VICIOUS MEN: THE COMPLETE VICIOUS CITY COLLECTION

by Renard, Loki

  BAM! I kick the door open and stride through.

  “Hi sweetheart,” I call out to Vicious. “I’ll be home when I’m ready. This asshole isn’t going to keep me prisoner any more than you did.”

  “Kitty!” Vicious snaps my name, and even through empty air, he has an effect on me. My body responds with a tingling sensation running all the way from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. God. I miss him. I wish I was in his arms. I wish we were in bed together, but I wish more that he didn’t fucking lie to me whenever he felt like it. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

  “What counts as stupid?”

  Angelo crosses the room, grabs me by the arm and takes me over to his desk, near the phone. There’s not much point struggling, he is far stronger than I am.

  “I’m going to let you listen,” Angelo purrs.”While I do what you should have done to this girl in the first place. She’s so spoiled, Arthur. What were you thinking?”

  What the fu…

  Angelo pushes me firmly down on the desk and a moment later, I hear the leather of his belt slipping out of the loops of his trousers. No. Oh fuck no. Oh…

  “OW!” I let out a cry as the leather lashes across my ass. He doesn’t touch my pants. He doesn’t need to. He’s using that belt with a force that makes light denim feel like nothing at all. In an instant, my butt is blazing with pain and heat and I am screaming for him to let me up. He doesn’t. He brings that leather belt down at least two dozen times, maybe more. He’s utterly immune to my cries, and I can’t move an inch thanks to the grip he has on the back of my shirt.

  This isn’t like when Vicious has disciplined me. I don’t have the reassurance at the back of my mind that he won’t really hurt me, that he has some other use for me, and that he wants me to be okay. Angelo whips my ass with that belt like I owe him money, a relentless lashing which changes my entire perception of the world and my place in it.

  When he lets me go, I slide from the desk onto the floor, my ass aching with fire, tears flowing uncontrollably. I’m scared, and I don’t know what to do with that. I want to hide, I want to run, I want to fight. All three impulses war with one another and leave me curled up at his feet, my hands rubbing my ass to try to alleviate some of the burning hell he unleashed on it.

  Angelo looks down at me with those dark, merciless eyes. Again I am viscerally reminded that he is not like other men. His discipline isn’t tempered by the fact that he wants to fuck me. He doesn’t want sex. He just wants control.

  I can see him thinking. His expression is impassive, but his eyes are bright with deviance and darkness. He looks away from me, toward the phone, leaving me writhing on the floor.

  “I’m going to keep her,” he tells Vicious. “I think Bobby was right. She’s going to be fun to play with.”

  “Angelo…” Vicious growls his name in a deeply threatening tone, but Angelo just reaches out and disconnects the call.

  Oh. Fuck.

  “Get up.” Angelo’s voice is calm, bordering on cold.

  I don’t want to get up. My instinct is to curl up on myself and hide from these men who want to use me as a pawn in a power play. I don’t know how to conduct myself around Angelo. He obviously doesn’t care about hurting me. I don’t know if he enjoys fucking with Vicious, or if he really has a use for me, but I know I fucked up.

  “Get. Up.”

  I do as I’m told, rising to my feet. I don’t know where to look. I don’t want to look at him, that much is certain. I end up looking at my toes, scuffed sneakers which have seen better days.

  “What just happened to you is nothing,” Angelo says. “I am not a kind man, or a patient one. If you so much as think about displaying the kind of disrespect you did when you came in here again, I promise you, you will find yourself in the kind of pain that is never forgotten.”

  I believe him.

  This whole time Bobby has been bound to the chair, silent thanks to the gag. I can read him though, both these men have very expressive eyes. He thinks I got off softly. Maybe I did. Maybe there is still some female privilege in Angelo Vitali’s world

  “Go back to your room.”

  I’m happy to leave his presence, though I can’t walk the way I usually would. Every step makes the denim of my pants rasp against my punished cheeks in a very unpleasant way. I half-limp as quickly as I can back up the stairs and into the room I was put in to begin with. The door is still not locked, but escape feels further away than ever.

