Maria (Made Men Book 7)

by Sarah Brianne

  Maria blew out a huff of air. “Don’t look so pleased with yourself. I hope, for your sake, it was worth it.”

  Dominic touched her pretty face with soft fingers, like he was etching it forever into his memory, along with his hazel eyes, knowing that his first with the mafia princess would be his last. “It was.”

  Closing her eyes, she was unable to look at him a second longer, feeling the threatening tear for his soul about to slip out.

  Hearing Rhianna’s fitting song, “Love on the Brain,” that had once started in her dreams was now beginning to end; she dazedly opened her eyes again, feeling the exhaustion hit her bones. “Where am I?”

  Dominic smiled down at her one last time, the impression of his dimples forever ingrained into her memory this time. “You tell me.”

  “I don’t know ….” She yawned, letting her lashes fall back on her cheeks, giving in to the temptation of sleep. “But wherever it is, I like it.”

  Fifteen

  The Return of Sadie

  Her lashes lifting to an empty bed had her screaming one word … FUCK!

  Not knowing if it was the first dream or the second one, where she was bamboozled into a dream within a dream, but one or both had her screaming into her pillow for real, and in frustration. This time, however, she wasn’t going to be lured into a falsehood.

  It had been a few days since the school dance and her first-ever kiss, so her subconscious thoughts of her unconscious mind at three in the morning wasn’t to be trusted.

  Making herself get out of bed, she needed to be far away from this room … now.

  Putting her feet into her fuzzy pink slides, she threw on her pink, velour, zip-up hoodie that matched the little velour shorts she was wearing.

  She would go where all men who couldn’t sleep went.

  Maria tiptoed through the Caruso family penthouse quietly, going out the door that led to a long hallway of apartments for some of the Caruso soldiers. Reaching the end, luck was on her side as the suit stationed at the elevator, who was supposed to be watching the hallway, was snoozing away.

  Pressing a button the elevator doors opened for her. Walking inside, she then pressed in the secret code to take her straight to the bottom floor. Knowing this was where her luck ended, she looked up at the security camera before she flipped it off, showing the person on the other end her favorite shade of nude polish, via her middle finger.

  When the elevator doors slid to a close, the only other thing—besides the security camera—she was left to for the next few moments as the elevator journeyed to the depths of hell was her thoughts. And just like in her bedroom, they ventured to a certain Luciano.

  Why the fuck did I dream about him? She had cut him out of her brain like a cancerous, blood-sucking tumor the second she asked Lucca about his shooting abilities—just so she’d be able to distance herself. Now, hell, Maria didn’t even know if she could consider herself a virgin after that dream—not that she cared if her precious hymen was intact before marriage. That was just another awfully fucking convenient thing in a woman’s body that had men judging them. As if a thin piece of tissue couldn’t break on its own accord. It was supposed to deem a woman worthy of the most heinous of men, or worse … whether you could enter Heaven or Hell.

  It was funny how men didn’t have those “things” to tell women if they were actually virgins. No, women were supposed to take their “word” for it, the exact thing they wouldn’t believe out of an innocent woman saying she didn’t know how it broke.

  That was how Maria knew God really was a man. Because every crippling thing about having ovaries ironically didn’t apply to men.

  When the door slid open, Maria walked down another long hallway, but this one was so dark that it looked like it was from another dimension that only workers used to take out the trash.

  Approaching a door, she heard music on the other side. Knocking just once, she prayed it would open, and when it did, she was greeted to the bustle of the secret floor. Down here, where a legal casino sat on top of this illegal one, almost everything went for a certain price. Like her, the men filling the darkened space couldn’t sleep, while the women walking around in lingerie coaxed them into gambling more of their money.

  Taking a seat at an empty blackjack table, her favorite pit boss came over, relieving the young-looking dealer.

  Picking up the deck of cards, she started to shuffle faster than one of those new machines.

  “What’s up, buttercup? You can’t sleep?”

