I just wished we could do it somewhere warmer.
"What are they going to do when you go away to college?" Chloe asked, hinting at the issue that approached far too quickly for my tastes. I was already scouting schools, choosing between programs and having to make the choice between a school close to home and one farther away.
I knew what the obedient daughter should do, but I also had to wonder who I would be if I wasn't so focused on everyone else. If I had the time and distance to be who I wanted, who exactly would I be?
My not having the first clue depressed me more than it should.
Chloe nudged my shoulder with hers playfully, trying to draw me out of my sudden melancholy. "The good news is that Odina will be out the door as soon as she graduates. Your parents won't have to deal with her shit, so they can focus entirely on your grandmother."
"I'm not so sure that's good news. Odina may be a handful, but she's still their daughter. She just... needs guidance," I sighed. Chloe and Odina were not fans of one another. In fact, they were more likely to tear each other's hair out than have a conversation.
"She fucked your boyfriend, Isa. When she got caught, she said she felt sorry for the guy because nobody should have to be frozen out by the ice princess."
"To be fair, he wasn't much of a boyfriend if he couldn't tell the difference between Odina and me," I said with a laugh.
"You're identical twins. If you two stood in a room in the same clothes, I'd never know who was who, and I've known you both since we were six."
"Is your nose broken? Odina smells like pot, booze, and cigarettes more often than not. I've never even had a glass of wine." Chloe laughed at the ridiculous polarizing nature of the two of us as we turned the corner. A few steps passed in companionable silence, my gaze drawn to the boxing gym across the street. Fists of Fury had always caught my eye when we came to our favorite diner, the tiny Filipino woman who ran it inspiring the part of me that could never come to the surface. Kickboxing lessons weren't something I could afford, and I hardly had the need for them when I didn't believe in violence.
But something about the way she owned her body and turned it into a tool appealed to me on a dark level, wanting the ability to protect myself from harm. Women who looked like me went missing every day, and the rape statistics for Native American women were horrifying.
One in three.
The odds weren't in my favor to walk through the rest of my life unscathed, even if I wasn't as limited in access to justice as those who lived on a reservation.
A man stepped from the passenger side of an SUV in the parking lot, unfolding his long suit-clad legs to stand behind the door until he closed it and stepped around. My eyes trailed up over the way his body moved as he buttoned his suit jacket, the glare of the sun in my eyes shielding his face from view as he stepped forward to the sidewalk on the other side of the street.
I waited for him to emerge from the shadows, willing back the rare sunshine so I might see the face of the man who captivated me. He remained faceless, an enigma that I couldn't quite grasp as darkness clung to him like a second skin.
As I watched, his gaze felt heavy on mine, regardless of the fact that I couldn’t see it. I felt it, and I knew, without a doubt, that he could see me. Unfairness settled over me, his eyes an assessing stare. I could almost feel the tendrils of darkness enshrouding him, reaching across the street to wrap me in his endless night.
Another man stepped up to him, resting a hand on his shoulder in the fuzzy peripheral of the sun glare. The weight of the man's stare left me for a moment, and I drew in a ragged breath, the first sign that he'd stolen the breath from my lungs.
The weight settled back on me once more, only Chloe's voice at my side turning my attention away finally. She nudged me, taking my hand in hers and pulling me away and toward the diner. I turned my head and watched over my shoulder, waiting for the moment when I might see the man I could never know.
The one who had danger written all over every sinful line in his body.
My vision turned white as we made our way into the little diner. The owner, Damek, greeted us, and Chloe spoke in hushed tones at my side as my ears rang. The pounding of my heart in my chest echoed through my body and made it feel impossible to catch my breath. "What's wrong with her?" Damek asked. His firm hand came down on my shoulder, sending me tilting backward as the force brought me back to reality. He took one look at my eyes, his brow furrowing in concern. "Her pupils are dilated. What's she on?" he asked Chloe.
"Nothing!" she protested, shaking her head. "You know Isa better than that."
"She looks like she's seen a ghost. Sit her down. I'll grab some malinovka. She always loves it," he murmured, patting my head affectionately. He walked to the kitchen, leaving Chloe to drag me over to a booth as far from the windows as she could manage. I flopped down into the booth, grateful that I didn't need to support my weight anymore. My entire world had flipped upside down, with only a glance from a man I couldn't even see.
All the more reason to stay away from men like that.
"What the fuck was that?" Chloe asked, scrubbing her hands over her face as Damek slid two glasses with the Czech raspberry soda we loved so much in front of us.
"You okay, Isa girl?" he asked, staring down at me.
I sipped my soda, nodding my reassurance as the carbonation grounded me and reminded me of who I was.
Just Isa.
Nothing special, and the idea that a man who wore a suit and rode in a luxury SUV like that would be interested in an almost seventeen-year-old girl with no makeup on and her hair in two braids was comical.
"It was like you were gone," Chloe said. "You didn't even hear me calling your name."
"I'm sorry," I said with a deep exhale. "I don't know what happened. I've never—"
"Wanted to run across a busy street and jump a man at first glance? Yeah, I'm aware," she laughed. "I couldn't even get a good look at him."
