by Cora Reilly
I called him as I headed toward Roger’s Arena.
He answered after the second ring. “Done?”
“Yes, done. Is there anything else you need me to handle?”
There was a pause. “Come over later. Nino, Adamo and Savio will be there. I’ll order pizza and we can watch old fights.”
“Salami and peppers for me,” I said, then hung up. Remo didn’t have Leona. He was willing to forget yesterday.
Then why was she ignoring me?
But I knew why. After she had fallen asleep in my arms last night, I’d thought she could forgive me for what I’d done, for what I had to do because her asshole of a father didn’t leave me a choice.
I pulled up in front of Roger’s arena. Her shift had begun about one hour ago. I entered the bar. There were only few customers at the tables. They looked my way before whispering among themselves. Everyone knew about the bloody message Remo had left for our other debtors. Hall’s corpse was a good warning. Most of them had paid their debts in the morning.
My eyes scanned the bar area but instead of Leona’s amber curls, I spotted horribly dyed black hair behind the counter. Cheryl if I remembered correctly.
I stalked over to her. She straightened and put on a fake smile but the fear in her face screamed at me. “Where is Leona?” I demanded.
“Leona?” she asked puzzled as if she didn’t know who I was talking about. At a look from me, she said quickly. “She didn’t show up. I had to take over her shift. Roger is pissed.”
“I don’t give a fuck what Roger is,” I snarled, making her recoil.
I stared at her for a few heartbeats, she squirmed under my gaze. “You sure you don’t know where she could be?”
“She’s a colleague, not a friend. I keep my nose out of other people’s business. It’s safer.”
I whirled around and left. Where the hell was Leona?
I raced toward the shabby apartment complex she lived in and hammered my fist against the door. The moment Leona’s mother opened it a gap, I pushed inside. She stumbled back on her heels, colliding with the wall. She was only wearing a thong, revealing too much of her used up body, and a moment later I realized why. A fat guy emerged from another room, only in white briefs, sporting a fucking boner.
“Where is she?” I growled.
Leona’s mother blinked. She was fucking drugged.
Her john stared at me open-mouthed. It annoyed the fucking crap out of me. I gripped his throat and smashed him against the wall, making him sputter. Then I looked up at Leona’s mother again. “I give you ten seconds to tell me where she is, or by God, I will make you watch me skin this asshole alive.”
Terror shook his frame.
Leona’s mother didn’t seem to care. Her lipstick was smeared across her left cheek as if she’d wiped her mouth. I looked from her to her client, my lips curling with disgust. She probably wouldn’t mind me cutting him to pieces. I shoved him away, then advanced on her. I didn’t like hurting women, and Leona would definitely never forgive me if I hurt her mother, but I needed to find her. That left me at an impasse. I tried to calm the fuck down and focus. Tried to read her as if we were facing off in the cage.
I softened my expression. “I protected your daughter. Your husband--”
“Ex-husband,” she corrected.
“I got rid of him so he couldn’t hurt you or Leona again.”
I could tell that her resolve was slipping away but it still wasn’t enough to tell me. I reached into my back pocket and pulled out two hundred dollars. I held it out to her. “Take it.” She did, but she hesitated still. “I could give you meth now and then, for free.”
Her eyes lit up. And I knew I’d won. Drugs won over her feelings for her daughter. “She left,” she said in that raspy voice. “She packed her things and left about two hours ago. I don’t know where. I didn’t ask her.”
“Are you sure you don’t know?” I asked in a low voice.
“The stupid whore barely remembers her name or how to suck a cock,” her john muttered, trying to side with me to save his ass. He was trying to get back up but I shoved him to the ground, and unsheathed my knife, cold fury burning in my stomach. “Did I ask for your opinion? Next time you interrupt us, I’ll have to give you a taste of my knife, got it?”
Leona’s mother met my gaze. “Leona went to the bus station. That’s all I know. I swear.” I searched her face. She was telling the truth. “So you will give me meth?”
“I will,” I said, disgusted.
“What do you even want with her?” Leona’s mother asked.
“She is mine,” I told her.
“Don’t hurt her. She loves you.”
Shock shot through me. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She didn’t say anything, and I stormed out of the apartment. I hurried into my car and hit the gas. Was she running from me? Did she really think I would let her?
She loves you.
If she did, she wouldn’t run. I remembered Remo’s words after we’d killed Hall. That people always left. Leona had left too.
I stopped the car at the bus station. One of the bus drivers honked because I was barring his way, spotted me as I got out, and quickly swerved the bus around my car, almost hitting another bus.
I went to the ticket office.
“What can I do for you?” an older woman drawled in a bored voice.
I slid my mobile with a photo of Leona over to her. “Where did she go?”
The woman looked down at the screen, then shook her head. “I can’t tell you—”
“Where?” I repeated slowly.
She raised her eyes to mine. She didn’t recognize me. I pushed back my shirt and showed her the tattoo on my forearm. If she’d lived in Vegas for more than a few weeks, she knew what that meant.
“I…I think she took the bus to San Francisco. It left ten minutes ago.”
“Are you certain? I’d hate to waste my time.” I took my phone back and stashed it in my pocket.