  I lie stomach down on the bed, feeling very, very sorry for myself. That belting did more than hurt and scare me, it made me feel small. This is a very big house, filled with larger than life men, and I am just one girl with a very sore butt.

  In all this chaos, my rebellion, my thirst for revenge, I’ve been at a loose end. I’ve been looking over my shoulder, telling myself I’m trying to escape Vicious, but the truth is, I’ve been hoping he’ll find me. There’s a part of me that doesn’t want to teach him a lesson at all. That part wants to be the one being taught - and that part was just completely satisfied by Angelo’s treatment.

  “What the fuck is wrong with me?” I whisper the question to myself.

  “Everybody who finds themselves in this room asks themselves that at one point or another.”

  It’s Mark. I didn’t hear him come in. He moves quietly for a big man.

  “What do you want?” The question comes out ruder than I intended it to.

  “Word of advice,” Mark says, folding his arms over his chest as he leans against the door frame. “Behave yourself as much as possible. Angelo is a cruel man, but he has a soft spot for obedience, and you’re going to want to endear yourself to him.”

  “Pfft,” I shake my head. “I don’t think I could ever endear myself to a man like Angelo. Not enough penis, for starters.”

  “You don’t need a dick to stay alive here. You just need to know when to keep your mouth shut - and when not to kick a door that’s worth more than you are off its hinges.”

  Shit. Did I do that?

  “Oops.”

  “Yeah, oops,” he says.

  He’s handsome, and he seems really nice. He’s obviously come to see if I’m okay, and it’s fucked up that I don’t know whether to trust that or not, but here we are.

  “Why are you here? You don’t fit. You’re way too nice.”

  “Long story,” Mark smirks. “Let’s just say I can empathize with your mission to mess with Vicious. But unless you’re willing to leave completely and never come back, you’re not going to change him. These men are the way they are because they have to be. Sometimes, being close to them means allowing them their lies.”

  I scowl. “Wait… is this another set up? Because if it is…”

  “Vicious didn’t put us up to this. You got Angelo’s attention and we did a little digging. I’ve been where you are, Kitty. I know it sucks. And you probably do deserve better. But if you want it, you need to leave, and I mean go far away. Like, New Zealand.”

  “Fuck that.”

  “Then you’re going to have to come to terms with the man you want to be with. What he is, and what he isn’t.”

  I smile a little. “What are you, the criminal whisperer?”

  Mark smiles back. “Just another sane person who has learned to live in this insane world.”

  11

  Blaze

  “I’m nervous.”

  “Don’t be.”

  Slick holds my hand as I lay propped up in stirrups. One of the first things he asked me after we got ice cream was whether or not I’d been to a pre-natal visit. When I said no, he made the appointment for me. Now, here we are, having waited among the other excited couples, in a little private room, waiting for a doctor to confirm what I already know.

  “I don’t want to do this.”

  “Why not?”

  “It’s going to make it real, and then you’re going to leave.”

  “I’m not leaving you,” he reiterates for what must be the thousandth time,
pressing his lips to my forehead.

  He’s so fucking good to me. There is no way I deserve this kind of love. I haven’t done anything to earn it. He’s just giving it to me, and I really don’t know how to take it.

  “How are we today?” The doctor comes in beaming. She has shiny hair and is snapping on blue gloves and I feel like I’ve somehow left my life and woken up in someone else’s.

  “Good, thanks, this one is a little nervous,” Slick says, squeezing my hand.

  “First baby?” She smiles at me.

  “Uh, yeah.”

  “Alright. Let’s see what’s going on in there.”

  I’m a passenger in this experience as she bares my belly and covers it in goo, after which a probe is pushed against my lower stomach. She does it as if it’s all so normal, hardly seeming to notice how stunned I am by it all. Fucking doctors, they handle you like you’re just a lump of meat, like they have some right to…

  “There’s your uterus…” she gestures toward the screen where an image of my insides is being projected.

