Breathless & Bloodstained (The Chicago War #4)

by Bethany-Kris

  Lifting her one leg over his shoulder, Tommas leaned down so he could kiss her while he fucked her. He kissed and bit a path down over her neck and across her collarbones. Her breathless pants matched the constricting flutters of her inner walls hugging his cock tighter than he could take.

  “Oh, my God,” Abriella cried. “I’m going to come.”

  “Damn, you’re so tight and wet for me. Get it, baby. I want to feel your pussy coming all over my cock while I fuck you through it. Ride that cock, Ella. Show me how badly you want it.”

  She didn’t disappoint. When her cries turned louder, and her trembling made the table shake even more, Tommas caught all her noise with his mouth. He fucked her harder through her orgasm, but his wasn’t too far behind.

  Tommas came with a hard, long moan that he buried into Abriella’s neck. His knees gave out at the intensity of his own orgasm, and he fell over Abriella’s body. Her tremors subsided slowly, but her hands never left his body and her sweet kisses dotted his cheek and jaw when she pulled him up to look at her. Her tender touches and whispers soothed him until he felt strong enough to hold his own weight again.

  “I love you,” Tommas told her.

  Abriella’s lashes fanned her cheeks as she replied in a whisper, “I’ve always loved you.”

  It was everything Tommas wanted from her. He had everything else, her body, her needs, desires, thoughts, and wishes, but not those words.

  “But I don’t want to regret it someday, Tommy.”

  “You won’t,” he said.

  “Promise?”

  “I’ve never broken one yet, Ella.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  “Why now?” Tommas asked.

  Abriella shot him a glance over her shoulder, confused at his question. As she finished tugging on her jeans, she asked, “What do you mean?”

  Tommas rested on the edge of the table he’d fucked her on, cool and seemingly aloof. It was one of the things Abriella loved best about her man. Panic could be eating him up inside, or he could be raging mad, but Tommas would never show it on the outside.

  Maybe it was his raising that left him impassive and outwardly numb. Abriella wasn’t sure, but she did know that his calm demeanor, smooth talk, and dark personality drew her in like nothing she had ever experienced before.

  People easily fell in line with a man like Tommas. He could be charming, or in a blink, he could be violent.

  He was a trap.

  She fell head first.

  “Why now, Ella? What’s so different now that you feel like it’s okay to tell me that you love me when you’ve never wanted to say it before?”

  “Maybe it wasn’t a matter of not wanting to, Tommy,” Abriella said. “Maybe it was a matter of me fooling myself into believing that love wasn’t important enough to keep whatever we are together. Because love doesn’t get a say, right? Why let it?”

  “That’s not really an answer, baby.”

  Abriella tipped her chin up, defiant in all aspects of her life. “I don’t have a choice in loving you; I’m only now realizing it. That still doesn’t mean it’s enough no matter how much I would like for it to be. But you know what?”

  “What?”

  “I would rather go down—however this ends—knowing I loved you, than pretending like I didn’t.”

  A hint of bitterness curved Tommas’ lips into a smirk. “You’re so convinced we’re doomed to fail, Ella.”

  “Do you see this ending differently?”

  Tommas didn’t answer.

  Abriella didn’t really need him to.

  From the moment they started their secret, crazy relationship almost four years earlier, she suspected that it would never become much. How could it when she was the oldest daughter of a major crime family with values that were thoroughly tied up in keeping their place in the mob and little else?

  Abriella had always been Tommas’.

  But she never really was at the same time.

  “I do love you,” Abriella said quietly, turning to face her lover.

  Tommas slid off the desk with the grace of a predator. He was the kind of man who had the patience of a saint. Strolling across the room, he caught her hand in his, and pulled her into his chest. Abriella didn’t mind being there at all.

  “Love is enough,” Tommas told her. “It always has a say.”

  “This life says differently.”

  Tommas shrugged. “This life is wrong.”

  God, how she would like for that to be true.

  More often than not, the mafia life won.

