by Jax Hart
“He’s not as good as he thinks he is,” I smirk.
“What happened?”
“He married a mafia princess. Tried to kill me when I was a tween and ripped my heart out…”
She inhales sharply. “I knew there was more than you ever said. I think the two of you are fated.”
“Ill-fated. Whatever. It’s done. Over.”
“not of he has anything to say about it.”
“I have to go. I’ve been on the phone too long already as it is.”
“Do you want me to give him a message?”
My eyes drop to the smoldering ash. “Yeah. How about go fuck yourself?”
“Ah, Little Red. I can’t wait to fuck you instead.” His voice is smooth in my ear, catching me off guard.
“I’m sorry, Romina.”
“You told her my real name?”
“I told her everything.”
“Seb has a way of seducing everything out of the girl.”
“That’s sick! Twisted! Let her go!”
My mind races as I recall all the photos of her looking up at Le Blanc with nothing but sweet adoration.
“It’s fine. I’m fine. I wanted it. Want him. He’s a drug.”
And what could I say? Because I know what Tati means. Roque’s touch did the same to me as Le Blanc’s is doing to her.
“Where are you, Red? Dragging this out will only make it worse for you.”
“How could it get any worse, Roque?”
He pauses. “Damn, I love the way my name sounds rolling off those lips.”
I hate myself. My nipples harden. My pulse is slightly faster. He still has so much control over me and I hate it. I want to knock him off his axis. Make his world tilt and make him burn for me.
“Do you remember… how I moaned it in your ear when you were inside me. Can you still feel the tip of my tongue against your skin, feel my breaths against you neck as you drove into me?”
“Romina.” His voice is strained.
“Pretty soon, it’ll be another man feeling and hearing all those things. I’m not going to let the ghost of who I thought you were dominate me anymore.”
“ROMINA!” This time my name is a roar. “If you let anyone else touch you… I’ll kill you both.”
My lips turn into a wry smile. “Ah, but you’ve already killed me before.”
Boom. I’ve successfully slammed an iron door between us, and he knows it. Whatever magical weave of seduction we were spinning ourselves in, I just cut through with the sharpest knife.
“And in the end, I couldn’t, and you now know why. There was a thread sewing our souls together, even back then. I felt it. You felt it.”
“The only thing I felt was the burn in my throat and the panic when I couldn’t breathe.”
“Liar. You felt me stealing your soul and getting mine in return.”
A shiver runs through me. Something utterly fucked happened in those dark moments between us and what he describes with his words is close to whatever it was.
“Goodbye Roque”
“Romina wait! She's after you. The families know you're alive now. You can't run, but if you do let me be the one to catch you. If it's not me, it'll be them And I promise you, love my punishment will hurt much sweeter than their revenge.”
“Like I’m scared of them or your bitch of a wife.”
“I might be married to her but it’s your face I saw when I said the vows. It was your name I whispered when I promised to cherish forever.”
“Are you saying you love me? That you’re in love with me? You couldn’t even be honest with me about who you were.”
“Neither could you. Baby Blue and my Little Red. Do you know what you are? When you mix blue and red—you get purple. The color of royalty. It symbolizes power and ambition. Be my queen, Romina. Together we can take down all of them and build a new empire.”
I pause, almost seduced by the image he’s weaving. I lift my chin. The only way I’ll ever be his again is if he bows to me. “I’m not interested, because I’m going to personally take you down. I’m the Fiorelli heir and I’m coming for you and any one that’s left of the families that turned their back on mine.”
“Don’t be a little fool. It’ll get you killed.”
“That’s fine. It was only luck that I’m still here anyway.”
“Fuck, little girl. When I catch you—you won’t be able to sit for days. I’m not sure what’s twitching more, my palms or my dick.”
“Probably, your eyelid. Calm down, Roque before you have a stroke. It’ll be a shame if you go out like that before I can cut your heart out and shred it to pieces.”
“You’ve already done that.”
I can listen anymore. He’s breaking me down. Lies. It’s all lies. A murderer mobster like him doesn’t love. It’s obsession. I do believe he’s obsessed with me only because I beat him at his own game. I disconnect, take the sim card out, place it on a rock and stomp it with my foot. I can’t contact Tati again. She’s already brainwashed by Le Blanc’s dick. I can’t trust her to be on my side. Sighing, I go back inside and check on Keisha. She’s fast asleep. At least someone will get some rest in this house tonight.
CHAPTER 4
ROQUE
THE PAST
“She’s going to get herself killed.”
“And that would be all your fault. You better not let that happen or I’ll dismember you myself.”
I shake my head at the angry girl held tight in LeBlanc’s arms. “You’ve got a feisty one.”
“She’s just like her friend.”
“No offense, but no one can compare.”
Tati rolls her eyes. “You’ve got it so bad for her.”
I smile tight. “Maybe.”
“I can’t believe you let Johnny fuck your wife.”
I shrug at Le Blanc. “He practically begged me to. I hate the woman. In fact, if I end up a widower tomorrow it’d suit me just fine.”
I stride over to the limp girl in my friend’s arms. “Don’t eff with me Tati. I need you to think extremely hard where my girl might have gone.”