  It all looks like a squishy mass to me. I’ll take her word for it.

  “And there’s your baby…”

  I don’t see anything. It’s all just shades of grey in there… and then, suddenly, there’s a little spark in a small pocket of darkness, something moving independent of the rest of me. “Oh my god. Is that it?”

  “Yes, that little bean bouncing around in there’s your baby. Good strong heartbeat,” she smiles.

  “Oh my god.” I squeeze Slick’s hand harder. “Oh. My. God.”

  “Wow,” he murmurs.

  I look up at him. “Are you sure you want it?”

  The doctor’s face is priceless, but I don’t care. I have to hear him say it.

  “Yes, sweetheart. I want you, and this baby,” he reassures me yet again. He’ll have to do it another hundred times before the end of the trimester, but maybe I’m starting to believe him.

  “We’re gonna need a house with like, a yard,” I say as my mind finally catches up. I’m going to need some baby clothes… oh god, we need diapers!”

  Slick chuckles as this all becomes realer than real. “We’ll get all that and more,” he says. “Don’t you worry.”

  I lean against him and stare at the screen. This is my life. This is my husband. And I’m looking at my baby. Against all odds, and for reasons I don’t think I’ll ever understand, I’m getting my happily ever after.

  12

  Vicious

  I can’t say that hearing Kitty have her ass whipped by Angelo Vitali angered me nearly as much as it should have. After everything that has taken place over the last week or two, hearing her shrieks as leather met her butt was about the most satisfying sound I could have heard. I just wish I had been the one doing it, but there’s still time for that. Kitty isn’t going to sit for a long time once I get my hands on her - and I will be getting my hands on her.

  These matters can’t be handled over the phone. They need to be taken care of in person. I make the drive upstate, where Angelo is lurking in one of his many retreats. I’ve known Mr Vitali for several years. We share certain tastes and styles of conducting ourselves. There’s a mutual respect which keeps me in one piece as I turn my car up a very long, tree lined drive which I know is under heavy surveillance.

  Angelo Vitali is the master of the unassuming fortress. I can safely assume he not only knows that I’m here, but that there are multiple weapons trained on me the moment I step out of my car in front of his colonial country mansion. He never keeps these places for more than a year, and he always has several to choose from. My sources indicate this is the one he’s at now, and they’re proved to be right when the man himself comes down the stairs to greet me.

  We haven’t spent a lot of time together in person, but I do get the feeling when we meet that we are cut from the same cloth. I see myself in his slick exterior, his insistence on a pristine appearance, the way nothing seems to touch him - and how he’s most dangerous to the people closest to him.

  If any other man on the planet touched Kitty, I’d tear his fucking heart out. Angelo is the one man who is going to get away with it - in large part because I can’t deny she absolutely deserved every bit of it.

  “I’ve come for my girl.”

  Angelo smiles charmingly. “You’re sure you want her back?”

  Fuck yes I’m sure.

  “Oh yes.”

  “Come and have something to drink. You’ve had a long drive.”

  I agree to his offer. We may as well conduct this like gentlemen. He might not want to give her back to me, but right now I am as close to her as I’ve been in weeks, and that’s good enough.

  He takes me through to a well landscaped back garden, where a pitcher of lemonade is waiting for our refreshments. He knew I was coming.

  I take a seat and sip my drink. This is a test which decides how our association goes from this point on. Violence is always an option, but I don’t want that and I suspect, neither does he.

  “I believe I owe you thanks,” I say. “She’s been quite elusive.”

  “So I gathered.” He looks out over the garden, and then back at me. “Quite a mess.”

  There’s another pause. I’m not doing the talking for good reason. I don’t want to start begging, or threatening. He knows what I want. We will see if he offers it.

  “She,” Angelo says after a moment or two, “Is a spoiled little shit. You cannot allow your lovers to run wild. It will destroy your reputation, and eventually, you. Love has brought down better men than you and I.”

