He stepped out onto the second-floor landing, freezing with a muffled curse when he saw Bruno hurrying toward him. Judging from the blond giant’s look of concern, he wasn’t going to be sating his rampant lust for Mia just yet.
* * *
Mia looked up with surprise when her door opened without even a cursory knock. She had been engrossed in a book, having somehow maintained her vow not to dwell on Shane’s taunting words when she had woken that morning feeling refreshed. It was a bigger surprise to see Bruno in the doorway. He should have at least knocked and awaited permission to enter, in case he caught her in the middle of undressing.
“The boss needs to see you, Miss Kasilli.”
Mia thought about ignoring him and forcing Shane to come for her himself, but something in the way the man held himself warned her not to push him. He was stiff with tension, and her eyes widened when she saw the way he was fondling the gun at his side. The few times she had seen him, he’d worn a suit jacket to disguise the holster, but he had taken that off. Perhaps to deliberately intimidate her with the sight of the handgun?
She hated to disappoint him, but it was hardly the first time she’d seen someone carrying a weapon. Nor was she a stranger to having one pointed in her direction as Wallace had done the other night. No, she was much more intimately acquainted with a weapon aimed at her. Her heart skipped a beat as she experienced a moment of memory, recalling the sharp bite of the barrel pressing against her forehead—
“Get a move on.” He jerked his head toward the door, and though she half-expected him to brandish the pistol, it stayed holstered.
With a sigh of annoyance, Mia bookmarked the location and turned off her e-reader before sliding off the loveseat and walking toward the goon in her bare feet. She didn’t bother with shoes, figuring he wouldn’t allow her the luxury of taking time to grab any.
Mia was aware of him a step behind her as she exited the room and walked down the stairs. “Where is he?”
“Main salon.”
Since she had no clue exactly which room acted as the main salon, she stepped to the side so Bruno could pass her. Mia didn’t let herself lag behind, deciding to save her anger for her true target. When she saw Shane, she intended to blast him for sending his goon to fetch her like a dog toy, and without even the courtesy to knock on her prison door first.
Her lips twitched at the thought, and she was having a hard time hanging on to her irritation as they stepped off the staircase. Bruno led her to a large room near the front door, and her gaze immediately rested on Shane. The words of recrimination died in her throat as she picked up on the tense set of his shoulders. Lines bracketed his mouth, and he seemed to be poised to attack. Instinctively, she knew she wasn’t the target of his ire, and she turned her head to assess the others in the room.
Mia’s heart jumped in her chest, and a chill flashed through her body when she saw Aldo Peretti standing a few feet from Shane. He had his own entourage of goons in tow, and the two hulking men stood a step behind their boss. The hungry look in Aldo’s eyes made her want to vomit. “What are you doing here?”
He clicked his tongue. “What a rude greeting. I’m here to bring you home, dear sister.”
“I’m not your sister.” She spat the words in his direction as she surrendered to instincts urging her to find safety. Before she knew she was doing it, Mia moved toward Shane. He seemed startled when she pressed her body close to his, and his shock mirrored her own when she clutched the front of his shirt. “Please don’t let him take me, Shane.”
He blinked before any emotion disappeared from his green gaze. His voice was little more than a whisper when he bent his head to her level. “I want two things from you, Mia.”
She swallowed the lump in her throat. “What?”
He touched her cheek with his finger, and Aldo hissed his displeasure. “First, I want the full truth about why you don’t want to go with your stepbrother.”
She bit her lip before nodding. The idea of confiding in Shane was embarrassing, but she’d rather face that humiliation than go with Aldo.
A ghost of a smile graced his lips for a second. “Second, no more fighting.”
Mia glared at him, her voice a low whisper that was full of annoyance. “You can’t expect me to give in to you.”
He curled his lip. “If you’re expecting me to go to war to keep you, I expect you to be worth it.”