“I have no clue. I swear.”
I nod to Le Blanc. “Make sure she’s telling the truth.”
He grins. “Don’t worry. I will.” Then he steps back and grabs Tati’s forearms. “On your knees.”
“No, please.”
“You forget to call me Master,” he replies with a wink, bending over to swat her butt.
“That S & M shit doesn’t work on me.” Her eyebrow lifts.
“No. But my tongue does…”
She shrieks as he hauls her over his shoulder, and I leave with the bitter test of my own failed romance in my mouth. I had that. What they have and I want it back. I want it all back right mother fucking now. “Where did you go baby girl?” I hop in my car and drive to the house she left behind. Anger radiates off me in waves. Her ghost is everywhere. The smell of her lingers in the air. I’ve come here a dozen times looking for clues but never found a thing.
My footsteps echo across the lonely hall. On a whim I open the door to the dryer. My heart freezes. Inside are her jeans, one of my T-shirts and the last pair of pink panties I remember sliding down her thighs.
My fist goes straight through the drywall. Shards of plaster and blood from my knuckles fall to my feet.
I had it all and let it slip right through my fingers leaving me feeling like the lyrics to a forlorn eighties love song.
I call Johnny. “Anything?”
“Not a damn thing.”
“I need to find her before they do.”
“Your bride is pissed AF. She just placed a contract out for 500k on your girl. I’ve told my men to stand down. If anyone takes the hit, the Lamatti’s would take their life and their loved one sin return.”
I hang my head. “I owe you.”
“Don’t worry I have a running tally of all the shit you’re gonna owe me.”
“I bet you do. I’m going back to our compound. Keep me posted.
”
“I will.”
I take the contents of the dryer in my arms and walk back out not caring if I’m a sick fuck for sniffing the smell of her detergent, remembering it like some signature perfume.
Back at my lair I deposit my good on my bed and remove the false wall hiding the floor to ceiling safe, guarding my weapons. I have a bride to kill. Other wise how can I marry my one true love? My cousin is keeping tabs on my bride and her brothers. They’re in Manhattan. I’ll have to draw them out. There’s too much surveillance, it’s too populated...
I text Johnny:
Invite my bride for a sex-fest in the Hamptons. Include a dick pic if it’ll help.
Johnny: Only if you let me do her before you do her in.
Me: *** EYEROLLL*** Just do it.
As I’m choosing my weapon of choice he responds.
Johnny: Three days. My house in Sag Harbor.
Me: Don’t worry I’ll be clean.
Johnny: What about her brothers?
Me: I’m handling that shit tonight.
Johnny: They’ve been at the new club in the Meatpacking district, Nitrious the past two nights…
Me: Perfect.
I call my cousin’s. Their sisters owe me a few favors. I’ll fly them in, give them a few pills and have them drug my brother-in law’s drinks. Death will be too goof for them but serving the Cartel down South… will make them pay while helping me create the friendships I’ve been trying to make. Payback for forcing me to marry their bitch of a sister will be sweet indeed. I put my plans in motion while pondering what to do with Gabriella. I might have trained for this moment my whole life but the thought of killing a woman still pesters my conscience. Maybe I’ll just leave her to Johnny and let him do with her what he wishes… anything but set her free.
CHAPTER 5
ROMINA
THE PAST
Days turned to weeks and weeks to months. Soon, three years went by. True to her word, K helped me pass my GED and ace the SAT’s. I got admitted to the same state college and while she went off to the main campus, I preferred to stay hidden in the sleepy town amidst the trees and foliage of my cabin in the woods. Taking fifteen credits kept my mind busy. Only late at night, I miss his touch.
I hooked up with a few guys I met at random parties. But it was of no use. No one could compete with Roque on any level. I guess that’s what
happens when your first bad love is with a man like him.
I try not to keep tabs on him too often but whenever I did, I noticed he was in Chicago at the helm of a rumored crime syndicate. No one could prove a thing, but I knew he probably had his hand in everything from national politics to trafficking. Roque always wanted his own kingdom. But then again so do I.
But I’m still not ready. It’s not time. I want him to forget my face, how I feel like moving under him and just when the last memory of me fades from the pages in his mind, I’ll strike hard and fast, painfully re-inking those lost, forgotten pages.
CHAPTER 6
ROQUE
THE PRESENT
“Roque, please. I-I love you.”
I fling her red-tipped nails from the front of my Armani suit. I don’t even respond to her ridiculous statement. Bianca Gordiono doesn’t love anyone but herself which is why I let her suck my cock for the last three months. She falls at my feet; large tears roll down her perfectly made up face.
Shit. Maybe she did love me. But that doesn’t matter now. Nothing matters now that my men have zeroed in on my girl.
The girl who was always meant to be mine. Blue thought I wouldn’t find her. But she thought wrong. Maybe she really thought I’d just let her go and let the past be the past. Six years I’ve waited, plotted, and made myself king.
“Are you sure?”
“I’ve run the DNA. Twice before I called, just to be sure.”
“The lock of blue hair? Does it match?”
“Yes. It’s the same woman. It’s her. The girl you met when you were at Princeton.”
