I rolled my eyes, gently tugging Destiny forward. "Save it for some other schmuck. I did leave you a going away present, though. Check your phone when you have the time."
I heard him chuckle behind me. "Always gotta make a cool exit, huh?"
But he was muttering to himself, and I didn’t bother to turn to look at him. The cab was only a few feet away, and I was very conscious of Destiny's warm body close to mine.
We were going to get a future. Though my original plan hadn't played out like I'd thought it would, the current situation was good enough for me.
First, I'd get as much distance between us and Chicago. Then I'd think about the future later.
Chapter 20
Destiny
It was almost too easy. Anticlimactic, even, after how much I'd worked myself up over it. But then, I hadn't been there for the final showdown; I'd just instigated it, and Alex had blown the whistle.
I was grateful we weren’t caught in the middle of it. I'd sort of listened to the reports Belt's partner gave to Alex. A lot of it had been watered down, but resistance must have meant Angelo put up a fight. If he'd been armed—and he rarely wasn’t—he could have easily killed someone.
I looked at Alex, in the aisle seat next to me. It was late, and he must have been tired, but it still surprised me that he could fall asleep. At least, I thought he was. He had his head leaned back with his eyes closed, breathing even.
. wasn’t paying much attention to the time moving. My mind kept blanking out, then something would startle me out of it and I would become aware again. I wasn’t sure how much time passed during the episodes, and I wasn’t sure if I slept or if I was just daydreaming. I wondered if it was the shock.
I was startled by a sudden sound through the cabin, a woman's voice telling us we were preparing to land. After a few minutes, the 'Fasten Your Seatbelt' sign came on. I nudged Alex until he woke up and pointed at it when he looked at me. He squinted at it, confused for a second, before he put on his seatbelt.
We landed in Mexico with our new IDs. I was worried as we went through the security checks, and we were required to produce identification, passports, and various other papers. Somehow, everything checked out, and then we were walking past security. I still had my original papers with me, even though Alex had told me I didn’t need them, but I needed something to remind me of my former life. He at least had me put them in the large envelope, and no one had asked to see what was in it. I was surprised by that, too.
Instead of walking out of the airport, like I thought we would, Alex strolled lazily through the building, his arm, wrapped around my waist, squeezing me a bit when I showed some reluctance.
"We're tourists, Destiny. Now that we're here we aren’t in a hurry."
I shot him a disbelieving look. How could he be so relaxed? He met my eyes in a sideways look, giving me a wink as he smiled.
"Besides, neither of us has eaten in a while. We should take care of that. I don’t think you even slept, so I'm worried about you passing out."
I snorted. I wasn’t going to faint. But he was right about the eating thing, and probably about the sleep. However, now that he'd mentioned it, my body suddenly felt fatigued. I couldn’t tell if it was the true state of my body, or my mind playing tricks on me.
He spotted a café—though we'd passed plenty of food stores, this one was enclosed and less crowded—and he dragged us in that direction. He took a seat in a secluded corner, pulling my chair out for me like a gentleman, then headed over to the counter to get us food. He came back with two coffees and a couple of bags that held some pastries. I remembered being in a similar position with the FBI agent last time…
Only this time wasn’t like then. For one, Alex wasn’t going to try talking me into doing something I didn’t want to.
We were silent as we ate for a bit, and I looked around the room, only to realize that not that many people were there. At least two others, and both were far away from us. It wasn’t quite privacy, but I'd take what I could get.
I turned back to Alex, my curiosity waking me up a bit.
"Alex…," I began.
"Hmm?"
I lowered my voice further. "You took the money, didn’t you?"
It had never occurred to me to check the amount in the bag. No wonder Alex had insisted on following me around the entire time I had that bag; if Angelo had gotten someone to check it when he sent me to drop it off… it would have been bad for me. The weight of the bag wouldn’t have tipped me off; I was rarely allowed to handle the money when it was one of Angelo's business transactions.
