by DD Prince
“An eye for an eye sounds about right,” Tommy said, “You want to carve him?”
“No, but I’ll watch,” she said.
This was so calmly executed that I knew two things. One: he must have told her this would happen. He must have promised her that Leo Denarda would get what was coming to him. And two: she was definitely a Ferrano, made of the same tough stuff as her brothers. She was holding it together remarkably well.
Tommy, wearing a pair of black gloves, leaned over and used a knife to pierce Leo’s tuxedo jacket sleeve and then he ripped it away and took the knife and stabbed downwards. Leo screamed deep in his throat behind the tape over his mouth, his eyes wide, his face swollen and bloody.
Nino moved in and grabbed Leo’s wrist to steady it and Tommy curved the knife on his forearm. I felt bile rise in my throat. I heard another scream as Tommy kept carving. I couldn’t see anything but blood gushing but it seemed like he carved more than Tessa’s initials.
“How did he rape you?” Nino asked, lifting a long metal pipe up off the ground in his own gloved hands, and I heaved a little as puke rose in my throat. It was audible. I swallowed it back down and turned away and cradled myself.
“Will?” I heard Tommy’s voice, “Help my wife. Don’t let her fall.”
I felt an arm go around me. The guard who had been helping was supporting me so I wouldn’t fall.
I looked at Will’s face. He looked a little green and unsteady, too. He was young, my age or so, and he was new to the team. What a way to get initiated.
“From behind,” Tessa said and her voice cracked, “I was on a sofa on my stomach.”
“Untie him, Neen, bend the fucker over that table,” Tommy said.
I buried my face in Will’s shoulder so I wouldn’t have to look.
Oh god.
I sobbed.
“Athena!” Tommy called. I looked over my shoulder at him and saw as he was untying Leo.
“You can step outside the door for this. Tessa? Your choice.”
“I’ll stay.” Tess said.
Will helped me out and sat with me in the hall, our backs against the wall.
I heard voices. I heard my husband in an angry accusing tone but I didn’t know what he was saying. I heard Leo grunting out in pain behind his taped mouth. I heard Tess shout “fucking animal” and then Nino, “How do you like that you little motherfucker?”
I pulled my knees up and buried my face in them, forgetting that I was in a little black dress.
Tommy
The little fucking goof needed to hit the button for the third explosion but my guys had nabbed him first. We’d gotten his chauffeur and bodyguards immobilized and then we’d driven him here where he’d been interrogated by his uncle’s right-hand man. That guy had also beat the shit out of Leo Denarda but all I gave a shit about was the fact that the fucker was conscious when I got to him so that he’d feel my wrath.
Carve my sister’s arm with your initials? I carved her initials on his arm and then a giant F on his torso for Ferrano. And then Nino, who loved Tess like she was his sister, particularly because of Tess’s relationship with his wife Bianca, drove a rust-coated metal pipe up Denarda’s ass.
My sister stood there, cool as a cucumber, throughout the entire event. I’d watched Tessa her whole life and even though she’d say that I kept my distance, I knew her. I knew that despite her stone-cold face, she was wrecked on the inside.
I’d given her an out. She could spit in his face and walk away. She could carve her initials herself. She could simply leave the little fuck in my hands and know that he would pay for what he’d done to her. She wanted him to hurt. She wanted him dead. She told me herself that she wanted him raped up the ass dry and that she wanted to watch. And then she wanted the fucker to lose his dick and die.
I was more than happy to take the order from her.
She stood there while he got ass raped and after the fucker’s asshole was bleeding, she calmly kissed me on the cheek and then went out to join Will and Tia in the hallway. Nino used the blood and shit-coated pipe to beat that little shit between his legs until there probably wasn’t much left but a mangled mess of what used to be his dick and balls between his legs. I moved in and said a couple things into his ear, then moved to look right into his eyes while I slowly slid that boxcutter blade across his fucking throat.
