by C. M. Steele
I looked over all the paperwork until the club closed, then met with the staff for the night. I was taking tomorrow off to pursue my wayward baby momma. I was going to tie her ass to my bed until she got it straight that she was mine and belonged with me.
Chapter 6
Alana
Thank goodness, I was able to give him the slip. I ditched my contact who had been waiting for me in an unmarked car down the street from the club. Telling Greg that I already left, I was able to hop into the first cab out front. I got to my apartment without any cars following me. I closed my eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. I was still trying to understand what just happened. The entire cab ride I thought about Tony and what he did to me. The pleasure was so intense I collapsed into a blissful sleep.
This whole assignment was way over my head. How the fuck did I ever think I could be a cop, let alone a detective? My first makeshift undercover job and I ended up wrapped around the central figure in the investigation. Stupid local police. I was done. Tomorrow, I was calling Greg and ending this shit. No way was I going to go after someone who I couldn’t resist and who couldn’t keep his hands off me. I didn’t care if it cost me everything I thought I wanted. Tony’s eyes trapped me in them, and I felt torn between right and wrong. I hated myself for the lack of backbone and the sudden hormonal awareness.
Kicking off my shoes, I jumped into the shower, ignoring the spider hanging out in the corner of the room. My apartment was a total dump, but that was what happened when you were a poor eighteen-year-old with loans up the ass and living in a crumbling apartment building. The spray took a minute to get to me all the way on the third floor, so the water was freezing. Once it warmed up, I managed to wash off most of Tony’s smell. And damn, did that man smell incredible. It was like he was a cologne commercial mixed with a natural scent and a taste that I couldn’t quite put into words. It was manly yet fresh, woodsy type of smell. My body was coming back to life just thinking about him. The way he acted as if this was more than just a hook up played in my mind. Would he dare come looking for me?
The water was warm for about a minute before the damn cold water kicked in again. The woman next door must be giving her dogs a bath again. She takes better care of those dogs than she does herself. It was kind of gross that the funk came from her and not them. I hopped out before I got hypothermia. With the towel wrapped around my chest, I looked into the mirror, which didn’t even have a chance to get steamed up, and saw a girl who I didn’t recognize. My makeup was still on and I looked about five years older and more experienced. Maybe that was why Tony was all over me. He didn’t see the plain Jane in my jeans, tees, and ponytails. That girl was the real me.
My father’s murder was something my mother never got over it and ended her own life two years ago, leaving me completely heartbroken at sixteen. Having wanted to be a cop since the death of my father at the hands of men like Tony, I’d spent my life seeking justice and being a tomboy. I didn’t do girl things, so Tony was going to be sorely disappointed in the real girl if he came here.
And something about Tony Franchetti could lead me down that road as well. Either I’d be gunned down for spying on them or end up with a broken heart when he left me for someone else. I screamed out to myself, frustrated with how it all went down tonight. I was just supposed to go in there and look for a job. I had assets for days, and the rumors about them was there wasn’t any known fraternizing with the staff. Which was total bullshit, since I almost got fucked in twenty minutes. I agreed like a fool, and there was probably going to be hell to pay when I told the cops to go fuck themselves, but I couldn’t do this. It would ruin any hope I had of making it here in the police force. Thoughts of running away started ran through my head. Yep, at this point it would be a smart decision.
Stepping into my bedroom, kitchen, and living area all at once, I changed into a pair of shorts and one of my threadbare tees. I looked at my phone and decided that speaking to Greg couldn’t wait until morning. My mind wasn’t going to rest until I got this off my chest.
I called him and he picked up on the first ring. “What the fuck is going on? I caught you jumping into a cab and you came out in someone’s suit coat.”
“Yeah, totally forgot that I was wearing it. It’s An…Mr. Franchetti’s coat. Greg, I’m calling because I can’t do this. I didn’t get the job.”
“How could you not get the job? For fuck’s sake, you looked like a fucking porn star. And a great porn star at that. So how the fuck did you end up with his coat?” Wow, he was pissed off at me. If he knew I left, why didn’t he call me? He was supposed to be a friend of my father’s on the force, but he was acting like a real dickhead right now.
“He saw me as potential in another area.” Maybe this would tone his harshness down a step.
“What do you mean? He’s running some other hustle?”
“No, he wanted me to be his lover. I refused, but the man was insistent. I snuck away the first chance I got, but I can’t go back and enter his web.” Being his lover was more than I could handle. I wanted to be held, fucked, and loved by a man I’d just met, and that could lead to nothing but trouble.
“What? That’s even more perfect. If you get close to him you can bang his brains stupid. He may spill all his secrets.” I gasped. He wanted me to prostitute myself out in the name of the law? That was low and the most fucked up thing I’d ever heard him say to me.
“Do you think someone who you consider a high-stakes criminal is just going to be that fucking naïve? You’re way off.”
“Wow, you’re a feisty, swearing little thing aren’t you. You spent an hour in there and you are completely different.”
“I’m not. I just was polite before, but you didn’t seem to listen.”
