by Jax Hart
I feel the heat of her 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.
Lifting my watch to my mouth I press a button that links me to my men’s earpieces. “Block the exits, check all the cars. Although I suspect she’ll be on foot.”
My Romina is like cat woman, with the ability to blend in while being perfectly spectacular. I smirk, shoving through the emergency exit door with the hair ribbon tied around the handle.
It was her.
She left me a trail of breadcrumbs to follow. I finger the ribbon between my fingers, imagining wrapping it around her wrist while I have her pinned beneath me.
I took it from her hair once, almost over two decades ago. I kept it as my token treasure. But my spitfire turned the tables. The hunted became the huntress. I’m her prey as much as she’s mine.
This never-ending game of ours is the greatest dance. A courting and foreplay but who knows if the endgame will be a crime of complete passion. My Little Reed wants me dead as much as she wants me as her man.
I took an oath to kill her. She’s my one failure. The one life I couldn’t snuff out. How can you kill the one thing that makes you feel the most alive? She’s the one stain on my soul a thousand Gods could never forgive.
“Romina!” I bellow into the stairwell. “Come and get me.” I splay my arms wide. “You know I’m all yours.”
But she doesn’t show.
With the grace and agility of a world-class athlete I sprint down the stairs without even breaking a sweat in my designer threads. My fists punch the door open. The cold bite of January hits me in the face. It’s a quick punch that I barrel right through. “Which way did you go my Little Red?”
I cock my head while the icy air invades my lungs. It’s hard to breathe in minus two-degree weather. The wind alone would knock a lesser man to the ground. Chicago in winter is not be fucked with. But neither am I. There’s no way she’s going to escape this time. She’s getting sloppy, overconfident.
“Did you want your kiss at midnight, bella? Is that it?” I taunt, confidently walking into the shadows in the alley behind the grand hotel where tonight’s New Year’s Eve ball was being held.
My blue eyes focus like lasers on the redhead scrambling around the next corner. The beast in me rises. My prey, my woman is in my sights. Her pace quickens, I’m hot on her heels. I grab her by the elbow, swinging her around to face me.
The roar that emanates from me conveys years of pent up frustration as I stare down into a face that I’ve never seen. My hands angrily rip the expensive wig from her head. She cries out in pain, but my ruthlessness knows no bounds.
“Where did you get this,” I grate out, feeling my veins bulge in my neck.
She holds up her hands. “Please. I needed money. She just said to walk through the crowd and go out the emergency exit by the west stairwell.”
“The ribbon?” I grate out.
She shakes her head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” From within my pocket, I clench the hair ribbon in my clenched fist.
She tries to back away while shaking her head, but I pin her in against the brick wall.
She trembles feeling my iciness, the barren winter where my soul should be, envelop her. “Please, stop. Don’t hurt me.”
I snort and grab her elbow, then lift my wrist to my mouth and order the car to come around. I shove her shivering, pathetic form in the back. She stares wild-eyed at the three-suited men who sit inside.
My crew. My gang of outlaw brothers with eyes as dead as mine wait for my next order. Tony, Johnny, and Vito would take bullets for me. Each of us would die for the other. You can’t buy loyalty like that. Two are my cousins the other a best friend I never thought I’d have. As I scan their stone-cold faces, I briefly wonder how many patrons of this city who have felt this moment. The one of utter terror as they realize they’re going for a drive with the mob. Not just any mob, The Salvatore Syndicate.
My cousins are the king’s men and my rules are absolute and unquestionable. Her body quakes and trembles, though none of us touch her never mind spare her even a glance.
“To the tunnels,” I command while my eyes search the night. She’s here. So close and yet so untouchable. I bring a closed fist to my lips. When I find Romina there won’t be one speck of her that I won’t own. I’m putting my stamp all over her. Even the far places in her mind where she might try to retreat.
I’ve learned so much on my ascent to the throne. Breaking people down bit by bit is a skill I’ve perfected.
The SUV glides through the city. Reinforcing the tunnels was one of the first things I did. Slowly, day by day my crew found the forgotten, underground pathways Chicago’s first mob used during Prohibition. Hoffa ran his crew down here. Not even the cops know about half of the tunnels.
I hit a wireless remote and like Bruce Wayne, we enter a tunnel through an open door. Down into the dark we drive. Into a cave-like canal of small roads.
By now, the imposter is shrieking. Tony backhands her once to make her shut up. She hadn’t done anything but bait the beast. I raise a napkin to her bloody lip. “Calm down. Only those that interfere with my operation get punished.”
“Why did you take, me then”
“Because I could. Because you are the missing link, I need to find her.”
“God help her.”
“She’ll need it,” I smirk.
The SUV rolls to a stop and I climb out, pulling her by the arm. She’s weak and will probably break easy. Bringing her into the literal underworld was all for show. I won’t have to break one little bone in her body. Using people’s minds against them I’ve learned is my greatest weapon.
I nod, it’s an unspoken cue for Tony and Vito to take the girl and chain her by the throat and wrists to a grate above her head.
