SAVAGE POET: A Dark, New Adult and College Romance

by Jax Hart

  This town is small. It’ll be easy to spot his cars. He’ll probably stay the night, hoping I’m dumb enough to go back to the villa where surely, he has someone waiting.

  Taking out my cell I call K. “Hey any chance you’re still at State?”

  “No… why?”

  “I need a favor K. A big one. Like titanic.”

  “What’s up.”

  “He found me. The guy I’ve been running from. Somehow, he’s here in Spain,”

  “The fuck?”

  “I know. I-I can’t run again.” My voice breaks. “Please. I’ll pay for you to fly back to state. I need my things, my clothes, my books… Zio’s mug.” I choke out.

  “I get it. My aunt… it broke her when she went on the run too. I know she’ll help.”

  My mind spins. “I’ll set up a storage unit using a debit card linked to my backup alias. I’ll text you the details just move out whatever you can. And K… you can have my car. It’s at the airport. I’ll text you the row and garage number. I can’t come back. I’m made.”

  “Will I ever see you again?”

  I think of Tati. My throat thickens… “You bet your brainiac ass you will. It just might be a while. I’ll call you when I get a new burner cell.”

  “How will you get out of Spain?”

  “Easy. I always travel with a spare set of ID’s. Jamie Goodwin is gone. Melanie Pearce will take her place.”

  She’s silent for a bit. “You can’t run forever. That’s no life, Ro.” I smile at her nickname for me.

  “I know. I just need some time to plan. You need an epic one to take down a king.”

  “I want in when you do it.”

  “No, K. I work alone. I won’t have you dragged into this mess. I’ve watched to many people I care about get hit in the crossfire of some stupid mob war.”

  “Be safe.”

  “You too. If you think the house is being watched, abort. But he can’t be two places at once.”

  We disconnect and I pull up a hotel app. Melanie Pearce needs a place to sleep tonight. Roque’s car pulls away. I creep into the back alley, smirking at the one lone goon Roque left to watch the villa in case I came back. I grab a rock from the ground, hiding it in the folds of my sweater. I wait until he faces away then stalk him until I’m within reach. I bash him just enough to knock him out. Then I take his gun, his wallet and his phone. I creep back inside to get my suitcase. He’s taken so much from me. I just couldn’t lose one more thing. Even a bag of clothing.

  I wheel it out then pick up the limp man’s hand using his finger to unlock his phone.

  I shake my head at their stupidity. On his phone is everything down to the hotel and room number Roque is in. In the man’s sport coat pocket is the keycard to Roque’s bank of rooms.

  This is just too easy. I know I shouldn’t tempt my fate. But tempting our fate is something I’ve never been able to stop myself from doing.

  I wait until night falls, after booking another quick Airbnb. I posed as a backpacker traveling through Europe for the holidays, but the booking agent didn’t care as long as I paid.

  I dress carefully in the one black dress I packed pairing it with dressy knee-high boots. With my hair loose and makeup on point, no one will question me when I enter his hotel lobby and head to the elevators. Especially if I hold a keycard.

  I wait until almost midnight then leave. I’m not sure what exactly my plan is besides hold him at gunpoint but I’m winging it. I’m sick of running every time I put down roots.

  I take a taxi to the trendy boutique hotel. It’s packed. The lobby bar in full Christmas merriment. A man in a tux plays Christmas songs on a baby grand as women dressed in gowns hold glasses of champagne. I blend in. Just another merrymaker joining the fun. But I sail past the party to the elevators. I have no plan. But I won’t be cowed. My advantage is the element of surprise. Opening my purse, I stick a hand inside, feeling the handle of the gun. In my other hand, I swipe the key card then press the special access code for the penthouse floor I found from the goon’s email.

  The door opens and I swipe one more time. The door to his lair unlocks.

  I’m in. I silently slide the bolts, locking everyone. Even someone with a keycard.

  “She is here somewhere! Turn over ever fucking tavern. Search every hotel, every rental. She took down one of my men. She’s here. Find her,” Roque snaps. His back is turned to me, as he chews off whoever is on the other end of his call.

  “She is here, indeed.”

  He spins and I raise the gun.

  “Romina?”

  “In the flesh. Merry Christmas.” I slide the rack.

  He has the nerve to smirk. “Do it. End me. Your face will be the last thing I’ll see before I die. I’ll carry it with me into eternity.”

  “That’s too good a fate for you.”

  “Probably.”

  “Raise your arms. Spread your legs.”

  “Ah, now that’s the command I was saving for you, love.”

  Ignoring his taunt, I pull the gun from his holster throwing it across the room. Then I take the one at his ankle to. “Over to the wall.” On his bed is an open knapsack. Inside is rope, a gag and some kind of sex thing. The fuck?

  “Take off your shoes.” He smirks but kicks them off. “Strip.”

  “Crossing off number three on your to-do list?”

  “Actually, it was number four,” I drawl.

  I bite my lip as he tears his shirt. Buttons go flying everywhere. He steps forward but I step back grabbing the handcuffs and rope. “Cuff yourself to the bedpost.”

  He takes the cuffs, sliding one around his wrist and the other to the bed post. I grab an ankle securing his leg with rope to the foot of the bed. Only then do I lower his gun. The urge to run my hands down his abs is strong. My legs feel heavy. My nipples peak. Should I do this? Take what I want from him like some kind of fucked up Christmas present to myself?

  “Do it baby. I’m all yours.”

  “What about your wife?”