She nodded.
It took me ten more minutes to find the bus. I positioned myself in front of it and hit the breaks. The bus driver honked at me and tried to overtake me on the left. I mirrored his move, so he had no choice but to come to a halt behind me.
I jumped out of the car at the same time as the driver opened the bus door. He was pulling his too big trousers up over his pouch as he walked down the steps, and shouted. “Have you lost your fucking mind? I’m calling the police!”
I ignored him and tried walking past him into the bus. His hand shot out and he grabbed me by the arm, then swung his fist at me.
Wrong move. I brought my forearm up, dodging his punch, then rammed my elbow into his face, hearing and feeling bones break. He sagged to his knees with a muffled cry. “Stay there. One more move, and you’ll never see your family again.”
He gave me a sideways glance, furious, but after catching sight of my tattoo too clever to act on his anger. This time he didn’t stop me as I took the steps up into the bus. My eyes wandered the rows of seats until they came to rest on familiar amber curls in the second to last row.
I ignored the staring crowd and headed toward Leona who watched me like I was an apparition, risen from hell. I stopped in front of her and held my hand out. “Come.”
“I’m leaving Las Vegas,” she said but her words lacked conviction. Her blue eyes seemed to see into the deepest, darkest parts of my soul, and I knew she hated what she saw. Love. No, she couldn’t love me.
“No, you are not. We have to talk. You are leaving the bus with me now.”
“Hey listen now, dude, if the lady doesn’t want to be with you, you have to grow a pair and accept it,” said a guy who looked like he had no fucking care in the world. Some backpacker kid who came from a nice family, had had a sheltered childhood and was now out for some adventure. I could give him more than that.
Some of the bravado slipped from his face. He swallowed.
Leona practically jumped fro
m her chair, gripping my arm, fingernails digging in. I averted my eyes from backpacker kid and turned to her.
“I’m coming with you. Just…just let’s go now,” she whispered. I took her backpack from her and gestured for her to walk ahead of me. She did without protest. Nobody else tried to stop me, neither did backpacker kid again.
Outside a police car had pulled up beside the bus. The police officers were standing with the bus driver beside my car, talking into their radio set. Probably checking my license. Leona paused and gave me a questioning look. “You seem to be in trouble.”
I put my hand on her lower back, ignoring the way she shied away from my touch. She stared stubbornly ahead, not giving me a chance to read her face. I could tell that the only reason why she was cooperating at all was that there were too many people around I could potentially hurt.
The police officer lowered his radio set when he noticed me. He said something to his colleague, then they gestured at the bus driver to follow them. He looked stunned as he pointed in my direction. The older police officer yanked down the man’s arm and said something angrily, then nodded back toward the bus. Leona followed the scene with an incredulous expression. “Even the police?” she asked horrified.
I opened the car door for her. She hesitated.
“Las Vegas is ours.”
And you are mine.
She sank down on the leather seat and I closed the door. After I’d thrown her backpack in my trunk, I slipped behind the steering wheel and started the engine.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked.
“Home.”
“Home?”
“To your mother. That’s your home for now, right?”
She frowned. “I’m not going back there. I’m leaving Las Vegas.”
“I told you you’re not.”
“Stop the car.” She began shaking beside me. “Stop the car!” she screamed. If anyone except for Remo had taken that tone with me, they would have regretted it thoroughly.
I pulled into a parking lot and shut down the engine before turning to face her.
She was glaring at the windshield and her fingers clutched her knees so hard, her knuckles were turning white. “You can’t make me stay,” she got out.
“I can and I am,” I told her. I knew I should have let her leave, should have given her the chance to move on, to find a better life, but I couldn’t.
“Haven’t you done enough already?” she asked in an angry whisper.
I raised my eyebrows. “I’ve never done anything to you.”
“Do you really believe that?”
“I found your mother for you. I saved your life.”
“You killed my father,” she hissed.
“Don’t tell me you miss him. Your mother definitely doesn’t.”
She paled as if I’d hit too close to home. “You dragged me into your darkness.”
“I didn’t drag you into anything. I didn’t force you to go on that first date. I didn’t force you to kiss me or to let me lick and finger you. You were a willing participant and we both know you enjoyed it. My darkness turned you on.”
Her eyes grew wide, but she didn’t deny it. She couldn’t. I leaned very close to her, relishing in that sweet scent of hers. Was she making me out to be the bad guy in this? Really? Did she not realize what I was putting on the line? Remo was going to be even more suspicious in the future. I was risking my status and what was I getting in return?
She pushed me away from her. “I will try to leave again and again. You can’t always be there to stop me.”
“Perhaps you should remember that your mother still owes us four thousand dollars.”
She froze. “Are you threatening to kill her too?”
“No,” I said. “Just reminding you that she needs someone who makes sure she pays us back.” I was a fucking bastard for using her mother against her, but I’d do anything to stop Leona from leaving, even this.
“Just tell me what you want from me. That I sleep with you? Would that settle my mother’s debt?” She said it with so much disgust that it set my veins aflame with fury.
“Do you really think fucking you once is worth that much? Leona, believe me, it’s not. For you to pay off four grand, you’ll have to let me have your pussy for a long time.”
