BULL: A Secret Baby Sports Romance

by B. B. Hamel

  I looked around in awe as we moved through the lavish halls. I was exhausted, running on barely any sleep. The sun was coming up and the house was slowly waking, but most people ignored us as we walked down the carpeted halls.

  There was expensive art on the walls, beautiful plants, and statues everywhere. It looked like a five-star hotel had bought a museum and fused the two together. It was incredible, and I guessed that the hallway we walked down contained a million dollars’ worth of art alone.

  “You two will stay near my room,” Louisa said. “I promise not to spy.”

  “I’m sure,” I said. “Your family is likely watching everything we say and do anyway.”

  “Actually, they are,” she said. “But I’ll keep your room protected.”

  “You can do that?” Emma asked.

  Louisa smiled. “I’m daddy’s baby daughter. He lets me do whatever I want.”

  “Like attack his people and steal his women?”

  “Not exactly that.” Louisa stopped outside a door. “Here we are. Normally you’re supposed to check in and get cleared with security, but we’re bypassing all that.” She swiped a card through the door’s magnetic lock, and it swung open.

  We stepped inside. It was massive and gorgeous, bigger than my apartment. We entered into a living room area, complete with couches and chairs. Off to one side was a small kitchen area with a table, plus another room in the back.

  “Bedroom, bathroom, everything you need,” Louisa said. “Call and order food if you want. Brooks, you need to be awake at four this afternoon for your meeting.”

  “What do we do in the meantime?” Emma asked.

  “Relax. Explore. Doesn’t matter.” Lou smiled. “Come visit me if you want. I’m directly above you.”

  “Okay,” Emma said. “Thanks.”

  “See you soon.” She put two cards down on the coffee table. Then she left the room. The door clicked shut behind her.

  “Holy shit,” Emma said, collapsing onto the couch. “Have you ever seen anything like this?”

  “I’ve been here before,” I said, “but no. I’ve never seen these rooms.”

  “This is like an incredibly nice hotel, like something you’d see on TV.”

  “Except this place is incredibly dangerous.” I collapsed into the chair across from Emma. “Are you sure about this? We can still get the fuck out of here.”

  “Stop, Brooks,” she said, rubbing her temples. “I trust her. You should trust me.”

  “Trusting you isn’t a part of this.” I stood up, annoyed that she wasn’t listening.

  “Where are you going?” she asked.

  “Looking around. I want to get a feel for this place before we commit ourselves further.”

  “Fine. Do what you want. I’m sleeping.” She stretched out on the couch.

  I stared at her for a second before grabbing a key card and heading toward the door.

  I shouldn’t have been angry at her. I knew it was stupid for something to come down between us, but I couldn’t help myself. I felt like we were slowly getting further and further away from where we needed to be, which was as far from the Barone family as possible.

  And yet I was wandering around the mansion’s hallways, ignored by everyone around me as if I belonged. As I moved, I made a note of the layout of the mansion, and slowly I realized that the place wasn’t built in any sort of logical sequence.

  In fact, it seemed like it had been purposefully designed to be as confusing as possible. I was willing to bet that was a defensive function, meant to confuse anybody who was an outsider. That was going to make navigating the place much more difficult, but not impossible.

  As I moved through the hallways, I took note of the cameras and the staff. They looked like normal hotel staff, but some of the men were definitely carrying weapons. I guessed they were guards, meant to look like they were just normal cleaning staff.

  This place was much more than it seemed. On the outside, to the casual, untrained eye, the Barone mansion was a lavish hotel meant to show their wealth. And in truth, it was that. But it was also the home of a very dangerous and powerful gangster, a man with many enemies. Ever since the mafia and the Russian mob went to war, I was willing to bet the compound had been on high alert.

  Which meant that there were more eyes around. Louisa may have been powerful in her own way, but maybe she was a little blind to her own family. She was so used to living invisibly inside their walls, so used to moving around the way she wanted to, that she forgot how it could be for a stranger coming into the compound. I was sure that multiple people were watching me every single step I took, whether they were watching through cameras or watching from the shadows.