“Listen, Franchetti has been shot for fucking around with some broad before. He didn’t think with his head and it cost his ass.” It burned in my gut to hear about him with another woman, but it wasn’t that he fucked her. He’s a grown ass man, ten plus years older than me. It was the fact that he risked his life for a woman he wanted to keep with him.
Greg didn’t understand and I wasn’t going to explain it to him, but I couldn’t risk my feelings for a man only to betray him. “Exactly. You know that phrase. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. He’s not going to fall for it and I’m not going to risk it. Sorry, but I can’t.”
“You’re going to ruin your chances with the force.”
He was trying to push me, but it wasn’t going to work. “There are a thousand other police departments all over the country. I can look elsewhere.”
“We can make sure that’s not possible.” That was lower than low. He’d never been anything but nice to me and now he was threatening me.
“Are you blackmailing me?”
“Let’s just say they may not like what they read in your file. You know, working in Franchetti’s club for cash.”
“You’re an asshole.” I hung up the phone and sat on my bed. Tears were pouring down my face. I needed to get out of here tomorrow. Something told me that Tony at the very least would want his expensive coat back. I wanted to hide from Greg so he wouldn’t try to force me into this. He wasn’t the man I’d come to know since my father’s death. Greg Simms was ruthless.
“How could I be so stupid?” I guessed a 4.0 GPA meant shit when you didn’t have any damn street smarts. That wasn’t true, I had some. I just was hoping to be a part of the good guys. The problem was it was looking really hard to distinguish them with the blurred lines.
I grabbed my ratty suitcase and packed up all my clothes, then stuffed my bookbag with my textbooks. School wasn’t going to start for another two months, but I had found them on sale and snatched them up. Well, they were going to need to be returned if I didn’t get out of this mess before school started. Where was I going to stay? He knew all my cousins that lived here. I didn’t have many friends out of high school, but Greg knew that. I had some distant family in Colorado. Maybe I could go
to them. Whatever it was, I couldn’t stay here.
I collapsed in bed at four in the morning, worn out from pure exhaustion. Everything was packed by the door and ready to go. It was around six when I heard the smoke alarms going wild. There was a fire in the building. What the hell? I was up on my feet, slipping my gym shoes on and snatching up my suitcases. This was some crazy shit. I grabbed all I could just as my door was kicked in.
Chapter 7
Tony
The night had been long as I waited for a reasonable time to come and claim my woman like the motherfucking caveman she made me. She was going to learn that running away from me wasn’t in the cards. One look and she owned me and I couldn’t exist without her. I thought about the way she melted for me, unable to resist my touch even though she was cherry. It fucked with my head to think of the possibility that the Greg fucker was more to her. Had she run home to wash up before letting him fuck her? I wanted this guy’s balls tightened in a vice as he begged for forgiveness for even looking at my Alana. I felt like a man who was beyond obsessed. No matter how much I tried to talk myself out of this fascination with her, I couldn’t.
It was still freaking five in the morning as I sat in my car outside her apartment building. It was a large twenty apartment complex that had seen better days. The stoop was still carrying one of last night’s victims of a drunken stupor. He snored loud enough for me to hear in my car and for him to startle himself awake. Stumbling, the man searched through his pockets for his keys. He was just about to make it inside when another man slammed the main door open, knocking the drunk guy down the stairs. I got out of my car and helped him up, but I took a good look at that fucker because he was running from someone or something. The jealousy in me became irrational and I wondered if he was Greg. He looked like a little pussy, a thin, lanky guy with a shaved head.
That was when I heard the sound of an explosion in the building. I didn’t waste a moment as I rushed up the stairs in a mad dash to get to Alana. My heart was racing and it had nothing to do with the three flights of stairs or the fast filling smoke. I prayed that it wasn’t in her room or anywhere near it. A woman with two large dogs ran past me and nearly got the damn leashes trapped around my legs. I jumped over the trip line her animals made and got to Alana’s door.
I didn’t hesitate to kick the fucker down. She was surprised and so was I when I saw the packed fucking bags by the door with her bookbag over her shoulders. She was running away. I didn’t wait for her to fight me. The fucking place was going to burn up and all that mattered was getting us out of there. I flipped her over my shoulder and grabbed one of her suitcases. We got outside just as the fire and police departments arrived on the scene. I walked with her to my car and tucked her into the back, locking the doors before getting in front and driving off as soon as the engine came to life.
“Are you okay?” I asked, looking at her through the rearview mirror. She was coughing a little, but she looked clean, so the smoke hadn’t gotten to her place. I was so damn worried that I didn’t notice the smoke coming down the hall from her room until we were at the stairs. She would have only had two more minutes before the smoke became blinding and suffocating. My heart was pounding in my chest, thinking about the fact that I could have lost her.
I rubbed my hands over my eyes. I didn’t get one damn ounce of sleep. I’d gone home, but instantly it felt empty. Pacing the floor like a man insane, I finally made my way to her place around, and it was with the grace of God I’d gotten to my sweet Alana. If the drunk guy hadn’t caught my attention, I might have fallen asleep in my car. Thoughts of not getting to her in time danced before my sleepy eyes.