  “No,” Maria huffed, propping her elbow up on the table so she could rest her chin on her hand. “Can you deal me in for a thousand, Sadie? Just put it on my dad’s tab.”

  “You got it.” She took out a thousand dollars’ worth of chips in various amounts, then slid the stack across the table in front of her.

  The return of Sadie to a blackjack table after becoming a pit boss always felt right when she did it for special occasions. Thankfully, being her boss’s kid made it one.

  Seeing an eager man place down his chips beside her, Maria snapped, placing a fifty-dollar bet down in one of the little circles. “This table’s full.”

  “You heard the lady; keep it pushing,” Sadie barked, snapping her fingers when the man wasn’t as eager to leave a clearly open table.

  “So, tell me what’s eating you,” Sadie asked, dealing out the cards.

  I haven’t been able to see or talk to Kayne in four days.

  I’m dreaming about fucking him.

  While also dreaming about fucking another guy.

  One I hate, ’cause he locked me in a walk-in freezer.

  Maria, however, decided to keep her thoughts to herself.

  “Oh my God.” You could see the lightbulb go off in the pit boss’s scrutinizing gaze. “Maria Caruso finally likes a boy.”

  “I do not …” She trailed off, knowing lying to Sadie was worthless. She was a fucking woman whisperer. “I could like a girl. You don’t know.”

  “Honey, you’re not a lesbian, or a bisexual, for that matter.”

  Maria scoffed at her assuming. “How would you know?”

  “Because I’ve been dealing you cards for how long now? And not once have you looked at my tits.”

  Hmm … Looking at the ginormous globes that were propped up under her neck, Maria might have had to agree since they were pretty nice tits.

  “Well, until now.” Sadie chuckled, flipping over the dealer’s card and revealing a face.

  “Okay then.” Maria clasped her hands in front of her, unconcerned about the table game that she was supposed to be playing. “What did you mean about finally liking a boy?” She wanted the woman whisperer to deal her out some knowledge about that because, apparently, everyone, even dreaming Maria, made her out to be a frigid bitch when it came to men.

  When Sadie was about to shoot it to you straight, her head slightly tilted forward before giving you one hell of a dirty-ass look. “The man that just came over to sit beside you? Yeah, well, he was eye-fucking you the second you came in here, and you didn’t even have the courtesy to look over and see that he was hot as fuck. It wasn’t the first time you did it, and it won’t be the last.”

  Well, shit. She huffed again, getting another thought. “Okay then—”

  “And before you even start, I know a man’s on your damn mind ’cause I ain’t never heard Maria Caruso coming into my pit, huffing and puffing, and moaning and groaning. You’re acting like the married men that come in here after their wives ask for a divorce.”

  Well, fuck. The woman whisperer was right again.

  “You’re in love, girl.” Sadie waved her hands like those women did on the Price is Right. “Welcome to hell, just like the rest of us.”

  Maria sat up straight. “I’m not in l-love.” Even saying the L-word was hard for her. She almost barfed. Tapping the table, she scratched, asking for another card. “I’m just … confused.”

  “Confused?” Sadie dealt the card faceup, revealing another face card,
which made Maria’s thirteen bust against the house’s twenty.

  “Yeah, like …” Watching Sadie clean the table, she tried to think. “When you can’t decide between a new Prada bag or Jimmy Choo shoes.”

  “Oh … I gotcha.”

  Maria looked at her, doubtful she really understood.

  “Hello, ladies.” Another male joined the table, this time successfully. The only reason he did was because Maria wouldn’t have been able to scare him away. Her cute gesture of flying her middle finger in the air at the security camera had brought him to her after all.

  Taking a seat beside her, he smiled at her with his wicked eyes. “Can’t sleep, Maria?”

  “Neither can you, I see.” Truthfully, she didn’t think he slept. At all. She wasn’t even sure if she had seen him sleep, besides the day her father brought him home. They had practically grown up together. If vampires existed, then Salvatore was definitely one.