I didn’t have to call JC, my usual clean-up guy, who did have help here in Vegas. Denarda’s uncle’s crew was happy to stay on hand and clean up the mess.
Tia
Tess had come into the hall and sat beside me. I lifted my head out of my knees and looked at her and she started to quietly cry. I hugged her and she clung to me until Nino and Tommy emerged from the room. Tommy’s face was bleeding. And there was blood on his tuxedo shirt. He held his hand out. I took it, got to my feet, and held it as we all walked out of there.
Things were eerily quiet on the limo ride back to the hotel. He and Nino sat there with a tub of baby wipes and wiped blood off calmly, as if they’d done this a hundred times.
We didn’t touch, he didn’t look at me. He stared out the window, his chin resting on his palm, elbow propped up on an armrest built into the door. I sat, my hands in my lap, the rest of me numb.
I was vaguely aware of soreness on my lips, likely from where that guy had smacked me in the mouth.
Nino and Will got out of the limo first, Nino taking a grocery bag filled with the used wipes with him.
“What’s going on?” Tess asked.
“Nino’s making sure we’re safe to go up.”
Nino was back a few minutes later, leading us inside.
Back inside the suite, Tommy said, “Get to sleep, if you can, girls.”
He kissed my mouth and then put his lips to my forehead and held me there for a second. He let go and tucked my hair behind my ear.
“I’m gonna check on Dex, Johnny, find out about everything. Go to bed. We’ll probably head home a few hours after we wake up.”
Tessa grabbed me and hugged me and then she hugged her brother.
“Thank you,” she said into his chest.
He kissed the top of her head. She wandered toward her bedroom.
Sarah poked her head out of one of the doors and by the look on her face I knew she could tell we hadn’t had your average night out.
“They’ve been in bed since 8:30. No worries, Tessie.” She looked to us, “You need anything, youze guys?”
“Naw, Sarah, go back to sleep,” Tommy said gently and walked to the kitchenette area and started washing his hands.
I turned and woodenly walked to our bedroom and shut the door. I went into the ensuite, stripped, took a fast shower, brushed my teeth, put on a nightie, and climbed into bed.
What a night.
What a horrible night.
God, I hated Vegas.
***
Tommy was climbing into bed. I’d been sleeping. I don’t know how, but I fell asleep almost the second my head hit the pillow. I had a moment of feeling immensely grateful as my eyes drooped and I knew I wouldn’t have to lie there for hours mulling over the events of the evening. I knew it’d come later but I was grateful for the temporary reprieve.
“Eyes on me while I fuck you,” he demanded and I gasped in fear as he’d startled me.
I opened my eyes and squinted against the brightness of the room. The bedroom lights were on.
He’d had a shower, I could smell the soap on him. He pulled me from my side to my back and he was on top of me, dragging the nightie over my head, mumbling something about my clothes.
He looked at me darkly. I groggily rubbed my eyes.
“Huh?”
He started rubbing between my legs. His mouth closed around my nipple and he sucked hard and then let go and looked into my eyes again.
My clit buzzed.
“I want your eyes on me, Tia.” His fingers circled my clit, making me go wet, and then he was guiding his cock to me. I looked into his eyes and my hands we
nt to his shoulders.
By the look in his eyes I knew he needed me. The night we’d had? The fears? The stress? He needed me. I needed him, too. My husband, a man who murdered one and probably two men tonight was going to fuck me. Rough. My eyes fixed on my name on his chest. He loved me enough to put my name on his body, over his heart. He was moving to me as soon as that explosion happened. He was driven by his need to protect me.
My eyes moved from his chest to his eyes. He looked tense, like he was ready for me to fight and like he’d fight back if I tried to deny what he needed to take. But I didn’t want to deny him. I wanted to give him what he needed.
To say that I didn’t like the idea of murder was an understatement. I hated it. But Leo Denarda was responsible for that explosion and had people died? It sounded bad and the Fete cocktail lounge was such a mess that I suspected it had to have resulted in death or serious injuries at the very least. The place had been pretty wall-to-wall with people when Tess and I had gone to the bathroom.
