by Ali Parker
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Killing Me Softly
The Castaletta Syndicate, Book 3
by
ALI PARKER
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Table of Contents
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Description
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
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Description
Things are heating up and Vivian’s killer is closer than they think.
With Freddy dead and Izzy & D soon to weather Joe’s wrath, things couldn’t be more toxic. At a time when they need to pull together, it would seem that everything is working to pull them apart. When everything comes to a head, Izabella is forced to choose between two of the men she loves, but in doing so… she could possibly lose them both.
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Killing Me Softly
The Castaletta Syndicate, Book 3
Copyright © 2017 by Ali Parker
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
The novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and plot are all either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons – living or dead – is purely coincidental.
First Edition.
Designer: Mayhem Cover Creations
Editor: Mary Wolney
Chapter 1
Izabella
There was nothing like his hands on me.
The greed in his actions, the demanding pressure of his body pressed against mine. Six years of nursing a broken heart and ignoring the insane need to belong to Demetri DeMarco and finally he was mine again.
At least for the night.
"Scream my name a few more times, Bella," he mumbled against the side of my neck, his lips so soft, breath so fucking hot.
"Don't tell me what to-"
He clamped his hand over my mouth and lifted up, his body pressed to mine from the waist down as I lay on my back. "No, no, sweetheart. Not in here. You forget your place."
Just the sound of him owning me was almost more than I could bear. I needed him to rule me in some part of my life, to let me exhale and simply be a woman instead of a warrior. The night would be over before I knew it, but I forced myself not to think about it. Sex had the power to heal a broken heart if love was involved, but not for me.
We would fuck all night and in the morning... nothing would change. He was the underboss of my syndicate and I the enforcer, the hired hand.
"You want me as much as I want you?" His eyes were filled with a softness that didn't belong between us.
It was too much for my broken soul to bear.
I bit his finger, smiled and pushed at his chest, rolling him onto his back as I crawled up his body and sat on his lower chest. "Nope. You're just a needy bitch. You know that, right?"
The laughter that bubbled up all around us drove spikes into my heart. He was beautiful, majestic. His dark eyes held a million secrets and the sexy smile on his face let me know that no matter what, for the moment, we were kids again.
I ran my hands down his thick chest and pressed my nails into the thick muscle as I slid back down his body, rubbing myself along him as I went.
He groaned and reached up, sinking his fingers into my hair as he pulled me flush against him, trapping me with one strong arm behind my back. "I'm not letting you ride me tonight."
"No?" I let my question hold a cheeky tone that I didn't quite feel. The world was burning up around us, my mother and his dead over the last few weeks and my little brother missing.
Things simply couldn't get worse. I wouldn't let them, couldn't afford to. I would soon become the monster my father hoped I would be capable of being. Death and darkness would be my comfort, not the warm arms of the man I loved.
"Never." He pulled my hair, forcing a yelp from my lips as he turned us and worked his way between my thighs, rubbing his thick length down my wet skin. "Tell me how bad you wanna be fucked, Bella."
Bella. No one but D called me by the nickname, and I hadn't heard it pass his lips for more than six years.
"Where is this going?" I reached up and cupped the side of his face, emotions bubbling up deep inside of me, strangling out my desire and drowning me in sorrow.
"Not now." He leaned down and pressed his forearms next to my face before leaning into consume me in a long hot kiss. The delicious brush of his tongue against mine had me whimpering loudly.
I wrapped my legs around his narrow waist and arched my back as he deepened the kiss. His fingers in my hair felt so damn good, his arms trapping me in place, his body holding mine perfectly still.
"Then when?" I murmured breathlessly as he moved back and glanced down the length of my body. The deep growl he let out caused me to shiver. There had never been a man like Demetri for me, and there would never be another. If something didn't become of us... I was done for good with men or the fairy tale of love.
"Not now!" he barked and glanced up at me, his expression softening. "Let tonight be what it is for us. We'll figure the rest out later. You belong to me, whether you want to or not."
I reached between us and stroked his cock, pinching the thick head and positioning himself to enter me. "Fine. Fuck me then."
"Good girl." He gripped my shoulders and moved back, standing up at the edge of the bed before yanking me up to wrap myself around him. He thrusted once, opening me up and forcing me to forget everything.
"Fuck," I moaned and clenched around him, tightening my thighs and wrapping my arms around his neck.
