Deathless & Divided (The Chicago War #1)

by Bethany-Kris

  Elevators filled with souls and Damian was lost in the sea of people. Taking the lab coat off, he folded it up and tucked it under his arm. He dumped the clipboard into an unsuspecting nurse’s bag as he stood behind her in the elevator. When nobody was looking, he pulled the light brown, short haired wig off, bunched it up, and tossed it into a garbage can as he walked out of the elevator with five other people surrounding him.

  Just another face.

  Another patient’s family member.

  Damian walked out of the hospital and didn’t look back.

  “Handsome,” Lily appraised, her hands fluttering over the lapels of Damian’s tux.

  “Oh?”

  “Very.”

  Lily’s demure smile sent a shot of lust straight down to his cock. She acted like she didn’t even know.

  Damian stayed still while Lily checked the buttons on his tux. He knew she didn’t need to. This was the third time he’d gone through a fitting with her. The girl was particular, especially where the wedding was concerned. It seemed like planning for the wedding and getting all the last-minute details together had become a sort of stress reliever for Lily. Damian was more than willing to feed into that for her. When she’d come over to his apartment earlier, he did everything she asked just to give her something else to focus on other than the people in the hospital and the Outfit’s mess.

  “Dino got a call today,” Lily said quietly.

  “Did he?” Damian asked.

  “Yes.”

  “About what?”

  Lily looked up at him through her thick lashes. “Are you telling me you don’t know?”

  “Well, I asked didn’t I?”

  She continued fussing with his tux, saying nothing more.

  “Lily,” Damian said.

  “Hmm.”

  “Tell me what the phone call was about.”

  “Ben.”

  Ah.

  “I heard,” Damian said.

  Lily tapped her fingers on his chest, catching his gaze. “It’s practically unexplainable. The records show his machines were functioning properly and then suddenly …”

  “Flat line.”

  “Aunt Carmela is in a panic.”

  “How long had they been married?” Damian asked, helping her with the knot on his tie.

  “Thirty-seven years,” Lily answered.

  “A long time.”

  “She’s more concerned about the final Will and Testament than his death. She was on the phone with the lawyers according to Theo.”

  Damian sighed. “Death brings greed.”

  “Something like that.” Lily grew silent as she ran her hands over his tux once more. “They’re opening an investigation into Ben’s death. They’re calling it suspicious.”

  He wasn’t worried. Nothing would be found.

  “On the hospital’s part?” he asked.

  “Apparently.”

  “Medical malpractice, maybe.”

  Lily nodded. “Maybe. But maybe you should get rid of that lab coat in your garbage can, Damian.”

  Damian turned to stone. He’d tossed the lab coat earlier, planning to burn it with some other shit that needed to disappear. Lily showing up at his place unexpectedly when she was supposed to be at Dino’s all day had put a kink in those plans. She’d walked into his apartment with one of those frilly coffee drinks she liked so much and then tossed it into the same garbage can he used to dispose of the coat temporarily.

  He hadn’t even realized his mistake.

  Jesus Christ.

  It wasn’t like Damian to make those kinds of errors.

  When Lily came into the picture, Damian’s mind went to a completely different place. She was fucking him up left and right but he didn’t know if it was a good thing or a bad thing. Nothing about her expression said she was disgusted or angry about finding the lab coat. She wasn’t trying her damnedest to get as far away from him as she could, either.

  This was not the Lily that Damian thought he knew. He couldn’t deny that he liked this unfazed attitude she sported. If their lives were going to be permanently intertwined through marriage, it likely wouldn’t be the first time she found something that connected him to a hit. And even if she didn’t find something, the girl knew what he was.

  “Lily—”

  “I saw nothing,” Lily murmured, slipping his powder blue tie under the matching vest. “For you, I see nothing.”

  Well, then …

  “Don’t you want to know why?” Damian asked.

  “As you told me once, a death always means something to someone. His means little to me, so no, I don’t care about why. I’m more curious about how.”

