by Naomi West
“What?” Fabi says, stumbling in through the side door under Rett’s arm and looking even whiter than before. “Will somebody explain to me why this asshole is sitting at this table like he’s a civilized person who doesn’t deserve the death penalty?”
“What do you mean he’s been here for most of a day?” I ask Alessia. I try to keep my voice calm but I keep my gun pointed at Squire.
“He arrived yesterday. And we let him stay. He slept in the guest room,” my mother says, pointing up the stairs.
“Kennedy Squire slept in the guest room,” I repeat hollowly. This has to be a dream. But I don’t want it to be because Alessia is alive and well.
“Everybody needs to calm down and we’ll explain it all,” Alessia pulls out a chair and gestures for Fabi to sit down, “and then you guys can explain what the hell happened on your end”
Fabi stumbles over to the chair and my mother instantly goes over to him. “Mind if I take a look at that, darlin’?” she asks quietly and Fabi nods his head.
My mother bends over Fabi’s shoulder and launches right in the story. “Well, it must have been four in the good morning when your father and I heard a commotion.”
“It was more like half past,” my father says, coming in from the other side door, his axe over one shoulder and chopped logs for the fire over the other. He dumps the logs in the hearth and rests the axe over his foot. He surveys the room like nothing could surprise him anymore, including all the unexpected guests with guns. “Well, aren’t you as pretty as a peach,” he says to Rett, who grins at him.
“Anyways, we heard a commotion in Alessia’s bedroom and we raced right down to see what had happened,” my mother continues, “and we get there to find her electrocuting this poor boy.”
Everyone who wasn’t there to see it happen drops their mouths right open.
“It wasn’t intentional!” Alessia insists. “I just hit him with the lamp and the lightbulb broke and… well. I electrocuted him.” She drops her eyes like she’s ashamed but I couldn’t be happier to hear that my girl electrocuted Kennedy Squire.
“And that’s when things got real interesting,” my father says, leaning back against the sink. “Alessia here sure showed us what she’s made of.”
“How?” I ask darkly. I don’t think I can handle any more of this story.
“She did that thing, you know, with the gun. What’s that called?” my mother asks, throwing her arm through the air to imitate the motion.
“Pistol whipping,” Squire supplies helpfully, “she pistol whipped the shit out of me.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Dante and I, again, speak at the same time.
“Good girl, Lessi,” Rett says, still grinning.
“Anyways,” my father continues, “she searched him for weapons and made him talk. He told us his story and we decided he could stay, seeing as how he was done with Greco and everything.”
“Done with Greco?” I ask, raising my eyebrows skeptically.
“Yeah,” Alessia said, turning to me. “He took this job for the free plane ticket. He’d been waiting for Greco to give him a job that would take him away, overseas. Far away from Greco. He wasn’t sure if he was going to go through with it or not. He texted Greco that he had done it already and then he came to warn me that Greco knew where I was.”
I turn to Dante. He stares me in the eye.
“Whether he’s lying or not, he’s sure as fuck done with Greco now,” Fabi says, holding back a grunt as my mother pokes and prods his shoulder.
“What?” Squire asks sharply. “What do you mean?”
I turn to Alessia and address my answer to her. “Greco’s dead.”
The words ring out into the room and it’s almost like they echo with the gravity of the statement. Alessia falls into my gaze and there’s way too many feet between us. I’m still pointing my gun at Squire and she’s still standing beside him like she’s scared I’m going to shoot him.
Suddenly a small noise has my eyes snapping back to Squire. A small sob. Tears run freely down his face as he presses his fingers to his eyes. Again, I look at Dante. But he looks just as confused as I am.
“Dead,” Squire mutters. “Dead.”
He looks up at me, as if he needs confirmation again, and I lock eyes with him. I see something in his gaze: relief, happiness. These are the eyes of a man who has just been set free.
It hits me for the first time just how young Squire looks. I’d seen him in person a few times before. He often came with Greco on business deals but those times his face had been so serious and angry, an expression that had aged him. Now looking at him, crying in my mother’s kitchen, I realize that he’s almost a child.
My reverie is broken when Fabi sways against my mother.
“This child needs the hospital,” she says, propping him up.
The sight of his brother in so much distress has Dante lowering his gun, running a hand through his hair and pacing.
“Dante,” I say, “take Fabi and Rett to the hospital. I’ll stay here with Alessia and keep an eye on Squire.”
Dante looks at me and I can see him agreeing to the plan but it’s evident he doesn’t want to leave Alessia.
“I’ll come too, dear,” my mother says. “Alistair, you stay here and help Dare keep an eye on the ‘dangerous one’.” She says the last part with exaggerated air quotes like she thinks it’s utterly ridiculous to consider Kennedy Squire dangerous.