"Me either. The sun blinded me every time I tried, and trust me, I fucking tried," I hissed, sucking back more soda while Chloe opened her menu. She smirked at me, knowing I didn't drop swear words often. I couldn't get in the habit of it when it was likely to get me smacked with a shoe if my grandmother heard me.
"It's for the best," Chloe said. "There was something seriously wrong with him. Who stares across the street at a woman like that? Fucking creeps do, that's who."
I bit my bottom lip, knowing that in any other circumstance I probably would have agreed. But creepy felt like too mild a word for the man I hadn't seen, and the thought that he might do the same thing with other girls made me want to stab someone with a fork.
It was ridiculous, because he would never be mine.
I glanced out the window wistfully, staring at the space he'd stood before and the now empty parking spot where the SUV had been, as a man stepped into Donak's diner and smiled tightly before taking a seat a few tables away.
"What are you getting?" I asked Chloe, trying to turn my attention away from the man I'd never see again.
He was far too dangerous for anyone to get involved with. A girl like me would burn with desire from a single look, let alone if he actually touched me.
Responsible girls didn't get involved with phantoms from the shadows.
And I was nothing, if not responsible.
4
Rafael
The girl’s friend nudged her, hissing something in her ear, and they turned and made their way into the restaurant behind them. “Come on. She isn’t here,” Enzo said, making his way to the SUV. I couldn’t take my eyes off her as she looked over her shoulder to watch me while her friend dragged her into the illusion of safety the restaurant offered them.
Did she understand the danger she was in? Or was she too young and innocent to comprehend that she’d stumbled into the path of a nightmare?
“Rafe!” Enzo barked, demanding I get in gear. Only the knowledge that his woman was missing prevented me from ripping out his throat. I suddenly
had an inkling of understanding for what that might be like.
I turned to Santiago, nodding to him and gesturing across the street. “Follow her. I want her name,” I growled. Santiago looked like he might argue, given his place was to protect me at all times, but one stern glare telling him I meant business sent him scurrying across the street to do as I’d ordered.
“You can’t touch her, Rafe,” Enzo warned. “Matteo won’t tolerate it, and we both know she’s young. Too young for the way you looked at her.”
I was silent as I climbed into the passenger side of the SUV, staring at the restaurant until it faded from view when Enzo pulled out of the lot and made his way back toward Indulgence. The sharp ring of my phone filled the silence that echoed between us, and I answered with disinterest. “Yeah? Got it.” I ended the call and looked at Enzo, relaying the information from Calix. “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.” He sighed in what I had to guess was relief that she was alive and well, even if he might kill her himself for the worry she’d caused.
He turned his attention back to me once he knew she wasn’t in any real danger, likely suspecting that the same couldn’t be said for my princesa. “Please tell me you understand that you can’t take that girl, Rafe,” Enzo murmured. My jaw tensed as I prepared for the fight I suspected was coming. I was no pedophile, but nothing would stop me from taking what was mine when she came of age.
“Do you often tell one another not to claim your women? Why is it you think I will tolerate your interference?” I asked, violence ringing in my blood as I turned to face him, silently warning him that he should back off if he knew what was good for him.
“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?” I asked, raising an eyebrow and daring him to deny the truth. Matteo waited twelve years to make Ivory his once more. Ryker stalked Calla for four years before he plucked her from her mundane life. Lino waited close to a lifetime.
Good things came to those who planned.
"Isa," I said finally, after my phone dinged with a text. "Her friend calls her Isa."
Strolling through the Bellandi estate, I ignored the sputtering man at my back in favor of making a beeline to Matteo’s office. I cared little for the woman and children playing in the yard, that I could see through the windows. There would be time for Matteo to introduce me to his family later.
All that I cared for in that moment was the pulsing need to establish my rules for Isabel Adamik in the sixteen months that would pass before I could claim her as mine in a permanent fashion. “You can’t just barge in there. He’s on the phone!” the man protested at my spine. I smirked at him over my shoulder, taking the doorknob in hand and turning it. Matteo’s furious eyes met mine as he glanced up from his desk, heaving out a sigh of frustration before he nodded to the man over my shoulder with a resigned expression on his face.
“I’ll call you back,” Matteo grunted, ending the call with the press of a button as I moved into the room. Unbuttoning my suit jacket, I took the seat opposite him at the desk and made myself comfortable as the man at my back closed the door behind him and left us in privacy. “Enzo mentioned you’d developed a disinterest in knocking,” Matteo drawled, his lips curving up despite his desire to seem irritated.
“To knock is to ask permission,” I said, glancing down at my nails thoughtfully. I’d missed a spot of blood under the edge of my thumb when I’d washed my hands clean of the punishment I’d dealt Enzo’s man, for his failure of letting Sadie escape.
An old-fashioned beating seemed so rudimentary considering my own methods, but I’d never complain about the ability to act on the violence that simmered in my blood.