Alex met my eyes. He wasn’t denying it, and there was no regret in his eyes.
"Yeah, I took the money. Call it a safeguard. I couldn’t keep much of my own winnings from last night because when I sent the software to Belt, it went with all the information, including mine," he answered.
"So that's what you left for him."
"Yeah, that and the final recording. I don’t know how many more arrests he can make with it, technically these guys were stealing money with something I created, but I don’t want any lose ends. The FBI will keep an eye on them for us, because they're bound to be nervous when they hear Angelo's in prison."
I shivered. It was hard to believe all that had gone down just yesterday. It felt like it should have been longer. I pushed it out of my mind along with the unease, only partly unsuccessful.
"How did you manage it, though? It couldn’t just disappear to thin air, right? And you couldn’t have somehow done it in the car, because Angelo keeps a tracker on all his cars. If you had stopped somewhere with it, you would have been caught."
He rolled his eyes, his lips spreading into a cocky smirk. "I'm the best, Destiny; don’t sweat the details, okay? It wasn’t that hard. I just swiped it when no one was looking."
I just stared at him in disbelief.
"I'm not secretly superman, you know. I had the opportunity. I couldn’t do it at the room—hell, even the FBI monitored us there, but I did find a way to set the money aside that wouldn’t be noticed, until I could go to pick it up."
"Then how…"
"Like I said, don’t sweat the details. The less you know the better; plausible deniability and all that."
Suddenly, his demeanor turned serious as he leaned across the table so he was closer, reaching out the hand not holding his coffee to take my own. I looked down at his hand for a moment, and pulled my own away. He released me easily, but I turned my hand around to catch his with my fingers before he could retreat. I looked up at him from under my lashes, and he was smiling slightly, tinged with relief. He squeezed my hand.
"I wanted us to be safe, in case things didn’t go well with Angelo's trial. Hell, Frank Senior is still well and alive; not to mention, out of jail. If he finds out I split, I will be his first target, followed by you. If he decides to seek revenge for his son, I don’t want to rely on the FBI to look after us. I trust Belt, but the whole bureaucracy has me a little skeptic."
I understood what he meant. I guess, being in his line of business, he was used to being skeptical, but me… it was new for me, but I was all for not trusting anybody else.
We sat like that, hands and gazes connected, not moving or speaking. As the seconds ticked by, I could feel my body warm in awareness. He almost seemed to sense the change in me, his own eyes darkening. My lips parted on a breath, a light sigh, and I leaned a little further across the table.
A light bell—from above the door, where a new customer had just walked in—startled us out of our staring. We released our hands and finished our food. Alex met my eyes as he put the used cups and paper bags together, ready to go into the trash.
"Are you ready to go to the hotel, now?" He asked.
"Do we already have a place, or…" I wondered.
"I booked one on the way here. Just for a few days, so we could wind down."
I could feel my body grow warm. "Let's go, then."
We left, Alex leading me outside the airport.
He seemed to know where he was going, for all that he'd never been there before. We found a taxi just outside, and Alex had a conversation with the driver in rapid Spanish. I failed Spanish back in high school, so I didn’t get a lot of what they were talking about.
It was early enough in the morning that we didn’t encounter any traffic. We were on the road for nearly an hour, when the taxi finally pulled over.
I didn’t even look at the hotel, my whole attention on Alex as he paid the driver, then took my arm and led me inside. It had been a while since we were truly alone, no hidden eyes watching our every move. Alex held my body close to his, and I could feel my heartbeat pick up speed. I let the sensation distract me from everything else.
Finally, we got to be just us.
I glanced around the room a little once we were inside, Alex taking my bag from me and walking away. The décor was nothing like the hotels I'd been in, more exotic, with warm, vibrant colors splashed across everything. But I'd been to plenty of hotels; it couldn’t hold my attention long.