  It was an eerie feeling, and it only made me feel surer that we were making a mistake. But it was too late. We had committed to this plan. I’d been seen, so I was sure Gian knew I had come for the meeting. I couldn’t back down anymore.

  As I kept moving through the mansion, I came to a more populated area. I saw more and more guys I recognized, other thugs and goons from the mafia. I guessed that these were the guest quarters, meant for thugs within the organization. There wasn’t as much gilt and as many expensive paintings all over the place, which suggested that the Barones were less interested in impressing their own workers.

  As I turned a corner, I heard a familiar voice and stopped short. “Brooks!”

  I turned around and saw Rice standing there, smirking at me. “Rice,” I said, nodding.

  He walked over to me and we shook hands. He was a few inches shorter than me, though incredibly stocky. Rice was another hit man in the mob, a man I’d worked with numerous times over the years. He was brutal but efficient, and he was one of the better hit men. He was also much older than I was and had been doing this job for many years.

  “I heard about the girls,” Rice said. “I heard you did some serious shit that night.”

  “Just moved a few cars,” I answered.

  “Still, you did well. Everyone is talking about you.”

  I frowned. I definitely didn’t want to be talked about, not right now.

  “What are they saying?”

  “They’re impressed. Not a lot of guys can think fast under pressure like that.”

  “Just reacted. Wasn’t thinking.”

  He slapped me on the shoulder, laughing. “I’ve been saying for years that you have good instincts, kid. Shame about all those girls, though.”

  “Yeah, real shame.”

  “Those sluts would have brought in a lot of money for the group. Not that we really fucking need it, mind, but still. Shame so many got maimed.”

  “What do you mean, maimed?”

  He laughed. “You didn’t hear? One of the cars with the girls in it exploded. Most of the girls survived, but they were all burned up, disfigured, disgusting.”

  “Shit,” I said softly. “I don’t remember that happening.”

  “Not surprising, considering. Anyway, shame about them.”

  “What happened?”

  “Well, they had to be put down. Fuck, we couldn’t pay for their medical needs. Just too many of them.”

  I blinked, shocked. “They were killed?”

  “Sure. They didn’t matter anymore.” He turned and looked down the hall. “Shit. Gotta go. Catch up later?”

  “Yeah,” I grunted.

  He stalked off, and I stared after him.

  I couldn’t believe that. I knew the mafia was brutal and did some fucked-up shit, but I never could picture them slaughtering a bunch of injured girls. Then again, maybe that was exactly what they would do. The girls were an investment, and if they got hurt or injured, they couldn’t work.

  They weren’t going to pay for them and they couldn’t just let them go, so in their minds, they were probably doing the humane thing. Put them down, end their suffering. Make sure the mafia didn’t lose any more money on them.

  Fucking scumbags. I felt so angry and disgusted at my own people in that moment. I’d hear
d of some sick shit, but that was by far the worst thing I could imagine. Those poor girls, sold into slavery, used their whole lives, only to die in the end, betrayed by the people who had promised to try to take care of them.

  I slowly walked back toward the apartment, brooding and pissed. I wished I hadn’t run into Rice, but there was nothing I could do about that. I wished I had never heard about these girls, but I couldn’t keep hiding from the truth. In the past few days I’d seen too much suffering and evil coming straight from the mafia. I couldn’t turn my back on it anymore.

  Not everyone in the mob was bad, and not everyone worked in human trafficking. In fact, as far as I could tell, only a few bosses had a hand in it. Gian definitely did, and maybe Alfonse as well. The others kept their distance.

  But they didn’t stop it. They didn’t participate, but they didn’t make the others quit buying and selling girls like cattle. They didn’t stop them even when they slaughtered a bunch of poor girls for getting injured and disfigured, injuries caused by their own fucking practices.

