I didn't like how he was looking at me, his eyes unreadable. We didn’t converse much, but we'd at least gotten relaxed around each other. Not enough to share each other's secrets, but he was looking at me like he used to, back when he first realized I worked for Angelo.
I glanced around the room, wondering what happened, noticing it had grown dark enough for him to turn on the lights.
"What is it? What time is it."
"It's only a few minutes past seven. And I got a message."
I sat up, my interest perking up. "From Angelo?"
"Yeah. He's negotiating with the last clients, about four of them left. He's trying to talk them into coming here and meeting up at the casino, within a day of each other."
"But why? He didn’t do that before because he was trying to stave off suspicion, right?"
Alex shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe he had a change of heart. Or he's suddenly in a hurry."
Of course, he was suddenly in a hurry. He no longer had anything to blackmail Alex with and he obviously wasn’t going to wait for him to realize it.
But Alex… was acting strangely. His speech, the way he was looking at me… he was acting distrustful. Suspicious.
I was a little surprised by how much that hurt. It wasn’t like I was holding myself out to be his enemy. The coincidence that put the two of us together had been out of my control. Or did he think I'd sell him out to Angelo? Now that the deal was nearly done, he was right to be cautious, but did he have to add me to the list of people to be cautious of?
"Hey, I was wondering," I asked, hoping to distract him, only to stop because I didn’t know what I wanted to ask.
"What?"
"Um…" I frowned, thinking hard. "The, uh, thing you're doing for Angelo. He told me a little bit about it the other night, but I don’t understand."
He arched an eyebrow, in surprise or what, I didn’t know. "What don’t you understand?"
"You're rigging poker games, right? I've heard of it being done before, but I never heard of it with online poker. You're using software to do it?"
"Yeah. Something I made myself. Long before I even met Frank Senior."
It took me a moment to realize he meant Angelo's father. I knew they both had the same names, but Angelo went by his second name, though I'd heard plenty of his father's business associates call him Frank Junior.
"Angelo said people have to keep buying it from you. How the hell does that work if you're just handing it off to them?"
He pursed his mouth, taking out his phone and playing with it in his hands, watching it twist and turn between his fingers.
"It's possible, because the software is temporary. It can only be used for a few games before the virtual environment where the game is taking place grows suspicious of a trick and upgrades its security to detect it and lock it out."
"It can do that?"
"Not the earlier versions anyway, but yeah. Once it became clear the games could be rigged, developers started to get smarter. But because they could only have so many people looking over vast amounts of data before it became too costly, they made sure their technology grew smarter, too.
"That's why I keep developing it. Why my services are something that could be used long term. I've given the same software to several people but they were all different versions of it. I even made sure, when the virtual room started to detect it, the program would die harmlessly, reducing the risk of getting caught. The owner would get a notification on their phones, or whatever device, when that happened, and they can choose to continue playing or fold with their wins."
"That… is actually incredible." Even though I couldn’t wrap my head around most of it."
"Technology is like that. If I just gave people the software to do it, they could use it and sell it to get profits for themselves, and I would become unnecessary. With tech, you either keep your usefulness up or you're left to the way side."
A lot about life seemed to be like that.
He didn’t have any more to say, and I wasn’t sure of the questions I was supposed to ask. Besides, I didn’t think asking more about the software would be a good idea. He'd been nice about answering, but the atmosphere was less than welcoming.
If I wanted him to truly trust me—and I did, more than I would have thought—he'd have to know. Everything that led me to where I was.
I didn’t want to tell him. I didn’t deserve any sympathy; no one held my hand behind my back and forced me to do anything, not at first. Everything that happened was my own damn fault. Assuming he would feel sympathy for me wasn’t a fair expectation.
But I wanted to tell him anyway.
My mind made up, I stood. Alex looked up at me curiously, but I ignored him, heading into the bedroom. My backpack was still packed with my stuff. I ruffled inside it, pushed aside the clothes and accessories, looking through my papers until I had the letter I was looking for.
Back in the living room, I handed the letter to Alex. He frowned, confused, but he took it. His face only grew darker as he read it.
"What is this?"
"A letter from my parents." They hadn't even thought to meet me face to face. "They disowned me around four years ago after I got kicked out of college."
His eyebrows shot up. "Wasn’t that a bit extreme?"
It wasn’t. I could acknowledge it, looking back at everything I put my parents through, long before the fiasco that was college. I wanted more than my parents could offer me, so I went looking for it. I wasn’t even quiet, or at times discreet, about it.
"Can we go somewhere? To talk? Somewhere private." I asked him.
"Where?"
"I don’t know, just anywhere away from here. Alone."
I didn’t want to feel like there were eyes around me, not for something like this. I also had to make sure we weren’t followed, though I wasn’t sure how I would do that. I wasn’t exactly an expert in espionage.
"I don’t really know where we could go, so…" he broke off, looking at me still. His eyes were still unreadable, but not as cold as earlier, and I breathed a silent sigh of relief.
"I know a place," he offered.
"Is it far?" I questioned.
"A bit. Did you want to go now?"
No. I didn’t want to do this at all. But I took a deep breath, forcing back the immediate protest.