I had seen people buried under rubble and some of them weren’t moving. Dex had been unconscious. We’d stepped over people who were unconscious or maybe dead. I’d seen at least a couple of people partly underneath rubble.
How many people had died because of Leo tonight? And Leo had hired someone to kidnap me. Tessa had already had to be rescued. She’d been raped and her body permanently marred, mutilated by that guy. And he definitely wanted Tommy dead; I had no doubt about that.
Tommy needed to kill Leo Denarda or order his death. That was for certain.
I hated that I’d been there. But I understood. And I hated that, too.
Tommy was moving inside me, looking into my eyes. I was looking right back into his. His expression was dark. It was also unapologetic. He was communicating with me right now, telling me that he did what he had to do.
I couldn’t pretend it didn’t bother me but I was going to be there for him. I cradled his jaw in my hand.
He was always trying to be here for me. Always. Rescuing me, protecting me, avenging me, avenging Tess, keeping us safe.
“I love you so much. Thank you for rescuing us tonight.”
“I love you, too.” He said the sweet words but his voice was not sweet, it was filled with something else, something that made him flex his jaw. He slowed his pace, going deep with each slow thrust of his hips. He kept my eyes locked with his while he put his thumb between my legs and to my clit, kept at it until I moaned in ecstasy, and then he groaned as he came inside of me, still not losing the edgy expression when he rolled away and ran his hands through his hair.
I thought we’d curl up together and fall asleep after that. I got up, went to the bathroom to clean up, and came back to bed but then he grabbed me and kissed me hungrily and then his lips moved down my body, kissing, licking, and nipping as he moved down between my legs.
“Not done with you yet.”
He dragged me downwards, devouring my pussy with his mouth and fingers, making me come again, my legs hooked over his shoulders, my fists clenching the bed sheets, his tongue in me, his mouth sucking hard, and his thumb in my ass.
He was so determined, like it was his sole quest in life to bring me to orgasm fast and he did, lightning fast. So, after my fast arrival at a climax, coming so hard that I was trying to pull away and he wasn’t stopping, I pleaded,
“Tommy, baby, too much!”
And then he was back up at eye level and moving inside of me again, again looking into my eyes, looking so angry. He was still feeling a lot of what he’d felt in that limo and then in that warehouse with blood on him and on the floor. I could smell the blood, it was still in my nostrils, in my lungs.
It was more than a little bit concerning that cutting Leo, watching him get his ass violated, and then either killing him or watching him die didn’t take his anger down all that far. Very concerning.
I started to drift after a while and then I felt his lips and fingers on my belly and then finally, I think he went to sleep.
Tommy
I woke up to a tickle of Tia tracing the ink lines on my arm feather-light and then tracing the letters of her name on my chest. She did it, looking lost in thought, like she wasn’t even aware that she was doing it.
Immediately after feeling grateful I’d been able to get to her last night, the first thought I had was of Johnny.
Just before we left Fete, I’d seen the last body pulled out before they found the third bomb, which had been planted by the fire exit.
I didn’t know at the time but it was the body of Kate Lewis. Thirty-four years old, mother of six. Beautiful, vibrant, happy. John’s wife’s body was crushed when some of the ceiling fell and she and others were underneath. Being the tiny thing she was, she was under two other people, crushed by not just the debris, but them as well.
She, along with six other people, not including the fucker I’d shot, were dead. Some of them had their faces blown off. Ten other people had been hospitalized, a few critically, and Dex was one of the injured, although not the worst of the bunch. He had three broken ribs, a broken arm, a concussion, and a collapsed lung.
Johnny had a bad head injury and some severe bruising, but things were looking good for a full recovery, physically anyway. The guy had been my buddy for years. He was probably my closest friend. He’d been married to Kate for 14 years and was now the sole parent for their six kids. I was numb after getting that news but then started feeling a whole lot of shit.