  I have been put in jail, my car has been blown up, my cards have been declined, but this might be the most humiliation Kitty has put me through yet, and she didn’t even know she was doing it. I do not care for being lectured by anyone, let alone Angelo. The man has a good number of years on me and a certain gravitas, so this conversation feels a little like being spoken to by a disappointed father figure. It’s not a dynamic I intend to encourage.

  “Hand her over and I’ll deal with her.”

  “Will you? What are you going to do that you haven’t done before?”

  I’m going to tie her up, fuck her senseless, and whip every sensitive part of her until she can’t so much as think about pulling anything like this again. I don’t say that in so many words.

  “I’m going to handle her.”

  “You weren’t handling her already?”

  “Evidently not,” I say, not rising to the bait. “You don’t want her here, Angelo. She’s pretty far from being your type in more ways than one. Let’s stop playing these games.”

  “I like you, Arthur…”

  Oh, here we go.

  “And it’s because I like you, that I think I should keep that little girl of yours at least a few days longer. Don’t worry. You will get her back, and I’ll be careful not to damage her in any of the places I’m sure you’ll be enjoying her. But she needs someone to fear.”

  “She was taken by Petrov and hunted. She’s had someone to fear. The problem isn’t that she’s not afraid, it’s that she can’t accept her place.”

  “Then she needs to be put in it more firmly. Besides, Petrov was a monster, and monsters are vanquished. I’m a rather different proposition. Think of me more like the un-kindly uncle she doesn’t want to spend a weekend with.”

  “Angelo, that’s creepy as hell,” I laugh.

  “Is it?”

  “Yeah. It is,” I smile, amused. “I don’t think Kitty needs you as her uncle.”

  “I disagree. I’m aware of what her little implant can do. If you’d be willing to share the use of her, I’d be wiling to help on the discipline side of things.”

  I don’t need help. Especially not with discipline, but I know that right now, it doesn’t look that way. Kitty has made a mockery of me, and that’s a problem for us all.

  “How would you like it if I told you I was taking Bobby?” I try another angle of argument.

  “I’d wish yo
u luck and book the funeral,” Angelo smirks.

  I allow myself a small smile. “Look, I’ll do what favors I can for you. I owe you for catching her, there’s no argument there, but it’s time Kitty came home.”

  “So she can blow it up? You realize she was looking for nuclear waste?”

  “What the hell was she going to do with that?”

  “Something impeccably stupid, I assure you.”

  I set my teeth. Kitty has made me a fucking laughing stock. I know these stories are circulating far more widely than I’d like, and I know that I’m going to need to make an example of her to everyone if I’m going to undo the damage she has caused to my reputation.

  “Let me help you,” Angelo says. “She needs to learn to appreciate what she has with you. She won’t learn it while she thinks you’re the man she needs to get revenge against. You can keep chasing, but she will keep running, and the distraction will cause more serious consequences. Your enemies will take advantage. This has to be dealt with, and swiftly.”

  He’s not wrong. My operation has a lot of moving parts, and those parts are lubricated with respect. Being shown up by Kitty puts everything at risk. I’m already getting reports of incursions on my territory.

  “She’s not entirely wrong to be angry,” I sigh. “I put her through a lot.”

  “As is your prerogative. You don’t think my boys have suffered at my hands? It is necessary. It establishes order. Your girl is rebelling against that order. The answer is more pressure. Enough that she won’t ever want to disobey you again.”

  His theory is the same one I operated under, but Kitty doesn’t give a damn about theory. She’s got more spirit than that.

  “I could have her brought down right now,” he says. “I could hand her over to you. And she could be gone again in a day, undermining you, making scenes, drawing attention to your operations.”

  “That’s not going to happen again.”

  “Why not?”

  He’s right. This has reached a crisis point. Kitty and I have a turbulent relationship, but no real alliance, and this chase is causing harm to us both. Maybe the answer to this isn’t what I though it was. Maybe desperate times call for desperate measures.