  I shook my head, unsure what the fuck I was going to do. I felt disgusted and drained. I knew I had to meet with Gian later, but the last thing I wanted to do was see his face.

  Because he had ordered those women killed. That sort of thing came from the top, and nobody else had the authority to make it happen. Gian chose to end those girls, probably as casually as choosing which shirt to wear in the morning.

  I came back to the apartment door and swiped my card. I pushed the door open and stepped inside, relieved to be away from people.

  Emma wasn’t on the couch. I walked through the room, feeling exhausted beyond belief. I found her under the covers, curled up into a ball, sleeping soundly.

  I couldn’t wake her up. I just collapsed onto the bed next to her, not bothering to undress.

  Rice’s words kept ringing through my mind. They were so callous, so uncaring. He thought of those women as fucking cattle to be bought and sold and then discarded when they weren’t useful anymore.

  I was so damn tired. The adrenaline had kept me going way past exhaustion, but it was hitting me like a damn lead weight to the chest. I pressed my face against the pillow, grunting to myself, and sleep took me.

  22

  Emma

  I woke up slowly in an unfamiliar bed. Actually, every bed I’d woken up in lately had been unfamiliar, and I’d never wake up in my own bed again.

  I didn’t know why I thought about that, though, as I sat up. I was so comfortable and felt so refreshed. The room came into focus around me, the expensive drapery and furniture all taking my breath away again.

  And sleeping next to me was Brooks. He looked so fucking handsome there, still wearing his clothes, but I didn’t want to wake him up. I slowly slipped out of bed and went into the bathroom, turning on the shower.

  I stood under the warm water and let it wash over me, cleaning away the memory of the last few days, the terror and the pain. I had a few scratches and cuts on my body, but otherwise I was fine. Unlike the girls that hadn’t made it, I was totally fine.

  I didn’t understand why this had happened to me, but I was determined to survive it, no matter what. It would be so easy to give up and just let Brooks make whatever decisions he wanted for me, but I couldn’t.

  What felt strange, though, was why he was still following me at all. He clearly thought this whole thing was a horrible idea, as if we were walking into a trap, but if Louisa wanted us dead, we’d be very, very dead already. She’d had plenty of opportunities to kill us.

  Instead, her second in command had put us in charge of saving those women, and we had. Or at least Brooks had. I just helped him as much as I could.

  He didn’t need to come with me, but he clearly still had some sense of obligation to me, like he needed to save me.

  I didn’t need saving anymore. Louisa was going to help me.

  I wanted him to stay, though. I wanted him nearby. I felt safer, secure with him at my side. I just didn’t understand what he was getting out of it, why he insisted on coming here with me.

  But I liked it. At first, he was just the violent asshole who had kidnapped me. But I was getting to understand him. Even if he didn’t completely trust my instincts, he was still coming along for the ride.

  Suddenly I heard the door knob turn, and the door pushed in along with a rush of cold air.

  “Hey!” I said. “I’m in here.”

  “I know.” It was Brooks. I could barely see him through the fogged glass of the standing shower. He shut the door behind him, letting the steam build back up.

  “Can I help you with something?”

  “Actually, yes.” I watched as his shadow began to take off his clothes.

  “What’s that?”

  “How wet are you?”

  “I’m standing in a shower, so pretty wet.”

  He laughed. “I mean, how soaking wet is that pussy? I know you’re watching me undress.”

  “Everything is wet,” I said, embarrassed to admit that I felt a thrill running up my spine.

  “You can say it. Your tight little pussy is dripping wet for me.”

  “Okay,” I said. “I admit it.”

  I watched his shadow finish undressing. Then he stood outside the shower door, his arms crossed. I could see that his thick cock was half hard already.

  “Invite me in,” he said.

  “I’m not sure I want to.”

  “We both know you do. You can tease all you want, but I know you want my big, fat cock to fuck you until you can’t stand up.”

  “Since you asked so nicely, come in.”

