by Via Mari
“Why don’t you see if you can find Jay? I need to run to the restroom,” I say. I find my way to the bathroom and open door after door. The fourth stall holds my sister’s weekend bag on the hook behind it.
I am rummaging through it and am just about to call her cell and let her know that I found it when a tall man in fitted jeans and a white t-shirt underneath his jacket pushes the door open.
My survival instincts kick in. “Excuse me! You wanna tell me why the fuck you’re in the women’s bathroom acting like a goddamn stalker?” I yell, hoping someone will hear me as my foot hits his junk, just as I’ve been trained to do.
I’ve connected with my target perfectly, and his eyes widen with pain as he strives to catch his breath, staggering back and hanging onto the sink behind him. I use that time to hightail it out of the bathroom, but a huge man who looks like a human super hero captures me in his arms and they tighten around me. I struggle to get loose, but he’s not letting me go and I know at any moment the man I’ve just lashed out at will catch his breath and want revenge. I try to calm my breathing, thinking of my training and how to get loose, but damn if this man’s hold doesn’t allow me to use any of those tricks on him.
I scream, yelling at the top of my lungs for help, and that’s when I see Matt racing toward me. I wrestle as much as I can to get out of this beast’s tight hold, screaming Matt’s name. It is a public place and someone has to be able to help me, but I don’t need a bunch of people, because Matt’s eyes go dark and in a few heated strides he’s delivering a punch to my attacker that sends the big guy reeling backward, making him let me loose while Matt pulls me into his arms, and kisses my forehead.
“I’m sorry, Princess. I don’t know what happened, but I’ll get it sorted,” Matt says, running his hand down my face as the guy from the bathroom stalks toward us.
He looks pissed, and I cringe but get prepared for an all and out fight. “You wanna explain what the fuck is going on here? Why do you have your goddamn hands all over Sasha and why the fuck did you just call her Princess?” the man glaring at us says, but Matt doesn’t back down and holds me even tighter.
“I have no fucking idea what is going on, but this is the woman I told you about, my Marenah. Why do you keep calling her Sasha? That’s her sister,” Matt says, and his eyes grow wide as he finishes that sentence and looks down at me.
As soon as he does, I realize what’s going on. I almost laugh, but the intense looking man from the bathroom becomes aggravated. “If you’re not Sasha, she’s been taken. She went into the bathroom and never came out. Dereck, get a crew to get the air shafts checked. Cole, have intel focus in the on-camera footage. I want to see anyone that came in and out of this room in the last three hours. Home in on the last half an hour first. Nick, I need you to get a track on her phone. Here’s her number, put her credit cards in the system, see if anything comes up.”
“Wait, wait. Sasha is okay. She sent me to the bathroom to get the bag she left,” I say, pulling open the bag’s zipper and retrieving the heels that were left behind.
The intense man nods, but before he says anything else, one of the other men tells him that the Larussio plane is about to land. Shit, Italian Mafia. “Giovanni Larussio is on it and that’s their mark,” he says. “There is a mounting mob on the ground. I have two teams called in, and our snipers are in place.”
“Safeguard him at all costs. Take them out if necessary!” he says, and I realize that I have just heard an order to safeguard the next boss of the Italian Mafia, and somehow both my sister and I are right in the middle of this shit.
They walk me to the sidewalk, and a driver pulls up in a long black stretch. “Let’s go,” the intense one says.
“I’ll take Marenah to Chase’s and then rejoin you,” Matt says.
“No, she’s my sister, and I want to find her. I’m tougher than I look,” I say.
I think he’s going to disagree with me, but the intense one glances over at me and then at Matt. “Save your breath. We don’t have time, and if she’s anything like her sister, you won’t win the argument anyway,” he says.
I smile widely, nodding my agreement. “I think we’re going to get along just fine,” I say, smiling mischievously at Matt, who is scowling down at me, but I ignore it. “I’m Marenah, Sasha’s baby sister by about five minutes,” I say to everyone.
