I lost the battle to quiet my moans when he closed his lips around my swollen nub and added pressure as he massaged it with the tip of his tongue, pushing a finger in and out of me.
“Shit,” I gasped, grabbing a handful of his hair. He pressed down on my pelvis to keep me from moving any further. “Mateo,” I barely got out before I came. My back arched off the table, and my legs trembled around his head. He continued to lap at me until I could no longer function like a normal human being.
“Good morning,” he rasped, standing up with a prideful grin painted on his face, wiping away my juices with his hand.
Slowly pushing myself into a seated position, I gently took hold of his dress shirt and tugged his mouth back down to mine for another kiss, tasting myself on his tongue.
He pulled away and reclaimed his seat after placing me in mine.
“Food’s still warm,” he smirked, lifting the metal lid off our breakfast platters. “Though I think I just ate the most important meal of the day.”
My face heated. I focused on slicing my pancakes into tiny squares and stacking them.
“I’ll be busy the next few weeks. Will you be okay?”
I took a drink of orange juice, nodding my head. “You have a pool I haven’t used yet, horses to ride, and I can hang out with Melody or Peyton, too.” I hoped he couldn’t see through my bullshit.
I had every intention of hanging out with them, but this also gave me the perfect opportunity to do something without him lurking over my shoulder.
“That sounds good, but you know, eventually you will need to learn the ins and outs of mas alto.”
“I know.”
“I need you to understand what you’re going to be a part of, because you still don’t know. I need to push you harder, I think. In the meantime, you could also utilize those black cards I gave you whenever you wish. Money is never something we need to discuss.”
“Thank you…” I replied awkwardly.
“No need to thank me. I signed up for this when I decided to marry you. Speaking of, we need to set a date.”
Licking my lips, I averted my eyes to my plate. “Is Grams okay?”
“Are you asking out of concern, or because you want to deflect our wedding?”
“Both, honestly.” I glanced back up to find his eyes trained on my jagged heart pendant.
“You shouldn’t have such an arresting emotional attachment to a family that doesn’t give a shit about you.” With that, he stood from the table, brushed a chaste kiss to the top of my head, and vanished, leaving behind the scent of his seductive cologne and a headache.
Rubbing a hand down my face, I let out an audible sigh and stabbed a piece of sausage. I was beginning to realize I’d barely untangled an inch of the web I’d been ensnared in.
I feared things would soon get much more complicated.
Even with everything else in turmoil, my relationship with Mateo continued to develop at breakneck speed. He sent me fresh flowers every morning. His cock, mouth, and fingers were almost permanent fixtures on my body.
I knew that whatever was brewing between us wasn’t healthy. The very thing that was making me ill was the only thing that could make feel good again.
I tried to be productive and not sit around on my ass for an entire week. I managed to set up a day to meet with Peyton and Melody, and I snooped through the entire house, much to Mateo’s amusement.
I even took the time to search for Grams, because after revisiting the estate twice, I was positive Mateo had done something with her.
Asking him for answers directly was a waste of time. Every time I brought up anything he didn’t want to discuss, he shoved his cock in my mouth or pussy. Sex was one of his best methods of controlling me.
I was growing exhausted. There were just so many unanswered questions. I felt like someone had tossed me out to sea and was waiting for me to drown.
Chapter Twenty
This was a much needed sabbatical.
Melody’s Red Audi drove in the direction of Vice City, towards the Piedmont Mall.
Raine had promised to meet us there. I’d bitten the bullet and hunted her down on social media, because, well, honestly at this point, I was desperate.
There’d been no more boxes and no more hints
Mateo just went from day to day like we were an average couple.
A large black Tahoe tailed us two rows back. We all pretended not to notice it, already knowing who was responsible for dispatching it.
“Amada means sweetheart, minha beleza means my beauty, and…damn, this one’s hot… meu means mine,” Peyton translated, butchering Mateo’s accent.
“Told you,” Melody agreed, switching lanes.
“Pet names, that’s all those are. I still think this is all revolving around this fucking game. Even if some part of me thinks I know him from somewhere else,” I added.
Peyton dramatically turned in the front seat and whipped off his sunglasses so I felt the full effect of his stare.
“He has never kept the same woman around longer than three months, you have a boat sitting on your lockdown finger, and he has a security detail on you. Look, doll, we grew up here. I’ve seen Mateo with other women, and none of them got half of what you’ve received already.”
“Except for Camilla,” Melody added.
“Who’s Camilla?”
“Mateo’s pregnant…I’m not actually sure what she was. I only know who she is because of what my parents do, and of course, I told Peyton. If he hasn’t told you…I don’t know. She disappeared when we were kids.”
Before my brain could run wild on a tangent with that new information, I shut it down.
“Can we have a Mateo free few hours?” I sighed, needing answers but craving some type of normalcy.
“We can do that,” Melody affirmed.