The chains are old and covered with dried blood and rust.
“Please! I don’t even know her. It was all done over text.” Tony grins as he uses an index finger to trace her throat, moves it down her body and to the pocket of her coat.
“Bingo.” His leather-gloved hand holds out a cell to me.
“Code?”
Through sobs she gives me the six-digit number. I tap them in and scroll through her texts from what’s obviously a burner phone. I hit call.
“Did he follow you?”
The sound of her voice takes my breath away. I missed the breathy, sultriness of it laced with such sweet determination.
“I sure did.”
Her pause is thick, but she doesn’t disconnect.
“The girl is innocent.”
“That’s never stopped me before.”
“Roque—” She warns.
I turn from my men to close my eyes in agony. My name. Spoken from those lips. “Come to me, Red. Be my queen. We both want it.”
“I’ll see you dead first.”
“Then come kill me so we can breathe the same air before I die. Your face will be the last one I see no matter when it happens. What are you waiting for? Be my queen,” I command.
“I’m my own Queen and you’re about to find that out.”
My SUV explodes behind me. The blast throws Vito off his feet. Ducking from the projectiles of glass and burning metal, I hold the phone to my ear. My Little Red isn’t fucking around. She really does want me dead and gone. It’s too bad I can’t accommodate her. If I left this world, some other man would own her and that simply won’t do.
“I’m still standing, Red.” The violence between us is an aphrodisiac. It’s sick. I’m sick and I made her in my image. The once sweet girl might’ve had a chance if she never crossed my path that day so many
years ago. But her fate has been sealed.
“I could’ve killed you and your crew at any moment’s notice.”
“Why didn’t you,” I taunt, huskily. “Because you know no other man will make you feel this way again. If you kill me, your fire will burn out and you know it. Don’t forget I almost caught you once. I have your old journals. The ones you taped inside the duct work inside your old apartment. I know how you really feel about me, Red. I can make you feel those things again.”
“Please. Did you really think I’d wait for you? That I haven’t given myself to a dozen men feeling how much it’d slay you every time they pumped their hips into me?”
My snarl of rage bellows through the underground. She’s lying. She’d better be. “THS IS WAR ROMINA!”
“You fool, Roque. It always has been.” This time she hangs up, leaving me surrounded by burning pieces of metal reflecting off shards of glass. Like a mirror, all my sins stare back at me as I sit on my knees and wonder where in the hell it all went wrong.
So many times, she was mine and yet I didn’t see it and when I did the choices, I made to keep her only worked against me.
“Is she worth this much trouble?” Johnny stands brushing glass from his suit. Blood trickles from a cut above his eyebrow. Despite, striking the woman, Vito shielded her from the blast.
“You’re free to go.” I release her chains. But she faints, falling back into Vito’s arms.
I meet Johnny’s eyes. “Was your girl worth losing everything for? Your home, your city, your place in the family?”
“Yes.” The one word is laced with so much pain as he drops it. Johnny fell hard for an undercover FBI agent. She brought him down and almost took my syndicate with him. I had her killed. For screwing up Johnny and taking everything away from him. Even now, over half a year later he still burns for the one who betrayed him. His own family put a hit on him for making such a colossal fuck up.
He suspects I had something to do with her disappearance. But I flat out denied it. Losing his loyalty is one thing I can’t afford right now. Besides, one day he will get over her and when he does, he’ll thank me. He’s a fucking wreck and my protection is the only thing keeping him alive.
I order Vito to take care of the ringer and I walk out of the tunnel past the charred metal still crackling with Johnny by my side.
“You’ll need retribution. If anyone finds out she was able to get close enough to detonate your car…”
“I’m not weak.”
“She’s the one chink in your armor.”
“I will make her pay.
“What? With your dick?”
“In every way.”
“She’s going to be the end of you, The end of all of us.”
I give him my death glare but deep down, I know he might be right. I hand my cell to Vito. “Trace the call, get the sim card from the Red Herring’s phone to our guys. She’s close. Too close. This is an embarrassment. How is one woman who barely weights hundred pounds getting the best of us?”
“Because we think with our little heads, not our big one,” Johnny drawls taping his skull. “You better get her under control, or I will. What did you do to piss her off this time?”
“I almost fell for someone else.”
“Luce?”
Yep.
I need to get to Romina before Chloe gets caught in this stupid love war we have going on. If Chloe gets hurt, I’ll never forgive Romina no matter how much I loved her once and probably still do.
9
CHLOE and ROQUE
“Be good and don’t break curfew.”
“Yes, dad,” she drawls.
“Did you just call me—?”
“I did.”
“If anyone gives you a hard time, if anyone looks at you…”
“I know. I know. Just don’t get any more cars blown up okay?”
“I should’ve never told you about that.”
“I was living with you it was hard not to notice the night you came in with soot and smelling like charred metal.”
“I pissed her off.”
“RED?!!! O.M.G.! You left this out. You never told me.”
“Because I knew you’d react like this.”
“What did you do?”