  “I’m working on ending this,” Tommas said, his arms squeezing tighter around her frame. “And I know you want me to do it without hurting more people, but I might not have the choice. It needs to end, Ella, but I have to do it the right way.”

  Abriella sighed. “And what way is that?”

  “Not the way Riley did it, I can tell you that. He left his biggest competition and his worst enemies free to do as they wished, and that came back to bite him hard.”

  “Joel?”

  “And Theo,” Tommas said.

  Abriella shivered, remembering the night Riley had been killed. It was one of the few nights that Abriella sought out Tommas during their short separation—if that’s what someone wanted to call it. Holding nothing back, Tommas had explained to her exactly who killed Riley Conti, and why. It was more than just the Outfit. It was years of abuse and hidden secrets. Theo just couldn’t do it anymore, and he was desperately trying to protect Evelina in the only way he could.

  Abriella didn’t blame Theo.

  Not one bit.

  “You know,” Tommas said, bringing Abriella from her thoughts, “… I’m just trying to do what I have to do here, sweet girl. Nothing more.”

  “What was it that you said? Everything you do is for me?”

  “Exactly that, Ella.”

  It took Abriella a second to realize it, but she was in no better of a position than Evelina Conti had once been. She was trapped in a life that wasn’t of her making, with a future that was uncertain and not of her choosing. She was not a person to the men in her family, but a move to make when the time was right.

  “Can you end it with just one more death?” Abriella asked, refusing to say her brother’s name.

  It would hurt her family.

  Her mother, certainly, and maybe her father.

  Joel had cut enough scars into their family over the years, and he’d caused a handful of pain to each person he touched. Did that warrant his death? Abriella couldn’t answer that. Was she selfish enough to let her brother die on the off chance that she might be set free to have what she wanted?

  Abriella met Tommas’ blue gaze.

  Her heart clenched.

  Her breath caught.

  He was hers.

  She wanted him.

  Abriella absolutely was that selfish.

  “Can you?” she asked again.

  Tommas nodded. “I can.”

  “Don’t tell me when, okay?”

  “I won’t,” he said softly.

  Abriella passed the ticking clock on the wall a glance. It was five minutes before her final class of the day was supposed to end and she would have to leave. Tommas caught her stare and sighed heavily.

  “I’ll figure out something else to get us away for the day,” he said.

  Abriella laughed. “You better. One more kiss?”

  Tommas conceded to her request. He cupped her jaw, tipped her head back, and pressed his lips to hers with a ferocity that spoke entirely of possession and love. By the time he pulled away, Abriella was breathless and high.

  “If you leave a little early, before the actual end of class, you could get past Darryl by telling him you needed to use the bathroom,” Tommas suggested.

  “Good idea.”

  “You have to let me go, Ella.”

  But she didn’t want to.

  Reluctantly, Abriella stepped away from Tommas. She hid her frown as she picked up her messenger bag
and slung it over her shoulder. “Again. Soon.”

  “Soon,” Tommas echoed, winking.

  Unsteady on her feet after the intensity of their hookup, and ignoring the tenderness between her thighs, Abriella left the classroom without a look backwards. Each step she took down the hall closer to where she knew Darryl was waiting just around the corner reminded Abriella how insane she actually was.

  Her relationship with Tommas was a lot like playing with fire.

  Always hot.

  Dangerous to touch.

  Fantastic to watch.

  A beautiful tragedy just waiting to happen.

  “You’re early,” Darryl noted, glancing up from the phone in his hand when Abriella cleared her throat.

  “I have to use the bathroom. The class might as well be over.”

  “Learn anything new?”

  How fun it was to fuck on an unstable table?

  Abriella shrugged. “No. It was basically a ‘what to expect over the next few months’ kind of thing.”

  “Huh.” Darryl stood from the bench. “Do you think wasting your time working toward med school is really worth it when you’re probably not going to use any of it?”

  “Do you think being a sheep is worth it if you might end up being led off a cliff?”

  Darryl’s brow furrowed. “A what?”

  “A sheep.”