  He pulled open the door. I bit my lip while staring at his defined, ripped abs and the tattoos that snaked all along his skin. His eyes were dark and staring at me as he shut the shower door and came toward me. I took a few steps back, pressing my back against the cool tile. He stopped in front of me, his arms on either side of my head.

  I bit my lip. “Now what?”

  “You know what happens next.”

  “Why is my heart beating so fast?”

  “Because you’re fucking excited. Because you can hardly stand this.”

  “Maybe,” I said.

  He took my chin in his hand. “This is a bad fucking idea. You know that, right?”

  “Maybe,” I said again.

  “Good. Right now, all I want are bad ideas.” He pressed his lips against mine, kissing me hard.

  I pushed my body against his and felt his hard cock stiffen against me. We were both soaking wet as we kissed. He pinned me back against the wall, kissing me roughly and hard, and his lips slowly moved down my neck.

  I felt his hands slide up my thighs and press between my legs. “Exactly what I thought,” he said. “Fucking dripping wet.”

  I sighed and moaned as he began to work my clit, rubbing my pussy in slow circles. Pleasure jolted through my body, and the horror of the past day was completely forgotten.

  Whenever he pressed his body against mine, that was all I could think of. There was only him, his body, his hands working my pussy. It made me feel good even when everything around me was falling apart. He had that effect on me, could make me smile or moan with a look or a word.

  He pressed his fingers deep inside me, and I gasped, spreading my legs wider for him. “I know this is what you want,” he whispered. “It’s all you think about. Ever since you got a taste of my big cock fucking that tight pussy, you can’t get enough.”

  “It’s not all I think about,” I moaned, trying and failing to pretend like I wasn’t so madly into him.

  “We both know you can hardly control yourself around me. Just look at you now. You’re practically begging me to fuck this wet cunt.”

  He kept working my pussy with his fingers, pressing them deep inside me. I gasped, shocked by his dirty mouth but really loving it. I loved how strong he was, how he easily worked my body, how he wasn’t afraid to tell me what he wanted.

  I moaned, kissing him back as his fing
ers worked my body, rolling over my skin, pressing deep inside me. He fucked my pussy that way, his fingers working me.

  I reached down and began to work his hard cock with both hands. He grunted his pleasure but didn’t let up on my soaked pussy as I jerked him, rolling my hands down his hard length. He was rock hard for me as he worked my pussy, kissing my mouth. I loved his taste, his lips, everything about him.

  Suddenly he dropped to his knees, spreading my legs wide. He pressed his face between my legs, grabbing my ass with his hands, and his tongue began to work my clit. I gasped, surprised, as his tongue pressed inside me, eating my pussy, working me. He was so incredible with his mouth, the perfect amount of pressure. The warm water from the shower continued to roll down my skin as he licked my every inch, his tongue sucking and working my clit.

  I grabbed his hair, pressing the back of his head tighter against me. I was losing my mind with pleasure, couldn’t stop myself from holding his hair with one hand and feeling my breasts with the other. I was completely lost in the moment, totally swallowed by Brooks and his incredible body. His tongue and mouth licked and nibbled my clit, working me in circles, rolling down my skin. He sucked and licked every inch of me.

  “Fuck I love how you taste, girl,” he said, pressing fingers deep inside me. I gasped and shuddered. “I could eat this fucking pussy all day long. I’d love to see you come over and over.”

  “Oh god,” I moaned. “I don’t think I can take it.”

  “You can take it,” he grunted. “You know you can take it.” He continued sucking me, licking me, working my body. He loved pressing my buttons, loved getting me to within an inch of orgasm before pulling me back from the edge.

  “Fuck me,” I gasped, needing it suddenly, an overwhelming desire to feel him inside me. “Brooks, please. Please. Fuck me. I need it right now.”

  He licked the length of my pussy before standing. “You need it this second?”

  “Please,” I moaned. “Don’t tease me anymore. Fuck me, Brooks.”