He made the plan quickly. It was simpler than I thought, sneaking out. We didn’t even sneak, technically, just dressed up and casually walked out the door. I knew that Angelo would find out somehow, and I'd have to be ready with an excuse, but I could deal with that later.
We took at least three cabs; we could have used just the one, but I thought he was trying to confuse the trail. We ended up at some lower end neighborhood, right in front of a house. I was surprised when he opened it with a key, until it occurred to me it must have been his home. He ignored the living room, heading up the stairs and I followed. He led us to a small room, I assumed his bedroom. He closed the door and leaned back against it, gesturing for me to take the bed.
I didn’t. I looked around at the limited space and made myself abandon the idea pacing even though I wanted to. I stood in place, crossing my arms over my chest.
This wasn’t the easiest thing for me to talk about, but I was going to. I was going to tell him everything. How it all started, the shit I had to live through, my initial plan of escape that didn’t get anywhere.
I took a breath, and let everything out.
Chapter 11
Alex
I listened to Destiny as she spoke, starting slow and steadily gaining traction, until her words were almost too fast to follow.
I couldn’t believe half the shit she was saying. That people like that even existed made me feel a little sick. That they'd tricked me into working for them just pissed me off. As if it wasn’t enough, that he tricked her into being one in a long line of mistresses and cut her off from her life until she had nothing and no one. Only him…
"I thought it was all over betwe
en us, when he started loaning me out to his 'friends'. It wasn’t bad, at first. At least he didn’t get mad all the time. But then his friends…"
She choked off, clasping a hand to her mouth and squeezing her eyes shut, like it would block out the memories. I could see what talking about this cost her. I was awed that she'd survived it at all.
And I thought I had a shitty life.
"What did they do to you?" I asked.
I hated to ask, but I was curious. I realized this must have been what Belt meant by her meeting Angelo's business associates. It only made me sicker. Angelo Sputafuoco deserved to die.
"Some of them… had certain inclinations. They'd want me to do stuff I'd never done before, sometimes things I didn’t want to do, and I couldn’t say no because I didn’t know what they would do to me."
"Did anyone ever hurt you? Even Angelo?"
"Not physically, no."
But they'd scarred her mentally. Definitely. No wonder she'd seemed so lifeless behind the mask she held up. How could she not?
"One time, things almost went too far, with this creep that had a thing for ropes, blind folds and gags, and dangerous looking toys. I decided I was done, with all of it. I had a plan. I was going to steal some money and leave him. But then you came into the picture and…"
"And he pushed you at me," I filled in.
"I didn’t know why, but I hoped…" she began.
That it meant good things for her, better than she'd been getting in a while. I felt a little ashamed, thinking of how I'd been acting toward her since Angelo sent me to the hotel. We met at the restaurant in the lobby, and I'd thought of her as I did any other woman I'd met before; none of it was particularly nice.
I saw the kind of women my dad was with, the kind he could afford when he was on a winning high. I knew not all women were like that. Certainly, my mother hadn't been, but it hadn't helped grow any flattering ideas of women in my head. And then I realized she was Angelo's and everything pretty much went to hell from there.
I'd been with women before, even dated some of them, but the jaded kind of growing up I suffered under my dad pretty much made sure none of them went anywhere.
Destiny, though, she wasn’t like that. Not like any of the girls I'd ever been with. Maybe she was once upon a time, but the woman in front of me had nearly been broken under a psychopath's game.
I wasn’t the best kind of guy for her. I didn’t know shit about the comfort thing; I hadn't gotten any myself since I was six, watching my mom walk out on my dad. Besides my dad—who was a grownup and could look after himself, or so I'd always thought—I hadn't cared deeply about anyone else.
With Destiny though, I knew it was more than just an attraction to her. If it was just that I could have ignored her easily. Women were a dime a dozen, although they were usually more expensive. Right then, I wasn’t even thinking about sex; fucking just for mutual satisfaction. I wanted to comfort her, and it was the only way I knew how. When she broke down after finishing her story, I held her against my chest, waiting for her to calm down. She calmed herself quickly, probably used to being strong.
Just thinking of what she'd gone through, what she hadn't said outright and what I didn’t even want to imagine, made my heart ache in my chest.
More than just revenge, I wanted to kill Angelo Sputafuoco. But that would have to wait.
As Destiny calmed down, I pulled my arms from around her, taking her face between my hands and wiping at her wet cheeks with my thumbs. Then I just held her, catching her gaze and holding it. I waited for her to realize what I was offering.
Intelligent woman that she was, she caught on quickly.
For a second, I thought she would push me away. It wouldn’t surprise me. But then she surprised me when she threw her arms around my neck, crushed her body to mine and kissed me, hard, feverishly. I held her carefully, like she was something made of glass, letting her take what she wanted but not letting her lead me, coaxing until the kiss gentled into something calmer.
She pulled away, just far enough that our eyes met, and the look in her eyes made my chest feel tight. She'd basically cut herself open and laid everything bare to me. She looked confused, wondering why I didn’t condemn her, but by what right did I have to claim the moral high ground?