Mia stiffened her shoulders. She wanted to tell him to go to hell, but a quick glance at the cold anger in Aldo’s expression reminded her of what was at stake. At least with Shane, she would enjoy some of it. Or all of it if she accepted a role as his lover instead of his captive, a traitorous voice whispered in the back of her mind. Her lips barely moved when she said, “Fine.”
He stared at her for ten seconds or so, as the tension mounted in the room. With a decisive nod of his head, he turned back to Aldo. “Mia doesn’t wish to accompany you.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. We both know Vadim forced her into this arrangement.” Aldo’s dark eyes grew cold. “It took him several days to admit what he had done, but he finally confessed what had happened to my Mia.”
She shuddered at the possessive note. “I’m not yours.”
“You are.” Aldo scowled. “You aren’t this Mick bastard’s, Mia. There is only one man to whom you belong.”
“Get out.” Shane spoke the words softly, but with full sincerity.
“Things could get messy, O’Mara. You should think carefully about—”
Shane waved a hand. “Don’t make me repeat myself, Peretti.”
The other man swelled up like a toad, and his anger made his handsome countenance ugly. Mia had always found him ugly though, knowing what lurked inside the monster. “You might not live to regret this decision, O’Mara.”
Shane’s grin looked sharp at the edges. “I’ve lived to regret all kinds of things I’ve done, Peretti. Keeping Mia won’t be one of them.”
Aldo pinned Mia with his gaze. “You’re only making this worse for yourself, Mia.”
She couldn’t hide her repulsion. “Knowing what you want, there is nothing that could be worse.” Her words rang with sincerity, and she moved even closer to Shane. Despite the things he had done to her, he was the safest choice, and she knew he would protect her from Aldo. It humbled her to know she needed someone else to defend her, but a cursory glance at her stepbrother had revealed his sick hunger for her had only deepened over the past few years.
With an angry hissing sound reminiscent of a startled goose, Aldo Peretti turned on his handmade Italian loafers and stalked from the room, his goons running to keep up though they had longer legs.
She sagged with relief when the front door slammed a moment later, but it didn’t take long for that feeling to fade. As soon as Shane’s hand fell on the back of her neck, she stiffened.
“It’s time for a talk, Mia.”
How she dreaded the idea, perhaps even more than the thought of submitting to Shane’s sexual advances without protest. One involved baring her body, but the other was a complete stripping of everything that shielded her soul. Her stomach churned with nausea as she turned to look at the man with whom she had made this dark bargain.
As she faced him, trying to marshal her thoughts and figure out how to begin once Bruno closed the door, she wondered for a brief second if she had made the right decision. Was it better to stay with the devil she barely knew rather than face the one she knew all too well? Only time would tell, and there would be a surplus of that. Now that she had agreed not to resist him, would he ever let her go?
Chapter Seven
Mia’s mouth was dry as she tried to explain the sordid history with Aldo Peretti. “I guess you should know I’d never even met Aldo until the day of the wedding. I’d only met Stefania a couple of times at that point.” Shane sat down in his chair, tugging her down to sit on his lap with his legs pinning hers together. She couldn’t move. “I wasn’t thrilled to have a new stepmother or stepbrother,
but Vadim didn’t care about my input.”
“Your father strikes me as a selfish man.”
She had to bite her tongue to resist the urge to point out he shared traits with her aloof father. “It didn’t take me long to warm to Stefania, but I never liked Aldo. He made me…uncomfortable.”
“How old were you?” Shane took her hand, squeezing gently.
To her great surprise, she found the touch comforting. “Twelve. He was nineteen, so he shouldn’t have had any interest in me, but he seemed to go out of his way to try to engage me in conversation or spend time with me.” She swallowed. “At first, I thought he was just trying to be a nice guy and a good stepbrother.”
His eyes narrowed. “When did that change?”