“And the great Rafael Ibarra asks permission of no one, not even his lifelong friends, apparently,” Matteo noted, raising a brow at me. Enzo had undoubtedly warned Matteo of my interest in the almost seventeen-year-old girl who’d consumed my every thought since I’d seen her the day before.
Punishing Enzo’s man had been the only thing to offer me even a moment of respite from her haunting face in my head.
“I’ve done nothing,” I said, matching his eyebrow raise as we stared one another down.
“Yet,” he added, daring me to contradict him.
“I won’t touch her until she’s eighteen,” I answered, shrugging my shoulders as if it was inconsequential to me, when the thought of waiting so long felt like an agonizing torment to rival the worst of my methods.
Matteo sighed, leaning back in his chair as he studied me. “How intent are you on this?”
“How intent were you on Ivory when she stumbled back into your path?” I returned, clenching my fingers around the arms of my chair. His gaze fell to the tense movement, studying it as he considered his next words carefully. Matteo Bellandi needed my men for his war. Without them, he would have a much more difficult time triumphing over the allies Tiernan Murphy had amassed, simply because they wanted to keep selling people as bodies to fuck, and that couldn’t continue under Matteo’s reign.
He sighed, hanging his head. “You won’t touch her until she’s graduated from high school,” he said, laying down the first of his terms. His jaw tensed with the knowledge that his wife would likely refuse to tolerate his concession, but there was nothing he could do without being a hypocrite.
He hadn’t done much better in his pursuit of Ivory, and that had worked out well for him.
Eventually.
I nodded, considering the words with a purse to my lips. While I didn’t like the demand, it was one I’d contemplated myself. Her May birthday wouldn’t be too far off from graduation as it stood, and it seemed like a small sacrifice, considering everything I would put her through when I stole her away from everything she knew.
“I’ll be leaving men in Chicago to keep an eye on her,” I returned. “Will that be a problem?”
“Not as long as their sole purpose is to keep an eye on your girl, but I don’t want her harmed. Until the time comes and you take her to Ibiza, she is to live a happy and peaceful life.” I nodded my agreement, because the entire purpose of her security was to keep her safe and untouched by the sins of my world.
Or the greedy hands of teenage boys who might think to take what was mine.
“What are your intentions for her when you take her? Will you release her when you’ve had your way?” he asked, wringing his hands thoughtfully. Everything I knew about Matteo told me he would never allow me to take Isa if she was to be anything but a permanent fixture in my life.
“She’ll be my wife,” I answered, knowing the answer would placate him. I hadn’t made the decision prior to speaking the words aloud, but something in them felt like the truest words I’d ever spoken.
“And you’ll treat her well?” Matteo asked. I bit my bottom lip as I considered my answer. I couldn’t say that I would ever treat a woman well. I was too much of a ruthless bastard for that, but understanding crossed Matteo’s face. “You won’t abuse her?”
“No. I won’t abuse her, though I imagine there may be times when my definition of that word differs from hers,” I chuckled.
Matteo glanced at his wife through the window where she played with his children. “Yes, I imagine there will be. I suspect you and I may have different definitions as well.”
I nodded as I glanced out the window, the sudden desire for a child of my own overtaking me as I watched his entire world giggle outside.
I suspected he was right.
5
Rafael
Two days later
I stepped out of the car, glancing toward Lino and Georgio where they hid from the cold in the front of the SUV. Three men stepped off the private jet I'd sent back to Spain for the purpose of tr
ansporting one very specific family to Chicago. The three brothers made their way down the steps, bowing their heads respectfully as they approached me. I stretched out a hand to greet the eldest first, one of my most trusted men whom I'd left behind to help Alejandro, my second-in-command, manage my day-to-day operations in my absence. With his calm demeanor, Joaquin was easy to overlook: a shadow as he moved through the Ibiza streets at night, quietly ridding my territory of any who dared to deal without my permission.
There was nothing that happened on my island without my knowledge.
The middle brother, Gabriel, worked in technology mostly, helping to develop the top-notch surveillance that gave me eyes even where my men couldn't go. Both would help to monitor Isa, but both would need to remain out of sight and out of mind.
The youngest brother was the one who I desperately needed in Chicago. At just sixteen years of age, Hugo had already proven himself a valuable part of my business. Infiltrating the youth of Ibiza without raising suspicions, he kept his eyes peeled for boys he thought would be appropriate to join my ranks.
Not because we sought to take advantage of the vulnerable, but because we gave them a place to belong when they lacked one in their lives. Some might argue they were better off on their own rather than in the clutches of a Spanish crime syndicate, but I took care of men loyal to me.
Gabriel shook my hand with a cheerful smile, the tech-inclined man far too friendly for my liking. If he'd been only a little younger, he might have been a more appropriate friend for my Isa, more easily blended into the culture of an American high school.
Hugo reached out a hand, a serious frown on his face as he studied me. I knew the boy who sought to rise in my ranks as his brothers had wasn't interested in babysitting a teenage girl that he couldn't touch.
Until Tomorrow Comes: A Dark Mafia Romance (Beauty in Lies Book 1) Page 3