She slept with men for money. Big deal. I conned plenty of people out of a lot more than money, had been doing it since I was a child. I didn’t exactly agree with her methods, but there were plenty of people that disagreed with mine.
The difference is that I only used it to get a leg up; I didn’t bet all my cards in any one game, and I only did it when I needed—or, admittedly, wanted—something.
But beneath that confusion was, surprisingly, desire. After what she'd just talked about, I didn’t think she'd still want me. I would understand if she felt the burning need to wipe all men out of existence. Before I discovered sex, and even for a while after that, I'd felt something similar for the female species.
"Destiny." I sounded desperate, calling her name. I didn’t think I could hold back from her anymore; and even after what she just told me, I didn’t want to. Not when we were in the one place I still thought of as something of a haven—it had been an unspoken rule with my dad that he wouldn't go near my room, and I hadn't taken anyone else in there.
Destiny didn’t seem to mind, though, holding herself to me tighter. The moan she gave in response was just as desperate, needy.
I didn’t wait for her to change her mind.
We kissed, long and wet, until we were both panting for breath. I pulled back, giving her a last chance to pull away.
When she did, I felt shock, disappointment, and surprisingly, hurt. But she wasn’t moving away, she only took a couple of steps back. She surprised me, when she suddenly took her jacket off, followed by her T-shirt. My body was already on fire, but then her arms moved behind her back to unhook her bra.
I suddenly wanted the lights on. The window only had net curtains that let light in from the street, but it wasn’t nearly enough. I wanted to see, everything. But as I moved to hit the switch, her hand caught my arm. I froze immediately, wondering what was wrong.
"Can we… can you leave it off?"
She spoke in a quiet whisper, but I heard her just fine in the silence. I did as she asked, abandoning my task. I felt her hands, small and soft, slide down my chest to the bottom of my T-shirt, sliding underneath. I pulled my T-shirt off for her, then reached for her waist and dragging her body to mine. We both moaned when our bare chests touched, and I ducked my head to kiss her again.
It was new to me, kissing a woman like they mattered, not just the means to an end. This wasn’t one of my hurried fumbles with random women. I didn’t know what I was doing, I'd have to improvise, but I was determined to do it right.
We finished undressing each other as we swayed toward the bed. Before we could climb on it, she stopped me again.
"What is it?"
"Condom."
I froze, surprised to realize I'd totally forgot.
Fuck!
Then I remembered. I reached for my jeans, pulling my wallet from a pocket. I'd stashed at least one condom in there since I started hanging around Destiny. I hadn't planned on doing anything with her, but I carried it around anyway.
She took it from me then pushed me on the bed. I did what she wanted, sitting down at the edge, surprised when she suddenly dropped to the floor on her knees. She placed her hands on my inner thighs, pushing my legs apart. I gripped the bed on either side of me as she tore the condom open and unrolled it on me, then stood up. I wrapped my arms around her waist, kissing her stomach, when she suddenly pushed me back.
We ended up on the bed with me lying down, Destiny straddling me. I had my hands on her hips as she took me into her body. I held my breath as she lowered herself onto me, slowly, breathing out sharply when her ass sat back on my thighs. She paused, and we both took the time to catch our breath.
Our eyes met in the dim light, and I tho
ught I imagined the feeling of understanding that went through the both of us. Our situations were nowhere near the same, but it still left us alone.
She, getting tossed out by her parents with an informal letter sent through a lawyer; me and my dad, a man that had done nothing but use me to help him get money since I was too young to realize I was being used, and now he was dead.
But right then, we had each other. It was the first time in a long time I could remember giving a damn about anybody.
Then she started to move. She worked her hips, slowly, moving up and down, then moving in a circular motion and grinding herself against me. I used my hands on her hips to lightly guide her, but mostly let her do what she wanted to do.
I thought I'd go crazy. It certainly felt like it. It was too good, I wanted to keep the same rhythm but wanted to move faster; wanted to come but didn’t want it to end. And then she laid her upper body on mine, keeping up her movements, and I could feel her breasts dragging over my chest, her nipples hard.
My arms wrapped around her midsection, making her go still. I breathed through gritted teeth, trying to calm my body down.
"What is it?" I heard her whisper.
I winced, feeling embarrassed, even though she couldn’t see. "Too much."
She let me hold her still. When I didn’t think I would finish at the slightest bit of friction, I took in a proper breath.
"Grip me, with your knees."
The request must have surprised her, because she took a moment, but she did as I asked. I kept one arm tight around her, rolling us over so I was on top. I met her eyes to see if she had a problem with the change. But her arms wrapped around my shoulders, pulling me down so she could kiss me again.
There was no hurry, no urgency. It could have been minutes, it could have been hours, but I set up a rhythm, keeping my pace slow. In between sighs and moans, we kissed each other, lips, cheeks; I touched my mouth to any skin I could reach and she did the same. When we orgasmed, it was together, mouths locked in a deep kiss, my body rocking slowly against hers until we both went still. I rolled off so I wouldn’t crush her, tugging her along and tucking her body against my side.
Dirty Money: A Dark Mafia Romance (Alpha Men Book 1) Page 7