"Work me, Bella, use your body to make both of us explode," he commanded and walked toward the balcony, standing just behind the closed curtain as he wrapped his hands tightly around my ass, squeezing hard
.
I couldn't think of anything I'd rather do. The need to murmur, love me, was almost overwhelming, but the conversation was over. I needed him buried inside of me more than anything else. I had my wish.
Lifting up, I massaged his body with mine, rolling my hips and rubbing my breasts against his chest. He groaned loudly, his kisses against my neck and chest growing almost frantic. He moved us toward the far wall and pressed me to it, thrusting hard as he ran his fingers down my ass, pressing in a little.
I cried out and arched my back, needing him to penetrate every part of me.
"Yes," I whispered roughly, "Please."
He glanced up, his eyes wild as he leaned in and nipped at my mouth. "I need you beneath me every night. I need this shit between us to end here. Now. No more fighting against each other."
So he could express his feelings, but I was forced to silence mine. Typical D.
A knock at my bedroom door had both of us freezing in place.
"Izabella. Is Demetri in there? He's needed. Now." My father's voice was almost too low to hear through the thick oak door. It would have been less frightening had he yelled. Something was wrong. Terribly wrong.
"No, Papa." I slid down the front of D's body and walked toward the bed, grabbing my robe and slipping it on. I glanced back and nodded, letting D know that I had his back. I always had. I always would.
My father stood on the other side of the door, his face haggard, his eyes red and filled with pain. Something was wrong, and yet there was a selfish part of me that didn't care what had fallen apart. I wanted my night with Demetri because something told me that it might be the only one I got.
"Do you know where he is? Edward has been trying to get a hold of him for an hour now. This is unacceptable."
"What's wrong? Something I can do?" I reached out, but my father took a step back, his reaction shocking me a little. We'd always been close. Was he so hurt that even I couldn't reach him?
"No. Find Demetri, Izzy. Now. It's imperative."
"Check his mother's grave, Papa," I blurted out the first thing I could think of. Demetri would have to ride like the fucking wind to get to his mother's grave, but it was better than him being caught naked in my room. Where my father was rather hands off with my personal life, D had been off limits for a long time, or so it seemed.
"I'll head that way now."
I nodded. "I'll go with you." Someone had to delay him to make sure D had time to-
"No. Sleep tight. We talk in the morning." He turned and walked away, his lack of loving words surprising me a little.
Closing the door, I turned in time to flinch. D grabbed me roughly and spun me toward the wall, tearing the robe from me and pressing himself against me.
"You seriously just sent your father to my mother's grave?" He ran his hands down the sides of my ass, squeezing and pulling me open.
I moaned. "You need to go. Now. Something is fucked up. Call me when-"
"Not without hearing you come one more time, Bella." He pressed his cock into me and reached up, grabbing a thick handful of my hair as he thrusted hard and fast - just like I loved it.
I pressed my hands against the wall in front of me and met him, stroke for stroke, trying to let myself go for his sake. He needed the moment more than I did. Hell was headed our way, and he would be the one standing front and center when it arrived.
"You're such a beautiful woman. My woman." He ground against me, his free hand moving up my side and squeezing my breast before tugging at my nipple.
Warmth spread through my center as a soft pulse resurrected between my thighs. "I'm so close," I whimpered, hating the feminine softness in my voice. I was neither soft nor needy, but with him... all bets were off.
"Good. Take all of me you can handle." He moved back and ran his hand up my back, beckoning me to bend over.
I did without question and let my head drop as he drove into me, massaging my back with his hand, my need with his thick cock.
"I can handle anything you can throw my way." I closed my eyes as my orgasm hit, the power of it making my knees weak. He mumbled a few other naughty things, but I was lost to the experience of once again being taken by the man I'd loved my whole life.
He slowed, shivered and pulled back, forcing me to turn as I stood up. He trapped me in his arms, leaning down to brush his lips by mine.
"I would stay the night with you if you hadn't thrown me to the wolves. Naughty bitch."
"You're the bitch most days of the week." I lifted to my toes and pressed my lips to his, my expression softening. "Be careful. Something is wrong."
"Be careful? You haven't said that since we were kids." He kissed the tip of my nose. "I'll call when I know what's going on. You be careful."
"Yeah, cause the bed bugs are hell around here." I patted his chest and walked around him, getting into bed and closing my eyes. He patted my ass before flipping off the light and walking out.