“The first night he came into my room.” She shuddered. “It was my thirteenth birthday, and he came to give me my present. A secret present.” Nausea churned in her stomach, and she tightened her grip on his hand without thought. Mia winced when his hand tightened as well, and she realized he was holding back his reaction. She appreciated that, knowing she needed his calmness, even if it was fake, to get through this.
“What did he give you?”
She closed her eyes, remembering the horror of waking up to the sight of Aldo standing over her with his penis in his hand. “He performed for me, telling me I should be proud of how turned on I made him, now that I was a woman.” She spat the last word, unable to hide the contempt she still felt eight years later. “I was still a little girl and terrified of the sick fuck masturbating in front of me. After he came on my bed, he left.”
The gentle brush of his lips against the top of her head was his only response.
“I didn’t know what to do. I kind of ignored it, hoping it had been a nightmare or something.” She drew in a deep breath. “Denial worked for three days, until he came back and did it again.”
“What did you do?”
“I was scared of him, and I was afraid of my father. I had never liked spending time with Vadim. Perhaps even as a child, I’d realized what he was.” Mia curled her nails into her fist to keep her voice calm. “He didn’t progress beyond that for a few months. It was like he enjoyed scaring me and denying himself. Maybe it gave him a thrill.”
He brushed his thumb across the knuckles of the hand he held. His voice was gentle against her ear. “When did that change?”
“I’m not sure, but maybe six months after it started. That night, he made me touch him, putting my hand under his as he…” Mia took a deep breath, still able to vividly recall the feel of her stepbrother’s cock in her hand for the first time. “I was terrified that he would do something worse, so I tried to talk to my dad the next day.”
“What happened?”
She lifted a shoulder. “He was too busy to care about what I was trying to tell him and sent me away. I thought about telling Stefania, but it was her son, and she was starting to get sick.”
“He had you trapped.” Shane’s tone was neutral, but the tense set of his body behind hers gave away his anger.
She nodded. “It escalated. Soon, my mouth.” She dipped her head, shame assaulting her all over again. “And…behind.” Even now, her sphincter tightened as she remembered the horror of Aldo penetrating her there. “When he did that the first time, I freaked out and told my father what was happening.”
He let out a low growl, but his hand remained gentle around hers. “What happened?”
“He told me not to make trouble, and that there was more to grasp than I could ever understand.” Tears blurred her eyes as she recalled Vadim’s cold features and the complete lack of concern he’d shown. Now she knew he must have been referring to the tenuous truce between the families, but it still hurt to know he’d chosen his criminal alliances over protecting his young teenage daughter.
That had been the day she’d completely stopped loving the man who had contributed genetic material to her makeup. “The bastard suggested I should be flattered, as though it was an honor to be desired by Aldo.”
“You were just a child. How could he be attracted to you?”
Mia managed a small, genuine laugh. “I guess I must be like catnip for psychos. Normal guys sometimes like me, but they don’t cross the line to batshit obsessed crazy.”
He snorted, though it was difficult to tell if from anger or suppressed laughter.
“Aldo found out I’d gone to my father, and he threatened me.” A chill crawled down her spine as the sensation of cold steel against her heated flesh came back to her. “He pressed his gun to my forehead and told me he would shoot me if I tried to tell anyone again. He promised I wouldn’t die. He’d just make sure I was paralyzed, so I couldn’t escape him. My body would be his plaything, and I’d be unable to stop him.”
Shane’s embrace tightened. “How did you manage to keep your virginity, baby girl?”
“Honestly, I think he was teasing himself again. In fact, I know he was, but I didn’t find out why until I was seventeen. A few times when he was really into what he was doing, he seemed poised to rape me there too, but when I resisted, he reined himself in and found other ways to amuse himself.”
“What did you find out when you were seventeen?”
“He revealed his master plan to me. My father had agreed to let him marry me, so he was saving my virginity as a wedding present to himself.” Nausea churned in her stomach, and a tear streaked down her face. “He told me Vadim had relented and was prepared to sign the marriage certificate so we could get married before I turned eighteen.”
