by Olivia Fox
“Old school.” An amused smile played across Tony’s lips.
The nun pointed out the compound just visible from where we stood on a rocky path outside the convent wall. It was within walking distance.
“Do I look like the Virgin Mary?”
“How do you come off sexy as hell dressed like a nun?” He asked.
“Guess that means I don’t pass as virginal.”
“I hate to break it to you, Daphne. God didn’t give a set of tits like yours to any female he wanted to appear like a chaste virgin. One glance at you, a man can’t think of anything but sin.”
Tony removed his hand from my thigh where it rested as I rode the burro up to the formidable entrance of the compound.
I wasn’t at all afraid.
The solid metal gate swung open after we checked in with a staff member who saw us approach in our holy attire.
“Do we even have a gun?” I whispered.
“Of course I have a gun. What do you take me for?” Tony scoffed. “They’ll never search the vestments of a man of God.”
Inside the gate. there were three men who stood wearing some kind of automatic weapons over their shoulders. One smoked a cigar, listening to the other two speak.
“Good morning,” I said in Spanish. “We’re here to see the woman called Magdalena. She’s taking catechism classes with me next week and I wanted to introduce myself to her before we got started and conduct a brief spiritual interview.”
“She’ll be,” he looked at his cohorts with a sly grin, “shall we say… indisposed for the rest of the day.”
“The father and I will return. When is it convenient to see her?”
“Come back tomorrow, ten o’clock. She breakfasts on the patio, and you can speak to her all about God and his infinite mysteries.”
We were getting closer.
I could feel it.
I climbed on the burro and Tony took the lead rope, guiding the small pack animal towards the convent.
“Watch out!” I shouted as he walked down the rocky, narrow path from the compound to the nunnery.
The donkey I rode nearly stepped on a skinny black tarantula, which was walking in front of us. “Jesus. This is some bleak goddamn countryside.” Tony said.
“You blasphemed twice in a matter of a few words. Not becoming as a man of the cloth, Father Antonio.”
“Enough of being holy for the day. Let’s change out of these outfits and visit the town square for lunch.”
The jolty sway of the burro was comforting despite the oversized arachnids that populated this dry, harsh land.
Back at our room at the resort, I changed out of my nun’s outfit into shorts and a t-shirt, free of the wimple wobbling on my head.
21
Antonio
Ever since we woke up this morning, I felt guilty about my behavior towards her.
Granted. We didn’t have to work through the awkward ritual of getting to know each other. We’d known each other for years.
Our lovemaking was more than just sex.
She was everything to me.
Always was.
I needed to tell her before we faced danger and God knew what else while rescuing her sister, or I might never get my chance.
My esteem for her didn’t mean I was above enjoying her swinging backside ahead of me on the sidewalk as she walked between the palm trees towards the town square. It was a sin not to glory in the blessed sight that was Daphne.
We found a seafood restaurant tucked into an alley off the plaza. The server took our order and returned with appetizers and drinks. Large white clams sat on a platter with lemon slices placed around their shells. I grabbed one, asking her if she minded, and squeezed its juice over a clam.
“What the fuck?” I asked her. “It moved!”
She put her hand over her mouth to stifle a grin. “‘Crudo’ means raw. Guess the critter is still alive.”
“I’ve seen a lot of frightening things in my life, but I’ve never looked down onto a plate at a meal that was waving back at me.”
“It’s a muscular reflex,” said Daphne. “I’ll pass on the clams this time.” She picked up her drink and took a sip through a straw.
I picked up some tortilla chips, dunked them into salsa, and slid it into my mouth.
The sight of Daphne’s red lips wrapped around the small tube made me ponder another meal I was hungry for.
Once again, thinking with my dick instead of my heart.
Wasn’t it possible to do both? It’s how it was with this girl. Yeah, she was the object of my every fantasy, however, above all else, I wanted to protect her and keep her.
Make her feel loved.
It was past time I told her.
Before I did, I flagged down the server. “Will you order me a mango margarita? No salt?”
She put her palm on my forearm, stroking me there, and her hand scorched me. Whenever Daphne touched me, it was as if I was standing next to a campfire.
Her heat burned from within and transmitted itself from her skin to mine. My heart sweltered every time she lay a finger on me.
The server delivered my margarita, which was jumbo-sized. I took the small, empty glass in front of Daphne and poured her a serving.
“Am I going to need this? You’re being so mysterious,” she asked.
I sipped the fruity drink infused with liquid courage. “It’s strange to know someone for so long, meet up years later to find the relationship changed.”
“How so?” Daphne had a sip of her margarita.
“You’re my reason for my making myself a legitimate businessman. A better man. So I’d be worthy of you.” I scrubbed my face in my hands, not wanting to admit the fluttering in my chest while confessing my feelings to her.
“I dove into you, into us, and having you between the sheets was all I could think about. I’m sorry I never took the time to tell you how much you mean to me. I’m not in it only for the sex.” I pinched the bridge of my nose between my two fingers, struggling to find the words.
“Tony, what is it? You’re worrying me.”