  “Now, you know the boss told me I can’t let you play, Sal,” the pit boss warned him.

  Her father only cut off his men from gambling when they were too far in the red or if they had gambling addictions. Sal, on the other hand, wasn’t either of those things.

  “I’m just here to watch,” he assured her.

  Hitting the table, she signaled for a distracted Maria to place her bet. “Mmhmm.”

  Putting two, one-hundred-dollar chips in the circle, Maria felt like a lucky charm had suddenly appeared in her pocket. That feeling didn’t last long, however, when she was dealt a sixteen. The most hated fucking number for a Blackjack player. It was a fifty-fifty shot either way, so you either took the shittiest hand you were dealt or you hit it and prayed. The only thing that made it better was the dealer’s faced-up card showing a six.

  Even though it was Maria who was supposed to scratch, Sal tapped the table.

  “Against a six?” She never understood what Rain Man ass shit went on in his head, but she just couldn’t help questioning it sometimes. “I could let Sadie bust for me.”

  Sadie, being the house, being her father, that was.

  Repeating the motion, Sal tapped the table harder.

  Rolling her eyes, Maria tapped the table herself this time. Everything in her intuition told her a face card was going to show up and make her bust, but she had gone against her gut, the thing she trusted the most in this world, betraying it all because of the man sitting beside her. Why? Because it wasn’t her money, and she wanted to see his face when he finally got something wrong.

  Sadie drew the card, placing a five over her sixteen, making it a perfect twenty-one.

  Well, hell.

  Carefully, they all watched as Sadie flipped over the card under the six, revealing a ten to match the dealer’s own sixteen. Drawing another card, the face card that Maria had felt coming in her bones, came up a card short. All of them knowing what Maria knew, that if Sal hadn’t have made her hit, the dealer would have ended with the twenty-one, not her.

  Even though she might’ve won a matching two hundred bucks, Maria huffed, feeling like the loser.

  “Cherry,” Sadie snapped, stopping the drink girl who was carrying a massive tray full of various drinks. “I need a water and a shot of tequila.”

  Getting the drinks from her tray, which were meant for someone else, Cherry expertly set them down on the table.

  “Tequila for your mood and sleep.” She pointed at Maria like she was giving doctor’s orders before motioning to Sal. “And the water’s for you.”

  The pleased look on Sal’s face from winning disappeared.

  Maria didn’t think twice about questioning the woman whisperer this time. She picked up the little glass and knocked it back. Salute.

  Cleaning the table, Sadie looked at her empathetically. “Better?”

  “Much.” Not knowing what exactly was in that glass, besides the fires of hell, as it burned like a bitch going down, but something about it made her feel instantly better.

  Turning to look over at the man whom her father wished she would marry, she raised a brow. “So, what are we thinking, Sal?”

  Giving it no thought, he carefully nodded his head. “All in.”

  “Fuck it.” She rubbed her hands together before sliding all her chips in the middle. “It ain’t my money.”

  They quietly watched each card as it was drawn. The pit boss’s usual fast dealing went at a slow-as-fuck pace as she, too, was enthralled for what was to come once she placed the ace in front of Maria.

  Her eyes slipped, staring at a cool Sal, who seemed to already know what the cards were before they hit the table. Her brother Lucca might’ve been known as the boogieman in this city, but Sal’s nickname was known throughout the globe. The Great Salvatore was a world-renowned hacker, and he was sitting right next to her, helping her count cards that casinos deemed as cheating. Not because it was, since it wasn’t, but because the house was outsmarted from their money, so the casinos slapped a label on it and asked you to leave, making players think it was illegal, when in truth it wasn’t. It was a strategy, and the only thing that scared casinos shitless. That was why they didn’t offer you to play chess, a game solely based on strategy … not luck. They knew they wouldn’t win, and that never sat right with “the almighty man.” So, poor Sal was forced to never play, which was honestly shocking considering the love her father had for him.

