I hovered over him, cloaking him in my shadow. “You’ll what?”
His back straightened. “Take the peace offering and give me my time with my daughter.”
“She’s not your daughter. Never has been, never will be.”
“You watch that tongue of yours, you selfish son of a—”
I wrapped my hand around his neck. “You won’t get her or me or anything even remotely related to me. All you’ll get is revenge. That’s the peace offering I give you.”
Then, I tossed the man to the ground in front of the police station and got into my car.
“Driver? Home, please. As quickly as you can.”
Because the sooner I could get back and see that Bonnie was all right, the better I’d be.
And the more my bloodlust would be abated.
18
Israel
My eyes scanned the papers in front of me as blood thundered throughout my body.
That chief of police wasted no time in getting me documentation I could pour over myself while his men were working around the clock. And what I saw in these documents made me furious. Even to the untrained eye, it was clear something had been covered up. The redacted statements were easy enough to read, especially since they hadn’t deleted the text. Just placed faded black blocks on top of all the words.
Almost as if they wanted someone reading what was really happening.
I held the paper up to the light and held it down in my lap. I contorted the papers every which way, adding heat and water and scanning the documents into my laptop. I manipulated them every which way I could before I finally pieced the redacted text together into cohesive sentences that were easy to read.
And with all of that information in play, I already had theories as to who was responsible for the cover-up of the murder of Bonnie’s parents.
“Hey, Israel?”
Her voice made my heart jump, but I kept my cool on the outside. “Yeah?”
“Could we talk for a second?”
I slid the papers easily into the file, hoping not to startle her with my movements. “Yeah. Sure. What’s on your mind?”
She walked in and sat a glass of wine in front of me. “Here. You look like you need a drink.”
I reached for it. “I do after that run-in with your uncle.”
She sat down in front of me. “I’m so sorry that happened today. I wish I would’ve been with you.”
“I’m just glad you’re okay. I had myself convinced that when I got home, you’d be dead on the floor in the living room or something.”
“I’m fine. I promise. No one’s been here all day.”
I threw the wine back with one gulp. “All right. Hit me with it. What’s on your mind?”
She gazed down into her glass. “Who was that woman your father brought to the anniversary party?”
I blinked. “You mean Alice?”
She nodded, but still didn’t look at me. “Yeah. Her. Who is she?”
“Just a girl.”
“A girl you were with at one point, right?”
I sighed. “Bonnie, look at me.”
Her eyes slowly rose. “All I want to know is if she’s a threat to us. A rival family, maybe? Or someone your father introduced you to in order to throw you off?”
I stared at her. “Is that all you want to know?”
She narrowed her eyes thoughtfully, a slight tsking sound escaping her lips. “It is, yes.”
“Because here again, I think you’re lying to me.”
“I’m really not. We haven’t actually had a chance to talk about the party over the past few days. I’d like to talk about it now if that’s okay.”
“And it can’t wait until tomorrow?”
“Not unless you want me to be up all night thinking about it.”
I slid my glass to the side. “Well, she’s no one you have to worry about. She’s a woman from my past, but nothing else. She’s staying in my past.”
“Then, why did your father bring her to the party?”
“Because I was supposed to have a lunch date this past Friday with her mother.”
Bonnie licked her lips, a worried frown furrowing her brow. “I didn’t know that.”
I shrugged. “Well, now, you do.”
“What did her mother want?”
“Probably to try and hook us up.”
She scoffed. “And you didn’t think that was prevalent information I needed to know?”
“Now you know what it feels like to be in the dark.”
She shot to her feet. “Excuse me, but I’m not going to be talked to or treated like that anymore. We’re supposed to be a team. And while you might look for any excuse to cast me off, you at least have to give me some credit here. I was sent to kill you, and something about your demeanor changed that for me. Being with you changed that for me. That has to count for something. And now you want to blindside me with the fact that your family’s trying to set you up to marry someone else when you’ve got a perfectly good woman standing here trying t—”
I let her rant until she cut herself off, but when she did? I stood. I placed my hands against the table and leaned forward until I smelled her wine-tainted breath waft beneath my nose.
She slowly sat back down.
I didn't. I gazed into her eyes even though she kept averting hers from mine. After moving around the table, I crouched down beside her, watching as she kept her eyes cast to her lap.
“Bonnie,” I said.
She licked her lips. “That was out of line. I—”
“Look at me, please.”
Her eyes fluttered my way. “I don’t hear you say that word often.”
“Because I don’t. That means when I use it, I’m serious.”
She nodded. “I know.”
My eyes danced along her face. “Yes, you have proven to me on various occasions that you can’t be trusted. Even though you had good intentions, you executed them wrong. You want a partnership, but you won’t talk to me.”
“You won’t talk to me, either.”
“We keep forgetting at the base of everything is your uncle. We lose sight of that when we get caught up in our emotions. That’s why I’m not allowing myself to get caught up like you are right now.”