My fists clench. My nostrils flare as I breath in. “Don’t tip her off,” Four words spoken low but laced heavy with the threat my weight carries. I disconnect the call, swiftly calculating my next move.
“They found her? Just let it go, Roque. I never understood what you saw in that broad.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Leave her be. Look what just happened to me. I thought—”, Johnny swallows hard not finishing his sentence.
“I’m not you,” I respond harshly, looking past him at the skyscrapers through the floor to ceiling windows making the walls of my apartment see through. The city below belongs to me. Chicago. When I left Italy, Chicago called to me. My cousins and I ran every fuck who thought they were the hot shit mob out and we made our way in. It was hard, grueling, bloody work but it was worth it. I now have the throne all I need is my queen to rule beside me.
The corners of my mouth lift as her image fills my head. She’s complicated. I knew her at twelve, bedded her at eighteen and now I’m about to meet her at twenty-six. So many years have passed and yet I remember her through them all.
At twelve she was a mixture of childlike sweetness morphing with the young woman her body was changing her into being. Even then she defied me. Tormented me with her sharp words and quick wit.
At seventeen she tried to fool me, by changing both her name and her looks. Fake contacts, dyed hair… trying her hand at being an actress and coming of street. But I saw through all of that. I saw her for who she was. I just didn’t know then what I do now. The girl I left behind and thought about every damn day would grow to be the same woman I obsessed over since I first saw her at that Frat party eight years ago. She was the first and last women to get close to my heart. She practically took a chainsaw to it. I’d be lying if I said
I pick up my cell and bark out orders to my pilot. I’ll be in Vegas by morning and nothing will stop me from making Romina my bride. I never dreamed it would take me this long to find her. But disentangling myself from the Castellione’s took longer than expected. And life… it just kept moving on. The more powerful I became the more afraid I was of the fall from my throne. And in my line of work nothing makes you more vulnerable than love.
My jaw clenches as I picture the look in her eyes when I come for her.
Vegas.
She’s a fool for hiding there. I’ll have her wedded and bedded before sunset tomorrow night and there’s not a damn thing she can do to stop what’s coming.
She thought she could evade me.
That I wouldn’t find her,
But I’ve searched the world for her.
Twice.
Outrunning me is futile and in about ten hours she’s about to find that out.
“Stay here and run things while I’m gone,” I order Johnny. He’s pissed that he’s now my second, but he fucked up. He’s lucky I steeped in and intervened, or he’d be at the bottom of the Hudson River in New York with all the other damned souls he sent there himself.
***
She wasn’t in Vegas. She cleared out hours to days before I got there. It was her apartment all right. I found handwritten to-do notes in her script in the trash, along with a picture of me and Lucille from my cousin’s wedding. I smirk remembering the holes made form the tip of a blade she made in the photo. I still got under Little Red’s skin. That knowledge goes to both my heads. I whistle a tune under my breath as I dress in my tux for tonight’s charity gala. I might have a rep for being a mafia playboy but my charitable contributions keeps me in the good graces of upper society. Like I give a fuck about that. I know she’s still watching me and the more I’m in the press the harder it’ll be for Romina to keep her distance. Baiting her out into the light is the next move in our game of chess. Smirking at myself in the mirror one more time, I turn on my heel, snap my cufflinks into place and call my driver.
I’m gonna have fun tonight, even if I’m playing alone.
***
From the corner of my eye I glimpse
a flash of red. Not just any shade. Under the crystal chandeliers it’s alive. Crackling like the sparks from a flame.
Ignoring the many manicured hands that try to stop me by resting on my forearm, I stride through the crowd, trying to find my fire.
My fists clench.
Only one woman I know possesses that unforgettable shade of red. I feel so many things for her. They all bleed together, turning me upside-down. Hate turns to love. Love turns to raw obsession.
“Roque!” Gabriella clutches my arm. Her petite frame blocks my path.
“Not now.”
“When?”
“How about never?” I don’t even glance down at her upturned face as I scan the edge of the room for exits. Where did she go?
“Roque…I -I have feelings for you. I thought—”
“You thought wrong. Excuse, me.”
I detach her hand clinging to my sleeve and walk away. Her hurt gasp echoes around us. The elite of Chicago are in attendance tonight and all of them just witnessed me walk away from Gabriella Castellione for the second time. The first was years ago when I left her the night of our wedding to chase someone else. Her family who left me to burn in Palermo finally realized I was a formidable opponent. Marriage to me was the ultimate power grab. Although making Gabby my bride would assure me the unofficial king of Italy, my turf was America now and her…she was nothing compared to the woman I craved by my side. The girl I had wanted has hair the color of a red sun with ends streaking into the sunset. That same someone who now, years later still manages to slip from my grasp.
I feel the heat of Gabby’s wrath at my back. But I don’t care. She might try to make me pay for the public insult, but I’d hit her back harder every time. Afterall, I did learn from the best, her very own uncle no less. I am king, master and commander—the most ruthless enemy you’ll ever meet and every under lord, kingpin, mob boss and cartel leader knows it.
Murmurs slip past me like ghosts and I hunt for the glimpse of perfect that keeps eluding me.
