But her body told another story, the epitome of the forbidden, inexplicable attraction that pulsed between us. She shouldn't want me, but she was mine regardless. I slid two fingers inside her, curling them to stroke the back wall of her pussy harshly as she gasped beneath me. "I should fuck this tight little ass of yours. Let you feel the burn inside and out every time I slam into you," I warned her, eliciting a moan from her lips as I released my pressure on her shoulders.
She turned her head to stare at me, her body perfectly still and pliant as my fingers fucked her pussy. "Don't you dare," she hissed. My other hand went to my belt, pulling it free from my pants as I slid my fingers free from her tight sheath. Sucking them clean before I shifted my weight off her I let her get to her feet. Her hands instantly went to tug her jeans up her legs, turning away from me with a glare when the rough fabric scraped against her tender flesh. I grabbed those offending hands behind her back before she could button the pants, slipping them through the loops I'd made in my belt and tightening until I fastened the hook. I'd heard the story of Ryker doing it to Calla, though he'd done it to keep Calla from touching him. I did it so I could safely ravage my woman while she raged at me. "Enzo!" she yelled, pulling back and moving to hit me in the junk as she turned to run. "Stop it."
My dark chuckle bounced through the room, sounding menacing even for me. "Can't do that. My Baby Girl wants me to fuck her in the ass, but I don't quite trust her not to gouge out my eyeballs when I sink balls deep." Pulling her sports bra up, I let her breasts spill free out the bottom.
With her fuming, I didn't trust her enough to get any closer, so I stood and wrapped my arms around her from behind. Narrowly avoiding the head she tried to slam back into my nose, I bent her over the arm of the couch and pulled her sneak
ers and jeans off as quickly as I could. With her face pressed into the cushion and her breath heaving from her lungs, I lifted her under the hips and pulled her back ever so slightly to get the angle I wanted as I pressed my fingers back inside her. She bucked her weight to dislodge me, but the arms behind her back hindered her movements enough that I could easily control her with my free hand. "Tell me you don't want it, Baby Girl, and I'll stop," I reassured her. "If it isn't a lie, anyway, and we both know that I can tell just how thoroughly you're lying because your pussy is soaking my hand."
I pulled my fingers free, moving them up to the other entrance. She hissed, trying to shove her body away from the pressure as I touched a single finger to it, coating her in her own juices briefly before I ducked down and bit her reddened ass cheek. She grunted from the pain as both my palms grabbed a handful and spread her, baring everything to my view.
"I don't want it," she lied, her chest heaving with her desire as cool air kissed her pussy. My tongue replaced it, sliding through her wet heat to slip in and out of her, driving her closer and closer to an orgasm I'd never let her have.
Not until she took my cock, anyway.
“Little Liar,” I murmured against her.
She gasped as I moved out, running my tongue along the journey until I circled her rear entrance and she squirmed beneath me the best she could. "Lorenzo," she warned, her voice trailing off into a desperate moan as I slipped a finger back inside her pussy to get her ready. She whimpered when I drew my mouth back from her, straightening and pressing a finger inside her ass ever so slowly while she writhed beneath me.
Shielded Wrongs: A Dark Mafia Romance (Bellandi Crime Syndicate Book 4) Page 15