“Take your pick of things. Who knows with Red what sets her off? She told Tati a few years back that she was pregnant with my baby.”
“WHAAAT?” Chloe is just about losing it.
“Chloe. Reign it in. Don’t do anything stupid, okay. I’m trusting you.”
“You better find her and my brother or sister. Fix this Roque. I want a full family reunion by next Christmas.”
“Yes, boss lady,” I grin at the little spitfire demanding I give her what we both want; a family.
“What if she doesn’t love me anymore?”
“She probably doesn’t. You’ll need to start from scratch. Woo her all over… make her fall in love again. And don’t fuck it up.”
“Sure, that’ll be easy.”
I hug her goodbye, watching as she walks away. I need to let Chloe go but it still hurts like hell. The chopper lifts up, carrying me across the horizon. Somewhere on the other side of the world I’ll find Romina. But how can I make her love me after everything? If she’s hid a child from me, God help her. I’ve missed years of its life and that is something I’m not sure I can let go of.
10
Chloe
It feels weird being here. I went from living in a nightmare to waking up in a fairytale. The other students are wary of me, rumors are already running wild that I’m some orphan Roque picked off the streets. Some say I’m sleeping with him to earn my keep. It’s disgusting. Roque doesn’t look at me like that. He’s rich and powerful but not a pervert. He could have any woman in the world but one apparently. I thought I was on team Romina all the way but now I’m not so sure. If she kept a baby from him and then tried to blow his car up… that makes her more of a villain than him.
Today is Saturday and after a hectic week of settling into my new school I’ve decided to board the private bus the school chartered to take students into the small town. I packed my Mac Air and a few books. My plan is to find a small café and do some schoolwork. My bodyguard would freak, so I lied and told him I had my period and was staying in my dorm room all weekend. The mention of the word “period” had his face turning gray. I put my hair in a bun and put a jacket with a hood on then carefully followed close behind a group of students and snuck onboard.
I appreciate the safety and comfort Roque’s world provides me but I’m still a bit street event though he sees me as this helpless girl. I’m already catching shit from the other students at Chillmark who have dubbed me “little mafia princess.” It didn’t help that Roque spent 100k on a designer to trick out my dorm room with handmade furniture from Paris with matching coverlets and window treatments. He also insisted on refurbishing the floors and having floor to ceiling wainscoting with a chandelier from Tiffany’s replacing the standard ceiling light. I didn’t have it in me to tell him his indulgence made me the target he is trying so hard to avoid me becoming. He’s trying so hard to make this work and I know he didn’t want to legally adopt me but he did. So, I kept my mouth shut and thanked him and sucked up the insults and snickering around me.
“This looks nice.” I enter a chocolatier slash coffee shop, select a few sweets, order a cappuccino and take a quiet corner seat by a window.
In no time, I’m lost in the book I’m reading for English Lit. Many of the other students have already studied the classics but these kinds of books are not found in the slums of Chicago. I’m soaking in Wuthering Heights. It’s so Roque and Romina I’m swooning.
Her presences doesn’t quite register because at first I thought she was the waitress clearing my empty cup. But the weight of her stare finally has me raising my eyes.
I jump in my seat. She grabs my wrist, keeping me seated. I’m starstruck. It’s like meeting a celebrity in the flesh. I know so many of her sec
rets, her thoughts, her feelings—all her buried history is in my mind.
“Romina.”
“Ah, so you know my name.” I nod dumbly. “Give me your phone.” I slide over, entranced by her. The air around her shimmers. She’s beautiful. Elegant. Tough. Her eyes are the shade of wet grass in spring. Her hair is a dark, rich red. Her lips are full and perfectly bowed. She’d make a kick-ass mom. I grin.
“I-I know so much about you…I-I I don’t know what to say. It’s like I know you, while you don’t know me at all.”
“What do you know about me?”
“Um, everything? He let me read your diaries.”
Her brows lift and I see her fire. “I’m going to kill him.”
“Yeah, you kind of say that a lot.”
She laughs. “I guess I do.”
“Do you still love him? Because I know he still has it bad for you.”
She rolls her eyes. “Roque only loves himself. He loves the chase; the game. That’s it.”
“Not true. He loves me.”
Her eyes narrow. “And what are you to him?”
“His daughter. He adopted me.”
“Why?”
“That’s kind of a long story.”
“So? I deserve to know his story, don’t you think? After all he stole mine and let you read it.”
“I’m not sure where to start…he, he did keep journals too.”
“He did?”
I nod. “I know his heart and it’s you.”
She mulls over my words. “Do you know what he did to me?”
I nod. “Everything. Starting in Palermo.”
She sucks in a breath. “I’m surprised he told you that.”
“Why? Because I’m young? I grew up rough… men did things to me… Roque saved me from that life.”
“Remind me to send him a medal.”
“Don’t be a jealous bitch, okay? I was on “team Romina.” But he told me about Spain, that you were pregnant after.”
“Tati?” She breathes. “Ugh!”
“Where’s the baby?”