She closed her eyes. “I know. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry for them. Emotions are what remind us we’re human. But they’re also a catastrophic distraction in a situation like this. I want you safe, Bonnie. I want you alive. Even though you make it difficult, and even though you make my head sometimes hurt with your insane ways, I just want you safe. Understand?”
She brushed a tear away. “And I just want to prove to you that I can be the partner you want. The partner you need. But if we can’t keep our word to one another and we can’t talk to each other, all I have is sneaking around behind your back to prove my point, which only makes it worse no matter the outcome. If you keep closing me out, I can’t communicate. And that’s the hub of everything in any relationship.”
I tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “You’re right. It is.”
“So, I’m communicating to you that I didn’t enjoy Alice at that party and how she interacted with you.”
“I promise you what happened between Alice and me is over.”
“Are you sure about that?”
I paused. “Why that question?”
She sighed. “Because I saw you two out on the balcony laughing and talking and having a grand old time. The way you were with her—you’re never that way with me. You two seem magical together. We don’t have that.”
I slowly stood. “You were spying on me?”
She released a frustrated breath. “Your brother led me to the two of you. You abandoned me at the party for her. All I want to know is if you’ll continue to do that as things go on. You know, leave me for her.”
My brother? What the fuck was he doing in all of this? “Look, the scenario is much more complicated than you—”
She s
tood up, her face red with anger. “Then, why don’t you try a bit of that communication we were just talking about and tell me what the hell’s going on.”
I gripped her chin. “You won’t take that tone of voice with me. Understood?”
She ripped away from my touch. “And you won’t be another man on my list who takes my life and flips it head over heels for your own viewing pleasure. I’ve had enough of this. Enough of my life being controlled. Enough of being in the dark and having more questions than answers. So, tell me. Right now. Are you going to leave me for her?”
I moved towards her, like a predator eyeing its prey. She leaned back, and I leaned forward until she was practically lying down in the kitchen breakfast nook. Anger rushed through my veins. My fingertips sizzled with a need to touch her. My cock ached with a need to be buried between her legs again. And the puckering of her nipples through her blouse told me everything I needed to know.
But I wouldn't take her.
I wouldn't allow myself that kind of distraction while my entire family empire was on the line. “Alice is a scar from my past and nothing more. That’s all you’re going to know right now. I’m not leaving you for her because, right now, there’s nothing between us to leave.”
She swallowed hard. “You don’t mean that.”
I straightened up. “Now, if there isn’t anything else—”
“Actually, there is.”
I sighed. “What, Bonnie?”
She sat up. “We haven’t been adhering to our rules about leaving the house. Your rule, actually. We’ve both been breaking it.”
“Yes, we have.”
“From now on? We don’t. I want to go where you go, and you’ll go where I go. If you break the rules? I break them in kind because you can’t hold me to a set of standards you won’t keep for yourself. Got it?”
I paused. “Got it.”
“Good. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’m going to order takeout. I don’t much feel like cooking any longer for a man who apparently doesn’t give a shit about me.”
“Bonnie, that’s not what I—”
She stood up. “I don’t know what you’re going to have for dinner, but I’m in the mood for pizza. In bed. Alone.”
And as she walked away from me, sauntering those luscious hips of hers, I cursed myself up and down underneath my breath. I had a growing hatred for when this woman walked away from me. I had a growing disdain for her being upset with me. I wasn’t sure where it was coming from, but somehow, Bonnie Moretti was rubbing off on me. For some reason, I cared about how she felt. About how she felt toward me.
My father’s sentiments on women and marriage continued echoing off the corners of my mind. Women are for business only. Marriage is for alliances only. Love has no place in a life like ours. But, as I watched Bonnie storm out of the kitchen, I had to fight the urge to rush after her and pull her into my arms.
Damn it.
I needed this shit to get wrapped up so I could punish her in all the wonderful, heated, lustful, glorious ways I dreamt about at night.
19
Bonnie
The hustle and bustle of the grocery store was almost foreign to me.
It wasn’t often I set foot into a place like this. A place that was so brazenly filled with people and ripe with risk. But, the delivery times for food were backed up for five solid hours, and we didn’t have anything to cook for lunch. So, with a grocery trip out to restock on some items came the fulfillment of the promise Israel and I made to each other.
And since I was going out, so was he.
Every once in awhile though, I stole a glance at him. I peeked over my shoulder at him and watched as he turned apples around in his hands. I saw him pick up an avocado and smell it before trying to thump it, like a melon. And it took all the energy in me to not laugh at him. Clearly, he wasn’t in his element. He had no idea how to check to make sure produce was fresh, nor did he know where the expiration dates on any of the meats were. If it hadn’t been slowing me down so badly in the store, it wouldn’t been endearing. But, the way Israel lagged behind gave me the sense that he knew trouble was about, which forced me to pay attention more to the people around me instead of the food.
And that meant spending longer in this place than I wanted.
I pointed to the cantaloupe. “Are you a melon fan?”
Israel studied the head of broccoli not far from me. “Not particularly.”