“I’m Jay, and this is Nick and Dereck. Cole is the one who just got punched out by your boyfriend,” the intense one says, grinning as Cole glares first at me and then at Matt.
“Sorry, man,” Matt says, grinning widely and extending his hand to Cole.
Cole takes it reluctantly and shakes his head. “No fucking drama for years and now you two hook up with the drama twins,” he says, winning him a half scowl and a half smile.
Nick looks down at his phone. “We’ve got Sasha, she just checked in at a hotel not far from here. The bad news is that the Chicago Family is watching her card, too. It just popped up on their surveillance, and they’ve just given the order to move in”
“Floor this fucking thing,” Jay growls.
Matt
As soon as the driver pulls up to the hotel, Jay and team leave me with Marenah and the driver. I know the drill: I’m manning the car because I can contain the female. I smile down at the mysterious woman beside me, the one that has so much explaining to do, but right now there is fear is in her eyes and her breathing is ragged. “They’ll get her, Princess,” I say, pulling her against me, stroking the pulse in her creamy neck as we wait. She nods as though she has a thought, or someone has asked her a question and she agrees. “You okay, Princess?”
“I just need for her to be okay. She means the world to me,” Marenah says, tearing up, and although she was taken captive, physically roughed up, and touched in places I don’t want to think about, never once did I see a tear.
“Princess, Jay and our team are the best. He’s not going to let something happen to her,” I say, knowing this for a fact because I’ve never seen him react to a woman like he has to Sasha.
“Who are you guys, Matt. Mafia?” she asks.
I bring my finger to her lips. “Shh … Princess. We’ll talk when this is all over and we can both lay our cards on the table.” Her crystalline blue eyes search mine and she seems to make her peace with trusting for now and talking later.
My headset beeps and I get the order.
“Ready the car, we’re on the way down. Jay’s got Sasha; call in the order for a cleanup crew.”
“Roger that,” Nick says, and I know he’s got it covered.
In less time than I would have thought, Jay is carrying Sasha toward the car. I open the door, and everyone makes room to let them in. Something’s not right. Sasha is listless, just lying in Jay’s arms and Marenah notices about two seconds after I do. “Sasha, what happened?” she says, unable to stem the flood of tears at the sight of her sister’s lifeless body.
“She passed out, but she’s breathing on her own,” Jay tells her.
Dereck raps on the trunk of the limo a few minutes later, and the driver pops it open. He throws Sasha’s suitcase in and then slides in next to us. “Let’s move,” he says to the driver.
Dereck scowls when he looks at Sasha crashed out cold in Jay’s lap. “She okay or do we need the doc?” he asks.
“I honestly think she’s just passed out,” Jay says.
“She doesn’t like flying. She usually takes a couple sleeping pills when she travels overseas,” Marenah says, scouting around in her purse and showing them a packet of sleeping pills.
“After the night she’s had, that would probably do it,” Jay says, brushing her hair out of her face and holding her close.
“The angel sleeps,” Dereck says before leaning his head back against the rest and closing his eyes.
“Did you call the cleanup team?” Jay asks.
“You
know that I did.”
“I have no doubt, but you know I have to ask,” Jay says.
“Uh-huh, sent their pics to intel, too,” Dereck says.
“Status on the ground?” Jay asks.
“Mission accomplished, and Giovanni Larussio is on his way home. The cleanup crew is working overtime tonight,” the one that goes by Nick says, smirking.
Marenah just takes it all in. No drama, no surprised looks, just takes it for face value, but her eyes don’t leave her sister, and I have no doubt that if Jay’s finger were to come off her sister’s pulse, it would be replaced by her own.
It’s another thirty-minute car ride until we get to the Prestian Estate, and we pass through the stone and wrought iron gates. Nick keys in the passcode to the guest house, and Jay carries Sasha up the stairs.
“I’ll tuck Marenah in and be back down in a bit,” I say to the men, and Marenah blushes and tells Jay how much she appreciates what he’s done and why it’s so hard for her sister to trust men.