  Follow the herd, idiot.

  “I don’t get it,” the enforcer said.

  Abriella wasn’t shocked. Nobody said that Darryl was the most intelligent man in the Outfit. “Never mind. Let’s just go.”

  “Goddammit!”

  Joel’s roar had Abriella jumping in the kitchen chair. Miss Cathy, the Trentinis’ cook, clicked her tongue chidingly from where she was working at the island.

  “That man has the temper of the devil, I swear,” the cook muttered.

  Abriella laughed bitterly. “You have no idea.”

  “I feel badly for whatever woman finds herself married to him. I can’t imagine Joel as a very loving or caring man.”

  Neither could Abriella.

  Joel cursed loudly again, and something crashed on the floor right after. Abriella wondered what had happened this time to cause her brother’s temper tantrum. When it came to Joel, it could be practically anything.

  “That asshole,” Joel spat as he came into view of the kitchen.

  Holding back her frown, Abriella asked, “What’s wrong?”

  “We have fools for family, that’s what. Idiots, the bunch of them. I don’t know if he thought I wouldn’t find out, but I did. Word travels fast.”

  “And you’re not making sense.”

  “Our brother-in-law,” Joel said, drawling out the words with twisted sarcasm.

  “Adriano?”

  “Yes. He’s the only fucking brother-in-law we have, isn’t he?”

  “That doesn’t tell me what’s wrong, Joel.”

  “It doesn’t matter. The fact is, he fucked up.”

  Okay then …

  Abriella made a mental note to call her sister with the cell phone that Tommas had given her earlier that day and find out what in the hell was going on.

  Joel’s cell phone beeped in his hand. Looking down at the device, a wicked grin spread over his cheeks. “Fantastic.”

  “What now?”

  “You know what, I think I will tell you. We’re going to crash a party, Ella. Get dressed.”

  Abriella didn’t like the sound of that at all. “Why?”

  “Because I said so, that’s why.”

  “You sound like a child, Joel.”

  It wasn’t anything new. Man-child Joel always came out to play when he didn’t get something he wanted.

  Joel didn’t act like he’d heard Abriella’s comment. “Fucking ridiculous. Thinking I wouldn’t find out about this shit, or that I would agree to it if I did know. Unbelievable.”

  “Seriously, what happened?” Abriella asked again.

  “Adriano,” Joel barked. “That little shit went against everything I told him. That’s what, Ella. He’s as much of a fool as his father was. I’ve had enough of it. I’ve been nice for Alessa’s sake—”

  “Nice? What do you call nice?”

  “Shut up and get dressed. We’re going out, I said.”

  Abriella snapped her mouth shut, and forced back the urge to claw her brother’s eyes out. Her fingers still twitched with the need, however. “To where?”

  “The old DeLuca property, apparently.”

  That was where Lily and Damian lived now.

  Abriella struggled to put two and two together to try and figure out what might have occurred to put Joel in such a rage. The only thing that really linked Adriano Conti and Damian Rossi was the not-so-secret relationship between Theo DeLuca and Evelina Conti.

  What did they do?

  “Why are you still sitting there?” Joel snarled. “Are you fucking deaf or stupid? I told you to move, Abriella.”

  “Jesus Christ, chill out.”

  “Get ready!”

  “You’re not permitted entrance,” said the guard at the gate.

  Joel glared at the man from inside the BMW. “Listen, Kirk, I get you’re doing what Damian told you to do, but if you don’t get that asshole on the phone and tell him I’m out here waiting, you won’t see your wife tonight. Do you understand that?”

  “Joel,” Abriella hissed.

  The DeLuca enforcer was just doing his job.

  Joel flicked his hand at Abriella as if to silence her. Then, he turned back to the enforcer. “Call him right now and tell him.”

  Huffing, the enforcer pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number. He muttered a few words into the phone, and kept his eye on Joel all the while.

  “Yeah, Skip,” Kirk said. “What do you want me to do?”

  “I could drive right through the fucking gate if I didn’t like the paint job on my car as much as I do,” Joel said under his breath.