Turning slightly, though her legs remained pinned, she curled a bit closer to Shane instinctively. “That crazy bastard was planning to make me marry him within days. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t let him keep me, so I went to Stefania.”
The tears came faster as she remembered the frail woman lying in the bed. Her stepmother had been as pale as the white bedding behind her, but her eyes had sparkled with anger, and her cheeks had turned red as she had listened without interrupting as Mia confessed years of sexual abuse at the hands of her son.
“What did your stepmother do?”
“She saved me.” Mia drew in a deep breath. “I don’t even know how she did it exactly, but she helped me escape that house and found me a job with Arvin Lovelle. He’d been her boyfriend long ago, and I think he still loved her.” She shrugged. “Stefania gave me some money and helped me find an apartment. I know she concealed my whereabouts for a long time.”
A tremor racked her. “One night, Aldo was waiting for me outside Lovelle’s. He never spoke to me. It was just his unnerving, creepy stare that made me vomit right there on the sidewalk. He finally turned and walked away, and I hadn’t seen him again until today, except briefly at Stefania’s funeral a couple of years ago. I only stopped in for a bit to say a quick goodbye. My father saw me, but I don’t think Aldo did that day.”
Shane sounded confused. “He just left you alone for four years?”
She nodded, sharing his confusion. “I don’t understand it either, but I’d half-convinced myself he’d given up on me when I left his sphere of influence.” The hunger in his gaze had dispelled that theory, so why had he waited? And why had he acted now? Was it because Vadim had sold her to Shane? “What will he do now?”
“I don’t know, but I’m sure he won’t let you go.” He loosened his legs and turned her sideways onto his lap. “I speak with the absolute certainty of someone completely fucking obsessed with you that he won’t let you go. I wouldn’t in his place. I would do anything to have you. I will do anything to keep you.”
She licked her lips, both unnerved and reassured by the depth of his intensity. “What do you expect from me, Shane?”
Cupping her chin, he drew her toward him for a gentle kiss. She resisted the urge to fight him, remaining still as he brushed his mouth against hers. As always, his tenderness breached her defenses when his other tactics reinforced her determination to resist. She accepted the soft kiss, letting her lips mold to his.
/> He wore a gentle expression when he lifted his head. “For now, I expect you to go relax. Maybe take a bath or a nap and try to put all this from your mind. I will keep you safe from him.”
She frowned. “That’s all?”
“For now.” Desire blazed through his eyes for a second before the tenderness returned. “There will be plenty of time to test our new understanding later, baby.” With an efficient motion, he lifted her and set her on her feet before he stood up. And then he was gone.
Mia stared after him, completely puzzled about his reaction. He hadn’t raged or screamed. He hadn’t expressed sorrow or sympathy. He’d been distant. Unaffected? Didn’t he care what she had gone through? Did it give him any appreciation for the way her traumatic past with Aldo had made his kidnapping and claiming of her that much worse? Was there any remorse in the man?
With a snort of disbelief, she shook her head and left the main salon. Mia headed to her room, deciding she would take advantage of some time alone and try not to dwell on what it meant that Aldo had clearly never gotten over his sick infatuation. All this time, he’d been playing some kind of sick game, and she knew she could drive herself crazy trying to decipher the rules and figure out his ultimate goal.
Chapter Eight
Shane went straight to the gym on the ground floor. He tore off his clothes with little regard for where they landed so he could slip on tight shorts and no shirt. A quick glimpse of himself in the mirror revealed something akin to a raging bull rather than a man.
That was the perfect description for how he felt. Not bothering with gloves, he went straight to the punching bag. The first collision of his fist against vinyl, pushing against the barely yielding sand inside, was cathartic. Imagining Aldo Peretti’s face on the heavy bag was even more satisfying, and he punched in earnest. Each thrust of his fists brought a flash of pain to his bruised knuckles, but lessened the rage building in him.
MAFIA: Dark Romance Collection Page 8