“Have you ever tried it?”
He wrinkled his nose. “When I was a child, yes.”
“Is it a texture thing, or…?”
He grinned. “If you want cantaloupe, get it for yourself. I just won’t eat any of it.”
“Well, I was thinking about making this ice cream Mom used to make for me when I was really little. I remember the recipe like it was yesterday, though.”
I felt him staring at me. “What kind of ice cream?”
I smiled, picking up the cantaloupe. “Cantarum cream is what she called it. She cooked down the cantaloupe with some coconut rum, then pureed the mixture, and used it in a basic ice cream recipe. My God, that stuff was outstanding.”
I felt his hand on the small of my back. “We’ll get the ingredients for it today, then.”
I smiled up at him. “Really?”
“Really, really.”
“Yes! Okay. You're going to love it. Seriously. I’m going to go find a few other things we’ll need and I’ll be back. Okay?”
“Just watch out. Keep an eye on your surroundings at all times.”
“Like you taught me, yes.”
He patted my back. “Good girl. You’ve got fifteen minutes before I come looking for you.”
I nodded. “I won’t take a smidge over ten. I promise.”
I placed the cantaloupe in the cart as he chuckled and I took off. I knew exactly what we needed, and the idea of sharing this small moment from my childhood with Israel tickled me with delight. It was one of the handful of memories I remembered about my parents. And for me, it was almost as if I was introducing Israel to them.
“Come on, where the hell are you?” I murmured to myself. I searched the sugar for a very specific kind before my eyes dropped to the bottom shelf. “Aha! There you are. Come to mama.”
I bent down to pick up the sugar, and the next thing I knew, I couldn't see. I tried to draw in a deep breath, but all I got was a mouth full of cotton. I felt my body being lifted from the floor, and I kicked my legs out, listening as the sugar went tumbling to the floor.
“What the—Is—!”
A hand clamped over my mouth and I felt myself moving. I tried to get my feet to touch the floor, but I was much too high in the air. I wiggled around, trying my best to slither away from the person who had blocked off my ability to scream or see. And as I stumbled around, trying to catch my footing, I heard a door slam open.
Before it closed behind us.
“Israel!” I cried out.
I heard a man chuckling before my body plummeted to the floor.
“I’m gonna get paid so big for this,” he said.
I growled. “Over my dead body.”
Even though I couldn't see, I started to fight. I threw punches and tackled the man to the ground, using everything Israel had taught me. But nothing worked. Every time I moved, the man had a counter-attack. By the time I finally got the damn hood off my head, the room was so dark I couldn't see anything anyway. I felt something wrap around my neck. I raked my nails down the man’s arm, and he grunted in pain before releasing me. I crawled around on my hands and knees, searching for anything I could use as a weapon. But the second he gripped my hips, I felt the man flip me over.
Before pinning me to the ground.
“Gotcha,” he hissed.
I stared up at the man and watched his deep brown eyes smile back at me. The smell of blood and freshly-sliced meat made my lower lip quiver once I realized where we were. Holy shit, this man had dragged me into the back of the butcher shop the grocery store
always advertised. I couldn't move my arms or my legs. I couldn’t wiggle away as the man brandished the biggest knife I’d ever seen in my fucking life. My eyes widened at the jagged edges. I watched his tongue lick the shining metal before he held it to my throat. And as I felt that sharp metal press against my artery, my life flashed before my eyes.
A life I thought I might have lived with Israel.
I saw myself in a beautiful white gown with him on my arm. I saw my belly, swollen and pregnant with his many sons. I felt him on top of me, his hand in my hair and his cock buried between my legs. I felt the love he had for me, even if he never said it. Even if he refused to utter the words, I felt it in the way he looked at me. The way he made love to me. The way he protected me.
Then, one brief thought passed through my mind.
Your uncle wants you dead. So why not live just to piss him off?
“You’re mine now,” the man sneered.
As I laid there, with my legs spread and my hands pinned to the ground, I realized something. I realized that vengeance wasn’t about killing my uncle but living long enough to see him fall to ruin. I realized that vengeance against Pava wasn’t about slaughtering his empire or his workers or his hitmen. No. It was more than that. It was deeper than that.
True vengeance on a man like that was living a life he never thought possible for me to live. A life with the man he’d groomed me to kill. A life with his biggest enemy.
A life with the man I loved.
“I’m sorry, Israel,” I whispered.
And as I closed my eyes, readying myself for death, I felt that knife dig deeper into my skin.
Before I felt the weight against my chest relieve itself almost immediately
20
Israel
“Get off of her. Now.”
Seeing that man on top of Bonnie filled me with a rage I’d only experienced one other time in my life. And while I didn’t have time to stop and process those emotions, I knew to use them to my advantage. I saw that knife piercing her skin. I saw the blood tainting her clothes. I saw that this man already hurt what was mine.
Mob Princess: An Arranged Dark Mafia Romance (Cruel King Book 2) Page 12