  Abriella rolled her eyes. The iron gate was reinforced with concrete and brick pillars. It could probably withstand a few hits. She hoped her brother wasn’t serious, because her body couldn’t withstand him ramming his vehicle into an iron gate and bricks.

  Under her annoyance, Abriella’s anxiety simmered on low. It was never good for someone to invite themselves to a party where they weren’t wanted. It only caused more issues in the Outfit than was needed.

  Joel didn’t seem to care.

  “Okay, I’ll let him through,” Kirk said before he ended the call.

  “Thank you,” Joel said, sneering. “Now open the goddamn gate.”

  Without a word, Kirk hit a button on his cell phone and the gate began to open automatically. Joel hit the gas pedal hard the moment he could fit the BMW through the opening, spinning rocks and making the tires screech.

  “Calm down,” Abriella told her brother.

  It felt like she had said that exact thing fifteen times since they left the house.

  “You don’t get it,” Joel growled. “I specifically demanded Adriano keep his sister in line, or better yet, set her up in a decent marriage to strengthen the families, and he went behind my back—”

  “Eve is a grown woman, Joel. I don’t know what she did, but you don’t get to control her life.”

  “See, you don’t get it.”

  Abriella chose not to argue it any further with her brother. It didn’t matter as she already had a pretty good idea of what was going on. Evelina took her freedom and ran with it—with Theo DeLuca.

  Good for her.

  Up ahead, Abriella could see at least ten or more parked vehicles. She recognized a few immediately. Lily’s yellow Maserati. Damian’s blue Porsche. Tommas’ Jaguar. Evelina’s new electric blue BMW. Another handful of cars and SUVs were scattered in the driveway, too.

  “Nice crowd,” Joel noted.

  “Are they having a dinner or something?”

  “Or something.”

  Abriella scowled at her brother. “Can I wait out
here?”

  “No.”

  That was that.

  Abriella got out of the car once her brother had parked and shut off the engine. She followed behind Joel, feeling entirely uncomfortable at having been forced to crash whatever was happening—a celebration, likely—at the DeLuca family home.

  If it was what Abriella believed it to be, a wedding celebration, then the last thing she wanted to do was sully Evelina’s day with Joel’s jealousy and nastiness. Evelina deserved happiness. Abriella wasn’t the kind of friend who would ruin that simply because others didn’t agree with the marriage.

  As they strolled up the front steps, the door opened. Theo DeLuca stood in the entrance with cold eyes and a tight frown.

  Joel smiled. “Aren’t you going to invite us in?”

  “No,” Theo said quietly.

  Abriella fidgeted, and kept a few feet between herself and her brother.

  “You won’t allow me to congratulate you and Evelina, Theo?” Joel asked bitingly.

  “I don’t want your fake platitudes and cheers, Joel. You didn’t come here because you’re happy for my wife and me, but because you’re pissed off that neither me, nor Adriano, gave you any say in the matter of my marriage. It is none of your business. Take that and run with it for all I give a damn.”

  “That’s awfully big coming from a Capo with no pull in this family.”

  Joel’s words were meant to mock. Abriella bit the inside of her cheek, hoping Theo caught onto Joel’s games.

  “You’re not important to me,” Theo said simply.

  “I—”

  “Let him in,” came a voice from somewhere behind Theo.

  Abriella’s shoulders relaxed at the sound of Tommas’ dark, rich tenor.

  Theo, on the other hand, looked ready to kill. “I don’t want to upset my wife.”

  “He was bound to show up. Eve knew it was a possibility.”

  “Fine.” Theo’s gaze cut to Joel, a promise of violence flashing in his brown eyes. “Disrespect my wife on her wedding day, or upset my pregnant sister in her home, and I will gladly take the prison sentence when I put a fucking bullet between your eyes. There are a lot of people here tonight—some unconnected. Mouths will run, but I don’t care. Evelina would be a little pissed at me, but I hear conjugal visits are worth a try. Do you understand that, Joel?”