* * *
I’ve been thinking about the quandary we’re in all night long while my princess sleeps beside me. Jay and I haven’t had a chance to talk, but the intel that’s been found on Sasha relates to Marenah as well. I read and reread the report that she and her sister are without a doubt the daughters of Bernatelli, but he has never claimed them, and in fact has repudiated them. Regardless, if she’s in any way tied to mafia, I need to make sure that Jay, Chase, and Brian know it. This team has come to mean the world to me, my family, and the thought of leaving them weighs heavily on my mind as I finally doze off.
* * *
The meeting is set for an hour from now. I send Marenah a text to let her know that I’ll be back shortly and to meet me for breakfast, because I have no idea what’s going to transpire between now and the time I spill what’s on my mind. If this is the last time that I get to hold Marenah while on the Prestian Corp payroll, so be it. I have saved and invested well.
I’m almost at Chase’s office when a text from Jay comes through, letting me know that Chase is aware of all the family involvement of both girls and things are fine. Jay’s in Chase’s office when I walk in. Chase is wearing a three-piece suit and gestures for me to take a seat next to Jay. Chase tells us that the plan to solidify the expansion of the security company is sound, and the family has approved it.
When we finish reviewing the contract, Jay and I walk out of the room ecstatic. The guys are never going to believe not only the salary that has been offered, which far exceeds their overly generous one now, but the perks and benefits that have been provided. Chase and Brian blow any other competition out of the water with their hundred percent contribution to the 401(k), one hundred percent medical and dental in addition to the jets, helicopters, luxury homes, and resorts available to the crew as an added benefit to taking care of their family.
We walk back across the lawns to the guest house where we are both staying, and Jay tells me he’ll catch up to me later and heads upstairs. I walk into the dining room, and the look on Marenah’s face tells me that something has gone south. “What’s wrong, Princess?” I ask, stalking toward her, pulling her toward me and then noticing her sister, sitting in one of the chairs in the dining room.
“She needs to go home before Jay finds out she’s not upstairs. Can you get her on a flight right away? If not, I can see what I can do,” Marenah says, pushing the breakfast plate on the table in front of her away.
I take in the situation, assessing it like I’m trained to do. Sasha wants to leave, and regardless of anything else, even Jay’s desires, we don’t keep people against their will unless they are in danger. I text instruction to have a plane readied and on the private tarmac of the airport ASAP and a car pulled around to the front. “Go with her, Nick, take her out the front now. I’ll deal with Jay,” I say as Marenah hugs her sister and Nick leads Sasha, who looks solemn and thoughtful, through the kitchen and out the door, and I pull Marenah into my lap. Marenah is quiet and pensive, too, and I slide into the seat beside her and take her in my arms. “She’ll be okay, Princess. Nick will take good care of her,” I whisper.
I knew it wouldn’t be long, and it isn’t, before Jay’s boots are stomping down the steps and into the dining room. “You know where Sasha is?”
Marenah is still curled up in my lap and gives him a little nod and I applaud her honesty.
Jay doesn’t say a word for a bit, but then the silence gets the best of him. “Um, you gonna tell me where that might be?”
“She went back to Chicago, Jay. I’m really sorry,” Marenah says.
“What the hell do you mean, she went back to Chicago? How the fuck did she get out of here and how she is getting home?” Jay says and I brace for the wrath that is sure to follow.
“I arranged it for her. She was going to try to find a commercial flight. I sent Nick with her, and we have a team safeguarding her once she gets on the ground. She’s safe, Jay,” I say, knowing at the end of the day, whatever is happening, her safety is his ultimate concern.
“Why did she leave?” Jay asks Marenah, avoiding me all together. I get it, because if he had done the same thing, I’d want to throttle him, but I also know he’s a man of integrity. He would do the same thing if positions were reversed. He’ll figure it out, of that I have no doubt.