  Damian caught her wandering hands, needing her to be still for a moment. “Ghost.”

  Lily didn’t drop his stare as she said, “I figured.”

  “Why?” Damian asked.

  “Why what?”

  “Why don’t you care that you found something like that?”

  Lily shrugged. “Because I care about you.”

  Oh.

  When her hand skimmed the crotch of his tux pants for the fifth time, Damian smirked. She’d done it more than enough to have his cock hard. The ridge of his erection strained against the smooth fabric. No doubt, she could feel what her light grazes had done to him.

  “What game are you playing, Lily?”

  She looked up at him with those brown eyes of hers. Nothing about the smile she gave him said innocence. The girl knew exactly what she was doing. “Hmm?”

  “You come over here today for a fitting and we both know the damn suit fits me perfectly. What are you really here for?”

  Lily’s fingers slid along the waist of his pants. She dipped below the band of his boxer-briefs, her fingers threading into the dark hair leading down to his cock. Just the feeling of her hand close to his dick had Damian growing harder by the second.

  “You’re busy lately,” Lily said.

  “Sorry.”

  “I’m busy, too.”

  “You are,” he agreed.

  “So I needed an excuse to come see you. This seemed like a good one and it worked to get you settled for an hour.”

  Damian glanced at the clock. “Two, actually.”

  “Can we make it a day?” Lily asked sweetly.

  A thick, heady groan caught in Damian’s throat as Lily’s hand slipped further into his pants and circled his aching shaft. Her palm was soft and hot against the sensitive skin of his dick. She stroked him from the base to the tip and kept her eyes locked on his all the while. Her teeth cut into her bottom lip in the sexiest way as her hand tightened just enough to have the air rushing out of his lungs.

  “Holy shit,” Damian hissed.

  How long had it been since he fucked or even felt this beautiful girl under him?

  Too long.

  She was right; they had been busy with life and nonsense.

  “Fuck, keep doing that,” Damian demanded when Lily’s hand loosened around his dick.

  “How about something different?” Lily asked with a wink.

  Before Damian could ask what she meant, Lily was on her knees. His ability to speak was fucking lost as she unbuttoned, unzipped, and pushed his pants down around his hips. His boxer-briefs quickly took the same path. Damian grappled for the closest thing he could find for support as the crest of his cock rubbed against Lily’s silky, pink lips. That just happened to be her hair.

  Lily didn’t seem to mind as he fisted the blonde strands between his fingers. She just smiled in the most sinful way, flashing her white teeth up at him as her gaze glimmered with lust.

  Fuck.

  “Can we make it a day?” she asked, wrapping her hand around the base of his cock.

  Something demure and wicked coated her voice. The low, gravelly tone of her words struck him straight in the chest and shot down to his steel-hard length in her hand. He shivered as she stroked him softly but used the tip of her manicured nail to drag along the pulsing vein on the underside of his
shaft.

  Christ.

  “Damian …”

  He blinked out of the daze. “Yeah, we can make it a day, sweetheart.”

  “Good. I like to play while I suck.”

  Damian’s throat felt dry. “Play?”

  “Getting you off gets me off. So when you’re fucking my mouth, I’ll be getting myself off, too. Sound good?”

  “Sounds perfect,” Damian said, barely holding back his groan.

  With those words, her free hand disappeared under the skirt of her dress. Damian’s heart raced as silken, warm lips encompassed his length. Her mouth was a hot, wet paradise. A lot like her fucking pussy. Lily sucked him off slow at first, working her hand at the base of his shaft to the same rhythm as her mouth. Her cheeks hollowed the harder she pulled on his dick and her grip on him tightened, making his stomach clench with anticipation.

  There was something about seeing her on her knees like that, taking his dick in her mouth as she watched him above her. The sensation of her tongue pressing to the vein on the underside of his length as her teeth scraped along the swollen head was nearly enough to push Damian over the edge.

  Good God. Lily could suck dick.