We ended up perusing the shops for a good hour or so. In that time, I learned Peyton’s father was still a tech whiz raking in big bucks on Mateo’s payroll, and Melody’s parents were still doing extremely well with their a law firm—also on Mateo’s payroll.
I was beginning to second guess dragging them into my problems yet again.
After grabbing a few things, we made our way to meet Raine near a Chic-Fil-A in the food court. I text her where our table was once we got our food, and dug into my fries.
“Did either of you ever see Mateo and Eva together?” I wanted to reel the question in the second I heard how eager I was to know the answer.
Peyton grinned brightly at me, laughing when I launched a fry at him.
“When Eva first came back around we were positive she was boning—ahem, befriending—Mateo,” Peyton began, “but the way they interacted around each other, it was as if he were repulsed by her. They didn’t touch. They didn’t really speak unless they were arguing, which tells you how much Mateo couldn’t stand that girl. You know how controlled that man is,” he finished.
“He told me he didn’t know her. Do you think he disliked her enough to potentially kill her?”
Melody shook her head, taking a sip of her shake. “He would only know her on a buyer/seller level. Getting rid of her, though…I don’t think that’s his M.O. I mean, yeah, he does get rid of people, but get rid of a chick because he’s tired of her?”
Peyton laughed sardonically.
“Don’t place a heart he doesn’t have in his chest. We need to focus on what we can figure out. Mateo is not that, but whoever else is involved…we might be able to.
“I mean, someone told Eva how to open the safe in Senior Remmington’s bedroom. I know you want to take credit for it, but you have to wonder who told her about the book in the first place.”
We fell into silence, none of us knowing what to say after that. My brain was forming scenario after scenario. Every time I sought out answers, I got more questions.
My phone buzzed and provided a necessary distraction.
Raine: I have to pick my sister up. Can’t make it today.
I relayed the
text she sent aloud, shoving my trash onto a tray, prepared to retreat to a secluded room and scream down the walls.
“Um, Raine‘s sister died three years ago,” Melody said.
I stopped in my tracks and looked back at her. “Then I don’t understand.” I rubbed my head, knowing in my gut that this was Mateo’s doing. Once again, he was a step ahead of me. I’d never told him who I was going to meet.
“Maybe it’s nothing. She could just be scared,” Peyton suggested, not sounding like he believed that at all.
Chapter Twenty-One
I rushed into the house with no semblance of calm.
My feet carried me straight towards the voices coming from the room with a bar and a pool table. The doors were shut, and I threw them open.
Mateo didn’t look surprised to see me, and his two companions both seemed amused by my bravado entrance.
“What the hell are you doing?” I looked at the four women on their knees.
They were in nothing but bras and G-strings. The dresses they’d arrived in sat in a pile of the floor.
“You just interrupted a business meeting,” Mateo said, taking a drink from the tumbler in his hand.
“What kind of bus…what the fuck is wrong with you?”
He laughed, pissing me off even more. I wanted to wrap those girls up and ship them far away from this world. None of them looked up, keeping their faces downturned like well trained dogs.
“It’s broad daylight outside,” I seethed.
“Is it better to sell women at night?” He smirked. “Take them to our regular and see what he wants. Take whomever is left to Malignant.”
With a flurry of movement, the women were re-dressed and being ushered from the room with no ounce of dignity left in them.
“You.” I shook my head, expelling a breath.
“I’m doing the same thing I’ve been doing since I was seventeen. If I didn’t make these transactions happen, someone else would, and they wouldn’t be as nice about it as I am.”
I scoffed, running a hand over my brow. “Did you touch them?”
“Ah, and there is the source of your real anger.” He stroked his chin, studying me with hooded eyes. “Do you truly think so lowly of me? That I would disrespect you by seeking fulfillment from a whore?”
“The source of my anger isn’t because you might have stuck your dick in someone else. It’s from you feeding a man to alligators, having me burn my initials into a man’s chest, and stopping my every attempt at finding answers!”
“Alex deserved much more than he got after what he did to…” He stopped himself, draining the rest of his tumbler.
“Going to Raine was a very bad move, anjo.” Hearing the obvious threat in his voice should have been my warning sign to stop while I was ahead.
With my own emotions in a tumultuous tailspin, the warning sparsely registered.
“You’re fucking insane!”
“Soon enough, you will be too.”
“Maybe that’s the problem, because I’ll never be like you,” I said. It was harsher than I’d intended.
Glass shattered against the wall, missing my face by a hair’s breadth. When I realized he’d thrown his tumbler at me, my brain kicked into high gear and told me to run, but my legs stayed cemented in place.
My small window of opportunity was slammed shut when Mateo appeared in front of me like a raging bull. He took hold of my arm and dragged me forward.
“You’ll never be like me?” He propelled me across the room until my midsection came in contact with his pool table.