“Where are you taking me?” She looked a bit worried about what I was going to do to her. I hoped to fucking hell she didn’t think I’d harm her. That was the farthest thing from my mind. And it ticked me off that she felt that way. I knew my reputation was well known and she would have had some inkling of it before she stepped into my club looking for a reason to get paid.
“Are you okay?” I repeated myself, something I hated to do. She was pushing me. I was tired, hungry, horny, and confused as fuck. My world had been turned upside down in a matter of a few hours.
“You didn’t answer me.” Damn, she wasn’t going to just behave like a fucking good girl, I knew she was under the sex kitten look she tried to play yesterday.
I was too hard and exhausted and stressed as fuck to argue with her at the moment. I still had a long drive, so I just responded to her. “Okay, Alana. I’m taking you home. Now tell me, are you okay?”
“Yes. I mean I’d be better if you let me get out of here.”
Shit, she was getting on my last damn nerve. “I’ll let your ass out when we get there. What you pulled last night was fucked up, Alana. Were you awake the whole time?”
“No, I woke up when you kissed me.”
True love’s kiss stuck in my head right away. What happened to the badass I was before last night? He left the moment I’d found my woman. “So, sleeping beauty, tell me why you ran.”
“You’re a bit bossy.” That was fine; she didn’t want to answer, but I’d get the answer from her one way or another. We had a long drive and the road all the way to my house was open, so I could fly there.
“I am the fucking boss, remember that. I wanted to give you the fucking world and you run away because, why?”
“Because you’re a rumored criminal. And I was way over my head in there. I’m not like you Tony, and I’m not the whore that I acted like in your arms.”
That I understood. I didn’t deserve a good girl like her. “No, thank fuck you aren’t. You’re an ambitious woman aiming to go to college and make something of herself, no matter if you have to strip for it. You’re not a whore, and you came apart in my arms because you and I are good together.”
“I can’t be with you. This is wrong and you know it.” She shook her head and I was tempted to pull over and teach her ass not to mess with this thing between us. I knew that if I touched her, I’d have her riding my cock, but that wasn’t how I wanted to take her for the first time. My wife needed to be worshipped. Fucking on the side of the road would come later when we were too horny to control ourselves.
I scowled as I stared straight ahead. As much as I wanted to look into her pretty eyes, I had to focus on the road. “No, the fuck I don’t. It’s not wrong. You told me you were mine yesterday.”
“That wasn’t fair, I was in need. I’m not liable for the shit I said then.”
I chuckled in disbelief. This woman was going to learn what it meant to be in a relationship. Fuck, I didn’t know how to do this either, but then I’d seen my cousin and his wife. They were so in love and Alana was the one for me. I needed to call him for some tips. “No, you’re liable for everything you say to me. I want honesty from you, so don’t play that game with me. And if lust keeps you in place, I’ll have you screaming my name as you ride me all damn day.”
“It’s not going to happen.” She was so confident sitting back there, but if put my hands on her, she’d be melting for me.
I chuckled, shaking my head. It was most definitely happening over and over again. “Yes, it is, and you’re a mouthy one for someone with no options right now. If I was just in it for the pussy, I could have tossed you to the side of the road. Or left your ass in the burning building.”
The last bit calmed her attitude for the moment. Something told me that she would always put up a fight. “Thank you for that.”
“Anytime, doll. Now, tell me why you were running from me.”
She took a deep breath, then stared out the window at the passing night. “It wasn’t just from you. I need money and a job. My money’s running out. So, I was planning to move to another state.”
“Did you think leaving to another state was going to stop me?” I laughed at that. Nothing was going to keep me from her. For the first time in forever, I felt alive, and for the first time ever, it was because of a woman. Everything that she generated
in me was new.
“I didn’t know if you’d waste your time looking for me.” She didn’t take me seriously. Or at least she didn’t yesterday. “Oh shit, I left your jacket in my apartment.”
“That’s okay.” She tucked her head back on the seat as her eyes got heavy. She was tired, but I couldn’t look at her anymore. I was too sleepy for it and I needed to get us home safe. It was another five minutes before we pulled into my driveway. I had a large home with five bedrooms and a four-car garage. It was a sign of status, not until I met her did I think I’d need such a large place. I pulled up front, turned off the engine, picked up her back pack off the backseat, then got out. My housekeeper and Vinny were waiting by the door, wondering why it was taking me so long. I popped open the backdoor and carried her out to their shocked expressions. They saw me holding a sleeping beauty in tiny shorts and a tee shirt. She wasn’t fully clothed and I hated that anyone saw her like that. Her body was for my eyes only.
“Get the suitcase out of the trunk and keep your damn eyes to yourself.” I gave him a warning glare before turning a smile to my housekeeper, Filomena. “We will be resting. Please bring us lunch around one. Grazie.” She muttered a blessing in Italian, wishing me with a home full of little ones. She was like a mother to me. “I’m with you on that.” I gave her a wink and carried Alana to bed.
She grumbled against my chest. “Sleeping beauty, rest.”
“Tony,” she sighed in her sleep. I smiled as I opened the bedroom door. As soon as we were in, I placed her on the bed, then locked the door and stripped down to my boxers. Her face had a sweet smile on it as she slept. My stomach was doing flips with excitement.