  Damian’s grip in her hair tightened as the telltale signs of Lily’s masturbating began to mimic the noise of her sucking on his dick. The quiet, wet sounds of her fingers fucking her own pussy drove him insane.

  Never once did she look away from him.

  Lily let go of his cock and pulled her skirt higher. It gave him a view of her panties pushed aside and her fingers diving into her sex over and over. Juices soaked her fingers. Her thighs shook.

  “Fuck, that’s hot,” Damian managed to mumble. “Let go for a second.”

  Lily grinned the best she could around his cock before releasing it with a pop. “Why?”

  He didn’t give her a reply. He simply held the base of his cock and directed it back toward her mouth. Lily opened up and his dick slid past her plump lips and over her tongue as she took his shaft all the way to the base without any trouble.

  “Close your mouth,” Damian demanded.

  Lily swallowed around his cock and he could feel her throat clench as she shut her mouth. Hard, but not quite as fast as when she had been sucking him off, Damian fucked her mouth while he fisted her hair. Her throat relaxed and her gaze darkened as the sounds of her fingers fucking her pussy started up again.

  Saliva slicked up his cock and her lips, making a tiny trail at the corner of Lily’s mouth as it leaked out. He could feel his heart beating hard in his chest the closer he came to coming. His hands trembled but were hidden in her hair.

  “Fucking beautiful,” Damian grunted.

  Lily blinked as her mouth tightened around his dick in the best way.

  Damian couldn’t breathe. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

  He came harder than he expected to, but Lily took every drop of his come he gave. His back tensed as heat gripped his spine in a smothering grip. Lily released his dick just as her own orgasm raced visibly over her body. Damian took in the sight of her mouth open, damp with her spit and his come, while her eyes clamped shut and her body rocked into her own hand.

  Yeah, so fucking beautiful.

  Lily licked her bottom lip as she ran her wet fingers over the head of Damian’s dick He was still hard. Just thinking about this woman got him that way.

  “A day?” she asked softly.

  “All day,” Damian said.

  “We good?” Damian asked.

  “Yeah, I just checked,” Dino said on the other end of the phone call. “Lily’s out for the night. Christ, she barely made it to her bedroom. What did you two do today?”

  Damian smirked. No way in hell was he answering that question. Dino did not want to know what Damian had done that tired Lily out so goddamn much over the course of a day and evening. Dino likely wouldn’t want to know considering it involved a bed, no clothes, and a whole lot of sweet sounds from Lily.

  “Let’s just get to work,” Damian said instead.

  “All right. I’ll open the gate for you. I’ll meet you in the back. I’ve got it covered, so just leave shit alone until I get in there. Sound good?”

  “Perfect, man.”

  Damian hung up the phone and dropped it into the passenger seat. The electronically controlled gate opened not five seconds later. He cut the lights on the Porsche as he drove up Dino’s large driveway, not wanting to risk the chance the headlights might somehow wake Lily up. The night was going to be a long one, but if Damian could help it, he didn’t want it to be a fucking messy one. That meant getting Dino’s job done quickly, quietly, and without anyone knowing.

  Including Lily.

  Damian parked his car in the driveway where he always did and shut off the engine. Once he was sure the house was going to stay dark, Damian left his car and jogged the length of the DeLuca home. In the backyard, Dino had a large storage building that wasn’t attached to the garage or house. A single, small light exposed a garage door entrance and small metal side door. Damian chose the side door.

  Inside the building that was slightly smaller than a two-door garage, Damian waited for Dino. He didn’t bother to turn on any lights because he didn’t know where in the hell the switch for them was.

  The side door opened, haloing Dino in the glow of light from outside. Dino hit the lights, illuminating the space in color. Damian’s gaze was drawn to the large, long shape covered by a dark tarp.

  “Ready to get this done?” Dino asked.

  “Absolutely,” Damian replied.