“Daphne, for God’s sake. I love you! I’m not talking about the love a bodyguard has for his charge, or a big brother has for his baby sister. You make me feel whole. The world is a good place when I’m with you. I’ll move heaven and earth to protect it. That’s what you do to my heart, Daphne. Every single time I look at you. Sometimes it seems like I’ll stop breathing.”
Daphne glanced up from the tabletop where her eyes were fixed and I saw there were teardrops at the tips of her thick, black lashes.
“Are you crying?” I asked.
She nodded her head, lips trembling, pressing her fingers against them. I studied the ceiling for answers.
“I’ve imagined this conversation over and over again, but I never dreamed it would end in tears.”
Daphne took a delicate sip of her margarita and set the glass down on the table.
“I’m overwhelmed.” She squeezed my hand. “It’s the stress of not knowing if my sister is okay. You swooped into my life when I needed someone to rely on. You gave me joy during a time when Mom drank; she threw things, screamed at us, or wept inconsolably. I learned to keep an eye out for the next bad thing that was going to happen. Only you came into my world and brought something pure and joyful.”
“Trust me, my intentions were far from pure. I might be a decent man but I had your pussy on my mind twenty-four seven.” I said.
“You never laid a hand on me. There are men who wouldn’t have managed such restraint. Now you’re telling me the words I’ve been waiting so long to hear. Let me absorb it.” Her lips curved in a secret, knowing smile and she paused to put a chip into her mouth. “Hell, who am I kidding? I want to savor your every word like the flavor of this salsa.”
“Tell you what… Let’s go back to our room and you can let me prove how much I love you.”
“Just as long as you do so by bending me to your will.” Raw, wild need passed betwee
n us when she stared at me over the frosted glass. “I’m getting addicted to your stern voice and your spankings.”
22
Daphne
The bubbles from the hot tub frothed their warmth against my skin. I had to admit, it felt good sitting outside on our private patio in the black bathing suit Jared picked out, which cut across my ample thighs and lifted my cleavage so my boobs resembled tasty appetizers. It wasn’t the fit, but the way Tony looked as if he wanted to devour me when I wore it and made me feel attractive.
My older sister, Maggie, had little advice to offer with matters of the heart. Even as a young girl, I recognized her relationships with men were business negotiations, not love affairs. Her date for the prom? The boy with the most impressive box of chocolates and the largest bouquet for Valentine’s Day.
I never heard her speak of having feelings for any guy. She only mentioned the things they gave her.
Now she’d gotten herself in trouble for having the same gold-digging tendencies while exploiting the biggest earner she could find. The difference was this time, her mark was a deadly man. An unforgiving man.
As I sat comfy, safe, and mildly buzzed in the hot tub, I only hoped I would reach her before Maximilio realized she’d do anything, including betraying him, to feed her greed.
I turned and rested my left elbow on the beautiful blue and white tiles, which surrounded the whirlpool, watching Tony walk toward me. An Italian, golden-skinned god. The man whose animal magnetism drew me to him since the days when I was still studying for geometry quizzes. When I was hundreds of miles away in college, he made me smile just thinking about him.
“How did you get a construction worker’s body performing a casino boss’s duties?” I inquired.
“Flattery will get you everywhere, Daphne.” He leaned over so his abs rippled and flexed when handing me a second mango margarita.
“Trying to make me drunk?” I asked, raising the large glass to him and winking. “I’ll allow it.”
“I need you lucid later. But a little buzz never hurt anyone.” He slid into the bubbles, and I couldn’t keep from staring at his amazing pecs, which were covered in brown chest hair.
“You’re fucking beautiful, Daphne. My addiction.” He sipped his margarita. “About the conversation we started in the restaurant…”
I’d been avoiding our heart-to-heart from lunch only because I wanted to believe him. He said those three words to me, and my chest exploded like a piñata.
In college, I took advantage of the free counseling offered at my university and had unearthed the shallowly dug grave of my family’s dance with alcohol. There was a silent code most families with an alcoholic followed: avoid talking about family troubles with anyone, don’t discuss feelings or problems like the fact Mom blacked out every day.
Tony was loyal to me ever since I was fifteen years old when Mom was hell-bent on drinking herself to death after my father passed away.
During the rare occasions when I came home to find her awake, she’d be sobbing and begging forgiveness for being a terrible mother, which made the situation worse.
It’d break me if I lost Tony too. “Your work puts you on a bullet’s path more than I like to think about. It would kill me to lose you.”
“I don’t expect you to take it all in at once, Daphne. I’ll prove it to you, little by little, day by day. As long as it takes you to believe, deep in your heart, I’m the man who’s going to take care of you for the rest of your life.” He kissed my tears away, tears I didn’t realize I was crying, and filled me with a lightness I recognized as hope.
I threw myself at his giant chest, knowing it meant he would wrap me in his powerful arms and hold me tight.
His comfort was what I needed for the rest of my life.
Nerves fluttered in my belly. “I love you, Tony. With all my heart. I have since high school. So often the words were on the tip of my tongue, and I nearly said it out loud. I must have thought it at least a hundred thousand times.”