I was drawn to the curtain, though, heavy fabric that was already drawn, behind it fabric of a light muslin in white let the sun in. I pushed those aside as well and stood back to watch the sun. I never used to appreciate the little things, but I realized I was lucky to be alive—and not in jail.
The urgency I'd felt just a few minutes ago seemed to have disappeared. I wanted to be alone with Alex so I could jump him, but where was the hurry? Because it suddenly occurred to me I was free—we both were. Free from the mafia, from the police and the FBI; pretty much everything we'd ever known. We could take our time just this one day, no need to rush.
I didn’t notice when Alex came back, but I suddenly felt his arms encircle me. I must have been deep in thought, because even though he startled me, I didn’t jump; instead, I leaned back into him. My head dropped back into his shoulder on a moan as his large hand cupped one breast, and he kissed the side of my neck.
I remembered this from the last time, minus the urgency that first time. I turned around so I could kiss him, and we started stripping off clothes even before we got to the bedroom.
In the room, Alex had me stand at the foot of the bed as he slowly kissed down my body. I felt a pang in my chest when he kissed around my stomach, then his hands were on the insides of my thighs, spreading my legs wider for his tongue. I gripped on his shoulders, digging my nails in. It caught me off guard when my body shuddered in release, and I would have fallen over as my legs lost the strength to hold me up if he hadn't caught me up in his arms.
Alex laid me on the bed, and I watched, my body feeling languid, as he ruffled through his things. While we waited for our flight at the airport, he'd bought a few necessities, since he hadn't had much on him at all, not even a change of underwear. He even bought a small bag to put it all in.
I watched as he pulled out a strip of condoms, settling them on the night stand and ripping off his boxer briefs, then joining me on the bed. He laid his body on top of mine, and I wrapped my arms around his neck. He parted my legs with his knee, and I gladly spread wider, making room for him.
For a long while, all we did was lay like that. I could feel his erection pressing into my stomach, he hadn't even come yet, but he focused on me, kissing me until my mind turned to jelly, then kissing and licking, nipping and biting, down my neck to my breasts. As I arched my body, offering my breasts for his mouth, my shifting resettled us, so his cock was rubbing at my sex.
"Alex," I moaned his name, moving my hips against his, my breathing growing erratic as desire rose in my body again.
"Hmm." He murmured, rolling his hips against me, making me cry out.
I wanted him to take me bare, without the condom. I'd never thought that before, and it surprised me a little. But I couldn’t catch my breath long enough to ask, so I didn’t.
I whimpered when he pulled away from me, but released him. I heard him ripping the foil of the condom open, and I opened my eyes to watch him sheath himself with it. Then he was lying on top of me again, and I could feel the head of his cock at my sex. He kept his eyes on me as he moved his hips, rubbing against me, teasing without entering me.
I dug my fingernails into his back, wrapping my legs behind his, trying to urge him on wordlessly, because nothing could get past my lips besides wanton moans and shaky sighs. We moaned in unison as he slowly sunk inside me.
He was still for a moment, his face buried in my shoulder and just breathing. When he did decide to move, I felt my breath hitch at the delicious friction. I wrapped my fingers in his hair, tugging his head up so I could kiss him, sighing into his mouth as I moved my body with his.
It felt like we made love for hours. Alex made sure I orgasmed at least twice before he took his own pleasure, and we'd rest for a bit, only for him to want me again. We went for several rounds before tiring out.
I felt almost sleepy, my body heavy, but I didn’t think I could go to sleep just yet. We were only lightly covered by the sheets, more than enough body heat between us that we wouldn’t need it, and I hugged my body to his, my head resting on his shoulder. Alex was lying on his back, one arm under his head, the other wrapped around me, fingers drawing lazy patterns into my skin.
"What time is it?" I asked.
I felt Alex shift, but I kept my eyes closed, until he was lying still again.
"About noon. We can wait a bit before I call for lunch. You can sleep, if you want."
But I wasn’t tired. My eyes were closed, my mind was calm, but I was nowhere near falling asleep.