I wanted to call after him, to tell him how fucking much I loved him, but it was useless. Sex was sex and whether the two of us hoped for something more or not... it wasn't going to happen.
His demand for me to steer clear of Edward and Jonathan would stand for a little while until he woke up from his slumber. Then things would be back to normal and we'd work hard to tear each other's heart out while still supporting the syndicate together.
It's what we'd been doing for the last six years. It was the only reason we were still alive and thriving. Death was at our door, and love and lust were something none of us could afford.
Lofty thoughts that didn't help ease the ache deep inside my chest.
I was his. I always had been.
I only wished I could figure out a way to stop.
Chapter 2
Demetri
Sneaking out the Castaletta mansion was sadly, something I was accustom to from my younger days of being in Izzy's room all hours of the night. I pressed my hand to the front of my slacks and stifled a groan. My cock was thick and heavy, still wanting far more than I'd given it of the beautiful Italian woman upstairs.
After waving at Nate, I slipped out the back and jogged around the side yard to my car. Something told me that the wise Don Castaletta was more than aware that I was in Izzy's room when he knocked, but maybe some part of him got why I was there.
He knew how I felt about his beautiful daughter and how she felt about me. It was dangerous and fucked up on too many levels to contemplate, but it was truth, reality.
I buckled up and drove like a bat out of hell all the way to the cemetery, parking under an old oak tree and turning the car off. Losing my mother was a huge hit, but not having my brother Drake around to help soften the blow had made it that much worse.
"You forget something?" Joe's voice surprised me as I walked toward the sea of tombstones.
"Why am I not surprised that you're already here?" I slipped my hands into my pockets and glanced around. Joe would put me in my place, and outside of his only daughter, he was the only one that could tell me anything.
"I'm thinking as Izabella's father I should put a cap in your chest," he stood up and walked toward me, pausing a few steps away, "but she's not a little girl anymore, is she?"
"She hasn't been for a long time, Joe. You know that." I wanted to run my fingers through my hair, to let out a sigh, and yet it would have been incredibly telling if I had.
He took the final step between us and patted the side of my face, roughly. "Stay away from her. You had the strength to do it yourself before, but now you're forcing me to say my peace. Don't drag her into something you're not going to fulfill."
"You know that I love her." I hated the need in my voice. I rarely let my guard down.
"Yeah, we all do." He patted me harder. "Stay away from her heart, Demetri. She's all I got left." He turned and walked toward the center of the cemetery. "You fucked up tonight, kid. Badly."
I followed after him, trying to force down the desire to fight him with everything inside of me. I wasn't ca
pable of letting Izzy alone. I'd been trying for six years to forget her and nothing had worked. Not other women, booze, killing, work... nothing. She was in my every thought, consuming me with her cocky attitude and sexy smile. I could see her round and pregnant, carrying our son inside of her and loving every minute of it.
It was the reason I never wore a rubber. I wanted that life so fucking bad, and yet neither of us would ever allow it, unless it simply happened.
"What happened tonight, Joe?" I pulled my phone out and realized I had fifteen missed calls. Several from Edward, two from Daniel and three from Marco. Fuck.
"Edward and Marco went after the Kallups after they picked Audrey up on a routine night out, except it wasn't so routine." Joe turned to face me, his hands on his hips. "And where were you? Don't twist the truth, or I swear to God, I'll fucking kill you. I'm tired of trying to read between the lines. I own you. You don't own me, boy."
I nodded. Thin ice would have been an upgrade. "I was at the club, working through a few things with Marcus Blaine and Zak. The drug ring is going to be in good hands. I just need to-"
"After that," he barked.
"Joe. You know where I was. You said it yourself." I pursed my lips tightly. No fucking way I was confessing to fucking Izzy upstairs when something was going down with the syndicate. I'd yet to be caught with my dick hanging out, and it wasn't happening then either.
"It was a massacre." He glanced up at the heavens and patted his chest. "They knocked Audrey out and shot Freddy."
"Freddy? They had him?" I worked to keep myself from sounding breathless. The youngest member of the Castaletta crew had been nothing but a pain in the ass lately, and yet because he was like a brother to me, fear and worry had been mine over him missing. I hurt for Izabella as well. No one loved Freddy like his mother, Vivian, and yet after losing her, Izzy almost seemed to hold herself responsible for taking Vivian's place.