  Dante loved Sal, probably more than his own children, hand-picking him off the streets when he had been a kid, swearing that he saw greatness in him, even at a young age. When that wasn’t the fucking truth at all.

  Dante had seen what she saw now, looking into the almost soulless, black-rimmed eyes—the Luciano blood that coursed through his veins. Another son birthed by the devil. The only thing saving his soul was his dead mother and the blue his eyes carried in the middle.

  If this Luciano carried his biological father’s last name, would her father have spoken those same words that he had the last time she had talked with him? If it was Sal she had danced with?

  Her father might have died … from happiness.

  Maria saw Sal the exact same way she saw Nero, and Lucca—as a brother, but not with a single ounce of love.

  Sadie somehow went even slower, drawing Maria’s second card on top of her ace to reveal a queen of hearts.

  Now that, was a perfect twenty-one. Blackjack.

  “Well, I’ll be damned.” Maria smiled for the first time tonight, realization hitting her. “Sal, can you do your freaky computer shit and get a phone number for me?”

  Sal shook his head regretfully, watching Sadie show her weak nineteen before cleaning the table. “Sorry, but Lucca already warned me you might ask me for something like that and told me not to give it to you.”

  “Motherfucker.”

  Sadie’s eyes had practically gone as big as her boobs from hearing her call Lucca that name down here in the pit. “Maria, sweetie, I think you need a nice, relaxing day at the spa.”

  “You know what”—Maria stood up with her pretty head held up high as she started picking up all her chips—“I think you’re right.”

  “That’s right, girl,” Sadie agreed heavily, unsure which reason she wanted her gone more—because of Sal counting her cards, or because Maria was calling the boogieman a motherfucker.

  “No,” Sal begged, trying to get Maria not to leave. “Come on, we were just getting started.”

  She pretended he was no longer there.

  “Actually, you can take this out from Lucca’s tab. He owes me.”

  “Okay, sure, sweetie,” Sadie quickly and quietly agreed while also trying not to let the smile on her face get too big.

  Maria handed her five hundred dollars’ worth of chips. “For you.”

  “Thank you.” Sadie took them, throwing back her dark hair with chunky blonde highlights, then stuffing the poor chips in her already too tight bra.

  Spinning on her heel to leave, Maria saw Sal’s stunned face, shocked that she had given the money to Sadie and not
him, since it was practically his winnings.

  “Don’t worry; this is for you.” Maria pretended to grab a chip to hand out to him but gave him one last fuck you instead, letting him see her nude nail polish up close with her favorite finger. “Have a good night!” Maria sweetly smiled at them, ready to leave.

  “Cute,” Sal mumbled, picking up his untouched water.

  “Oh, Maria?” Sadie clearly remembered something. “There is a third option.”

  Turning with her greedy, little hands full, she could see that her friend was about to hit her with knowledge yet again. “Yeah?”

  “Fuck them both.”

  Sal started to choke on his water, spitting it back into the glass.

  Maria guessed the woman whisperer did know what the fuck she had been talking about after all. For Sal’s sake, she did, however, spare him from her thoughts.

  I think I already did.

  With a hidden smile, Leo handed in his English paper and wondered how long it would take Mr. Evans to read the completely random, seven-digit number that was spelled out smack-dab in the middle of his paper.

  I better get a fucking A.

  Sixteen

  How the Whole World Wept

  The stark-white, almost mansion-like Caruso home stood out against the lush, green shrubbery surrounding it. The home had been lit up like a fucking Christmas tree, warm white lights hitting it at all different angles, making it appear as precious as a Smithsonian museum. Like the things in it were God’s fucking gifts to the world.

  When it wasn’t.

  At least, not anymore.

  His eyes turned as beady as his heart had become, filled with hatred, when he saw the bedroom light flick on. That dark silhouette he could see through the window, he knew who it belonged to. The perfect, pretty, little, precious princess with the shiny gold hair that he hated to touch, swore to himself he wouldn’t, but then she had gone and fucked things up by opening her pretty mouth. Now she had to pay … with blood.