Dante looks over at my axe wielding father and at me with the gun and he seems to relax a little bit.
“Alright,” he agrees, but he quickly crosses the kitchen to hold Alessia tight for a moment. He whispers something that I can’t hear and her eyes tear up for just a second. It takes Rett, my mother, and Dante to get Fabi into the car, but they’re off. It leaves my father, Squire, Alessia and I in the kitchen.
“I think you two could use some space,” my father prompts.
“Da, I’m not leaving you alone with Kennedy fucking Squire.”
“Oh, for the love of God, will you stop calling me that? ‘Fucking’ is not my middle name, alright?” Squire glares at me and I glare right back. “I’m not going to murder your father with a teaspoon and some spare wool,” he says glancing around at the things scattered on the kitchen counter. “If it makes you feel better, I’ve only ever murdered someone with a gun. And I’m fresh out of those.” He wiggles his fingers at me. “Plus, I like your dad. I’m not gonna hurt him. I swear.”
“Dare,” Alessia says, placing her hand on my arm. “I think he’s telling the truth. He’s told us a lot about his circumstances. I don’t think he’s a danger to anyone. Really.”
I search Alessia’s eyes and realize that she’s telling the truth. I walk over to my father and press the gun into his hand.
“Use it if he so much as stands up. Got it?” I say to him. My father nods, but I can see he’s not taking this seriously.
I gruffly grab Alessia by the hand and drag her up the stairs to her bedroom.
The second she closes the door I’m on her. Kissing the breath out of her. Running my hands over her face, down her sides, through her hair.
“Dare,” she pulls back from the kiss, her eyes heated and her breath jagged. “What happened? You have to tell me what happened.”
I pull her down to sit next to me on the bed. I look down and notice her burner phone in pieces on the nightstand.
“What happened here?” I ask her.
“Kennedy stepped on it when I electrocuted him,” she says thoughtfully. “At first I was devastated, but then I figured that you’d call your parents’ house phone if you couldn’t get ahold of me. But then Kennedy told me that he’d cut all the phone lines in a five-mile radius before he’d decided not to kill me. Made me want to electrocute him again.”
I drop my head into my hands, the stress of the last week racing through me. “I thought you were dead, Alessia.”
Her hands are warm on my face as she lifts up my chin to look at her in the eye. �
��I’m here, Dare. I can’t make up for the time you spent worrying about me. But I’m here now.”
Reaching down she unbuttons my pants and slides her hand under my zipper. My cock wakes up instantly at her touch. There’s an insistence in the way she’s stroking me.
She needs this as badly as I do. A reminder in the most primal way that we’re here and alive and together. Suddenly she’s taking me out of my pants and ripping her own off down her legs. She scrambles up on my lap and takes me inside in one stroke.
Her mouth closes over mine and we quietly moan into one another. I hold her like this, on my lap and connected as close as possible. One arm around her waist and one tangled in her hair, I grip her to me, grateful that she’s here and breathing.
Slowly she lifts her hips and slides up my cock and back down. There’s nothing better than this. I could go my entire life and not know anything better than her soft ass pressing into my thighs as she starts to ride me.
At first, her pace is tentative, soft and loving, like she wants to remind me that I’m safe too. But the passion of the moment starts to overtake us and her lips break free from mine as her head falls back. Her hair tumbles down her back as she really starts to ride me.
“Shhhh,” I quiet her breathy moans with my hand over her mouth and her eyes pop open. She likes that. She locks eyes with me as her pussy grips me and her body tenses, riding the wave of her orgasm. I’m not far behind, as close to the surface as my emotions have been over the last few days.
I grips her hips tightly and hold her in place as I fuck her from below, plunging into her hot, soft wetness over and over. I feel her start to clench around me a second time and this time I can’t take the grip of her. It tosses me over the edge and I fall headlong into orgasm. Gripping her tightly, as close as I can, I come.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Alessia
I wake up a few hours later sprawled across Dare. We’re under the covers of the bed, but our clothes are still on except for our pants.
The night has come all the way home and the light in the bedroom is dim lit only with a small fire in the hearth. He’s stroking my hair and looking out the window at the dark ocean in the distance.
“Hey,” I murmur and he looks down at me.
“Hey, gorgeous,” he says, the moonlight glinting off his teeth. His voice washes over me and soothes me, body and soul. “My mother and Dante got back from the hospital a few hours ago. Fabi has to stay for a while. He’s gonna have to have surgery on his shoulder. Rett’s staying with him.”
“He got shot?” I guess in a small voice. It makes me sick to think about it, but something in my gut tells me it’s true.
Dare nods, his face so serious. “Gorgeous, I think we should sleep. I’ll tell you everything you want to know in the morning.”
“You’re okay sleeping with a hitman like Squire loose in the house?” I tease him.