“She doesn’t think you care about her. I told her that you do. Hell, anyone can see that you’re crazy about her, but that’s not what she feels, and she’s been through a lot over the years. She has an overwhelming need to feel loved, and unfortunately although our mother loved us dearly, we didn’t ever get that from the men in our lives. It’s affected each of us in different ways. Sasha, unfortunately, has a habit of being clingy with breakups, and she’s trying to be different this time,” Marenah says, and while I know that’s true, having read all the manuscripts, and see the pain on my dear friend’s face hearing it, I also know that my princess has scars as well. She’s just a little better at keeping them buried.
Jay takes it all in with a nod, and the only tell he gives that he’s completely agitated is the tightening of his jaw as he turns and heads upstairs. I was prepared for a demand from my close friend to stop the plane, to do something, but not this. I already have word that Nick got her on the plane and is getting her comfortable before takeoff, but I don’t dare tell Jay that. If they want to sort this out, they will. If they don’t, she’ll be safe, because she means something to my friend and is my girlfriend’s sister.
“He didn’t even go after her,” Marenah huffs, nuzzling in against my chest. I hold her tight, pulling the warmth of her body against mine.
“Jay will never go into a situation without a comprehensive plan, and I have a feeling that carries over into his personal life as well, Princess. They’ll sort it out if it’s meant to be. We’re in one of the most beautiful spots in the world, let’s go exploring,” I say, knowing we need to talk, but right now I just want one day with her, just one normal day showing her around the beautiful country of Italy.
I send a text to the driver on standby that we’ll be ready in half an hour. It’s still early, just after eight, and while the ladies already ate I have not and I snag two of the biscotti that I know from experience will be infused with chocolate, a perfect complement to a morning coffee or latte. The driver sends me a message that he’ll be here soon. “Go get ready; I’ll make us a cappuccino,” I say, swatting Marenah’s ass playfully as she stands up and walks by me.
She lets out a little yelp and flashes me a fake scowl, but her bright blue eyes sparkle with interest. I tuck that bit of information away for later while I watch her heart-shaped ass walk away from me, climbing the stairs all the way to the top, until she turns, no longer in my sight, heading toward our guest room.
My cock has a mind of its own whenever she’s around and my palm presses against it, shifting, so it’s no longer pushing against the constraints of my
zipper. Fuck, she makes me hot. I trudge around the breakfast bar and busy myself making two cappuccinos in the fancy silver-and-black machine that Gaby taught us how to use a couple years ago. I’ve just placed the lids on our travel mugs and turn around when Marenah walks into the kitchen.
She’s wearing a pair of skinny jeans and a tight white t-shirt that hugs against the curves of her breasts. She slides into the university hoodie and zips it up. Damn, I was so not finished with the show. She slides a hair tie from her wrist, gathers her long blonde tresses up, and pulls them into a messy bun that spills down the length of her neck. All I can think about for a moment is slicing that little piece of coated rubber from her gorgeous locks and letting it spill over her bared breasts as she rides my cock. A text from our driver pulls me from my daydream and I glance up, taking her hand.
“Come on, we’re in Italy and we have an entire day to explore,” I say, guiding her down the stone pathway to where the driver waits inside the plush limo. While I didn’t ask for this car, it will certainly fucking do. I hold the door open for Marenah myself, close the door, and walk around to the other side and get in, knowing that he will give us a guided tour through the Amalfi Coast cities as I’ve instructed, stopping here and there, until it’s time for lunch.
We spend the next couple hours navigating small towns and witness the little communities along the coast waking. The driver lets us out at my request so we can walk through one of the villages that I’ve come to appreciate with past visits to the country. The fishermen donned in thigh-high waders and rain slickers are already heading back onto the coast after hours of fishing, pulling in their boats and talking loudly amongst each other, sharing their successes or missed attempts of the day. The bars, as they are called in Italy, are alive with friends meeting for a cappuccino or latte and a sweet pastry. The one we walk into is still open for breakfast and alive with animated conversation.