  “She was never my wife and you know it.”

  I pick up the gun not trusting my hands if they feel his skin. Instead I trace the barrel between his pecs down his flat stomach, stopping at his belt.

  His brows lift daring me. Fuck him if he thinks I’ll stop. I want this because I can take it from him. It’s about power, not love.

  I lift my dress, leaving my boots on. Straddling him, I unbuckle his belt, taking him out.

  He moans as my hand runs up and down his shaft. “You like that? You miss me?”

  “You know I do. Nothing compares to us.” I moan as his free hand pinches my nipple through my dress.

  I lean forward, take my hand and guide him into me before leaning back. Fuck, He feels so good. So good. I shut my eyes as I ride him.

  “Faster,” he grates out as if in pain.

  Instead I go slower. Knowing the sexual torture is what he had planned when he captured me. I turned it all around by capturing him instead.

  His freehand grabs my neck, pulling me down on his chest. His lips try to find mine. “Please, Romina. Stop running…”

  Our lips crash together. Our tongues and hearts collide. He’s always been mine and I’ve always been his.

  I cry out as we make love for real. He begs but I won’t free him. Although, unbound I’m just as trapped as he is.

  Our bodies strain against one another. His fist is in my hair not letting go, forcing me to meet his angry kiss, asking for things I refuse to give.

  Finally, I collapse against his chest, feeling him empty into me.

  His arm comes around my back. “Don’t leave me. Please. At least let me have Christmas.”

  “It’s past midnight. Christmas is over. We are over. This was just a hate-fuck, goodbye.”

  “Bullshit, Romina. This is just another beginning…”

  “We already know where we end. In disaster.”

  “I don’t believe that,”

  “You left me! You told me
you’d be back in two days… instead you left the continent and married someone else.”

  “I did that to save you.”

  “Please. I can save myself. I’ve being doing that since the day in the woods.”

  “And we’re back to that? You’ll never forgive me, will you?”

  I don’t answer. His heartbeat is in my ear. No matter how much I hate him, I realize I’ll always love him and that scares the shit out of me. I move to get up. But he rolls pinning me to the bed.

  “What the?”

  His other hand is free. “You never checked if it was secure.”

  My hands are pinned above my head as his mouth falls to my breasts. The past and present collide as he touches me. I’m not that naive high school girl and yet pieces of her are still locked within me still hoping for impossible things.

  He holds me close when it’s over, both of us limp and sated. But as he drifts off, I reach over to the cuffs.

  Snap.

  “Romina.” He growls in the dark.

  I double check this time. Then I’m off the bed and reaching for my clothes.

  “Romina!’ He roars, rattling the bedpost.

  “I can’t do this. You’ll break me again. I just can’t.”

  “Keep running then. You’re only fooling yourself. Because each time you run, you run yourself in a circle, coming right back to me. But if I fall in love in the meantime, it’s your loss.”

  “Go ahead. See if I care.” I taunt, knowing he’s full of shit. The whispered words of love in Italian he spoke to me still play in my head. Love scares me. All love means to me is immeasurable loss. And I’m done with that. I help myself to the cash in his wallet and on a whim take his keys. I’ll use his own car to drive myself far, far, away.

  “I curse the woman who falls in love with you.”

  “You just cursed yourself, bella. Run. Get a head start. I’ll be right behind you…”

  Roque

  The Almost Present

  “Roque, please. I-I love you.”

  Sighing, 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. It was only a fling. A brief affair. Nothing more. Besides, nothing matters now that my men have zeroed in on my girl. I just received the text and dumped Bianca on the spot. “I have somewhere I need to be. It’s over.”

  “Why?”

  How can I answer that? Because I just found the girl who was always meant to be mine. Red 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. For years I’ve waited, plotted, and made myself king. It’s been three years since that night in Spain. Rumor is she was pregnant. I need to find out of it’s true. Maybe that’s why she stayed away. We both grew up in the mob. Our baby would be number one on everyone’s kill list. But the not knowing if it could be true eats at me every day. Red broke down and called Tati. Who told Seb…who told me…

  “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, spent one Christmas night with her and now I’m about to meet her at twenty-three. 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 years ago. She was the first and last woman to get close to my heart. She practically took a chainsaw to it.

  “Keep an eye on Chloe. She’s asleep. Tell her I had urgent business and that I’ll be back in a few days. Do not mention Romina to her or I’ll cut your tongue out. I don’t want her getting any crazy ideas.”

  Johnny rolls his eyes. “Here we go again…”

  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. I was a fool that night in Spain thinking I could keep her safe, thinking I was ready. But the fact that she bested my men and entered my room holding me captive was a wake-up call that I wasn’t ready to take shit on. I needed more security and better trained men.

  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 stepped 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 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 from 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 will have fun tonight, even if I’m playing alone. Because I know even when she’s not there, her eyes are on me. If only I get my own eyes on her.

  Bulbs flash as I exit my car. I pose
, giving a wolfish grin to the crowd while ignoring the questions flying at me like bullets from paparazzi. When I’m finally passed the red carpet and securely inside, I wave away tall flutes of champagne being passed around on trays, opting for something harder from the bar. Johnny was on the invite list tonight, unfortunately so is my clingy ex-wife. The one I’ve tried to eliminate three times.

  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!” Julietta 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.”

  “Please…”

  “Eager to go back to the island? Is that it?”

  Her face pales. My punishment was deserving of what she did. 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 Julietta 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 Julietta my bride would assure me 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.