But he doesn’t tease me back. His eyes grow solemn. “What did Greco have on him?”
I look down. “It’s not really my story to tell, but Greco had been threatening Kennedy’s mother and sister for years. He’d even tortured them once. It’s a long story. He’d been living in fear for years.”
I can’t help but shiver at the thought of it.
“You killed Greco?” I ask, not willing to shy away from whatever answer he’s about to give me.
“Tomorrow, gorgeous,” he says, kissing my forehead.
I sit up and wiggle out of my clothes and help him wiggle out of his too, but we don’t make love again. Instead, we fall asleep watching the flames dance in the fireplace. I wake up in the night again and the coals have burned almost all the way down. They’re just a few burning rubies sprinkled in to the ash. I don’t remember what I’d been dreaming of, but it has my chest jumping and my heart racing. I was sleeping only seconds ago, but I feel wide awake. Wide awake and desperate to get something off of my chest.
I turn to Dare. He’s sleeping on his back, one arm thrown up over his head and the other curled around my waist. I almost hate to wake him up, but this is too important.
“Baby,” I say as I lightly shake his shoulder.
He comes awake instantly, his eyes flashing. I can tell he’s still so keyed up from all the action this week. “What is it, gorgeous? Is something wrong?”
“No,” I say, laying a hand on his chest and leaning over him. “I have to tell you something.”
“What?” he asks and strokes a hand over my cheek.
“I’m in love with you.”
His eyes widen and soften as he takes in my whole expression. Opens his mouth and closes it.
“I love you so much,” I say, stroking my hand over his, “and I have for a long time.”
“I love you too,” he says and rolls us over.
My legs come around his hips and he pushes inside me, joining our bodies as tightly as our hearts.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Dare
“Alessia, you have to calm down,” I say as she paces back and forth in the bedroom, my button up shirt falling almost to her knees.
“No, Dare, I don’t have to do shit.” She crosses her arms over her chest and glares.
She’s mad as hell and I’m just grateful it’s not at me. I’ve just told her the whole story, everything from walking in on Rett and Fabi, to Fabi and Dante coming to Greco’s house with me.
“I just- I can’t- I don’t even-,”
“Breathe, gorgeous. Just breathe.”
“I can’t!” she throws her hands up in the air and rips open a drawer. She yanks out some old jeans and pulls them on. She’s halfway down to the kitchen before I can catch up with her.
“You!” she says, pointing at Dante as she enters the kitchen.
I skid into the room after her, coming up short as I take in what I’m seeing.
Dante Patrizzio is sitting at my mother’s breakfast table next to Kennedy Squire. There’s a basket of biscuits between them. My mother hums as she digs something out of the fridge and my father washes his hands at the sink. It’s a strange world.
They all look up, completely startled when she barks at Dante. He looks up, biscuit in his mouth. “Me? What did I do?”
“I’ll tell you what you did, you idiot. You moron. You complete and total asshole!”
“Whoa,” Squire says, pushing back from the table like he’s ready to enjoy the show.
“Well, tell me, why don’t you? Unless you’d rather just keep yelling at me in front of these nice people?” Dante’s voice is low and cold. It’s the same voice I’ve heard Patrizzio use a million times. It usually makes people shit their pants.
But not Alessia. She’s rounding the table and in his face.
“You went to Greco’s? You snuck into his house? Were involved in a firefight?”
“Jeez, Dare, you didn’t leave anything out, did you?” Dante glares at me and pushes back in his chair to stand up over her. “Of course I did those things, Alessia. You were in danger. I couldn’t let that stand.”
“It wasn’t up to you, Dante! That was Dare’s job. Your job was to get the fuck out of thug life.”
“So you don’t have a problem with Dare doing what he did?” Dante snaps back at her.
“Of course I do! I have a million problems with it. But Dare is a trained soldier. He’s been a bodyguard for the last decade. He can handle himself.”
“I can handle myself just fine, Alessia,” Dante yells.
“That’s not the point, Dante. The point is that you did this whole thing with Dad so that you could get out of that life. You were supposed to be staying out of that life.”
“I did it for you, Alessia. I did it so that you’d be safe. I did it to end it all.”
The crack of Alessia’s hand across Dante’s face rings out through the kitchen. Shit. This just got serious. His eyes burn as the mark on his cheek reddens.
“Don’t you dare say that to me, Dante,” she says as her eyes fill. “You know better than anyone that
those kinds of reasons keep you in the game. You know those kinds of reasons kept Dad in the game for twenty years.” She angrily brushes the tears out of her eyes. “You don’t think he tried to ‘end it’ when Mom died? Or when he shot you? Or when you and Fabi cut him out of your lives? Don’t you see that there was always a good enough reason to stay a gangster?”
Something flits across Dante’s face and he reaches out for her, but she takes a step back from him.