I didn’t have it in me to tell Tia about it when I came to bed. I’d done what I needed to do to rid earth of that piece of scum before coming back to the hotel, finding out about Kate when I’d checked on things, and then I’d come to bed and fucked my girl. Twice. I nearly went back for a third time, feeling the need to keep that life-affirming connection with her, but she was exhausted after the first time.
I’d needed to hold her, feel her, make her moan for me. Because yeah, things were a bit fucked but I could’ve lost her. I could’ve lost her to the explosion or because that asshole that dragged her into that supply closet had taken her out of the building to deliver her to Leo. Who knew what he’d do to her?
My gut churned. I wanted to slit his throat all over again. He took my sister and fucked her over and I didn’t know if she’d ever be the same after that.
He could’ve taken my pregnant wife. And then he could’ve taken me, my wife, and my sister out. He’d have a price on his head for costing us money and costing Fete some bad PR if that’s all he’d done and no one had died. There was no way on earth he wasn’t getting dead for doing what he’d done.
I was relieved that she hadn’t rejected me when I needed her last night. It occurred to me that she might, being upset and seeing all she saw, not want one thing to do with me or my cock.
It wouldn’t have gone well if she had pushed me away. I needed her. Badly. And thank fuck she seemed to sense that. Thank fuck she seemed to need me, too.
I had her there at that warehouse for two reasons. One, I couldn’t bear to think of her being out of range of my protection.
Two, she needed to know.
She needed to know that if anyone fucked with my family, they would pay. She had some sort of malfunction because of being in Vegas with all the shit swirling, but she needed to get a handle on it and come to terms with the fact that the man she was tied to for the rest of her life was not a white hat wearing guy. I was who I was and she needed to get to terms with it so we could move the fuck on.
No, I didn’t want to wear the shoes my father left for me to fill but Pop make it pretty near impossible for me and Dare to escape this life unscathed. The men he was associated with would put out a hit on me and Dare if they thought he or I was anything but likeminded.
But also, it just wasn’t me. In my core, I was who I was. Maybe because of my life thus far and yeah, I wanted to be better for her, for our future kids, but when it all boiled down to it, she now knew I would put a knife to a throat, a bullet in a face, and order that
someone get sodomized with a rusty pipe for fucking with what was mine or what was under my protection.
Anyone who knowingly fucked with me needed to be taken down.
“Hi,” she said.
I kissed her.
“Any word on Dex?” she asked, her face showing her worry.
“If nothing went wrong overnight, we’ll pick him up on the way to the airport. If they need to keep him, we’ll have Will stay with him.”
“Wh… what happened while I was in the car? What about the third bomb?” She scrubbed the stubble at my jaw with her fingertips.
“They found it and disabled it. Denarda had the three detonators on him so Nino had kept them aside. We still have them. Nino’s dropping them off to a friend in the police department.”
She traced my arm some more.
“People died, Tia.”
Her eyes moved to me; her lips parted, her finger stopped moving.
“I was afraid of that. How many?”
“Seven people. Including Kate Lewis.”
Her eyes bugged out and her mouth dropped open.
“How?”
“She was crushed. A few died from internal injuries, being too close to the bombs, faces blown off, or their skulls getting crushed. Johnny ain’t in great shape but he’ll live. The news’ll say eight people but one of them was Leo’s goon, that fuck posing as a waiter who tried to take you.”
Her eyes filled up with tears and her hand covered her mouth.
“Poor John. My God, they have six children. Oh Tommy,” she was crying into my chest. I put my arms around her and squeezed her tight.
***
Nino, Will, and the other guards watched the girls and the kids. I went to the hospital with another guard, just as a precaution, and stopped in and saw Dex, then John. Dex was banged up good but he’d live. He’d be off work a while but he could come home with us that day.
John was staring off at nothing when I walked into his hospital room. He glanced at me. No, not staring at nothing. He was staring at the stark reality in front of him. The man was utterly wrecked with the loss of his wife.