I bit back a whimper when he forced me to bend over, smashing my cheek into the smooth, red velvet. He gripped the bottom of my dress and swiftly removed it, leaving me in nothing but a pair of sandals and a lacy thong.
“You already are like me. You just hide it extremely well.” He gripped the lacy material of my underwear, easily shredding it apart.
His solid upper body pressed down on my back. He pressed a lingering kiss on my shoulder. “Now fight me, minha beleza. Beg me not to fuck you so I can pin you down and bury my cock so deep inside your ass you’ll be bowlegged for weeks.”
I warred with myself not to give in to him; every time I did, he ensnared his claws into my psyche a little more. I kept falling deeper and deeper into his dark vortex of disaster.
I pressed my palms flat on the table and shoved back with all the strength I had, catching him off guard only for a second.
He grabbed a fistful of my hair and shoved me back down with enough strength to make my scalp my burn and my cheek throb.
“Stop!” I wriggled, trying to get out from underneath him. His fingers tangled in my wild locks, and he freed his cock from the confines of his slacks and rubbed the head of it up and down my slit.
I continued to struggle to no avail, my chest heaving from exertion.
He slammed into me without warning, forcing a breathless scream from my lungs. I lurched towards the hand resting near my face and bit down as hard as I could.
With a dark laugh, he wrenched himself free. I squealed when his mouth covered my shoulder and he bit me back hard enough to break the skin.
His movements were harsh; every thrust, he buried himself balls deep. The sound of skin hitting skin filled the air, mingling with my moans of pained pleasure.
He slipped his hand from my hair to the back of my neck, simultaneously sliding his cock from my pussy. Without voicing what he was doing, he used his fingers to gather my juices and used them as lube for an area that had never been touched before.
I stiffened as my heart beat like a drum, blood roaring in my ears. “Not there,” I croaked, unable to lift my head.
“Most definitely here. I’ve thought of fucking this peach shaped ass since it was bent over the banister for an open viewing.”
“Fuck you,” I breathed.
“Next time, make better choices.” He began pressing his tip in slowly, and then pulling it back out, until I relaxed. He went deeper each time, slamming all the way in the second a small moan escaped from my mouth.
Tears brimmed in my eyes from the pain.
“Breathe,” he commanded, and gently rolled his hips in languid strokes until the pain dulled.
When my body indicated I was ready, he didn’t hold back. He rode me hard, gripping my hip and neck to ground him. The sounds coming out of my mouth didn’t sound like my own.
He made it impossible to think about such things in the way they deserved to be analyzed. All he wanted me to think about was him.
If I didn’t do something, I would lose everything.
I looked up at the large home and willed myself to be brave.
Mateo thought I’d gone on a run, but surveying my surroundings made me think he knew exactly where I was going.
Her home didn’t have gates like many of the others did, so that part was easy. Three cars sat in the drive, mine excluded, so I knew someone was home, but no one was answering the door.
Peering through the windows wasn’t an option; the curtains obscured my view. I tried the front door, but it was locked.
I circled around to the back, hitting the jackpot when I saw the French door was slid open and only a screen separated me from the inside.
My excitement rapidly diminished when I detected the sound of a central air unit engaging. Why would that be running if the door was open?
Creeping up the back stairs, I walked across a deck and peeked in.
“Dammit,” I cursed, unable to see beyond the kitchen.
I already knew whatever I would find was not going to be pleasant, but I felt the compelling need to go inside anyway.
My tennis shoes squeaked across immaculate linoleum. The dining room was untouched, as was the living room.
Upstairs was where I found her parents, her father on the floor half under his bed, and her mother still naked in the shower. Each had a single bullet hole in the center of their foreheads. They never saw their deaths coming.
I made it to the
bathroom sink before losing the contents of my stomach. My reflection peered back at me, looking as miserable as I felt, knowing this was my fault.
Turning the sink on, I closed my eyes and scooped water into my mouth, spitting it into the toilet. I wasn’t sure if it was worse that the bodies didn’t truly bother me, or that it was the overwhelming feeling of helplessness that had made me throw up my guts.
With robotic movements, I approached the only room with an open door. Without having to go all the way inside, I saw Raine’s lifeless body inside her closet, a gaping slit in her throat and a pool of blood around her open mouth.
Two white boxes sat on her bed, one large and one small.
I didn’t want to open them, but I had to.
I entered the room, doing my best not to look at the closet.
The smaller box held another framed card. This one was deep red with a crown behind the letter K, and cracks in the heart.
King of hearts.
The larger box was a bit heavier.
My hands shook as I undid the ribbon, ignoring my ringing cellphone.
There was a pile of ashes. Resting on top was the missing half of my jagged heart pendant.
My sister was dead.
Table of Contents
Playlist
Ace Of Spades
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Epilogue-One
Epilogue-Two
About Natalie
Playlist
Camila Cabello-Questions
Post Malone-Blame It On Me
Old Money Roulette: Complete Trilogy Page 21