She slapped me hard. She’d caught me by surprise. I caught her hand, my fingers tight around her thin wrist. I jerked her toward me, so our faces were inches apart. “This once. Only this once,” I said in a low voice. “Never raise your hand against me again.”
She glared at me with tear-filled eyes. “I hate you.”
Those words weren’t news to me but coming from her…
“I can deal with hate. Sex is so much better when there’s hate involved.”
“I’m never going to sleep with you, Fabiano. If that means I’m breaking some Camorra rule, then so be it. Torture me if you must, but I won’t be yours. Not now, not ever.”
I could tell that she was serious, but she knew nothing of torture. I leaned close to her ear. “We’ll see about that.”
She jerked open the door and fled the car.
“Don’t forget your backpack,” I called through the open window. She went to the back and picked it up. “And Leona,” I said in warning. “Don’t ever try to run from me again. I won’t let you go, and I’ll find you wherever you go.”
She watched me, shoulders slumping, expression desperate. “Why?” she murmured. “Why won’t you let me leave? I’m not worth the bother.”
Remo had as good as said the same. And I knew they were right. She was nothing. I’d fucked so many women, could have many more, Leona was nothing to write home about.
“You are right, you aren’t.”
She flinched as if I’d gutted her. Those hurt blue eyes. She nodded, then turned.
I almost called out to her, but what could I have said?
I’m sorry. The idea of you leaving me is the worst torture I can imagine. Be the woman Aria gave me that bracelet for.
Stay, even if I’m not worth it.
Chapter Twenty-Two
I practically ran back home, my heart beating in my throat in anger and hurt. I couldn’t believe what he’d said to me. Had he really meant it?
I was breathless when I arrived at the apartment. I unlocked the door, and froze on my way to my bedroom. Grunting and moans were coming from my father’s bedroom. Was my mother already using it for work? He hadn’t been dead for more than twenty-four hours and she had moved on.
I hammered against the bedroom door until she finally opened it, dressed in a bathrobe, nothing beneath it.
“Leona?”
A hairy man, at least seventy, was sprawled on the bed completely naked. I whirled around and stormed into the kitchen where I gripped the counter in a death grip.
Tears burned in my eyes.
I could hear Mom’s shuffling behind me. “Did you return because of that man? He seemed really intent on finding you. Looks like you really got under his skin,” Mom said as she stopped beside me. I had a hard time ignoring her skinny nakedness.
The only way to get under Fabiano’s skin was with a knife. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise that my mother took Fabiano’s possessiveness as a sign of him caring for me. She’d had a habit of making that mistake with her past boyfriends. “He didn’t let me leave. I didn’t want to return.”
“Perhaps it’s for the best.”
I searched her face. “You told him I went to the bus station, right?”
She finally closed her bathrobe. “I think he really cares about you.”
“What did he do? Did he threaten you?”
She looked embarrassed.
“He gave you what? Money? Drugs?”
“He promised to give me meth now and then. For free, Leona. But I wouldn’t have told him anything if I didn’t think he meant well.”
Mom touched my hand. “It’s not a bad thing to be with someone like him, especially if he is good to you. He holds po
wer. He can protect you. What’s so bad about being with him?”
“Mom, Fabiano killed Dad, don’t you remember?”
Mom’s hand tightened on mine. “I do remember. But I also remember the first time I had to sell my body back when we lived in San Antonio and your father owed one of the local MCs money. He asked me to help him but behind my back he had already told their president I would spread my legs to pay off his debt. You were only a baby and I was still recovering from giving birth to you. Five of them. I had to sleep with five of them. Had to bear their filthy hands everywhere. They took more than was agreed on. And it was fucking painful, but you know what? Afterward, your father asked if I would now fuck him too. I hated him. But he promised it was only this once. It wasn’t. Next time he owed money, I had to do it again, and that time they gave me meth, and I took it because it made me forget. So yes, I remember that Fabiano killed your father and I am thankful. On the street they told me what happened to him and all I could think was that I wished I could have been there to see it because he destroyed me, and because of it I was never there for you. I was a horrible mother.”
I was speechless.
“Your father always only protected himself. That’s all he cared about, saving his own ugly ass. So if you tell me that Fabiano kills someone to protect you, I tell you it could be worse. Would Fabiano ever make you pay off his debts with your body?”
“No,” I said with conviction. “He would kill anyone who dared to touch me.”
“Good.”
“Hey, are you coming back? I paid you forty dollars!” my mother’s client shouted.
Mom sighed. “I have to get back to him.”
I watched her scurry back into the bedroom. Slowly I loosened my death grip on the counter.
I needed to figure out a way to get the money my mother owed the Camorra, so she could stop selling her body. If I kept working in Roger’s Arena I would make enough money to pay for the apartment, food and her drugs. She’d never have to bear anyone’s touch again. I didn’t want to think about what she’d said about Fabiano. Even before her words, back when I’d sat in the bus, I’d wondered if I should really leave him. If I should give up the chance of love. But Fabiano’s harsh words today had taken that decision off my chest. This wasn’t about love, not for him at least.