He was already holding me tight and squeezed me even tighter. “You make me feel like the King of the World.”
We sat together until the hot tub boiled us both, got out, and walked over to the chaise lounges to sit with our drinks.
“What does this mean?” I asked, shivering, not from the cold, but because of the awareness that he was such a beautiful man, and he was all mine.
“What?” He leaned over and whispered in my ear, “The fact I’m thinking of sliding my fingers inside of you twenty-four hours a day?”
“Saying ‘I love you’ to each other… it changes things.”
I started and turned towards the sound of the wooden gate opening off to the side, and with mounting terror, I realized the man who stepped through it was the one I’d seen earlier in the compound’s courtyard, smoking a cigar.
“What a surprise.” He said with a heavy accent. “It’s not every day you see a nun taking a hot tub with a priest. Surely the church wouldn’t look kindly on the practice.”
Tony’s hate blazed like an oven, but it was the only tell showing he wanted to
hurt the man. “Who are you?”
“My name is Alejandro. Let’s just say I’m an associate of Maximilio’s.”
“Where is Maggie? Can I see her?” The words left my mouth before I noticed they were forming.
“So you are the little sister. Of course, I’ll take you to visit her. Maximilio’s not an animal, after all. Keeping family members apart when a grand adventure is about to begin would be cruel.” The jagged scar on his right cheek danced of its own accord when he spoke, and I couldn’t take my eyes off it.
“So it’s true? She’s pregnant?” Despite the fucked-up circumstances, joy overwhelmed me, and I clutched my bath towel around me, hugging myself.
“She is indeed. Thanks be to God.” The man with a scar waved his prayer hands at the heavens. “The only thing to determine next is whether the baby is indeed Maximilio’s.”
23
Antonio
It was a padded prison.
Each corner boasted a curated selection of clean-lined, contemporary furnishings warmed up with ever-so-subtle touches like luxurious upholstery, vibrant artwork, and green foliage.
But even a gilded cage cell was still a lockup.
I paced the small room, a tiger in a cage, plotting, planning, wondering what the hell they’d done with my Daphne.
My status as a made man may have been the only thing keeping us alive.
Maximilio didn’t pull the trigger. His father’s men did, and the Drago retribution was swift and merciless. The Perez family lost many men after killing my father. Revenge is an act of passion―vengeance and justice―but it never brought anyone back from the dead.
Things were peaceful between the Dragos and the Sinaloas for years. Now, the period of calm was in peril.
Alejandro took my phone, so I had no way to reach my contact with the Jaliscos. Mateo Garcia, the one feeding me information, was a Jalisco operative inside the Sinaloa compound. Connecting with him by text was no longer an option.
Mateo had led us to the convent, then the compound so we had eyes on Daphne’s sister. Radio silence meant I was clueless about where my baby was and how to get out of this mess.
It made me want to lay them dead in a puddle of their own blood, which would dry to a rusty hue and remind all who walked over it not to fuck with a Drago.
Instead, I waited.
My jailer came in and led me into a straight-up shit show. The posh living room hosted a practical herd of deceased cattle in the guise of upholstered leather armchairs, couches, an ottoman, and a cowhide rug. Daphne and her sister huddled together on the couch, arms around each other forming a barrier against the palpable potential for violence.
Maximilio and a few of his henchmen stood by the fireplace, working out what to do.
“Antonio Drago. I would ask to what we owed the pleasure of your visit but I guess we all know.” He spoke perfect English and ge
stured towards Maggie.
“Let us take her with us and be out of your hair.” I spoke in my best version of polite, which, at the moment, was barely convincing.
“She and I have unfinished business to attend to. I can’t afford to have my operations in the North impacted by a snoopy reporter, no matter how fond I am of her. I’m sure you understand since the Drago family has legitimized itself to the point of being above scrutiny.”
The sight of Daphne darting her eyes around the room pissed me off. Worse yet, it distracted me. Danger loomed large on the faces of Maximilio’s men, and I couldn’t afford to fuck up now.
“A war between your people and mine is the last thing we need. It would be a shame to ruin the peace we’ve built all these years since the days when violence ruled our relationship,” Maximilio said.
I didn’t argue and yet my blood boiled with Daphne sitting in this room full of criminals, in harm’s way.
“What do you propose?” I asked just as a door opened and Mateo walked through, his knuckles knotted at his sides with unspoken hate. He was a plant for the Jalisco Cartel who helped his gang stay one step ahead of the Sinaloa. Covert operations like his helped the Jalisco take over northern territory.
That didn’t happen by being obvious, but now the dead giveaway of anger festered on his features.
My Spanish sucked, but I could work out the gist of the conversation.
“What is it, Mateo? What’s happened?” The cold light of apprehension shown in Maximilio’s eyes.
“It’s time,” Mateo said.
“Time for what?”
He surprised me by drawing a Glock from behind his back and aiming it at the Sinaloa Boss’s head, scowling, “It’s been hell having to serve you these past few years, knowing you killed my brother. He was a young soldier shot down by your man.” Brutal hate and bloody ruin blazed in his bulging eyes. “Your days of building an empire are over.”