"I've never loved a man before…" I said out of nowhere, musing out loud to myself.
I felt Alex's body still before he made himself relax again. I opened my eyes, looking up to see him already watching me. He didn’t say anything, just watched me.
"I don’t mind it. It's amazing. I just… feel a little vulnerable, I guess."
Because love wasn’t something that meant much for me. I'd had boyfriends tell me they loved me—even Angelo said it a couple of times—but all they wanted from me was sex. My own parents had loved me, but not enough not to disown me, not enough to not do that through a letter from the family lawyer.
Alex didn’t look like I thought he would, his expression carefree, almost careless. Like there was no need to worry.
"Why?" he smiled, his arm holding me tighter.
I couldn’t answer him. Instead, I drew him into another kiss.
Chapter 21
Alex
"I have something to tell you," Destiny began.
We were sitting down to lunch. The room had a table with chairs surrounding it separate from the couch and the coffee table, which was just as well, because no matter that I didn’t want to move, eating on the bed would only have left it messier.
"What is it?"
Destiny suddenly looked subdued, and I wondered what was wrong. We'd made love for hours and wasted away the morning. Then she'd told me she loved me, and we wasted a few more hours.
I could still hear the words echo in my mind, and it only made me want her more. But I did not expect the words that came out of her mouth just then.
"I… might be pregnant."
I felt my mind go blank, because I didn’t understand what she meant. For a hysterical moment, I wondered if she meant after the hours we'd just spent in bed. But, of course, we'd had sex before.
"We only had sex once and we used a condom." The words were out of my mouth before I could think about them, my mind working on autopilot as a bigger portion tried to absorb the news.
Destiny peered up at me anxiously from underneath her eyelashes.
"Maybe it was defective. That still happens, right? Condoms aren’t a hundred percent form of contraception. How long were you carrying it for anyway?"
It wasn’t impossible. It was just rubber, even a tiny break in it would have been enough. "I had it on me for a while, maybe a few weeks, but…"
"It adds up. When Angelo sent me to you, I wasn’t with anyone else. My p
eriod is late, and there is no other reason for it to be late. Not even in the face of stress have I ever been late, I didn't even realize it at first. We can take a pregnancy test if you want but… I am very sure of this."
She was speaking so fast I had to concentrate to get it all. But she didn’t have to try to convince me; I could tell just by her tone. She sounded scared.
"Relax, Destiny, I believe you. It's just not the kind of thing I saw for myself so… I am very much shocked."
Understatement of the year.
I saw her eyes tearing up. "I didn’t know what to do when I realized my period was late. You were out, and I was panicking, but I didn’t want it to somehow get to Angelo, so I kept it quiet. I knew he would kill me if he found out, because he would know the baby wasn’t his." She let out a sob. "I'm so sorry, Alex."
I pulled her into my arms, even though it was awkward with the both of us sitting down, making shushing sounds, and rubbing at her back to calm her down.
"Hey, it's okay. This isn’t something you have to apologize for; I'm to blame for it, too."
It had been the worst thing to do, in a situation like that. Angelo's game wouldn’t have lasted months, but what if something else gave it away? I hadn't noticed anything strange in her behavior, I hadn't even realized she'd been hiding anything.
But what if he had noticed? I didn’t like to think of what he could have done. So, I put it out of my mind and focused on the warm body in my arms.
That this kind of coincidence could even happen, with everything else that already had, maybe the universe was trying to tell me something.
Well, I wasn’t just going to bury my head in the sand and ignore it. It meant pushing my plans forward, but I didn’t have a problem with it. She was maybe a month along, and babies took about nine or less—sometimes longer—to be born. I’d thought we'd have a year, but a few months would have to do.
I got up from the table, heading for the bedroom. I'd been lax, because I thought I could be, so I didn’t even have my phone on me. I made a quick call and changed before heading to the other room.
Dirty Money: A Dark Mafia Romance (Alpha Men Book 1) Page 13