  “All the tools we need to chop it down are in this garage. We’ll beat the hell out of anything even remotely recognizable with hammers until it’s a twisted mess. Once it’s nothing but bits and parts, I’ll call a friend to come get the pieces and take it to a junkyard.”

  Damian nodded. “As long as they can keep their mouth shut.”

  Dino chuckled. “It won’t even look anything like what it used to by the time we’re done. How are you with mechanics?”

  “All right. I can check my oil and change my own tire.”

  “Can you run a wrench?”

  Damian snorted. “What the fuck do I look like to you, some city grown kid?”

  “You are city grown,” Dino said.

  True.

  That didn’t mean Damian was a fucking fool.

  “I can run a wrench,” Damian muttered.

  “Power tools?” Dino asked.

  Damian cocked a brow. “Yes.”

  “Perfect.”

  Dino grabbed the edge of the dark tarp and pulled hard. Beneath the tarp sat a familiar black suburban. At the sight of the vehicle, Damian’s anger over Dino’s carelessness at the Trentini home shooting rushed back.

  “Still can’t believe you almost—”

  “Oh, shut up about that,” Dino barked, flipping Damian with the middle finger before his companion could get out another word. “I fucking told you it was all good.”

  “You shot her car up!”

  Dino rolled his eyes. “For fuck’s sake, D, her car couldn’t be the only one in that driveway without bullet holes. Don’t you think that would look just a little bit suspicious?”

  “We were standing right beside it,” Damian growled. “Theo was in the driveway, too!”

  “Theo has a cherry red Stingray with racing stripes. Lily’s car is bright yellow for a goddamn reason. I took the right shots knowing where they were. You knew I was going to be there, and you handled it like you were supposed to. What is the problem, Damian?”

  Damian knew exactly what the problem was even though he didn’t want to admit his mistake out loud to Dino. He’d been distracted by Lily at the Trentini home and nearly missed seeing Dino’s arrival. Because of that, Lily had almost been hurt. The guilt Damian felt over that was manifesting as anger toward Dino.

  “That is not the point, Dino.”

  “Seriously, what the hell is wrong with you?” Dino asked.

  “Nothing. Let’s just g
et this done.”

  “This is about Lily, isn’t it?”

  Obviously, Damian thought.

  “It’s like you didn’t even think about her, Dino,” Damian said. “Did you think it was going to get this big? Did you think it was going to be this bad? Did you realize how fast this would spiral out of control?”

  Dino shook his head. “You’re right, it blew up a lot bigger than I thought it would but there’s nothing wrong with that, either. It’s done. We move on.”

  Damian’s frustration level rose higher. “Ben’s dead. You got what you wanted, Dino.”

  “Yeah, but did you get what you wanted?” Dino asked.

  How could he truthfully answer that question? In the simple span of a couple of short months, the things Damian thought he wanted had changed. He was still fully convinced that he was happy in his role doing what he was doing in the Outfit. He wasn’t looking to move higher or have more control. But then Lily flickered into his mind and he couldn’t help but to consider her, too.

  The wedding had never once been a ruse. From the moment Dino approached Damian about his plans, it had been made perfectly clear the marriage would need to happen for Lily’s sake. Dino wanted his sister safe, he wanted her to be cared for, and he believed that to make sure her protection and happiness was always guaranteed, she would need to be settled into a safe marriage of good standing.

  Because Lily was affiliated to the Outfit, regardless if she wanted to be or not, there would always be a risk that someone else could take control if Dino couldn’t. That was where Damian stepped in.

  But that girl … that woman hadn’t been anything like what he thought she would be. Instead of simply treating Lily and the marriage as the duty it should have been—the debt Damian was required to pay—he’d ended up letting her in. She got under his skin in the best way, made herself a little home there, and now he was fucking stuck like that.

  Damian knew loyalty better than most. Dino earned Damian’s a long time ago, but now he was wondering if it was worth the price.

  “It’s more than Ben,” Dino said firmly. “It was always more than Ben.”

  “For you or for me?” Damian asked.